Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in

Altamonte Springs, Florida Altamonte Springs is a suburban city in central Florida in Seminole County, Florida, United States, which had a population of 46,231 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is in the northern suburbs of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford Met ...

, focused on

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

and licensing Japanese

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 ...

, films, and television series.

History

Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, a lot of them "license rescued" from other companies such as

Funimation 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 specializ ...

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

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 ...

Bandai Entertainment was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and f ...

Geneon (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. Th ...

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 Crunchyro ...

, etc. Their licenses include most of the ''

Lupin the Third , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch. It follows the endeavors of master thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsène ...

'' franchise, the first two seasons and three films of ''

Digimon , short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese media franchise encompassing virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures, who inhabit a " ...

'', ''

Fist of the North Star is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially collected in 27 ''t ...

'', ''

Sonic X is a Japanese anime television series based on Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game series. Produced by TMS Entertainment under partnership with Sega and Sonic Team, and directed by Hajime Kamegaki, ''Sonic X'' initially ran for 52 ep ...

'', ''

Hajime no Ippo is a Japanese boxing-themed manga series written and illustrated by George Morikawa. It has been serialized by Kodansha in the ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' since October 1989 and collected into 135 ''tank� ...

'', ''

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 published in 34 ''tankōbon'' volu ...

'', ''

Galaxy Express 999 is a Japanese manga series. It is written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto, later adapted into a number of anime films and television series. It is set in a spacefaring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer ...

'', ''

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is a Japanese comedy manga series written and illustrated by Yoshio Sawai. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from February 2001 to November 2005, with its chapters collected in twenty-one ' ...

'', and the 1997 ''

Berserk Berserk (meaning "very angry" or "out of control") may refer to: * ''Berserk'' (manga), a 1989 Japanese manga by Kentaro Miura ** ''Berserk'' (1997 TV series), the first anime adaption of the manga ** ''Berserk'' (2016 TV series), a second adap ...

'' series, as well as OVAs such as ''

Giant Robo is a Japanese manga series by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. The manga, which was first published in 1967, spawned a live-action '' tokusatsu'' television series of the same name, as well as a series of original video animations called '' Giant Rob ...

'' and ''

Gunbuster ''Gunbuster'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese OVA anime series produced by Bandai, Victor, and Gainax and released from 1988 to 1989. It was the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, best known as the creator and director of ''Neon Genesis ...

'' and films such as ''

Memories Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

'' and ''

Project A-ko is a 1986 Japanese action comedy science fiction anime film that had several sequels and a spin-off. This film focuses on a happy-go-lucky 16-year-old red-haired, sailor-suited teenage schoolgirl, A-ko Magami, who goes on her magical adventure ...

''. The company has also acquired several more recent titles and has collaborated with streaming service Crunchyroll on several releases, including ''

KonoSuba is a Japanese light novel series written by Natsume Akatsuki. The series follows Kazuma Sato, a boy who is isekai, sent to a fantasy world with MMORPG elements following his death, where he forms a dysfunctional Party (role-pla ...

'', ''

Kemono Friends is a Japanese media franchise created by manga artist Mine Yoshizaki. The first project was a mobile game developed by Nexon, which ran from March 2015 to December 2016. A manga by Furai was serialized in Kadokawa's ''Monthly Shōnen ...

'', and ''

5 Centimeters per Second is a 2007 Japanese romantic drama animated film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. It theatrically premiered on 3 March 2007. The film consists of three segments, each following a period in the protagonist Takaki Tōno's life and his ...

''. Discotek is notable for being a major adopter of the

SD Blu-ray SD Blu-ray disc is a Blu-ray disc on which the main feature is standard-definition video instead of the high-definition video found on typical Blu-ray discs. This is often due to the highest quality version of the feature content only being avail ...

format, using it to release anime that do not have HD masters available. The company has utilized unusual methods to find English dubs for which the masters have been lost. Such as using a

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 197 ...

copy of ''

Nutcracker Fantasy is a Japanese-American stop motion animated film produced by Sanrio, very loosely based on Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet ''The Nutcracker'' and E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It is directed by Takeo Nakamura and writ ...

'' in order to remaster the international cut of the film, and reaching out to the fan community to locate the English dub of the third season of ''

Medabots ''Medabots'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese role-playing video game franchise created by Rin Horuma (Horumarin) and currently owned by Imagineer. The main series of RPGs focus on collecting and battling with the titular robots. The bulk o ...

''. Discotek commissioned their first original English-language dub for the April 2016 release of '' Lupin III: Jigen's Gravestone''. In 2022, the company announced a new sub-label for live-action films, ''Nihon Nights'', and another for

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is someti ...

television series and films, ''Toku Time''. The former began with the Blu-ray release of ''

Uzumaki is a Japanese horror manga series written and illustrated by Junji Ito. Appearing as a serial in the weekly ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Big Comic Spirits'' from 1998 to 1999, the chapters were compiled into three bound volumes by Shogak ...

'', and the latter began with the release of ''

Space Sheriff Gavan , also known as ''Space Cop Gabin'' and ''Space Cop Gaban'', is a Japanese Tokusatsu series produced by Toei Company that aired on TV Asahi from March 5, 1982 to February 25, 1983. The series launched the Metal Hero franchise and was the first ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2005 establishments in Florida American companies established in 2005 Anime companies Companies based in Seminole County, Florida Dubbing (filmmaking) Entertainment companies established in 2005 Entertainment companies of the United States Home video companies of the United States Home video lines Privately held companies based in Florida