With the birth of Anime Midstream earlier this month and the announcement of their first license, I was fortunate enough to be able to ask a few questions of the US executive producer for ‘Raijin-Oh’ Jimmy Taylor via email regarding the birth of the company, their first license and some of their plans for the coming year. Oh and just in case you’re wondering, that’s not him in the image to the right. ^_^  ~ Thanks so much for taking the time to answer some of my questions today. The first question is the easy one, so how was Anime Midstream born?

Jimmy Taylor (JT): We’re excited about our company and the buzz that’s been going around. We honestly didn’t think we’d make this much news so it’s a little new to us but we’re very happy about it.  Anime Midstream was born by fans for fans. I’ve been a fan of Japanese animation for over 20 years. 
 

The company started as an idea.  Seeing all the anime titles being released today, the industry seems to have shifted focus to only licensing brand new or currently released titles found in Japan.  Anime series from the 1970s to 1990′s feel like they have been forgotten and we want to let the fans enjoy them as much as we’ve enjoyed them. Anime Midstream was born from that idea and it’s our vision to bring a wide range of titles, those same titles that have greatly influenced the series we see today, to the American audience. 

~ With the global economy taking a slide for the worse, why did you feel that now was the right time to form a new company within the US market?

JT: I know some people may think it is a little odd to start a company now with the economy the way it is.  But we’re here because we love anime. We love the art and we want to give the fans the quality they deserve.  As far as the economy, we feel that the fans support the industry in good times and in bad as long as they can see that a company is giving them what they want.  And we believe we can meet those wants.

~ What can you tell us about Anime Midstream’s plans for your first license, ‘Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh’? Have you already decided on a release format?

JT: We will be releasing them as single disc releases. Each DVD will include English and Japanese audio, and of course English subtitles. Plans for a box set release will be in the future.  We are also planning on doing something special on the 20th anniversary of the Eldoran series.

~ A notice on your website notes that you will be looking for voice actors soon, is the current plan to dub all or even most of your releases or are dubs going to be rarer?

JT: We are planning to dub all of our releases in English as well as keep the Japanese audio. All of our releases will be a dual audio format with English subtitles.

~ What are some of the primary goals that the company has for 2009?

JT: We are mostly going to be keeping our focus on ‘Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh’ through 2009. We want to make sure that it is done right and well received by fans everywhere. But we are already considering future titles to license. 

~ Once again, thank you for your time and I wish you much success in the coming months.

JT: Thank you for giving us an opportunity to talk about the company and we hope to talk to you again in a few months.

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