Anime distributor AnimEigo and parent company MediaOCD have announced the debut of Episode 6 of The Anime Business, a first-of-its-kind documentary series featuring interviews with a variety of pioneers of the Western anime industry. The latest episode features an insightful interview. The latest installment features an in-depth interview with Laurence Guinness, a famed British producer for Manga Video/Manga Entertainment who worked on a wide array of acclaimed and legendary anime releases throughout the 90s and early 2000s.
Episode 6 is available now on the official AnimEigo YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@AnimEigo/videos
Guinness recalls a profound interest early on to fuse music and pop and youth culture. He launched a pirate TV station in the UK in the late 80s and worked with several industrial music acts before joining Island Records as a video editor. Guinness dived into the burgeoning world of anime after meeting Andy Frain who recruited him to join Manga Entertainment. Following the massive success of Akira, Guinness went on to produce a wide variety of home media releases for the company that became cornerstones of 90s era anime such as Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, Perfect Blue and Street Fighter.
He also recounts little known stories such as recruiting Gavin Rossdale and members of his band, Bush, to score the soundtrack for The Guyver and trying to develop original anime productions featuring Wu Tang Clan and The Spice Girls. As the interview concludes, Guinness notes that he currently very active in the charity sector and has led projects that have generated more than £40 million for a variety of causes.
The Anime Business is an ongoing series featuring a wide range of entrepreneurs and visionaries that helped to pioneer and shape the North American anime industry. It is produced and hosted by industry veteran and MediaOCD founder and AnimEigo CEO Justin Sevakis.
All episodes of The Anime Business will be available in English. Japanese subtitles will also be available via a special grant from the Kleckner Foundation. Additional episodes and interviews are in production now. AnimEigo and MediaOCD invite fans that would like to help support and crowdfund future episodes of The Anime Business to donate at: https://www.mediaocd.com/plans-pricing
Episodes 1-5 of The Anime Business are also now available to stream on the AnimEigo YouTube channel. Episode 1 features the first half of the interview with John O’Donnell. Episode 2 features an interview with Robert Napton, the former Director of Marketing and Producer of US Renditions and Managing Editor at Bandai Entertainment. Episode 3 features Pater Tatara, an entrepreneur who launched Anime NYC and helped to build the annual event into North America’s second biggest anime convention. Episode 4 features Part 2 of the extensive interview with John O’Donnell. Episode 5 features Andy Frain, the founder of Manga Video/Manga Entertainment.
Justin Sevakis was the original founder of Anime News Network in 1998, and he contributed many of the site’s most popular columns for many years, in addition to co-hosting ANNCast, the #1 anime podcast worldwide, from 2009-2015. Sevakis was the first in-house video and subtitle editor at Central Park Media, a prominent 2000s era anime distributor, and worked on Grave of the Fireflies, Project A-ko and many other bestselling releases. With his current company, MediaOCD, he has produced more than 1,600 Blu-ray discs for North American market and pioneered restoration efforts for classic anime including Project A-ko, Digimon Adventure, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, and the forthcoming Macross II. He acquired anime distributor AnimEigo in 2024.
Source: Press Release
