And For More Sad News

The American anime industry seems to be getting itself in more trouble.  Since the last post, things just seem to snowball more and more.

New Strategy or on its way out?

First, Media Blasters is laying off 60% of their staff, and according to the latest ANNCast that 100% of their production team has been let go, meaning either that they aren't planning on staying around for too much longer, or that they are planning to outsource the production to another team which, unless there is some kind of digital strategy involved, or any strategy actually, will end up like Bandai.  I'm sorry for being such a downer, but this is reality, and you don't come to this blog to sugarcoat news.

This is five minutes of PAINT.NET.  Totally worth it.

Second, just when things couldn't get worse, two of the bigger North American distributors are coming after each other.  Funimation is suing Sentai/Section23/other random companies that used to be ADV.  According to Funimation, Neo-ADV as I like to call them, owe them around 8 million dollars back before the discombobulation of ADV.  It's a complicated legal matter, but I feel I should chime in my two cents. 

In my opinion, Neo-ADV dodged the law by exploiting a loophole, basically dodging creditors by breaking up into smaller companies.  Seriously, they are fooling no one (Section 23 is the actual law they exploited to get out of their mess).  While this has allowed them to stay in the American market and license some nice anime series, I think that some kind of justice deserves to be brought to them.  Now, I am not siding with Funimation nor am I against Neo-ADV, but I think that the companies that got the short end of the deal, Japanese anime companies, distributors, and the like, should get some sense of justice from this oversight. 

However, it doesn't matter whose side you are on.  In the end, this is not good for anyone, especially the fans.  Imagine if Funimation wins this (I give them better odds between the two).  This could be the final nail in the coffin that is Neo-ADV, or plain old ADV.  Then that will leave restructured Media Blasters, Funimation, and Viz, as well as higher end distributors NIS, Aniplex, and assorted others.  If it comes down to Viz vs Funimation, then again this means less titles to be released, more chances to the anime industry in America becoming a monopoly, and in the end, us getting fewer titles legally and Japan passing on opportunities of giving their titles a chance over here.

Perhaps Neo-ADV can split up again as another company...

In the end, this news isn't good for anyone.  Not for the people losing jobs, not for their families, not for the fans.  2012 has been one bad year thus far.  Let's hope for a better rest of the year.