9 ms·

Anime retailer Right Stuf has been acquired by Sony/Aniplex

70 points by davidhaymond 4y ago

superchroma 4y ago
I suspect that with the consolidation of players in the anime streaming and merchandise spaces in the west, we will see western values increasingly pushed into the medium, as many voices are unified into fewer bigger ones with increasing financial influence. I'm not particularly excited for this as the big players have already demonstrated themselves to be conservative and censorious when it suits in other areas. I think we're on the edge of the hollywood-ization of the medium. Crunchyroll has already been apparently involved in the production of a bunch of programmes, and was directly responsible for High Guardian Spice, which I think few people have anything nice to say about.
- krapp 4y ago
  That might be true if "western values" (whatever that's supposed to mean) were a primary determining factor in what anime Westerners chose to watch, and if it were still the 1990s when things like cigarettes, guns and LGBT relationships were routinely cut out of anime for Western release. But looking at the MyAnimeList page for Summer 2022 anime[0] I don't see signs of the "hollywoodization" you're talking about. The selling point for these services is immediacy, not censorship. [0]https://myanimelist.net/anime/season https://myanimelist.net/anime/season
  - superchroma 4y ago
    Right, but immediacy is already solved. The streaming side is solved by platforms already, and the translation side is solved by having a sweatshop of translators and maybe eventually algorithms to help, too. We've had immediacy for some time now, already. Moving on, I don't think you will see changes prominently on anichart or MAL anytime soon; the point is that it's gradual and more subtle than that. Crunchyroll was already involved with 60 productions apparently. Conceptually, in a hypothetical "worst case", they could have been influencing artistic choices for each of those programs. We do know they did one: High Guardian Spice is a particularly explicit example of an anime deliberately constructed to western progressive specifications. A lot of people are rather unkind about it, but that's really immaterial; what it really is is a clumsy first attempt at end-to-end control of the anime pipeline from script, to production, to distribution. They didn't find a winning formula with it, but they'll keep trying because there's too much money on the table. So, I do think that this change in tone is imminently about to happen. Weatern values have already been injected in other forms in localized content too, e.g. in our uptightness about certain types of expressions of sexuality (e.g. that which is perceived to be pervy; e.g, the infilling of "boob-windows" and covering of midriffs in localized games), and with activist translators who deliberately whitewash phrases they find problematic and also who select progressive translation choices over neutral ones. The bottom line to me is that the money men have zero interest in the integrity of the mediums in which they dabble. As you note, there's precedent; in the 90's, it was 4kids dubs which routinely butchered shows, sometimes extremely. The nature of the interference will change with the standards of the day, but the fundamentals don't.
  - aidenn0 4y ago
    I think the point GP made is that it doesn't matter what anime Westerners choose to watch, it matters what anime the fewer number of players want to license. [edit] I personally don't think that will be an issue because I don't see Netflix turning down an anime that Crunchyroll refuses to carry...
    - a1369209993 4y ago
      > I don't see Netflix turning down an anime that Crunchyroll refuses to carry Oh hey! I have a litmus test handy! Got a citation for Netflix carrying "Ishuzoku Reviewers"?
      - aidenn0 4y ago
        I didn't realize there was an anime adaption of that; I read the first few chapters of the manga a while ago and my impression was that it was a "sex comedy" that was neither sexy nor funny; does it get better? In addition; Per wikipedia, Tokyo MX and SUN both canceled their airing of it as well, so it's not strictly western sensibilities that it is failing.
        mcphage 4y ago
        I saw a few episodes of the anime… it wasn’t the best show in the world but it was surprisingly sex-positive.
  - dotnet00 4y ago
