If you were a kid who watched anime back in the 90’s, then odds are that you remember “ADV Films”. They were responsible for releasing lots of anime into North America; Neon Genesis Evangelion, Robotech, Full Metal Panic, etc. I remember renting some of these from Blockbuster video when first discovering anime, my mom got them for me and I spent hours in front of the TV. However, the most memorable thing to me when looking at these VHS tapes was the “DO IT NOW!” ads that often played before the anime and displayed their titles in a high energy fashion.
These ads from ADV film were important because they displayed other titles that watchers may not have known about, especially since I feel anime was still extremely niche and not nearly as popular in the mainstream as it is now. I had no idea what existed beyond what was at Blockbuster, and had not even heard of one of the only few U.S. anime magazines at the time called “Animerica” yet. They introduced me to many anime like “Battle Angel: Alita”, “Nadesico”, and even “Dirty Pair Flash”. This is what led me to seek out certain anime when I went to places like “Suncoast”, as I had an idea of what those were about from seeing it across my screen.
Do not get me wrong, I saw many more ads for anime across other VHS, DVDs, and Blu-Rays, but none of them made an impact as much as these particular ads. ADV Films even had multiple other advertisements for anime that did not feature this song or this style, but those have faded into obscurity and I had to search YouTube to even remember what those were. While ADV Films is a long forgotten player in western anime adaptions and even less may remember these advertisements which sat at the beginning of their VHS tapes, I remember and I still hold very fond memories. Glad I could share them with all of you.
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Loading...Tags: 90's anime, ADV Films, ADV Films anime ads, DO IT NOW anime ads, Old anime ads
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