Holy shit! What a deal! Going to get Ninja Resurection and i'll see what others, maybe Cutey Honey.
Thanks for pointing this out.

EDIT:

Anyone know anything about the Asian Cult Cinema that's on the list, ie Gun Crazy?


-- Edited by jack_jeckel at 16:13, 2008-01-22

Not made of money... an extra 2 quid haha. I like the Live Action Cutie Honey but never saw the anime so am not sure yet.

Conduct Zero and Gun Crazy are sold out. They still have Gun Crazy 2 but I don't know about getting that without the first. That boogie Pop has also sold out.

Jack - According to NEO, the Gun Crazy films are self contained so you can get no 2 without fear of missing anything from no 1.

They described the films as "Spaghetti western movies but replace "pistols at dawn" with "a rocket launcher in the afternoon!"

Update on the ADV films situation courtesy of Anime UK news:


A little over three weeks since ADV Films announced they were transitioning their in-house UK sales and distribution operations to a third-party company, they have today confirmed they've struck a deal with Lace Digital Media Sales that covers the releasing of anime in both the UK and Europe. Per this quote from the official press release:

"ADV has been an incredibly successful brand in UK DVD market and LDMS longest standing Sales & Distribution customer. We are incredibly proud and pleased to have been selected to manage ADV's business in UK and Germany which is testament to the hard work and success of our sales force over the past 5 years. We look forward to a very long and exciting partnership."

-- Quote from Sales Director Andy Lyon, Lace Digital Media Sales.

"Lace has worked closely with ADV for over five years and really enjoyed helping them grow their business. The changes that have now been made mean we will get the opportunity of really developing the anime market. ADV has an incredible catalogue and some exciting and ambitious new release plans for 2008 and beyond. We have a full team in place to drive the business for ADV from frontline sales and marketing to production, design, finance, PR and promotion."

-- Quote from Adam Lacey, the Lace Group.

Therefore, ADV will continue to, as normal, publish anime in the UK, though we're still waiting for the info on any new/future release dates.

Are you sure that wasn't just the latest bunch of DVDs I sent you for review?

The ADV/Lace media hand over is now complete (Source: AnimeUKNews)


The protracted saga of ADV's status in the UK appears to be at end with the switch over to their distribution partner, Lace Digital Media Sales, having been officially rubber-stamped earlier this week via press release. Sales Director Andy Lyon and Label Manager Howard Musson both had positive messages to impart to the UK community.

Its business as usual for ADV Films titles in the UK, said Andy Lyon, Sales Director at Lace Digital Media Sales. The delay was regrettable, but unavoidable as part of the operational transition. LDMS are happy to announce stock of all titles is in circulation again as before.

It is our great pleasure to be able to build upon all the hard work weve done for ADV Films over the past five years, by expanding our role and ensuring the continuing presence of the brand ands its titles here in the UK, said new Label Manager Howard Musson. Ive worked with ADV Films through two companies now, and am familiar with both the quality of their products and the passion of their fans. We aim to meet the high levels of expectation created by the work of the now-closed London office.

The new release dates for ADV's anime, originally reported last week, have also been confirmed in the press release, along with the news that Hugh K. David, a previous employee at ADV's (now defunct) London office, has joined Lace as a consultant.

I am pleased to be given this chance to ensure continuity between the old and the new versions of ADV Films here in the UK, said David. Five years ago we started out on an exciting adventure, which has since come to an end for the former staff, but thanks to LDMS continues into a strong future for the fans and consumers of anime throughout the UK.

It seems like ADV's rant about downloading killing the Anime business was actually more to do with them being unable to financially stay afloat.

AnimeUKNews.com:


While the likes of Funimation and Bandai continue to thrive, international anime publisher ADV Films appears to be undergoing something of a financial crisis. In the last few weeks alone, several news stories have broken that don't exactly fill us with confidence in the future of the company.

1. A former editor of ADV's now-defunct geek culture magazine PiQ has published an article explaining its demise. In particular, the author points to ADV's lack of finance as a key reason as to why they failed with the magazine. Another former editor, this time for PiQ's predecessor; Newtype USA, explained that "ADV's ill-advised business "tactics" in late 2007 caused Kadokawa to pull the Newtype license".

