ADV, Geneon, and Funimation come together to form a giant robot that distribute anime

[Great Rumbler]

Or something like that.

CANNES, FRANCE October 5, 2004 - The three largest producers and distributors of Anime in America - ADV Films, Inc., Funimation Productions LTD and Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. - announced plans to form a joint venture for the development and marketing of Anime. The announcement was made here today at MIPCOM by John Ledford, CEO and President, ADV Films, Kevin Corcoran, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer, ADV Films; Gen Fukunaga, President, Funimation Productions LTD, Daniel Cocanougher, Vice President; Funimation Productions LTD; Yosuke Kobayashi, President and CEO, Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. and Hideki Goto, Vice President, Business Development, Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc.

The new joint venture will focus on developing high quality entertainment series primarily targeted to children and young adults, where the team can best maximize their respective resources, talent and expertise.

The synergy of these companies is impressive as together they reach 70 percent of the Anime home video market in the United States.

Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. (http://www.Geneon-ent.com) is a full-service producer and distributor of entertainment content including film, music, animation and television shows on VHS, DVD and CD. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Geneon Entertainment's parent company is Tokyo-based advertising giant Dentsu Inc. and the company is best known as the distributor of the well-known Anime hits Pokemon and Akira.

Funimation (http://www.funimation.com) is a leading brand management company for Anime content and one of the nation's largest independent home video entertainment companies. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the company is best known for creating the blockbuster franchise "Dragonball Z" in the U.S.

ADV Films is a leading producer-distributor of Japanese animation ("anime") for the North American market and has also developed a leadership position in the UK. Headquartered in Houston, the company has also launched the Anime Network, first cable channel in North America dedicated to anime with access to thousand of hours of exciting, eye-catching serialized programming

This could be a very good things for anime, or it could turn into a huge disaster and all three companies wind up going bankrupt...well maybe not.

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Synergy!

Anime News Network

[Dark Jaguar]

NNOOOOO! You said synergy! My brain is attempting to retreat into my stomach to escape my ears!

[Great Rumbler]

You said synergy!

So did you!

[Dark Jaguar]

....NOOOOOOOOO! *cuts tongue out*

Meflegur...

*regenerates tongue*

There!

[Great Rumbler]

Yay!

[Dark Jaguar]

I'm going to need to work this new tongue in... *bakes a cake*

And you can't have any! *spills cake mix on ground*

.....waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[Great Rumbler]

Synergy might have been an appropriate word to use if this was 1999 and had the word not been used to describe all those Dot-Com companies that went bankrupt a few years back.

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Flooz!

[Dark Jaguar]

.... Let's form proactive synergy restructuring teams!

...GET IT OFF ME!

[Great Rumbler]

We're going to conquer the world with SYNERGY!!!

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Well...mabye not.

[OB1]

At first glace it kinds looks like it says "Goemon".

Maybe that's because I'm always thinking of Goemon.

[Great Rumbler]

That's understandable since Goemon is so cool.

[OB1]

Indeed.

Impactuu!

[Great Rumbler]

PLASMA!!!

[OB1]

Califat!

[Great Rumbler]

Well, as far as I can tell they haven't really done anything yet. I don't know if the deal fell in or what, but things haven't changed any since I posted this originally. I don't suppose anyone really cares though.