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NEWS: ADV Films Removes Titles from Website

IMO this is the simplest answer: the ADV site broke so they put up an old version until it's fixed.

Additionally, this story is almost 24 hours old. A downtime of that length (even if there is a backup available) is pretty unacceptable in the corporate world.

I'm an English dub fan. It's my preference. I also like other expensive extras like art boxes, but they're secondary if I'm really interested in a series. It's my belief that after the weakest companies die, those that remain will largely switch to a box set release format for most series with "niche" series, which are very often the ones I like the most, going sub-only.

Box sets with ADV tend toward no extras, which is the only reason I've generally avoided their box sets. Even if I'm not particularly interested in them, it drives me nuts when they aren't there.

Plus, what's happening with ADV right now feels much like what happened with Geneon. The deafening silence just makes things all the more likely to be bad. When you have good news, people won't shut up.

Although as others say, retailers haven't been informed yet.....

ADV Cancels 37 Titles
Anime Offerings on 'Indefinite Hiatus'
Canceled
January 28, 2008

In a letter to retailers ADV Films has identified 37 anime properties including Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann, and Pumpkin Scissors that are "on indefinite hiatus, effective immediately." The list includes virtually all of the properties that ADV has announced since its financing deal with the Sojitz Corporation (see "Japanese Investment Bulks Up ADV") in late June of 2006. The properties that ADV has announced (and released) since then are from a variety of anime studios but they were all licensed through the ARM Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan Contents Investment, an investor group that included the Sojitz Corporation, the Development Bank of Japan and KlockWorx. In its letter to retailers ADV explained: "ADV has suspended certain elements of its former alliance with ARM Corporation, which financed the acquisition of these titles. ADV is working closely with various constituencies with the goal of restoring most if not all of these properties to our release schedule at a later date to the extent possible."



The list includes properties that have already been released in their entirety such as Nerima Daikon Brothers, Guyver, and 009-1, series such as Pumpkin Scissors, Kurau Phantom Memory, and Red Garden that have only been partially released, and eagerly awaited anime such as Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann and 5 Centimeters per Second that have been announced for later this year. The complete list of ADV anime properties on hiatus is:



009-01
5cm Per Second
Ah! My Goddess: Flights of
Fancy
Air Gear
Air Movie
Air TV series
Best Student Council
Blade of the Phantom Master
Comic Party Revolution
Coyote Ragtime
Devil May Cry
Ghost Train
Gurren Lagann
Guyver
Innocent Venus
Jinki: Extend
Kanon TV Series
King of Bandit Jing: 7th Heaven
Kurau Phantom Memory
Le Chevalier D'Eon
Magikano
Moeyo Ken TV Series
Moonlight Mile
Nerima Daikon Brothers
Pani Pani Dash!
Project Blue
Pumpkin Scissors
Red Garden
Synethesia
The Wallflower
Tokyo Majin
UFO Princess Valkyrie - Third
and Fourth Seasons
Utawarerumono
Venus vs. Virus
Welcome to the NHK
Xenosaga



Coming on the heels of Geneon's departure (see "Geneon Ankles American Anime Scene") the ADV announcement is more bad news for the reeling North American Anime Industry. For the past few years ADV has been the number two anime company in the North America, with a solid 12-13% share of the anime DVD market. Recently though ADV has been showing signs of stress. It has pulled its support from its industry-leading collection of anime clubs and two weeks ago announced that it would cease publication of Newtype USA (see "Newtype USA Ending"). The collapse of ADV's deal with ARM does not necessarily mean the end of one of the trailblazing American anime companies, which was founded in 1992. ADV still has an extensive library of titles including the ever-popular Neon Genesis Evangelion. Still the fate of ADV subsidiaries such as The Anime Network, the Newtype successor PiQ (see "Newtype Successor Broadens Focus"), and the ADV manga publishing program that includes the bestselling Yotsuba&! manga remains in the balance as does the future of one of the pioneering powerhouses of the American anime market.

In a letter to retailers ADV Films has identified 37 anime properties including Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann, and Pumpkin Scissors that are "on indefinite hiatus, effective immediately."