Natsume Maya has reported that according to the Japanese business newspaper, Nihon Kiezai Shimbun, ADV Films has formed an alliance with the Japanese publisher Mag Garden.  ADV is reportedly putting up 25% of the production cost to create an anime TV series based on the manga, Erementar Gerad by Azuma Mayumi, which is published by Mag Garden.  ADV will have global rights (outside of Asia) for the anime series as well as merchandise based on the anime.  Plans are for the Erementar Gerad anime series to be broadcast simultaneously in both Japan and the U.S. in the spring of 2005. 

ADV announced last summer that it is publishing the Erementar Gerad manga, so this relationship makes sense on a number of levels (see 'ADV Has Licensed 1000 Volumes of Manga).  ADV is also planning to launch a toy division specializing in manga and anime related items (see 'ADV Launches Toy Division'), so the merchandise tie-in is a natural.  Mag Garden has also announced TV anime series based on the manga Tactics (by Kinoshita Sakura and Higashiyama Kazuko) as well as another anime based on Amano Kozue's Aria manga series, although so far there has been no mention of ADV's participation in those projects.  ADV's President and CEO, John Ledford, told ICv2 that the company had already invested in numerous Japanese anime productions.