Back in August I reported on the demise of Geneon USA and there subsequent bankruptcy, this event shocked many Anime fans around the world as Geneon had been around since the beginning. (They were known as Pioneer back in those days.) They were praised and well known for their high quality VHS & DVD releases, there subsequent bankruptcy left many titles unfinished and left fans are wondering if they will be picked up by other companies.

Well it looks like something similar is happening to ADV films now. In early 2000 when Anime hit it’s peak ADV was licensing every title they could get there hands on. Some of these titles paid off and some of them did not, this method of licensing Anime got them into financial trouble and were forced reconsolidated there losses. But they managed to pull it out of the fire and saved them selfs from the same fate as Geneon. But now some interesting has been happening recently and you don’t need a degree in financial management to see what is happening.

Back in January 5th ADV canceled its 24/7 Anime Network TV channel operations, scaling it down to video on demand. (Pay as you watch basically or pay as you request however you look at it.) Exactly 5 days later on January 10th they announced that they will be ceasing production of its magazine Newtype USA, and replace it with there own god awful magazine called “PiQ Magazine”. Then 8 days later ADV would also announce that they will be shutting down its Anime ADVocate program. ( ADVocate was basically a program giving away free Anime material to Anime clubs around the states and Europe.) But it does not end here, on January the 22nd ADV stated that it it would be shutting down its U.K offices. And that all the European Anime releases would be distributed through their U.S offices.

But now it gets even a bit more disturbing on January the 28th, ADV dropped a number of high profile titles from its website titles like Gurren Lagann, 5 Centimeters per Second, Kanon, Pumpkin Scissors, Devil May Cry, and Welcome to the NHK just to name a few, only to magically re-appear a day or two later. It seems a little bizarre to me that they actually removed the items from their store. (Without comment.)

Shortly afterwards an ADV Films spokesperson made the following statement in regards to the Anime titles that were removed from the site:

“We know there are a lot of rumors swirling about, and that fans are looking for assurances that ADV will continue to distribute the anime series they know and love.

While we can’t go into any detail at this time, please know that ADV is working through a few short-term challenges and fully intends to continue our releases.”

Short term challenges” aka we are in the shit people. A complete list of dropped Anime titles can be found here. And like I said before you don’t need a degree in financial management to see what is happening at ADV they are re-consolidating there assets, trying to keep the ship floating.

It seems that ADV and there financial backer Sojitz had a fallout somewhere along the line. And now ADV does not have Sojitz’s financial backing anymore leaving ADV in financial trouble. And since Sojitz set up ARM to help ADV license there Anime titles, it only stand to reason that those titles are now up in the air as ARM decided to withhold all the shows it licensed for ADV since they are part of Sojitz, leaving ADV dead in the water so to speak.

ADV has been completely silent about these issue’s with the exception of the one statement they made above. No spokes person have appeared on any message boards or made any statements publicly. No sites have received screener DVDs for reviews, either. So this begs the question is ADV films in trouble.

But there is at least some good news. As ADV decided to drop the license for Gurren Lagaan, Bandai quikly jumped in and brought the rights to Gurren Lagaan. Let us hope the same happens with the other shows that ADV decided to drop.

We thank you for your patience.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Anime, Larch. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.