December 18th, Blog Entry at http://www.animenation.net/blog/
"FUNimation parent company Navarre has announced plans to entirely shut down its BCI Eclipse subsidiary that distributed DVDs of American animated series including He-Man, She-Ra, Bravestarr, and Ghosbusters, along with live action programming including the Japanese Ultraman television series."
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Get the sets while you can if you want them!
Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon are already out of print but still widely available at very low cost online.
The He-Man sets -- new and old series -- are sure to go up in value once they become scarcer.
I don't see as much of a market for Ultraman (the whole Japanese DVD media market has obviously been overestimated in the US) but I wouldn't let it go for long if you're interested in that show, too.
The niche animation market continues to shrink.
This is being done not to spite fans but because the market for shows was overestimated. People just haven't bought the shows in the bulk that Navarre thought they would. Every major company is making cuts because of the worldwide recession...
Bad News for Filmation Fans...
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That's the one thing I've always felt guilty about:
As much as I've thought "Gee, it's nice to have Flash Gordon or Jason of Star Command on disk" for cultural preservation, I'd also been the first to admit I wouldn't actually BUY it to keep on my shelves for the next ten years.
It's a charity business, to be sure, and anyone getting into it (like Shout Factory outside of their MST3K releases) needs to have a heavy philanthropic set of income.
As much as I've thought "Gee, it's nice to have Flash Gordon or Jason of Star Command on disk" for cultural preservation, I'd also been the first to admit I wouldn't actually BUY it to keep on my shelves for the next ten years.
It's a charity business, to be sure, and anyone getting into it (like Shout Factory outside of their MST3K releases) needs to have a heavy philanthropic set of income.
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FUNimation is sitting pretty. They're probably among the most secure companies right now. It says something when they're the only domestic anime licensing company that actually releases anime on Blu-Ray.
Bandai's the other company doing regular anime Blu-Ray releases but they're foreign-owned.
Technically so does Sony/Columbia (another foreign company) but they stick to just an occasional anime theatrical release on Blu-Ray.
The reason why I bring up the Blu-Ray issue is because sales aren't that great for anime on the format and you have to possess solid financial backing to release anything on Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is still a lot more expensive to release things on.
If anybody's on the death watch list, it's ADV Films.
There have been at least a half-dozen casualties in the anime market downturn since 2003... Probably more than that if you count manga distributors.
Who's down for the count and dead now?
- Broccoli/Synch Point as of this December is pretty much gone
- CPM/US Manga Corps although they've never officially announced they're out of the game most of their good stuff has gone out of print and had license expiration; practically no one but the company founder works for CPM last I heard
- Techno Arts = the company that I think was releasing Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure which was never more than a minor cult favorite
- Anime Crash = released Korean animated series that few people cared to buy
- the experimental anime DVD-R release program from ImaginAsian TV = the story on the program's collapse is that the company they licensed for DVD-R production went out of business; there were also complaints about defective discs and discs rotting early; they've never bothered to reprint past the first six months their 3 licensed anime series were put out on DVD;
- Streamline Pictures = gone for at least a decade; their better-known old licenses and dubs periodically get picked up by other companies
- and any number of companies (probably at least 3) that made announcements but never followed through with a single DVD release!
It's a grim picture to be sure, but I think most of the companies releasing anime now will still be around 2 years from now. They have solid backing from Japanese parent companies or are diversified enough to survive the downturn. Don't expect most of them to do a Blu-Ray release anytime soon, though.
Bandai's the other company doing regular anime Blu-Ray releases but they're foreign-owned.
Technically so does Sony/Columbia (another foreign company) but they stick to just an occasional anime theatrical release on Blu-Ray.
The reason why I bring up the Blu-Ray issue is because sales aren't that great for anime on the format and you have to possess solid financial backing to release anything on Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is still a lot more expensive to release things on.
If anybody's on the death watch list, it's ADV Films.
There have been at least a half-dozen casualties in the anime market downturn since 2003... Probably more than that if you count manga distributors.
Who's down for the count and dead now?
- Broccoli/Synch Point as of this December is pretty much gone
- CPM/US Manga Corps although they've never officially announced they're out of the game most of their good stuff has gone out of print and had license expiration; practically no one but the company founder works for CPM last I heard
- Techno Arts = the company that I think was releasing Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure which was never more than a minor cult favorite
- Anime Crash = released Korean animated series that few people cared to buy
- the experimental anime DVD-R release program from ImaginAsian TV = the story on the program's collapse is that the company they licensed for DVD-R production went out of business; there were also complaints about defective discs and discs rotting early; they've never bothered to reprint past the first six months their 3 licensed anime series were put out on DVD;
- Streamline Pictures = gone for at least a decade; their better-known old licenses and dubs periodically get picked up by other companies
- and any number of companies (probably at least 3) that made announcements but never followed through with a single DVD release!
It's a grim picture to be sure, but I think most of the companies releasing anime now will still be around 2 years from now. They have solid backing from Japanese parent companies or are diversified enough to survive the downturn. Don't expect most of them to do a Blu-Ray release anytime soon, though.