Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins in 1878, the 11th year of the Meiji era in Japan, and follows a former assassin of the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against the bakufu, he becomes Himura Kenshin, a wandering swordsman who protects the people of Japan with a vow never to take another life. Watsuki wrote the series based on his desire to make a shōnen manga different from others being published at the time, with Kenshin being a former assassin and the story taking a more serious tone as it progressed.
The history of anime in the United States began in 1961, when Magic Boy and The White Snake Enchantress, both produced by Toei Animation, became the first and second anime films to receive documented releases in the country. Anime has since found success with a growing audience in the region, with Astro Boy often being noted as the first anime to receive widespread syndication, especially in the United States. Additionally, anime's growth in popularity in the US during the 1990s, commonly referred to as the "anime boom," is credited with much of anime's enduring relevance to popular culture outside Japan.
Funimation was an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America. It streamed popular series, such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, YuYu Hakusho, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Black Clover, Fruits Basket, Assassination Classroom and Tokyo Ghoul among many others. The service and its parent company were acquired by Sony, who ran the service through Sony Pictures Entertainment from 2017 to 2019 and then through SPE and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex from 2019 to its closure in 2024. In 2021, Sony acquired Crunchyroll.
AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to licensing anime and helped give anime a noticeable following in the region. Over its history, the company has released many anime titles, such as Urusei Yatsura, You're Under Arrest, Vampire Princess Miyu, Otaku no Video, the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, and Kimagure Orange Road.
Himura Kenshin, known as Kenshin Himura in the English-language anime dubs, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the manga Rurouni Kenshin created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. Kenshin's story is set in a fictional version of Japan during the Meiji period. Kenshin is a former legendary assassin known as "Hitokiri Battōsai" (人斬り抜刀斎), more properly named Himura Battōsai (緋村抜刀斎). At the end of the Bakumatsu, he becomes a wandering swordsman, now wielding a sakabatō—a katana that has the cutting edge on the inwardly curved side of the sword, thus being nearly incapable of killing. Kenshin wanders the Japanese countryside offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for the murders he once committed as an assassin. In Tokyo, he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru, who invites him to live in her dojo, despite learning about Kenshin's past. Throughout the series, Kenshin begins to establish lifelong relationships with many people, including ex-enemies, while dealing with his fair share of enemies, new and old.
Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatrical and home entertainment formats in Australia and New Zealand.
Central Park Media Corporation, often abbreviated as CPM, was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York and was headquartered in the 250 West 57th Street building in Midtown Manhattan. They were one of the first companies to be active in the distribution of East Asian cinema, television series, anime, manga, and manhwa titles in North America, notably helping to make hentai popular in the region. Over its history, the company licensed several popular titles, such as Slayers, Revolutionary Girl Utena, the Tokyo Babylon OVAs, Project A-ko, and Demon City Shinjuku.
VIZ Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series.
Kite, also known as A Kite in Japan, is a Japanese original video animation written and directed by Yasuomi Umetsu. Two 35-minute episodes were released on VHS on February 25 and October 25, 1998, respectively. However, subsequent releases, including all three DVD releases in the United States, have edited the OVA into a film.
Kirk Thornton is an American voice actor, director and script writer working mainly with English-language versions of Japanese animated series.
Fakku is the largest English-language hentai publisher in the world.
Aniplex of America, or Aniplex USA, is an anime distributor based in Santa Monica, California that serves as the American distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an entertainment company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, where its goal is to reinforce the parent company's licensing business in the North American market. They operate the English language version of the Aniplex+ store, and from 2013 to 2017 operated a streaming service called Aniplex Channel through their website. The company most of the time only directly releases its titles in the Americas, however, some of its titles have been released in other territories by other distributors, such as Anime Limited, MVM Films, Siren Visual and corporate siblings Crunchyroll UK and Ireland and Crunchyroll Store Australia.
Hells Angels is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shinichi Hiromoto. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from August 2002 to April 2004 and compiled into three tankōbon volumes. It follows a teenage girl named Rinne Amagane who dies on her way to school and ends up in another school, in the underworld. While down there, she learns to get along with her new classmates, who are all demons.
Brittany Lauda is an American voice actress and voice director who has appeared in English-language dubs of Japanese anime and video games. Her debut role was in Queen's Blade Rebellion, where she voiced Mirim.
Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc is a two-part original video animation (OVA) based on the manga series Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki. It is a retelling of the manga's Kyoto arc. Produced by Aniplex and animated by Studio Deen, it was released in December 2011 and June 2012. The story focuses on the young Oniwabanshu member Makimachi Misao, who encounters the protagonist, the wanderer Himura Kenshin, who is on a quest to defeat the forces of his hitokiri successor Shishio Makoto.
Crunchyroll Pty. Ltd., trading as Crunchyroll Store Australia, and previously known as Madman Anime, is an Australian video publisher and distribution company focused on Asian entertainment. The company handles licensing and distribution of anime in Australia and New Zealand. Originally part of independent film distributor Madman Entertainment, the company is now operated as a division of Crunchyroll, LLC, run by Sony through Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex.
