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Central Park Media

with: John O'Donnell, Managing Director CPM

Interview by: Matthew Anderson

PAST PRESENT FUTURE

Central Park Media has been a leader in the industry for the past 12 years. With their large number of titles and "people first" attitude, they are truly a benchmark company.

By email, we interviewed John O'Donnell, Managing Director and founder of CPM.

PAST:

DVJ: What was your first experience with anime?

JOHN O'DONNEL: My first experience with anime came in the mid-80's, when I was responsible for licensing and releasing Voltron into the home video market. I realized that I enjoyed anime, and thought that it had a great potential in the US, although this potential was not widely appreciated at the time.

DVJ: When was Central Park Media established and why?

My wife, Masumi, and I established Central Park Media in 1990 as a "boutique media publisher" focusing on under-represented genres with growth potential. We decided that anime and manga would be great genres for us. We personally liked these products, we were interested in working between Japan and the US due to our own backgrounds, and we saw that these genres could grow in the mainstream marketplace, if marketed properly.

Accordingly, we got started, and have never looked back!

DVJ: Where did the company name come from?

JOD: Our offices are located at the southwest corner of Central Park in mid-Manhattan. (We can see some of the trees from our office windows.) As I was thinking what to call the company, I happened to walk past an apartment building named Central Park Place. Suddenly, I thought of "Central Park Media" and I liked this name, since it accurately describes where we are (near Central Park) and what we do (we publish various media like video, comics and graphic novels, soundtrack albums, computer software and the like). I brought our designer over to the building, showed him the logo treatment for the building's name, and we copied the font for our company logo!

DVJ: How did your company come together?

JOD: I left my previous job, so I could focus on writing a business plan for CPM and raising money (This was the pre-dotcom era - you actually had to have a coherent business plan which could explain what your product was, and how you made money.)

Writing the business plan was the easy part; the hard part was raising money. I quickly realized that it would be easier to just hock the house and get started, than it would be to explain to people why Americans would want to watch Japanese cartoons. At every single investor presentation we made, we were asked:

"So, how many Japanese are there in the US who would want to buy these things?"

When we told them that we intended to sell to Americans, not to Japanese, the next question was always:

"So, why in the world would any American want to watch a Japanese cartoon? Don't we have plenty of good American cartoons right now?"

Sure enough, once we started doing what we said we would, and started building the company, we were able to attract investors a few years later. The good news? The valuation we received at our first financing was for a company valuation over 17 times higher than what we were looking for at the start. The moral to this story? If you believe in yourself, don't worry about what others think of you.

DVJ: What was your first release? How did it do?

JOD: Our first releases were Dominion: Tank Police, Project A-ko, and M.D. Geist. I'm happy to say that all of these became smash hits, and they continue to sell well today, due to their classic nature. (Even though some people like to make fun of M.D. Geist, it stayed the Billboard Top Ten Video Chart for many weeks, and is one of the top selling anime of all time!)

The reaction to these titles was very interesting. You have to remember that these were the first titles specifically marketed to the mainstream video industry as part of the anime genre. Although Akira had been released previously, for example, it was positioned as an underground film, not as a representative of an entire genre. Other titles like Riding Bean had been released, but they were not distributed within the mainstream video industry, since the publishers were not sophisticated enough to distribute to the mainstream industry players. So basically, this was a brand new concept to most video buyers.

First of all, we found out that we couldn't use the word anime, since everyone kept asking us, "What is an Ay-nime?" Our press releases had to say, "anime (pronounced Annie May)." We finally gave up, and started calling it "Japanimation," a name which is still used in the Japanese press today. Most of us have stopped using "Japanimation" in the US, now that Pokemon has finally taught people how to pronounce "anime" correctly.

Secondly, most people in the video industry were shocked by the content. There were many who thought that Project A-ko was a lesbian movie. They were shocked at the violence and nudity in M.D. Geist. Those who saw the Puma sisters in Dominion called Dominion pornographic. We would ask them, "How can you call this pornographic? They have their clothes on, and they are not doing anything sexual." The basic answer, of course (which no one would ever come right out with and say), was "Walt Disney has brainwashed me into thinking that all cartoons must be suitable for 6 year olds, and if there is anything else in the cartoon, then it must be that X-rated adult stuff like Fritz the Cat," so my brain is turned off." It was a real eye-opener to us in terms of how political correctness has swamped corporate America. Blockbuster even used to put "mature content" stickers on all of their anime titles to warn parents!

