A.D. Vision (ADV Films)

In 1992, Matt Greenfield was running an anime club in Houston's Clear Lake area called Anime NASA. A club regular kept telling him to meet his boss, John Ledford, who ran a video game business. The two men met, talked about the trouble of renting out Japanese laser discs, and decided anime could sell in America. Fifteen days later, in August 1992, they formed A.D. Vision. The plan was to license Japanese titles, translate them, and release them in the United States. By December they had released their first title, Devil Hunter Yohko.

The company grew quickly. The Houston Press reported in 2001 that ADV had more than a thousand titles, offices in London and Tokyo, and more than 60 employees at a headquarters at 5750 Bintliff, a near-block of warehouse buildings in southwest Houston. It hired from its own audience. One employee was recruited after an ADV panel at A-Kon in Dallas, and staff translators, subtitlers and schedulers for voice actors worked alongside English dubbing productions recorded for the releases.

By 2007 the company described itself as having home video, television, publishing, theatrical, online, mobile and licensing divisions. Its catalog included Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephon, Robotech, Full Metal Panic!, Azumanga Daioh, Chrono Crusade, Gantz and DNAngel. It published Newtype USA magazine and ADV Manga. In 2002 it launched the Anime Network as a video-on-demand service for digital cable, billing it as America's first television network dedicated to anime. A 24-hour linear channel followed on June 30, 2004, on Insight Communications systems in the Midwest. The linear service ended at the start of 2008, while video on demand and an online player continued.

The company pulled back after 2007. In January 2008 it removed many recently acquired titles from its website. That July, the Japanese rights holder ARM moved more than 30 former ADV titles to Funimation, its rival in North Texas.

On September 1, 2009, A.D. Vision announced it was shutting down after transferring its assets to other companies. Anime News Network reported that AEsir Holdings took selected library titles, SXION 23 (Section23 Films) took distribution and account servicing, Valkyrie Media Partners took the Anime Network, and Seraphim Studios took the Amusement Park Media production unit. All of the new companies were based in Houston and had been registered that May. Section23 kept most of ADV's staff and licenses, but not Ledford. Within weeks, the former ADV dubbing crew, now Seraphim Studios, was recording the English soundtrack for the Halo Legends anthology.

Sentai Filmworks, another Houston company that ADV had distributed, became the main heir to the operation. In January 2022, AMC Networks bought its Houston-based parent, Sentai Holdings, which runs the HIDIVE streaming service.