Animax
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- For the animation studio, see Animax Entertainment.
| Animax アニマックス <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;">Image:Animax logo.jpg</td></tr> | |
| Type | Anime satellite television network |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 20 1998 <ref name="Animax-JACP">Animax official website - corporate profile (Japanese)</ref> |
| Headquarters | Image:Flag of Japan (bordered).svg Minato, Tokyo, Japan <ref name="Animax-JACP">Animax official website - corporate profile (Japanese)</ref>
<tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Masao Takiyama, President & Representative Director <ref name="Animax-JACP">Animax official website - corporate profile (Japanese)</ref></td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Anime broadcasting and production</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Parent</th><td>Sony Corporation</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>Animax's official website</td></tr> |
Animax (アニマックス?) is a Japanese anime satellite television network, established and owned by Sony Corporation, and dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. Headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, its shareholders include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sunrise Inc., Toei Animation Inc., TMS Entertainment Inc., and Nihon Ad Systems Inc. <ref name="Animax-JACP">Animax official website - corporate profile (Japanese)</ref> <ref name ="Sunrise-profile">Sunrise official website - corporate outline - Sunrise, official corporate outline, About Us section. (Japanese)</ref> <ref name="Toei-profile-jp">Toei Animation official website - history section, Toei Animation official website. (Japanese)</ref> <ref name="Toei profile-en">Toei Animation - official website - English section - History Toei Animation official website. (English)</ref> <ref name="partners">Animax's official website - Official Partners - Animax official website, Official Partners section, links page. (Japanese)</ref> <ref name=pressrelease>Sony Pictures Entertainment to Launch Animax Asia, Press Release, SPE, 29 October 2003, Anime News Network.</ref>
Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America, Animax is the first and largest 24-hour network dedicated to anime in the world. <ref name="BusinessWeek">The Anime Biz - By Ian Rowley, with Hiroko Tashiro, Chester Dawson, and Moon Ihlwan, BusinessWeek, June 27 2005.</ref> <ref name=pressrelease>Sony Pictures Entertainment to Launch Animax Asia, Press Release, SPE, 29 October 2003, Anime News Network.</ref> Its title is a portmanteau of the words anime (アニメ?) and max (マックス?).<ref>(Japanese) Inter-Wikipedia article</ref>
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Japan
Established on May 20, 1998 by Sony, Animax Broadcast Japan Inc. (株式会社アニマックスブロードキャスト・ジャパン Kabushiki-gaisha Animakkusu Burōdokyasuto Japan?) originally premiered in Japan on June 1, the same year, across the SKY PerfecTV! satellite television platform.<ref name="Animax-JACP" /> Headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and presided by Masao Takiyama, Animax's shareholders include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sunrise Inc., Toei Animation Inc., TMS Entertainment Inc., and Nihon Ad Systems Inc. <ref name="Animax-JACP">Animax official website - corporate profile (Japanese)</ref> <ref name ="Sunrise-profile">Sunrise official website - corporate outline - Sunrise, official corporate outline, About Us section. (Japanese)</ref> <ref name="Toei-profile-jp">Toei Animation official website - history section, Toei Animation official website. (Japanese)</ref> <ref name="Toei profile-en">Toei Animation - official website - English section - History Toei Animation official website. (English)</ref> <ref name="partners">Animax's official website - Official Partners - Animax official website, Official Partners section, links page. (Japanese)</ref> <ref name=pressrelease>Sony Pictures Entertainment to Launch Animax Asia, Press Release, SPE, 29 October 2003, Anime News Network.</ref>
Animax also exhibits affiliations with anime pioneer Osamu Tezuka's Tezuka Productions company, Pierrot, Nippon Animation, and numerous others. <ref name="partners">Animax's official website - Official Partners - Animax official website, Official Partners section, links page. (Japanese)</ref> It has been involved in the production of several anime series, such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex <ref name="GitS">Official Ghost in the Shell information site, Production I.G official website. (English)</ref>, Ultra Maniac, Astro Boy, Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, Aishiteruze Baby, Shakugan no SHANA, and many others. <ref>Animax's corporate page at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia</ref>
Animax also hosts and organizes several anime-based events and concerts across Japan, such as the annual Animax Summer Festival (アニマックスサマーフェ Animakkusu Samāfesu?), an annual live concert during which renowned Japanese bands, artists and seiyū perform to a live audience, often held at ZEPP Tokyo, <ref>Animax Summer Festival 2005 - Report, Excite.co.jp. (Japanese)</ref>, and the Animax Taishō (アニマックス大賞?), an annual anime scriptwriting competition offered by Animax since 2002 to honour the best original anime scripts and storylines of the year. Recent recipients of the award include: the fourth, winner in 2005, Lily to Kaeru to (Ototo) (リリとカエルと（弟） Riri to Kaeru to (Ototo)?), produced by Toei Animation, the third, winner in 2004, Hotori ~ Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau (ほとり～たださいわいを希う。～?), produced by Sunrise, the second, winner in 2003, Azusa, Otetsudai Shimasu! (アズサ、お手伝いします！?), produced by TMS Entertainment, and the first, winner in 2002, Super Kuma-san (スーパークマさん?), produced by Toei Animation. <ref>Animax Award official site, Animax official website. (Japanese)</ref>
[edit] Asia
Animax launched separate Asian versions of the channel featuring its anime programming within separate networks and feeds in the respective regions and languages beginning in 2004. The first one was launched in Taiwan on January 1, 2004, and in Hong Kong on January 12, 2004. A week later, Animax launched a Southeastern Asian feed on January 19, 2004, featuring its programming within feeds in English audio, as well as Japanese audio, with English subtitling, and other languages in the region. <ref name="Asia">Animax Asia - Corporate Profile - Animax-Asia official website.</ref>
On July 5 2004, Animax started operations in South Asia, featuring its programming within an English-language feed. On April 29, 2006, Animax started its operations in Korea, featuring its programming within a separate Korean feed. On August 31, 2006, Animax launched a Malaysian feed of Animax.
