Part of ADV’s problem was getting into too many things all at once and releasing a bunch of shows nobody bought. Geneon also released a lot of shows nobody bought that still have multiple copies available online at very low prices — and the discs still aren’t selling briskly.

ADV and Funimation both had cable channels that ultimately few purchased subscriptions to. ADV eventually fully phased its 24-hour programming in favor of VOD and I don’t think Funimation will be far behind in following suit if it already hasn’t transitioned to VOD from a full-channel.

All this splurging and expansion in distribution makes me wonder what Funimation knows that the rest of us don’t. I just don’t see a lot of those Geneon re-releases selling well unless there are a bunch of people who didn’t get the original releases because of price or slashed print runs in the wake of Geneon closing its US offices last year (2007). A lot of those guys have moved on to other shows and hobbies or probably obtained bootlegs of those shows.

It’d be nice to keep certain perennials in print like the original Tenchi Muyo, Macross and others — and bring back shows that haven’t seen print since the mid-1990s and more of the 1980s classics –, but as has been stated here and elsewhere on the web the current anime fandom is just so faddish and insular that they think anything over 5 minutes old isn’t worth their time…