American anime distributor
Aniplex of America, Inc., or Aniplex USA, is an American entertainment company founded in March 2005 and located in Santa Monica, California that serves as the American distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an anime and music production 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 Max. Some of their titles were also available on Anime Strike, Daisuki, Funimation, go90, Crackle, Anime News Network, and Neon Alley but they have been removed and/or the service shut down.
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] In June 2017, they launched their first mobile game, the English version of the Fate/Grand Order mobile game.[22]
In August 2017, it was announced that Shu Nishimoto was appointed as president of the company, with former president Hideki "Henry" Goto becoming head of international business development with the Tokyo branch.[23] Later the same month, Aniplex Channel was shut down.[24] In October 2017, they started streaming some of their titles on go90, which included exclusive rights to the Anohana and God Eater dubs.[25] In January 2019, they started streaming some of their titles on HIDIVE, with The Promised Neverland being the first.[26]
In August 2019, they announced that they partnered with Funimation Films to release Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl in North American theaters.[27] They later did the same with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train.[28]
In January 2020, they allowed Funimation to dub Darwin's Game, which was the first time that a new Aniplex of America title that was dubbed was not dubbed by Bang Zoom.[29] In May 2020, Funimation announced they partnered with Aniplex of America to release a standard edition Blu-ray set for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.[30] Later in May 2020, they started streaming some of their titles on HBO Max.[31] In December 2020, the company made a partnership with Lucky Helmet Agency to help with merchandising and licensing for the release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train in the United States.[32]
Criticism
In episode five of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War season two, one line in the subtitled script read "What's the deal with the social distancing?", which references the COVID-19 pandemic. Aniplex of America apologized for this and corrected the line to "Why are you so far away from me?"[33]
