Kiseki Films
Encyclopedia
Kiseki Films was an Anime
licensing and distributing anime created in 1993, and tried to capitalize on Manga Entertainment
's success of marketing and distributing anime in the UK and Australia
. In 2002, they were bought over by UK Adult interest video company Revelation Redemption Films, and then ceased operations.
, Pioneer UK, Western Connection and US Renditions complained about their versions of anime on VHS were being copied and then sold in Australia with the Kiseki label, without purchasing the licenses and paying the companies royalties. After being taken to court, they were found guilty. They were forced to pay the above companies damage and lost profit, later eventuating to them closing, as license holders in the UK and USA favoured Madman Entertainment
.
Kiseki, as well as Manga Entertainment
was no stranger to making headlines in major newspapers and television news programs in Australia in the early to mid '90s as many of the anime titles released were violent and contained profanity and many sex scenes. A few of their titles were censored or banned by the Australian Government's Classification Board, as board members and much of the public were used to American or UK animated cartoons.
Some of the anime released in Australia and UK are below:
The Anime UK news DVD schedule states that 2 Gunbuster
DVDs are going to be published by Kiseki Films. It is still unclear if this is a rumor or Kiseki is making a comeback in the UK.
Some suspect that the company's Australian division copied most of the tapes marked AU Exc. from various NTSC
and PAL
VHS
sources. For example: Ranma 1/2 tapes are most likely to have been duplicates of the 1994 US Viz Video VHS tapes, Babel II a rip of the UK E2/Labyrinth Video VHS, and Tenchi Muyo, from the 1994 Pioneer UK releases.
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
licensing and distributing anime created in 1993, and tried to capitalize on Manga Entertainment
Manga Entertainment
Manga Entertainment is a producer, licensor and distributor of Japanese animation in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand...
's success of marketing and distributing anime in the UK and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. In 2002, they were bought over by UK Adult interest video company Revelation Redemption Films, and then ceased operations.
Kiseki Films Australia
The Australian branch of Kiseki was established in 1994 and closed in 1999. Before the closure, Kiseki Films Australia's distributor, BPS Video Services were pressured by the Australian Government to cut ties with them due to dodgy practices. BPS Video Services were accused of using second hand VHS tapes. These tapes, especially the ones that Kiseki Films Australia bootlegged from American and other UK licensors had other recordings at the end of the feature. Kiseki Films Australia were investigated by the Australian Federal Police after anime license holders in the UK and the USA, notably Viz MediaVIZ Media
VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...
, Pioneer UK, Western Connection and US Renditions complained about their versions of anime on VHS were being copied and then sold in Australia with the Kiseki label, without purchasing the licenses and paying the companies royalties. After being taken to court, they were found guilty. They were forced to pay the above companies damage and lost profit, later eventuating to them closing, as license holders in the UK and USA favoured Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes international films as well as Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by Funtastic Limited and is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia. It employs 130 people and has an annual...
.
Kiseki, as well as Manga Entertainment
Manga Entertainment
Manga Entertainment is a producer, licensor and distributor of Japanese animation in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand...
was no stranger to making headlines in major newspapers and television news programs in Australia in the early to mid '90s as many of the anime titles released were violent and contained profanity and many sex scenes. A few of their titles were censored or banned by the Australian Government's Classification Board, as board members and much of the public were used to American or UK animated cartoons.
Some of the anime released in Australia and UK are below:
- Battle SkipperBattle Skipperis a Japanese direct-to-video animated series based on the small toy mecha action figures by Tomy. The series was released in the US by Central Park Media-Plot:The OVA focuses mostly on the girls of St Ignacio's School for girls than the mecha itself...
- RobotechRobotechRobotech is an 85-episode science fiction anime adaptation produced by Harmony Gold USA in association with Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd. and first released in the United States in 1985...
- Urotsukidoji III: Return of the Overfiend
- Urotsukidoji IV: Infernal Road
- Adventure Duo
- Armitage IIIArmitage IIIis a 1995 cyberpunk anime series centred around Naomi Armitage, a highly advanced "Type-III" android.The series began with the four-part original video animation Armitage III and spawned two movies. The first film is a shortened version of the OVA entitled , redubbed in English and it is presented...
AU Exclusive - Rip of UK Pioneer VHS - Macross: Do You Remember Love?
- Macross: Do You Remember Love?
- MD GeistMD Geistis an anime and manga about a post-apocalyptic world. The series is extremely violent, often depicting graphic scenes of human dismemberment and evisceration....
