Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Creator / Media Blasters

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/media_blasters.png

Media Blasters is an American producer, localizer, and distributor of genre media such as anime, manga, Japanese live-action and toku, and horror films (along with the occasional Western animation) based in New York City. It was founded by ex-CPM employee John Sirabella and Sam Liebowitz in 1997.

As far as the anime/manga market is concerned, despite managing to license several cash-cow series (Voltron/GoLion, Rurouni Kenshin, Ah! My Goddess, Bible Black), Media Blasters generally focused on more obscure series and never tried to expand as far as its competitors. (Meaning they didn't overextend themselves as much.)

Media Blasters have used several labels for its releases:

  • Anime Works — anime and manga.
  • Kitty Media — Hentai. Has a tendency to use Parallel Porn Titles.
  • Tokyo Shock — Japanese live-action, including Toku.
  • Shriek Show — Obscure horror and exploitation.
  • Guilty Pleasures — So Bad, It's Good B-movies.

After the anime crash of 2008, they weren't doing too well. On January 10, 2012, it announced it was going freelance and had already laid off 60% of its employees, leaving the actual body of the company comprised of five or six people. A few years afterward, the company also announced their DVDs would now be manufactured on an on-demand DVD-R format (though their Blu-rays will remain commercially pressed). Now surviving mostly on legacy titles and heavily relying upon their hentai releases, post-2008 and particularly after 2012 it became a running theme in anime circles for people to predict that the company would announce its closure "next month". To this day, however, the company is still around, albeit releasing titles at a very, very slow frequency. For the longest time, hentai titles were basically the only thing the company was releasing, as the licenses to most of their non-hentai titles have either expired or been sat on.

However, starting in 2020, things have been changing for the better. In August, the company launched a new Twitter account and teased a number of upcoming releases (which were not entirely just hentai). These include re-releases of some older back content, and more acquisitions and re-releases of non-anime films, including the revival of the Guilty Pleasures label, as well as a greater emphasis on "hidden gem" titles. The company has also moved away from the DVD-R system and returned to professionally pressing their discs, though they've also taken a page from Sentai Filmworks and Discotek Media's books and moved away from DVD entirely in favor of Blu-ray. While they've still got ways to go, the revitalization of Media Blasters has been seen as a welcome surprise, especially considering this move was happening concurrently to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Works released by this company include:

Tropes featured with Media Blasters:

  • Fanservice: Many of their titles feature this. Their Kitty Media label brings this up to eleven, as that label mainly focuses on hentai.

Alternative Title(s): Anime Works, Kitty Media

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top