Forum - View topicNEWS: Gonzo to Restructure, Reduce Staff Count from 130 to 30
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yojimboray
Posts: 108 |
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Really sucks. |
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sunflowerseed
 Posts: 106 Location: South Texas |
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That is a pretty big hit to a section of the Anime Mainstream. It beats having them going under. If Gonzo does this, I would agree with a few other posters in this thread, that a few more Anime companies are going to do likewise. All of the now former employs should have high skills in several areas to get a new job or start a new company so it might be a 'godsend' event for a few of them that just needed a little push, who knows.
Overall cash is tight all over the world right now. 'We' don't have any extra to throw around right now. The sales of Anime is going to be lower across the board for all Anime companies for the next few years no matter how high or low quality their shows are. Look at all of us who wait to buy the full series or the compacted full series in a 'legends' like set. Those sets are usually 2 years after the show was new so the Anime companies do not reap the instant benefit like they may in Mainland Japan only. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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To me, Gonzo are the 'good guys' on CR. Though I am in theory capable of supporting them freely and legally by watching their streams, they simply have nothing available right now that would appeal to me prima facie. Is it to be assumed that their performance in their domestic market (or put more bluntly the fact they allegedly don't appeal to the masses) is one of the principle reasons for these reductions? I should like to hope that their decision to stream their shows legally hasn't caused them financial problems. |
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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C'mon, let it go. Just because everything of theirs isn't gold, you can't ignore the awesome sauce stuff they HAVE made. They aren't perfect, but no studio is. This is just unnecessary cruelty. |
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farichada
 Posts: 303 Location: Wisconsin, USA |
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I agree with unit. There is no need to beat a horse when its almost dead. Gonzo has produced quite a bit of mediocre stuff, but remember that they have also made a lot of good stuff as well. Full Metal Panic is still one of my favorite shows. Instead of saying good riddance, everywhere should wish Gonzo the best of luck. They are going through tough times and need all of the help they can get.
Even the small things matter, for the love of god, do not download any more Gonzo anime illegally. Downloading any anime illegally is bad, but this could hurt Gonzo even more if this continues to happen. Show your support for Gonzo, buy a single or a box set -- be a part of the solution and not the problem. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Actually that's not too much of a risk, as most of the other anime companies have long ago structured themselves to outsource a lot of the work. Gonzo was one of the last Japanese anime companies that still did the majority of their animation all in house instead of outsourcing large chunks of things to small studios or overseas. What's more likely is that the other anime companies simply start losing money. Remember, Gonzo was losing money hand over fist the past few years because they had high production costs and large number of ill-profitable productions. The other anime companies have cut costs and managed to maintain profitability (although ever shrinking profitability), at least those that are public companies that we know of. Japanese companies will almost never cut jobs until they are in the red, so that'll have to happen before we see job cuts from other media companies. |
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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So basically, Gonzo could very well not survive until 2010. That's a shame. I imagine a good number of their animators lost their jobs, so I would at least hope their talent would enable them to get jobs at other studios.
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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I agree with the you. Unit has a valid point as well. Full Metal Panic was one of my favorite series Gonzo ever created. Again farichada is right. Do NOT download Gonzo's anime illegally, you'll only continue to hurt Gonzo farther. Buy a boxset or single dvd if you enjoy the series. Just say no to illegal fansubs, they really do cause much more harm than one would think. |
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Ioriya
 Posts: 17 Location: United States |
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Maybe the remaining 30 will try harder and think about what makes a good anime.
Instead of boobs and ass all the time. 
