What Dvd Company Do You Like The Most?

[Princedarian07]

This May Be a Stupid Question But I Was Just Curious.

[something]

Note: How the heck did you leave Nozomi and Media Blasters out of your poll? It's not like there are all that many companies to remember when making the choices, jeeze. Out of protest of that, I'm not voting.

In terms of putting out the best releases overall (choice of shows, price, quality, packaging, extras) Nozomi wins hands down. However, the problem is that they license so, so very little, so it's hard to compare to the more prolific studios.

I really like what Media Blasters is doing with price, but they have such a seemingly odd release schedule where one show can throw everything else off track, and while they've licensed a number of things I'm buying, it's rare that they license a top tier show for me. You know, they could correct that with YamiBou and Touka Gettan...

Bandai and Funimation are both doing great things with new release formats and I very very much appreciate getting anime cheaper and a bit faster. They're undeniably the big two in R1 for me nowadays.

Can't really comment on ADV or Geneon much nowadays, both are essentially in limbo as we wait to see what if any future they have. Clannad is of course the most epic license possible so ADV gets points there, but it's also the only TV series they have to release. Geneon is releasing some great stuff (particularly Nanoha) but I have no idea if they'll be around after they finish off the current batch.

Viz can die in a fire.

Manga and the other small fry aren't even on my radar.

In the end I'd say Nozomi is the best company in R1, if not accounting for volume of releases. If accounting for it, then Funimation and Bandai more or less even if we're looking at the prolific studios.

Perhaps Bandai slightly ahead because they're releasing the better shows, albeit less of them. Lucky Star, Hayate no Gotoku, sola, Gurren, Geass, Haruhi, Gundam 00 and My:Otome are all top tier shows for me, in terms of releases in the last 12-18 months or upcoming. Funimation, on the other hand, has some winners in that period too, just not top top tier shows, other than Heroic Age and maybe School Rumble and Shuffle.

So, since volume DOES matter to me:

1) Bandai Entertainment
2) Nozomi
3) Funimation
4) Media Blasters

Jury is out on Geneon and ADV, though Geneon is of course the superior of the two at the moment. And all the rest are relatively unimportant.

[WTK]

I would have to agree with something here. How did Nozomi and Media Blasters get left out of your poll?

1. Right Stuf / Nozomi
2. FUNimation
3. Bandai Entertainment
4. Geneon / FUNimation
5. Media Blasters
6. ADV Films
7. Viz Media

[Suwako Moriya]

Originally Posted by WTK

How did Nozomi and Media Blasters get left out of your poll?

Relax, Maria was watching over that poll and plans to send some Mikos to punish someone.

[karen0586]

Originally Posted by something

Viz can die in a fire.

My sentiments exactly. If I have to choose, I'd say that Funimation is the top for me at the moment. Bandai ent and Nozomi are closely following though .

[Legion]

Originally Posted by karen0586

My sentiments exactly. If I have to choose, I'd say that Funimation is the top for me at the moment. Bandai ent and Nozomi are closely following though .

I dunno about that. Viz is helping the trend toward sets and though online discounts aren't as high their releases are still fairly economical. I'm a fan of fighting series and Viz is bringing out some of the better ones. About the only major issue ongoing with Viz these days, that I can see, is that their subtitling isn't thorough enough. I'd like to watch Death Note in English but the lack of song/sign subtitling basically forces my hand to Japanese, for the first viewing any way. That one affects a certain segement, though. Then there's the Buso Renkin ending not being translated, which affects pretty much everyone.

That said I voted ADV.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by Legion

I dunno about that. Viz is helping the trend toward sets and though online discounts aren't as high their releases are still fairly economical. I'm a fan of fighting series and Viz is bringing out some of the better ones. About the only major issue ongoing with Viz these days, that I can see, is that their subtitling isn't thorough enough. I'd like to watch Death Note in English but the lack of song/sign subtitling basically forces my hand to Japanese, for the first viewing any way. That one affects a certain segement, though. Then there's the Buso Renkin ending not being translated, which affects pretty much everyone.

That said I voted ADV.

Don't forget all the licenses they did not finish to release or not even bother to start release...

[karen0586]

Originally Posted by Damius

Don't forget all the licenses they did not finish to release or not even bother to start release...

Like Damius said, it's not the fact that they are releasing good anime, it's how they seem to be working with them. You've said the shoddy work they've been doing with some shows and I agree and think that they are just not doing the work that other companies do for each of their releases. Just because the titles they release are mainstream and will sell well, that doesn't mean that they can get by with minimal work. Everything they do seems to be wrong in one way or another.

[Doom85]

Originally Posted by Damius

Don't forget all the licenses they did not finish to release or not even bother to start release...

Nevertheless, wishing Viz to go away is going overboard. I could live without owning all of Bleach (mainly up to episode 63 is my biggest concern), but I do plan to own all of Shippuden (already have all the canon episodes of Part 1) and Hunter x Hunter, so anybody wishing to take down Viz has to get through me first!

[Suwako Moriya]

To be honest I don't have a favorite company. The problem is each company has its own pros and cons. The value of which is dependent on what you desire and how you look at things. There is also the issue of assumption. We can never really say for certain what would happen if X had licensed _____ instead of Y. Heck it's hard to say if X even had any interest.

Also there's a huge problem of bias. I ultimately care more about series than companies. Which can bias me towards certain companies. A bias that's become more spread out due to licensing. If not for MB, I wouldn't have Asagiri no Miko. If not for ADV, Kanon wouldn't have been started in the first place. Funimation provided me with Tsukiyomi Moonphase. Nozomi gave me Aria the Animation. Geneon provided me with Strawberry Marshmallow. So many other examples to be given.

So in conclusion rather than have a favorite single company, I'll be glad for the fact we have a variety of companies. Sure it's a gamble because it depends on who ultimately licenses a given series (if anyone), but it's because of that variety of companies that we can have a variety of series. After all what may work for one series may not work for another.