Forum - View topicWho's your overall favorite US anime licensor?
|
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
|
|||
|
For me...it has to be ADV. Not only do they get some of the best series, they also really seem to care about doing a good job with the translation. They also have really professional packaging and even jump-started the ThinPak trend. Their dubs are also quite good most of the time and I really like some of their regulars, and the subs are usually clean and well-done.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
|
|||
|
Funimation, with a second being Bandai. I also like a lot of the Geneon shows.
Funimation does a good job of releasing sets of dvds, and releasing box sets later on. It is entirely true that Funimation has been influenced into making those box sets into thinpacks, and I do think that has been a good contribution of ADV, but Funimation has adapted it for themselves and even "one upped" ADV by doing it on new series which have a smaller market. Funimation is also a strong favorite of mine because they have shown to listen to fans and they are one of the few companies who actually seems to bother reading or responding in these forums. They started out as a company that strongly edited anime and have made good strides towards balanced translations that are neither too literal or too figurative. Additionally, they proved that they were listening by pursuing a distributor relationship with Geneon, and continuing to release former ADV materials with the dub of the original. Even when they have picked up entirely new sequel titles that were previously with another company (The Second Raid) they continued to work with previous licensees in order to provide dub fans some consistency. Bandai is my second favorite because of their "anime legends" cheap sets and their great limited edition packaging with lots of extras. They also tend to have very good trailers (a weakness in the industry in general, IMO) and the shows they pickup are things I like. The dubs for Bandai are usually done well. |
||||
|
||||
motaku96
 Posts: 237 Location: New York |
|
|||
|
interesting thread.
i have to agree with you. ADV tends to license some of the best stuff. it also feels crisper, like the anime quality is beautiful. the only down side i had with ADV for awhile was that in some of their thinpacks, they took out the extras. two of my thinpacks, azumanga daioh, and excel saga lost all those nice little bonuses. i hope you don't mind if i mention some other licensors I like animeworks for their price. theirs is the cheapest i've found. i'm not sure if they're still producing since it's been awhile since i've seen them release anything. maybe i'm just not looking hard enough. oh but i don't like their packaging though. Bandai has really consistent prices($30-$50 for box sets) and their packaging is pretty good. it's convenient without having to deal with different cases. Funimation has been getting a lot of good series lately. i wasn't too fond of their prices before but since they've started releasing the viridian collections, it's gotten better. i've bought some of my favorite anime from funimation. (i.e. gunslinger girls, school rumble, etc.) Sorry about talking about prices so much. That's usually the first thing that comes to mind when i buy anime. Last edited by motaku96 on Sun Dec 14, 2008 12:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
|
|||
|
I'd say AnimEigo, despite not buying much from them- I have to give kudos to a company that's liscensing older shows no one else would look at, simply becuase they like them. I hope to save up enough for that Yawara box before it's OOP.
Aside from that, probably Funi for the already mentioned reasons, and for all the weird free promo stuff they make. I have seed packets from when Origin came out, for example. I also have 3 (disc only) anime DVDs I got free from TRSI with big 'a gift for you from Funimation' stickers on 'em- how cool is that? |
||||
|
||||
|
Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
|
|||
|
Thanks for bringing up pricing. This is where I feel ADV is truly the weakest with their 90$ thinpack collections.
Viz is also a pretty bad company when it comes to pricing, with the exception of their Naruto & Bleach sets which are very reasonable. I think they really should cut out single volume releases for series of that size. I guess someone must buy them, but I personally buy the sets exclusively for their stuff. Their Inuyasha season sets are much more expensive than Naruto & Bleach, but I'm not sure why. I'm still willing to buy them at the price, but it's as high as ADVs thinpack stuff. Funimations new pricing scheme is the best. They do typical individual volume pricing, but the new half season sets are priced very nicely (basically 3 dvds for 40$). Their season set prices aren't quite as cheap as the anime legends, but the discs tend to be more reliable and they come out with the season sets not too long after releasing the whole series in individuals. Then they have the super cheap Viridian stuff, for those who don't care about packaging much. |
||||
|
||||
|
motaku96
Posts: 237 Location: New York |
|
|||
|
I have to agree with Xanas view on funimation. of all of the companies, they seem the most in touch with the fans. they go out of their way to pick up titles that would have been stuck in limbo and they're streaming anime on youtube too. they also keep dubs consistent even if another company had an earlier season. it's like they're going out of their way to please their fans. who'd have thought.
|
||||
|
||||
TheTheory
 Posts: 1029 Location: Central PA |
|
|||
|
Geneon would get my vote, although I'm not really sure how alive they still are. But they release(d) constantly good series, including a number of my favorites (Haibane Renmei, particularly, but also Samurai Champloo). But even their smaller series are intriguing--Black Heaven, Master Keaton, NieA_7... I could go on and on. There is just something really satisfying about the series they licensed.
