
Discotek Media (also known as Eastern Star) is an entertainment corporation in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing Japanese anime and live-action movies, adult anime, independent movies, and television series to home-video in the North American market. Despite being formed in 2005, they didn't become active in the anime business until around 2008 (their early output consisted mostly of samurai films with a couple of old Toei anime movies thrown into the mix). The crash of the North American anime industry in the late 2000'snote probably aided the rise of Discotek – with other major distributors going out of business, drastically cutting back, or at least not renewing obscure vintage titles, this left the small startup Discotek free to carve out its own niche.
Since then, they have become quite well known for licensing a lot of vintage anime from the 1970s to the 1990s, along with re-releasing titles whose original licenses have lapsed, and also occasionally licensing more recent series. They are also known for being the current champions of the Lupin III franchise in North America.
Since they're a small company without a lot of resources, their policy originally was to never commission English dubs themselves, though they'll gladly use a preexisting dub if one exists and they can get it. Fans don't seem to care too much since their other policy is to release their titles completely uncutnote and to use the highest-quality materials they can get their hands on. Basically, any announcement they make will cause underserved parts of the anime fandom to rejoice. In 2015, Discotek commissioned their first English dub; the Lupin III film, Gravestone of Daisuke Jigen.
They also announced a partnership with streaming site Crunchyroll to release a few select titles from Crunchyroll's catalogue for home video. In return, some titles from Discotek's catalogue became available on Crunchyroll for streaming. They also have deals with Retro Crush, a streaming service dedicated to older anime.
They have a YouTube channel where they upload trailers for their upcoming releases.
Compare The Criterion Collection, which fills a similar niche in film distribution, complete with noticeably high but still reasonable price tags, Shout! Factory, who is also known for rescuing obscure television shows (though Discotek focuses more on anime), and Rhino, which fills a similar niche in music.
Titles licensed by this company include:
- 07-Ghost
- 5 Centimeters per Second † note
- 8th Man After
- A Journey Through Fairyland
- A Thousand & One Nights
- Actually, I Am...
- Aho Girl
- Aim for the Ace! ('73 TV series, the movie, and the first OVA series)
- All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
- Amazing Nuts!
- Animal Treasure Island
- Angel Copnote
- Angel's 3Piece!
- Another (the live-action film)
- Appleseed (OVA)
- Area 88
- Arion
- Arpeggio of Blue Steel
- As Miss Beelzebub Likes
- Astro Boy ('80s TV series)
- Astroganger
- Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales
- Babel II (OVA)
- Bakuten Shoot Beyblade (all three seasons)
- Bananya (2nd original English dub)
- Barefoot Gen
- Battery
- Battle Athletes
- Beast Fighter: The Apocalypse
- Beelzebub
- Bela: Humanoid Monster
- Belladonna of Sadness
- Black God
- Black★Rock Shooter (TV series only. No word on the OVAs)
- Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan
- Blue Comet SPT Layzner
- Blue Submarine No. 6
- Blue Seed
- Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
- Bokurano
- Boys Before Flowers
- Braiger note
- Galactic Gale Baxingar
- Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger
- The Bullet Train (1975)
- Captain Harlock (70's TV series)
- Arcadia of My Youth (movie)
- Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX (TV series)
- Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie
- Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie 2
- Case Closed (so far several movies and the Episode One specials that TMS dubbed with Bang Zoom! Entertainment)note
- Episode One (TV special)
- Sunflowers of Inferno (movie 19)
- The Darkest Nightmare (movie 20)
- The Crimson Love Letter (movie 21)
- Zero The Enforcer (movie 22)
- The Fist of Blue Sapphire (movie 23)
- Casshan: Robot Hunter
- Cat's Eye
- CB Chara Go Nagai World
- Ceres, Celestial Legend
- Chargeman Ken!note
- Chie the Brat (1981 series)
- Chi's Sweet Home
- Cinderella Boy
- City Hunter (all four TV series, as well as its TV specials, OVAs and movies)
- Cleopatra
- Comic Party
- Cromartie High School
- Crusher Joe
- Crying Freeman
- Cutey Honey
- New Cutey Honey
- Re: Cutie Honey
- Cutie Honey: THE LIVE
- Cyber City Oedo 808
- Cyborg 009 (2001 series)
- Cybersix
- Dai-Guard
- Dancouga
- Dallos
- Dear Brother
- DearS
- Demon City Shinjuku
- Demon Lord Dante
- Descendants of Darkness
- Devilman (both the 70's anime and the 80's OVA)
- Digimon
- Digimon Adventure (Digimon: Digital Monsters Season 1 in English)
- Digimon Adventure 02 (Digimon: Digital Monsters Season 2 in English)
- Digimon: The Movienote
- Dinosaur King
- DNA²
- D.N.Angelnote
- Doctor Slump (movies 1-5)
- Dororo (1969 anime)
- Double Dragon (1993)
- Dragon Half
- Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
- Earl and Fairy (home video rights only; Sentai Filmworks has the digital rights)
- Eat-Man
- Eat-Man '98
- Elemental Gelade
- Extreme Dinosaurs
- Fair, then Partly Piggy (movie)
- Fatal Frame
- Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf
- Fighting Foodons
- Fist of the North Star (the original TV series and movie, plus the Legends of the True Savior film/OVA series)
- Flame of Recca
- The Flying Phantom Ship
- Free!: Iwatobi Swim Club (initially) • ‡
- Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress
- Fushigi Yuugi (streaming rights only; Media Blasters has the home video rights)
- Futakoi
- Galaxy Express 999 (the movies and series)note
- Gaiking (TV series)
- GaoGaiGar
- GaoGaiGar FINAL (the OVA version; the edited TV version was unavailable)
- Galilei Donna
- Genocyber
- Georgie!
