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ADV Films: Difference between revisions
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Originally called "A.D. Vision" (what the "A.D." stands for <s>is a trade secret</s> was mentioned on early covers as "Animation Dubbing") when it was founded in the early 1990s by a group of [[Promoted Fanboy|hardcore otaku]], ADV Films was one of the pioneers of importing and dubbing anime television series for American audiences. This [[Houston]]-based production house made its debut with the release of ''[[Devil Hunter Yohko]]'' in 1993. In 1996, the company built its own ADR studio and began dubbing their shows, eventually earning a reputation for producing some of the best dubs in the North American market. At their height in 2005, ADV was the undisputed market leader (of an admittedly small niche), boasting the largest catalog of any anime company - including popular fan-favourite titles like ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'', ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'', and plenty more. They also licensed and published [[Manga]] (including a few series they didn't have anime rights to), and were the publishers of otaku magazine Newtype USA. They also created and ran The [[Anime Network]], a 24/7 satellite channel that exists (in heavily truncated form) to this day.
Because of a total lack of any sort of voice actor pool in Texas at the time, ADV drew heavily from the local theatre scenes in Houston and Austin. Over the next dozen years, the studio groomed a large crop of voice actors, several of whom became regular faces on the convention circuit. A few have gone on to become directors and producers themselves. Among the actors who got their voice-acting start at ADV (some still live in Houston and continue to record the occasional dub for ADV's successor) are [[Amanda Winn-Lee]], [[Jessica Calvello]], [[Spike Spencer]], [[Tiffany Grant]], [[Kira Vincent-Davis]], [[Vic Mignogna]], [[Monica Rial]], [[Luci Christian]], [[Greg Ayres]], and [[
Up until 2005 they also ran a subdivision called "SoftCel Pictures", which specialized in [[Hentai]] material. In 2008, it was succeeded by a newly-opened division called "Happy Carrot".
ADV had also been raising funds and looking for talent for an incredibly ambitious project -- a Hollywood [[Live Action Adaptation]] of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. The project
In 2008, the company almost totally collapsed. Prior to this, ADV's manga, music, and toys divisions had either been shut down or had no production at all for some time. On January 4, The [[Anime Network]] switched from being a dedicated 24/7 channel to a video on demand service (a format that continues to this day). On January 18, ADV announced its Anime ADVocates program, which provided screening material and other promotional content to anime clubs in North America, had been suspended indefinitely. In February, they announced they would no longer publish NewType USA. They launched PiQ Magazine as a replacement for NewType, which lasted four issues before being discontinued.
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Their main anime division didn't last much longer. In January 2008, nearly 3 dozen titles representing two years worth of investment and work suddenly disappeared from their website without explanation, and DVD releases ceased. It turned out all of those titles had been acquired with help from Japan's Sojitz Corporation. ADV, which had gained a reputation for active communication with their customer base, fell eerily silent. A little over a month later, most of the missing shows were restored to the website and DVD releases resumed, although a couple of titles, notably ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'', appeared in the possession of other US licensors. Finally, in July, the same 30 licenses that had disappeared in January were suddenly transferred to [[FUNimation]]. This included some series that had not yet been fully-released on DVD, such as ''[[Kanon]]'' and ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]''.
In October 2008, ADV "partnered" with a "new" company known as [https://web.archive.org/web/20131104112905/http://www.sentai-filmworks.com/ Sentai Filmworks] and began to license titles again. For the most part, though, most of these acquisitions were titles previously held by other American companies (like ''[[Mahoromatic]]'' being a license-rescue from recently-dead [[Geneon]]), although there were a couple of newly-licensed series in the mix, most notably ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]''. The shows released by [[Sentai Filmworks]] that hadn't been released in the U.S. before were released as sub-only DVD's with a minimum of extras and only a basic menu. To some, this was an indication how far ADV had fallen from its glory days of only a couple years back.
On September 1, 2009, ADV Films announced that it sold most of its assets to five different companies, all of which are based in Houston (and based in the same block of condos) and was shutting down. Although it may appear that the company is essentially dead, [http://www.animenewsnetwork.
* Switchblade Pictures acquired Japanese live-action films properties for distribution in the North American market.
* [[Sentai Filmworks]] is the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131029211040/http://www.sentai-filmworks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=85 licensor company] for acquiring new (or rescued) Japanese anime into the North American market.
* AEsir Holdings got the rights to most of ADV Films' former library of titles (some titles became licensed directly by [[Sentai Filmworks]] and remain in print).
* Seraphim Digital Studios acquired Amusement Park Media, ADV's production studio.
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