    At the moment the extent of it is mostly that sometimes dubs or subtitles are changed by overeager translators trying to leave their mark, in the process changing the meaning or intent of the dialog. Rough examples that come to mind are changing jokes that can potentially be interpreted as sexist or even less justifiable cases of changing dialog for the sake of adding in meme language like "sus". There are also cases of trying to get rid of features of japanese like honorifics because of the samewhat strange assumption that western audiences can't be expected to understand them, despite them being pretty normal to the anime community. Personally I also miss the approach that older fan subtitles used to have of including TL notes for things that don't necessarily translate cleanly, it was a nice way to respect the original material. For now, it doesn't really have too much of an effect since Crunchyroll and Netflix's subtitles already don't really have a good reputation. But it's certainly a sign that if they could get away with it, they'd definitely do more.
    - teraflop 4y ago
      > sometimes dubs or subtitles are changed by overeager translators trying to leave their mark, in the process changing the meaning or intent of the dialog. This is a meme that has mostly been spread by people who don't really speak Japanese, but have picked up a few words and are convinced they know better than bilingual professional translators. > adding in meme language like "sus" I remember seeing this example making the rounds -- IIRC, it was a translation of the word きょどる, which is a slang term that was coined fairly recently (90s). It's a contraction of 挙動不審, which means roughly "acting/moving suspiciously as though you're trying to hide something". So not only does it accurately convey the meaning, but turning a slang Japanese term into a non-slang English translation would be less faithful to the original intent. Of course, the anime fans who complained about the translation don't know this, because the word isn't in any of their Japanese-English dictionary sites, and they can't read well enough to just Google it. On top of that, many of them have gotten so accustomed to stilted translations that they think the stiltedness is somehow a reflection of the original Japanese dialogue itself, and therefore any translations that sound more natural in English must be somehow "inauthentic". And certain anime fans are absolutely convinced that "progressive" values are entirely unheard of in Japan, and therefore could only have been introduced by "Western influence". So they will seize on any shred of evidence that seems to support this narrative, no matter how flimsy.
- _notathrowaway 4y ago
  I don't buy it. For better or worse Japanese studios have proved time and time again to not really care about the west. Just look at how expensive and hard it is to import their (usually not localized) stuff. Japan lives in its own isolation bubble and western values are of no concern to most Japanese people.
  - ThrowawayR2 4y ago
    That seems rather out of touch? The vast majority of TV broadcast anime series every season are licensed for simulcast by streaming services in North America and that has been the case for several years now. At a casual glance at the TV tab of https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2022/spring https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2022/spring , I think at least 2/3 are licensed by western streaming services. There's enough revenue that they can't afford not to care.
    - iratewizard 4y ago
      To date I've only seen smaller budget, little fish studios churn out woke propaganda that performs poorly. In the past, they were the same small-time studios that produced knock-off Gundam, 3d render shounen, unremarkable isekai anime #59, etc.
      - krapp 4y ago
        I don't think "woke propaganda" is a thing in Japan, so it would surprise me if smaller anime studios (which, presumably, have less margin for taking risks) would be "churning out" anything of the sort, as opposed to whatever was most profitable in the domestic market for the least cost. Can you give examples?
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - OmarAssadi 4y ago
        Woke propaganda? I haven’t seen an absolute ton of anime, but I’ve got nearly 200 items on my list, and I don’t think I’ve watched anything that could qualify. What are you coming across that I’m not?
- quartesixte 4y ago
