Anime News

Companies Represent At TAFLA
Date: 3/13/2005
Serving as the preview event for the Tokyo International Anime Fair Coming up in 2 weeks time, Hollywood, in the western US state of California hosted TAFLA on February 7-8. There, anime fans were treated to four major world premieres as part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Trade & Tourism Mission. In addition, industry professionals were invited to a trade fair featuring 10 leading anime companies from Japan who shared their latest works and techniques, and a panel discussion featuring Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, animation producer for Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003), and Kenji Kamiyama, producer of hit anime title, Ghost in the Shell. The Media and Trade portion occured February 7, 3:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. and February 8, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Although widely unreported on, below are the 10 companies which participated along with brief profile each was asked to give:
ANIPLEX INC.
www.aniplex.co.jp/
April 2003 brought a fresh new start for Aniplex Inc., formally called SME Visual Works Inc. Since then, we have been pouring our efforts into strengthening our business structure focusing mainly on our production division. Meanwhile, development and producing big projects have been in progress resulting in the first TV series under the new banner, "Fullmetal Alchemist" and "R.O.D-THE TV-". We will strive to expand our business focusing on the multiple opportunities offered by our quality visual products with a strong commitment to provide "dreams" and "emotionally moving experiences" to people around the globe.

BANDAI VISUAL CO., LTD.
www.bandaivisual.co.jp/e/
Bandai Visual provides a full range of visual content services, from development and production through to packaged sales and licensing, as well as marketing overseas. As Japanese leading animation package-video company, it accumulates the copyrights of high-quality visual content like "Ghost in the Shell:STAND ALONE COMPLEX."

BROCCOLI CO., LTD.
www.broccoli.co.jp
BROCCOLI is active in a wide range of fields encompassed by "communication entertainment," such as the development of character merchandise, event sponsorship, the planning and production of animation, management of the store "GAMERS," and music CD production. The company also develops its own contents such as "DiGi Charat" (animation, etc.), "Galaxy Angel" (video game, animation, etc.), and "Aquarian Age"(video game, animation, etc.), and "Aquarian Age" (trading card game).

CoMix Wave INC.
www.comixwave.com
ComixWave supports independent anime with domestic/overseas distribution.

GDH K.K.
www.gdh.co.jp/english/index.html
Animation production, content investment, product investment, copyright management, international distribution, worldwide content development, and expanding business into new media.

PRODUCTION I.G. INC.
www.production-ig.co.jp/
Production I.G have produced direct-to-video films, television series, video games, and feature length films as "GHOST IN THE SHELL" directed by Mr. Mamoru Oshii. In our showcase, we have exhibition and screening of our productions with a focus on critically acclaimed "GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX,"and "INNOCENCE" which is now on release.

STUDIO4??C
www.studio4c.co.jp/
STUDIO4??C was founded as an animation company in 1986. We are trying hard in order to produce the animation equipped with abundant originality. We challenge to various genres very eagerly, and we aim at the high image of quality.

TEZUKA PRODUCTIONS CO., LTD.
www.tezuka.co.jp/
The huge volumes of work Osamu Tezuka left are his massages to not only his contemporaries but also future generations living in 21st century. We, Tezuka Productions, having inherited this irreplaceable asset, regard it as our mission to keep delivering his massages through our various business activities. Based on Tezuka's philosophy and the film production know-how we developed with Tezuka, and incorporating new technologies befitting the times, we are widely engaged in the film production business and distribute our productions worldwide.

TOEI ANIMATION CO., LTD.
TOEI ANIMATION INC.
www.toei-anim.co.jp/
Toei Animation was established in 1956 and ever since, we have created numerous hits. Our film library consists of over 8,500 titles, where works such as "ONE PIECE," "ZATCHBELL!," "BOBOBO-BO ? BO-BOBO" and "PRETTY CURE MAX HEART" are some of our currently running popular titles. Our business operates globally in multiple aspects, such as TV broadcasting, theatrical releases, Video / DVD and character merchandizing. Organization of events for children, and distribution of our film over the network including mobile phones are among the many works that Toei Animation has achieved.

TOSHIBA ENTERTAINMENT INC.
www.toshiba-ent.co.jp/
Toshiba Digital Frontiers ANIME & DVD production team and leading theatrical distribution company AMUSE Pictures have merged as of Oct. 1, 2003. Due to the merge together with our new production line-up Toshiba Entertainment's Anime titles have enriched both in volume and contents. -"Giant Robo.","Street Fighter IIV","Daphne in the Brilliant Blue" , "Burn Up Scramble" etc. Please take the time to stop by to see which titles are available for your territory.
Source: Anime News Service