Oh yea, and this is not to start any useless flaming, because i really do feel they throw in a way too much unnecessary fanservice when it is not needed. |
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pparker
 Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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QFT. This makes the most sense to me. Outsourcing is a valid economic response to falling profits. When people begin buying less of what you make, then you have to try other solutions for maintaining profitability. Especially if all your competitors are doing it, the inevitability is that you will make less money over the long run. This and the targeting of the Western market. If you get a small percentage of your income from a foreign market, then targeting any larger percentage of your production toward that market doesn't make sense. Not having any personal experience of being in Japan, still it's easy to conclude that the two cultures remain very different despite a lot of Western culture crossover, and that applies to anime. I was surprised at Strike Witches's success, when I shouldn't have been, I suppose. Ecchi doesn't bother me at all normally, but the blatant pantsu genuine-age lolis just pushed it into uncomfortable to watch. But it does prove the point that skewing your production to try and match the tastes of a minority audience--itself just as fickle and in this case shrinking economically, was not a good business decision.
The article makes it clear this is 5-year plan, and they just got large cash infusions. Unless the market tanks a lot further, it's unlikely they'll write off that investment. |
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sdhd
Posts: 169 |
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Gonzo made the mistake of marketing and produciong anime to Westerners. They should have marketed anime to the Japanese anime otaku who buys.
I like Gonzo forward thinking to reach the West. Gonzo should get credit for paving the way for some Japanese anime companies to get on board on Crunchyroll. Gonzo took the risk to simuclast Blassreiter, Tower of Druaga, Linebarral of Iron, and Strike Witches. It's sad to see them in their current dire postion. Hopefully, within the next 5 years they recovered and produced more anime. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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It would only help now if you bought a lot, and directly from Japan. Otherwise your money is going FUNi or ADV. And it's unlikely they'll license anything that GONZO has made recently except maybe Druaga, that's where they'd get their money. Almost everything else GONZO has made has been licensed already, so they got the money for them. The problem is that a good deal of their shows haven't been popular with the Japanese themselves. The only GONZO I own is Gravion, and I got that for $11. Considering the MSRP was $40, I wonder if I'm even helping at all by buying anime so cheap, but I don't care, because it's still the most legal way and there's no way one can argue it negatively. |
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zanarkand princess
 Posts: 1484 |
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I agree. Not because I hate shows with more fanservice then necessary (even though I do) but I think that they should try to reach a larger audience than the one Strike Witches has. Maybe a shounen show that high school boys in japan have read the manga for that can come on television at 6pm instead of 3am. A few shows like that might help sustain them for a while. |
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Sariachan
 Posts: 1492 Location: Italy |
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I don't really think it's about making anime for the Japanese market or for the western one (after all, there isn't just 1 "western market", but several different ones), but about making good anime or bad anime.
Not only that, but a good anime must be made in a way that it sells too (even merchandise, not only the DVDs); being "only" good isn't enough by itself. Not anymore, at least. I remember Hayao Miyazaki talking about something like this: he said that he wouldn't find acceptable to make movies that wouldn't seel well, since many people work to make an animation and they have to be paid for their hard worl. Now, do you think that H. Miyazaki's movies are more for Japanese people or "westerns"? I think they are just beautiful, and marketable. Making commercial-only anime is bad, but making marketable ones is necessary, for an animation studio to survive. That said, of 100+ anime GONZO made, I really enjoyed or am interested to see only 9-10 series. 10% of their productions isn't much, even considering personal tastes, so maybe it's really for the better if they'll so less anime. Even if some people think differently, I believe that the studio will pay more attention to what to animate and what to not. |
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Ofanim
 Posts: 3 |
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I doubt it. It is not like the fansubbers were falling over themselves to sub Dragonauts for example and every thing since other than Rosario has been on CR officially. Gonzo did some good shows. Last Exile [2003], Full Metal Panic Season 1 [2002] The last couple of years haven't been as good. Kaze no Stigma, Seto no Hanayome, Dragonauts are in my mind the best. Afro Samurai, I've never tried but people seem to like on a put your brain in neutral sort of way. None of which look as good and Dragonauts also had that slight problem with its plot coherency to breast size ratio. Unless you mean Fansubbers killed Gonzo by persuading them to show how bad thier plotting and CGI could get rather than forcing people to buy sight unseen. |
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