Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: January 7th, 2018
As of right now, trying to access the website for Pony Canyon US gives you an empty, static page. If you look over at Rightstuf, it seems some of their titles are starting to go out of print as well. It’s too early to speculate but it does seem to indicate that the company’s venture into the Western anime sphere wasn’t as successful as first desired.
Those who still remember will know that there was a big scare over Japanese companies cutting the middleman and coming to take over the North American market back a few years (Around the time Ponycan set up shop, actually). But it seems Aniplex’s success is a freak accident, one maintained primarily by their A+ catalogue of hit titles. Between this and Anime Strike closing, I think the anime gods are determined to prove me right as this is happening only days after my article highlighting how the fandom has historically protected itself, in Japan and overseas, and I think that whether doomed or not, Ponycan’s disastrous history in the NA market proves that you can’t just force people to adopt something they don’t want; in this case overpriced releases.
Source: Pony Canyon US Logo (For Article Image)