Sgt. Frog Hasn’t Invaded Yet But There’s Still a Sliver of Hope
Posted on June 21st, 2008 by CalAggie in Soapbox
FACT: There are still six months left in 2008. FACT: Still no Keroro.
The last six months have seemed like doom-and-gloom for ADV Films with their glossy magazine folding (and the rebirthed version also shutting down) and a license financing dispute that forced them to presumably sell Gurren Lagann to Bandai. But they are still releasing shiny discs and their Kanon releases have been getting praise like volume 3 sweeping AOD’s ADR awards for March 2008 and each release regularly getting voted Pick of the Week by the AOD forumites. Pretty much the only undeveloped titles they have are Kiba and Sgt. Frog, and I think the latter has the capability to bolster the company if it is publicized the right way…and if ADV still has the rights.
When ADV licensed Keroro Gunsou in November 2006, the press release said they had broadcast rights along with the standard video distribution rights but since then the news has been next to nil. Last December, manga blogger John Jakala (writer of Sporadic Sequential) wondered what had happened to the plans to release Sgt. Frog in late 2007. Well, confusion happened. Most recently, as in last week, someone on the AOD forums posted about noticing overlays and paintovers when re-watching the English trailer for the series. These alterations give the impression that there might have been a TV push in the works and there still might be one, if very delayed.
Unfortunately, ADV hasn’t hosted many panels at conventions over the past few months but they will have two panels at Anime Expo next month so that might be their last viable chance to announce anything about Keroro before I call it dead. Any bombshells in general about anything else would be nice, too.
They need to bring something new to the table besides Kiba and numerous complete collection repackagings since their current-running series such as Kanon, Devil May Cry, and Red Garden are wrapping up in the coming months and Pumpkin Scissors and Welcome to the NHK should finish by about October. It doesn’t help that their website is riddled with “module load warnings” or that many of their individual show sites are down. The frog and his army could help you, ADV, if you just give them a chance — or if you are still in touch with them at all.
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NewType isn’t at my local Borders any more! ;_;