- Getter Robo:
- Getter Robo Armageddon
- Shin Getter Robo Vs. Neo Getter Robo
- New Getter Robo
- Ghost Stories
- Giant Gorg
- Giant Robo
- Gin Rei
- Girly Air Force
- God Mars
- Goku: Midnight Eye
- Gokudō
- Golden Boy
- GoShogun
- Golgo 13 (the Golgo 13: The Professional anime series, plus the original live-action film)
- The Great Passage
- Great Teacher Onizuka
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics
- GunBuster
- DieBuster (released under the title Gunbuster 2)
- Hajime no Ippo (first series)
- Hand Maid May
- Hanasakeru Seishounen
- Haruka Nogizaka's Secret
- Hell's Angels (the movie, 3rd original English dub and a collaboration with Team Four Star)
- Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls
- Honey and Clover
- Horus: Prince of the Sun
- Hurricane Polymar (live-action film)
- IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix
- Inukami!
- ItaKiss
- IRIA: Zeiram the Animation
- Izumo: Flash of a Brave Sword
- Jeans Blues No Future
- Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
- Kaiba
- Kaitou Saint Tail
- Kamen Rider BLACK
- Kamikaze Girls
- Karate Master
- Kekkaishi
- Kemono Friends (fourth original English dub and the first English dub done with Sound Cadence Studios).
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple (rescued from Funimation)
- Key the Metal Idol
- Kimba the White Lion (1997 movie only; TV series licensed by Nozomi Entertainment)
- Kimagure Orange Road
- Kiss x Sis OVA
- Kodocha (and this time we have the whole thing note , and to further sweeten the deal, all the music rights have been cleared, thus freeing it from the issues that plagued Funimation's release)
- Koi Koi 7
- KonoSuba
- Kyo Kara Maoh!
- Kyousogiga
- Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion
- The Law of Ueki
- The Legend of Black Heaven
- The Legend of Calamity Jane
- Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds (sadly, the KTMA-era Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode isn't included)
- Library War
- Like the Clouds, Like the Wind
- Lily C.A.T.
- The Little Mermaid
- Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
- Locke the Superman (license expired, now licensed by Sentai Filmworks)
- Love Hina Again
- Lovely★Complex
- Lupin III
- Lupin III <Pilot Film>note
- Lupin III: Part 1
- Strange Psychokinetic Strategy (live-action)
- Lupin III: Part II note
- The Mystery of Mamo (with all four English dubs!)
- The Castle of Cagliostro note
- Lupin III: Part III
- Legend of the Gold of Babylonnote
- The Fuma Conspiracynote
- Lupin III: Bye-Bye Liberty Crisis!
