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PAST     PRESENT     FUTURE

AN Entertainment is gearing up for their first release, the very cute, very funny Risky Safety.  At least we hope it is funny.

Via Emai, we talked to John Oppliger, editor and writer of Anime Nation's very popular "Ask John" column.  John explained how AN Entertainment came into being, why they chose Risky Safety, and why he won't tell us the other projects they have in development.

PAST:

DVJ: How did AN-Entertainment come about?

JO: AnimeNation has been an anime retail company for roughly 7 years now, essentially since the early days of the beginning of the anime revolution in America. After selling and importing anime for so many years, we believed that we'd begun to approach a sort of glass ceiling.

We're always trying to improve our retail service, but the AnimeNation staff had the impression that it was time to expand beyond just re-selling anime.  Using our experience and knowledge of the industry to actually license our own titles and produce our own translations seemed like a natural next step in our company's evolution.

DVJ: What are the costs in starting an anime company?

JO: There's no clear answer to this question because costs vary depending on what a potential business owner's goals are. I can say that producing an official English language translation of an anime show to the quality standards that AN Entertainment is striving for is probably too expensive for any single anime fan or small group of anime fans to afford, but that shouldn't deter anime fans from working toward breaking into the industry themselves.

DVJ: Is AN-Entertainment it's own company, or are the decisions made by AnimeNation?

JO: AN Entertainment is an independent corporation, but right now it shares its employees with AnimeNation. So right now it's dual AnimeNation/AN Entertainment employees that "make the decisions" behind AN Entertainment, but in the future AN Entertainment will be an independent entity.

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PRESENT:

DVJ: Why did you choose Risky Safety as a first release?

JO: It wasn't actually until after we'd secured the distribution license to Risky Safety that we realized that there's really no other show like Risky Safety in America. There's really nothing else that can be directly compared to it. We sought the license in the first place for a number of reasons. First and foremost, since several members of the AnimeNation staff were familiar with the show, we thought that Risky Safety was one of the very best shorter anime TV series out there that hadn't been announced for US release yet. We liked the show enough to believe that it deserved greater recognition in the West. 

Risky Safety is just a little known gem of a show. Beside our respect for and love of the show, its length appealed to us. The fact that Risky Safety was a shorter show was less intimidating. We started off looking for a shorter show that wouldn't overwhelm us on our first attempts at American localization.

DVJ: Why dub or "localize" Risky Safety?

JO: Risky Safety is a wonderful show that we think any and every viewer can enjoy. We didn't want to limit its potential audience with only a subtitled or only a dubbed translation.

DVJ: Were there other titles you were interested in?

JO: I can't divulge the exact other titles AN Entertainment considered or inquired about as a debut title because some of them may still be options we'll license for future releases; however we're very pleased with how things turned out because Risky Safety was actually at the top of our list.

DVJ: As a new company, what were some of the difficulties you encountered?

JO: Many anime fans have probably heard rumors of how difficult licensing negotiations are with Japanese copyright holders.  Well, it's true.

It's unfortunate that we really wanted to include many more bonus features and supplemental material on the Risky Safety DVDs that what we are, but at every turn the Japanese licensors kept coming back with, "No." We weren't allowed to use the original Japanese production sketch art.  We weren't allowed to reproduce the Japanese TV spots. We weren't allowed to reproduce the images from the Japanese trading cards that came with the R2 DVDs. And so forth.

DVJ: Is AN-Entertainment doing the subtitling work and the mastering?

JO: We actually started off the Risky Safety translation by contacting Sachigumi Fansubs, who had fan subtitled the whole show several years ago. Sachi was kind enough to provide her original translated scripts for our use. We then had several professional translators review and edit the translated scripts. While Sachigumi had to produce a translation by ear, we had the benefit of the show and the original Japanese shooting scripts. We're very confident that Risky Safety will be one of the very best, most accurately translated anime titles available in America.

DVJ: Do you produce your own DVD's, or do you outsource?

JO: Our DVD design, including menu design and format was entirely designed in house. The physical mastering, though, is being handled by an experienced professional in California who has authored a lot of mainstream Hollywood studio release DVDs. Again, we're taking careful measures to do all we can to insure top quality production values all around. Our standards are very high, so we're hoping that anime fans will recognize and appreciate the quality and workmanship that will go into our final release DVDs.

DVJ: How important is it to keep the story and script translations true to the original Japanese?

JO: At AN Entertainment, we take anime very seriously. If you're going to heavily alter or "Americanize" imported Japanese animation, why watch Japanese animation at all? The English language dub of Risky Safety naturally is written for native English speaking viewers, but we've made a conscious effort to keep it as close as possible to the original Japanese script. Our subtitles will actually retain original Japanese honorifics and references that we simply don't believe can be translated and still express the same meanings. We're also not glossing over any of the Japanese cultural references in the show. 

