Where is my Gankutsuou?

by Paul

8 comments

1 Brack { 07.03.08 at 8:45 pm }

There’s a bigger question over this deal - what happens in the UK? And specifically, what happens to MVM?

Madman were already performing this role for Geneon in Australia, and their releases were available in the UK via MVM.

However Funimation moved their UK distribution from MVM to Revelation, leaving MVM seemingly reliant on the Madman releases.

This new deal raises the question of who has the UK distribution rights to the Geneon titles that appear both on Madman and Funimation’s slates? Is it MVM, Madman or Funimation?

2 Paul { 07.03.08 at 11:54 pm }

My gut reaction is that as Funimation’s deal states that it only has rights to “manufacture, sell, and distribute” select Geneon titles, the actual buisness decisions (and therefore licenses) are still being directed by Geneon. That being the case, I don’t think it’ll effect the UK industry much (if at all), and that’ll leave MVM and Manga Ent. competing over the hottest licenses (note how Manga Ent. announced Hellsing Ultimate earlier in the year, Geneon have simply reverted to Kadokawa USA’s model). Unfortunately, I think MVM are in a shaky situation anyway, as unlike ADV, Beez, Manga and Revelation, they aren’t backed up by a wealthy parent company and so, are probably being priced out of the market, which would be a massive shame, as they’ve been around for ages and released some great anime.

3 Celeste { 07.04.08 at 2:13 am }

Arrogant though this might sound, i’ve been watching anime for a while. It’s sort of interesting to watch the trends with licensing companies though. only.. maybe 5 or 6 years ago? there was such a boom in the industry that we thought anime would finally become “mainstream” (while it’s arguable that it has) and that we would be able to find it anywhere. John, Jane and Joey next door would all be watching it too. And now we’re talking downsizing, closures and mergers. Interesting indeed.

Hopefully Gankutsuou gets swept along, though. An official DVD release of that would be wonderful, the effects of the patterns just get lost in compressed digital files..

4 Paul { 07.04.08 at 4:40 pm }

@Celeste: I wonder if that sudden boom was related to Pokemon? Seems like a lot of companies banked their money on anime ‘going mainstream’, with things like Naruto on the horizon, but as that never really exploded in a big way, their bubble burst. Some crazy news just hit about ADV losing many of their licenses to Funimation too. I think ADV were the company that risked the most on anime going mainstream.

5 Brack { 07.04.08 at 6:54 pm }

@Paul: do you mean they risked the most, hoping anime would go mainstream? Or they were most at risk from anime going mainstream?

The second is definitely true, as they were, frankly, a dinosaur. A dinosaur that had little hope in becoming mainstream, and in trying to keep up with the Vizs (Vizes?) and Funimations of this world, they have set this downfall in motion.

Now, most the anime market is/was a dinosaur in relation to the rest of the DVD market, and clinging to an antiquated release model is what killed Geneon USA, Bandai Visual USA, and now it looks like ADV will follow.

Here’s the problems they had:

* The DVD market as a whole is overflowing with SKUs, let alone the anime market. However, a lot of anime companies seem to be stuck in their own little worldview, rather than realising they are competing with every DVD on the market. That’s why in my UK release posts I frequently explain what else that isn’t anime you could spend your money on.

* The DVD market, both purchaser and retailer, generally expects lengthy TV series to be released in boxsets of some kind (a few shows excepted - i.e. Dr Who). The US market was slower to catch on to this than the UK, but the anime market as been dragging their heels for so long on this that some companies deserved to go out of business.

* The lack of an evergreen product with TV exposure. This is the factor that really is killing ADV. With an evergreen product that outlets are happy to restock again and again, it reduces the risk on other licences. Mediablasters thrives on the back of it’s Voltron releases. Funimation has Dragonball. Viz has Naruto & Bleach. Manga has GITS. ADV had Eva, but too many releases, too quickly, soured the market on that. Geneon mishandled the various AIC animated franchises. And Bandai Visual USA, were, well insanely ignorant of the US DVD market.

Now there’s factors playing into this that forced the US anime market’s hand, the main one being overpricing of licences and a lack of understanding of the DVD market outside of Japan on behalf of the Japanese companies. But if anime companies aren’t willing or able to behave like the “normal” video companies, then they are going to die.

6 Paul { 07.05.08 at 9:57 pm }

@Brack: Re: your question, I think ADV risked the most by hoping that anime would go mainstream, so tried to establish themselves with quantity rather than quality, relying on the other companies to keep the market alive while they served the niche within the niche.

I generally agree with what you’re saying above, though I definitely sympathize with the anime publishers too. It’s true that TV series shouldn’t be sold by the volume, but when you stop to consider expensive dub costs and the simple fact that the vast majority of anime isn’t getting on TV, the industry is forced into a corner. On one hand, they have to keep their customers happy by releasing box-sets, but at the same time, they can’t cover the costs of a release (especially with a dub) if they don’t do it volume by volume. Basically, US TV has the advantage of being popular before hitting DVD (by virtue of being on TV), but quite often, anime doesn’t. Combine this with everything else you’ve mentioned above and it’s obvious that things are going to have to change in a big way.

7 Brack { 07.05.08 at 10:51 pm }

@Paul: It’s hard to sympathise with the industry over the price of dubs when they repeatedly told us back in the VHS days that it was cheaper to release dubs and so subbed releases had to be more expensive. (At least in the US, I don’t think anyone pulled that nonsense over here).

Nor is it easy to sympathise with those companies who further cut costs by refusing to pay the already small union minimum for dubbing foreign content. If there’s one thing anime dubs are not, it’s expensive, at least not in comparison with dubbing an original US cartoon.

And pretty much anything can be released on DVD and theoretically break even without a following from TV. There are many small DVD companies in the UK that exist pretty much on their Amazon sales.

What is likely the main stifling point for anime is not the production costs, but the cost of the licence in the first place.

And that boils down to the utter mess that is the anime industry in Japan. Which is a whole other problem.

8 Jura { 07.11.08 at 1:21 am }

I don’t remember seeing Disgaea on that list either. Gankutsuou was loved and thought of highly, but it wasn’t exactly a hit.

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