- Lupin III: Mystery of the Hemingway Papers
- Lupin III: Steal Napoleon's Dictionary
- Lupin III: From Siberia With Love
- Lupin III: Voyage to Danger
- Lupin III: Dragon of Doom
- Lupin III Farewell To Nostradamus
- Lupin III: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure
- Lupin III: The Secret of Twilight Gemini
- Lupin III: Dead or Alive
- Lupin III: Island of Assassins
- Lupin III: Crisis in Tokyo
- Lupin III: The Columbus Files
- Lupin III: Missed by a Dollar
- Lupin III: Alcatraz Connection
- Return of the Magician
- Lupin III: Episode 0: First Contact
- Lupin III: Operation: Return the Treasure
- Lupin III: Stolen Lupin
- Lupin III: Angel Tactics
- Lupin III: Seven Days Rhapsody
- Lupin III Elusiveness Of The Fog
- Lupin III Sweet Lost Night
- Green vs. Red
- Lupin III vs. Detective Conan
- Lupin III: The Last Job
- Lupin III: Blood Seal ~Eternal Mermaid~
- Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine
- Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: The Movie
- Gravestone of Daisuke Jigen note
- Lupin III: The Italian Adventure note
- Goemon Ishikawa's Spray of Blood
- Lupin III: Part 5
- Lupin III: Is Lupin Still Burning? note
- Lupin III: Goodbye Partner
- Fujiko Mine's Lie
- Lupin III: Prison of the Past
- Lyrical Nanoha
- Machine Robo (Revenge of Cronos, Battle Hackers, and the Leina OVAs)
- Mad Bull 34 note
- Magic Knight Rayearth
- Magical Canan
- Mahoraba
- Makyou Densetsu Acrobunch note
- Manabi Straight!
- Marmalade Boy (both the TV series & the movie)
- Mazinger Z
- Great Mazinger
- God Mazinger
- Mazinkaiser vs. The Great General of Darkness
- Medabots note
- Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)
- Memories
- Mighty Space Miners
- Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles
- Miss Machiko
- Mitchiri Neko
- Mon Colle Knights note
- Mononoke
- Monster Rancher
- Mrs Pepperpot
- Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood
- Nagasarete Airantou
- New Hurricane Polymar
- NG Knight Lamune & 40
- NG Knight Lamune & 40 EX
- NG Knight Lamune & 40 DX
- VS Knight Lamune & 40 FIRE
- VS Knight Lamune & 40 FRESH
- Niea_7
- Night on the Galactic Railroad
- Night Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge
- Nightwalker
- Ninja Senshi Tobikage
- Nutcracker Fantasy
- Nyanbo!
- Osomatsu-kun (1988 series)
- Overman King Gainer
- Panda! Go Panda! note
- Photon
- Pilot Candidate
- Planet With
- The Princess and the Pilot
- Project A-Ko
- Plus Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group, Cinderella Rhapsody, and Final - but NOT Grey Side/Blue Side. The company who owns it is different from the other four and no longer exists.
- Project ARMS
- Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin
- Reborn! (2004)
- Recently, My Sister Is Unusual (the TV series and the live-action movie)
- Requiem from the Darkness
- Ringing Bell
- Robot Carnival
- Robot Romance Trilogy
- Ronin Warriors
- The Rose of Versailles note
- Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs
- Saint Seiya (movies only, TV series streaming on Netflix with a dub by Sentai Filmworks)
- Saint Seiya: Evil Goddess Iris
- Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods
- Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth
- Saint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle
- Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas
- Samurai Pizza Cats note
- School Days
- Scryed
- The Sea Prince and the Fire Child
- Sgt. Frog note
- Shaman King note
- Sherlock Hound
- Shin Mazinger note
- Shining Tears X Wind
- Shoguns Samurai
- Sister Princess
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic Origins note
- Sonic X note
- Soul Hunter
- Sorcerer Hunters
- Space Adventure Cobra (1982 animated film, later rescue licensed the TV series after Nozomi Entertainment's license expired)
- Space Sheriff Gavan
- Space Warrior Baldios
- Star Fleet
- Stellvia of the Universe
- Street Fighternote
- Street Sharks
- Strike the Blood
- Submarine Super 99
- Suicide Club
- Super Dimension Century Orguss
- Swan Lake
- Symphogear
- Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters
- Taro the Dragon Boynote
- Tales Series
- Tales of Phantasia
- Tales of Symphonia: The Animation
- Tekkaman Blade II
- Tenjho Tenge
- Tetsujin 28 (both the 1980 & 2004 versions, as well as the 2007 movie and the FX sequel series)
- Thermae Romae
- To Be Hero and To Be Heroine
- Tokyo Underground
- Tomorrow's Joe (compilation movie)
- Tomorrow's Joe 2 (compilation movie)
- Toriko the Movie: Secret Recipe of Gourmet God (first half of the TV series licensed by Funimation)
- Treasure Island (the Osamu Dezaki-directed anime series)
- True Tears
- Twilight of the Cockroaches
- The Twelve Kingdoms
- Ultimate Muscle (4Kids dubbed version)
- Ultra Maniac
- Unico
- Urusei Yatsura (the entire classic TV series, plus all six films)
- Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
- Venus Wars (license expired, now licensed by Sentai Filmworks)
- Violence Jack
- Virtua Fighter (complete series, first 24 episodes previously licensed by Media Blasters)
- Wicked City
- Wild 7: Another
- A Wind Named Amnesia
- The Wonderful Adventures of Nils
- The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots
- Puss 'N Boots Travels Around the World
- You Are Umasou
- Yowamushi Pedal
- Zatch Bell! (distributed the movies; the series was formerly licensed by Viz Media, well until things happened anywaynote and the short lived dub of the series was later released on DVD by Cinedigm in 2013, but Cinedigm's DVD release is now out of print)
- Zombie Loan
- ZX Ignition
Tropes relating to Discotek Media:
- Adored by the Network: The entire Lupin III franchise is pretty much this for them, especially considering that they do a lot of license rescues for titles that have otherwise never been officially released in the US.
