New interview features the conclusion of a comprehensive 3-part chat with Central Park Media founder and North American anime and manga industry pioneer John O’Donnell

Anime distributor AnimEigo and parent company MediaOCD have released the latest episode of The Anime Business on YouTube featuring Part 3 of a far ranging trio of interviews with John O’Donnell, the former Managing Director of Central Park Media (CPM).

O’Donnell is one of the founding fathers of the North American anime industry. His company, Central Park Media (CPM), was among the first to license, dub and distribute anime home media for domestic audiences.

The Anime Business Episode 13 is available now on the official AnimEigo YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/@AnimEigo/videos

Viewers are also invited to stream the first two interview segments with O’Donnell:

Interview Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmw3SlXL_mI&t=1745s
Interview Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf11HmK6jZ4&t=39s

In the concluding installment, O’Donnell reminiscences on the variety of major changes that took place in the early to mid-2000s that began to impact the market and wider industry. By this time, several companies were well established in North America that included ADV, Manga Entertainment, and Pioneer / Geneon, in addition to Central Park Media. During this era, he notes that licensing fees varied widely as well as the types of titles being distributed. “Tier 1” titles often sold upward of 100,000 units but were massively expensive to license. “Tier 2” titles were not as well-known but were cheaper to acquire but were very profitable for CPM with smaller production runs.

O’Donnell also recalls how cash flow influenced every business decision. Anime and manga initially began with humble retail roots, being stocked primarily by small and independent stores. By the early 2000s, major chains like Musicland, Suncoast Video, TransWorld and Boaders dominated the retail space. At one point, Musicland accounted for 30% of Central Park Media’s anime sales. O’Donnell recalls the constant challenge of maintaining revenue for payroll and operating expenses as he navigated national retailers that would regularly delay payments and give excuses, which caused often created a myriad of issues for CPM’s cash flow.

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, many of these retailers folded and eventually also led to the closure of CPM later that year. Other notable anime companies such as ADV, Manga Entertainment and Pioneer also folded. But O’Donnell looks back on the undeniable impact he had on popularizing and commercializing anime, the brand he created, and the strong reputation Central Park Media still retains among both fans and fellow industry players.

The Anime Business is a first-of-its-kind series featuring a wide range of entrepreneurs and visionaries that helped to pioneer and shape the North American anime and manga industries. It is produced and hosted by industry veteran and MediaOCD founder and AnimEigo CEO Justin Sevakis. Episodes 1-12 of The Anime Business and bonus clips are also now available to stream on the AnimeEigo YouTube channel.

All episodes of The Anime Business are available in English. Japanese subtitles are also available via a special grant from the Kleckner Foundation. Additional episodes and interviews are currently in production.  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

About AnimEigo:

AnimEigo is a division of MediaOCD and was founded in 1989 as one the first distributors to focus on anime and an array of acclaimed Japanese live-action films in the United States and Canada. Over the last 35 years, AnimEigo consistently broadened the market for Japanese content by cultivating audiences for new genres of film. 

Renowned for high quality translations, subtitles, and dubbing, AnimEigo has released a wide variety of classic anime titles. For more information, please visit: mediaocd.com.

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The contents of this post was provided by Erik Jansen of Media Lab Public Relations.