Geneon signs distribution agreement with Toei animation

Jumbled Thoughts · Post by **MarioKnight** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 9:12 pm

Fresh off the press, Geneon and Toei sign distribution agreement.

LONG BEACH, Calif. Geneon Entertainment announced today an agreement with leading Japanese anime producer Toei Animation (JASDAQ - code 4816) to distribute the company's animation programs on DVD in the U.S. and Canada. The first titles slated to be distributed under the agreement are Air Master, Interlude and Slam Dunk. Toei Animation is credited with international smash hit properties such as Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon and Digimon and has created over 180 film and television titles well known by children and adults all over the world.

This is awesome news, one of the biggest things to happen ever for anime over here as far as I'm concerned. Toei has made a whole bunch of great shows (listed here) and Geneon is quite possibly the best anime distributor over here, so this just spells greatness. And a great set of titles to start out this new deal with too, Air Master is a great show that already has a good fanbase and Slam Dunk is one of the first sports anime and one loved by many fans, who are right now orgasiming over this announcement. There's a bunch of shows on their list I'd love to see come over here which didn't seem possible before, now there seems like there's a good chance that they eventually will, and the possibility of Sailor Stars coming over has just gone from "near impossible" to "possibly doable" and I'm really hoping it happens, along with the specials and possibly even the first two seasons! However, that's just wild speculation on my part, though we can look forward to some huge announcements during the next con season, and I'll be right in the front row of Geneon's panel at Otakon for them. ^_^

peachvampiress · Post by **peachvampiress** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:18 pm

Does this mean it's also possible for Geneon to renew their Sailormoon products now or at a later date? The movies go out of print next month and I still need to get the S movie (yeah I know, I'm slow ^_^; )

Cardcaptor Takato · Post by **Cardcaptor Takato** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:32 pm

I hope Geneon will license Pretty Cure. I know I can download the fansubs, but when I try to burn the episodes to VCD, I can't even see the subtitles on the TV screen, which makes it frustrating to watch. I also hope Geneon will license an official English subbed version of Digimon. That's been something I've been dying to see for years and the fansubs are always so hard to find. An official subbed version of Sailor Stars would also be nice, especially from Geneon, but I already have all the episodes fansubbed, so as long as I can actually watch Sailor Stars in some form, it doesn't matter as much to me if it gets licensed or not.

Umino · Post by **Umino** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 4:28 am

Yes!~

I'm so happy to hear about this. Hopefully better treatment of Sailor Moon in the US.

And maybe the old Cutie Honey series, and Cutey Honey Flash will FINALLY be released over here.

RoastedTwinkies · Post by **RoastedTwinkies** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 2:12 pm

peachvampiress wrote:Does this mean it's also possible for Geneon to renew their Sailormoon products now or at a later date? The movies go out of print next month and I still need to get the S movie (yeah I know, I'm slow ^_^; )

I still need The R and SS movies! And I still need the SS box set! Maybe that'll buy more time for me to get them. I really, really hope that Stars gets released here so that I can upgrade my VHS collection to DVD. I also hope that seasons one and two get rereleased by Geneon because as we all know, the box sets released by ADV suck.

sailor53 · Post by **sailor53** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 3:24 pm

This is great news! Maybe we'll start to see some of the older shows (such as Hana no ko Lunlun & Galaxy Express 999) released. And if we're really lucky all of Sailor Moon will be rereleased with the Region 2 masters.

Dinozore · Post by **Dinozore** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 5:53 pm

sailor53 wrote:And if we're really lucky all of Sailor Moon will be rereleased with the Region 2 masters.

Somehow, I doubt it...

Or maybe I'm the only one who thought it was suspicious that the Classic and R boxsets were so bad, while Toei was releasing excellent-quality DVDs of the same seasons in Japan about the same time...

