An uncertain future for Sentai Filmworks

[CSmith79]

Sentai's been having financial problems for quite some time. Lots of guys thought Sentai would get a rejuvenation after being bought by AMC Networks, especially considering that Sentai was on the verge of shutting down prior (that Cool Japan Fund money ain't gonna help, especially when Sentai has had to deal with much bigger competitors like Crunchyroll, Funimation and Netflix). However, after a few years, Sentai is still having financial problems, a good portion of which can be attributed to AMC Networks's own issues. They've also been licensing less and less titles per season compared to before the acquisition. Not only that but they've been purging quite a number of even recently-licensed titles. This doesn't bode well at all for Sentai's future, especially as Disney+ and Amazon have stepped into the ring and Netflix has been doubling down on anime.

I have a feeling that AMC Networks is gonna pull the plug on Sentai and either shut it down (which would completely kill the Houston dubbing scene) or sell it off to another company. Should the latter occur, I can see Sentai being sold to REMOW, a new licensor whose shareholders are numerous and include the likes of Toei, Shogakukan-Shueisha, MBS, TBS and TV Tokyo. REMOW has been licensing a small but growing number of titles, also dubbing them. But there's just one problem: they have a very scattershot approach to releasing their anime. Acquiring Sentai would give them a company who at the very least knows how to market and release anime for the overseas crowd cuz Japanese companies have zero idea on what to do (see Daisuki and Bandai Visual USA). Plus they can also leverage HIDIVE with Latin America's AnimeOnegai (which they own).

Ofc if neither of those happen we can see a case where Sentai's on life support like with Media Blasters, just doing the bare minimum to get by and avoid shutting down altogether.