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DVJ: What was the one title your company passed on/ignored that you later wished you had jumped on?

JOD: Toei suggested that we license a lot of their old, live action "guys in superhero suits" TV shows, and reshoot some new scenes with American actors. We passed, since we're not in the production business. Saban took them up on the idea, and made Power Rangers!

DVJ: If you had to choose one release that guaranteed your place in the anime market, what would it be?

JOD: There is no one title which "made" our company in the anime marketplace, the way Akira "made" Streamline. CPM is built on a huge anime catalog with an amazing diversity to the titles, which are aimed at all levels of fandom.

If you're asking what guarantees our place in US anime history, then I'd point to the fact that CPM was the first anime publisher to open up the mainstream channels of distribution for anime in the US, such as Blockbuster, Musicland, Tower Video, Virgin, and the like. We professionalized the distribution of anime videos, and opened the doors for many of today's anime companies by distributing them into these outlets when they were too small to do it themselves.

From an anime cultural point of view, our release of Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies as probably the most emotionally moving anime of all time, and one of the truly great works of cinematic art anywhere in the world, in any genre.

I'd also point to our national theatrical release in 1992 of Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend as one of the turning points in American film history. This was the first hentai theatrical release in the US, and only the second X-rated animation ever released theatrically (after Ralph Bakshe's Fritz the Cat). It was reviewed in the New York Times, which made history (they don't review adult films), and was the first foreign film ever shown simultaneously in both dubbed and subtitled prints in separate theaters at the same time, so the audience could choose the format they wanted to see.

DVJ: Why did you decide to start your Anime 18 line?

JOD: When we first looked at the hentai issue, we quickly realized that ratings and "truth in packaging" would be very important in order to build national distribution in legitimate video stores. We made the decision that any program which would get an NC-17 from the MPAA should be handled separately from our mainstream lines. As a result, we set up a separate company named A18 Corporation, to handle any programming which couldn't be marketed with an R rating. A18 Corp. is the owner of the Anime 18 video label, and the Manga 18 and Bare Bear Press manga labels. CPM is the distributor for A18 Corp.

We are very proud of the fact that we were the first to put "Warning: Absolutely Not For Children" on the front of every hentai release. Because these are "cartoons" as far as normal America goes, it is important to realize that most people will think they are for children. Accordingly, we go out of our way with our packaging to make it clear that only those who specifically want this sort of programming should be buying or renting it.

We believe very strongly in your right to view hentai, if you wish. We also believe very strongly that you should not be exposed to this programming unless you are looking for it. We do not believe that it should be marketed in such a way that minors might be exposed to it by mistake. This is why we put it into a label of its own, the way ADV does with Soft Cell, The Right Stuf does with Critical Mass, Media Blasters does with Kitty Media, etc. I think each of these companies are doing the right thing by separating the hentai from the mainstream, so that everyone is very clear about what they are getting.

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PRESENT:

DVJ: CPM is very diversified. Why so many different product lines.

JOD: From the beginning, we intended to publish as wide a diversity of programming as possible. We sell educational anime like the Animated Classics of Japanese Literature on the Central Park Media label, "shonen" type programming on the U.S. Manga Corps label, "shojo" and "otaku" type programming on the Software Sculptors label, and hentai on Anime 18.

We think that the more Americans realize how astoundingly diverse the catalog of Japanese anime is, the more they will get interested in learning more about it.

There is still a lot of types of programming we haven't brought over yet, but we're still working on it.

DVJ: How do you decide what titles to release in the US?

JOD: It's a complicated process, involving (a) finding out what's being made in the first place, (b) estimating the program's appeal and sales potential in the US, (c), budgeting the costs of licensing, versioning, marketing, and promoting the title, and (d) the eventual payoff to having the title in our catalog. This is an art, not a science, and it requires the efforts of many people across the entire company.

DVJ: Once you decide, how important is it to keep the story and script translations true to the original Japanese ?

JOD: Each company has different philosophies. Ours is to keep everything as close to the original as possible. We don't rewrite stories or change character names to make them more accessible to Americans, the way a TV show has to be totally "localized" for American tastes.

DVJ: In some instances, significant changes are made in character backgrounds and dialogue. Why?

