Company Index: AnimEigo

Reviewed Titles

• AD Police Files (OAV) [Quick Review]
• Baoh (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Battle Royal High School (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Bubblegum Crisis (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Dagger of Kamui (Theatrical Movie) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Kimagure Orange Road OVAs (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Kimagure Orange Road TV (TV Series) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Kimagure Orange Road: I want to Return to That Day (Theatrical Movie) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• MADOX-01 (OAV) [Reader Review]
• Oh My Goddess! (OAV Series) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Riding Bean (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Shonan Bakusozoku (OAV) [Reader Review]
• Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring (OAV) [Quick Review]
• Urusei Yatsura (TV Series) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Vampire Princess Miyu (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• You're Under Arrest (OAVs) (OAV) [Quick Review]

About AnimEigo

AnimEigo's Website

Company info last updated 2006-09-15

Overview

Founded in 1989, AnimEigo is the second oldest of the modern US-based anime distributors. They're a small "family" company that has from the very beginning put an emphasis on accurate translation and releasing things fans really want. They have a small back-catalog of movies, OAVs, and a few lengthy TV series that they have re-released on DVD. As the US market expanded, they embraced their small size and now specialize in subtitled-only sets of lengthy TV series that probably would not have otherwise been licensed, selecting one at a time to work through. AnimEigo also has a branch that releases uncut, subtitled versions of old Samurai movies.

Catalog

As of this writing, their next big project is Yawara, scheduled for release starting in 2007. The centerpiece of their existing catalog is the Urusei Yatsura series; they began working their way through the TV series in the early days of the company and completed a DVD re-release of every TV episode, OAV, and movie in 2005 (note that, by some fluke, the 2nd movie somehow ended up being co-released by US Manga Corps, although AnimEigo translated it). They also released a gorgeous, meticulously remastered DVD set of the original Japanese Macross series, and their older catalog includes a few classics like the Oh My Goddess OAVs and the original Bubblegum Crisis OAVs.

They run an "in house" store, so if you want whatever the newest title from AnimEigo is, you're going to have to go straight to the source and pre-order it from their website. The seres are eventually released to standard retail stores in individual-disc versions or box sets, but not until later. They also periodically have very good closeout deals on their own products, particularly titles that are about to go out of print.

Releases

AnimEigo has always been fanatical about the accuracy of their translations and their peripheral material. Their releases have always included liner notes with often-fanatical cultural and translation notes, cast(s), and usually the lyrics of any songs in both languages (which, in series like Kimagure Orange Road or Bubblegum Crisis, can be quite a few). Good stuff, and all available on their website for anyone to see.

One thing AnimEigo has not done is much dubbing; their motto for quite some time was "The best movies you'll ever read!" A few years back, they did start releasing dubs of some of their productions (although the effort to dub Urusei Yatsura only produced one tape of the TV series), forcing a motto change to "Anime your way."

This is particularly appropriate, since one of the things that really stands out about AnimEigo is the way they involve the fan community; they have, in the past, solicited preorders for LaserDisc sets and even complete TV series that probably wouldn't have been licensed otherwise (the KOR TV series box set is one example). When DVDs hit the scene, they embraced the format, and were, in fact, the first anime company to announce that all of their new releases would be DVD only.