Houston, we have a problem

[areaseven]

From Anime News Network:

ADV Layoffs Confirmed

posted on 2005-03-16 17:14:30

As many as 40 people laid off, mostly from manga division.Publisher's Weekly has confirmed news about layoffs at AD Vision. According to Publishers Weekly, as many as 40 people have been laid off, with "perhaps" 25 from the manga division. ADV declined to give details, but confirmed that the layoffs happened.

With the anime and manga markets reaching the saturation point, ADV has adjusted its release schedule to slow down the number of products they put to market. In 2005, ADV will release about 50 manga titles, down from 80 in 2004, and they will focus on titles for which they own both the anime and the manga license.

[Black Valkyrie]

May be HG and Macek have something to do with it

[ogami]

What happen to the NGE movie that we "so much want" to see...?

[JELEINEN]

I'm not entirely surprised. ADV was very agressive for quite a while, but has been very quiet for the last year or so. I think it was apparent that they had over extended themselves.

[chrono]

Actually what has really happened is that manga was a FAD and several company's when under just like the company's did when the Internet bubble popped.

ADV just adds to a nicely growing list of publishers that have had to make serious cuts, close down, or merge with others because of the Tokoyo Pop manga glute.

Unfortunatly during the last 2 years MANY manga were liscenced this means that ALL of those company's that have closed shop, merged, or are encountering money problems will not be releasing some, and in some cases ALL, of their manga for several years if ever.

Recently the HUGH series of 3x3 Eyes was cancelled by Darkhorse and right now their manga line is in a right mess. DC is under SUPER HEAVY fanboy assault for their childish, and highly ill advised, treatment of Tenjo Tenge. They assault is so heavy in fact that it was recently subject to an article in a company trade magazine.

It's beginning to look like the manga industry has cycled again and by this years end we maybe seeing some major company's fall-off the map.

Viz is already gone. DC's still in it's shakey first year. Del Ray is a publishing giant that's got all the right series currently, but most importantly knows that if people want something NOW you gotta deliver it!

Really sad thing though that their really isn't that much 'must have' anime on this years horizon either.

[Mr March]

The anime industry, at least in North America, seems to be undergoing a change. I'm not surprised to see some of the companies reacting to the demand and shift from anime to manga. Especially with the major book store chains getting into manga, it was obvious that the market would become saturated much faster than the anime market did.

Bad news for ADV fans.

[Pat Payne]

I see shades in this of the 1983 video-game crash. After the success of Pac-Man and the Atari 2600 (I remember that system well-my family had one back in the day, as a little four-year-old nipper, I used to play Pac-Man and Air-Sea Battle), everybody was making video games. The problem was, most of them didn't sell and weren't any bloody good. (Anyone remember Ralston-Purina's "Catch the Chuck Wagon"? Anyone?) Rather than focus on a few good licences, the idea was to flood the market with product, as well as overdevelop some killer licenses (ET, for instance -- the game that drove Atari to the brink of bankruptcy by making a sh!tty game and then making twice as many cartridges as there were A2600 consoles in existence). The end result was a lot of product went unsold, a lot of companies went out of business, and soon vidoe games were on the remainder bin circuit.

Until Nintendo came along in '84-'85.

A similar thing is happening in Anime. Like with video games, comapnies are looking for quantity, not quality. They're trying to flood the zone with more titles than anyone could possibly afford, and quite a few that nobody'd want. I certainly don't begrudge them trying to market to new audiences (Face it, the era of anime fandom being a closed society is long since gone) and I'm pleased at the almost zero lag time now between when some shows air in Japan and when they come to DVD in the US -- it used to be a recent series was one that aired five years ago -- but they're pushing it too far too soon. Really, the companies should cut back a little. Just because it aired in Nippon does not mean that the masses will watch it in Beikoku.

If the anime/manga industry in the US does collapse, will there be a Nintendo to save it?

(The ramble endeth. I'm going back to sleep.)

[glane21]

It's also very easy for anime fans, who are generally a tech-savy segment, to use netflix to rent 3 discs at a time and burn copies rather than shell out $30 for 3 episodes hits the anime retailers between the eyes. Not that I condone that or anything, but you know it's widespread.

