Aniplex of America

Aniplex of America, or Aniplex USA, is an anime distributor based in Santa Monica, California that serves as the American distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an entertainment company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, where its goal is to reinforce the parent company's licensing business in the North American market. They operate the English language version of the Aniplex+ store, and from 2013 to 2017 operated a streaming service called Aniplex Channel through their website. The company most of the time only directly releases its titles in the Americas, however, some of its titles have been released in other territories by other distributors, such as Anime Limited, MVM Films, Siren Visual and corporate siblings Crunchyroll UK and Ireland (formerly Manga Entertainment) and Crunchyroll Store Australia (formerly Madman Anime).

Their home video sets are distributed in the North American market by its corporate sibling, Crunchyroll Store (formerly Right Stuf), and their titles are usually streamed on Crunchyroll, Disney+, Hulu, and Hidive, and occasionally streamed on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and

History

2005–2012: Founding and independent distribution

Aniplex of America was founded in March 2005.[2][3] At this point, the Japanese parent company still licensed its titles through other distributors, such as Funimation, Bandai Visual, Geneon, ADV Films, NIS America, and Media Blasters.[4]

Starting in 2010, Aniplex of America began releasing the Japanese parent company's titles, starting with the Gurren Lagann movies[5] and Durarara!! (which had been previously announced to stream on Crunchyroll).[6][7] Durarara!! was the first time they partnered with Bang Zoom for an English dub (the studio they would almost exclusively work with for dubs from this point on).[8] They also re-released Read or Die (OVA) and R.O.D the TV on home video, despite them having previously been licensed through Manga Entertainment and Geneon.[9] The aforementioned titles was the first time they sold a home video set on Right Stuf Anime (the website that would eventually be the only retailer in North America to sell their home video sets).[10] Starting with Oreimo in 2010, they started streaming some of their titles on Anime News Network.[11] In April 2011, they started streaming some of their titles on Hulu and Viz Anime (Neon Alley), with Blue Exorcist being the first.[12] In June 2011, they started airing titles on Cartoon Network's late night block Adult Swim, with Durarara!! being the first.[13] In July 2011, they started streaming their titles on Crackle, with Star Driver being the first.[14] In June 2012, they announced that they would release their first non-anime, Hatsune Miku's Mikunopolis concert.[15]

2013–present: Streaming expansion and new management

In 2013, Aniplex started streaming some of their titles on their website (called Aniplex Channel).[16] In April 2014, they launched the English version of Aniplex+.[17] Later in April 2014, they started streaming shows on Netflix, with Blue Exorcist being the first.[18] In 2015, they started streaming some of their titles on Daisuki [19] and Funimation.[20] In March 2017, they started streaming some of their titles on Anime Strike, with Eromanga Sensei being the first.[21]

type	Subsidiary
foundation	March 2005‡R1R‡
location	2120 Colorado Avenue, Suite 220, Santa Monica, California, U.S.
key people	Yosuke Kodaka (president)
industry	Anime and music production
products	Soundtracks Anime Music Merchandise
parent	Aniplex
homepage	https://aniplexusa.com/

History

2005–2012: Founding and independent distribution

2013–present: Streaming expansion and new management

Catalog

Anime

Video games

Music artists

See also

External links

References