Streamline Pictures was an American media company that was best known for its distribution of English-dubbed Japanese animation.

History

Founding

Founded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, in late 1988, Streamline Pictures was one of the first North American companies that was created primarily with the intention of distributing translated

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

uncut and faithful to the original content. The founders of Streamline were television writer and producer

Carl Macek Carl Frank Macek (September 21, 1951 – April 17, 2010) was an American screenwriter, script editor, producer and voice actor on numerous English language adaptations of anime during the 1980s and 1990s. His work is considered by many to hav ...

, who had worked for

Harmony Gold USA Harmony Gold USA, Inc. was an American film and television production company. It was founded in 1983 by Egyptian-born Frank Agrama and is managed by his daughter, Jehan F. Agrama. In 1976, Agrama sold broadcast rights from Paramount Pictures ...

on the series ''

Robotech ''Robotech'' is a science fiction franchise that began with an 85-episode anime television series produced by Harmony Gold USA in association with Tatsunoko Production and first released in the United States in 1985. The show was adapted from ...

'', and animation historians

Jerry Beck Jerry Beck (born February 9, 1955, in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. Beck wrote or edited several books on classic American animation and classic characters, including '' The 50 Greates ...

and

Fred Patten Frederick Walter Patten (December 11, 1940 – November 12, 2018) was an American writer and historian known for his work in the science fiction, fantasy, anime, manga, and furry fandoms, where he gained great distinction through a substantial c ...

. At one point or another,

Gregory Snegoff Gregory Snegoff (born June 22, 1955) is an American voice actor, writer and dialogue director who frequently works on English-language anime-dubs. He is also known by the names Greg Snegoff, Gregory Snow, and Greg Snow. Early life Snegoff is a ...

, Steve Kramer,

Ardwight Chamberlain Ardwight Chamberlain (sometimes credited as R.D. Chamberlain or R. Dwight; born February 16, 1957) is an American voice actor and screen writer currently living in Los Angeles, California. He is best known as the voice of Vorlon Ambassador Kosh ...

, Tom Wyner, and Mike Reynolds, all of whom served as series staff writers (and voice actors) on ''Robotech'', worked as independent writers and voice actors for Streamline.

High profile products

The first high-profile product distributed by Streamline was its December 1989 release of the anime film '' Akira''. The company was also known for its 1989 theatrical distribution of the film '' Laputa: Castle in the Sky'' directed by

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

, and its 1992 video dubbing of ''

The Castle of Cagliostro is a 1979 Japanese animated action-adventure comedy film co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, with animation produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS). It is the second feature film featuring Monkey Punch's master thief Arsène Lupin III, ...

''. Streamline also dubbed ''

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film—which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi—tells the story o ...

'', and ''

Kiki's Delivery Service is a 1989 Japanese Anime, animated fantasy film written, produced, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, adapted from the Kiki's Delivery Service (novel), 1985 novel by Eiko Kadono. It was animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Yamato Transpor ...

'', both adapted and directed by Gregory Snegoff, in 1988 for

Tokuma Shoten is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, ...

, although these were only used as in-flight films by

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

at the time. As a fan of Miyazaki's films, Macek did not think ''Laputa'' (of which Streamline was the distributor) had received the quality of dubbing that a Miyazaki film deserved. He thought that it could have been done better, so Tokuma Shoten gave him the opportunity to prove his words. For his first project, he asked to dub ''My Neighbor Totoro'', one of his favorite Miyazaki works. The Streamline dub of ''My Neighbor Totoro'' was released theatrically in the U.S. by

Troma Films Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. The company produces low-budget independent films, primarily of the horror comedy genre. Many of them pl ...

in 1993; but its dub of ''Kiki's Delivery Service'' appeared only on the 1990s Japanese laserdisc release of that title. (Since then, however, all three afore-mentioned films by Miyazaki at

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and h ...

have been redubbed by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

.) Tokuma Shoten was pleased with the quality of the initial work, and it immediately hired Streamline to produce the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

version of ''Kiki's Delivery Service''. Soon after its release, the film was bought by Japan Airlines, who showed it during their flights between Japan and the U.S. Streamline also licensed and dubbed other popular anime series and movies such as ''

Fist of the North Star is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially collected in 27 ' ...

'', '' Wicked City'', ''

Lensman The ''Lensman'' series is a series of science fiction novels by American author E. E. "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the 1966 Hugo award for Best All-Time Series, losing to the ''Foundation'' series by Isaac Asimov. Plot The series begins ...

'', ''

Vampire Hunter D is a series of novels written by Japanese author Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano since 1983. As of April 2022, 40 novels have been published in the main series, with some novels comprising as many as four volumes. They ha ...

'' and '' The Professional: Golgo 13''.

Home video market

Streamline, in being the first company dedicated to making anime accessible to the English speaking world, was notable for releasing a wide variety of anime that fit in a wide variety of genres, many of which do not fit completely in any genre such as ''Twilight of the Cockroaches''. During the 1990s VHS era, before the common availability of hybrid

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

s, anime distributors released anime via subtitled or dubbed tapes with the subtitled editions being noticeably more expensive than the dubs which were expected to sell better. Streamline is also notable in being the only such company to eschew this practice and release only dubs of its anime. The only exceptions were the later ''Akira'' subtitled release and their ''Robotech Collection'', which included episodes of the original ''

Macross is a Japanese science fiction mecha anime media franchise/ media mix, created by Studio Nue (most prominently mecha designer, writer and producer Shōji Kawamori) and Artland in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth and th ...

'', ''

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

'' and ''

Mospeada (literally "Armored Genesis MOSPEADA") is an anime science fiction series created by Shinji Aramaki and Hideki Kakinuma. The 25-episode television series ran from late 1983 to early 1984 in Japan. MOSPEADA stands for Military Operation Soldi ...

'' episodes on the same tape along with their ''Robotech'' counterparts. (Since then, these three titles were re-released by ADV Films through Harmony Gold.)

Criticism

Because of Macek's notoriety with a certain branch of fandom, Streamline became one of the early catalysts of the sub vs. dub debate. Macek's philosophy towards anime dubbing, as stated in several interviews, most notably published ''

Protoculture Addicts ''Protoculture Addicts'' was a Canadian-based anime and manga themed magazine published by Protoculture Inc., an Anime News Network company. The term "Protoculture Addicts" was also used by the Zentradi (an alien race that appeared in the ''Macro ...

'' and '' Animag'', has become largely synonymous with the negative connotation concerning "Americanized dubs".

Later years

Streamline Pictures stopped producing new anime releases in 1997 but continued to distribute its complete library in North America. In 1996 the company began to release foreign films under its "Independent Filmworks" label until 2000 when the company closed. The company's Modelworks division was sold in 1998 and the "Streamline Pictures Modelworks" division became a separate company operating under the name, "Avatar Creations." Today, rights to much of the Streamline film and television library (such as ''Akira'' and ''The Castle of Cagliostro'') have either reverted to the Japanese rights holder and licensed to other companies; while others have never been re-released due to licensing issues and lack of demand.

List of titles dubbed and/or released

Notes

References

Streamline Pictures Review Index and Company Info
��Akemi's Anime World