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NEWS: ADV Consolidates Studios


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sinistertaco



Joined: 17 Jun 2004
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:08 pm Reply with quote
I really hate to to contribute to all the doomsayers out there, but... ADV has been making a series of MAJOR cost cutting moves lately, and for some reason a lot of it seems to be going under the radar in terms of coverage.

Its no secret that the anime market is currently glutted and there are too many cooks in the kitchen, but with ADV having no real television prescence (TAN doesn't count, as its not nearly as availabe as Cartoon Network, or even G4) and a real lack of a smash hit flaghsip title I can only ask-

Just how much trouble are they in?
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starfyre



Joined: 22 Jul 2003
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Just one thing about the news posting, Monster Island is in Austin not Ft Worth.
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tekwych



Joined: 18 Mar 2005
Posts: 75
Location: New Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:30 pm Reply with quote
Keep in mind that ADV Publishing and ADV Films are separate wholly owned subsidiaries of AD Vision. AD Vision "usually" makes each division stand on their own (Profit from one division may be moved to another during start up or for a major capitol outlay like the Evangelion Live action movie)

The cuts, so far, have almost all been at ADV Publishing and any cuts at ADV Films can be traced to moving money from animation to live action rather than scaling back. The consolidation of ADR studios makes sense in that they can cut back on overhead and update audio equipment at a lower cost without needing to keep formats compatible between two studios. The money saved, and were talking mid to high 6 figures annually, can be applied to actual product output rather than facility maintenance.

I think there Manga titles are having a hard time finding shelf space with every one else jumping in at the sam time. Retailers can't give up the shelf space to so many books and the number publishers AND titles has jumped almost exponentially over the last 18 months. I expect an implosion in both the number of publishers and the number of titles probably late Q3 or early Q4.
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Advent_Nebula



Joined: 04 Jul 2004
Posts: 932
Location: Colorado
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:54 pm Reply with quote
That is the bigest slip up I have ever seen here, Monster Island is in Austan and not FT. Worth.
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Annie_Jr



Joined: 05 Jun 2004
Posts: 424
Location: New Mexico (boring...)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:03 pm Reply with quote
Oh no! I really enjoyed Monster Island Studios and Industrial smoke and mirrors being separate. And about the Ft worth thingy, that's a BIG screw up.
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2316
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:43 pm Reply with quote
I'm not sure this is as applicable to businesses as much as sports teams, but it looks like this is a "rebuilding year" for ADV.
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Tony K.
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Joined: 18 Nov 2003
Posts: 11449
Location: Frisco, TX
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:05 pm Reply with quote
People, the whole Ft. Worth and Austin thing isn't a big deal. Not that I like either dubbing studio to begin with, but seriously, don't get so worked up about the article saying Monster Island is in the wrong city.

FUNimation has a studio in Ft. Worth, Texas too, you know, and that's probably what confused the person who posted it (the article).

As for the announcement itself, no offense to ADV's voice actors as people (not that I ever intended any), but good riddance to some of the bad rubbish.
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Hi no Neko



Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 204
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:18 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, Monster Island is in Austin, not Fort Worth. That's a bit of a mix-up there.

I was there a few weeks ago. They were literally handing out anything they could in there, posters, DVDs, videos, everything. My dad did a bit of dub work there, so I've actually known this was coming for about a month or so. Pretty sad, really.

I've noticed that ADV is putting way more emphasis on their live-action titles now than they have been since, oh, forever. In fact, I think that the DVD for Moeyo Ken is one of the first ADV DVDs to have a live action trailer in the previews.

I hate to say this, ADV, but Asian live action cinema is like a cult fandom within a cult fandom. ADV does good work, but they spend too much of their time licensing titles that have such a very, very small fanbase. (AD Police, Petite Princess Yucie, etc., etc.) I'd have to say that ADV's biggest moneymakers nowadays are Azumanga Daioh, DNAngel, Saiyuki, and not much else that I can think of.

Also, am I the only one who's noticed a strange thing about their "DVD fansites"? Only a half dozen or so of them have anything interesting, (Character info, pictures, wallpaper, etc.) while nearly all the others are little more than a plot synopsis and a "buy me" button? I know these are company websites, but a few extras would be nice.
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IanC



Joined: 26 Sep 2004
Posts: 685
Location: Essex, England
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Tony K. wrote:

As for the announcement itself, no offense to ADV's voice actors as people (not that I ever intended any), but good riddance to some of the bad rubbish.

I dont get why you think they are rubbish....
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:35 pm Reply with quote
Hi no Neko wrote:

I hate to say this, ADV, but Asian live action cinema is like a cult fandom within a cult fandom. ADV does good work, but they spend too much of their time licensing titles that have such a very, very small fanbase. (AD Police, Petite Princess Yucie, etc., etc.) I'd have to say that ADV's biggest moneymakers nowadays are Azumanga Daioh, DNAngel, Saiyuki, and not much else that I can think of.
You forgot EVA there. That's funny because fans of live action Asian movies say that about anime. I will speculate here by saying it looks like that live action EVA movie is a big drain on the company's assets. If it pans out to be a rather overdone turkey, we could see a lot more of ADV being lost below the waves. I wouldn't want to be holding any stock now if it was listed.
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Hi no Neko



Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 204
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:41 pm Reply with quote
Ah! EVA. I knew I forgot something.

I hope that the live action Evangelion does okay, not nearly as much for my sake as for theirs. This is a pretty expensive project, and if it doesn't make back enough money, they might not be able to prop themselves back up as well as major Hollywood studios can.
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ex_mutants



Joined: 25 Sep 2003
Posts: 54
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:07 pm Reply with quote
IanC wrote:
Tony K. wrote:

As for the announcement itself, no offense to ADV's voice actors as people (not that I ever intended any), but good riddance to some of the bad rubbish.

I don't get why you think they are rubbish....


Maybe because their dubs are bad and mediocre at best.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4555
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:13 pm Reply with quote
I think they've either cancelled live-action Evangelion or put it into deep hibernation a while back due to lack of studio interest. There's no way they'd risk that much of their own money on a project that risky.
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Armagguedes



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 41
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:18 pm Reply with quote
Actually everytime something about L.A.Eva comes out to the public all forums, blogs, wtvs go "oh noes" "bleh" "sucks" "fails" "is that eva?" and so forth. So, i really don't see an happy future for at least the branch of ADV that manages this part of the business.

Question is what happens if the movie does turn out to suck and deliver poor boxoffice profit: does that branch of ADV go *puff* or does the whole company go down in a blaze of (lack of) glory? Whatever happens, how will it reflect on licences? Do they try to save themselves by lowering the cost of DVDs to boost sales? Do they sell them to the competition? What happens to series currently being published (as in not all DVDs released yet)?

Maybe the whole world gets lucky and they remain in business after firing their dubbing team and sell subbed anime only.

God knowez.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4555
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:31 pm Reply with quote
If the L.A. Eva is made and bombs I don't think it will actually hurt ADV all that badly as I doubt that they will be the ones putting up the bulk of the money. I think they were counting on studio interest to actually pay for it, but, in the 14 months since they showed off the production art, there's been zilch news on that front. Based on the total lack of non-rumour news for a significant amount of time, I think it's becoming more and more likely that the project has been shelved.
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