Forum - View topicNEWS: Media Blasters Updates on Scheduled Releases
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vata Raven
 Posts: 710 Location: TN |
|
|||||
Funimation HAS stated just because a title is in the SAVE line doesn't mean they won't get more of it. They did in fact renew a SAVE title when they picked up a 2nd season Also, don't forget, Kenshin is also OOP, 2ns season isn't on RightStuf anymore |
||||||
|
||||||
|
dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
|
|||||
I'm no so confident in this. First of all, Funi has had season two for quite some time. It has even moved to the save label, yet they haven't acquired any of the other available properties. Season 2 was also originally licensed in 2006, so Funi probably only has one year left on their license anyway. If AMG was a strong property, it would have likely got a Classics release instead of SAVE one and they would have picked up more of it. I'd say Funi's chances are 50/50, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see Sentai go after season 1, especially if season two were to expire soon. They seem to have no issues sharing series licenses for different seasons, and ADV had originally acquired season two to begin with. Plus, Sentai would be more likely to get NYAV Post back if they acquired any of the OADs. |
||||||
|
||||||
chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 617 Location: USA |
|
|||||
The movie needs to be rescued immediately. It is one of the most beautiful fantasy/romance anime out there and it's also the only OMG title that treats the romance between the lead characters with depth. *Don't get me wrong I love the OMG franchise, but the film is way better than the rest of the series. |
||||||
|
||||||
walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
|
|||||
I agree, but I bet you'll see someone eventually say how it's not manga-canon, like that's somehow any better. Recent developments, if anything, might actually swing close to the film's plot. |
||||||
|
||||||
Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
|
|||||
|
This is bad. It similar to what happened to ADV. Only difference was that they were doing all these announcements then they went silent. Then you start hearing about lay-offs. Then they made an announcement in the now defunct Newtype USA that they were restructuring and to expect big things then "BOOM", they finally announce their demise. MB is more of a small company that deals with some big titles, adult and niche. They've been silent for awhile. When I didn't see certain announcements being released I got suspicous. I guess if I had pre-ordered 'Sayonara! Zetsubou Sensei' it wouldn't happen and would be cancelled. I really don't want to see them die off.
And how the hell did 'Kite' get damaged. I wonder if the Japanese still have the original source material to port from. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
flawed
Posts: 37 |
|
|||||
|
Not renewing licenses to me isn't a sign of MB on the way out. MB does not have the finances that FUNi, VIZ or Sentai does so they have to let older series that have lower potential for financial gain, for newer series that have a higher potential for financial gain.
According to the article Kite cancellation isn't technically MBs fault because the source they have isn't capable of meeting requirements for a blu-ray release. Moving of dates around these past two years isn't something new nor is it only something MB has done. Both FUNi and Sentai have delayed releases [FUNi has also canceled several Bluray releases of series]. It only seems much worse for MB because they have a much smaller release schedule in comparison to either of those two companies. ADV basically sold everything to new companies that employees formed to remove Sojitz from the equation. These employees did not believe that ADV could be saved from a part owner. Last edited by flawed on Sun Dec 02, 2012 10:27 pm; edited 2 times in total |
||||||
|
||||||
morisato
 Posts: 25 |
|
|||||
|
dragonride, from what I remember about the license regarding Ah! My Goddess Season 2, ADV Films originally held the license for the series. They would end up releasing all six volumes (volumes 5 and 6 would have a very low print run) before they started having problems with Sojitz, the company that licensed Ah! My Goddess for ADV Films.
When Sojitz and ADV Films began their "head butting", Sojitz pulled the anime series from ADV Films and transferred it to Funimation, where they would finish out the remainder of ADV's lciensing terms for the series. If I recall correctly, when Sojitz made the decision to withdraw from the North American market, Funimation decided to rescue the license rather than finish out the original licensing term that existed with ADV Films. I seem to recall that Funimation opted to license the anime season from the studio for distribution in North America. Funimation's license for the anime will continue for some time as they officially licensed the anime from Japan. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
|
|||||
They took over the licenses from Sojitz, so they would have likely been on the same terms. I doubt Funi would go through the hassle of renegotiating the terms for series they already have, especially ones that already lost much of their sales momentum. That would be a momumental waste of time and resources for such little, if any, gain. Some of the Sojitz series have already gone out of print, such as Moonlight Mile, and are only waiting to be sold through. What Funimation stated, is that following the dissolution of ARM, they were dealing directly with the studios in Japan instead of the middle man, like ADV had been doing. They never stated they had reacqured the series or had negotiated all new terms. I really doubt Funi would be stupid enough to waste their time. ARM a acquired the title for ADV in 2006, and then transferred it to Funimation in 2008. The title would still be under the original terms it was negotiated for. Now, we don't know how long that is exactly, but regardless the license is a bit old at this time and the chances that it will expire within the next year or two are quite good. My main point was that you can't be 100% certain that Funi will acquire season one, or the movies, OVAs, etc, as they've made no indication they're interested in more. They have plenty of time to acquire further AMG and have not done so. Geneon's license for the movie and mini-goddess and Animeigo's license for the older OVAs have all been expired for some time, yet there has been no movement. It's also likely that Media Blasters license has been expired for several months at least. Just because they have the now six year old license for season two, which was part of a massive bundle deal, really doesn't mean anything. As far as I know, Funi hasn't even talked publicly about how well their releases did for it. Based on that, I wouldn't make assumptions. |
||||||
|
||||||
ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
|
|||||