[Pat Payne]

Very widespread. I'd never do it (If a series is too much *coughcoughFLCL$30for2-episodediskcoughcough* I just live without) but there are a lot of people who think that it's owed them, or that they should be able to get it without compensating the artists. Now, that being said, I don't like the movie/video/music/entertainment industry's attitude in general towards IP (the US Constitution and the Berne Convention prescribe ONLY a limited period of copyright, not the cash-cow in perpetuity that the studios want -- they'd like to abolish the concept of "public domain" if it were feasable) and their constant attempts to stop people from doing legal things with their discs such as making one backup copy or Tivoing shows from broadcast is irritating, but two wrongs don't make a right.

[JELEINEN]

I don't think it's necessarily a market issue. I think ADV has simply been trying to do to much and has met with a lot of failure.

[areaseven]

As bad as the situation is, at least ADV Manga won't end up like Studio Ironcat, which went belly-up before they even released majority of their manga catalog.

[That NOS Guy]

Maybe they'll be forced to get rid of all their merchandise.

HUZZAH FOR CHEAP BOX SETS!!!11111oneoneelevenelven++

[ogami]

off topic: Tenjo Tenge got edited so that DC can release as a teenage rating manga. This is stupid...

[chrono]

I don't think it's necessarily a market issue. I think ADV has simply been trying to do to much and has met with a lot of failure.

Oh it's most definatly a market issue! Nearly every single manga distrubtor is reporting loses from light to heavy.

Tokoyo Pop, a manga giant, has re-sheaculed(bleh!spl) their line-up for a lower release rate.

CPM Manga has also done the same, going so far as to stop over 50% of their releases totally.

DarkHorse, though having merged Studio Proteous, has only 2-3 manga lines(including their anthology) running now with is down from their roughly 10.

Viz, a succesful company that's always kept pace with DarkHorse, has merged with a larger company even though they had revamped their manga line-up to be cheaper to produce(long before DH did). But now since Viz has merged their manga-line may see some type of scrambling with non-profit titles getting the ax.

Del Ray, is gonna be fairly immune to market flux because it doesn't depend on a single fan based market to thrive.

Now this is not counting the 4-5 smaller publishers that have stopped publishing, together they hold something like 60 titles that may never see a english release date. Also this doesn't count all the titles from the above publishers so the total manga count that may never see more then a single english volume is about 150 titles.

Face it folks it's not about your hate of ADV. The ENTIRE market has crested and is beginining it's decline.

[bandit29]

I don't think its too much to worry about. The anime market has finally leveled off.

Every industry has point where growth stops for a bit.

[Max Jenius]

Maybe they'll realize that people don't want to pay $30 for a disk containing only 3 episodes. They also don't want to wait for months, sometimes years(as I have before) for the next issue of their manga that they also pay through the nose for.

[Panon]

Maybe they'll realize that people don't want to pay $30 for a disk containing only 3 episodes.

Any person paying $30 for 3 episode deserves to, because they're dolts paying retail price rather than looking for actual decent prices. I can't remember the last time a dvd cost me more than $20 or so.

The anime market has just hit the saturation point, which had to happen at some point. ADV being bitten by it first is hardly surprising since they're a major culprit in that saturation with their quantity over quality approach.

Especially their manga division - I mean, they apparently put out 80 titles last year, what the hell were they? I can't think of any manga property they have that's worthwhile outside of Azumanga Diaoh, Full Metal Panic and Gunslinger Girl.

[1st Border Red Devil]

As bad as the situation is, at least ADV Manga won't end up like Studio Ironcat, which went belly-up before they even released majority of their manga catalog.

Not to sidetrack this conversation but...

Studio IronCat went bankrupt? When did this happen? I saw Steve Bennett back at Anime Festival Orlando in August. I must have been living under a rock (ok, so Im more of a follower of the RPG industry than the manga industry).

[JELEINEN]

As bad as the situation is, at least ADV Manga won't end up like Studio Ironcat, which went belly-up before they even released majority of their manga catalog.

Not to sidetrack this conversation but...

Studio IronCat went bankrupt? When did this happen? I saw Steve Bennett back at Anime Festival Orlando in August. I must have been living under a rock (ok, so Im more of a follower of the RPG industry than the manga industry).

