A.D. Vision

• 1. Introduction

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  A.D. Vision opened for business on the 17th of August 1992, founded by three people who had no formal entertainment industry credentials. John Ledford had been importing Japanese video games. Matt Greenfield ran a local anime club out of Sacramento, California, called Anime NASA. David Williams was a classmate of Greenfield's. Together, from a base in Houston, Texas, they built one of the most ambitious anime distributors the United States had ever seen.

  The company that would become known simply as ADV grew to span home video, theatrical distribution, merchandising, a cable television channel, manga publishing, music releases, and even original productions. At its peak it maintained offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. Its library included titles that would become touchstones for an entire generation of Western anime fans: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Full Metal Panic!, Elfen Lied, and Azumanga Daioh among them.

  How did three people with no industry backing transform a game import business into a multimedia empire? And how did that empire come apart so completely that by the fall of 2009, the ADV name had been formally retired?

• 2. From Games to Anime

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  Ledford's path to anime began not with Japanese animation but with Japanese hardware. In 1990 he started importing Japanese video game consoles and games into Houston. The pivot came when a friend suggested he watch My Neighbor Totoro. That viewing convinced him there was a market for Japanese animation in the United States.

  At around the same time, Greenfield was running Anime NASA, a club in Sacramento that would connect him to Williams. The two of them eventually consulted with Ledford and joined him to build A.D. Vision. The company officially opened on the 17th of August 1992.

  The first title Ledford sought was Devil Hunter Yohko, which required him to approach Toho directly. Shozo Watanabe, the general manager of Toho's Los Angeles office, was not convinced that a brand-new Houston distributor could handle the job. When no other distributor stepped up, Toho relented. That December, Devil Hunter Yohko became ADV's inaugural release.

  Initially the company released titles with the original Japanese audio paired with English subtitles. After a few years, ADV built its own dubbing operation in Houston. That recording facility was eventually formalized under the name Amusement Park Media, and ADV began offering its services to other companies as well.

• 3. Building the Library

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  ADV's library grew to include titles that sat at the center of anime fandom in the West. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, RahXephon, and Gantz were among the company's distributed properties, alongside Full Metal Panic!, Azumanga Daioh, Elfen Lied, Red Garden, and Le Chevalier D'Eon.

  To support that library in the fan community, ADV ran a program called Anime ADVocates. The initiative provided free screening materials and promotional content to nearly 3,000 anime clubs across North America. To qualify, a club had to be sponsored by a high school, college, university, or public library, and had to have at least ten members. Participating clubs were also asked to complete surveys about the material they received.

  The program was put on hiatus in November 2007, then formally suspended on the 18th of January 2008, the company citing the volume of resources it required. Even after the suspension, ADV continued to extend screening permissions to clubs ahead of its eventual reorganization.

  In 1996 ADV expanded its UK division and began moving into live-action television series and Japanese films alongside its core anime catalog. The UK, Italy, and Germany all became markets for ADV's home media releases.

• 4. A Television Channel

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  Anime Network launched in North America in late 2002, becoming the United States' first all-anime cable television network. ADV marketed it to multi-system operators both as a 24-hour linear channel and as a video-on-demand programming service. The channel eventually aired on DirecTV, Dish Network, Cox, Time Warner, Cablevision, and Charter, and later added a Roku app.

  In late 2007, ADV used the Anime Network as the launchpad for Anime Network Online, a streaming service that let viewers watch the company's catalog on demand. It was an early experiment with online distribution at a time when the model was still finding its footing in the anime industry.

  On the 4th of January 2008, Anime Network officially announced that its traditional 24-hour linear service would cease operations. The streaming service, Anime Network Online, continued running until 2017, when it was decommissioned following the launch of HIDIVE, the platform that eventually succeeded it.

• 5. Magazines and Publishing

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  ADV launched its manga publishing arm in 2003 under the ADV Manga label, announcing ambitious plans for the US manga market. The division released a range of titles but ran into difficulty quickly; many were canceled in late 2004 and 2005. In 2006 the label released the six-volume Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days series. By 2007 it had resumed releasing titles that had been on hiatus, including Yotsuba&! and Gunslinger Girl.

