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Forum - View topicAbout Kadokawa's Investment in ANN
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Albion Hero
Posts: 96 |
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Yeah, gonna be tough to trust reviews for Kadokawa stuff now. You can say all you want about "we will keep our independence" but its been long proven that companies that own sites and magazines don't like those reviews to be critical of their products.
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Mr VacBob
 SubscriberPosts: 16 |
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A better investment for society than funding 10 new identical isekai shows, certainly.
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10468 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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I understand your concern, but if you look at our history, you can see that we've consistently been free to write critically about the products of our largest advertisers and our other investors.
I frankly don't care if someone at Kadokawa gets angry if we pan one of their shows, the execs at KAD understand that our value is reflected in our honesty. We're worthless to KAD if people stop reading ANN because they don't trust our reviews or news. My contract is pretty clear about this stuff. Finally, even if someone at KAD demanded ANN go easy on their shows, I would refuse. I have no incentive to allow ANN's writers to be biased in favor of KAD. Readers would see through it in an instant and my personal bank account depends more on pleasing readers, not pleasing Kadokawa. -t |
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2210 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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Congrats on this, and here's to bigger, better things!
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wewhomustnotbenamed
Posts: 50 |
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i just pointed out how hard it is to trust kadokawa.
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10468 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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You can trust them to put profit ahead of... ANN is worthless to them if we become known to be biased. Anyway, we expected some people would be skeptical. I hope you keep reading long enough to see that we will be absolutely independent when it comes to reviews and news about Kadokawa, as well as Bandai and our advertisers. It's our responsibility to prove it to you. |
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PipimiOden
 Posts: 204 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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kadokawa would rather buy up anime news network than license out "space academy" internationally lmao. this should be interesting. anyone have any good alternative news sites? I'm not going to use crunchyroll for my news again.
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ximpalullaorg
Posts: 396 |
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I'll take your word for it. However, considering Kadokawa's meddling, I'm skeptical.
I'm not an expert in US law but putting the "independence" in a contractual clause makes me wonder if it's actually viable (and if can actually be "enforced"). Also, I do not welcome this consolidation. The market thrives on competition, not on (possible) "monopolies" (considering the recent Kadokawa acquisition spree). |
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AJ (LordNikon)
 Posts: 518 Location: Kyoto |
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Seconded. I also wonder how many times I have had heard this in career in journalism before retiring more ten years ago. I see ANN having fewer days ahead than behind with annoucement. How many times does CR get bought/merged with similar press release? ANN can talk about contract obligation, how well hold up if SONY buys Kadokawa, especially with staffing creep?
Sorry, I have lot apprehension. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5246 |
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I don't think the concern is about ANN being unbiased when it comes to reporting on anime shows funded by Kadokawa but will ANN remain unbiased when it comes to reporting on Kadokawa as a corporation? Like if there was some major scandal involving the business executives at Kadokawa or something, will ANN remain unbiased in reporting on that? Or things like reporting on sales figures and other business deals?
Last edited by Cardcaptor Takato on Tue Nov 01, 2022 3:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
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JR-1
Posts: 70 Location: Southeast Asia |
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Oh I'll trust enough that for now there won't be meddling on content reviews and general news, but this really cements ANN as a content review and press release news sites instead of a more deep dive and investigative journalism.
I'm also wary how this would play out in the future as the thing about big corporations is that they could change their stance in a whim and not necessarily in a logical way, especially if the anime industry contracts after this unprecedented era of surge. I understand this is the realities of business but personally this makes me not as fond to ANN anymore. |
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zunderdog24
 Posts: 362 |
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Lol, as if reviews for anime need to be trusted when they cost next to nothing to consume and opinions on the content are diverse af. This acquisition changes nothing about the integrity of ann's reviews. |
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SUPER7X
Posts: 4 |
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Vertical integration is not innately bad for competition. |
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Sandstar
Posts: 196 |
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"contractually obligated" doesn't mean shit. Once they're acquired, what are they gonna do, unwind the acquisition? No, that's impossible. Quit? Yeah, so? And make a new website that's fictionally identical? Hardly. Everyone says they'll be "independant" but no one buys a company because they want the property to remain independent (and no one sells out because they want to remain independent.) "I don't care if someone at Kadokawa gets mad" You will when you're fired, and they replace you with someone that does. It's all a lot of words that mean nothing, because they're the same words we hear all the time with mergers, and they don't mean anything then, either.
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Albion Hero
Posts: 96 |
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Yep, seen this same song and dance plenty of times in gaming media. All the staff say how good their new corporate overlords are, and how they will keep their independence and all. Then 2 years later all the staff is gone and the site no longer has their original integrity. Would love to be proven wrong but I've seen this story too many times.
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