  What might happen is a return of the original Anime market and (hopefully) more steady pay for animators. The Japanese domestic market is dominated mostly by Manga, Light Novels, Visual Novel, (and now Gacha games) anyways, with Anime mostly being a cherry on-top for those things. Occasionally there will be a good adaptation or a good original Anime product but the industry’s been suffering a little bit. This new cash infusion might be healthy and allow for enough animators to be paid a livable wage that lets them go off and do crazy adventurous things as they advance in their careers.
- ihuman 4y ago
  They're already proving your point by immediately removing 18+ items from the store https://www.rightstufanime.com/removed-items-faq https://www.rightstufanime.com/removed-items-faq
- _23sd 4y ago
  The money is definitely trending that way. The Association of Japanese Animators publishes yearly data on industry trends [1], and their data shows a stagnant domestic market and a booming overseas market from 2014 onwards. International revenues overtook domestic in 2020. However, focusing purely on anime ignores the rest of the creative pipeline. The most popular anime series are based on manga or novels, and even though the western licensing business is growing again, it's still small enough that manga and novels only get published in English if it's already a hit in Japan. That may help keep anime distinctly Japanese even with all this money flowing in from around the world. [1] https://aja.gr.jp/english/japan-anime-data https://aja.gr.jp/english/japan-anime-data
  - rendaw 4y ago
    Manga is also done by one or (maybe) two people, rather than a committee of like 50+. This means you get a clear vision and individuality shines through.
    - rowanG077 4y ago
      I believe this is the reason why storytelling in manga/anime is so superiour to most western forms of content.
- iratewizard 4y ago
  I hope they never get any real influence and are recognized for the useless gatekeepers they are. Crunchyroll, for example, throws some of the worst Tumblrina translators at pretty much every show I've seen from them. They inject their own loser personality into the characters by completely changing the meaning of their words. Not only does it alienate people who haven't really watched much anime from getting into it, but it also prevents learners from getting good top-down language listening practice. Once it's translated by Funimation, Crunchyroll or Netflix, I don't think I've ever seen it get properly translated by a fansub group. They are a blight that to disappear into obscurity.
- JetAlone 4y ago
  It's not just going to be hollywood-ization or western values, this is the flavour of globalism we're getting in most of the world for the current age. I don't like it, and the only thing I can really do about it is create my own stories and art in my time off when I feel lonely/unheard and share it with the people I'm allowed to be in contact with.
  - inawarminister 4y ago
    Do you have any links for your works/space? I'm interested. I'm usually active in spacebattles, at least the old-style fanfic writers do still output gems now and then. Like Worm and some others.
teg4n_ 4y ago
Why the hell are they punting erotica to a different store. God I hate this major corporation puritan bs.
- revscat 4y ago
  It's universal, too. I don't get it.
  - trothamel 4y ago
    It seems to be enforced by the credit card companies and processors, who likely charge more to process transactions for companies that involve pornography. (Probably due to the spurious chargebacks.)
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - HeyItsMatt 4y ago
      Nothing to do with transaction risk. Congress and the executive branch have a myriad of ways to harm a large business if they don't get what they want. Visa's issues with religious fundamentalists started in the Tipper Gore days. During the Bush presidency it was nearly impossible for a porn site to get a US payment processor.
      - revscat 4y ago
        I meant “universal” as in “every government”, not as on “all across America.” Every government does this.
    - qball 4y ago
      >It seems to be enforced by the credit card companies and processors Who are an unofficial arm of the US government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
    - 4y ago
aidenn0 4y ago
I'm old enough to have ordered anime from their catalog, back when your choices for Anime were driving to a big city that had a specialty store, getting it from a catalog, or copying fansubs on VHS tapes. [edit] I forgot "random anime tapes that got thrown in the children's section of your pre-blockbuster VHS rental store." as another way to find anime.