  At Anime Expo 2006, publisher Tokyopop announced it had licensed three former ADV manga titles that ADV had dropped: Aria, Tactics, and Peacemaker Kurogane. Yen Press later acquired the rights to Yotsuba&! and Azumanga Daioh.

  On the magazine side, ADV published Newtype USA, the American edition of Japan's Newtype magazine. The first issue appeared in November 2002. The initial print run was expected to reach 50,000 copies in circulation. ADV notified its advertising partners that the February 2008 issue would be the last.

  The company launched PiQ in May 2008 as a direct replacement for Newtype USA. PiQ was published by a subsidiary, PiQ LLC, and took a broader editorial approach, covering topics beyond anime and manga. It retained the 15,000 subscribers who had held Newtype USA subscriptions. After only four issues, PiQ was canceled in June 2008 and its offices closed abruptly. The July 2008 issue had already gone to press when the cancellation was announced.

• 6. The Sojitz Years and Collapse

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  In June 2006, the Japanese trading company Sojitz Corporation acquired a 20% stake in ADV Films. From that point on, virtually all the titles ADV acquired came under Sojitz's ownership. In 2007, Sojitz's investment group Japan Content Investments, which also included the Development Bank of Japan and film distributor KlockWorx, announced plans to contribute additional capital in exchange for further equity. Ledford was to remain majority shareholder and CEO.

  In August 2007, ADV announced it would take over distribution and marketing of Geneon USA's properties, effective the 1st of October. Geneon USA laid off most of its sales staff in preparation. On the 21st of September 2007, Dentsu issued a press release confirming the deal had been canceled, stating only that Geneon and ADV had been "unable to reach a mutual agreement."

  In January 2008, ADV removed a large number of titles from its website with no public explanation. All of the removed titles had been acquired after the Sojitz deal, including Gurren Lagann, which had already had test discs sent to retailers with dubbed episodes. By May 2008, Bandai Entertainment had picked up Gurren Lagann. In July 2008, Funimation announced it had acquired thirty titles from ADV and ARM Corporation, including home video, broadcast, digital, and merchandising rights.

  On the 1st of September 2009, ADV announced it was ceasing all operations and selling its assets. Those assets included its intellectual properties, its distribution arm, and the Anime Network. Four companies were named as recipients: Seraphim Studios, AEsir Holdings LLC, Valkyrie Media Partners LLC, and SXION 23 LLC. All three of the latter corporations had been initially registered by Griffin D. Vance IV, who had served as ADV's senior vice president of business and legal affairs.

  Mike Bailiff, formerly of ADV Films and then head of Sales and Marketing at Section 23 Films, told a major retail website that Section 23 had acquired all of ADV's former licenses and most of its staff, including "everyone at ADV that mattered."

• 7. Successor Companies and Legacy

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  On the 18th of September 2009, the anime review site iSugoi.com published a podcast arguing that ADV had not actually shut down. The analysis held that Section 23 and the associated new companies were ADV effectively selling itself to itself; the reorganization was framed as a rebranding rather than a closure, allowing ADV to take advantage of certain legal structures by separating its assets across multiple entities.

  On the 15th of October 2009, Funimation's events manager Adam Sheehan offered his own read during an online Q&A, comparing ADV's transformation to the robot Voltron splitting back into its five component lions. The analogy circulated widely in the fan community.

  Ken Hoinsky, Managing Founder of MX Media LLC, a translation and localization company that contracted with Funimation, Viz Media, and Bandai, appeared on the Anime News Network podcast on the 29th of October 2009. He used the term "Neo-ADV" to describe the cluster of successor companies, echoing the iSugoi.com analysis.

  Sentai Holdings, the umbrella organization that took over the ADV brand name, was later acquired by AMC Global Media, then known as AMC Networks, in January 2022. Today, Sentai Filmworks continues to release titles under the ADV Films name, including Elfen Lied on DVD and Blu-ray and Kino's Journey on DVD and standard-definition Blu-ray. The SoftCel Pictures label, which ADV had shut down in 2005, was separately relaunched by Section23 Films in 2017.