ADV Films: Difference between revisions
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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.cc/editorial/2009-09-01/what-happening-with-adv-films some industry observers] believe that the move was an attempt to end a relationship with a hostile shareholder that had damaged the company, while still maintaining its core competency and catalog. This argument is bolstered by the name of the new production company, [[Section 23 Films]], which is a not-so-subtle reference to a part of Texas tax law that allowed ADV to pretty much legally hide their assets from their creditors and the Japanese.
* 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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