AnimEigo
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AnimEigo is an American licensor and distributor of anime founded in 1988 in Ithaca, NY by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams, III. It is now based in Wilmington, NC, and run by Natsumi Ueki, Robert's wife. Their first release, Madox 01, was also the first anime to be commercially released exclusively to home video in the US which was not bound by the content restrictions of American broadcast TV or film. They have released such titles as Urusei Yatsura, Oh My Goddess!, Vampire Princess Miyu, Gainax's industry/fandom sendup Otaku no Video, the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, and Kimagure Orange Road. They also release classic samurai films such as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi and the influential edited/dubbed version of Lone Wolf and Cub, Shogun Assassin (which they completely reconstructed). Live-action Japanese films are an area AnimEigo is building upon with non-samurai films such as A New Love in Tokyo. Their completed release of Urusei Yatsura is one of the longest releases of an anime series in the US market ever, with over 50 volumes in all.
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 that explain important cultural, linguistic and historical tidbits. 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 the fourth episode of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the dying Roy Fokker not only repeats the famous words of Mr. Spock -- "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..." but adds Captain Kirk's reply -- "or the one". AnimEigo also includes comprehensive cultural and linguistic "liner notes" with their releases.
Their name is a portmanteau of "anime" and "eigo" (英語), the Japanese word for the English language.
[edit] Anime licensed by AnimEigo
- Arcadia of My Youth
- Baoh
- Battle Royal High School
- Bubblegum Crisis
- Crusher Joe—OAVs and movie (license recently expired)
- Dagger of Kamui [TV-14]
- Genesis Survivor Gaiarth
- Kimagure Orange Road—OAVs, TV, and movies (license recently expired)
- Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy (as Rupan III) - Movie (license recently expired) [All] [TV-PG]
- Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold Babylon (as Rupan III)—Movie (recently expired) [13+] [TV-PG]
- Metal Skin Panic Madox 01
- Oh My Goddess—Original episodes [TV-PG]
- Otaku no Video
- Riding Bean
- Shonan Bakusozoku
- Spirit of Wonder
- Super Deformed Double Feature
- The Super Dimension Fortress Macross [TV-PG] (expired—currently licensed by ADV Films)
- Urusei Yatsura—TV, OAVs, and movies [13+] [TV-PG]/[TV-14] [MPAA: PG (movies 3 and 5)]
- AnimEigo does not have the license to Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer—that license, due to an odd licensing situation, went to Central Park Media, though AnimEigo did the translation, subtitling, and package design work under contract.
- Vampire Princess Miyu—OAV [TV-14]
- Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl—TV
- You're Under Arrest—TV and OAV [TV-14]
