 If you're
looking for product announcements from Fanime Con, the first item of interest
came on Friday afternoon from Digital Manga. the small company that has
been concentrating on art supplies and web pages has some plans to move
into anime translation and sales in North America, and those plans were
made public at the Santa Clara convention. There also were some items from
a Japanese producer which is appears to be interested in having more control
over the way its products are handled in North America. First, Ardith Santiago
of Digital Manga said that the company will set up its own production company
to be called Synch-Point and build its own studio. They expect to release
Tenshi ni Narumon in the summer of 2001 and FLCL later in the year. |
 Stephanie
Sheh of Digital Manga announced that the anime titles which will be released
are Tenshi ni Narumon, the Studio Pierrot show which will be called "I'm
Gonna Be An Angel" in English, and FLCL, the Gainax and Production I.G.
series which will retain its "Furi Kuri" nickname in North America. (The
author notes that FLCL first came to attention in the U.S. through a Gainax
presentation at Fanime Con one year earlier.) The announcement of FLCL
got the most attention from the fans gathered for the announcement; FLCL's
odd combination of alien invasion and teenage life has drawn attention
from North American fans, and they were fascinated to find that the small
California company would get the title. |
 Why would
Digital Manga's startup effort get those titles? According to Maki Terashima
of Production I.G. USA, there's some dissatisfaction with the way that
other North American production companies have handled anime shows. "We've
been hearing complaints about how the Japanese creators are not satisfied
with the English-language versions of their works in the U.S., "Terashima
said." "We are now going to avoid that." Also, Production I.G. wants to
establish their company name as a video brand name in the U.S., and intends
to sell these series as Production I.G. videos. FLCL was one of the series
that Terashima mentioned as the vanguard of Production I.G.'s new sales
and marketing effort, with the other being Love Hina, which will be released
by Bandai. |
