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NEWS: Sojitz to Dissolve ARM Subsidiary for Anime Overseas


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billyarnie



Joined: 03 Dec 2007
Posts: 190
Location: San Antonio, TX
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:18 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
As a result, it is "redistributing its management resources."

Hopefully Sojitz won't "redistribute" its anime licenses from FUNi... bu you never know. FUNi will try its best to make those shows work & be profitable in the U.S...
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Colonel Wolfe



Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 370
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:31 pm Reply with quote
Sojitz is getting exactly what it deserves, in my opinion. I don't know the details of why they broke up with ADV, but if they had managed to stop their bickering and settle their differences, maybe they wouldn't be having these problems. It was Sojitz acting like a spoiled child that caused ADV Films their distribution problems back in January and then earlier this summer.

I think the ADV/FUNI titles will end up reverting back to the original studios after FUNI's initial run with trying to sell them ...
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dangerwhat



Joined: 22 Jul 2007
Posts: 187
Location: Central Florida
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:34 pm Reply with quote
should have seen this one coming -.- No surprise here. Because Sojitz and ADV couldn't play nice, both companies suffer.
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:36 pm Reply with quote
so i take it this effects the titles Funimation bought from ADV?
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DarkHunter6523



Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:45 pm Reply with quote
Or it could be that ADV was making them little to no money and so they cut their losses and backed out...Lets face it, ADV was completely reliant upon the older anime business models while Funi was off trying new things.
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hikaru004



Joined: 15 Mar 2004
Posts: 2306
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:48 pm Reply with quote
See this is what happens when you don't place nice Japan.

Now hopefully the a******s won't be coming back anytime soon and FUNi can get the rest of those titles that ADV should have been releasing released.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:48 pm Reply with quote
Colonel: I wish that were the case, but this basically amounts to them taking the money and running.
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hikaru004



Joined: 15 Mar 2004
Posts: 2306
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:50 pm Reply with quote
So then we have to order them while we can? I hope that this is not the case as it would be more depressing news.
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bci110



Joined: 02 Sep 2006
Posts: 391
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:05 pm Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
so i take it this effects the titles Funimation bought from ADV?


Well, if the parts of the article that says "ARM's dissolution is not expected to affect its licenses with the North American anime distributor FUNimation Entertainment" and "ARM transfered the rights to more than 30 of its titles to FUNimation" are accurate, then I don't believe that it'll have that great of an effect. After all, they're no longer ARM/Sojitz titles anymore, right?
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daxomni



Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 2650
Location: Somewhere else.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:22 pm Reply with quote
Colonel Wolfe wrote:
If they had managed to stop their bickering and settle their differences, maybe they wouldn't be having these problems.

I think the most volatile (and possibly least regulated) economic climate since the Great Depression might have had something do with it.

Colonel Wolfe wrote:
It was Sojitz acting like a spoiled child that caused ADV Films their distribution problems back in January and then earlier this summer.

Or maybe the spoiled fansubby-wubby children who refuse to pay for anything they can get their grubby mitts on.

Colonel Wolfe wrote:
I think the ADV/FUNI titles will end up reverting back to the original studios after FUNI's initial run with trying to sell them ...

Any particular reason for this?
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Tempest
I Run this place.
ANN Publisher


Joined: 29 Dec 2001
Posts: 10420
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:45 pm Reply with quote
I can't/won't get into why Sojitz and ADV split, let's just leave it at the very obvious "They didn't agree on the best way to run the business."

Keep in mind that Sojitz still owns 20% of ADV. Until Sojitzor ADV find someone who wants to buy that 20%, or ADV has the cash to buy it back itself, that scenario will remain.

Since ARM was created specifically for the purpose of acquiring licenses for ADV, there really is no purpose to keep ARM going now that it isn't working with ADV and the licenses have mostly been transferred to other companies.

The likely outcome of this is...nothing. Funimation's licenses have already been, or will be transferred to licenses that go between Funimation and the Japanese rights holders for those titles. ARM was a go between and will simply be removed from the equation.

The sad news is that a major potential investor in the North American anime market has come to the conclusion that there is no growth opportunity and wants to have nothing more to do with that market.

-t
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MokonaModoki



Joined: 30 Oct 2005
Posts: 437
Location: Austin, Texas
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:50 pm Reply with quote
DarkHunter6523 wrote:
Or it could be that ADV was making them little to no money and so they cut their losses and backed out...Lets face it, ADV was completely reliant upon the older anime business models while Funi was off trying new things.


From the article:
Quote:
Sojitz explained in its announcement that it does not expect earnings to grow in this marketplace as it originally expected when ARM was established in 2006.


This is something of a backhanded acknowledgment that Sojitz came into the North American market with unrealistic expectations two years ago, which they are now recognizing. This is not new. It happened with Dentsu and Geneon, it happened with Bandai Visual. It's hard to justify putting that problem on ADV. Nor was Funimation "off trying new things" to any substantial degree when the problems with Sojitz all started back in January. Dissolving ARM now and admitting that their unrealistic expectations aren't going to be met at all seems like more of a vindication of ADV in all this than any sort of indictment of them.
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:52 pm Reply with quote
Not exactly a show of confidence in the US anime market is it? I think people are projecting too much anger over the ADV situation to take proper note of the reason they are giving for pulling out. They're pulling out because they don't think they can make money in this anime market.

Folks, try to grasp the reality that anime on DVD as we currently know it is in serious jeopardy. The fanbase is growing by leaps and bounds but only in the "free anime" side of things. If sales keep dropping, we'll see a drop in licenses and make no mistake there will be repercussions in Japan. A lot of studios have become reliant on overseas money, specifically US bucks.

daxomni wrote:
I think the most volatile (and possibly least regulated) economic climate since the Great Depression might have had something do with it.
Or possibly the nonsensical granting of large loans to people with no ability to pay them back solely because said people tended to be minorities coupled with an absurd system that punishes success with higher taxes and fails to keep jobs in the US. (Ah, let's worry about this after the elections.)

The real issue when it comes to anime and sales is the "see it for free, complain about how it sucks, download some more" attitude so pervasive in the Cult of Sub or as you put it the "spoiled fansubby-wubby children."
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melonbread



Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 317
Location: UK (London)
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:55 pm Reply with quote
tempest wrote:
The sad news is that a major potential investor in the North American anime market has come to the conclusion that there is no growth opportunity and wants to have nothing more to do with that market.


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.

Or maybe I just have no idea how business works.
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bayoab



Joined: 06 Oct 2004
Posts: 831
PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:17 pm Reply with quote
tempest wrote:
Keep in mind that Sojitz still owns 20% of ADV. Until Sojitzor ADV find someone who wants to buy that 20%, or ADV has the cash to buy it back itself, that scenario will remain.

And yet ADV had denied that Sojitz (still?) had a 20% stake in the company at AX.
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