Jumbled Thoughts · Post by **MarioKnight** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 8:37 pm

Well, the first two boxes were also made with masters from a good few years before anime on DVDs were thought up of over here, probably worn down a lot by DiC, who had no intentions to ever release the uncuts, before subliscensing the show to ADV who apparentally was unable to contact Toei directly or god only knows what for the crappy boxes to be released the way they were. Granted, Toei is a hard company to work with at times but I wouldn't account any release over on this side of the ocean to have suffered because of them, with the exception of the omission of the next episode previews of their shows. The release of Sailor Moon via their american branch and Geneon distributing worked out very well, I believe Saint Seiya turned out very well according to some people, the quality of products over here is very largly determined by the companies over here. Which is why I hold ADV and DiC in fault of the first two season boxes instead of Toei. Granted, the episode 67 thing is royally fucked up, so keeping that out of the equation as no one knows anything about it, the quality of those boxes is the fault of ADV and DiC. There's something wrong when it takes one company to translate and sub 88 episodes over the course of nine months and release a crappy product, whereas another company with the same show can translate and dub (which takes longer) 77 episodes and have a decent product. That is as far as I will go talking about our R1 first two seasons boxes in this thread, I'll debate this to death in the other box threads if you wish me to. However, my main point is that the companies here are responsible for what they release here, hence the differences between R1s and R2s of all anime.

In regards to this announcement and what this could mean for Sailor Moon, it looks like what some of us predicted may come true after all. That Toei decided to let current liscenes of Sailor Moon die out and bring it back with a bang a few years down the road. All the indredients for this are here now. The first two seasons have expired, the movies expire in 7 weeks, and the following two seasons most likely expire a year after, and now they have a primary distributor for their titles in this region. We have seen hell freeze over this year, from Kodocha actually getting picked up, and now this with Slam Dunk being one of the first titles, not to mention the possibility of a bunch of more shoujo to finally make way. With all the good stuff that has hapened and set up for so much more, we may actually see a good release of Sailor Moon down the road.

peachvampiress · Post by **peachvampiress** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 9:21 pm

MarioKnight

I'll debate this to death in the other box threads if you wish me to.

Well, I always love reading your rants ^_^

Anyway, I didn't really follow PGSM. Is it owned by Toei? If it is, I wonder if it will get released here, or does this deal only allow anime to get released?

Jumbled Thoughts · Post by **MarioKnight** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 9:26 pm

This deal currently only involves Toei Animation, so only their animated features are affected by this. Though tokusatsu may follow eventually as there's been live action properties brought over here a little more each year and a couple companies are showing more interest in them.

Edit a few minutes later: And let's just say regarding my rants, that ADV is damn lucky the rights ran out before A-kon, I'd have had their asses to a grindstone in their panel had they not expired. ^___^

Aya Reiko · Post by **Aya Reiko** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 10:59 pm

I have to agree with Dinozore and MarioKnight here.

1- Don't count on any new R1 SM licenses in the near future.

2- But don't count out new R1 SM licenses (much) later down the road.

My money says soon after the last of the licences expire and the last of the R2 DVD's hits the streets, new R1 licenses may be announced. Most likely, with a new dub and no or minimal editing. Why? A shift in target demographic; instead of targeting pre-teen girls, they should target the late-teen/early 20's audience. And why is that? Simple, money. Money that demo is often happy to part with.

Sailorasteroid · Post by **Sailorasteroid** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 11:16 pm

I wouldn't mind seeing that, but I wonder, is there any precedent for dubbing a series that's already been dubbed? And would they change the names back? If the "official" names are Serena, Molly, etc., can they legally re-do them with the correct names even if the licenses has expired?

Jumbled Thoughts · Post by **MarioKnight** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 1:23 am

Yes, there has been a few properties that have been redubbed due to new liscense holders. Akira comes to my mind at first, and I believe Media Blasters just released a title with their new dub as well as the old dub track which I can't remember and don't feel like looking up right now since I've had quite a few drinks these past couple of hours. ^^;;

As far as the concern for their names, there is no reason for the names to not revert back to the original, just because DiC chose to use different names when they did their dub doesn't mean they are set in stone for every release of the show over here. Cloverway could've decided to use the original names or different names had they wanted to, but they felt it was best if they stick to the names that the auidence was already familar with when making their dub for TV. It's important to note that with the DVD releases through Geneon (Pioneer at the time) the original names and such were used rather than the dub names. So if a relicense were to occur down the road, there is no obligation to use the names and everything else DiC did, and technically the S and SS dubs (possibly the movies) didn't have to either though at the time it would've been stupid not to. If a reissue were to occur, this feeling of keeping things to the DiC dub wouldn't exist as Sailor Moon is completely off North American airwaves now and the possibility of a reissue is at least a couple of years down the road means not too many people will remember much from it. Not to mention there's a good chance a possible redub of the possible reissue might not even be aired on TV.

