ICv2 Anime Awards: Inuyasha Anime Property of 2004 and other Adult Swim News.

[Tienshin]

ICv2 or the Internal Correspondence version 2 released their 2004 Anime Awards and several Adult Swim properties were featured prominently, including Inuyasha their 2004 Anime Property of the Year. In another category Adult Swim, Anime Unleashed, and Toonami combined to win their Anime Phenomenon of 2004. And finally, Bandai Entertainment powered by several Adult Swim Properties took home the Top Anime Company of 2004.

Top Anime Company of the Year -- Bandai Entertainment

…Starting with the goth-tinged Witch Hunter Robin series, which had new volumes releasing in 2003 and 2004 Bandai made serious inroads in the mass market, which it continued to exploit in 2004 with the release of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (co-produced with Manga Entertainment), Wolf's Rain and Gundam Seed.

Bandai was able to obtain great exposure for these titles on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and weekend anime blocks. Part of the reason that there was no breakout mass market anime hit in 2004 was the Cartoon Network's decision to shift its late afternoon Toonami block to Saturday nights (reportedly because the audience for anime was skewing too old for key late afternoon Cartoon Network advertisers). But Bandai's titles, particularly Ghost in the Shell: SAC and Wolf's Rain have a strong appeal to the growing teen and older anime audience, and managed to sell well both in mass market and independent and on-line outlets.

Anime Property of the Year – Inuyasha

This was another very tough call but Inuyasha, buoyed by a near constant presence on Adult Swim, managed to make a major impression on the market both in its regular releases (some 19 volumes of the anime series have now been released) and in the performance of the first Inuyasha feature length film, Inuyasha: Affections Touching Across Time. Affections Touching Across Time was released late in 2004, but still managed to make it to the number 3 position on the VideoScan 2004 anime chart, while also doing well with the independents.

Anime Phenomenon of 2004 -- Anime Goes Late Night

The Cartoon Network remains one of key anime venues in the U.S., but it is the Network's Toonami block, which currently airs on Saturday nights and especially the late night Adult Swim block that are the key TV sales drivers for anime. Inuyasha, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf's Rain, .hack//SIGN, Full Metal Alchemist and Case Closed have all benefited from late night exposure on the Cartoon Network.

Another key late night anime venue is Anime Unleashed, begun by Tech TV and continued on the G4 video game-oriented network that acquired Tech TV. G4 has a built-in tech-savvy, teen-and-older audience that is a great fit for anime. In 2004 Anime Unleashed really hit its stride with a number of hot series (primarily from Geneon) including Last Exile, Gungrave, Read or Die the TV, and Gad Guard.

Full Article Here

[RedTail]

Wait? How does Bandai win company of the year? They had a less than spectacular year considering how many titles they botched... And IY wins an award, horray...

[Rabi~en~Rose]

WHR had mass appeal? I am a little upset with Bandai the .hack//lott dvds so really ADV would be a better choice for company of the year

[herbkir]

ICv2's selections were based on which companies/shows had the greatest overall impact on retail channels in terms of moving anime DVDs and other merchandise, either by direct sales of product or by sparking consumer interest in purchasing anime-related goods. Since they are a news service for retailers, "good" in their context is anything that encourages sales of merchandise. And they said some of their choices represented very close calls. (^_*)

[Zyzzybalubah]

I think Funimation deserves it, IMO. Case Closed and Fullmetal Alchemist were huge winners in my book.

As for InuYasha, um I guess I would just be a little biased if I went on.

[Tienshin]

I think Funimation deserves it, IMO. Case Closed and Fullmetal Alchemist were huge winners in my book.

As for InuYasha, um I guess I would just be a little biased if I went on.

Actually Funimation was company of the year in 2003, though I have to imagine they were pretty close in the the 2004 tabulations as well.

[Sketch]

FUNi should get this years or next years because they just keep getting better. But if Geneon gets their act together they could very well deserve this years award.

Blaming Toonami's move for their being no break out anime for youth this year... Bandai needs to deal with the fact that Gundam SEED shouldn't have been marketed to kids in America. Should have gone with Gundam X... It's a simple as that.

[Artimus Gigan]

WHR mentioned

*masses*

YAY

/masses

Fairly agreeable list I'd have to say

[Duke]

Nice to see Toonami get a mention, even if no actual Toonami shows (unless you count .hack//SIGN) were mentioned.

I wouldn't say FUNi was the company of the year. Next year, with all their upcoming DVD releases, should easily get them the award, but this year didn't have many big-title releases (other than some Dragonball stuff, the Fruits Basket Boxset, and CC's first release). FUNi's gonna have a huge 2005, I just know it.

I'm willing to bet Bandai won on SEED & GitS alone, since those two are some of the bigger anime titles right now.