ADV Films shutting down?

Just came across this news post on ANN:

ADV Films Shuts Down, Parent Transfers Assets to Other Companies (Updated)

posted on 2009-09-01 13:44 EDT

AEsir Holdings, SXION 23, Valkyrie Media Partners, Seraphim Studios acquire assets

---

A.D. Vision, the parent company of ADV Films, has announced that it is shutting down after transfering its assets to several other companies that will continue its operations. AEsir Holdings has acquired selected programming from ADV's film library along with other intellectual property. The SXION 23 (Section23 Films) home video distribution company will assume account servicing and distribution operations for AEsir's assets. Valkyrie Media Partners has acquired 100% of ADV's Anime Network television unit, while Seraphim Studios has acquired ADV's Amusement Park Media production unit.

Former ADV Films staffer Chris Oarr has notified ANN that several former staffers have been hired by SXION 23 and the other companies.

Update: All of the new companies are officially based in Houston, the home of A.D. Vision. SXION 23's business filing was dated on May 20, while AEsir Holdings, Valkyrie Media Partners, and Seraphim Studios were filed eight days later on May 28. SXION 23, Valkyrie Media Partners, and Seraphim Studios share the same address in western Houston, 8 miles (13 kilometers) from A.D. Vision. Sentai Filmworks, another business entity for which A.D. Vision and Amusement Park Media handled distribution and production, is also located in western Houston.

Note that A.D. Vision itself is still around, they're just shuttering ADV Films and a trio of other companies are picking up their titles, distribution and television project.

I really hope some more details come to light on this ASAP (such as which "select titles" have been acquired), as right now it sounds like some elaborate shell game.

Whatever is going on, I hope that come through it. ADV sure rocketed to the top, but then they plummeted down. Hate the big guy all you want, but the anime industry certainly benefits greatly from having a couple giants that can get into mass distribution channels and if ADV's done playing the game, then all we are left with on that scale is FUNimation. As much as I've loved them lately, it's never healthy to have the industry relying so heavily on one company.

Ghost Hound licensed by Sentai Filmworks (Cough *ADV Cough)

ANN link

I'm not pleased it's ADV (probably no Blu-Ray), so I wont use an emphatic "FUCK YES!", but this is very very good news nonetheless for something I'd never thought would see the light of day here. Buy this mofo when it comes out in October. Awesome, enjoyable series.

ADV picks up a mixed bag from CPM's corpse

So CPM's official dead now (as opposed to just in a coma, like they've been for the past few years) and the looting as begun. Apparently ADV has announced that they're picking up four of CPM's classic titles:

• Grave of the Fireflies
• Now and Then, Here and There
• World of Narue
• MD Geist

It's great to see Grave of the Fireflies and Now and Then, Here and There (the latter being an oft-overlooked gem of the unrelentingly depressing take on the typical alternate world story - a Disney or Miyazaki movie gone bad, in a sense) but the other choices are a little more confusing.

World of Narue looked nice for its time, but ultimately never amounted to anything. And MD Geist published by anyone other than CPM will be not only surreal but inexplicable. That's something CPM could have just taken with it to the afterlife.