dragontamer 4y ago
Hmm. A lot of my favorite anime still come in from Hidive / Sentai Filmworks. I really enjoyed "Ya Boy Kongming" for example. And Sentai Filmworks are the current owners of When they Cry (2006) and Fate/Stay (2006). I'm definitely worried about consolidation wiping out the competition. Then again, I hope people can give Hidive / Ya Boy Kongming a try. Its basically an idol anime crossed with Chinese Romance-of-the-Three-Kingdoms / Zhuge Liang as the manager, and my favorite anime this year so far. Give the first episode a try, there's ~3 songs in there. If the songs match your musical tastes, you'll probably enjoy the show. And yes, that's a Liu Bei reference. (Liu Bei visits Zhuge Liang 3 times before the young tactician agrees to join Liu Bei's cause. This parallel's young Eiko's journey as an idol, as she sings three times before Zhuge Liang is convinced to help her). Its actually an excellent mix of subtle Three Kingdoms stories with a good idol anime. Crunchyroll/Funimation merging, and Sony/Aniplex all being involved here is convenient for sure, I like a lot of what they do. But anime has a lot of niches, and one mega-company will inevitably have blind spots over time. Most of my favorites are in Crunchyroll / Funimation and even Aniplex (Ex: Oddtaxi, Madoka, Dragonball Z/Super).
- ihuman 4y ago
  Hidive and Sentai Filmworks aren't independent, either. AMC Networks (the channel, not the movie theater) bought them about half a year ago.
- davidhaymond 4y ago
  Ya Boy Kongming looks fantastic and I absolutely plan on subscribing to HIDIVE later this year. I have a lot of Sentai Blu-rays and I hope they continue to license good shows.
- unsignedint 4y ago
  Hidive's catalogue is definitely smaller compared to its competition but especially if you are after slice of life type shows, it has pretty good coverage. (I used to have both Crunchyroll and Hidive, but dropped Crunchyroll when they raised their price.) Honestly for some reason, I'm finding myself watching less and less anime anyways and instead I'm bit more inclined pursuing different activities. (I used to watch at least 5 each season, but only anime I'm watching this season is Made in Abyss...)
norwalkbear 4y ago
Monopolies and industry consolidation should be illegal. If only Congress would do its job.
- Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
  Here you're saying the founders and owners of Right Stuff Inc. should have very limited rights to cash out, to turn their illiquid shares of their company into money. My father used to have a subspecialty in this, it's very hard for typical private companies, so much so he'd generally get a 1/3 cut for accomplishing it. One very real alternative is just shutting down when the founder get too old to run it.
  - electriclove 4y ago
    Sell it to someone.. anyone else..
    - Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
      The market for buying small companies like Right Stuff Inc. is small and very particular and peculiar. To sell it to anyone else but a large or giant company like Sony/Crunchyroll is going to be hard as I said. For what we as consumers would like you'd need to find another otaku or group of them who are wealthy and/or trustworthy enough to pay in installments out of ongoing gross profits, and you'd have to trust their business sense. You'd want someone like my father to do some of the footwork and all of deal making to avoid distractions from running the business and lowering its value. Or you have to find an interested big player of which there just aren't very many. And here this clearly fits in with Sony's previous actions in America like buying Funimation and Crunchyroll, but unfortunately they're likely one of the worst case buyers. From the viewpoint of the owners, Wikipedia says Shawne Kleckner who's still with it is 50 and the company was founded in 1987, 35 years is a long time to be running a company. Wven if it started out as a shell to buy and resell telescopes, pretty soon they started bringing the classic Astro Boy to the direct to home market and in due course became a competitive general mail order reseller as well as localizer. When TokyoPop nuked their reselling arm after Y2K they became the highest profile one as far as I know, not counting increasingly untrustworthy Amazon. Which Right Stuff regularly also uses as a platform while doing their own fulfillment.

