ADV Films UK halt sale & distribution of select titles

CitizenGeek said:
ADV are finished,
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Think I'll make ADV one of those signs saying "I AIN'T DEAD" ;)


CitizenGeek said:
C'mon guys, get your act together! :[
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In their defence, they aren't exactly having a good time of it right now. Sure, there are lots of things that could be done better; but with anime suffering from "zero worth" in the west (fansub), and the Japanese companies demanding guaranteed returns on their licences, it's not exactly an easy business to be in right now.
Throw a destabilized US economy on top, and well...
 
Sy said:
I'm worried Rev Films are going to screw up what they have going. They have great quality releases and at a reasonable price and even give us little extras like the US market gets but the release shedule needs a serious rethink.
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I still wonder how much of their schedule is driven by FUNi's say so.

Anime on DVD have posted up a link to an articleon ICv2 with FUNimation's Gen Fukunaga.

It makes an interesting read about how FUNi are planning their future releases (no more single DVD's?)

The final question is relevant to us though:

You do business in Europe. What are the trends here vs. what you're seeing in Europe?

The UK has been a mediocre market for awhile (we only do the UK/Ireland territory in Europe). I think that has a more upside trend because it's more of a nascent state than the U.S. One of the issues in the UK is that titles often didn't get broadcast exposure, but now with the new world of Internet, you may not need any broadcast exposure, the Internet's good enough.

Jeez, we're nascent ;)
 
Hey, I'm all for dropping the single DVD releases. I never liked that and always prefered buying in bulk. Given that everything else is sold in sets these days I'm sure most other people do as well.
 
Ushio said:
Who said that ADV UK's dead? Assumptions bad! :p

In regards to everyone at ADV getting the sack:
Given that I'm chatting to Hugh as I read this, no they haven't.
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Source:
http://www.eyeonanimeforum.s2.bizhat.co ... ic697.html

Sounds like things may go quiet for a month or two though...
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Well thats good news in some respects I just hope they get back to releasing titles somewhere along the line. I'm half way through most of the current ones an if they just cancelled them I would be left with about half of several uncomplete shows which would leave me gutted :cry:
 
Ushio said:
Who said that ADV UK's dead? Assumptions bad! :p

In regards to everyone at ADV getting the sack:
Given that I'm chatting to Hugh as I read this, no they haven't.
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Source:
http://www.eyeonanimeforum.s2.bizhat.co ... ic697.html

Sounds like things may go quiet for a month or two though...
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Right, thought I'd just ring Hugh up and confirm things a bit, as it looks like information may have changed since last we spoke.

Sometime in the next 4 weeks (before the end of Feb) there will be an official statement regarding the changes that ADV are undertaking in the UK, and the final distribution deals resulting from this.

He has asked me to say that the letter at the beginning of this post was meant for distributors only (but had been sent out via anime-online), and not for the general public (I'll admit my bad for posting my comments on seeing it, as I thought it was the official statement which he told me to wait for).

Regardless though ADV as we know it in the UK will be changing, hopefully for the better.

I will apologies that I probably had initially led people astray with my information, but it was based on facts I had known at the time. Seems things are changing very rapidly with this, so stay posted for the official statement.

I'll go back to hiding under the bed.... :oops:
 
darksaviour said:
It is a shame especially for everyone who's been collecting the series. Plus who knows when - and if - the new stuff will be released.

What with this and Funimation only releasing their stuff every 3 months, Beez and Manga keeping quiet as to what and when they're releasing its pretty much just MVM left
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Being quiet as to what and when we're releasing things is something I have been working to address by coming to here and elsewhere to talk to people more about upcoming releases and such! As we did with the announcement for Gunbuster 2, expect release dates and title acquisitions to be announced and sent round the news websites too. If you want more regular release updates then do sign up to the Beez-Ent.com newsletter as well ^^!

So change is there and we're doing our best to reach out to everyone as directly as possible :).

Re current situation, I think in this case the press release spells out the current situation well for ADV Films in the UK. Although it was meant for retailers primarily to my knowledge it was going to come out sooner or later. It's not my company though so 100% not my business to say anymore on the topic than that!

Doom and gloom like this is nothing new and we're in no worse a position than we were during the peak of the VHS releases when there was a maximum saturation of titles on the market then. What is sad to see is that history is very much repeating itself though except with one of the two survivors from that era :(.
 
So anime-on-line jumped the gun then, eh?

Looking forward to the official news, it'll be interesting to see where things head next. *makes inquisitive pose*
 
If this really is just a 'tightening of their belts' so to speak, then who knows, maybe the UK market will be a little better off.

