Company type | Division |
---|---|
Industry | Video publisher and distributor |
Genre | Anime, Asian cinema, live action |
Founded | July 31, 1987 |
Founders | Shawne Kleckner Robert "Todd" Ferson |
Defunct | October 10, 2023 |
Fate | Folded and merged into Crunchyroll Store |
Successor | Crunchyroll Store BuyAnime |
Headquarters | , United States |
Number of employees | 70 |
Parent | Crunchyroll, LLC [lower-alpha 1] |
Divisions | Nozomi Entertainment Critical Mass Video |
Website | www |
Right Stuf Inc. (formerly known as The Right Stuf International Inc.) was an American video publisher and distributor of video programming that specialized in Asian entertainment (anime and live action films). It had several divisions including: Nozomi Entertainment (production) and RightStufAnime.com (online store). In March 2012, Right Stuf launched 5 Points Pictures, its live action label. [1] Right Stuf also offered production services and distribution for Japanese labels Sunrise Inc., [2] Eleven Arts, [3] Pony Canyon, [4] and its corporate sibling, Aniplex of America.
Right Stuf was founded in July 1987, by Robert "Todd" Ferson and Shawne P. Kleckner. The company was headquartered in Grimes, Iowa. In August 2022, Right Stuf was acquired by Sony Group Corporation, and made a part of the Crunchyroll brand. [5] As a result of the acquisition, Right Stuf ceased distribution of all hentai content on its storefronts, for which it and Crunchyroll drew criticism from fans. [6] [7] Crunchyroll, LLC operated the company through a joint venture ran by Sony through Sony Pictures and Aniplex, itself a division of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Prior to the acquisition, Crunchyroll LLC, then known as Funimation, had partnered with its subsidiary Nozomi Entertainment to stream its select titles on the FunimationNow app in 2019. [8]
In December 2022, Kleckner announced he would be leaving the company after 35 years of being its co-founder and CEO. [9] [10]
In September 2023, Crunchyroll announced that Right Stuf would be merged into Crunchyroll Store in October 2023, with Crunchyroll adopting the Right Stuf pricing and shipping practices, shutting down in the process. [11] [12] The initial service experience was succeeded by BuyAnime.
Nozomi Entertainment was Right Stuf's studio focusing on "collector-grade releases for audiences of all ages." It published classic and modern anime programs for people of all ages, including Astro Boy (1963) , Dirty Pair , Mobile Suit Gundam , The Irresponsible Captain Tylor , Revolutionary Girl Utena , Princess Knight , Kare Kano , Kimba the White Lion (1965) , Macross , and Junjo Romantica . [13] At the Anime Expo in 2007, CEO Shawne Kleckner announced that Right Stuf had changed the name of their production division to Nozomi Entertainment. The first title released under the new Nozomi Entertainment label was The Third . [14] Some titles were previously licensed under the Lucky Penny Entertainment label [15] before it was discontinued.
Despite the Right Stuf merger into Crunchyroll Store on October 10, 2023, Crunchyroll confirmed that Nozomi would continue to operate under the Crunchyroll banner, licensing its back catalog of classic anime, and the English-dubbed Blu-ray of the 1980s Dirty Pair television series that was crowdfunded on Kickstarter would be released as planned. [11]
5 Points Pictures was Right Stuf's former distribution division for live action programming. In March 2012, Right Stuf, Inc. established 5 Point Pictures and announced its film distribution agreement with CJ Entertainment. [16]
Critical Mass Video was Right Stuf's former studio for adult anime programming. It offered titles catering to an assortment of different preferences. The label was taken over by Adult Source Media and BuyAnime.com after Right Stuf removed all adult content following the Crunchyroll acquisition. [17] [18] [19]
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.
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Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short, is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is operating independently from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry. Its subsidiaries include the Japanese animation production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in September 1995 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid '90s producing and licensing music for animated series such as Roujin Z from acclaimed Japanese comic artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's Street Fighter animated series.
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Aniplex of America, Inc., or Aniplex USA, is an American entertainment company founded in March 2005 and located in Santa Monica, California that serves as the American distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an anime and music production 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.
Anime Festival was an annual Australian anime and Japanese culture convention held in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney. The convention was organised by Madman Anime. The convention was inaugurated in 2016 and held in Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre as a two-day event from the 3–4 September 2016 in Melbourne. The convention was later expanded to Perth and Brisbane in 2017 after a successful inaugural event, with each event held a few months apart, and to Sydney in 2019.
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Crunchyroll, LLC, d/b/a Crunchyroll, formerly known as Funimation, is an American entertainment company based in Coppell, Texas, focused on the distribution and licensing of anime, films, and television series. The company, then known as Funimation Productions, was founded in May 1994, by Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy in Silicon Valley, with funding by Daniel Cocanougher and his family, who became investors in the company, which then relocated to North Richland Hills and later Flower Mound, Texas.