The Risky Safety DVDs will include extensive translation notes. It's not necessary to be familiar with Japanese culture or language to enjoy Risky Safety, and viewers that aren't familiar with Japanese culture should have no problems at all thoroughly enjoying Risky Safety, but we think that fans interested in a highly authentic presentation of anime will be especially pleased with what we've done. Yoroshiku, Baby!

DVJ: Who are some of the English voice actors in Risky Safety?

JO: The English language version of Risky Safety uses the talents of some of America's best anime voice actors including Sandy Fox (Chobits, Cowboy Bebop), Michelle Ruff (Sugar, X), and Julie Ann Taylor (Love Hina, Please Teacher!). Likewise, the original Japanese version uses the voices of some of Japan's most popular voice actors including Maaya Sakamoto (RahXephon, Escaflowne), Horie Yui (Fruits Basket, Love Hina), Yuri Shiratori (Utena, Berserk), and Kikuko Inoue (Ah! My Goddess, Onegai Teacher).

DVJ: Are any of the Anime Nation staff going to have cameo's in the dub

version?

JO: The AnimeNation staff are anime fans, but not actors.

DVJ: How many units have you sold during the pre-order?

JO: As with other statistics, preorder numbers aren't something we disclose.

Regarding pre-orders though, fans may be interested to know that their pre-orders and purchases do matter. In fact, our tentative plan is to possibly create a 3 DVD series artbox as a sort of "Thank You" for our supporters. We don't really like the idea of charging additional fees for what is essentially a cardboard box, so if pre-orders and sales of the first two Risky Safety DVDs are strong, all copies of DVD volume 3 may include a free series artbox at no extra charge.

DVJ: What are your feelings about fan sites and fan cons?

JO: AnimeNation and AN Entertainment are both very supportive of the anime fan community and its efforts. AnimeNation, in fact, hosts what is arguably the biggest collection of anime fan site links on the net. If anime fans watch Risky Safety and like it enough to create sites devoted to the show, we'd be honored and pleased to know that fans like the show as much as we do. AnimeNation has attended national anime conventions for several years now, and will continue to do so. AN Entertainment will also be presenting industry panels and meeting fans at conventions in the future including Anime Central and Anime Expo.

DVJ: As one of the popular retailers of anime, what kind of relationship do you have with the other companies?

JO: We hope that our relationship with our competition is cordial, mutually beneficial, and ultimately positive for the anime community in America. We're all anime fans, and while the nature of business mandates that we compete against other retailers, we've always tried to avoid mudslinging or corporate warfare. Of course AnimeNation would like to be America's , and the world's largest, best anime retail outlet, but we also realize that anime fans need variety and choices, and there's always room for friendly competition. In terms of AN Entertainment, while AD Vision will be distributing the Risky Safety DVDs, retailers that would prefer to order Risky Safety directly through AN Entertainment are certainly welcome.

DVJ: Why did you decide to use AD Vision to help distribute Risky Safety?

JO: We want Risky Safety to archive the widest possible distribution in America. AD Vision is a company that has established distribution channels into major nationwide retail chains and distribution in Canada. They're also have experience with home video distribution seeing as they provide distribution for not only their own titles, but also for RightStuf and Urban Vision. AN Entertainment has a close, friendly relationship with AD Vision, so it seemed natural for us to utilize their experience and established distribution channels.

DVJ: If someone wanted to work for AN-Entertainment, what skills should they possess?  What would an entry level position be?

JO: We'll have better answers to this as AN-Entertainment expands. As with AnimeNation, being an anime fan certainly helps.

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FUTURE:

DVJ: What projects are scheduled in the near future?

JO: Sorry, we can't disclose future plans at this time <wink>

DVJ: Where do you see anime in 5 years?

JO: The future of anime is always on people's minds, but I don't think it's really something to worry about. Anime exists because it presents a unique, appealing form of  entertainment that viewers will always be interested in. Traditional cel animation, which is already in decline, will probably be non-existent five years from now.  And American/Japanese co-productions, which are on the increase, will probably be much more common.  However, I think we're always going to see Japan continue producing distinct anime intended just for Japanese audiences the way we always have. I'd also like to say that a half decade from now anime will be recognized in America as imported Japanese pop-culture art, and will be respected and appreciated and able to open in theaters nationwide to positive results, but I don't know if that's actually going to happen in such a relatively short amount of time.

DVJ: Where do you see your company in 5 years?

JO: The goal of AN Entertainment is to be an anime translating company that fans can depend on for quality titles localized with a concern for cultural and artistic integrity. We hope to produce a library of DVDs that anime fans will consistently enjoy, and feel proud to own and collect. Naturally we're hoping to expand, but not at the cost of quality or integrity. We're also hoping to eventually expand into other forms of anime entertainment, including possibly manga and soundtracks, but that's still down the road.  

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