The Fall of Geneon

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As it pertains to the fall of Geneon USA, one of the biggest anime distributors in the world, two questions need to be asked. One: Does this mean that all Geneon DVDs are going to be pulled from store shelves? Two: Which company, if any, will grab the titles that are still in production?

The above is from: http://www.earth-2.net/articles/geneon

[Missy]

Good job, guys! Your candid look at what this means for the industry and yourselves personally worked for this kind of article. When / If new information arises, let's run a follow-up / update.

[chrno_the_sinner]

In recent interviews and news, subtitling has continued for unreleased Geneon acquisitions The Familiar of Zero and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (both of which are great but I wholeheartedly endorse the latter). Dubbing has also continued for most of Geneon's shows, Black Lagoon and When They Cry being the most prominent. I don't see why a company wouldn't want to pick up a series with a dub ready to go.

Geneon's had a lot of problems over the years as well. They've had the highest prices for anime until recently and their wholesale prices for retailers were still larger than normal. Extras for most Geneon shows have been scarce. There weren't even clean opening and closing segments for their Higurashi release.

And about the whole fansub argument. I will say this. I would never have gotten as far into the anime community as I did if not for fansubs. From the fansub group who did uncut Digimon I aquired Chrno Crusade (hence the username). And I just got further from there. Now, I own around 100 or more DVDs and 300-400 manga. I will not deny fansubs do harm to the industry, but in a way, they've let anime become more accessible to the mainstream. No way we would've gotten the Haruhi LEs without the hype obtained from fansubs.

I am quite happy that I got a lot of Geneon shows from the recent sales on The Right Stuf International. The only ones I still really need are Samurai Champloo, Lain, and Niea_7.

It's just time to play the waiting game now. Lucrative shows like Rozen Maiden, When They Cry, and Hellsing won't go unreleased for long.

[Missy]

And about the whole fansub argument. I will say this. I would never have gotten as far into the anime community as I did if not for fansubs. From the fansub group who did uncut Digimon I aquired Chrno Crusade (hence the username). And I just got further from there. Now, I own around 100 or more DVDs and 300-400 manga. I will not deny fansubs do harm to the industry, but in a way, they've let anime become more accessible to the mainstream. No way we would've gotten the Haruhi LEs without the hype obtained from fansubs.

The same can be said about comic books. There are a lot of people out there who are only just getting into comic books through downloads. Is it legal? No. But the scanners of the comic books strongly suggest that people buy the comics after downloading them, and for the most part people do. Maybe they don't head into the comic shop every week or even month, maybe they're only buying collections, but comics are being purchased nonetheless thanks to digital scans. When people only download, that's when the industry (any industry) is hurt.

[Aaron Robinson]

I doubt I’d be buying comic books now if it weren’t for Yoda’s “In the Gutters” section. Reading through a few digital comic books made piqued my interest, and I eventually started checking out the comic book rack at my local newsagency.

I do think stuff like this has to be somewhat regulated by the people who are doing it. Perhaps only subbing a handful of episodes of a series that’s due for release, just so people who are thinking of buying the DVDs get a taste of what the show is going to be like. If done sparingly I think it could actually lead to more sales.

Just my 2c.

[Missy]

Hmm... this reminds me of something. :angel: