AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes

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 ...

, 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 is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from September 1978 to February 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were collected in 34 ''tankōbon'' volum ...

'', ''You're Under Arrest'', '' Vampire Princess Miyu'', '' Otaku no Video'', the original ''

Bubblegum Crisis is a 1987-1991 Japanese cyberpunk original video animation (OVA) series produced by Youmex and animated by Anime International Company, AIC and Artmic. The series involves the adventures of the Knight Sabers, an all-female group of Mercenar ...

'' OVA series, and '' Kimagure Orange Road''. Their name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "anime" and "eigo" (英語), the Japanese word for the English language.

History

The company was founded in 1988 in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III. It is now based in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

, 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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. 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 ''

'', 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 is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. It was serialized in Futabasha's manga magazine '' Weekly Manga Action'' from September 1970 to April 1976, with its chapters collected in 28 ' volumes. ...

'', and '' Portrait of Hell'' live action movies. In October 2013, AnimEigo launched their first

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign to crowdfund a new release, specifically to re-release ''

'' as a limited edition

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. 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'', '' Gunsmith Cats'', ''

Megazone 23 is a Japanese animated mecha cyberpunk film series created by Noboru Ishiguro, written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama and Emu Arii, and directed by Ishiguro, Ichiro Itano, Kenichi Yatagai, and Shinji Aramaki. The three-part original video anima ...

'', '' Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01'', and '' Macross II: Lovers Again''. In February 2024, MediaOCD, a post-production firm owned by

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

founder Justin Sevakis, acquired AnimEigo's video distribution business. Woodhead and Ueki will stay on to assist in the transition and see existing projects to completion. After that, they plan to retire.

Distribution

The company streams their titles on Hoopla, RetroCrush,

Tubi Tubi (stylized as tubi) is an American over-the-top ad-supported streaming television service owned by Fox Corporation since 2020. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In 2023, Tubi, Credible L ...

, and CONtv. Some of their titles were on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

and VRV (via VRV Select), 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 that explain important cultural, linguistic and historical tidbits. They also include comprehensive cultural and linguistic

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

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 from '' Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' – "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..." but adds

Captain Kirk James Tiberius Kirk, often known as Captain Kirk, is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in ''Star Trek'' serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterp ...

's reply – "or the one". They also licensed two ''

Lupin III , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese media franchise created by Monkey Punch. The series follows the endeavors of master thief Lupin III (character), Lupin III, grandson of gentleman t ...

'' 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 logogram, logographic characters borrowe ...

pronunciation of Lupin. Even after the Lupin name passed into

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

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 New York (state) 2024 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1988 Anime companies Companies based in Wilmington, North Carolina Entertainment companies established in 1988 Home video companies of the United States Privately held companies based in North Carolina Video production companies