Future releases will need to be picked carefully, and so maybe we'll get some decent titles instead of the constant stream of substandard crap they seem to want to release now.
 
beez_andrew said:
Doom and gloom like this is nothing new and we're in no worse a position than we were during the peak of the VHS releases when there was a maximum saturation of titles on the market then. What is sad to see is that history is very much repeating itself though except with one of the two survivors from that era :(.
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Aye, and ADV were one of the oasis that still had anime refreshment in it when the anime drought set in after the VHS's all seem to dry up. Them and MVM, I hope ADV UK isn't going to become extinct like Pioneer Ent. UK did.
Like Bob Dylan sang " The times they are a changin". (badly blows spit through his mouth organ)
 
My God! What the hell has happened today! One Day and the apocalypse is coming. Good end to last year - Bad start to the new year. I hope ADV do come out well out of it and Hugh and everyone stays with their jobs. I'm eager to here what this forthcoming Press Release is going to state and what is going to happen with some of their titles and there forthcoming releases like Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. =/ I never knew they lost there license off Full Metal Panic! I'm quite surprised at that and now I have missed it on there sale. I would feel bad ordering anything from them now.

After this "UK Anime Revolution" ends I really hope something brilliant comes out of it or at least it won't be as unstable as it is right now.
 
Jayme said:
I'm eager to here what this forthcoming Press Release is going to state and what is going to happen with some of their titles and there forthcoming releases like Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. =/
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I want to know this too man, you're not alone. ;_;
 
pneboy said:
does the haitius shows carry on over the pond

and to the person that said ADV lost the FMP licence does this affect R1 dvd's
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they lost it, but only for "The 2nd Raid" which is available via funimation in R1

and most of the haitus shows are already fully released in R1
 
pneboy said:
does the haitius shows carry on over the pond

and to the person that said ADV lost the FMP licence does this affect R1 dvd's
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The hiatus purely reflects ADV UK. They are simply changing their (UK) distributors, much like FUNimation did at the top of last year moving from MVM to Revelation. This is not the same as going belly up but is a restructuring of the UK distribution.
 
This is a shame - Chevalier and Kurau were signs to me that ADV were back on the up again. I'm not making any snap judgements here - it looks like we won't know anything for sure for a few weeks yet.

I'm wondering if, assuming things get back to some semblance of normality, it's worth approaching Hugh or whoever's around at the time to join the forum like Andrew_Beez? If nothing else, it'll solve the alleged lack of dialogue between the company and the fans...
 
Martin said:
This is a shame - Chevalier and Kurau were signs to me that ADV were back on the up again. I'm not making any snap judgements here - it looks like we won't know anything for sure for a few weeks yet.

I'm wondering if, assuming things get back to some semblance of normality, it's worth approaching Hugh or whoever's around at the time to join the forum like Andrew_Beez? If nothing else, it'll solve the alleged lack of dialogue between the company and the fans...
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if they can't communicate with their fans on their own forum, god help them on fan forums

the responses on the anime network forums were terrible, leaving it to people that they'd made redundent (Emma and Stuart) to try explain what was going on
 
I had this email to. It is a bit of a ****, not that I buy many R2 DVD's myself although I do support the industry by buying legit R1 releases and not down loading. I do hope the UK anime scene does stand up to all these little things, as it would be a shame to see what is released reduced.

I will have to scurry off and see if this effects the US releases of any of the shows that have not finished coming out over there as I am getting several.
 
what happened to geneon before they went bankrupt
ive got a feeling this is gonna happen to ADV, they have stopped both AN in uk and us,stopped a magazine
what next
 
Not sure what to think about all of this now, seems like there's a few different interpretations flying around, no doubt due to the PR's rather ambiguous statements. Fingers crossed everyone comes out of it okay.

However, when companies start using David Brent-esque phrases like "streamlined" and "customer-responsive", they are trying to divert attention from the base issue; stripping themselves down to the bare bones. For example, this is the first time I've read ADV referring to their UK base as a "US-run office outsourcing to retail partners", usually it's the "London office"; the obvious shift suggests they are trying to distance themselves from us.

Also, this phrase "yet-to-be-named local home entertainment group" (named as a "third-party distributor" in the sale PR) seems to make it clear that ADV will be dealing with an experienced distribution company like Revelation Films. To that end, the only way I can see the people of the UK side surviving all of this is if they switch over to an independently financed company that's completely separate from ADV and survives on its own terms.
 
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