Anime Vice Anime/Manga News

ADV shipped out a press release today talking about its upcoming distribution of Sentai Filmworks' Appleseed-- which is due out June 2nd, by the way, with an SRP of $29.98. I threw a few questions about their recent and upcoming doings, and got back some short but sweet answers for everyone from Chris Oarr.

Anime Vice: The press release for Appleseed notes that ADV is acting as the "non-exclusive distributor" for Sentai Filmworks, and that Sentai is "the fastest-growing licensor of anime in North America." What's the history of how this partnership came to be? What exactly is the relationship between the two?

Chris Oarr: Sentai Filmworks is a separate company.  Sentai licenses work on its own behalf.  ADV provides home video distribution services (solicitations, fulfillment, etc.) for Sentai on a fee basis, just as it does with Switchblade.  Of course ADV continues to distribute its own titles too.

AV: Is ADV continuing to license anime as well as distributing Sentai's anime? How soon might we hear of new licenses for either company?

CO: Yes ADV is still licensing titles.  Sentai too.  We'll be making some license announcements in the next month or so.

AV: Obviously ADV has run through some difficulties, and in difficult times to boot. What kind of things are being changed to help the company continue operating?

CO: We're all working hard.

AV: Princess Resurrection is due out in May from Sentai. Tell readers why they should buy the series-- in three words.

CO: Chicks with chainsaws.

AV: Is there anything else we should be keeping an eye out on from ADV? I notice The Anime Network has been offering some rather mysterious tweets...

CO: Yes.

Well, that's that, I guess! That said, I'm still a LITTLE unclear on Sentai's origins, considering that the press release says that Clannad and Princess Resurrection-- both originally ADV titles –are Sentai's. That said, it's certainly a separate entity in the legal sense, so there you go.