On 24th August 2007 a notice was sent to all Anime DVD retailers across the globe that ADV films will be handling the distribution of Geneon titles across the board with immediate effect. Although Geneon will still be licensing and producing anime for North America, the way those titles reach the market will now be handled by ADV Films. When asked to comment about this ADV could not be reached for comment but Geneon stated this as true.
In preparation for the transition, Geneon USA laid off the majority of its sales division, including all of its sales people. Customers of Geneon USA complained that they have been unable to obtain any information from Geneon USA about the current procedure for returns and obtaining newly released titles.
Shortly afterwards on the 20th September 2007 it was announced that the distribution deal was canceled and that ADV wouldn’t be responsible for the the marketing and the release of Geneon titles anymore. Rumors had it that ADV films was the one that pulled out of the deal before it was to be written in stone. This has also affected Dentsu Inc., Geneon USA’s parent company, causing it to plan to close its doors on the 31st of December 2007. It is not known what is to be done with ongoing projects, such as the Hellsing Ultimate anime series, that will not finish in Japan before December 31.
This has caused people to go on a Geneon buying spree buying up the last boxsets and other related products as they are about to go out of production and become collectors items, causing a massive shortage in Geneon products.
Most people who frequent the online anime community would know that ADV films have gotten a reputation as the anime distribution company that uses bully tactics in acquiring anime titles. And when they do manage to get the title they screw it up, as can be seen with Neon Genesis Evangelion. Each year there is a release of the boxset of the series/movie milking as much as they can out of the already milked franchise. And there desist orders against funsub groups have become legendary to say the least. They have even gone as far as to tell fansubbers to stop fansubbing an anime title that they were thinking about licensing.
Okay now that we got the basics down of what happened we can start with my little conspiracy theories. Geneon are known for quality releases - just check out the Hellsing Ultimate series and Black Lagoon (that’s if you are still able to find the DVD`s for sale). My conspiracy theory is rather simple: ADV wanted to have a bigger market share in the anime industry and the only way to achieve that was to go into a partnership with Geneon. But they didn’t want to share the profit nor the glory of this new relationship, so they signed a contract but bailed at the last moment leaving Geneon dead in the water.
But it doesn’t stop there: they can kill two birds with one stone by totally removing Geneon as competition in the different regions, leaving a huge gap inhttp://www.hellsingultimate.com/ the market. And guess who will be there standing behind Geneon to fill this void in the market? Yes you guessed right - ADV films. Interesting conspiracy theory isn’t it?
It is really a shame that Geneon is closing their doors - they were doing a great job with their releases and were even on par with Bandai in their quality. And I really feel for the people who were collecting currently released titles by them (people like me). Let us hope someone else picks up these titles in the future.
And I leave you with a letter that was sent to all the Geneon fans on their forum:
My proper article can be found here: http://www.animescene.za.net/anime-mang ... onspiracy/To our fans,
Recently, we announced that we will not be accepting orders on Geneon products after Friday, September 28, 2007. We have read your comments that you have emailed and posted on various web sites, and received your numerous calls.
At this time, we are internally discussing plans to explore all available options to continue distribution of Geneon titles, both old and new, at a later date. However, nothing is certain at this time. We will release more information to the public once we have any concrete plans, if any.
We would like to thank you for your support over the last 20+ years - first as Pioneer and then as Geneon. We have worked hard to bring you the best in Japanese animation and you have responded with an intense passion and support for our products.
As Geneon evolves, we hope that we can continue to be a part of your future.
Thank you,
(signed)
Eiji Orii
President and CEO, Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc.