[...] Geneon’s US demise this past October left a bad taste in my mouth. I figured a monopoly was the worse that could happen, but also that other unsavory outcomes were possible. Some fans had the opinion Geneon’s tanking was no biggie, while others who’ve seen this sort of thing before took a “wait and see” approach to the episode. [...]

Yes it can be frustrating. But to be fair, Geneon USA was just the North American distributor for the parent company, Geneon Entertainment, which is located in Japan. Two things happened at around the same time which lead to the current situation…Dentsu became the sole owner of Geneon (Japan) after Mitsubishi divested and the ADV/Geneon USA deal collapsed. Apparently, Dentsu wanted to streamline Geneon and made the decision to concentrate on the Japanese side of the equation. We shall see if they have any plans about the licenses still up in the air in the US.

As for Ergo Proxy, Geneon USA did complete that series. Last I saw, RightStuf!, Robert’s Anime Corner Store, and Amazon have all 6 volumes available.

Sorry for the delay with the reply…the new year has been quite busy for me.

I believe you will find that AnimeNetwork.com and Vuze.com offer better quality videos. You may also want to look at ImaginAsianTV, since they stream some of their anime in subbed form…navigating their site is not as easy as the other two. I would suggest using their scheduling grid (Mondays and Fridays, I believe, are nights when they show anime).

As ICv2’s CEO has said, the current business model for DVD sales is breaking down. He has also said that, while the release of sets will reduce the per DVD cost, they will never be as inexpensive as the season sets for US TV series due to “the inherent costs of licensing, producing, and dubbing anime”.

The costs of sub-only sets will be less than the dubbed versions and some companies have released sub-only sets on lesser known titles. Perhaps they will expand this practice to other series, offering a “budget” line of releases and have the dubbed version as the premium line (value added, perhaps, with some extras). Using fansub translations should also help keep the cost down. Of course, there is a downside for the people/companies which provide the translation and dubbing services.

With the increase in high speed/broadband connectivity, an interesting alternative has started to appear. BOST TV, a Japanese company, is offering sub-only streaming (for rent and free) of lesser known series. Their goal:

“We want to bring you anime more quickly than before and titles that see little chance of a DVD release.”

Similarly, Vuze (formerly Azureus) is offering free, for rent, and for sale anime.

ADV is using its AnimeNetwork.com to stream some of their dubbed series for free (with ads).

It might be a good idea for companies like FUNimation (and, yes, ADV too) to partner with BOST TV and/or Vuze to offer sub-only versions of the titles which they license. They can split the licensing cost with the online service and offer lower cost DVDs to the public.

From what I’ve been reading, the next sticking point are with licensing fees. Apparently, the Japanese companies are unwilling to change their current business model and thus want to keep the current licensing scheme. This will limit how low US companies can price their titles…also, this will limit the number of titles they are willing to license.

Amen to that!
English Dubbing vs Domestic Anime DVDs. There is no contest.

I also like Mochi`s idea of using fansub groups to do translations. Half the time the tranlations from fansubs are of better quality. Maybe do the same thing with fan-dubbing?

Speaking of quality. I should had figured months ago that somehting was up with Geneon when the “extras” on the DVDs were cut down to almost nothing on their standard releases.

I hoping that this doesn’t start a chain reaction. Speaking of sub-onlys. I am having flashbacks to the VHS days of when I paid $5 to $10 more for a sub.

I have got to be one of the few anime fans that supports English-Dubbing. It`s a lot better than what it use to be.