Anime Pulse

Here are my notes from the ADV panel.

ADV is not going anywhere.

They separated from their business partner Sojitz, and Sojitz took a lot of titles with them. But ADV has procured a new partner, whose funding has allowed them to start negotiating for a new group of Anime acquisitions.

They have no plans to acquire any new manga for at least 12 months, although they would “like” to finish their existing ones.

ADV will continue to do dubs, as they have their own production facilities. They might have new acquisition titles by Otakon.

Blu-Ray releases are coming, but have to wait on the Japanese distributors.

The 2nd industry panel was a moderated panel.

Technology, Entertainment and Licensing
Ken Iyadomi – President & CEO, Bandai Entertainment
Vu Nyugen – VP Business Development & Strategy, Crunchyroll
Trulee Karahashi – Society for the Promotion of Japanese Anime
Asako Suzuki – Director of Manga, CMX
Moderated by Justin Sevakis, Director of New Media, Anime New Network

Licensing is becoming more, not less, complicated. Multiple parties want approval and control rights about how things are released. The Japanese distributors have no real internet strategy because they fear the impact on DVD sales as well as piracy. Continue reading “Anime Expo 2008: Industry Notes #2”

We’re here at AX, and so far the con is… lackluster. But there were a couple industry panels today, the 4th, that were interesting. Here is my recap of the first.

Keynote speech by Gen Fukunaga, the President of Funimation.

The Japanese market is the most competitive Anime market in the world, because Manga drives the Anime. This is because Manga is exposed to millions of people first to determine what might be good things to animate. Continue reading “Anime Expo 2008: Industry notes”