OVA 5 Info Thread

[Y_Anthony_Who]

Soon...

<_<     >_>

[WarOmnimon]

Soon...

<_<     >_>

^ This.  They said OVA 5 info in May and we're halfway through the month's last full week.  I sincerely hope AIC doesn't make me get my old referee shirt out, because I'm about ready to call a delay of game penalty.

[antvasima]

Well, for what it is worth, as usual I will place information about new releases on the front page of the wiki, so the sales may pick up.

[WarOmnimon]

Well... it's about to become June in Japan and still no news on OVA 5.  As far as I'm concerned, a delay of game penalty has officially been declared.

This is ridiculous.  AIC has made so many mistakes in the past 5 years with this franchise beginning with Ai Tenchi Muyo!, and as everyone knows, I have openly called them out every step of the way; you can look at some of my previous posts to see that, because yeah, I'm not going to talk about those mistakes again right now.  But the fact that they would resort to actual carrot dangling (Saying that something is going to happen and then holding back on it without any official statement noting that said something has been held up) shocks even me.  There's the whole honor thing going on with most businesses in Japan, and to think that AIC would say something and then not do it kinda defeats that purpose.

At this point, I truly believe that Kajishima seriously needs to consider finding another company to run the anime side of Tenchi as a franchise.  AIC has made too many mistakes for 5 years straight (The only thing they even remotely got right between 2014 and 2019 IMO is OVA 4) and now they've even resorted to carrot dangling.  I can't trust the franchise in their hands anymore after this screwup; call it the straw that broke the camel's back if you want, because that's what it is.  Perhaps Kajishima could consider some of the studios that have done the anime adaptations of other Fantasia Bunko franchises (Remember, Fantasia Bunko handles Tenchi's printed material such as the novels as has been pointed out before).

SAVE_US.KAJ

[WaitoKon]

It would have to be another Japanese company and the sad thing is many in the anime industry are ex-AIC

[WarOmnimon]

It would have to be another Japanese company and the sad thing is many in the anime industry are ex-AIC

Yup, exactly.  Whatever company Kajishima would potentially jump ship to being another Japanese company is a given detail there.  There are many other companies that he should consider working with instead of AIC from this point onward IMO, especially how they are acting right now.  As I said, referencing the companies that have done anime adaptations of other Fantasia Bunko franchises would be a good starting point.  And as I also said, I no longer trust AIC to handle the anime side of Tenchi.  Not after they actually went and promised us OVA 5 news for May back in March or April I think it was... only to not deliver on their promise (It's June in Japan now).  Hitting the fanbase with a straight up bait and switch and then "Look at this!  Wow!  IT'S @#$%ING NOTHING" is MUCH worse than what they did 5 years ago (Reminder, 5 years ago is when we had to deal with Ai Tenchi Muyo!, so yeah... you KNOW it's bad if the current situation is worse than even Ai).  The sad thing is that after OVA 4, I was actually thinking that AIC would treat the franchise with respect again... and then look where we are now.

EDIT Some additional thoughts.  While I'm still on the subject of Kajishima potentially letting another anime studio handle Tenchi (Whether he will or not is a different story, but I will once again say that he should at this point), I'll bring up one franchise that has already done just that, and did so in a way that worked.  And like Tenchi, its printed material is handled by Fantasia Bunko.  Yup, I'm talking about High School DxD.  Those who follow DxD like I do know that the first 3 seasons (The latter two of which were known as NEW and BorN) were handled by the same studio.  But then, BorN went and ended in a way that messed up the entire canon.  Do you know what happened for Season 4 (HERO) because of it?  Simple; they changed studios, and HERO even got an "episode 0" beforehand whose sole purpose was to quickly recap everything that happened in the first 3 seasons, and also show what SHOULD have happened in BorN episode 9, therefore correcting the canon in the process.

If this means that a studio change would result in Tenchi OVA 5 having a recap episode of some kind (Which if they follow what DxD did wouldn't have to change any of the story's events, but I could still see a recap episode of some kind happening) beforehand, I say go for it if Kajishima has the option.  And I truly feel that he should consider an escape route given that AIC literally lied through their teeth about the OVA 5 reveal.

[Y_Anthony_Who]

Sorry to inform you but Kajishima doesn't own Tenchi. AIC does.

[AstroNerdBoy]

Sorry to inform you but Kajishima doesn't own Tenchi. AIC does.

Yep, and if AIC goes out of business, things will become a nightmare for the franchise.

[Ricin]

How much do you think it would cost to buy the Tenchi license if AIC goes under?

[WaitoKon]

Not really. To summarize without exposing too much, they have one derivative outstanding while the earlier series are / were in various formats assigned to Funimation and that already expired.

Not to troll, but this gem probably summarizes the who-has-Tenchi in terms of IP:

https://youtu.be/el5ScEazifA?t=221

I'll leave it to Dr. Soviet to clarify the ownership structure, because it is definitely not AIC.

[WarOmnimon]

Yep, and if AIC goes out of business, things will become a nightmare for the franchise.

