ANN wrote:Dentsu Inc., the Japanese advertising company that also is a major anime production company, has opened a Los Angeles office and is actively seeking North American and European partners to co-produce new anime series. The new subsidiary, DCI Los Angeles, will also handle North American licensing and distribution arrangements for Dentsu's titles. No specific plans for projects under development have been mentioned yet, but the new subsidiary says it will combine "the conceptual and writing talent of the North American and European markets with the widely accepted artistic style and techniques unique to Japanese animation." The goal of the new company, according to senior vice president Yuma Sakata, will be to "work with Western partners in pre-production, and then production teams in Japan for animation, [in order to] create content that will appeal to a wider audience."
Besides Sakata, senior executives in the office will include Marc Harrington, Yulie Yoshimura, and Yukio Kusumoto. Sakata was a producer of Beet the Vandel Buster and Final Fantasy: Unlimited, while Kusumoto produced dozens of titles including Black Lagoon, Human Crossing, Mahoromatic - Automatic Maiden, and Patlabor WXIII. Harrington was the former vice president of business development at Geneon Entertainment (USA), an American company that Dentsu once jointly owned with Mitsubishi's d-rights subsidiary before Mitsubishi divested itself in 2007.
Additionally, Dentsu confirmed that the Deltora Quest anime series (pictured at left), which it produced for Japanese television broadcast and DVD release, is now once again being offered to potential Western licensors and distributors. Geneon Entertainment (USA) had announced that it had acquired the series in 2007, but Geneon had ceased in-house distribution of anime in North America shortly thereafter.
Dentsu joins a number of other Japanese production companies that have set up offices in the Los Angeles area, including Viz Productions, Madhouse, Nikkatsu, Kadokawa Pictures USA, and Aniplex of America.
So in a small way, Geneon USA kind of lives! XD
[color="Red"][font="Book Antiqua"]Col. Roy Mustang[/font][/color]
