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NEWS: ADV Films Removes Titles from Website

As of this moment, I will not purchase any unfinished series until all volumes and/or a box set is available for fear of losing yet MORE series I began purchasing in good faith. I imagine I'm not the only one thinking this anymore.

To all of you spouting off such lines as "They have no right at all to not finish their releases," or "I'll never buy another single again until the whole series is out," let me ask this of you: how many of you downloaded said titles well before they were licensed? If that's the case, what are you really losing by a series being dropped halfway through? I know it's admittedly discouraging to have half of a series on DVD and know that you'll probably never see the rest released, but does this change the fact that you downloaded the entire series in the first place? Do whole series worth of video files magically disappear from your hard drive as soon as you purchase the first volume? If you only wind up with three disks out of a possible six, then hey, at least that's half a series you own, and that's better than nothing; no one's stopping you from continuing to watch the rest of it via what you downloaded. And if you are one of the people who didn't download the series beforehand and were watching it via the DVDs, well, if worst comes to worst, you can always go out there and get what you're missing. There's never a 100% guarantee that any series you start buying will be released in its entirety; if there was, then I'd be able to have the entire red jacket Lupin series in my possession instead of just half of it. The company isn't doing anything at all illegal or questionable by not being able to release the rest of the volumes; that's just the unfortunate way that business works sometimes, and you're still better off than when you started.

With this in mind, it's only natural that fans are going to be much more distrustful of the industry as a whole, regardless of how much they themselves contributed to the events that have happened.

grgspunk wrote:

With this in mind, it's only natural that fans are going to be much more distrustful of the industry as a whole, regardless of how much they themselves contributed to the events that have happened.

Of course, this is assuming that distribution of these titles actually do cease, which isn't necessarily the best of assumptions at this point. Heck, we don't even know the ultimate fate of Geneon's titles yet.

I would echo what others here are saying in that people should cool it until we know what's going on.

Take a breath, go have a drink.

s I stare at various unfinished Geneon titles, this is exactly what Im going to do: wait for the series to be done before I buy it. I hate to not know how a story ends. Sure you may be able to get the manga, but to me its not the same. Its more than just a financial investment to me, its almost an emotional investment. You buy the DVD to be captivated by the story.

Any bonds of trusts that anime companies have with their customers are becoming strained as of late, if not broken entirely.
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With this in mind, it's only natural that fans are going to be much more distrustful of the industry as a whole, regardless of how much they themselves contributed to the events that have happened.

I have a friend who is moving to Japan in a few years. He is doing it to be a teacher. He wants me to come with him so he has at least ONE friend from America, too keep him from feeling too alienated. I told him "we'll see" because I figured I'd wind up not wanting to do it. However, the way things are going in my personal life, in addition to all the sh!t going on with R1 lately, I'm seriously considering it. The state of R1 over the next 3 years WILL have a say in my choice (as much as I hate to admit it).

I know firsthand that not being able to buy an entire series is truly aggravating, and I'd also much rather purchase series in their entirety at once than deal with the occasional uncertainty over singles releases. And heck, I'm as big of a dub fan as anyone. I guess the point that I was trying to make is that, given the choice between owning half a series on DVD and not getting any of it at all, I'll gladly choose owning half. What I purchase, I do so because I want the product at the time I purchased it. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I'm not going to second-guess myself over a few disks I may have bought in the past that didn't work out the way I wanted to. (Hell, I worked like mad to buy the rest of the individual Lupin volumes after Geneon ceased distribution, knowing all the while that they only represented half of the whole series.) If I purchased something because I wanted it at the time, and if making that purchase brought me joy in any sense, I consider it money well-spent, and I won't regret having done so.

1. Japans anime industry is in pretty poor shape as well, and likely to get worse with diminished earnings from North America.

2. Japan isn't very hospitable about foreigners moving in. People who are to be English teachers are usually vetted in official programs long before heading over there.

3. Most people on this board know more about anime then most Japanese kids/teens, don't buy into an illusion that Japan is an anime paradise where everyone sits around talking about Bleach and Death Note. Anime is niche there as well (though to a larger relative degree of course), and Japanese at large look down pretty hard on 'Otaku', so with the basic ubiquity of fansubs I'm not sure you would be any happier there then here.

This point has been made countless times throughout the thread, and it makes no sense. The market is drying up because not enough people buy releases, so fan's reactions are....to stop buying releases. Yeah, that'll show em'. If a series is canceled mid-way through, it's because no one (relatively) is buying itand to release anymore would lose money needed to shore up other titles/stay in the black. If there isn't enough consumer interest to make a title profitable, that's the companies fault how?

I'm not asking any company to do what's unprofitable to them. I don't feel that they owe me anything. Nor do I feel that I owe them. Im simply stating that at this point I wont invest in unfinished series(again, within reason; Naruto and Bleach just keep gooiinngg, and arent finish in Japan, so I must buy). To me its like buying a book thats half finished. Id rather have never read(seen) it than get my hopes and interest up to have it simply severed. Some people enjoy a series even if its unfinished. I don't. 'Karin', for example, stopped at a crutial point. I'd have rather never bought the series than have it end like that. What Id like is for companies to do what Columbia is doing for the Blood+ release:release as a single for people who might be interested, and as a boxset for those, like myself, who WILL buy it. Maybe companies can offer free downloads of the first few episodes as teasers, as ADV was doing.