I think they're still around as a company. Bankruptcy does not mean going out of business. Personally, after seeing how they handled some of their titles, I kind of wish they had gone out of business.

[areaseven]

Not to sidetrack this conversation but...

Studio IronCat went bankrupt? When did this happen? I saw Steve Bennett back at Anime Festival Orlando in August. I must have been living under a rock (ok, so Im more of a follower of the RPG industry than the manga industry).

From the Official Studio Ironcat Homepage:

To all of Ironcat's loyal fans and friends,

We regret to inform you of the closure of Studio Ironcat, LLC. We would like to thank everyone who has supported Ironcat over the years, including fans, former and current staff, business partners, the Japanese and American artists, friends, family and our convention families!

Studio Ironcat, LLC was a small, independent publisher that endeavored to advanced Japanese manga in North America for the past seven years. Although we had a great run at the start, thanks to support from manga fans, we've had a rough road the last couple of years. We've enjoyed our time in the publishing industry, but we feel that we must move on to other endeavors.

Ironcat backstock will be on sale soon on another web site. Any questions can be directed to ironcatnew@aol.com . Again, thanks for all your support over the years. Everyone on the Ironcat crew looks forward to their future individual projects in the anime world, and we hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Stephen R. Bennett IV

[JELEINEN]

Ah, so they are gone. I'm going to fire my source.

[chrono]

Hehe.

Just picked-up my comic order for the last 2 1/2 months. Totally expected 3 Super Manga Blasts to be waiting. Low and behold I find a single copy dated January.

Ummmm January.... WTF! I could understand the 3+ month previous gap because of the corporate merging, but to then take a 2 month vaction, within the space of 6 months(along with other projects being axed or slowly dealt out) tells me the DarkHorse as a manga source will be coming to close VERY soon.

[Bloodcat]

I totally missed all of this.

But I am pretty much a casual manga and anime fan these days. Being 30 and utterly sick of anything inolving teenagers in my entertainment as they are portrayed in anime/manga doesn't help any.

What with the who happened to Viz? Ive been reading Excel Saga quite happily, along with Tokyop's Battle Royale. I'd hate to see both books ended around the 11th volume. I would read the new Tenchi series, but it seems to get a single volume every 6-9 months..

I could kind of tell this was coming. Its seriously oversaturated and aimed at a group of people most likely to torrent the most. They already openly read most of their manga in store, getting in my way when I like, try to buy something. (At the moment usually DC trades and Marvel Ultimate universe trades.)

I look through the stuff they have, and 90% of the manga I wouldn't buy if you paid me. Teenaged romance crap seems to take up 2/3rds of it, with a smattering of other genres and styles. A little action, a little humor, a dash of horror. Then I take a look at the back, usually see "High school student so and so" in some form, then put it back in disgust unless the art is REALLY good or the story sounds decent in spite of it having an annoying idealized Japanese teenager in it.

And anime is even worse, since you aren't dropping a tenner (plus Waldenbooks discount) for a title, but 20-30 bucks, usually 30 since Wal Mart sure as hell doesn't stock the stuff, and Target is erratic at best.

Im afraid anime/manga is looking to be a teenager trend that is dropping off quickly. Hopefully it won't die and it should stay relatively popular (at least year 2000 levels), but the big bubble seems to have popped.

Hmm.. wonder if that means I can get Tenchi GXP and Patlabor DVDs on clearance to finish up those 2 series? Not like I am really buying anything else these days animewise..

[Radd]

I knew that Iron Cat was basically sued out of existance because the actions certain individuals regarding the handling of the Megatokyo book. Last I heard, Steve had let go most of the company and was trying to start over again by first selling off his backstock.

Of course, the last time I saw him was AnimeReactor this past October. I was hoping he'd be at Central in May.

Hmm, some of the posts in the forum seem to indicate this is the case, that they're trying to sell off their stock and get back on their feet, but not neccessarily as a publisher, at least not right away.

[JELEINEN]

More interesting ADV news: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention.php?id=217

[Pat Payne]

When I had read that article I was surprised to hear that ADV was that deeply involved in anime production in Japan... Although it makes sense from a business standpoint for both sides -- Japanese comapnies get funding and a guaranteed foreign audience, while ADV gets a guaranteed license to sell in the States.

Edited March 29, 2005 by Pat Payne