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Thursday, 07-Jan-2010 02:58:00 CST
History
of Anime in the U.S.
VIZ, Shogakukan, & Urban Vision
We now come to a pair of companies which
are either managed by or have ties to larger Japanese groups. First
is VIZ, with strong links to Shogakukan: the property that they'll
forever be remembered for is one that's typical ... Ranma 1/2. This
series along with OVA's and movies has been shipping for some time
now, and probably will continue for at least the foreseeable future
(so far, all the OVA's and movies are out ... but the TV series
ran for something like 140 episodes so there are still quite a few
to go). Also with a strong Japanese connection is the newcomer Urban
Vision ... but one has to get past the idea that they're part of
AD Vision (they're not ... any more than Kitty Media is part of
the Japanese Kitty Enterprises). Urban Vision, including a former
Streamline employee, is functioning at this time largely as a releasing
division for Madhouse (a Japanese producer of anime). While they
have only a few titles available in the marketplace so far, the
quality of their dubs is surprisingly high and they seem committed
to releasing product as subs as well. Good things may well come
from these guys as time goes on, but they too haven't been around
long enough to come up with a single release which is typical.
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