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NEWS: ICv2 Interviews Funimation Founder Gen Fukunaga

Remember, these files are not going to be in .ogm or .mks format. This is for obvious reasons.

If they make there own format, it will be labeled as proprietary and boycotted.

In general there is zero need for DRM on anything - its just a matter of making everything available for a price that people are willing to pay for. Someone who is going to pirate something will do so whether or not it has DRM on it, so DRM does NOTHING to prevent piracy. It only increases the production costs for an item. They just need to provide the video in a format that everyone wants and make it easy for people to purchase it and have a good variety for whats available - that is all.

GATSU, I could be wrong on this since I'm not Gen, but I think his attitude is that marketing towards women is somewhat futile. He thinks that males are the ones who buy DVDs despite anyone's best efforts to reverse that trend.

GATSU, ADV isn't just cutting back. The fact that they are cutting back is indicated by the evidence that ruro niko just said. But what Gen Fukunaga just said, and what I heard from a Suncoast employee half a year ago, is that ADV is hurting financially, a great deal.

It's true that ADV has been around since the beginning but I think (I could be wrong) US Manga is just as old as them and they went into total hibernation in the past as well (they are currently coming back though).

Pioneer/Geneon was also a reasonably old anime company.

That brings up a problem, because one of the benefits of waiting to see it release in Japan, is that we can try to avoid the loser titles--the ones we know are going to bomb out because they bombed in Japan.

It looks like the high definition format war may be entering its final stages. Do you think the high def DVD medium has potential for anime companies once a single format is established?

Yes. We feel there will be -- that's a definite positive.

I have not bought any type of anime DVD in 2 years maybe. Like Chris I am an HD whore; when I see fansubs that are in HD, and know certain titles are made HD, I will not buy the DVD. Take Gundam 00, for example. I will not buy that show unless I can get it in HD, same for a lot of shows. A few of my friends are like that also. You could say people like us are also hurting DVD sales . I notice that since a lot of anime fan d\l fansubs, a few of them are saying, "Why buy something on DVD when I can get better-looking picture quality on a downloaded file?"

Quoter's remark: I cleaned up the writing on this post, but I didn't change the original post's intent -- check the link to verify.

That brings up a problem, because one of the benefits of waiting to see it release in Japan, is that we can try to avoid the loser titles--the ones we know are going to bomb out because they bombed in Japan.

I thought it very interesting that he favors making anime CHEAPER still in America, despite the already huge price differences between anime in America vs Japan.

But here is the scariest thing about this article, by far. Some readers may not have read to the end or missed it because it was small, but Gen Fukunaga hinted that ADVision is in big financial trouble. This especially concerns me because I had heard the exact same thing half a year ago from an employee at Suncoast. Instead, Geneon was the first company to fall. After that, I figured that the Suncoast employee didn't know what he was talking about. But now it seems that he did, so I'm doubly worried. If ADVision goes bankrupt too that will be catastrophe for the anime industry in the USA.

I agree that this is someone that appears to "get it" when it comes to anime distribution today.

That said I disagree with some of his statements;
On the question of expanding download-to-own:

Quote:

"...The only thing slowing us down is that it's not that easy to just convert it digital. You have to have equipment and people to convert it to digital, and that takes resources on top of everything else they're doing..."

Unless I'm wrong; Everything is already in digital form and it's just a question of formatting it for download. The formatting and posting of content to a download site could be easily automated.

And on the future of the DVD format (vs. download):

Quote:

"...Second, if you want to see both the Japanese and English versions, you're going to buy it twice in download?..."

Not sure what he means by this; how often are the two versions different? If it's just different audio/subtitle tracks a single download should be able to contain everything.

I notice that since a lot of anime fan d\l fansubs, a few of them are saying, "Why buy something on DVD when I can get better-looking picture quality on a downloaded file?"

Quote:

That brings up a problem, because one of the benefits of waiting to see it release in Japan, is that we can try to avoid the loser titles--the ones we know are going to bomb out because they bombed in Japan.

That's perfectly good logic...if the tastes of the Japanese and R1 fanbases are exactly the same. Which I'm sure they are.

I can say I "perceive" difficulties from the ADVocates and NewType USA shutdowns, but does that perception hold any weight? (And if magazine publishing were so problematic for ADV, why are they starting up a new publication instead of simply shuttering NewType and walking away?)

Quote:

It's true that ADV has been around since the beginning but I think (I could be wrong) US Manga is just as old as them and they went into total hibernation in the past as well (they are currently coming back though).

GITS: SAC seems to do well enough for them.

"Biggest acquisitions yet"?

I hope they got the full license for Initial D. Tokyopop ruined the dub.

jel123 wrote:

I agree that this is someone that appears to "get it" when it comes to anime distribution today. That said I disagree with some of his statements; On the question of expanding download-to-own: Quote: "...The only thing slowing us down is that it's not that easy to just convert it digital. You have to have equipment and people to convert it to digital, and that takes resources on top of everything else they're doing..." Unless I'm wrong; Everything is already in digital form and it's just a question of formatting it for download. The formatting and posting of content to a download site could be easily automated.

Isn't this exactly what fansubbers do? To date, I'm not aware of any automated process for taking the source video and re-encoding it (to include establishing the timing of subtitle scripts) to a .AVI file. That takes time. However (and pardon my ignorance here), if they also have to DRM them differently per platform, that also can take time.

Some people like having both the Japanese audio w/ subtitles and the English audio versions of a series, which the DVD format provides.