"Kadokawa to Merge 9 Subsidiaries Into 1 Company" - From ANN

[Benigmatica]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...into-1-company

This is what I feared for... Looks like Shana can rub shoulders with Lina Inverse, Louise, and Haruhi Suzumiya side-by-side. But hey, a crossover would be a possibility!

Any reaction to this move by Kadokawa?

[Akito Kinomoto]

Originally Posted by Benigmatica

This is what I feared for... Looks like Shana can rub shoulders with Lina Inverse, Louise, and Haruhi Suzumiya side-by-side. But hey, a crossover would be a possibility!

...So has KuguRie ever voiced two similar characters in the same show?

[Chaos2Frozen]

So they merge to become the Final Boss?

Originally Posted by Akito Kinomoto

...So has KuguRie ever voiced two similar characters in the same show?

What do you mean two similar characters in the same show ?

[Benigmatica]

Originally Posted by Akito Kinomoto

...So has KuguRie ever voiced two similar characters in the same show?

No, it's a possibility that she can voice four tsundere characters!

Since it all comes down to this, I hope it doesn't affect the licensing of their light novels (and other merchandise) outside Japan.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by Benigmatica

Since it all comes down to this, I hope it doesn't affect the licensing of their light novels (and other merchandise) outside Japan.

It shouldn't affect licensing since Kadokawa is pretty aggressive at licensing them outside Japan to begin with. In regards to the NA market, the revenue for LNs appear to be about the same as the revenue for manga volumes, but with higher TL costs so it's not profitable for publishers outside certain titles.

[Benigmatica]

They could bring their novels worldwide by buying Yen Press and turn into Kadokawa Shoten USA... But then again, there's already an American branch there!

Now then, there's a problem when it comes to media distribution. The management needs to sort it out instead of making factions like "Team Dengeki Bunko" vs "Team Fujimi Shobo" or something.

[Sister Princess]

Cut redunant staff, increase overall pricing due to their system of business... yeah, that sure is a good idea all right.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Benigmatica

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...into-1-company

This is what I feared for... Looks like Shana can rub shoulders with Lina Inverse, Louise, and Haruhi Suzumiya side-by-side. But hey, a crossover would be a possibility!

Any reaction to this move by Kadokawa?

Don't get what you mean. And just fyi, crossovers between subsidiaries have already been done before, so the possibility has always existed. In fact, collaborations with other publishers/authors not under Kadokawa have also been done before. In fact, I know of one author who's running dual contracts between Fujimi and Kodansha.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Benigmatica

No, it's a possibility that she can voice four tsundere characters!

You know Lina isn't voiced by Rie, right? She's done by Megumi Hayashibara.

[Ithekro]

She already had the JC Staff quad-tsun with Shana, Louis, Nagi, and Taiga.

[Lord of Fire]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

She already had the JC Staff quad-tsun with Shana, Louis, Nagi, and Taiga.

Quintuple-tsun if you count Aria (though she never really got off the grounds the way the other girls did).

As for the merger itself, considering these companies more or less belonged to Kadokawa anyway, I guess this move makes sense businesd-wise.

[Dhomochevsky]

This is too complicated.
Can someone explain what exactly is the difference between being a 'subsidiarie'' and joining the mother company?
Isn't this splitting all just legal mumbo jumbo to get around taxes and stuff? In the end, what the mother company says is law anyways right?

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Benigmatica

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...into-1-company

This is what I feared for... Looks like Shana can rub shoulders with Lina Inverse, Louise, and Haruhi Suzumiya side-by-side. But hey, a crossover would be a possibility!

...and then there's idea of Haruhi Suzimiya meeting with Chiyo's dad (from Azumanga Daioh).

[Benigmatica]

Originally Posted by Lord of Fire

As for the merger itself, considering these companies more or less belonged to Kadokawa anyway, I guess this move makes sense businesd-wise.

Agreed, since it's better to have a unified force for distribution than having either Media Factory or Kadokawa Shoten do it separately.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

This is too complicated.
Can someone explain what exactly is the difference between being a 'subsidiarie'' and joining the mother company?
Isn't this splitting all just legal mumbo jumbo to get around taxes and stuff? In the end, what the mother company says is law anyways right?

The main difference is just branding/marketing. It means that we'll start seeing Kadokawa's brand name on a lot more things. It may not actually even have much legal or tax-related impact, depending on the way it was done behind the scenes.

Since a lot of these brands started off as separate companies that later got bought out, it may be that this points to continued consolidation on the staff level too, and more common practices throughout the company. There can be benefits in keeping separate teams each doing their own things, but also efficiencies in combining teams. As they combine/move staff across the subsidiaries, it will have some impact on the products they produce too. Some time down the road, we may see some of the various magazines be consolidated/eliminated/streamlined by eliminated the less-popular ones and moving the associated content to the more-popular ones. You'll probably also see a lot of tweaking to names too, as they try to put the Kadokawa brand on everything.

In the end, though, probably not too big of an impact on consumers right away, and not really more or less than could have been done already even if they kept all the old names. In the past I sort of thought that they were keeping these brands just to give the perception of increased competition in the market, but really so much of the industry is (already) run by one giant company. Now that'll just be more obvious to us.

[Benigmatica]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

...to put the Kadokawa brand on everything.

If they did that, say goodbye to the Dengeki Bunko brand, the largest LN publisher Kadokawa has to offer. It won't be a matter of time if all novels migrate and form a super LN publishing brand.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Benigmatica

If they did that, say goodbye to the Dengeki Bunko brand, the largest LN publisher Kadokawa has to offer. It won't be a matter of time if all novels migrate and form a super LN publishing brand.

Well, it's the "Ascii Media Works" brand that is disappearing, not necessarily the Dengeki label/imprint.

But I suppose one could argue that, effectively speaking, Kadokawa is already the "super LN publishing brand" now.

[Benigmatica]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Well, it's the "Ascii Media Works" brand that is disappearing, not necessarily the Dengeki label/imprint.

But I suppose one could argue that, effectively speaking, Kadokawa is already the "super LN publishing brand" now.

Yeah, and I could compare it to Shonen Jump or even Volkswagen for that matter. It won't be long if Kadokawa gets all of their novels under one label.

And BTW, will Kadokawa name it as Sneaker Bunko or Beans Bunko?