70 points by davidhaymond 4y ago

I suspect that with the consolidation of players in the anime streaming and merchandise spaces in the west, we will see western values increasingly pushed into the medium, as many voices are unified into fewer bigger ones with increasing financial influence. I'm not particularly excited for this as the big players have already demonstrated themselves to be conservative and censorious when it suits in other areas. I think we're on the edge of the hollywood-ization of the medium. Crunchyroll has already been apparently involved in the production of a bunch of programmes, and was directly responsible for High Guardian Spice, which I think few people have anything nice to say about.

krapp 4y ago
That might be true if "western values" (whatever that's supposed to mean) were a primary determining factor in what anime Westerners chose to watch, and if it were still the 1990s when things like cigarettes, guns and LGBT relationships were routinely cut out of anime for Western release. But looking at the MyAnimeList page for Summer 2022 anime[0] I don't see signs of the "hollywoodization" you're talking about. The selling point for these services is immediacy, not censorship. [0]https://myanimelist.net/anime/season https://myanimelist.net/anime/season
- superchroma 4y ago
  Right, but immediacy is already solved. The streaming side is solved by platforms already, and the translation side is solved by having a sweatshop of translators and maybe eventually algorithms to help, too. We've had immediacy for some time now, already. Moving on, I don't think you will see changes prominently on anichart or MAL anytime soon; the point is that it's gradual and more subtle than that. Crunchyroll was already involved with 60 productions apparently. Conceptually, in a hypothetical "worst case", they could have been influencing artistic choices for each of those programs. We do know they did one: High Guardian Spice is a particularly explicit example of an anime deliberately constructed to western progressive specifications. A lot of people are rather unkind about it, but that's really immaterial; what it really is is a clumsy first attempt at end-to-end control of the anime pipeline from script, to production, to distribution. They didn't find a winning formula with it, but they'll keep trying because there's too much money on the table. So, I do think that this change in tone is imminently about to happen. Weatern values have already been injected in other forms in localized content too, e.g. in our uptightness about certain types of expressions of sexuality (e.g. that which is perceived to be pervy; e.g, the infilling of "boob-windows" and covering of midriffs in localized games), and with activist translators who deliberately whitewash phrases they find problematic and also who select progressive translation choices over neutral ones. The bottom line to me is that the money men have zero interest in the integrity of the mediums in which they dabble. As you note, there's precedent; in the 90's, it was 4kids dubs which routinely butchered shows, sometimes extremely. The nature of the interference will change with the standards of the day, but the fundamentals don't.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  I think the point GP made is that it doesn't matter what anime Westerners choose to watch, it matters what anime the fewer number of players want to license. [edit] I personally don't think that will be an issue because I don't see Netflix turning down an anime that Crunchyroll refuses to carry...
  - a1369209993 4y ago
    > I don't see Netflix turning down an anime that Crunchyroll refuses to carry Oh hey! I have a litmus test handy! Got a citation for Netflix carrying "Ishuzoku Reviewers"?
    - aidenn0 4y ago
      I didn't realize there was an anime adaption of that; I read the first few chapters of the manga a while ago and my impression was that it was a "sex comedy" that was neither sexy nor funny; does it get better? In addition; Per wikipedia, Tokyo MX and SUN both canceled their airing of it as well, so it's not strictly western sensibilities that it is failing.
      - mcphage 4y ago
        I saw a few episodes of the anime… it wasn’t the best show in the world but it was surprisingly sex-positive.
- dotnet00 4y ago
  At the moment the extent of it is mostly that sometimes dubs or subtitles are changed by overeager translators trying to leave their mark, in the process changing the meaning or intent of the dialog. Rough examples that come to mind are changing jokes that can potentially be interpreted as sexist or even less justifiable cases of changing dialog for the sake of adding in meme language like "sus". There are also cases of trying to get rid of features of japanese like honorifics because of the samewhat strange assumption that western audiences can't be expected to understand them, despite them being pretty normal to the anime community. Personally I also miss the approach that older fan subtitles used to have of including TL notes for things that don't necessarily translate cleanly, it was a nice way to respect the original material. For now, it doesn't really have too much of an effect since Crunchyroll and Netflix's subtitles already don't really have a good reputation. But it's certainly a sign that if they could get away with it, they'd definitely do more.
  - teraflop 4y ago
