Already this year we've seen Japanese trading company, Sojitz Corporation, back out of the deal it had made with A.D. Vision through ARM, a subsidiary it had established to promote the North American licensing and distribution of anime. As a result of the breaking of that relationship, ADV lost about 30 titles, which were then licensed to FUNimation Entertainment instead. (A list of the titles can be found here.)

Now Sojitz has announced that it plans to dissolve ARM entirely, by February of 2009. The corporation's reasoning, expressed this week in a Japanese press release, is that while it had expected earnings to grow in the North American market when it established ARM in 2006, it no longer believes that will happen. Therefore ARM will be dissolved, and its resources "redistributed."

One might worry that the 30 series FUNimation had acquired through ARM during the summer of this year could now be in jeopardy again. But according to the Anime News Network, FUNimation spokesperson Jackie Smith has assuaged those worries. She states, "FUNimation no longer deals with ARM or Sojitz regarding the titles we acquired over the summer. Each title was transferred to us and we have been in direct contact with the licencers."

So whatever FUNimation has been planning to do with those series (some are already being released as box sets, and others will likely be re-released in various forms), its plans will continue as before, with no interruption. Whether or not Sojitz Corporation still owns the 20% it had originally invested in ADV, and how it might deal with that part of its investment if it does, has not yet been commented on.