I'm pretty sure it seems (and is) much worse for Media Blasters because Funimation is still actually releasing a shit ton of titles even when they push others back. Hence, if Funimation pushes something back it is most likely because they're so swamped with all their other titles. Media Blasters only has about a half dozen (if even) new shows right now and all of them keep getting pushed back. I mean, what have they actually released in the last couple months? Barely anything. And going back even further, (like, since early 2012) they've done little besides repackaged collections of their old shows. That speaks to a pretty serious inability to put new product on the market and for a small company that, as you admit, doesn't have very deep pockets, not bringing in any revenue for an extended period will absolutely kill you. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
flawed
Posts: 37 |
|
|||||
I agree that extended period with no revenue is death. However physical media sales are only a part revenue, they still have Hulu and I think a few titles on PSN that might have potential revenue. Also potential for TV spots for materials they have already released or plan to eventually release [Squid GIrl] could bring in more revenue [honestly probably more then physical media sales will]. Also remember this past year they have had to work out legal issues, and among six labels with a handful of people [5 or 6 people] with several of those people having to deal with that legal conundrum I see delays being only an inevitable outcome. I just don't see this as being the 2013 swan song for MB, not yet at least. Now granted if we see delays through end of Q1 or beginning of Q2 my opinion might change on this. |
||||||
|
||||||
Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
|
|||||
Chances are, that will likely happen, but when is the question. Sad, especially considering the amount of series I've purchased from this coming, Genshiken, Genshiken season two, Genshiken OVA/Kujibiki Unbalance series to name a few series. But similar to ADV, Geneon and Bandai in regards to releasing anime, I've seen this happen time and time again. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
ikillchicken
Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
|
|||||
Like what? Like I said, their catalogue is so small and so niche at this point that I'm not really sure what would draw that many views. And while you're right that physical media is only one revenue stream, it is still by far the most significant one. Sadly, free streaming views are worth next to nothing.
No, that's really unrealistic. Getting any anime on TV is pretty damn hard these days and certainly isn't going to happen for any of the titles in Media Blasters' catalogue. Even if they did somehow get a show on TV it would basically be as an ad for the DVD. I don't think anyone actually pays out big money for the TV rights to anime these days.
That's a fair point. They've obviously had some problems recently and I'm sure this has contributed to their delays. Of course, the reason for those troubles is in all likelihood that they were in dire financial straights to begin with. I mean, they did lay off 60% of their staff back in January. Hence, them getting delisted and having to deal with all that is probably, more than anything, just a symptom of their underlying problems. I mean look, I'll agree that we can really only speculate here. Just because they're barely putting anything out doesn't automatically mean they're dead. Even if a company is in trouble, if they can at least stabilize by severely cutting costs and simply put out a very small number of very low cost titles for a while to keep them afloat, then they can eventually nurse themselves back to health and start doing more later on. (See: Sentai). Of course, that's only true if they haven't amassed a great deal of debt which they're unable to pay off and that may well be the case, if not because of losses prior to their legal issues then because of this extended stretch of little revenue coming in. So yeah, I won't say Media Blasters is definitely doomed but clearly we ought to be pretty concerned here. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
morisato
Posts: 25 |
|
|||||
|
dragon, I never said that they would license the first season, only that it would seem more likely that they would. If anything, it would make sense that Funimation would license the first season, to the anime series as a whole series.
Far as the second season goes, I thought I remembered reading a news article either on ANN or some other anime news site that after ARM had transferred the Ah! My Goddess license to Funimation, and that after they had decided to dissolve its North American operations in the anime business, that Funimation opted to license the anime season from Kodansha and AIC. Have to bear with me because I'm going on vague information that I briefly recall that was reported on years ago. In any event, I think the reason why AnimEigo and Media Blasters had elected not to renew the license for the Oh My Goddess OVA series and the first season of the anime series is because the licensing costs for Ah! My Goddess is considered a premium property. I do remember that I was corresponding with someone in Media Blasters PR departments regarding their license for Ah! My Goddess and that it was the first time that Media Blasters had shelled out a lot of money for license. If I recall correctly, it was the most expensive license that Media Blasters had ever shelled out for and it marked the first time that anime fans had started to take real notice of the company. Even Kodansha has trouble of letting the Ah! My Goddess manga series end. Kousuke Fujishima, the creator of the series, had wanted to end the series long ago but that Kodansha offered him more money to keep the series going. This happened prior to the 20th anniversary of the manga series that Kodansha had planned for. The problem, I think, is that Kodansha doesn't have a suitable replacement for the manga series. Fujishima-san tried to rectify that solution by creating a new manga series (Residence Paradise) but that the new series has been placed on hiatus for more than a year now. When Fujishima-san won that award for Ah! My Goddess, I think that encouraged him to keep the manga series going, and now, 2013 looks to be not only the 25th anniversary of the manga series but also the 300th chapter of the manga series as well. It's a double celebration for the manga and the most recent chapter of the manga series, Chapter 291, revealed a new logo in anticipation of this momentous event. On the first page of Chapter 291, the 25th Anniversary logo for Ah! My Goddess is displayed at the top of the first page (in Afternoon). |
||||||
|
||||||
|
metroid24
Posts: 69 Location: grand junction colorado |
|
|||||
|
well that sucks but im not counting them out yet they most likly are gearing up to add new populer anime to their catalog I've seen this tactic before with em 2 yrs ago and worked in their favor as for squid girl im sure they will bring it to the us as for amg if rebuy the rights great if not sentai or funi will pick it up
|
||||||
|
||||||
Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2173 |
|
|||||
|
As long as someone in the English speaking world puts out Squid Girl S2...
|
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group