2. ADV recently held a public auction to sell-off old office equipment and furniture as a result of recent staff cut-backs.

3. On a more positive note, ADV's Chris Oarr has stated that ADV Manga has not been closed down, even though the label hasn't released anything since volume 13 of Cromartie High School, which came out in February '08. In particular, fans are anxious to read the latest volumes of the zany comedy 'Yotsuba&!', but when asked about it's future status, Oarr simply said "When will Yotsuba&! come out? We dont know, and were not going to lie about it. Im also not going to go out on the Net every day and say, I dont know. ".


I thought it was a bit odd that MVM were able to reduced their prices of DVDs and Manga have been selling 2 and 3 discs at bargain prices. The problem must be with ADV and not the Anime business as a whole.

Well, that news is related to the the US side of things but for now with Lace Digital distributing their DVDs across Europe and the UK we may be all right for the moment.

ADV in the news again:

Credit: AnimeUKNews.

News of ADV Films financial strife continues to twist and turn in the US with recent reports that they have further "discontinued" their anime DVD releases of Makoto Shinkai's highly rated Five Centimeters Per Second and the sci-fi action series Innocent Venus. This follows on from them losing dozens of their anime series to Funimation earlier in the month.

ADV had also included Best Student Council and Robotech in the above cull, but later reinstated those releases, bringing into question whether or not the above (still discontinued) anime, like Five Centimeters Per Second, might still have a future with ADV in the US market after all? Unfortunately, it remains to be seen how (if at all) this latest upheaval effects the status of ADV Films' DVD releases in the UK.

dam I was looking forward to Kurau Phantom Memory Boxset and Coyote Ragtime Boxset

A bit more on the ever confusing ADV situation from AnimeUKNews.com:


Though it seemed inevitable that the issues surrounding ADV in the US would eventually impact on their UK activity too, a report via AnimeOnDVD has formally confirmed that the following ADV UK DVD releases have been placed on indefinite hiatus (i.e. cancelled).

* Ah! My Goddess Vol 2
* Coyote Ragtime Boxset
* Kurau Phantom Memory Boxset
* Pumpkin Scissors Vol 2
* Pumpkin Scissors Vol 3
* Red Garden Complete Collection
* Welcome to the NHK

Lace, ADV's UK anime distributor, released this statement earlier today:

"All existing stock of titles in these series will remain on sale for the time being. Also, following the recent shift of licenses from ADV Films to FUNimation over in the US, all stock of said ADV licenses will also remain on sale for the time being. If at any time this situation should change, LDMS will inform retailers and consumers as promptly as possible."


It's now a case of waiting to see whether or not any of the above ends up in the UK via Revelation Films (Funimation's UK distributor) instead (prime examples include Welcome to the NHK and Pumpkin Scissors).

However, things might be on the up for ADV (as a company, rather than their UK operations) as they recently announced their intentions to re-release (in the US) the 2-epsiode Battle Angel anime, a sci-fi action OVA from 1993.


And then this was reported:


ADV Films and LDMS have sent out a press release detailing their UK DVD release schedule for the final quarter of 2008, which has been hit by the recently announced cancellations. This new schedule is as follows:

* June 16th - NOIR Complete Collection
* June 23rd - Paniponi Dash Volume 6
* July 14th - Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor Volume 7
* July 14th - Utawarerumono Volume 6
* July 21st - Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor Complete Collection
* July 28th - MADLAX Complete Collection
* August 25th - This Ugly Yet Beautiful World Complete Collection
* August 25th - Yugo The Negotiator Complete Collection
* September 8th - Es Otherwise Complete Collection
* September 22nd - RahXephon Complete Collection (contains TV series and Movie)

Their autumn and winter releases are scheduled to include:

* Samurai Gun Complete Collection
* Najica Blitz Tactics Complete Collection
* Neon Genesis Evangelion Ultimate Limited Edition
* Peacemaker Complete Collection
* Gilgamesh Complete Collection
* Kinos Journey Complete Collection


Rather than continuing to milk the Evangelion franchise why not focus on the other titles instead?