In a tale of increasing woe for ADV Films, the seemingly struggling American anime licensing company today saw the mysterious removal of over fourteen [EDIT: Now 37] titles from their online store and nearly all sections of their website. Some of the trailers for these titles are still viewable on ADV’s trailers section, but they do not appear anywhere else on the site.
The missing titles include (emphasis on important new licenses added by me):
- 009-1
- 5 Centimeters per Second
- Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy
- Air Gear
- Air movie
- Air TV
- Best Student Council
- Blade of the Phantom Master
- Comic Party Revolution
- Coyote Ragtime Show
- Devil May Cry
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
- Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor TV
- Innocent Venus
- Jing, King of Bandits: Seventh Heaven
- Jinki:Extend
- Kanon
- Kurau: Phantom Memory
- Le Chevalier D’Eon
- Magikano
- Moeyo Ken TV
- Moonlight Mile
- Nerima Daikon Brothers
- Pani Poni Dash!
- Project Blue Earth SOS
- Pumpkin Scissors
- Red Garden
- Tokyo Majin
- UFO Princess Valkyrie
- Utawarerumono
- Venus Versus Virus
- The Wallflower
- Welcome to the NHK
- Xenosaga
This represents a startling turn in the fates for ADV, once (and most likely still) one of the biggest anime distributors in America. The company has shut down a variety of their programs recently, including their Anime ADVocates anime club program, Newtype Magazine, and parts of the Anime Network. To many, this has signified a substantial drop in profits for the company. (Though it should be noted that ADV Films has not yet released any official information on their financial status)
Will they go the way of Geneon, essentially defunct until a way can be found to bring them back into the industry? I sincerely hope not, since the anime industry definitely cannot take another blow in the form of a failed company. Good luck to all those at ADV in these turbulent times!
EDIT 1: More titles disappeared yesterday, bringing the total list to 37 missing titles. Soon after, an ICv2 article detailing financial problems between ADV Films and their parent company, ARM Corporation, appeared. According to the article, ARM has pulled funds from ADV, placing the company in a temporary limbo. ICv2 has since pulled the link from their site (read it cached on Google), claiming that it was a draft not meant to be published.
Finally, ADV Films replied to Anime News Network’s attempted contact, and made the following statement to the website and anime fandom in general:
“We know there are a lot of rumors swirling about, and that fans are looking for assurances that ADV will continue to distribute the anime series they know and love.
While we can’t go into any detail at this time, please know that ADV is working through a few short-term challenges and fully intends to continue our releases.
We thank you for your patience.”
[via Anime News Network]
