Anime industry

The anime industry has grown significantly in the last few years, especially outside of Japan. It has spread rapidly across the world, especially with a major increase in the licensing of various series, movies, and OAVs at an increased rate across various regions, and the rise of the anime network, Animax, acknowledged as the largest 24-hour anime-only network in the world [" [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_26/b3939013.htm The Anime Biz] " - By Ian Rowley, with Hiroko Tashiro, Chester Dawson, and Moon Ihlwan, "BusinessWeek", June 27 2005.] , broadcasting its anime programming across Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Southeast Asia, the entire Indian subcontinent, Latin America and South Korea.

Licensing

While Anime has been licensed by its Japanese owners for use outside of Japan since at least the 1960s, the practice became well-established in the United States in the late 1970s/early 1980s, when such TV series as Gatchaman and Captain Harlock were licensed from their Japanese parent companies for distribution in the US market, often with fairly dramatic changes to the original concepts and storylines. The trend towards American distribution of anime continued into the 1980s with the licensing of titles such as Voltron and the 'creation' of new series such as Robotech through use of source material from several original series.

In the early 1990s, several companies began to experiment with licensing less children-oriented material. Some, such as A.D. Vision, and Central Park Media and its imprints, achieved fairly substantial commercial success and went on to become major players in the now very lucrative American anime market. Others, such as AnimEigo, achieved more limited success. Many companies created directly by Japanese parent companies did not do as well, most releasing only one or two titles before folding their American operations.

Licensors

Because anime is produced mainly by Japanese companies, it has to be licensed in other areas of the world by companies in order to be legally released. Licenses are extremely expensive and it is not uncommon to find that companies are paying at rates of up to $20,000 an episode to license a series for release. Here are some major licensing companies for their respective regions.

Region 1 (North America)

*4Kids Entertainment
*ADV Films
*AN Entertainment
*Animeigo
*Bandai Entertainment
*Central Park Media (US Manga Corps)
*Del Rey Manga
*FUNimation Entertainment
*Geneon (Now distributed through FUNimation)
*ImaginAsian
*Manga Entertainment
*Media Blasters (Anime Works)
*The Right Stuf
*Sony Pictures Entertainment
*Synch-Point
*TOKYOPOP
*Urban Vision
*Viz Media
*Walt Disney Pictures

Region 2 (Europe)

*Animax
*ADV Films
*Beez
*MVM Entertainment
*Manga Entertainment
*Optimum Releasing

Region 3 (Asia)

*Animax
*Hero TV (Subsidiary of ABS-CBN)
*Odex

Region 4 (Australia, Mexico)

*Madman Entertainment

Other regions (South America, Africa, etc.)

*Animax

Notes and references