Anime Geneon USA to cease distributions

As someone who purchased the first three releases of Higurashi it's a downer. There is still possibility of the title simply ending there and unfinished, considering it apparently had low sales - hard to convince anyone to pick up the rights from them, even at a fire sale rate if it was proving to be a failure.

And that goes for everything that ended midway on Geneon's plate, with the exception of the surefire sales hits like Hellsing. ADV dropped out of the plan to distribute Geneon's catalogue, which seems to point that there was a lot in it they didn't feel was a good investment.

Looking the other way and coddling fansubs is the kind of attitude that is bringing the major players to condemn fansubbing altogether. It's an attitude I think that is taking a toll on the Western anime industry. And also apparently anime at the source, as producers purportedly now budget anime not only for projected Japan sales figures, but also overseas. It may not sound like a great business decision, but such projections allow for bigger productions - should the international anime market cutback, it will make a future impact.

Like I've said so many times on this forum - I support the ideal of fansubs. Without them, I have no idea if title X is worth my hard-earned money. They're an extended sort of try-before-I-buy. But I also believe in supporting the original talent and drop that hard-earned-money where I believe it to be deserved.

I know this ideal is less than standard. I'm not condemning anyone with reams of digital copies on their hard drives and nothing official on their shelves. I'm just saying it's unfortunate to the consumers that do exist when the most visible culprit to blame is the unaffected freeloader.

Take The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, perhaps the heaviest hitter in the fan scene last year. A surefire sales hit? Negative. None of its DVD releases in North America even edges into the top anime sales. Contrasted to the thousands of digitally downloaded copies of the fansubbed version, it's hard not to go Chicken Little and say the American distribution is seeing the sky fall.

Back on topic, a few weeks ago ANN interviewed the president of Bang Zoom! and an interesting bit fell out:

That gives some hope for the titles mentioned, considering the dubs are on schedule to be completed, despite being past Geneon's cutoff of distribution back in September with the street date limit of November 6th. The titles will have the work complete by the end of this year - the remaining burning question is whether or not they will see distribution and sale, and if so, with what sort of delay? I still have a fansubbed copy, but I'd hate to see my artbox remain half-full and incomplete.

Edit: Another good quote from that interview:

 

One thing I would actually consider doing if I was in-tune to fansubs as Eric Sherman states, is either stopping dubbing altogether or at least stop processing into Dolby Digital. I haven't shopped for any sort of DVD lately (except Transformers) but the prices they were at when I was looking in the Anime section is quite ridiculous. I'm sure if they cut off the slice of the pie for voice acting English into the DVDs, they can substantially raise sales because price per unit is lower.

But, that's just me.

 

Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure a significant slice of their sales pie are buyers who won't touch anything without a dub track.

I don't think anyone can argue against anime having a higher price point than domestic releases, but we still get off far better internationally than in Japan, where they release 1-2 episodes a disc.

And even hypothetically speaking, how can even lowered prices compete with versions available for free download?

 

For sure it won't boost the sales where they need it, I'm referring to it mostly as a way to cut costs down. A free download will always be enticing, but I'm only saying that one way to bring back sales is to somehow make it more affordable. Let's face it, $24 a DVD (in some cases) isn't exactly conducive to the type of money a typical anime watcher would have readily at any given time, let alone for 6-7 disks. And by typical anime watcher, I'll mean the teenagers.

It may cost a lot more to buy those same shows in Japan (FLCL is a testament to that, at $30 a disk with one episode each), but as Konata (Lucky Star) shows, they do have the option of recording it.

I didn't propose it as the be-all solution for the american distribution of japanese animation, but it certainly can be a credible help. Or maybe even releasing them without extras (which I actually quite like) or releasing them as a full bundle.

When I worked at Best Buy, not a single one of the customers in the anime aisle that I talked to ever watched the dubs. I, in fact, got laughed at when I admitted that I like the BGC2040 dub slightly more than the original voices -- with the exception of the vocal music.

 

There's always the copyright factor, true. However, that's one thing that may be impossible to get around. Dubbing, they can get around. But, again, I do understand that not everyone will go for just subs.

*sigh* Ah well, as you said, fansubs are MUCH easier to get. And MUCH easier on the wallet.

I will maintain, that the animation industry needs to find a way to slightly cut down costs. It's almost laughable that I have to pay ridiculous prices for DVDs as HD-Media in some cases. There are times that it's worth it: Interstella 5555, but, sometimes...there's just not enough money in the wallet to do so.

 

Yes.

Why wouldn't they make full use of their purchased licenses instead of incurring a $41+ billion loss?

Dentsu's business analysts must have projected an even bigger loss if they kept the US anime distribution going. They're cutting their losses before they get worse.

There is more investment that follows license acquisition - translation, subbing, dubbing, encoding, design, pressing, distribution...

Eric P. Sherman's mention of finishing Rozen Maiden, When They Cry, and starting on Seirei no Moribito offers a glimmer of hope, but it could just prove to be his company finishing contractual obligations for which services were already paid for by Geneon.

Geneon laid off their sales and marketing back in September, and their A.D. Vision alliance seemed to be where they were placing all their chips. With the deal called off, I doubt Dentsu is eager to fund the expense of rebuilding sales and marketing from the ground up.

My own question is - what do I plug up the 3-dvd sized hole in my artbox with? :S

 

I still have 4 discs of Noir to buy Matt! You start...ignoring after a while, and much heartache.

 

Odd. ADV finished releasing Noir back in 2003. Even released the complete boxset in thinpak form in 2005.

Rightstuf.com's selling the individual discs for $7.99 apiece. They don't have vol 3 or 5, but if you need any of the other ones...

 

Lol, yeah, it's been complete, but I can't bring myself to watch it. it's stuffed in the back of my dvd case now. out of site, out of mind. i always get into the first two discs (i have 1-3), and then just find another anime to watch.

 

Ah, ok. You confused me there. This box is one I am eager to fill, but might not be able to with Geneon's distribution closure.