- Bait-and-Switch: Done with the Project A-Ko released. They announced they were canceling their planned upscale of the original. Because they had found the long-thought-lost 35mm masters.
- Better Export for You: A lot of their releases that either had subpar upscales in Japan or were never released on blu-ray in Japan either get released in native HD or a better upscale by this company. Examples include Street Fighter II, where the US got an HD blu-ray release, while Japan's stuck with an out of print DVD release from many years ago in terms of physical media. Another example is Digimon, where Discotek upscaled the SD masters, which, while showing slightly less picture than Japan's own HD master, has its details MUCH less washed out and more pronounced.
- Bowdlerization:
- Invoked with their release of The Castle of Cagliostro, which includes a "Family Friendly" version of the Manga dub that removes all of the Obligatory Swearing present in the original Manga dub. This dub was created specifically for this release, and according to Reed Nelson, it's intended to bring the movie closer in tone to the original Japanese script and the Miyazaki movies released by Disney. However, the "fifteened" version is still there too.
- An example that was apparently unavoidable is their DVD release of Violence Jack. As pointed out on their website
, the release is uncut for the most part, but contains mosaic censoring over certain scenes in the second episode.
- Subverted with the upcoming (As of the time of writing) 2022 Blu-Ray release where it's been confirmed the series will be fully uncensored, sans the mosaic censoring, for the first time ever.
- An unintentional example. When they released Blue Submarine No. 6, unbeknownst to them, the English dub they included was the censored version used when the series aired on Toonami. Fortunately, they've re-released it with the uncensored dub in 2016.
- Subverted by their release of Angel Cop, which will be the first release to include uncensored English subtitles (along with the original censored subtitles by Manga Entertainment).
- Played straight with their home release of Fighting Foodons, in which only the dubbed version was released. The company that originally dubbed it, 4Kids Entertainment, is rather infamous for applying this trope to the many anime they dubbed. There is no word on when or if an uncut subtitled version of the original version, Kakutō Ryōri Densetsu Bistro Recipe note , will ever be released. (Keep in mind that the anime still has no available unofficial fansubs or even raws ripped from the Japanese VHSes either).
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: They're often an official version of this. A good number – probably a majority – of their acquisitions had, at some point in the past, been licensed by another company, but the properties then went into limbo for whatever reason (i.e. the license expired and/or the original company that held the US rights to the property went under). Sadly, however, even Discotek isn't safe from this, as most of their early anime and live-action movie licenses such as War in Space, Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy, and Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy have gone out of print. In some cases, such as the initial four-volume releases of the Fist of the North Star anime, this is because Discotek put out a more recent rerelease.
- We can add their release of D.N.Angel as well. Like The Fuma Conspiracy above, it was a series they rescued from this, only for it to go back some time later.
- Some other notable examples include their releases of Project A-Ko and Angel Cop, which for the longest time, both titles had botched or low-quality releasesnote .
- No Dub for You: Sort of. If there's no pre-existing English dub for a show or movie they plan on releasing, it almost definitely means they'll be putting it out sub-only. If there is a dub, odds are good they'll include it note . If there are Dueling Dubs, they might try to get all of them.
- Apparently, even the existence of a pre-existing dub is still no guarantee they'll include it, as their release of Dallos demonstrates (though to be fair, the dub for that series wasn't particularly good quality). To a lesser extent, there's their release of the Space Adventure Cobra movie, which includes the Streamline dub, but not the Manga dub due to copyright issues with the licensed music soundtrack.