JOD: Not with our programs. Some companies (think Pokemon) do this for TV shows they want to appeal to the widest possible audience. Face it - "Tomasaburo" isn't as catchy for an American kid as "Tommy." Also, due to "standards and practices" rules at TV networks (meaning, "politically correct censorship"), they will edit out things like cigarette smoking scenes, blood from wounds, nudity, bad language, and the like. Remember, in America, cartoons are supposed to be for kids.

DVJ: What was the main factor in deciding to release live action films?

JOD: Increasing our sales by launching a new label which would augment, but not cannibalize, our existing lines.

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DVJ: What was the main factor in deciding to release all of Kei Mizutani's movies as opposed to other actresses? How popular are her titles?

JOD: Kei is one of the most popular, if not THE most popular, cult film actresses in Japan. She has made a lot of movies, she appears in a wide range of roles, she's loved by her many fans, and she is tremendously easy to work with. We've brought her to the States for things like the premiere of Weather Woman at the San Diego Comic Con, and she amazed the fans by being so nice and friendly. A wonderful person. Even better, her films sell very well. Once people start watching Kei Mizutani movies, they tend to want to keep watching them, which is why the Kei Mizutani Gift Box Set is the best selling of all of her titles.

DVJ: With all of the different types of media you sell, why is there no market for photobooks of Japanese actresses?

JOD: Good question! I've been wanting to launch a photobook line for years. We've spent a lot of time talking to bookstores, distributors, photobook publishers in Japan, and developing plans. Having done this, I am aware of the issues involved, and I know why we aren't handling these at this time. But, I'm not interested in making this info available to our competitors, so I'll stop right here.

DVJ: Many anime fans think that most companies don't get along with others. As one of the leaders of Japanese animation in American, what kind of relationship do you have with the competition.

JOD: We have a lot of personal friends in the anime business, so with people like Shawne Kleckner of The Right Stuf, we feel like we are dealing with a friend, not a competitor. Manga Entertainment is one of our competitors, but I get along very well with Marvin Gleicher and his team. We used to work with Manga in the early days, coming to Japan to license programs together - they took Europe, CPM took North America, and we'd share the English language subbing and dubbing costs. We distributed ADV, Urban Vision, AnimEigo, Bandai and Pioneer in the early days, so we worked many years helping them get their products into retail distribution. I still give Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo and Carl Macek of Streamline (now ADV) credit for teaching me most of what I know about anime. Most of the people in the anime business are good folk, so it's not hard to get along with them.

Many of these companies have cooperated in the past on issues like coming up with standardized ratings for anime, fighting piracy, holding educational seminars for retailers at video industry events, and the like. Many of them have worked for each other. Ken Iyadomi, who runs Bandai, used to run LA Hero which was bought out by Manga, so he used to be a Manga employee. Chad Kime of Pioneer used to work for Books Nippon. There is a lot of cross-pollination in this business.

DVJ: Do you do all aspects of DVD production in-house?

JOD: Yes, except for the actual compression required to create the final DLT (Digital Linear Tape, used to create the DVD stamping masters). We do the planning, the menu pages, the programming options, the special features, etc.

DVJ: Are your DVD's made in house, or outsourced?

JOD: We use one of the world's largest, and highest quality replicators for our DVD manufacturing: Infodisc, in El Paso, Texas. They have operations throughout the world, and are the same people who make many of the best-selling titles from the Hollywood studios.

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

JOD: First of all, they must have a "work ethic." This means they must understand that in order to earn a salary, they must provide economic value to the company paying them the salary. (You'd be amazed at how many people lack this concept - there is an old joke that says, "Most people stop looking for work once they find a job.")

Secondly, they must be able to clearly think and communicate. Common sense is important. The ability to consider, "What is our objective? What is the best way to accomplish this objective?" is vital.

Third, they must want to work for us, specifically, and help us do what we need done to succeed as a anime and manga publisher. If they don't already know why working for us is better for them than just "getting a job" somewhere else, we don't need them. We want happy, optimistic people here - not "negative cancers" who do nothing but complain and point out problems. The only time you don't have problems is when you're six feet under. We want people who identify and solve problems, not bitch about them.

After we get over these key points, we then look at the specific skills required for the particular position in question. Someone in accounting needs a different background than someone in video production. Sales and marketing staffers need different skills than translators. Each position has its own skill set, so we look for those details once we are focused on a specific position.

