Text Wall of LoveDoom!

Pioneer (Geneon) was one of the best, and they were excellent at picking dubbing studios that knew how to do their job. Bang ZOOM for example, they freakin rock.

then they started exporting their dubbing to...ugh...Singapore, and the quality of their dubbing and boxart just dropped. and then POOF they shut down

one thing i like about Funi, is that they are really fans of anime, they really try and do their best and they took some great blows before they reached the status that they are at now. one thing i fear, is that they are the next Geneon...getting to a point that they are so big, they have to cut cost.
earlier last year, they had to cut some of their staff! and that hurt them a lot.

some Users on ANN. say just because they [ADV] are dropping titles it doesnt mean they are shutting down, but its the lack of communication that makes it seem that way.


and yes. i do and can blame downloading of anime to be contributing to low DVD sales. i feel that at 2000. anime fans (mostly younger ones) just got spoiled with how they can acquired. they develop this thought pattern of:
"Dubs=English, therefore they are Evil"
"Anime companies price their DVDs too high, so they are greedy"
"FanSubs are more accurate"
"Only True/Real Anime Fans watch Subs"

its 2008, and i am sick that some brats think that way! the early purpose of FanSubs, were to:
1) Sub shows that no one has seen before
2) Sub shows that are likely not going to be brought to their Country
3) Get the show known enough, that a company in their Country would buy the rights to domesticate it
4) Once the license is bought, they stop subbing and encourage 'fans' to truly support it, by buying it

now things have changed. some subbers continue to sub short anime series, regardless that they are requested to stop. the elitism in anime has grown, there are stupid Sub vs Dub wars. and arguments of who is a "Real Fan"

is it a Fad?
Anime has never really been mainstream in other Countries. that is a Japanese thing because Anime is cheap to create and are pretty much like Live Action shows in America. but when Japan creates Live Action shows...they are done on such a tight budget, and a large part of them are just terrible to watch.

its a fad to try and expect people who watch series on networks to stick with the show. but to fans, they are likely the ones to stay with it.

Pokemon for example. longest running anime in the US, but its popularity has slowly gone down. new episodes continue to follow the same pattern they always have, its getting stale. . the changing of the English dub actors had an effect too.
the lack of getting the Japanese track on DVDs also effect the sale, but i dont know the story behind that its a business thing.

i think some anime companies expect fans to buy the shows, and go with a lot of variety. so i guess a slow down of licensing is the best choice, even though its sad that they are just dropping things altogether.

Anime companies in Japan also contribute to the problem, they want a higher price for licensing, especially when it comes to Music. its near impossible to get the original music of older anime, and just as hard to do a dubbing of it. since their are new regulations.

forgot where i read it. but the cost of getting just ONE episode today, even if the anime itself is crap - is like 50k to nearly 1 mill. Dubbing companies balance the cost by trying to air it on TV to get a larger audience to buy the series.

Mermaid Pitchi ran into this problem. ADV was happy to tell fans that they got the show, but they could not find a network that would air it. its a LONG running series, on top of that there are songs. they had to drop it, i dont blame them, they did try cause that is now ADV is.