Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American market manga and

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 ...

compilations, Asian films and television series, adult anime, monster movies, concert films, independent films, horror films, and exploitation films. Over its history, the company has licensed several popular titles, such as ''

Rurouni Kenshin is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins during the 11th year of the Meiji period in Japan (1878) and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his wor ...

'', '' Berserk'', ''

Bakuman is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, the same creative team responsible for ''Death Note''. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from August 2 ...

'', '' Eiken'', and ''

Blade of the Immortal is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroaki Samura. The series is set in Japan during the mid- Tokugawa Shogunate period and follows the cursed samurai Manji, who has to kill 1,000 evil men in order to regain his morta ...

''.

History

Founding and growth

Before Media Blasters was founded, John Sirabella had previously founded Software Sculptors in 1992. After it was purchased by Central Park Media, Sirabella decided to leave and found Media Blasters in 1997 in

, New York. The company is divided into several divisions that target different aspects of the video market. They license titles for release and are involved in the production, localizing, and distribution. The Animeworks division was created in 1997, and focuses on localization and distribution of

titles, but has also licensed non-anime works, such as ''

Invader Zim ''Invader Zim'' is an American animated science fiction dark comedy television series created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez for Nickelodeon. The series centers on an extraterrestrial named Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Ho ...

''. The adult label Kitty Media was also started in 1997 and features explicit hentai works. Created in 1998, Tokyo Shock is Media Blaster's Asian cinema division, which is responsible for American localization of works such as ''Zatoichi:The Blind Swordsman'' of the

Zatoichi is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay , part of Shimozawa's ''Futokoro Techō'' se ...

franchise. Another division, Shriek Show, was founded in 2001 to focus on re-mastering horror titles for DVD release. In 2004, Media Blasters began publishing manga. The company first published ''shōnen'' manga titles for older readers, and later on it increased its

yaoi ''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the '' wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created ...

manga line. At the height of its success, they released around five titles a month and had about 50 employees, but as the market decreased so did the company.

Financial problems

In January 2012, John Sirabella announced that the company would be laying off approximately ten employees, reducing its workforce by about 60 percent. He stated that this will not affect their production rates. In May 2012, it was reported that the New York State Department of State listed them as an inactive company due to not filing their taxes properly. The company later stated on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

that they had filed extensions for 2009, 2010, and 2011, but without their notice the Secretary of State took action. They also said that at the time of posting they had completed their filings properly and that they will continue to release titles. In March 2013, the company released a statement saying that because a major back accident occurred in their warehouse, they were unable to travel to Japan to acquire licenses. This resulted in business associates of the company going around Japan showing a tax paper stating they were out of business, which ended up resulting in the company losing a majority of their titles, most notably ''

'', ''Berserk'', and ''

''. In January 2015, the company signed a deal with MB VoiceWorks, to help produce English dubs for its anime titles in-house. Despite the closure of MB VoiceWorks in May 2016, Media Blasters would still continue to produce its English dubs in-house, and that MB VoiceWorks co-founder Brittany Lauda, would continue to lead the dubbing department and direct dubs for the company.

Recovery

In August 2020, the company created a new

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account to promote their new releases. The company also teased that many new releases would be coming in the future. In November 2020, the company announced that they will stop using their DVD-on-demand system. They also considered ditching DVD releases entirely. In January 2021, the company introduced a new opening animation.

Distribution

Their titles are distributed by GPC Films and streamed on Crunchyroll, RetroCrush,

Tubi Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

, and

CONtv CONtv is an Over-the-top content, OTT streaming service launched in March 2015 as a joint venture between Cinedigm and Wizard World. The service is catered towards fans of geek and nerd culture, featuring cult classic films and television serie ...

. Some of their titles were available on Hulu, but they have been removed. On December 31, 2015, the television network TOKU was launched, replacing the

Funimation Channel Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specialize ...

(which relaunched as a streaming service in January 2016). It aired many anime and live action titles from the Media Blasters catalog, like ''

Ladies versus Butlers! is a Japanese light novel series written by Tsukasa Kōzuki, with accompanying illustrations by Munyū. The series includes 13 novels released between September 2006 and March 2012, published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imp ...

''. They are the main anime provider for the network. The company only directly releases its titles in North America. Some of its titles have been released in other territories by other distributors, such as

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyr ...

MVM Entertainment MVM Entertainment, also known as MVM and MVM Films, is a British licensor and distributor of Japanese animation. The company also sub-licenses anime titles from US anime companies such as Media Blasters, Geneon, Nozomi Entertainment, Urban Visi ...

Madman Anime Group Crunchyroll Pty. Ltd., trading as Crunchyroll Store Australia, and previously known as Madman Anime, is an Australian distribution company focused on anime and Japanese media. The company handles licensing and distribution of anime in Australia ...

, Siren Visual, and

Animax , stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed other cartoons in Japanese language. A subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, it is headq ...

Divisions

Anime Works

Anime Works is the division used for the bulk of the company's

titles. Some of the series released under this imprint include ''

Magic Knight Rayearth is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp. Appearing as a serial in the manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from the November 1993 issue to the February 1995 issue, the chapters of ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' were collected into three bound volum ...

'', ''

'', '' Berserk'', and ''

''. The imprint also produced two original series with

Yasuomi Umetsu is a Japanese animator known for creating the ''Kite'' film series. Works Filmography *'' Megazone 23 Part II'' (1986) character designer/animation director *''Robot Carnival'' (1987) episode director/animation director, 'Presence' segment * ' ...

, those being ''

Kite Liberator is a 2008 direct-to-video anime action science fiction film and second installment of the film series. It was directed and written by Yasuomi Umetsu, who previously directed the first film in the series. The film was released on March 21, 2008 ...

'' and '' Mezzo Forte''.

Kitty Media

Kitty Media specializes in adult anime ( hentai) and pornographic films. Also availabl
here
an
here (PDF version of the issue)
The division also specializes in films and anime series that contain scenes of rape and graphic sexuality. Its first release, and the first release by Media Blasters as a whole, was ''Rei-Lan: Orchid Emblem''. Media Blasters also publishes both hentai and

manga under this imprint. It has also released several titles formerly released by Central Park Media's Anime 18 imprint. In 2011, they entered a licensing partnership with Fakku to stream select titles, starting with ''Immoral Sisters''. In 2017, they were acquired by Fakku for digital distribution, while physical distribution will still be maintained by Media Blasters.

Tokyo Shock

The Tokyo Shock division covers

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

movies and television series from Japan and other Asian markets, such as several notable films from Toho Co. Ltd and Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd.

Shriek Show

The Shriek Show division handled distribution of obscure horror and exploitation films. This division and the Fresh Meat line were discontinued in 2013.

Fresh Meat

The Fresh Meat line was a part of the Shriek Show division that handled horror films from new directors.

Fever Dreams

The Fever Dreams division specializes in original films. The company focused heavily on this division in 2013.

Guilty Pleasures

The Guilty Pleasures division specialized in releasing B-tier cult-classic films. This division was discontinued in 2013, but the company decided to start re-releasing some of its titles in 2021.

References

External links

* * {{anime News Network, company, 7 Anime companies Entertainment companies based in New York City Home video companies of the United States Hentai companies Mass media companies based in New York City Mass media companies established in 1997