Media Blasters

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Media Blasters

Media Blasters logo featuring characters from Voltron, Death Trance, Kite Liberator and Kite.
Type	Private
Industry	Entertainment (Anime)
Founded	October 13, 1996 (as Media Blasters) May 5, 1997 (as Kitty Media)
Headquarters	New York City, New York, United States
Key people	John Sirabella Sam Liebowitz
Products	Translated anime, manga, and Asian cinema Horror and exploitation movies Adult anime and manga Independent films Concert films Drama films
Divisions	Anime Works (all-audience anime) Kitty Media (adult anime) Tokyo Shock (live action Asian movies and television) Shriek Show (horror and exploitation movies) Harsh Digs (gay anime) Media Blasters (independent movies and television) Guilty Pleasures (drama films)
Website	www.media-blasters.com

Media Blasters is an entertainment corporation founded by John Sirabella and Sam Liebowitz, based in New York City. They are in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American market manga compilations and anime and live-action asian movies, adult anime, monster movies, concert movies, independent movies and television series to home-video release. Their anime releases from Media Blasters include Berserk, Bakuman, Fushigi Yugi, Golden Boy, Green Green, Ikki Tousen, Knight Hunters, Kurogane Communication, Magic Knight Rayearth, Mirage of Blaze, Midori Days, Moribito: Guardian of Spirit, Night Head Genesis, Queen's Blade, Rurouni Kenshin, Voltron, Kite and Mezzo Forte. Their current releases are Squid Girl and the Yakuza Hunters series. Media Blasters and Nickelodeon also released Invader Zim on DVD.

The company has been releasing translated anime and concert films since May 1997. The company first release adult anime. In 2004, Media Blasters began publishing manga. The company first published shōnen manga titles for older readers, and later so they increased their yaoi manga line.^[1]

In early 2012, not long after Bandai Entertainment announced their restructuring plans, Media Blasters' John Sirabella announced the laying off of approximately ten employees, reducing their workforce by about sixty percent. Sirabella has said that this will not affect production rates.^[2]

Companies

Anime Works

Anime Works is the label used for the bulk of all-audience anime titles including "Kite", "Invader Zim", "Kite Liberator" and the first season of "Ah! My Goddess".

Kitty Media

Kitty Media (or Kitty Home Entertainment) specializes in adult anime and pornographic films.^[3] Kitty Media also specializes in films and anime series contains scenes of rape and graphic sexuality as well as licensing the director's cut versions of Kite and Mezzo Forte. Their first release, and the first release by Media Blasters as a whole, was Rei-Lan: Orchid Emblem. Recently, the division began releasing some H-anime titles previously licensed by NuTech Digital, which lost the licenses due to royalties litigation. Media Blasters also publishes both hentai and yaoi manga under the Kitty Media imprint.

Tokyo Shock

The Tokyo Shock label covers live action movies and television series from Japan and other Asian markets, including Versus (film), Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, the edited version of Lady Ninja Kasumi and tokusatsu works.

Shriek Show / Fresh Meat

The Shriek Show label handles obscure horror and exploitation films such as Ultimo mondo cannibale, Cannibal Holocaust, Grizzly, Day of the Animals, Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell, The Anthropophagus Beast, La notte del terrore and Zombi 2.

Harsh Digs

Harsh Digs specializes in gay pornographic films and gay anime series.

Media Blasters

Media Blasters specializes in independent films that aren't asian or anime films, instead this label specializes in concert videos and few of Miramax's releases.

Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures specializes in drama films with brief sex scenes without nudity.

References

1. ^ Cha, Kai-Ming (March 13, 2007). "Media Blasters Drops Shonen; Adds Yaoi". Publishers Weekly. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/1918-media-blasters-drops-shonen-adds-yaoi-.html. Retrieved July 27, 2010. 
2. ^ "Media Blasters Lays Off 60% of Staff". Anime News Network. January 10, 2012. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-01-10/media-blasters-lays-off-60-percent-of-its-staff. Retrieved January 10, 2012. 
3. ^ Patten, Fred (July 1998). "The Anime 'Porn' Market". Animation World Magazine 3 (4): 27–29. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.4/3.4pages/3.4patten.html. Retrieved 3 June 2011.  Also available here and here (PDF version of the issue).

External links

• Official website

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