If we're not counting Geneon, then it would have to be FUNimation... partly for the series and partly because I like how they are run. I'm thinking back to the announcement that they were rescuing certain titles from other distributors and were only planning on doing those season sets they are so fond of... but when fans cried about about wanting to fill their half-filled artboxes they acquiesced and decided to finish off the singles for the fans. ADV has some good series, particularly on the comedy side (Azumanga Daioh, Cromartie High School, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi)... but they release a lot of crap, too. Bandai is too sci-fi oriented for my taste. I don't like mecha or war animes... which strikes out a lot of what they do. And their brick releases are ugly as hell. |
||||
|
||||
MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
|
|||
|
ADV is my favorite, mainly because of their dubs, which I feel are consistently very high quality, particularly in the last few years. (I'm a dub fan, so it's really important to me.) I also feel like they've brought over some "quirkier" titles (like Princess Tutu and Cromartie High School) that are some of my favorites that I wouldn't even have heard of otherwise.
That being said, I agree with everything that's been said about Funimation. Their dubs are very good as well, andwhile I wasn't sure about how I liked the boxsets at first, after getting the Ouran boxset I have to agree it's a good idea. I guess at this point, ADV and Funi are pretty much tied in my book. |
||||
|
||||
LuckySeven
 Posts: 587 Location: Georgia, USA |
|
|||
|
I'm from the old school so I'd say Pioneer before they became Geneon was my favorite anime licensor. I can't say I really have a current favorite. I've only recently gotten back into buying anime on a regular basis, so I can't name one as a favorite yet. I will say that I was tremendously pleased with how Bandai handled the Haruhi Suzumiya DVD release though. I'd love it if more anime DVDs had that many extras included on them.
|
||||
|
||||
penguintruth
 Posts: 8509 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
|||
|
Well, most of my anime DVDs are from Bandai Entertainment. It tends to license my favorite programs, mostly because Sunrise produced most of my favorites from the eighties until the late nineties. However, after the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam release fiasco, I lost a lot of faith in them. I did start collecting the Haruhi limited editions and have begun collecting Gurren Lagann, but the damage is already done to the way I view them. It doesn't help that their Gurren Lagann subtitles are nearly in the center of the screen. I'm very careful about what I buy from Bandai nowadays. Seeing those Anime Legend boxsets of Zeta Gundam with the corrected discs on shelves at Best Buy just reminds me of the promises they broke to the fans and it keeps reminding me that they aren't the perfect licensors I once thought they were.
Though the second largest number of anime DVDs I own are from ADV, they began to lose it a little while back. All they were doing was buying up as many licenses as they could get their hands on and rushing out shoddy products with awful dubs while just milking Evangelion. Right now, ADV is a nonentity. I can't remember the last time ADV made any sort of impact on the industry, other than with their failures. There's no denying that they were once very passionate about anime, though, even up until the early years of this decade, but where are they now? ADV is practically a non-entity in today's market. Another dead giant is Pioneer/Geneon. I never really owned a lot of Pioneer products, except for Tenchi Muyo. I kept putting off buying Hellsing and Trigun sets and before I knew it Geneon went under. I wish they had stayed around long enough to finish releasing the Lupin III second television series. They were a decent company with many strong dubs on their discs. Now I'm searching around frantically to grab the remaining DVDs of the first two Tenchi OVAs, because it only just recently dawned on me I might lose the chance entirely soon. Funimation has certainly moved up in my opinion. Once only known for licensing Dragon Ball and its spinoffs, with its notoriously awful dubs and edits, Funimation changed over time. Now I own quite a few anime DVDs from them. Even their dubs have improved steadily over time, though they again took a bit of a drop in recent years. I like that Funimation is licensing different types of shows and giving others a second lease on life in the R1 market. They've become a real super power in the industry. I wish some licensors would give more classical anime more of a chance, but I suppose anime that are decades old tend not to sell very well in markets where the folks didn't grow up watching them. They are businesses after all, so I understand, but it's disappointing that some of my favorite classics will probably never see a release here. In short, the answer would probably be Bandai (cautiously), followed by Funimation, as favorite licensors. Disney/Miramax always does a good job with Miyazaki's movies, so they're worth mentioning, too. |
||||
|
||||
Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
|
|||
|
Well, it was Geneon, since they were the liscensor of the majority of what I have, however, they're now defunct so I'd have to go with the second placed finisher, Funimation. Mostly because of their excellent dubbing work and the fact that they liscense rescued all the series I was collecting that went down with Geneon as well as the ADV leftovers.
