“Anime fans are hungry for content and are eager to embrace new ways to access anime more readily,” said Marc Harrington, Vice President of Business Development at Geneon Entertainment. “Partnering with reputable companies in new places is the perfect way for Geneon to reach it’s fan-base.”

While the digital download aspect represents a new delivery method for Geneon’s anime products, television is no stranger to the company’s programming slate. The fuse network, ImaginAsian TV (iaTV), and G4 Tech TV Canada, extend the broadcast relationships beyond those Geneon Entertainment enjoys with The Cartoon Network, Starz, among others.

The Geneon series to be broadcast by the networks and available for digital distribution at launch include Akira (exclusive to Xbox LIVE Marketplace), Ayakashi (Samurai Horror Tales), Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo), Gun Sword, Last Exile as well as Lupin the 3rd. Following are brief plot outlines of the series:

·    Akira- available exclusively on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, consumers can also view Akira in High Definition with Surround Sound for the first time ever in North America.  Akira’s post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo explodes in a violent combination of motorcycle gangs, psychic power, and political corruption.
·    The 11-episode anime series Ayakashi (Samurai Horror Tales) uses three unique art styles to bring classic Japanese horror stories to life: Goddess of the Dark Tower, Yotsuya Ghost Story, Goblin Cat
·    Gankutsuou, the 2006 Anime Series of the year for Wizard Magazine and Anime Insider, retells the classic French novel, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo), as a science fiction epic over 24 episodes of eye-popping experimental animation and intense drama.
·    Last Exile features an artistically stunning steampunk world of airborne dogfights, empires and betrayal on a global scale.
·    Known by some fans as GXS, Gun Sword follows the 26-episodes revenge epic of a man seeking to avenge the murder of his wife in the wastes of an intergalactic penal colony.
·    Created by Kazuhiko Kato (AKA: Monkey Punch), the classic late 1960s-era manga and anime series Lupin the 3rd follows the comic tales of a master thief and his gang as they go from one misguided caper to another

Users of the digital distribution providers will be able to download content to their computers or game console and enjoy the episodes in full quality resolution through the distributor’s media player.

About Geneon Entertainment
A leading supplier of Japanese animation in North America, GENEON ENTERTAINMENT (USA) INC. (www.geneonanimation.com) is a full-service producer and distributor of entertainment content including film, music, animation and television shows on DVD, UMD, and CD. Continually introducing new and classic anime and live-action programming, as well as anime CD soundtracks, the company also serves as a creative partner to many of Japan’s top anime production companies.  Additionally, Geneon Entertainment distributes critically acclaimed musical performances on DVD and CD from renowned artists. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Geneon Entertainment’s parent company is Tokyo-based advertising giant Dentsu, Inc.

d-rights, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan’s largest general trading company), established in 1988, is an integrated production company handling entertainment content for a variety of media; terrestrial TV, Internet, DVD, etc.  Based in Tokyo, d-rights offers the services as a content producer, a rights manager, and an advertising agency, and d-rights can provide clients with the support necessary to work more efficiently and effectively in the content business.