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Japan's Lotus Opens Anime/Manga Rights Portal
posted on by Mikhail Koulikov
Tokyo-based Lotus Inc. has launched KatanaXTreme, a portal that allows Japanese entertainment companies to show trailers and other information about anime, manga, and films that are available for licensing directly to interested American and European partners. Lotus will also offer various value-added services, such as researching the rights status and ownership of any Japanese entertainment content, and sales consulting. According to Lotus president Hiroshi Koizumi, it will serve to bring together information about anime, manga, and Japanese films that is scattered around in many different sources, thus making it easier for potential partners to acquire foreign distribution and remake rights.
Lotus also has offices in Los Angeles, California and Rome, Italy. For the KatanaXTreme project, it has partnered with Comic Book Movies, the rights management company founded by Michael Uslan, executive director of the first four Batman films. Other American partners include international film distributor Capitol Films and movie production company Harbor Light Entertainment. On the Japanese side, studios that are planning to exhibit their properties via KatanaXTreme include Production I.G, AIC, Tsuburaya Dream Factory, and Tatsunoko Production.
Source: Variety Asia
