Animeigo

AnimEigo

AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. The company was founded in 1988 in Ithaca, New York by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams, III. It is now based in Wilmington, North Carolina, and run by Natsumi Ueki, Robert's wife. Their first release, Metal Skin Panic Madox 01, was also the first anime to be commercially released exclusively to home video in the US which was not bound by the content restrictions of American broadcast TV or film. The company has released such titles as Urusei Yatsura, Oh My Goddess!, Vampire Princess Miyu, Gainax's industry/fandom sendup Otaku no Video, the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, and Kimagure Orange Road. They have also expanded into Japanese films that are live-action rather than animated; these are mostly classic "Jidaigeki" (samurai films) such as Zatoichi, Lone Wolf and Cub and the influential edited/dubbed version of Lone Wolf and Cub, Shogun Assassin (which AnimEigo completely reconstructed), but they also include other films such A New Love in Tokyo, a film about Japanese call girls. Their completed release of Urusei Yatsura is one of the longest releases of an anime series in the US market ever, with over 50 volumes in all. Most of their English dubs were recorded at Coastal Studios in Wilmington, NC.