ADV Films: Death and Rebirth

ADV's been around since well before I got into the anime hobby.

They were the cool kids, the ones we all wanted to emulate. They were Ã¼ber-fans who actually got the money together to license this stuff and bring it over to America. They dubbed things. They were in the thick of things.

They freaking licensed Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Not without controversy, of course. Their dubs were generally mediocre, and as the English dubbing scene improved, they didn't improve as much as most others. They had decent packaging and standard extras.

And that was the problem, ultimately. They stayed in the middle of the pack, despite having a huge catalog of fan-favorite and broadly-appealing titles. Here's a partial list:


 * 5 Centimeters Per Second
 * Azumanga Daioh
 * Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040
 * Le Chevalier D'Eon
 * Chrono Crusade
 * D.N.Angel
 * Excel Saga
 * Full Metal Panic! (original and Fumoffu)
 * Gantz
 * Ghost Stories
 * Gilgamesh
 * Golden Boy
 * Grave of the Fireflies
 * Hello Kitty
 * King of Bandits: Jing
 * Kaleido Star
 * Kino's Journey
 * Madlax
 * Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
 * Medabots
 * Mezzo
 * Nadesico
 * Nadia
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion
 * Noir
 * The Place Promised in Our Early Days
 * Pretear
 * Rahxephon
 * Princess Tutu
 * Sailor Moon
 * Sakura Wars
 * Rurouni Kenshin
 * Slayers
 * Utawarerumono
 * Venus Versus Virus
 * Voices of a Distant Star

Then things started going south. Business deals with Japanese companies fell through. Releases slowed to a trickle. Their triumphant publication of Newtype USA collapsed.

And, on September 1, ADV sold off its holdings. Things looked bad.

Until ANN got hold of the story and started investigating. Turns out ADV's lawyer set up the companies to which ADV sold so many of its assets. And most of ADV's employees were now working at said companies. The only conspicuous absence was John Ledford, co-founder of ADV.

A picture begins to emerge. One based on massive speculation that will probably get me sued.

But first, an important point upon which this all spins:  How does a company with media assets as rich as the ones I listed above do so poorly in an industry that has generally done very well? Okay, so they had mediocre packaging and dubs. That's not enough to kill a company.

We have a clue:  deals fall through. It's not a problem with their properties; it's a problem with their deal-making (and deal-maintenance).

I suspect that much of the blame for those deal problems fell at John Ledford's feet. Rightly or wrongly. I've no idea of Ledford's role in all this, honestly, but based on what I'm seeing, I suspect that employees felt he was dragging the company down. But he was co-founder. He was ADV.

So, those around him performed an end-run. They had their lawyer set up separate companies, transferred all ADV's assets to those companies, and left en masse for those companies. John Ledford was left with an empty shell called ADV Films.

This explains the smiles and reassurances from ADV personnel for the past year, despite all the problems ADV faced. This explains the hastily-posted, poorly-formatted press release. They had a way out.

Now, I don't know if any of this actually is John Ledford's fault. It could be misconceptions on the other employees' part. This could all be a big plan by Ledford. (Though this outburst by Ledford about file-sharing from March of 2008 suggests someone who's looking externally rather than internally for scapegoats.)  Heck, I don't know if this revolves around Ledford at all. I'm just saying this is the only explanation that makes sense to me, that brings all the pieces together. I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

'''ADV didn't die. It's being reborn as Section23''', which now "has all of ADV's former licenses and most of its staff,...[and] will continue to distribute the current orders and future pre-orders that ADV used to fulfill, without changing their schedules." Moreover, the day after all this ADV collapse, Section23 announced licenses for Blue Drop, Polyphonica, Special A, Tears to Tiara, and You're Under Arrest second season.

If only they'd picked a less odd-sounding name than "Sxion 23." Ah well.