Section23, AEsir and Sentai Filmworks

Just what happened to ADV films? And who are the successor companies - Section23 and Aesir. And who are the Sentai Filmworks?

OK, I kinda think I understand what happened to ADV, their reorg, and the licenses for their various titles. If I have missed something, please call it to my attention or feel free to add to this thread.

Back in mid-2008, an independent non-ADV-related anime-licensing company called Sentai Filmworks was formed and entered into some agreements with ADV films to have their titles distributed. Sentai Filmworks is registered in Houston TX (same city as ADV) and its listed owner is John Ledford (a head of ADV). The creation of this company was probably due to falling out of ADV and Sojitz Corp which happened in early 2008 and functionally stripped ADV of access to the R1-license of a number of promising new titles. ANN source.

Not missing a beat, Funimation stepped in to pick up some 30 of ADV's former titles

Can’t be an anime company if one doesn’t have the hot new products to deliver to the fans. So ADV films was forced to rethink their business model and decided undergo a reorg and radical change.

So in September 2009, ADV decided to bite the bullet and reorganize.

ADV sold off some of their titles. The AEsir holding company took ownership of remaining R1 titles and will manage them until the licenses expire.

Section23 (also known as SXION23) was formed to market, list and distribute the ADV titles.

I think that the ADV dubbing/subbing unit (ADV=Animation Dubbing Vision) unit was just sort of lost in the reorg. Dubbing is expensive, takes a lot of up-front cash to create and needs to sell a lot #'s over time to recover the investment costs. Subtitles are A LOT CHEAPER TO PRODUCE.

An ADV production unit known as Amusement Park Media seems to either evaporated or gotten lost in the shuffle.

The licenses for certain selected (and profitable) ADV titles were transferred to Sentai Filmworks. Sentai has also picked up both a number of expired titles (from Geneon/Pioneer), a few other titles that were trouble, as well as a number of new anime titles (such as Tears to Tiara). The new titles are being released only as subtitled/boxed sets. What I don't know is if Sentai's licensing agreements are for a certain # of DVD sets (10K or 30K prints) or time based (one or three year license agreement).

Now given that Japanese companies are giving certain US-based streaming companies (Crunchyroll etc) license to stream their titles, it understandable that they could easily support DVD/BlueRay subtitled releases of their works. As long as they are being paid for their hard work and hold ownership rights to their titles.

So the fallout of the ADV reorg has left two companies still in business and playing in the market place.

Section23 – A group who now distribute AEsir and Sentai anime titles and are in a good position to help market any titles that Japanese companies would like to license and bring to the R1 market.

Sentai Filmworks – Not formerly part of the ADV parent company and as such, not tainted by the Sojitz fallout. With none of the ADV baggage or liabilities, they are free to seek out and bring to market any interesting (and profitable) anime titles.

I think that this is a mostly correct assessment of what happened to ADV. But I suspect my oversimplification may have missed more than a few bloody corporate battles (complete with the bodies of more than a few fallen heroes). What ever…..

• Christopher Macdonald's Sept 2009 ANN write up about the What's Happening with ADV Films.

• JPMeyer's thoughts about ADV-Sentai Filmworks thingie.

• JBByant's understanding about The ADV change. a

Edited on 01/06/2010 05:28 PM.

ADV actually broke into 4 companies

• Sentai - New Stuff (Dub and Sub) (Mostly a few classics in there)
• AEsir - Old Stuff
• Section 23 - A distribution company like Rightstuf.
• Seraphim Studios (The original dubbing studios in Houston I think). - Nothing out of this office recently. (Used to be called ADV Pro).
• Seraphim is physically located inside Section23 in a bit of trivia

Edited on 01/06/2010 06:07 PM.

Ever hear of the licensing company called Nozomi Entertainment?

Were you aware that they hold the R1-license for about 20 titles, some of which are favorites of both Forbin and myself?

They are the licensing division of ↗Rightstuf.

Tis dern confusing.... It is probably better that we use the R1 License - Right Stuf Int listing just to keep down any potential confusion.

Interesting, Nozomi is owned by Rightstuf, and they licensed Rental Magica.

Yep, I was able to source the info from ANN's Rental Magica title page.

There's another company that's connected to Section 23 as well: Switchblade Pictures. ADV had formed the company back in 2008 to release live-action Japanese films here in the states. Like Sentai Filmworks, Section 23 also handles the distribution of Japanese movies that are licensed under Switchblade.

Switchblade is still officially owned by ADV. It might become the home of all the debt owed to collectors.

They are playing the corporate magic money game. If the companies are too close and under one management, then the debt of one becomes the debt of all. But if they are all separate and standalone companies, then moving assets between them is impossible (or difficult at least).

When a company comes under duress, it is not uncommon for the owners and share holders (ADV was a privately held company) to have differing opinions as to how best maintain profitability.

That is possibly how Sentai Filmworks was formed. With the restructuring, it will probably be easier to understand which group is making a profit vs a loss. Keep in mind that a R1-licensing or holding company can be just 2 people (a manager and a secretary - and the secretary can be a part-timer....)

Well, this reorg is still pretty much new news, so it has yet to be proven if it was a wise move....