    > sometimes dubs or subtitles are changed by overeager translators trying to leave their mark, in the process changing the meaning or intent of the dialog. This is a meme that has mostly been spread by people who don't really speak Japanese, but have picked up a few words and are convinced they know better than bilingual professional translators. > adding in meme language like "sus" I remember seeing this example making the rounds -- IIRC, it was a translation of the word きょどる, which is a slang term that was coined fairly recently (90s). It's a contraction of 挙動不審, which means roughly "acting/moving suspiciously as though you're trying to hide something". So not only does it accurately convey the meaning, but turning a slang Japanese term into a non-slang English translation would be less faithful to the original intent. Of course, the anime fans who complained about the translation don't know this, because the word isn't in any of their Japanese-English dictionary sites, and they can't read well enough to just Google it. On top of that, many of them have gotten so accustomed to stilted translations that they think the stiltedness is somehow a reflection of the original Japanese dialogue itself, and therefore any translations that sound more natural in English must be somehow "inauthentic". And certain anime fans are absolutely convinced that "progressive" values are entirely unheard of in Japan, and therefore could only have been introduced by "Western influence". So they will seize on any shred of evidence that seems to support this narrative, no matter how flimsy.
_notathrowaway 4y ago
I don't buy it. For better or worse Japanese studios have proved time and time again to not really care about the west. Just look at how expensive and hard it is to import their (usually not localized) stuff. Japan lives in its own isolation bubble and western values are of no concern to most Japanese people.
- ThrowawayR2 4y ago
  That seems rather out of touch? The vast majority of TV broadcast anime series every season are licensed for simulcast by streaming services in North America and that has been the case for several years now. At a casual glance at the TV tab of https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2022/spring https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2022/spring , I think at least 2/3 are licensed by western streaming services. There's enough revenue that they can't afford not to care.
  - iratewizard 4y ago
    To date I've only seen smaller budget, little fish studios churn out woke propaganda that performs poorly. In the past, they were the same small-time studios that produced knock-off Gundam, 3d render shounen, unremarkable isekai anime #59, etc.
    - krapp 4y ago
      I don't think "woke propaganda" is a thing in Japan, so it would surprise me if smaller anime studios (which, presumably, have less margin for taking risks) would be "churning out" anything of the sort, as opposed to whatever was most profitable in the domestic market for the least cost. Can you give examples?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - OmarAssadi 4y ago
      Woke propaganda? I haven’t seen an absolute ton of anime, but I’ve got nearly 200 items on my list, and I don’t think I’ve watched anything that could qualify. What are you coming across that I’m not?
quartesixte 4y ago
What might happen is a return of the original Anime market and (hopefully) more steady pay for animators. The Japanese domestic market is dominated mostly by Manga, Light Novels, Visual Novel, (and now Gacha games) anyways, with Anime mostly being a cherry on-top for those things. Occasionally there will be a good adaptation or a good original Anime product but the industry’s been suffering a little bit. This new cash infusion might be healthy and allow for enough animators to be paid a livable wage that lets them go off and do crazy adventurous things as they advance in their careers.
ihuman 4y ago
They're already proving your point by immediately removing 18+ items from the store https://www.rightstufanime.com/removed-items-faq https://www.rightstufanime.com/removed-items-faq
_23sd 4y ago
The money is definitely trending that way. The Association of Japanese Animators publishes yearly data on industry trends [1], and their data shows a stagnant domestic market and a booming overseas market from 2014 onwards. International revenues overtook domestic in 2020. However, focusing purely on anime ignores the rest of the creative pipeline. The most popular anime series are based on manga or novels, and even though the western licensing business is growing again, it's still small enough that manga and novels only get published in English if it's already a hit in Japan. That may help keep anime distinctly Japanese even with all this money flowing in from around the world. [1] https://aja.gr.jp/english/japan-anime-data https://aja.gr.jp/english/japan-anime-data
- rendaw 4y ago
  Manga is also done by one or (maybe) two people, rather than a committee of like 50+. This means you get a clear vision and individuality shines through.
  - rowanG077 4y ago
    I believe this is the reason why storytelling in manga/anime is so superiour to most western forms of content.
iratewizard 4y ago
I hope they never get any real influence and are recognized for the useless gatekeepers they are. Crunchyroll, for example, throws some of the worst Tumblrina translators at pretty much every show I've seen from them. They inject their own loser personality into the characters by completely changing the meaning of their words. Not only does it alienate people who haven't really watched much anime from getting into it, but it also prevents learners from getting good top-down language listening practice. Once it's translated by Funimation, Crunchyroll or Netflix, I don't think I've ever seen it get properly translated by a fansub group. They are a blight that to disappear into obscurity.
JetAlone 4y ago
It's not just going to be hollywood-ization or western values, this is the flavour of globalism we're getting in most of the world for the current age. I don't like it, and the only thing I can really do about it is create my own stories and art in my time off when I feel lonely/unheard and share it with the people I'm allowed to be in contact with.
- inawarminister 4y ago
  Do you have any links for your works/space? I'm interested. I'm usually active in spacebattles, at least the old-style fanfic writers do still output gems now and then. Like Worm and some others.