[edit] Latin America
- For Animax Latin America's predecessor, see Locomotion
Animax launched a Latin America network on July 31, 2005, operating across the entire region and broadcasting its anime programming in separate Spanish and Portuguese feeds across Spanish-speaking countries in the region and Brazil respectively, becoming the region's largest anime television network. The network replaced Locomotion.
[edit] North America
Animax has sponsored several anime-based events across North America, including hosting an anime festival, in association with other anime distributive enterprises such as Bandai Entertainment and VIZ Media, across Sony's San Francisco-based entertainment shopping complex Metreon in October 2001, during which it aired numerous of its anime titles across the centre, including special Gundam, The Making of Metropolis, and Love Hina screenings. <ref>Sony Metreon media release, Anime News Network, 9 October, 2001.</ref>
The noted international business newspaper The Financial Times, reported, in September 2004, of Sony planning and being "keen" to launch Animax across the United States and North America, after Sony had signed an agreement with the largest cable company in the United States, Comcast, with whom it had co-partnered in a US$4.8 billion acquisition of legendary Hollywood studio MGM, to bring at least three of Sony's television networks across the region.<ref>Sony and Comcast plan new channels, Tim Burt, The Financial Times, 22 September, 2004.</ref> <ref>Animax could be available in North America soon., Anime News Network, 23 September, 2004.</ref>
[edit] Programming
Animax's programming is dedicated to anime, and it has been acknowledged as the largest 24-hour anime-only network in the world <ref name="BusinessWeek" />. It has broadcasted numerous anime series, including Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex <ref name="GitS" />, Cowboy Bebop, InuYasha, Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka 7, Honey and Clover, Kyou Kara Maou!, Rurouni Kenshin, Blood+, the DragonBall series, Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa Chronicle, Vision of Escaflowne, YuYu Hakusho, Wolf's Rain, Future Boy Conan, Haikara-san ga Tooru, and Tweeny Witches, as well as several OVA series and anime films, such as Steamboy, Ghost in the Shell, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, Blood: The Last Vampire, Escaflowne and many others.
[edit] Translation and dubbing teams
Animax have translated and dubbed numerous anime series themselves via its original English translation and dubbing teams for broadcast across its English-language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, some of which were not licensed by North American distributors and do not have any English adaptation counterparts, such as Detective School Q, Dokkiri Doctor, Twin Spica, Zettai Shonen, Clamp School, Emma - A Victorian Romance, Conan: The Boy in Future, the highly-rated Honey and Clover and Jigoku Shoujo series, and numerous others. Animax have also produced and aired uncensored English versions and dubs of anime series, among the most notable of them being their dub of Cardcaptor Sakura, which was shown uncensored and retained all of the original names, plot details and dialogue, and numerous others.
For broadcast across its English-language networks, Animax have also broadcast English dubs produced by other enterprises, such as Bandai Entertainment, The Ocean Group, Bang Zoom, Geneon Entertainment, VIZ Media, Central Park Media, and numerous others, airing their dubs of Cowboy Bebop, Witch Hunter Robin, Mobile Suit Gundam, Brain Powerd, Please Teacher!, Galaxy Angel, Arjuna, Jubei-chan, Tsukikage Ran, Angel Tales, Saber Marionette, Appleseed, Alien 9, the InuYasha films, Fullmetal Alchemist, and several others.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
[edit] External links
[edit] Official sites
- Animax's official website (Japanese)
- Animax Asia (English)
- Animax Taiwan (Chinese)
- Animax Hong Kong (Chinese)
- Animax South Asia (English)
- Animax Korea (Korean)
- Animax Latin America (Spanish)
- Animax Brazil (Portuguese)es:Animax
fr:Animax ja:アニマックス ms:Animax pt:Animax bn:Animax tl:ANIMAX zh:Animax
