Forum - View topicNEWS: Sentai Filmworks Adds Schoolgirl/Tank Anime Girls und Panzer
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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ADV didn't fail because they acquired too many shows. They failed for a number of reasons. First of all, it wasn't the number of shows that did them in, it was how much they paid for them. They had several shows that they paid nearly a million dollars just to license, before you add in any costs like translation, dubbing, marketing, production, distribution, etc. Shows like Kurau Phantom Memory were pretty much destined to lose money with numbers like that. Sentai pays much, much less for titles than what ADV did. Not only are there less companies to compete against for rights, but no one allows the prices to soar like they did in the early 2000's. Now if shows get too expensive, companies like Sentai and Funimation generally pass on the rights until the price tag drops a bit, or someone like Aniplex decides to import it themselves. Secondly, ADV dubbed almost everything. The dub itself is often more expensive than the license and can quickly double or triple the cost of a show. Sentai only dubs titles that it believes will sell well, and the vast majority of those titles have other English language companies either chipping in with the cost of production or licensing the rights to use the English language track. International cooperation cuts Sentai's investments in the dubs and cuts the risk quite a bit. The dubs are also produced on a shorter timeline than during the ADV days, cutting their costs significantly. If a title is unlikely to sell well or have international support, then they go the sub-only route. Finally, ADV over extended themselves. They had nearly a hundred employees at one point working in many different divisions of the company, several of which were not profitable in the long run. They had a toy division, a music label, and original production division, a 24 hour cable network, a manga label, and a magazine division. Sentai only has a handful of employees and focuses solely on physical and digital media releases. They basically subcontract out everything, and sell digital and TV rights to their library to various companies including Crunchyroll and the Anime Network. Selling off their simulcast rights to Crunchyroll, as they have done with many shows the past several seasons, likely covers a big percentage of the up front fee and keeps their risks minimal. It also allowed them to fight the Funico team, and likely contributed to that partnership ultimately failing. Finally, if Sentai was truly overextending themselves, we would have seen troubling signs long before now. The company started out with relatively modest means (about $1.2 million if the industry rumors are true) and likely would have burned through that some time ago. However, the company continues to acquire new titles, produce new dubs, and release them in a pretty timely fashion, especially compared to the other R1 labels. I can understand having worries about any R1 company these days, especially with all the bad news the last couple of years. But in virtually every case, there have been outward signs from the company long before trouble began. Well, with perhaps the exception of Geneon, but that was a unique situation. Also, I believe mgosdin was referring to the fact that Sentai generally looks at streaming numbers, as well as the potential for international partners, before committing to a dubbed or sub-only release. |
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Vata Raven
 Posts: 710 Location: TN |
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No worries Read this and put your mind at ease, Sentai is stretching itself too thin. But seriouly, with all the crap they've been getting...were the hell is Betrayal Knows My Name and World's Greatest First Love? Funimation had these on their 2012 poll, figured they would go for them. Damn it, Funimation, if you don't have the pair to dub a yaoi title and a shojo with a male lead, why even put it on the poll? |
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Polycell
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To gauge interest. That doesn't even begin to imply the answer will be conducive to actually getting it.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4074 |
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Master of Martial Hearts? Hmmm. Wait, wait, it's coming back to me, thanks for nothing... I like Upotte but that was more for it's loony humor in satirizing the "school girls for men" genre but this one looks to be serious. I love how the plot for this show is not only in the topic title, it's written like slash fic. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23762 |
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Very nice post, dragonrider_cody. I have no way of knowing if the things you say are true, but damn, it sure sounds persuasive to me. Oh and just because this is the internet where sometimes communication can go awry, let me say I am being sincere and not sarcastic.
But as for Funico - can it truly said to have failed when it never even really got out of the gate?  I still chuckle when I think of the initial speculation over its potential negative impact on Crunchyroll.
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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A couple years ago, after the downturn, Funi mentioned in an ICv2 article that advance payments to licensors fell to zero. I don't know if that's still true or if there is some now for most, but dragonrider_cody's statement about ADV's past exorbitant fees/advances was confirmed in docs revealed by the lawsuit between Funi and ADV.
I also notice that none of these announcements for Panzer and Chuunibyou and few Sentai acquisitions in general initially indicate whether it'll be dubbed or subbed, so that probably helps. Though I wish they would still release BDs even when they decide to go sub-only There is still one genre that no one is touching, except for CR: sports |
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