This post summed up to one sentence = There has been redubs of a few properties in the past, and there's no obligation to use the DiC names from the original dub if a reissue were to occur down the road.

Jusenkyo no Pikachu · Post by **Jusenkyo no Pikachu** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 3:38 am

Hopefully, Madman will also license this...which could mean SUBBED SAILOR MOON FOR US! YAAAAAAAY!!!

I'd also like to see an international release of PGSM--which might mean an American TV version for all us curious souls out there who've endured more Power Rangers and Bionicle than can possibly be healthy. I have nothing against either franchise but then again I'm well on my way to being a raving lunatic.

Ayane · Post by **Ayane** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 3:59 am

Jusenkyo no Pikachu wrote:Hopefully, Madman will also license this...which could mean SUBBED SAILOR MOON FOR US! YAAAAAAAY!!!

I'd also like to see an international release of PGSM--which might mean an American TV version for all us curious souls out there who've endured more Power Rangers and Bionicle than can possibly be healthy. I have nothing against either franchise but then again I'm well on my way to being a raving lunatic.

I would LOVE an international release of PGSM. I think the main problem would be the fact that the heros aren't masked like in Power Rangers, meaning they couldn't just film new scenes for the out of costume scenes with English actors. They'd either have to dub over all the Japanese, which would look weird with the mouth movements not matching a la Rita Repulsa, or just totally make a new American TV version (as you suggested). I would just worry that they'd not use the same storyline and [spoiler]cut out things like Dark Mercury and Minako's death.[/spoiler] Plus, if an American version was made with English actresses, they more than likely wouldn't use the real names of the characters as what happened with the anime dub.

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:13 am

Here's my concern regarding the Sailor Moon cartoon: hasn't Takeuchi made clear her disappointment with the cartoon? Maybe I misread something somewhere, but I was under the impression that, because of this, she and Toei were intent on supressing or eliminating the cartoon; granted, this doesn't make sense in light of the recent R2 DVD releases of the show. Yet because of this potential misinformation, I was under the impression that one of the reasons for the expiration of the licenses over here was because of this dislike for the cartoon version.

sailor53 · Post by **sailor53** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:51 pm

Here is Geneon's clarification according to Anime On DVD:

Geneon Clarifies Toei Relationship (09:13 AM EST): Confirming information I got earlier (but am still waiting for the interview piece I requested via their PR firm), Chad Kime has talked briefly about the relationship between Toei and Geneon in the US at ICV2. The deal is apparently just a distribution deal, meaning it's no different than when Geneon as Pioneer was distributing titles for Bandai and Viz. Bandai and Viz did all of the production work on their titles and Pioneer was simply their distributor for them. This deal, as mentioned in the brief article, does not effect existing licenses so those who dreamed of certain titles being whisked away from studios are doing just that, dreaming.

What this means for the titles Toei intends to bring out? Hopefully they'll actually do some consulting at least with Geneon on the R1 market beyond whatever they've already determined via titles they've licensed to other studios. There's a very old saying in the US anime industry that "nobody screws up a release like the Japanese do" so my enthusiasm is quite muted at this point, even though Slam Dunk is something I've been dying to see for years now. In the end, I expect that most releases will come out fairly similar to everyone elses, maybe with some slight differences to cause some heated discussion, but most of the problems will be the kinds of things only those who really are "hardcore" about the production side of shows will quibble about. For most people, they're just going to get some kick ass shows.

jupiter23 · Post by **jupiter23** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:54 pm

Well, I sure hope they get it, because that may be the only way I will be able to see Sailor Stars and PGSM for myself.