Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2009-10-30]
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4684 |
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Well, then they were going to. Either way, the end result was the same, and I'd say they weren't exactly doing well if they had to scramble to find someone to help them out and had to close production before they could get anything sorted out. Plus, I didn't say that they fell apart because of profits, I pointed out that they were caught with some not-so-great management decisions. |
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pparker
 Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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Oh, certainly not saying they would have succeeded. Just saying that if Funi could take those licenses and (apparently) profitably re-release the titles in series and half-series boxes, then Geneon could have done the same and at less cost because they already had the licenses. That's assuming best case scenario--that they would be willing to match Funi's model. When I look at my shelves and my favorites list, Geneon/Pioneer is far and away the winner for quality shows. Tastes vary of course. Next is ADV, but I'd say that's just odds based on the sheer volume. After that is Bandai. What I have from Funi is almost all license rescues, and few of those since I grab the previous full-size collector sets as soon as Funi re-releases drive the price down. Geneon did do a lot of niche and low-popularity shows, so it's possible that even with their catalog they couldn't have maintained profitability, or regained it soon enough to satisfy Japanese management. But overall I suspect the pockets were deep enough that they could have re-organized and survived. It's common for businesses to operate at a loss for awhile when reinventing in response to major market changes. I just think it was more a cultural decision, not wanting to go the cheap release route, as well as purely a financial numbers issue. While they made mistakes as well (which I agree were likely Japanese, not U.S.), I don't put them in the same category as ADV for that aspect. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1685 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Geneon USA was way, way, way, way not profitable and hadn't been in years.
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pparker
Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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Okay. What I read, from a seemingly reputable source, was that they just weren't profitable enough to satisfy the new owners. Perhaps it was overall performance, not profit. Makes more sense if they weren't profitable. Of course, that would mean their own decisions were that much worse, since again they could have switched to the Funi model. Without a shonen cash cow, though, they still might not have survived the transition or made it to profitability. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
 Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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It's in the commentary for the box set (you know, the sort of thing you get when you actually *buy* DVDs), but I've also been told that by someone who worked on it. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Yeah, whoever told you that was feeding you a load of hooey. But yes, my understanding is that they were -- like every other US company -- bound by rules that reflected the Japanese company's very lopsided understanding of the US market. |
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