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NEWS: Shogakukan, Shueisha Buy 2 European Anime Distributors




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Jacut



Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 142
Location: Paris, France
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:02 am Reply with quote
The European anime fanbase is buzzing since the announcement of this morning, and the industry is, obviously, too. What the article doesn't specify is that these two companies are 1) Kaze, the leader of the French market, and thus, the leader of anime publishing in the European market, owning at least 75% of the licences released in the last three years in France and French-speaking Europe (to make it more obvious to you: the French FUNimation), a famous manga publisher (Asuka), the most well-known anime magazine in Europe (AnimeLand), several distributors (Manga Distribution...), a TV channel (KZTV) and such... 2) Anime Virtual, the leader of the German-speaking markets (Germany, Austria, Switzerland...) and one of the top publishers and distributors of anime in Europe too.

It's just like Viz Media coming into the USA and buying FUNimation + ADV + Tokyopop, or something like that. Well, you see my point, there's simply no competitor left aside for this new company in the European anime industry, and most manga publishers will lose their blockbusters to Viz Media (since the Shueisha shonens are what make the market what it is, economically speaking) and its subsidiaries, that are yet very powerful without its support. If the other Japanese companies (namely Bandai, Aniplex, Kodansha, Kadokawa etc...) don't do something about this, it could get serious very fast.

So yes, this news may not seem very important at first, but it's probably the biggest news in the European market for the last 5 years or so. And it could change A LOT of things for the international licencing of animes and mangas, not only in Europe...
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Lucy_Nyuu



Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Posts: 61
Location: 藤沢市
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:34 am Reply with quote
dude, you exactly got the point!

thats pretty much what i´ve thought...


thats going to be a HUGE impact...


i´m from germany btw.... damn i´m so happy right now Very Happy
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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:40 am Reply with quote
Jacut wrote:

It's just like Viz Media coming into the USA and buying FUNimation + ADV + Tokyopop, or something like that.


Viz probably could buy ADV and Tokyopop, they wouldn't be able to buy FUNimation because it's owned by a larger company. And having one body doing everything in parts of Europe is not good at all. The only bright side, now that Anime Virtual company surely has the money to finally release DragonBall Z uncut.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:41 am Reply with quote
Quote:
At the beginning of September, the two companies will be integrated with Viz Media Europe, a subsidiary of Viz Media that manages the European development, marketing, and distribution of anime and manga.

This looks like an interesting development. Less fragmentation amongst European distribution companies would move the continent's situation closer to that of the essentially superior R1 industry.
I wonder what Beez will make of this.
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Tamaria



Joined: 21 Oct 2007
Posts: 1512
Location: De Achterhoek
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:11 pm Reply with quote
This is huge. I don't know what to think of it. I wonder how this will affect the Dutch manga market. We already have very little and the things we do get we get from Glénat and Kana. Asuka will probably get the big SJ titles and the like from now on.


Quote:
This looks like an interesting development. Less fragmentation amongst European distribution companies would move the continent's situation closer to that of the essentially superior R1 industry.


A lot of the fragmentation is caused by language barriers. Europe doesn't have a main language like the US and Canada do. English is widespread, but the biggest manga/anime publishers are French or German.
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melonbread



Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 317
Location: UK (London)
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:55 pm Reply with quote
I think that this is probably generally a good thing.

The only gripe I have with these people is manga censorship, but as we're talking about anime here I don't think it'll be a problem, just as long as they market the shounen titles properly and not edit them to babify them.

Uncut releases or nothing, like.
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kgw



Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 1189
Location: Spain, EU
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:51 am Reply with quote
Contrarily to the US editions, European ones are usually un-cutted -specially manga-. And if it's cutted is due to BCC and similar.

As for the buying, while I hope it'd be for the best, let's remember that Bandai "international" branches' prices are quite expensive
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