For any of you who have an interest in the anime market, Geneon sent out letters today that stated they would no longer be producing, selling, or distributing DVDs after November 11th.

Furthermore, they also seem to have set a retailer order deadline of this Friday, September 28th, so after that, copies of stuff will be available on a stock-on-hand basis only.

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If you need to fill in holes in your collection, DVDPacific and DeepDiscount are probably the most economical options, though DVDPacific is already selling out of stuff, and I don't usually browse the latter site's inventory.

TRSI just had their bi-annual Geneon sale, so their prices aren't particularly good at this time, but they should be able to fill any backorders, while the other two sites may not, so if you're desperate...

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Discussions of this news can be found on the major R1 forums, such as animeondvd.com and animenewsnetwork.com.

This sucks, a lot.

It seems I misunderstood one of the details.

The retailer order freeze won't be absolute after this Friday. Rather, all orders placed after Friday will not be returnable to Geneon for credit, so it is unlikely that retailers will order more stock than they can reasonably expect to sell.

Different meaning, same net effect, though.

I think it's safe to say the anime bubble has burst a little bit (okay, a BIG bit...Geneon's pretty huge and they have some of the most recognizable titles). I'm thinking the regular "practical giveaway" sales that feature ADV and Geneon discs can't be a good thing. 25 DVD's for $100 (including shipping, IIRC) isn't healthy business. I was amazed to fill out my Lupin, Star Ocean EX, Tokyo Underground and Mini-Goddess collections in one shot when I had been paying $20-$25 per disc (I rarely go straight through a series, so I was stuck on 1-2 volumes for each). Great for me, but...I feel bad for the distributors.

I think the problem is the distribution...No one wants to pay $20-$30 per disc over the course of a 6-7 disc series (most anime fans I know can't afford it anyway...They're lucky to pay for dinner when we go out to eat) and between the increase in boxsets (of older series though...still, 3-5 episodes vs 13 or even 26 episodes for practically the same price is kinda lopsided) and these sales (which I know a lot of people just sit back and wait for)...Matter of time.

Also of note: Originally, Geneon and ADV had worked out a distribution deal, but they called it off when they couldn't reach a mutual agreement. I guess this is the result.

Those sales (two Geneon, one ADV; hardly regular) were most likely in preparation for the Geneon/ADV distribution deal, since Dentsu, the company that owns Geneon, probably figured they'd be easier to plant as a production studio if they didn't have a big warehouse of stuff following them around.

The sale on ADV's end was almost entirely comprised of stuff that had been repackaged as cheap thinpaks, so it was most certainly an attempt at clearing space.

Yes, you're right when you say that the prices are high (though we should all know how to get singles for $16-$17ish, which still offers near-retail sell-through to the licensing companies), but considering how few sales the average series gets (single-digit thousands implies a success of some sort), coupled with licensing and dubbing costs, it would probably be impossible to break even if they were any lower. Piracy is just too rampant, and the North American market is just too small for a lower price = more sales effect in most cases.

I'm sure I buy a lot more than most people, so I'm probably also one of those most affected by this development.

Actually Dentsu (Geneon US owner) pulled the plug on that deal and then pulled the plug on Geneon US. Atleast that's what I've read.

Hopefully this will make the japanese license owners to think a bit about their prices, probably high license costs could be one reason why Geneon have to close the doors.

We actually don't know what caused the deal to fail.

It could have been Dentsu, it could have been ADV, it could have been Sojitz (ADV's Japanese backer, but not absolute controller), or it could have been bland, stale cookies that made everyone grumpy.

Until someone who was actually involved finds a way to let us know (NDAs suck), it's kinda pointless to speculate. The only thing that matters is that it failed, so the market is going to be affected in a not-so-minor way.

Information we know right now:
- Geneon USA laid off its marketing and sales divisions in preparation for the ADV deal. Whether this was Dentsu's call or Geneon USA's in unknown.

- Geneon USA, at least from the VP level downward, expected the ADV deal to succeed. Additional jobs were almost immediately lost when it fell through.
(This information was made known after the news broke yesterday, allowing one of the former employees to comment. Again, NDAs suck)

-Additional details revealed by this employee involved the previous press release, which, as we all know, was full of lies, or at least very careful wording, by its very nature. The intent was to finish ongoing titles (possibly those that were recently licensed, too), then shut down, without any indication of what would happen to Geneon USA's licenses after that point. It is unknown what will happen with ongoing series at this time.

Those are all the real facts we know right now, so try to base arguments and speculation on those while discussing this. Made up details and rumours won't help this situation, and they may give false hope, which is the last thing any collector wants.

I'll post more facts as they're made available, provided nobody else beats me to them.

I'm sorta tempted to pick up at least Trigun Remix, since that's the only Geneon series I know interests me.  I've been out of the anime game for years because it is too expensive.  So, I don't know what to do.

Trigun Remix has been out for a while (six DVDs), and it's one of the more popular titles, so you shouldn't have any problems securing a set.

The Limited Edition Collectors Tins, if still available, contain the Remix discs (and they're pretty!), so you could substitute those in if you can find them, though they're a bit more expensive.

I noticed them on Deep Discount, but it seems to have come out before the individual Trigun Remix discs.  AnimeonDVD says that the limited edition tins also came out before the individual discs.  http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews/categ … y=1&view=5  No real confirmation though.  Are you sure about this?

I'm sure about this.  The tins are indeed the remix discs.

Same. I've got 'em in my possession.

Thanks for the details Hamster. 
Product Distribution in the USA is a costly high-maintenance bitch, no matter what industry a company is in.

Not that I want to be one to start rumours, but a statement made on Dentsu's page suggests they're shutting down Geneon with a one-time loss (~$44 million USD) in a manner that may offer some tax credit.

I'm hardly up to date on Japanese business law, but *speculation* by people who tend to be reasonably intelligent (sources: AoD, ANN, industry representatives, level-headed forum members) suggests that Dentsu itself may be going through a rough financial period, and it sees killing subsidiaries as a way to stay afloat.

Geneon's former employees have stated that they were meeting the goals Dentsu asked of them, so they probably weren't bleeding money, though I doubt they were raking it in, either.

What this could potentially mean is that distribution may not have been the issue at all, though the deal may have slashed costs enough to make Geneon USA a subsidiary that might have been worth holding on to a little longer.

In other words, parent company had financial troubles and sacrifices the dependant child company to get a boost in the bottom line.  Corporate values at work!

Pretty much, yeah, but it still hasn't been confirmed in any way, so, like [rumor] tags if you're going to post stuff about it elsewhere.