Streamline Pictures was an American media company. Founded by screenwriter Carl Macek and animation historian Jerry Beck, it was one of the earliest distributors of English-dubbed Japanese animation.

History

Founding

Founded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, 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 a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

uncut and faithful to the original content. The founders of Streamline were television writer and producer Carl Macek, who had worked for Harmony Gold USA on the series ''

Robotech ''Robotech'' is an American-Japanese science fiction Media franchise, franchise that began with an 85-episode anime television series produced by Harmony Gold USA in association with Tatsunoko Production; it was first released in the United St ...

'', and film distributor Jerry Beck. At one point or another, Gregory Snegoff, Steve Kramer, Ardwight Chamberlain, 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 releases

The first high-profile release by Streamline was the film '' Laputa: Castle in the Sky'' from director

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

, premiering at the Roxy Screening Room in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

on March 24, 1989. The company was also known for its theatrical release of the film '' Akira'' at

The Biograph The Biograph was a repertory movie theatre in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), DC neighborhood of Georgetown. Opened on September 30, 1967 in the shell of the Nash auto dealership, it closed in 1996. History Alan Rubin was one of its cofound ...

in Georgetown,

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

on December 25, 1989, as well as its 1992 video dubbing of '' The Castle of Cagliostro'' (earlier screened with subtitles at the Film Forum in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in April 1991). Streamline also dubbed '' My Neighbor Totoro'', and ''

Kiki's Delivery Service is a 1989 Japanese Anime, animated fantasy film written, produced, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on Eiko Kadono's 1985 novel ''Kiki's Delivery Service (novel), Kiki's Delivery Service''. Animated by Studio Ghibli, the film stars Minami ...

'', 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, man ...

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

Japan Airlines Japan Airlines (JAL) is the flag carrier airline of Japan. JAL is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport, Narita and Haneda Airport, Haneda airports, as well as secondary hubs in Osaka's Kansai ...

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 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 based in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has exp ...

have been redubbed by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

.) 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 that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

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 Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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 manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially collected in 27 volumes ...

'', '' Wicked City'', '' Lensman'', '' Vampire Hunter D'' 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 ki ...

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 t ...

'', ''

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

'' and '' Mospeada'' episodes on the same tape along with their ''Robotech'' counterparts. (Since then, these three titles were re-released by

ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gr ...

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'' 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