- Robot CarnivalRobot Carnivalis a Japanese anime anthology film released in 1987. It consists of nine shorts by different directors, many of whom started out as animators with little to no directing experience...
AU Exclusive - Rip of UK Anime Projects VHS - Star BlazersStar BlazersStar Blazers is an American animated television series adaptation of the Japanese anime series, . Star Blazers was first broadcast in the United States in 1979. Significantly, it was the first popular English-translated anime that had an over-arching plot and storyline that required the episodes to...
- Ranma 1/2 AU Exclusive - Rip of US Viz Video VHS
- Plastic LittlePlastic Littleis an anime created by Satoshi Urushihara. It was published in Japan as a one-shot OVA. The anime motion picture was first released in North America on VHS by ADV Films, in 2001 ADV announced that the anime would be released on to DVD on February 5, 2002...
- YamatoSpace Battleship Yamatois a Japanese science fiction anime series featuring an eponymous spacecraft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato; an English-dubbed and heavily edited version of the series was broadcast on North American and Australian television as Star Blazers...
- Samurai Showdown AU Exclusive - Rip of US AD Vision VHS
- Tenchi Muyo AU Exclusive
- SlayersSlayersis a series of over 52 light novels written by Hajime Kanzaka and illustrated by Rui Araizumi. It was later developed into several manga titles, five televised anime series, two three-episode original video animations , and five movies. It also spawned several console role-playing games for the...
AU Exclusive - Record of Lodoss WarRecord of Lodoss Waris a franchise of fantasy novels by Ryo Mizuno based around the work he originally created for a world called Forcelia for role-playing games . There have since been multiple manga, anime and computer game adaptations, several of which have been translated into English...
AU Exclusive - Twilight of the CockroachesTwilight of the Cockroachesis a 1987 anime/live-action film written and directed by Hiroaki Yoshida that combines live-action footage with animation. The plot concerns a society of cockroaches who live peacefully in the apartment of a bachelor named Seito until a woman moves in and the humans begin to exterminate the...
AU Exclusive - - Macross II
- The GigoloThe GigoloThe Gigolo is an album by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan released on the Blue Note label. It was recorded on June 25 & July 1, 1965 and features performances by Morgan with a quintet featuring Wayne Shorter, Harold Mabern, Bob Cranshaw and Billy Higgins....
- MoldiverMoldiveris a 6-episode 1993 OVA anime series. It is a parody of magical girl and superhero anime series.-Plot:The plot focuses on a young girl by the name of Mirai Ozora, living in Tokyo in the year 2045...
AU Exclusive - Rip of UK Pioneer VHS - Fatal Fury AU Exclusive - Rip of US Viz Video VHS
- Big WarsBig Warsis a 1993 Japanese anime film. Set in the dawning of the 21st century, the earth has undergone changes and technology improved in leaps and bounds, with mankind now colonizing Mars. However, unknown to mankind, there is an ancient race of aliens known as 'The Gods' which have been patiently...
- Babel IIBabel IIis a 1971 manga series by Mitsuteru Yokoyama.Yokoyama's manga has been animated three times: in 1973 as a television series, in 1992 as an original video animation series, and in 2001 as a 13 episode television series....
AU Exclusive - Rip of UK Labyrinth Video VHS - Casshan: Robot Hunter AU Exclusive
- The CockpitThe Cockpit (film)is a World War II anthology film based on Leiji Matsumoto's Battlefield manga. The animated shorts are written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takashi Imanishi and Ryousuke Takahashi....
- El Hazard AU Exclusive - Rip of UK Pioneer VHS
- Final FantasyFinal Fantasyis a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
- The Hakkenden: Legend of the Dog Warriors
The Anime UK news DVD schedule states that 2 Gunbuster
Gunbuster
Gunbuster, known in Japan as is a six episode anime OVA series created by Gainax in 1988. It was the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, best known as the director of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The title is a combination of the titles of classic tennis anime Aim for the Ace!, whose plot inspired...
DVDs are going to be published by Kiseki Films. It is still unclear if this is a rumor or Kiseki is making a comeback in the UK.
Some suspect that the company's Australian division copied most of the tapes marked AU Exc. from various NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
and PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
sources. For example: Ranma 1/2 tapes are most likely to have been duplicates of the 1994 US Viz Video VHS tapes, Babel II a rip of the UK E2/Labyrinth Video VHS, and Tenchi Muyo, from the 1994 Pioneer UK releases.