But let's face it, things already HAVE become a nightmare for the franchise outta nowhere.  AIC is not in good financial standings right now (Hence the Kickstarters), the studio that handled OVA 4 went bankrupt last year, and AIC even went as far as lying through their teeth about the OVA 5 reveal happening in May... which it never did.  The former 2 situations are understandable, but the latter is what I am calling them out for and why I no longer trust the anime side of the franchise in their hands, because they didn't even bother to give a statement as to WHY the OVA 5 reveal never happened when they said it was going to.

TLDR If AIC had actually come out and said "oh, we can't do the reveal right now so hold on a bit longer", that would have been a different story.  In that case, they would have been, you know... ACTUALLY COMMUNICATING WITH THE FANBASE.  Something they actually bothered to do during OVA 4's run (I mean, they even announced the final episode's delay in a proper manner).  But they didn't, which means they willingly lied.  Hence my current reason for not trusting them.

Not really. To summarize without exposing too much, they have one derivative outstanding while the earlier series are / were in various formats assigned to Funimation and that already expired.

Not to troll, but this gem probably summarizes the who-has-Tenchi in terms of IP:

https://youtu.be/el5ScEazifA?t=221

I'll leave it to Dr. Soviet to clarify the ownership structure, because it is definitely not AIC.

^ This.  And there's yet another way for even those who aren't fully in the know to tell that AIC isn't the one running the ship; their logo isn't found anywhere on the printed material such as the novels and so forth, which unlike the anime is STILL being worked on.  If they WERE in charge, they'd want their logo on the printed material.  And it isn't.  So there ya go. 

[Y_Anthony_Who]

First: AIC RIGHTS Corporation website says they own the copyright to all Tenchi Muyo! series, movies, etc.
Second: The books all say Copyright AIC on the inner cover.

And Funimation only ever had the liscensing rights for distribution outside of Japan.

[WarOmnimon]

First: AIC RIGHTS Corporation website says they own the copyright to all Tenchi Muyo! series, movies, etc.
Second: The books all say Copyright AIC on the inner cover.

And Funimation only ever had the liscensing rights for distribution outside of Japan.

Well... even if so, I'm sure Kajishima (Who created the Tenchi franchise don't forget) can somehow tell AIC "this isn't working, we're done" if he really wanted to bring it somewhere else.  Given what has been happening with the franchise between the Tenchi IF anime being declined in favor of letting Negishi throw Ai Tenchi Muyo! out there 5 years ago (Which may I remind you almost killed the franchise) and now AIC lying through their teeth about the OVA 5 reveal, I'm sure Kajishima has to be at least considering a "see ya, I'm going for greener pastures".  I mean, look at Naoko Takeuchi (Who created Sailor Moon) and how she tells Toei "if you change the story, it can't happen" all the time in relates to Sailor Moon adaptations as of late; if Takeuchi doesn't like it, she doesn't let it happen.  The franchise creators usually DO have say is what I'm trying to say here, and Takeuchi's a fine example of that.

But really, my point wasn't to start a debate as to who does or doesn't own the rights to Tenchi Muyo! as a franchise.  Honestly, it's not my area of expertise at all (All I know is that AIC handles the anime, Fantasia Bunko handles the printed material, and Kajishima is the creator of the original works).  My point is that I feel that Kajishima needs to somehow get it away from AIC after the horse manure they've been dragging Tenchi through lately between Ai Tenchi and then most recently actually lying through their teeth to the entire fanbase about OVA 5.  As I already said, the only thing AIC (Key word is AIC, not Kajishima; don't forget that the novels have been coming out consistently still and those are written by Kajishima) did even REMOTELY right in the past 5 years is OVA 4, and I stand by that statement.  I also stand by not trusting them with the future of the franchise after lying about the OVA 5 reveal and not putting any effort to say to the fans "hey, the reveal was held up for this reason or that reason".  They just don't care like Kajishima does and it's starting to really irritate me; I'm sure that I'm not the only fan who feels this way.

Another case in point as to being irritated in a similar way; Digimon.  Bandai Namco is willing to take it in so many different directions on the merchandise and video game side as of late (They did so many awesome things with the video games, they still are, and even bought the virtual pets back, with a US release of the Ver.20th en route this year), but all Toei wants to do on the anime side is Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure, and more Digimon Adventure.  When comparing Digimon to Tenchi, AIC is to Toei as Kajishima is to Bandai Namco.  It's annoying, it's been happening with Digimon for the past 5 years, and seeing this also happen to Tenchi within the same timeframe is just, GAAAH...

TLDR The same exact thing has been happening to Tenchi and Digimon - 2 of my favorite franchises - for 5 years, and I can't stand it.  So of course I'm going to end up saying things out of context, without thinking, and so forth over it.  Especially when it comes to "who owns what" which with Digimon I am more in the know about than with Tenchi.  At least the discussion has been civil, we haven't been getting at each other's throats or slinging mud, and that's the best part; you guys are all awesome. 

[blackwhite256]

Good grief, AIC needs to update their website. There's literally nothing happening for the past two years.

[Dr.Soviet]

Good grief, AIC needs to update their website. There's literally nothing happening for the past two years.

AIC isn't what it used to be