|
||||
|
||||
zawa113
 Posts: 7360 |
|
|||
|
My first favorite is ADV, followed by Bandai. My least favorite if Funimation, but not for their shows. I'm indifferent to most everyone else. For some reason, it pretty much comes down, in part, to the way they do DVDs R1. I can pretty much find a good series by any company without problem. I sorta think that ADV is going the way of Tokyopop now though where I'm starting not to really care, but they might change things around (of course, they lost a lot of their best current series to Funimation so....not holding my breath here)
Looking at my collection (meaning the list, not the physical setup, mind you), most of my favorite titles are ADV or Bandai. But I prefer ADV over Bandai because I think ADV publishes more variety, including Princess Tutu, one of my all time favorite series. I've also never had or heard of problems with ADV discs. I also think they have some of the best in-house dub actors & actresses. They're also one of the only companies whose extras I even bother to look at, some of their extras are just great or at the least interesting. They also seem to release most of their single series as a box set eventually, even the really unpopular stuff (which is why I was able to get Princess Tutu for my B-day last year at all). I've never had a personal problem with Bandai (discs), but they tend to license most of my favorite sci-fi series. I also think they've mastered the thickpacks at this point, they release them in space conserving packs at a reasonable price for whole series. They have some crazy box extras too, but I've never actually bought one of their artboxes, the only art boxed series in my entire collection are for Mushi-shi and Last Exile, but neither of them came with T-shirts and CDs galore, among other things (like I know Eureka 7 and Haruhi Suzumiya's do). Its kind of cool that they let people go all out on these things if they want to and just release everything normally at the same time for the rest of us. I've promised to let myself eventually do that for one show. Although I do usually like the series that Funimation publishes, they're definatly my least favorite when it comes to DVDs. For one thing, I don't like the "season _ part _" format that they're using now. I don't particularly like the internal layout of the discs, the box & disc covers, etc of them nor their rather high price points for those half sets. I really like the shows they have, but I don't usually like buying them on DVD. Not the mention the unskippable advetisements on Mushi-shi (no matter how many times they advertise it, I am not going to be buying Tony Hawk's Evil Carnie Skate Boarding Festival thingie or whatever the heck its called). I like that they have enough money to throw around at series that no one else would take a chance on and that they saved Geneon, but no, I still don't like their DVD formats. |
||||
|
||||
|
Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
|
|||
I give Geneon a lot of credit for releasing a nifty high school dramady/fighting anime, Tenjho Tenge, which might have wallowed in obscurity if someone wasn't brave enough to pick it up, and it was an overall enjoyable show. Shame they apparently went under, especially since Bandai, for a time, was using them as a distribution pipe for their own titles. Speaking of Bandai, they get my "close second" vote: they brought us some timeless stuff (Cowboy Bebop, GITS) and some stuff that's really a good ride and a great time killer (Outlaw Star). Plus, their translations and dubs are usually spot-on. Also, Haruhi Suzumiya...need I say more? |
||||
|
||||
|
dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
|
|||
|
animenewsnetwork.com/poll.php?id=45
animenewsnetwork.com/poll.php?id=46 animenewsnetwork.com/poll.php?id=74 animenewsnetwork.com/poll.php?id=75
Say what?
Okay, now that's understandable. |
||||
|
||||
|
Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
|
|||
|
Yeah, but a poll reveals...what, exactly? A bunch of numbers weighed against one another? The topic is mostly about REASONS for liking them, not "yes I like Company X". Sheesh...
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group