MKT said:
Looking back over the years it does seem to be a pattern, I remember when Manga Ent. went screwy after gaining a fair amount of popularity. ADV popped along and released some good quality Anime and then Manga seemed to go in convulsions, now we rarely see anything from them. Although since Naruto and GITS:SAC it's boosted their releases, I seem to remember for a couple of years they kind of disappeared almost completely. I don't think for a second ADV releases will never see the light of day, I imagine releases will just be more few and far between, so we'll just have to increase or threshold for patience again.
Although I won't get into a comparison here between ADV and Manga - the two companies were the only two to survive the VHS to DVD swap through in one case just releasing a large catalogue and in the latter's case very street smart marketing coupled with good retail links.
This is exactly the point, as made above that is true. ADV titles are not going off the radar and will be seen in the UK again very soon (ASAP, ADV US just needs to find a distributor here willing to agree to whatever T+Cs they want*) - so it's there's no doom there
.
What is gloom however, as Fellistowe has pointed out is the fact that the press release pretty much spells out the fate of the UK office (not my place to either confirm or deny that one though). The loss of Hugh + team at ADV UK is a pretty big one, as they have been responsible for many profile raising events in the UK. Not only that but the kind of transfer described means your chances of getting your views heard by ADV are greatly reduced from now on, gone will be the friendly faces that actually listen at conventions.
MKT said:
With all this talk of history repeating itself, I wonder if the UK has a strong enough market to support more than one or two Anime companies. You have to remember we are a niche within a niche, which must make us a nightmare to support. It'd be great to be able to sit down and choose to watch one of many 24/7 Anime channels on terrestrial, before deciding to nip down to a DVD shop to easily collect the latest Japanese releases, pop into my local newsagent and buy the latest issue of Afternoon or Young Magazine UK .... but I think even if (or when) Anime/Manga hits major mainstream, it'll never happen because I imagine we're too small.
On the subject of history repeating, I've posted similar to my blog actually - but for the record before the big crash around the late 90's - there were
7 distributors out there:
Manga Video - Familiar anyone? This was Manga Entertainment's name before it went through endless changes. Released notable titles like
Ghost in the Shell,
Ninja Scrolls,
Blood The Last Vampire and of course in 1991 they introduced the UK to
Akira.
ADV Films - A name that hasn't changed much after the initial leap from A.D. Vision to ADV Films. We all know their lineup from the days they launched in the UK (1996) even if not around, titles like
Evangelion,
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 and
Tekken.
MVM - Again a familiar name, launched around the end of the shake up time as a video label (1999), they brought out titles such as
Lum,
Blue Gender and
Sailor Moon.
Kiseki Films - This was run by the Revelation group (sound familiar to anyone?) who released a selection of "the Overfiend" titles to the UK on the success of Manga Video plus a release of Gunbuster (long story there...). So before Revelation Films started releasing Funimation titles, they did release some more "adult" titles!
Pioneer UK - Started in 1995, released titles like
Tenchi Muyo and Record of Lodoss War and shut up shop in early Q2 of 2000.
Anime Projects - A small company that released UK versions of Animego's work. Sadly their titles were not popular at the time due to a small market meaning they lasted from 1992 to 1995 only, though titles still floated around after for a chunk of time.
Western Connection - Originally a company that released some very select foreign films to the UK. When they released the Japanese animated erotic movie The Sensualist[1] in 1994 they decided to release such titles as
Devil Hunter Yoko and
Ushio and Tora to the UK, sold their licenses to Anime Projects who kept them in print until the label shut down.
What happened? The supply and demand got harder with too many companies coming into the market then over saturating it with titles.
Not entirely the same problem again but it's undeniable that due to everyone's best meaning intentions the anime market has been inflated artificially again and now what we are seeing is that bubble bursting (I'd wager there is more to come).
Despair not though - because it's my firm belief that underneath this false inflation lies a real growth too. Small, but firm, as Rome wasn't built in a day - nor was the European continent's love of anime and manga. In France for example - there are conventions larger than any in the US, manga sales are high enough to support circa 40 publishers [2]. It took the space of at least two decades to get that far as well.
So of nothing else - the last 5 years have planted the seeds to help anime grow in the UK. So this kind of happening definitely isn't new - but each time it happens lessons are learnt by the survivors...
* The odds of Revelation or MVM being a distributor for them is about 0.01% for the record, you'll be looking at someone far more like Pinnacle (though not necessarily them).
[1]
www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5379
[2]
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/c ... 346610.htm
