Sentai Filmworks

• 1. Introduction

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  Sentai Filmworks traces its roots to a single moment: a Houston man named John Ledford watching My Neighbor Totoro at his friend's suggestion. That friend was Matt Greenfield, a Sacramento-born anime fan who ran a local club called Anime NASA. The two men would go on to build one of the most consequential anime distribution companies in North America. But before that, Ledford was simply a Japanese video game and video console importer, hustling in 1990 out of Houston. How did a game importer become the force behind titles like Made in Abyss, Parasyte, and Vinland Saga? And how did a company that didn't exist until 2008 end up with the catalog of one that spent nearly two decades building it? The answers lead through corporate collapse, a lawsuit over twenty-nine titles, a charity drive that raised over two million dollars in days, and an eventual acquisition by AMC.

• 2. A.D. Vision's Rise and Fall

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  On the 17th of August 1992, John Ledford and Matt Greenfield officially established A.D. Vision. Their first release was Devil Hunter Yohko, which came about after Ledford personally contacted Toho to option the rights. ADV grew into a major force in North American anime distribution through the 1990s and early 2000s. In June 2006, the Japanese trading company Sojitz Corporation acquired a 20% stake in ADV Films, which was meant to help ADV access more titles in the Japanese market. The following year, Japan Content Investments, Development Bank of Japan, and film distributor KlockWorx all planned to contribute money to ADV in exchange for equity. Ledford was to remain the majority shareholder and CEO. But January 2008 brought a turning point. ADV quietly removed a large number of titles from its website, including Gurren Lagann, which had already had test disks with dubbed episodes sent out. ADV then sued ARM Corporation and its parent Sojitz for breach of contract. The suit disclosed the exact amount paid to license twenty-nine titles, but was eventually withdrawn without a ruling. That July, Funimation announced it had acquired thirty of the titles Sojitz had licensed from ADV. On the 1st of September 2009, ADV went defunct and sold its assets, transferring distribution rights to Section23 Films.

• 3. Building a New Catalog

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  Ledford founded Sentai Filmworks in 2008, before ADV had even formally closed. Some of the company's earliest releases included Clannad, Princess Resurrection, Indian Summer, Appleseed, and Mahoromatic, the last of which had previously been licensed by Geneon. At its industry panel at Anime Expo on the 4th of July 2013, Sentai announced plans to release classic titles from Tatsunoko Production. Those releases came to include the original Gatchaman series and its movie, Time Bokan: Royal Revival, and Casshan. Just over a month later, on the 8th of August 2013, Sunrise announced a licensing deal at Otakon that brought a number of titles formerly held by Bandai Entertainment into Sentai's hands. In 2014, Sentai opened Sentai Studios, its in-house localization and recording facility, giving the company direct control over the dubbing process that had defined its business from the start.

• 4. Toonami and Streaming

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  On the 1st of June 2015, Sentai announced on its website that Akame ga Kill! had been picked up by Adult Swim for its Toonami programming block, almost a week after the news had first surfaced at MomoCon 2015. The show began airing on the 8th of August 2015, and its premiere night drew over 1.8 million viewers, making it one of the most watched programs in Toonami block history at that time. Later that year, Parasyte -the maxim- premiered on Toonami on October 3. Sentai promoted the two shows together under the hashtag SentaiHour on social media. Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma joined the Toonami lineup on the 6th of July 2019. In March 2017, Sentai signed a deal with Amazon to stream the majority of its new licensees exclusively on Amazon's Anime Strike channel on Amazon Prime Video in the United States, beginning with the Spring 2017 season. After Anime Strike shut down in early 2018, all previously exclusive titles became available to Amazon Prime subscribers at no extra charge. Sentai had also launched its own streaming service, HIDIVE, in June 2017, replacing the Anime Network Online platform.

• 5. Kyoto Animation and Cool Japan

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  On the 18th of July 2019, an arsonist attacked Kyoto Animation, and Sentai Filmworks responded by launching a GoFundMe campaign with a target of US$750,000. Within the first 24 hours, donations surpassed the one million dollar mark. The campaign ultimately closed at $2,370,910. Two weeks later, on the 1st of August 2019, Sentai Holdings announced that the Cool Japan Fund had invested for shares in the company, with Sentai noting that its independent status made it a rarity among North American anime licensors. On the 30th of September 2020, the Cool Japan Fund made an additional investment, citing improved financial results in 2019 compared to 2018, along with plans for medium and long-term growth and strategic changes following the COVID-19 pandemic. That same month, on the 5th of September 2020, Crunchyroll announced a partnership with Sentai to distribute Crunchyroll-licensed titles onto home video and electronic sell-through. Granbelm, Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma: The Fourth Plate, Ascendance of a Bookworm, and World Trigger were among the first titles distributed through that arrangement.

• 6. AMC Acquisition and After

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  On the 5th of January 2022, AMC Global Media, then operating as AMC Networks, acquired Sentai Filmworks and its parent Sentai Holdings, LLC, along with the HIDIVE streaming service and the Anime Network. The timing coincided with major restructuring across the industry. In August 2021, Sony's Funimation Global Group had acquired Ellation, the parent of Crunchyroll, from AT&T's WarnerMedia. In March 2022, Funimation was rebranded as Crunchyroll, LLC. That consolidation had downstream effects on Sentai: several of its titles departed from the Crunchyroll streaming service on the 31st of March 2022. After Right Stuf was acquired by Sony in August 2022, Sentai announced on the 7th of March 2023, that distribution of all future home releases from Sentai and Section23 Films would shift to Distribution Solutions, the releasing unit of Alliance Entertainment's wholesale arm, effective April 3. The same month, on the 2nd of March 2023, Sentai announced a partnership and distribution agreement with Mainichi Broadcasting System. Sentai's offices remain in the International District in Southwest Houston, the city where John Ledford first began importing Japanese video games more than three decades earlier.