Animax Totally Explained

Everything about Animax totally explained

ť For the animation studio, see Animax Entertainment.

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.
Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and most recently in Europe (launching across Central Europe from April 2007, Germany from June 2007, and soon in the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Spain and France) and Africa, Animax is the first and largest 24-hour network dedicated to anime in the world. Its title is a portmanteau of the words and .

History

Japan

Established on May 20, 1998 by Sony, originally premiered in Japan on June 1, the same year, across the SKY PerfecTV! satellite television platform.
   Animax also exhibits affiliations with anime pioneer Osamu Tezuka's Tezuka Productions company, Pierrot, Nippon Animation, and numerous others. It has been involved in the production of several anime series, such as , Ultra Maniac, Astro Boy,, Aishiteruze Baby, Shakugan no SHANA, and many others.
   Noted Japanese celebrities and personalities to have appeared on Animax include actress Natsuki Kato and seiyū Yukari Tamura, among numerous others. Animax also hosts and organizes several anime-based events and concerts across Japan, such as the annual, an annual live concert during which renowned Japanese bands, artists and seiyū perform to a live audience, often held at ZEPP Tokyo, and the, 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,, produced by Toei Animation, the third, winner in 2004,, produced by Sunrise, the second, winner in 2003,, produced by TMS Entertainment, and the first, winner in 2002,, produced by Toei Animation.
   Apart from operating its business primarily as a television network, Animax has also begun operating a mobile television service. In February 2007, Animax announced that it would be launching a mobile television service of its network on the mobile phone company MOBAHO! from April 2007, having its programming being viewable by the company's mobile phone subscribers.

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 and the Philippines on January 1, 2004, and in Hong Kong on January 12, 2004. A week later, Animax launched in Southeast Asia 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, becoming the company's first English language network.
On July 5 2004, Animax started operations across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and 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.

Latin America

Animax launched a Latin America network on July 31, 2005, following Sony's acquisition of Locomotion. Animax Latin America began 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.
   Over the years, Animax has aired various anime series, with the spanish versions being dubbed in Venezuela, and the portuguese versions dubbed in Brazil, most of whom have never been shown before locally. Its programs include Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Noir, Wolf's Rain, Last Exile, Twin Spica, Planet Survival, Excel Saga, Samurai 7, Gun Frontier, Vandread, Gantz, Heat Guy J, Galaxy Angel, Get Backers, Hunter x Hunter and The Prince of Tennis.
   Starting January 2007, Animax changed completely its lineup and some anime series that were removed before returned. Animax Latin America announced a renewal in its image and projection from August 2007, as well as the premiere of a new programming block (named Lollipop) where adult-oriented series will be destinated to.
   Likewise, on March 18, 2008, it was announced that the mobile service Animax Mobile, available on Japan and Australia, will be launched as well in Mexico and eventually in other Latin American countries.

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.
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.
On June 13, 2007, Sony Pictures Television International officially announced that Animax would be launching its mobile television service, Animax Mobile, in Canada from July 2007, on Bell Digital's mobile phone service. This would be Animax Mobile's third major expansion, after initially launching the mobile television service in Japan from April 2007 and Australia from June 12, 2007.

Europe

In April 2007, Animax launched across several countries in Europe, including Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, with Sony announcing plans to launch in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland and other major countries in the continent, with discussions at an advanced stage.

Iberian Peninsula

Animax began as a program-block in Spain and Portugal in the channel AXN. It broadcasted InuYasha, Outlaw Star, Trigun, Orphen, Excel Saga and Samurai Champloo at weekends from 13:00 to 16:00, which began broadcasting in Portugal and Spain since October 2007. The channel was launched at April 12, 2008 on the Imagenio and Digital+ platforms.

Germany

On May 14, 2007, Sony announced Animax would be launching in Germany from early June 2007, becoming the country's first ever television network solely dedicated to anime programming. Animax launched in the country from June 5, 2007 on Unity Media's digital subscription television service in the regions of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and other regions.

Poland

Not earlier then March, 2008 Sony is planing to launch polish version of Animax, it'll be second independent Animax channel in Europe after Germany. The distribution of the channel in territory of Poland will be taken by HBO Poland. It was announced that Polish version will feature no dubs at all, but infamous single-voiced overdubs, decision is based on local market analysis results, saying this form of anime translation is more popular.

Australia

Animax launched its mobile television service, Animax Mobile, in Australia from June 12, 2007, on mobile phone company 3 mobile's mobile phone service, being viewable across 3G-capable mobile phone handsets across the country. Its initial programming on its launch consisted of four full-length anime series, Blood+, R.O.D -The TV-, and Last Exile. It began broadcasting in South Africa and other African countries on November 3, 2007.

Programming

Animax's programming is dedicated to anime, and it has been acknowledged as the largest 24-hour anime-only network in the world . Its viewer reach has been quoted as spanning over "40 million homes across 42 countries" in Asia, Europe and South America, as of August 2007. It has broadcast numerous anime series, including Blood+, Trinity Blood, , Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, the entire Mobile Suit Gundam series, Honey and Clover, InuYasha, Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka 7, Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Rurouni Kenshin, the Dragon Ball series, Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa Chronicle, Chobits, Vision of Escaflowne, Death Note, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ouran High School Host Club, Wolf's Rain, Future Boy Conan, Haikara-san ga Tooru, Emma - A Victorian Romance, Darker than Black, Wangan Midnight, Kyo Kara Maoh,"La Corda'd Oro Primo Passo", as well as several OVA series and anime films, such as Steamboy, Metropolis, Memories, Tokyo Godfathers, Ghost in the Shell,,,, Appleseed, Escaflowne and many others.

Translation and dubbing teams

Animax have utilized numerous translation and dubbing studios for the broadcast of numerous of its anime series across its English-language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, some of which were not licensed by North American distributors and don't have any English adaptation counterparts, such as Detective School Q, Dokkiri Doctor, Twin Spica, Zettai Shōnen, Clamp School, Emma: A Victorian Romance, Future Boy Conan, numerous installments of the World Masterpiece Theater 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, Omni Productions, 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, Yukikaze and several others.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Animax'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://animax.totallyexplained.com">Animax Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.