U.S. Renditions


U.S. Renditions was a Special Projects Division of Books Nippan and one of the pioneers of anime home video distribution in North America.
The company also had a label called Dark Image Entertainment, which was geared for mature audiences. Titles under Dark Image Entertainment included Ambassador Magma, Devilman and Guyver: Out of Control.

History

The division was founded in February 1987 by Kevin Seymour, David Keith Riddick, Sho Nagata and Satoshi Komatsu. Robert Napton later joined the division and became a key figure in its productions.
After producing two music projects for the Robotech television series, U.S. Renditions produced the very first subtitled direct-to-home anime video for the American anime market. In March 1990, they began a release of a subtitled version of Gunbuster, followed in the same month by Dangaioh. They also released such subtitled hits as Appleseed and Black Magic M-66, and even began dubbing anime in 1992, the year their release of Dangaioh was completed. Their first dubbing projects included Macross II, Giant Robo and Fight! Iczer-One. These video projects were a joint venture with L.A. Hero, which was headed by Ken Iyadomi. U.S. Renditions also worked with U.S. Manga Corps on a select number of titles.
U.S. Renditions had a deal with Manga Entertainment's UK Division to distribute selected anime titles and have them dubbed in-house, before Island Records established Manga's North American operations via its acquisition of L.A. Hero in 1994.
When Books Nippan ceased operations in the mid-1990s, U.S. Renditions was dissolved. Books Nippan's animation division was later acquired by Digital Manga. Kevin Seymour went on to become a successful anime English voice director and co-founded Animaze. Robert Napton became the director of Bandai U.S.A.'s manga division. Ken Iyadomi went on to produce/co-produce domestic releases by Manga Entertainment and Bandai Entertainment. Although some of their releases have seen re-release through Bandai Visual USA, Manga Entertainment and Media Blasters, other titles such as the original uncut subtitled version of Dangaioh, Ambassador Magma and Guyver: Out of Control were never re-released and have remained out of print on home video.

Releases