teg4n_ 4y ago

Why the hell are they punting erotica to a different store. God I hate this major corporation puritan bs.

revscat 4y ago
It's universal, too. I don't get it.
- trothamel 4y ago
  It seems to be enforced by the credit card companies and processors, who likely charge more to process transactions for companies that involve pornography. (Probably due to the spurious chargebacks.)
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - HeyItsMatt 4y ago
    Nothing to do with transaction risk. Congress and the executive branch have a myriad of ways to harm a large business if they don't get what they want. Visa's issues with religious fundamentalists started in the Tipper Gore days. During the Bush presidency it was nearly impossible for a porn site to get a US payment processor.
    - revscat 4y ago
      I meant “universal” as in “every government”, not as on “all across America.” Every government does this.
  - qball 4y ago
    >It seems to be enforced by the credit card companies and processors Who are an unofficial arm of the US government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
  - 4y ago

aidenn0 4y ago

I'm old enough to have ordered anime from their catalog, back when your choices for Anime were driving to a big city that had a specialty store, getting it from a catalog, or copying fansubs on VHS tapes. [edit] I forgot "random anime tapes that got thrown in the children's section of your pre-blockbuster VHS rental store." as another way to find anime.

dragontamer 4y ago

Hmm. A lot of my favorite anime still come in from Hidive / Sentai Filmworks. I really enjoyed "Ya Boy Kongming" for example. And Sentai Filmworks are the current owners of When they Cry (2006) and Fate/Stay (2006). I'm definitely worried about consolidation wiping out the competition. Then again, I hope people can give Hidive / Ya Boy Kongming a try. Its basically an idol anime crossed with Chinese Romance-of-the-Three-Kingdoms / Zhuge Liang as the manager, and my favorite anime this year so far. Give the first episode a try, there's ~3 songs in there. If the songs match your musical tastes, you'll probably enjoy the show. And yes, that's a Liu Bei reference. (Liu Bei visits Zhuge Liang 3 times before the young tactician agrees to join Liu Bei's cause. This parallel's young Eiko's journey as an idol, as she sings three times before Zhuge Liang is convinced to help her). Its actually an excellent mix of subtle Three Kingdoms stories with a good idol anime. Crunchyroll/Funimation merging, and Sony/Aniplex all being involved here is convenient for sure, I like a lot of what they do. But anime has a lot of niches, and one mega-company will inevitably have blind spots over time. Most of my favorites are in Crunchyroll / Funimation and even Aniplex (Ex: Oddtaxi, Madoka, Dragonball Z/Super).

ihuman 4y ago
Hidive and Sentai Filmworks aren't independent, either. AMC Networks (the channel, not the movie theater) bought them about half a year ago.
davidhaymond 4y ago
Ya Boy Kongming looks fantastic and I absolutely plan on subscribing to HIDIVE later this year. I have a lot of Sentai Blu-rays and I hope they continue to license good shows.
unsignedint 4y ago
Hidive's catalogue is definitely smaller compared to its competition but especially if you are after slice of life type shows, it has pretty good coverage. (I used to have both Crunchyroll and Hidive, but dropped Crunchyroll when they raised their price.) Honestly for some reason, I'm finding myself watching less and less anime anyways and instead I'm bit more inclined pursuing different activities. (I used to watch at least 5 each season, but only anime I'm watching this season is Made in Abyss...)

norwalkbear 4y ago

Monopolies and industry consolidation should be illegal. If only Congress would do its job.

Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
Here you're saying the founders and owners of Right Stuff Inc. should have very limited rights to cash out, to turn their illiquid shares of their company into money. My father used to have a subspecialty in this, it's very hard for typical private companies, so much so he'd generally get a 1/3 cut for accomplishing it. One very real alternative is just shutting down when the founder get too old to run it.
- electriclove 4y ago
  Sell it to someone.. anyone else..
  - Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
    The market for buying small companies like Right Stuff Inc. is small and very particular and peculiar. To sell it to anyone else but a large or giant company like Sony/Crunchyroll is going to be hard as I said. For what we as consumers would like you'd need to find another otaku or group of them who are wealthy and/or trustworthy enough to pay in installments out of ongoing gross profits, and you'd have to trust their business sense. You'd want someone like my father to do some of the footwork and all of deal making to avoid distractions from running the business and lowering its value. Or you have to find an interested big player of which there just aren't very many. And here this clearly fits in with Sony's previous actions in America like buying Funimation and Crunchyroll, but unfortunately they're likely one of the worst case buyers. From the viewpoint of the owners, Wikipedia says Shawne Kleckner who's still with it is 50 and the company was founded in 1987, 35 years is a long time to be running a company. Wven if it started out as a shell to buy and resell telescopes, pretty soon they started bringing the classic Astro Boy to the direct to home market and in due course became a competitive general mail order reseller as well as localizer. When TokyoPop nuked their reselling arm after Y2K they became the highest profile one as far as I know, not counting increasingly untrustworthy Amazon. Which Right Stuff regularly also uses as a platform while doing their own fulfillment.