(abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music,

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 ...

, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise that is a subsidiary of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

, owned by American telecommunications/media company

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of

within Japan. The company was founded in March 1981 by Pioneer Corporation as LaserDisc Corporation, a

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

player production company. In 1989, the company was renamed Pioneer LDC, Inc. as it branched into the anime, music, and film industries, and later Geneon Entertainment Inc. (after being acquired by Dentsu in 2003). In 2008, Geneon merged with Universal Pictures Japan to form Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan, LLC; in 2013, the company changed its name to the current NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan. Some of the well-known anime series the company has produced are '' A Certain Magical Index'', '' The Heroic Legend of Arslan'', '' Danganronpa: The Animation'', '' Golden Kamuy'', '' Seraph of the End'', '' The Quintessential Quintuplets'' and '' Is the Order a Rabbit?'' among many others. Despite the name, NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan does not distribute

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

films theatrically in Japan;

Toho is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...

(through Toho-Towa) exclusively distributes them for Japanese theaters.

History

Founding

Pioneer Corporation founded the in March 1981 to produce LaserDisc players in Japan. The LaserDisc Corporation changed its name to in 1989 as part of an attempt to branch off into the anime,

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

industries. As Pioneer LDC, they developed and published several

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

for the

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...

and

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

, such as games based on '' Magical Girl Pretty Sammy'', '' Tenchi Muyo!'', and '' Serial Experiments Lain''. In December 1985, Pioneer LDC made an effort to expand into the North American business, by establishing a subsidiary in the region named LaserDisc Corporation of America in an effort to consolidate the Pioneer Video and Pioneer Audio units, who maintained the Pioneer Artists label, which was initially based near New Jersey, following the introduction of a combined CD/laserdisc player. In late 1991, Pioneer LDC established a European division, Pioneer LDCE (short for LaserDisc Corporation of Europe), hoping to revive interest of Laserdiscs in the European market after

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

' Laserdisc players flopped in Europe. Around the same time, the company begin licensing titles from Guild Film Distribution to release 140 films to Laserdisc for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

market, and additionally licensed titles from VCL Communications/

Carolco Pictures Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film studio that was founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna in 1976. Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to form Cinergi Pictures. Carolco hit its peak in th ...

to release 20 titles to the German market. In 1992, LaserDisc released their first anime title '' Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki''. Geneon

On July 21, 2003, the company was acquired by Japanese advertising and marketing company firm Dentsu and renamed to , while its North American division, Pioneer Entertainment, was renamed Geneon USA.

Sale to NBC Universal

On November 12, 2008, Dentsu announced that it was selling 80.1% of its ownership in the company to

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

's Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPIE), who planned to merge the company with its Universal Pictures Japan division—which had no longer theatrically distributed Universal Pictures films in Japan, having delegated its theatrical distribution tasks to

subsidiary Toho-Towa since the dissolution of

United International Pictures United International Pictures (UIP) is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures that distributes their films outside the United States and Canada. UIP also had international distribution rights to certain Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M ...

Japan in 2007—to form a new company. The merger later closed, with the new company known as . On December 9, 2013, the company once again changed its name to NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan LLC. On February 17, 2013, they made a partnership with Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to distribute their anime titles directly in Australia and New Zealand.

Purchase of Paramount Japan

On January 1, 2016, Paramount Japan was purchased by NBCUniversal and dissolved shortly afterwards. This was due to

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

establishing a joint-venture with Toho-Towa named Towa Pictures Company Limited, which would distribute Paramount's films in Japan. On July 12, 2017, they announced a partnership with

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

to co-produce anime with "international appeal".

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2003 mergers and acquisitions 2008 mergers and acquisitions 2016 mergers and acquisitions Entertainment companies of Japan Mass media companies based in Tokyo Anime companies Entertainment companies established in 1981 Mass media companies established in 1981 Japanese companies established in 1981 Former Vivendi subsidiaries NBCUniversal Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies Universal Pictures subsidiaries Japanese record labels