Forum - View topic

NEWS: Sojitz to Dissolve ARM Subsidiary for Anime Overseas

Geneon / Dentsu is again a third very different scenario, but you described it pretty accurately. Dentsu's belief was that if they threw massive amounts of money at anime that their company would grow to a dominant and profitable position. Problem is that they overspent on manufacturing, under spent on promotion and made very questionable licensing decisions.

But the economy has been going south for awhile.

People in my area got burned out last year about this time.

They were looking for a market that didn't believe in saving a buck by downloading everything under the sun & selling titles non-downloaders therefore would never, ever, ever see here in the states. Why would that market want a dub? So if adding a dub wouldn't sell any more copies, or would only sell a handful more dvds, why put out the money? It's the Rolls Royce vs Ford market.

They should have sold obscure titles for the same prices as blockbusters they knew would sell 10 times as many copies? Hollywood doesn't even do that, dude. I paid sale price $25 for a "season" of Pushing Daisies-9 eps for $2.77 per ep.

melonbread wrote:

It is sad, but on the other hand it's partly their fault that the growth didn't happen because they didn't guide ADV in the direction that results in good growth, ala the Funimation model, as Funimation have been growing constantly. Or maybe Sojitz invested the 20% and said to ADV "now make us some money, without any help from us", so ADV did things their way (the way I personally like it (singles) and it didn't work out. If a major investor (i.e getting a place on the board of the company, which I suspect is what Sojitz got from a 20% investment) doesn't input advice into how to run the company they invested in, then it's their fault in the first place when they don't increase their money.

Well, as I said, and ADV has publicly said, the "breakup" was because ADV's management team and Sojitz did not agree on how things should be done (the specifics of those disagreements haven't been publicized).

So Sojitz did put plenty of input into ADV. ADV's management just didn't like the input. Who was right ? We'll probably never know. Could be that Sojitz's ideas would have bankrupt ADV, could be that they would have lead to significant improvement.

Bandai Visual USA was a different story altogether. They entered the market in an attempt to move it upscale. To say that they completely failed would be inaccurate, the Honeamise Line will continue at BEI as a home for high end releases for certain titles. The reason that BVUSA was shut down was that, now that Bandai Visual is a wholly owned subsidiary of Namco Bandai, there was no reason to have two competing subsidiaries in the USA. Still, IMHO, BVUSA's business model was unsustainable the way they were going about it. The anime market is too small to sustain a company that is geared exclusively towards high-end, high-price DVD releases.

Geneon / Dentsu is again a third very different scenario, but you described it pretty accurately. Dentsu's belief was that if they threw massive amounts of money at anime that their company would grow to a dominant and profitable position. Problem is that they overspent on manufacturing, under spent on promotion and made very questionable licensing decisions.

Of course, there is a common thread through the three companies. Japanese management felt things would work in a certain order, and at the end of the day they were either wrong or perceived to be wrong and blocked from going any further.

Of course, it would be very silly to come to the conclusion that Japanese management can't run a successful American anime/manga company. Look at BEI and VIZ. There are clear differences between the way all five companies are/were operated, but obviously BEI and VIZ have found a working balance between their Japanese owners and the American market. The same can be said for Pioneer prior to its involvement with Dentsu.

-t

ADV Films isn't floundering and never has. If you're referring to earlier this year? Then, you're talking about Sojitz ... while Sojitz was stomping its feet and behaving like a spoiled child, ADV stood its ground. While ADV is still here, and the fact they've just acquired more titles and a new licensor who believes in the company and is starting to acquire even more titles for the company, this leaves FUNI, who is seen as nothing more but a third rate distributor.

The reason why ADV Films, Bandai Entertainment, Viz Video, Media Blasters, Manga and the others still exist is their ability to offer anime to their consumers at fair prices. Spending $100 on a 26 episode boxed set from FUNI when you can buy a 26 episode boxed set from the other companies I mentioned for anywhere from $20 to as much as $50? FUNI is just your average b***h queen of the prom.

Just take a look at Viz Vide, I purchased all seven seasons of the Ranma 1/2 series on DVD for $40 a set. Great deal ... consumers respond more to affordable prices then they do to overpriced DVD's. I'm not saying the FUNI's policies won't work ... sure, they'll sell some sets, but in the long term, they're going to end up releasing the sets as those cheap-@#$ Viridian collections.

There are additional data points I'm not at liberty to share, but suffice it to say that what retailers alone went through with them pulling solicitations at the last minute and canceling wholesale orders burned many bridges, and retail placement is going to be a significant challenge for them going forward. They look to be recovering at the moment, and I think we're all happy about that, but that doesn't change what they went through.

Hmm, didn't occur to me that Sojitz still owns that extra 20%... I would have thought they would have sold it back to Ledford for nearly whatever he'd pay for it when they retracted all the licenses.

If they're willing to make nice with studios which backed HD-DVD, they got no excuse for fronting on ADV.

Hon'ya-chan wrote:

*looks at her pile of cash* Still waiting...still waiting....

Nah............it must be the fansubs.

All the studios that drove the HD format war were big Hollywood brands, and not stocking their product would hurt the retailer more than the studio.

Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK, has FUNI lost their mind? I've talked with a lot of anime fans on other message forums about this and they've expressed displeasure with how FUNimation has decided to break these titles up and release them as two 13 episode sets.

That wouldn't be so bad, but FUNI is also releasing both sets on the same day forcing a potential anime fan to spend anywhere from $85 to over $100 for a complete series. There's something screwed up about that line of thinking. I have a tough time justifying spending $50 for a potential set, and I have, mind you, on a 26 episode series. FUNimation seems to think they want to try and squeeze as much money from the pickets of anime fans then to keep them as long time consumers.

Colonel Wolfe wrote:

Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK, has FUNI lost their mind? I've talked with a lot of anime fans on other message forums about this and they've expressed displeasure with how FUNimation has decided to break these titles up and release them as two 13 episode sets. That wouldn't be so bad, but FUNI is also releasing both sets on the same day forcing a potential anime fan to spend anywhere from $85 to over $100 for a complete series. There's something screwed up about that line of thinking. I have a tough time justifying spending $50 for a potential set, and I have, mind you, on a 26 episode series. FUNimation seems to think they want to try and squeeze as much money from the pickets of anime fans then to keep them as long time consumers.

Glad I'm not the only one to notice FUNi's somewhat deceptive price scheme. Yeah, they're selling box sets a bit cheaper than everyone else does, but they're only half season sets. By the time you buy both halves, it's now quite a bit more than what others are selling sets for.

TJ_Kat wrote:

Colonel Wolfe wrote: Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK, has FUNI lost their mind? I've talked with a lot of anime fans on other message forums about this and they've expressed displeasure with how FUNimation has decided to break these titles up and release them as two 13 episode sets. That wouldn't be so bad, but FUNI is also releasing both sets on the same day forcing a potential anime fan to spend anywhere from $85 to over $100 for a complete series. There's something screwed up about that line of thinking. I have a tough time justifying spending $50 for a potential set, and I have, mind you, on a 26 episode series. FUNimation seems to think they want to try and squeeze as much money from the pickets of anime fans then to keep them as long time consumers. Glad I'm not the only one to notice FUNi's somewhat deceptive price scheme. Yeah, they're selling box sets a bit cheaper than everyone else does, but they're only half season sets. By the time you buy both halves, it's now quite a bit more than what others are selling sets for.

Agreed, I'm looking for the RRP for Ouran High School Host Club (Part 1!) and it's $59.99, so both Sets would cost you $120 RRP, considering the way the econ is nowadays, I'll like to think people are holding back.

And once you get the actual product, it's rubbish and cheap