Anime on the PlayStation Portable

PSP: Acronym for PlayStation Portable, a next-generation transportable media channel and instrument, which is capable of playing back video games, music, movies, as well as being usable for digital photography. UMD: Acronym for Universal Media Disc, a miniature disc, which is capable of holding feature-length films with high-level audio and video quality. Anime: A style of animation developed in Japan.

It is with this knowledge that: skillfully combining the three aforementioned technologies or approaches to mass-market communication or entertainment, various western Japanese animation production and distribution companies have found themselves at an interesting crossroad. While the greater corporate world may be on the verge of deciding upon the next generation type of home video disc release, in the nearer future comes the expectations various individuals have for the compact PlayStation gaming system and the mini discs that are associated with it.

The majority of the largest western production and distribution companies are seriously considering releasing a variety of their anime titles on this PlayStation platform, opening up their widely diverse catalogue of action, adventure, and drama titles to audiences across the country. Considering that the anime convention season is officially underway, animation fans should expect to see some legitimate and formal addresses to the issue as to whether or not certain companies are, or very will soon are, willing to place their products on the PlayStation Portable.

A.D. Vision, Inc.:

Company Website: www.advfilms.com

As early as the Sakura-Con 2005 anime convention, anime distribution giant A.D. Vision, Inc. publicly addressed whether or not they were heavily considering an investment in the PSP system, however subliminally. While acknowledging that the PSP is has been somewhat popular after its initial stateside release, the company has mentioned that they are taking the traditional wait-and-see approach. That is to say, as based on the assumption that such media quotes are accurate; to wait and find out as to just how marketable the PSP becomes, and to wait and find out whether or not people are actually buying out different media formats for this [primarily] gaming system. Having been contacted by Sony directly, ADV is definitely a company with the ability to make such a transition/addition of DVD and UMD; however, what with the Video on Demand success of The Anime Network, and the continual workings with the linear cable channel for said network, many industry specialists are considering that ADVs present reluctance is due to their lack of any viable need for the PSP platform.

Additionally, the ADV Films branch of the company has noted that such agreements with Sony to distribute their titles via the PSP system would more often than not require the licensing of additional programming materials. And while ADV Films may be the largest and most influential anime production and distribution company in the west, they are still very in-the-trenches business savvy; as with the average series license running anywhere in-between one and three and a half million dollars, the purchasing costs alone (less the marketing and distribution numbers) are enough to make one or two executives wary of such heady investments as one would make with the PlayStation Portable. This to which, is nevertheless dependent upon the initial strength that the mass-market backbone the PSP evolves as; and as a result, whether or not A.D. Vision, Inc. jumps onto the PSP bandwagon, has yet to be seen.