- Averted with their release of Gravestone of Daisuke Jigen, which included a brand new English dub. Discotek would later follow this up with additional English dubs of other 2010's-era Lupin III productions, including Lupin III: The Italian Adventure. Discotek have since commissioned other dubs, including Hell's Angels and Kemono Friends. Many of those dubs were made courtesy of Sound Cadence Studios and Team Four Star.
- They were open for a possible dubbed home video re-release of the first season of Free! after the initial sub-only release. Crunchyroll, who licensed and dubbed the second season, would produce a dub of the first season with the Funimation cast from and include it on a rerelease of the first season.
- Possibly an inverted example is their DVD and SD Blu-Ray release of Sonic X, which only has the edited 4Kids English dub — and unlike with Samurai Pizza Cats and Monster Rancher, there are currently no plans for a separate release of the uncut version with subtitles. That's because 4Kids, when streaming the show subtitled on Hulu, did not provide TMS with the timed subtitle scripts. This means that a subtitled release (or even re-dubbed) would require a complete recreation of the subtitles from scratch, a feat that Discotek isn't sure is worth the time, effort, and cost.note The uncut subtitled version was eventually released in April 2023.
- Similarly to the Sonic X example, their re-release of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust only has the English dub with no Japanese track included. However, unlike Sonic X, the English dub was actually recorded first due to the movie being released in America and Australia over a year before Japan got it, making this a straight example.
- Their dedication to the Dub cause is evident with Ninja Robots, scouring archives for the dub, asking fans if they had copies and after exhausting all avenues and coming up with everything but a couple of minutes of audio, completed the dub themselves. Considering the "Mad Movie" like nature of Ninja Senshi Tobikage, this is probably the only series they could have gotten away with that move.
- There are movies that Discotek has mentioned that they would have liked to dub, such as Neo Heroic Fantasia Arion and You Are Umasou, but are unable to because the music and effects tracks, which are required to make dubs, are lost.
- No Export for You: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Fans had been asking for years that the Japanese audio be included on any re-release, but when Discotek requested it, they were denied, the original rights-holder stating that the Japanese track was not to leave Japan.
- Their main market is North America, the UK, West Europe and the Pacific. If you live outside of those regions, chances are any anime they release onto Crunchyroll will not be available to you.
- Pastiche: The box art
◊ for their DVD releases of the Fatal Fury TV specials and movie recreates the style of the package design
for the Neo-Geo home cartridges. Similarly, the box art
◊ for their release of the Mega Man cartoon imitates the style of the box art for the NES games
◊ (though without Bad Box Art Mega Man, for better or worse).
- Sequel First: They released Diebuster (even doing so with the name Gunbuster 2) several years before acquiring the license to the original Gunbuster. Discotek has also licensed Tekkaman Blade II, but has yet to license the first Tekkaman Blade.
- They released several Lupin III specials before they put out the original "Green Jacket" series. Had negotiations not fallen through, they would have released the third Lupin movie (Babylon) before the first (Mamo). But since this franchise runs on Negative Continuity, it's not too big a deal.
- However, the Case Closed crossovers, which do share continuity with each other, were also released out of order: the movie was released before the TV special, but in this case the switcheroo was due to the video for the latter being... rather messy
, so the movie wound up releasing first while the team went work fixing up the TV special.
- However, the Case Closed crossovers, which do share continuity with each other, were also released out of order: the movie was released before the TV special, but in this case the switcheroo was due to the video for the latter being... rather messy
- They released several Lupin III specials before they put out the original "Green Jacket" series. Had negotiations not fallen through, they would have released the third Lupin movie (Babylon) before the first (Mamo). But since this franchise runs on Negative Continuity, it's not too big a deal.
- Take That!: When asked if PDF files for Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo's subtitles would still need downloading, like in a previous release of the series, Discotek responded "We would never freaking do that."
- Vanilla Edition: Usually averted, as their releases tend to include at least one extra. The only time this was played straight was with their second release of Lupin III (Green Jacket), which was cheaper than the previous release, but included none of the rather extensive special features.
- The Blu Ray of the Green Jacket series has most of the extras restored, save for the pilot mentioned above.
- Their upcoming box sets of the original Urusei Yatsura TV series are also a very notable case where Discotek played this trope straight. While you'd think that a release of one of the most important anime of the 1980s would have to include some sort of bonus feature, especially given that their releases of the films generally averted this trope by at least including a trailer or two, the reason it applies to these sets in particular is because Discotek were explicitly not allowed to include any extras at all
.