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?
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.
