Anime Industry in Decline?

Originally Posted by yevheniy

After the loss of ADV in the United States,

When did ADV fold? I knew they had to give up some of their licenses, but I didn't think they actually dropped out. My cable still carries their On Demand pay-per-view network as far as I know.

If the Japanese companies are going to blame anyone for low sales over here, it should be the American DVD companies. I used to buy lots of DVDs, even if I'd already seen the series fansubbed, in part to help support the market. Then they started putting fewer episodes per disc and a lot less effort into them. ADV was especially bad for using the same few VAs in nearly every series they put out regardless of whether or not they fit the roles.

Last week I rented disc 1 of Gurren Lagann from Netflix, and not only did it have no dub, but the sub had several blatant spelling mistakes too (plast instead of past). A friend said that the lack of dub was a money issue, but even so why would I pay $20 for what equates to a mediocre fansub?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

How does that work exactly? My friend was saying they released subbed-only first to gauge interest and then released the discs with dubs. I was confused since I'd already seen a few dubbed episodes on SciFi channel a few months ago, so I knew they existed.

How ya doing, buddy?