Streamline Pictures

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Streamline Pictures opened its doors in Los Angeles in late 1988 with a mission that most American entertainment executives would have called a long shot. Carl Macek, a television writer and producer, and Jerry Beck, an animation historian, wanted to bring Japanese animated films to English-speaking audiences in a form that stayed true to the original. Not edited down. Not reshaped for American tastes. Uncut and faithful.

  At the time, anime was a niche curiosity in the United States, circulated mostly among dedicated hobbyists. Within months of opening, Streamline had arranged the American premiere of a Hayao Miyazaki film at a screening room in Philadelphia. By Christmas Day of 1989, they had put a landmark Japanese animated film into a Georgetown theater in Washington, D.C. Their story raises questions worth staying for. How did two men with a specific creative philosophy build one of the earliest bridges between Japanese animation and American audiences? And what happened when their approach became the flashpoint for one of anime fandom's most heated arguments?

• 2. The Robotech Connection

  ›

  Carl Macek came to Streamline Pictures with experience that cut in two directions. He had worked for Harmony Gold USA on Robotech, a series that became enormously popular in the United States. That production, however, had taken three separate Japanese anime series and woven them into a single American narrative, a far cry from the uncut philosophy that Streamline would champion.

  Several people who had staffed Robotech followed Macek into the new venture. Gregory Snegoff, Steve Kramer, Ardwight Chamberlain, Tom Wyner, and Mike Reynolds had all worked as series staff writers and voice actors on Robotech. At Streamline, they took on roles as independent writers and voice actors, giving the small company a core of experienced talent from the very beginning. Co-founder Jerry Beck brought a different kind of expertise: his background was in animation history and film distribution, skills that would prove essential when Streamline needed to navigate the rights landscape for titles originating in Japan.

• 3. A Miyazaki Relationship

  ›

  On the 24th of March 1989, Streamline's first major public event took place at the Roxy Screening Room in Philadelphia: the American premiere of Laputa: Castle in the Sky, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Macek himself was a Miyazaki admirer, and that admiration became the engine of an unlikely creative arrangement with Tokyo-based publisher Tokuma Shoten.

  Macek felt that the English dubbing of Laputa had fallen short of what a Miyazaki film deserved. He said so. Tokuma Shoten, rather than taking offense, gave him an opportunity to demonstrate what he meant. He chose My Neighbor Totoro as his proving ground, describing it as one of his favorite Miyazaki works. Streamline had already dubbed both My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service in 1988 for Tokuma Shoten, though those versions were produced for Japan Airlines in-flight use rather than theatrical release.

  When Tokuma Shoten approved of the quality of that work, they immediately contracted Streamline to produce the English version of Kiki's Delivery Service. Japan Airlines purchased that film and showed it on flights between Japan and the United States. The Streamline dub of My Neighbor Totoro eventually reached American theaters in 1993, released by Troma Films. The Kiki's Delivery Service dub, however, appeared only on the Japanese laserdisc release of that title during the 1990s. All three of the Miyazaki films Streamline touched were later redubbed by Disney.

• 4. Akira and a Bold Christmas

  ›

  Christmas Day 1989 was the date Streamline chose for a theatrical event that would mark its place in American animation history. The company released Akira at The Biograph in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. on that day. The film had already generated attention among anime enthusiasts, and this screening placed it before a broader American audience for the first time.

  Streamline also handled a 1992 video dubbing of The Castle of Cagliostro, a film that had been screened with subtitles at the Film Forum in New York City in April 1991. Beyond those marquee titles, the company licensed and dubbed a range of other anime series and films: Fist of the North Star, Wicked City, Lensman, Vampire Hunter D, and The Professional: Golgo 13. The catalog was wide and deliberate, reflecting a drive to show English-speaking audiences just how varied Japanese animation could be.

• 5. Dubs Only

  ›

  During the VHS era of the 1990s, before hybrid DVDs became widely available, the standard practice among anime distributors was to release both subtitled and dubbed versions. Subtitled tapes were noticeably more expensive; dubbed tapes were expected to sell in higher volumes. Streamline rejected this model entirely. They released only dubbed versions of their titles, positioning themselves as the sole company in their field to make that choice.

  Two exceptions existed. The later Akira release carried a subtitled version. Their Robotech Collection included episodes of the original Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada series on the same tape alongside the corresponding Robotech episodes. Those three titles were later re-released by ADV Films through Harmony Gold. Streamline's dub-only stance reflected a belief that dubbed anime could reach audiences beyond the core enthusiast market, though it would also become a defining detail in the debate about what anime localization should look like.

• 6. The Sub Versus Dub Debate

  ›

  Macek's name was well known in certain corners of anime fandom before Streamline Pictures ever opened, and not always favorably. His work reshaping Japanese source material for American audiences had made him a controversial figure. Streamline inherited that controversy and, in the view of many observers, intensified it.

  Macek explained his philosophy toward dubbing in several interviews, with the most notable accounts published in Protoculture Addicts and Animag. His position became closely identified with what fans called "Americanized dubs" - a term that, by the 1990s, carried a negative charge for a significant portion of the anime audience. Streamline's approach made the company one of the early focal points of what would become a lasting and sometimes bitter debate among anime fans: whether subtitles preserved the original work better than dubbing, and whether any amount of localization was acceptable.

• 7. Closing and Aftermath

  ›

  Streamline Pictures stopped producing new anime releases in 1997. The company kept distributing its existing library across North America, but a creative chapter had ended. In 1996 it had opened another lane, releasing foreign films under a label called Independent Filmworks. That effort continued until the company closed entirely in 2000.

  One internal division had already separated from the company before the closure. The Modelworks division was sold in 1998 and continued operating as a standalone entity under the name Avatar Creations. Rights to much of the Streamline library followed different paths after the company's closure. Titles like Akira and The Castle of Cagliostro eventually reverted to their Japanese rights holders and were licensed to new distributors. Other titles from the Streamline catalog were never re-released, held in limbo by unresolved licensing complications or insufficient market demand. The company that had helped plant anime in American culture left behind a library whose fate was still being sorted out long after its doors closed.