In general, "entry level" jobs are "grunt" positions, where we give a person the chance to prove themselves in regards to the first three criteria, above. Then, we can move them into higher level positions with more responsibility, once we see where their own skills and interests take them.

DVJ: What is the most important part of CPM?

JOD: The members of Team CPM, in other words, the people who work here. We have a great company because we have great personnel. We have very high standards at CPM, so we don't have any idiots or goof-off's. Our staff are motivated, professional, and dedicated to achieving the company mission. They like anime, they like manga, and they like their job.

There is a clear understanding that hard work and effort will lead to responsibilities and promotions which are highly unlikely at a "regular" company. There is a real interest in pushing the envelope, and constantly doing things better. Our production people are always coming up with new concepts for special DVD features, for example. Our sales team is always creating new marketing programs, and doing things for the first time in the industry, like our recent "Dynamite Dozen" mid-line price DVD promotion. I'll match our finance team against any finance team, even at much larger companies. We are constantly told by our licensors that our royalty reporting system is the most accurate, informative, and timely of anyone they deal with, including the biggest Hollywood studios. Our Business Affairs staff is 100% bilingual, and have forgotten more about contracts than most people ever knew in the first place. In other words, our people are good. Real good. They're the reason we've been in business so long.

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FUTURE:

DVJ: What projects are scheduled in the near future.

JOD: Big new titles for CPM in 2003 will include DNA2, Alien 9, the Patlabor series on DVD,and Descendents of Darkness. We are anticipating great results from these key releases.

Additionally, we've announce the anime industry's first "mid-line" pricing for older, catalog titles. By dropping the price from $29.95 to $19.95, we're opening up a lot more stores to carrying anime, and making these title much more affordable.

In terms of clearing out VHS inventory, 2003 will be a banner year for anyone who wants a great library at low prices. Look for serious budget pricing on VHS as the DVD format rollout continues, especially from on-line retailers like The Right Stuf.

DVJ: Where do you see anime in 10 years.

JOD: Bigger and better, with lots of new ideas which will stem from international co-productions, like this year's Animatrix animation. There will be major new suppliers coming in from countries like Korea and China, which will produce "anime-like" programs in some ways, but with different twists and angles. Just as Aeon Flux was something which "merged" certain US and anime animation techniques, there will be a lot of experimentation taking place, a lot of big hits, and a huge catalog available on DVD or whatever other format is popular.

Ten years from now, anime will be so imbedded in normal, mainstream culture that people will have a hard time remembering that it used to be an "underground," "cutting edge" and "different" genre when it first started out. Rock and roll was shocking in the 1950's - now, General Motors uses rock music to sell Cadillacs! Same thing.

DVJ: Where do you see your company in 10 years?

JOD: Southwest corner of Broadway and West 57th Street - we just signed a 10 year lease!

DVJ: Do you have any interest in producing your own anime?

JOD: We already have! CPM did the world's first true anime co-production, when we did MD Geist: Death Force with Nippon Columbia in the early 90's. This was the first time that a US and Japanese company split the production budget 50-50 for an anime production, with shared scenario planning, mutual copyrights and perpetual distribution rights. This OVA hit #8 on the Billboard sales charts when we released it.

Since then, we have produced a number of our best selling titles, such as La Blue Girl Returns, and others. However, we leave the actual production work (drawing the cels) to our Japanese partners; we don't hire artists to work in our office.

DVJ: What involvement will you have in the anime network?

JOD: We'll let you know once we actually see such a network launch. Vaporware and local market tests do not a network make.

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

JOD: I love them. There's nothing like going to fan cons and being able to share what you do with people who actually appreciate it. I'd rather go to a fan con than to a video industry show. At fan cons, we talk directly to the people who buy and watch our programs. Whatever they have to say is totally relevant to what we are doing. When we go to video industry trade shows, all we talk to are store buyers, who are more focused on improving their profit margins, and rarely actually watch our programs themselves.

We visit fan sites constantly, to see what titles are being talked about, what fans think about titles, and what fans think about the companies. We have a saying at our company: "We're not proud, we'll steal a good idea from anybody." Fan sites often have a lot of useful info we can use in our own licensing and marketing activities.

DVJ: We appreciate your support of DVD Vision Japan.

JOD:We'll be looking forward to your issue.

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