ADV layoffs to trigger industry recession?

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Having a few days ago posted news outlining the problems being faced by many US-based anime publishers and their rumoured over-saturation of the US anime industry, it has been revealed that ADV have recently "laid off" up to 40 people (with the majority being cut from their fledgling manga division).

While David Williams of ADV has gone on record as saying "... we do this every year, to be sure we're properly positioned to continue growing the company as the market grows", many sceptical anime fans are assuming that this is just the beginning of what will be a tough 12 months for a US anime industry that has expanded perhaps too fast for it's respective fandom to keep up.
 
it certainly dents my idea of the anime market being small but growing. here's hoping it's just a temporary hiccup, or a bit of an albeit harsh 'efficiency drive' or whatever the corporate euphemism is.
 
Personally, I expect all these problems to go away by the end of year.

While a lot of these companies have obviously over stretched themselves (especially ADV), I've seen enough anime to know that it's quality will eventually shine through- especially in the freedom of the digital age. And although ADV's Anime Network TV channel isn't exactly a runaway success, I personally believe you only keep a good man down for so long; new anime fans are being born every minute of the day ;)
 
Paul said:
Personally, I expect all these problems to go away by the end of year.

While a lot of these companies have obviously over stretched themselves (especially ADV), I've seen enough anime to know that it's quality will eventually shine through- especially in the freedom of the digital age. And although ADV's Anime Network TV channel isn't exactly a runaway success, I personally believe you only keep a good man down for so long; new anime fans are being born every minute of the day ;)
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Certainly agree with you here. Ive pretty much said everything I feel on the matter on the other thread. Fact of that matter is some companies went a bit to far on the success of the anime explosion , stretching themselves ( as you say ) . And now the market has settled down a little a few cuts had to be made, certainly not a big problem to the anime market in general in my eyes.
 
ADV have around 50 manga titles released at the moment but most of them are pretty weird titles and only 1 or 2 well known titles like Princess Tutu and Pretear!
I wasn't even aware they did manga until I found a title I liked the look of and noticed it was ADV! (although the actual book; Fantasy Land was really boring!!). Surely if they were going to spread out into manga as well, they should have invested in some better stuff :?
 
Maybe it was their weird habit of buying sequels to things without bothering to translate the originals. Can't say I quite understood that one myself.
 
Blame squeinx for that, they where so into pushing FMA on manga publishers they didnt care about things like that.

Hopefully, now that Viz have the FMA manga ADV can pick up the orginal series for the ones they hve sequals for (if that makes sense)
 
ADV did seem to snap up a lot of titles id never heard of for their manga division . I think they obviously expected things to sell better than they did . I think their best bet is to concentrate mostly on manga that ties in with their popular anime in the future , rather than licence to many other things on top of that.
 
MangaMinX said:
I think their best bet is to concentrate mostly on manga that ties in with their popular anime in the future , rather than licence to many other things on top of that.
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You're probably right there! They should leave the weird and unusual to Tokyopop and Viz. I know a few people that only buy Tokypop manga titles and I must admit ADV isn't a name I associate with manga :(
 
Bugger - I hope they keep releasing the Gunslinger Girl and FullMetal Panic! manga...

All those manwha licenses seem to have been a hasty decision, though.
 
Perhaps one of the reasons as to why anime sales in the US have gone down is due to the illegal distribution of them. With internet connections getting a lot faster and a lot cheaper, more people are now able to download very near DVD-quality rips. Although this could apply to the DVD industry as a whole, ripping anime in particular appears to have become very popular. Take a look at popular networks such as Rizon, and you'll notice that the most user-filled channels are devoted to ripping anime DVDs.

ADV have around 50 manga titles released at the moment but most of them are pretty weird titles and only 1 or 2 well known titles like Princess Tutu and Pretear!
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I have to agree with you; ADV seem to have gone for quantity rather than quality (the complete opposite to Manga!). And frankly, it doesn't seem to have worked...
 
Richy said:
Perhaps one of the reasons as to why anime sales in the US have gone down is due to the illegal distribution of them. With internet connections getting a lot faster and a lot cheaper, more people are now able to download very near DVD-quality rips. Although this could apply to the DVD industry as a whole, ripping anime in particular appears to have become very popular. Take a look at popular networks such as Rizon, and you'll notice that the most user-filled channels are devoted to ripping anime DVDs.
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Honestly, I don't think piracy is that big a deal, in terms of actually decreasing or lost revenue. The people downloading all their anime probably never paid for much (if any) of it; while their support for the industry would no doubt be a big help in these situations, chances are there hasn't been a huge contribution from that section of anime "fans" at any stage.
 
I believe it's caused by over saturation of the anime and manga market. Competition is tough. But that's the way things are. All the big companies do this now and again, they've got to justify spending every last cent and it keeps them competitive.

Trouble is there is more anime out there now that consumers can buy and many similar titles competing for fans wallets. I don't think recession's the appropriate word, more realignment or consolidation.
As the markets adjust so do the companies otherwise they go out of business. ADV aren't silly, they probably keep a good eye on the their books to remain competitive. They've changed their manga release strategy to primarily titles that also have DVD release, this way if you've got the DVD and love it, you'll want to buy the manga, and if you've got the manga you'll want to see your favourite title on DVD. Since ADV publish both crossovers like this strengthen their sales.
 
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