AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes
anime,
samurai films and
Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by
Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to licensing anime and helped give anime a noticeable following in the region. Over its history, the company has released many anime titles, such as ''
Urusei Yatsura'',
''You're Under Arrest'', ''
Vampire Princess Miyu'', ''
Otaku no Video'', the original ''
Bubblegum Crisis''
OVA series, and ''
Kimagure Orange Road''.
Their name is a
portmanteau of "anime" and "eigo" (英語), the Japanese word for the English language.
History
The company was founded in 1988 in
Ithaca, New York by
Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III. It is now based in
Wilmington, North Carolina and run by Natsumi Ueki, Woodhead's wife. Their first release was ''
Metal Skin Panic Madox 01''. In July 2003, the company signed a deal with
Koch Entertainment to help market and distribute their titles in the
United States and
Canada.
Between 2010 and 2013 the company lost a lot of its titles. For example, in February 2010, they announced they lost the rights to the ''
Oh My Goddess!'' OVAs. In April 2010, the company announced they were unable to license the remaining episodes of ''
Yawara!''. They later lost the rights to the episodes they had previously licensed. In February 2011, the company announced they had lost the rights to ''
Urusei Yatsura'', one of their more popular titles. The company also lost the rights to the ''
You're Under Arrest'' and ''
Battle Royal High School'' anime series, as well as the ''
Zatoichi'', ''
Lone Wolf and Cub'', and ''
Portrait of Hell'' live action movies.
In October 2013, AnimEigo launched their first
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
campaign to
crowdfund a new release, specifically to re-release ''
Bubblegum Crisis'' as a limited edition
Blu-ray. The Kickstarter was successfully funded in October 2013, and the Blu-ray was subsequently released in December 2014. They also successfully kickstarted re-releases of ''
Otaku no Video'', ''
Riding Bean'', ''
A.D. Police Files
''AD Police Files'' is a three-part original video animation produced by Youmex and animated by Artmic and AIC. Set in 2027, it is a prequel to the ''Bubblegum Crisis'' OVA series, focusing mainly on AD Police officer Leon McNichol, the future ...
'', ''
Gunsmith Cats'', and ''
Megazone 23''.
Distribution
The company streams their titles on
VRV
Variable refrigerant flow (VRF), also known as variable refrigerant volume (VRV), is an HVAC technology invented by Daikin Industries, Ltd. in 1982. Like ductless minisplits, VRFs use refrigerant as the cooling and heating medium. This refrigera ...
(via VRV Select),
Hoopla, RetroCrush,
Tubi, and
CONtv. Some of their titles were on
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
, but they have been removed.
The company is well known for the quality of its translation and subtitles, and pioneered such techniques as multi-color subtitles, overlapping dialogue, and
supertitles
Surtitles, also known as supertitles, SurCaps, OpTrans, are translated or transcribed lyrics/dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera, theatre or other musical performances. The word "surtitle" comes from ...
that explain important cultural, linguistic and historical tidbits. They also include comprehensive cultural and linguistic
liner notes with their releases. Alert viewers will often find subtle references to pop culture and current events hidden in the subtitles when they match what the characters are actually saying. Sometimes the references are blatant; in episode 18 of ''
Super Dimension Fortress Macross'', the dying Roy Fokker not only repeats the famous words of
Mr. Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as science officer and first officer (and Kirk's Second-in-command) and ...
from ''
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' – "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..." but adds
Captain Kirk's reply – "or the one".
They also licensed two ''
Lupin III'' films: ''
Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy'' and ''
Lupin III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon''. Because of legal issues surrounding the Lupin name (which was used by author
Monkey Punch without permission from the estate of
Maurice Leblanc), the titles were released as ''Rupan III'' (which is the
romaji
The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as .
Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Ch ...
pronunciation of Lupin). Even after the Lupin name passed into
public domain in the 1990s, they continued to distribute the films as ''Rupan III''.
Productions
Releases are only listed if the subtitling, dubbing, or other (localization) production work was handled by AnimEigo; rather than being licensed or redistributed from prior versions.
In print
Out of print
References
External links
Official website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Animeigo
1988 establishments in the United States
Anime companies
Companies based in Wilmington, North Carolina
Entertainment companies established in 1988
Home video companies of the United States
Video production companies