BREAKING NEWS: ADV/Geneon/FUNimation Joint-Venture

[areaseven]

From C21 Media:

US anime outfits form joint-venture

MIPCOM NEWS: The three largest producers and distributors of anime in the US have announced plans to set up a joint-venture to develop and market the popular toon genre.

The announcement was made jointly by ADV Films, Funimation Productions and Geneon Entertainment (USA) today at Mipcom.

The new joint-venture intends to develop high-quality entertainment series primarily targeting children and young adults, pooling the team's respective resources, talent and expertise.Together the three partners already reach 70% of the anime home video market in the US.

Geneon Entertainment (USA) produces and distributes entertainment content including film, music, animation and television shows on VHS, DVD and CD. Its parent company is Tokyo-based advertising giant Dentsu. The company distributes well-known anime hits like Pokemon and Akira.

Funimation, a brand management company for anime content and one of the largest independent home video entertainment companies in the US, is behind the blockbuster franchise Dragonball Z.

ADV Films is a producer-distributor of Japanese animation in North America and the UK. It recently launched Anime Network, the first North American cable channel dedicated to anime with access to thousand of hours of content.

Gün Akyuz

5 Oct 2004

© C21 Media 2004

[JELEINEN]

Anime isn't a genre. My question is, if it's being made for the US, is it really anime? Anyway, if what they produce is quality, I'll buy it, but I won't be holding my breath.

[Eternal_D]

i dont' care who does what with who. just show me the end product. if they want it to survive and make some bucks...they better work on it hard.

[Radd]

Actually a growing amount of anime is made for the US these days, with US Anime distributers funding projects in Japan specifically so they can distribute them in the US. Wacky, huh?

[Dangaioh]

since the dbz manga series is in print w/viz... does this mean that viz might pull the video series away from FUNimation or would Viz join as well... including Pioneer videos, since they do most of Viz's anime series?

[JELEINEN]

since the dbz manga series is in print w/viz... does this mean that viz might pull the video series away from FUNimation or would Viz join as well... including Pioneer videos, since they do most of Viz's anime series?

According to that press release, Viz has nothing to do with this. I don't see how these three companies deciding to work together to make new shows would affect them in any way.

[yellowlightman]

Actually a growing amount of anime is made for the US these days, with US Anime distributers funding projects in Japan specifically so they can distribute them in the US. Wacky, huh?

It's not quite a new thing, Ghost in the Shell was co-produced by Manga Video. Not to mention the fact that anime is taking off in the U.S. whereas the aniem market is shrinking in Japan.

[Radd]

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was financied in part by it's American distributer, wich is why it was animated to an english voice cast and the DVD does not have a Japanese audio track.

However, I have not heard anything about the anime market in Japan shrinking. I have heard that many over there fear the amount of anime being produced is exceeding the demand. Especially with all of the animation outsourcing to other countries (wich is more and more prevelant than ever before), their is a lot of talk of the anime bubble bursting over there.

I would not be surprised to learn that this team up between distributers is a preemptive action planning for that very scenario.

[Sumdumgai]

since the dbz manga series is in print w/viz... does this mean that viz might pull the video series away from FUNimation or would Viz join as well... including Pioneer videos, since they do most of Viz's anime series?

Manga rights and animation rights are completely seperate things. Viz owns the rights to publish the Dragon Ball (Z) manga in the US. Funimation owns the rights for the animation, which they probably bought off of the animation company in Japan that made the anime. Viz probably couldn't do jack about the anime in the US since they don't have the rights. I could be wrong, anyone more knowledgable can confirm or blow me out of the water!

ADV smells like butt and sleeps with HG, so I'm a bit skeptical about how this venture's gonna turn out. Funimation sucks. I dunno about Geneon, because they don't have many anime titles that interest me... Maybe it'll be good, but I guess only time will tell.

[JELEINEN]

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was financied in part by it's American distributer, wich is why it was animated to an english voice cast and the DVD does not have a Japanese audio track.

However, I have not heard anything about the anime market in Japan shrinking. I have heard that many over there fear the amount of anime being produced is exceeding the demand. Especially with all of the animation outsourcing to other countries (wich is more and more prevelant than ever before), their is a lot of talk of the anime bubble bursting over there.

I would not be surprised to learn that this team up between distributers is a preemptive action planning for that very scenario.

The market shrinking I believe is in reference to the declining population, which means there are fewer children in Japan (children being the primary audience for anime).

The first joint US/Japan animation project that I'm aware of was Little Nemo in Slumberland back in the 80's.

[Radd]

Well, if you want to talk collaborations, it's been going on for ages, with shows like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Mighty Orbots, Thundercats, Last Unicorn all being animated in Japan, but created in the U.S. (Yes, I realize Transformers is based on originally Japanese toys, but from two unrelated toylines that Hasbro merged together into one line and wanted a single cartoon out there to market them.)

Since Japanese animators get paid so little (average is about $500 USD, and this is to live in Tokyo, one of the most expensive cities in the world), they've always done animation on the cheap, so U.S. studios would outsource to them as well as Korea and Mexico.

Still, I wonder what this specific collaboration means? It doesn't really say. Is this a plan to pool resources to encourange anime production in Japan, so they can distribute those shows here (wich is something they've been doing individually already for years)? Or do they specifically intend to have shows created for the mainstream American audience? Will they use Japanese animators? Will they open their own studios?

[JELEINEN]

Well, if you want to talk collaborations, it's been going on for ages, with shows like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Mighty Orbots, Thundercats, Last Unicorn all being animated in Japan, but created in the U.S. (Yes, I realize Transformers is based on originally Japanese toys, but from two unrelated toylines that Hasbro merged together into one line and wanted a single cartoon out there to market them.)

Since Japanese animators get paid so little (average is about $500 USD, and this is to live in Tokyo, one of the most expensive cities in the world), they've always done animation on the cheap, so U.S. studios would outsource to them as well as Korea and Mexico.

Outsourcing the animation to Japan is not the same thing as a colaboration.

Still, I wonder what this specific collaboration means? It doesn't really say. Is this a plan to pool resources to encourange anime production in Japan, so they can distribute those shows here (wich is something they've been doing individually already for years)? Or do they specifically intend to have shows created for the mainstream American audience? Will they use Japanese animators? Will they open their own studios?

The release made it sound like they're doing their own productions, and if that's the case, there's little point in using the Japanese at all. Might as well go with the cheaper Koreans.

[motley]

i suspect the key elelment here is ADV's anime channel. ADV has a lot of content for thier channel, but to make the channel feasible in the long run, they need to work with other distributers. this is probably a deal to allow ADV access to the other companies libraries, and addtional publicity and tv air time for the other companies. there may also be some agreements about the companies assisting each other in licensing new anime, with an explict aside that ADV will be able to show in on their cable channel, this may even be the primary reason. and i wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it does also entail a few new shows created with the US market in mind and funded by these three companies.

[Ghadrack]

Unless my memory is failing me Pioneer = Geneon, they have just renamed their anime wing. All that Trigun and stuff was issued under the Pioneer label originally, now it is a "Geneon speciali edition".

[JELEINEN]

Unless my memory is failing me Pioneer = Geneon, they have just renamed their anime wing. All that Trigun and stuff was issued under the Pioneer label originally, now it is a "Geneon speciali edition".

Pioneer sold their anime division (along with their other media properties), which is now called Geneon. Pioneer just does electronics now.