DVD Profiler - Anime Studios

Introduction

In the process of trying to update profiles for my anime collection and to share my updates with the wider world, I inadvertently found myself investigating studios, in such depth that it actually became quite a useful stock of information. As I've been looking for an excuse to develop some web page expertise as well, I thought I may as well make my work useful to the wider community.

This page is by no means an attempt to undermine work being done on the forum, to stake my claim as a 'fountain of all knowledge' on the anime genre, or to be a long-standing point of reference. In truth, the primary reason for its existence was an excuse to learn to write web pages. As such, if this information results in flame wars rather than adding value, I'll simply abandon it as a bad idea.

I fully expect the data on the page to change fairly rapidly as individuals chip in and correct my (I suspect common) errors and/or failures of judgement, and ultimately hope to decommission the page after a short time as the useful information within is integrated into a more appropriate, central location (which is probably Skip's thread on studios).

Stuart Middleton - May 06

Rationale

Information compiled from a number of places, and is usually referenced in the forms of a URL next to the relevant entry. Sources of information include:

1. The studio's website
2. The DVDProfiler forums (including this very helpful thread)
3. www.wikipedia.org
4. www.animenewsnetwork.com
5. www.anidb.info
6. www.animeondvd.com
7. nigh-on 15 years of my own experience of the genre

From the forum and various opinions, I've applied the following rules in the process of compiling this list (I suspect, with sloppy conviction):

1. Forum agreement to omit Inc, Co, Ltd, etc.
2. If a company uses different labels, I've treated them as follows:
   1. Where a single label is strongly promoted for a release, that label is recognised (e.g. various different 'Central Park Media' labels)
   2. Where a studio uses its labels interchangeably, without promoting a single distinctive label within the brand, the primary label or company name has been chosen and the rest omitted (e.g. Optimum or Kitty Film)
3. Where there is a 1-to-1 relationship between the legal entity and the way it promotes itself, I've opted for the companies promoted name (e.g. A.D. Vision vs. ADV Films)

Mistakes and Omissions

Finally, this is very much a work in progress and I expect that there are mistakes within the content of this information, as well as omissions that need to be remedied. If you do have any comments to make, the most appropriate place will be on this forum thread.

Studios Table

The table is pretty straight forward. If it's green, it's good to use. If it's red, then it should be avoided, and an alternative name to use is given (which may not be right 100% of the time, but it is the most likely alternative). Anything that isn't marked either red or green still has some confusion about it. At the end of the row, any relevant links to back up the decision / provide more information are given.

Note that this is not a full table of anime related companies that may appear in DVDProfiler - it is a list of those with duplicates where there may be some confusion about which is correct (I frequently get confused myself).

There is no search feature on this site, partiaslly because that is currently beyond my abilities, and partially because it just isn't big enough to warrent it! If you want to find a specific title, perform a seach within your browser (done in most browsers by pressing the [Ctrl]+F keys together).

Copyright Holders, not Studios

In addition to the work on studios, I also noted a few 'errors' in terms of copyright holders being recorded as studios. In most cases, these are the individual or publishing house that holds the rights to the original manga, and their involvement is often very minimal. A few examples of this are listed below:

• CLAMP – is a group of writers (now stable at only four people) and not a studio and should therefore appear under crew. I'm not aware of them every being credited individually, and so should probably always be credited as their collective.
• Monkey Punch – pen-name for an individual, famous for the Lupin III manga.