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.

[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.

[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

[Draneor]

Like:
Nozomi

Friends:
ADV
Kadokawa

Ambivalent:
Bandai Entertainment
Media Blasters

Detest:
FUNimation

Geneon is dead, as far as I am concerned, so there is no reason for me to rate them; the same goes for Central Park Media and Bandai Visual USA. I don't own a single Viz DVD so I couldn't care less what they do.

[something]

Originally Posted by Draneor

Like: Nozomi
Friends: ADV
Ambivalent: Bandai Entertainment, Media Blasters
Detest: FUNimation
Geneon is dead, as far as I am concerned, so there is no reason for me to rate them.

But which one makes you feel moe? Maybe ADV can be sick girl in hospital moe, and Clannad is that surgery she needs to survive but is so afraid of. Will it be successful? Will it fail? Ganbatte, ADV-chan!

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by something

But which one makes you feel moe?

Nozomi is the osananajimi; they've been around the longest and are very loyal. You can count on Nozomi to wake you up every morning before school and bring dinner over when your parent is away on business.

Originally Posted by something

Maybe ADV can be sick girl in hospital moe, and Clannad is that surgery she needs to survive but is so afraid of. Will it be successful? Will it fail? Ganbatte, ADV-chan!

It's actually quite telling that after all that happened with ADV I still like them. I do hope they get well though--permanently sick isn't my kind of thing (although Ikuno...).

[LelouchLamperouge]

My top 3, in order -- Nozomi, Honnemiese and ADV Films.

Coming in 4th and 5th, Geneon and FUNimation.

[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.

[HitokiriShadow]

At the moment, Nozomi is easily my favorite company. While I would like the option of a dub (I dreamed of a New Gen MariMite dub, though I never expected to get it anyway), everything else about their releases are fantastic. Straight to set releases at a great price, beautiful artboxes, very nice extras, yet more extras for ordering straight from them, one of the few companies that seems to really be able to work those subtitles. And they licensed MariMite and Aira. They are just fantastic.

Pre-Sojiz Mess ADV would have given them competition. ADV was the other company that really new how to make good use of the subtitle software and basically did everything the way I liked it. They didn't have many titles I wanted when things went south, but before that I was usually getting several ADV series at a time so they beat Nozomi in numbers. ADV also tended to have a lot of extras that I liked, though they had been cutting back on those as time went on.

However, ADV is not currently releasing much of anything and I don't know what their new releases will be like once they actually get around to releasing them. As such, they are not even under consideration at the moment.

This is not to say I disliked most of the other companies, but Nozomi does and ADV did stand above the rest. Overall, I love Bandai's new strategy, but their quality control issues are a pretty big problem. I like Funi, but I have mixed feelings on their set releases and while they have dubs, they simply can't compare to Nozomi in packaging and extras. I like MB's cheaper-than-typical singles, but they still just can't compare to other companies in most other areas. Prices aside, I loved Geneon but their current state is... precarious and we don't know if they will stick around once they finish the titles they had previously announced, so I'm not sure what to think of them at the moment.

I do dislike Viz (anime side, not so much their manga division) and I am trying to spend as little money as possible on them. Of course, they make that pretty easy since they cancel the series I wanted from them the most and I'll be finished with Bleach soon. At this point, I will only buy titles from them that I really, really want... which they are unlikely to license in the first place, let alone release.