"AIC, Toei Agency Sign Deal to Co-Own Megazone 23, Tenchi Muyo, etc"

[Kicksville]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-04-16/aic-toei-agency-sign-deal-to-co-own-megazone-23-tenchi-muyo-other-classic-anime/.171765

Anime production company AIC announced on Friday that it has concluded an agreement to transfer partial ownership of some of its existing copyrights to Toei Agency, with the two companies now sharing joint ownership. The intellectual properties that the two companies now share include the Megazone 23 franchise, Hades Project Zeorymer, Dangaioh, the Bubblegum Crisis franchise, the Gall Force franchise, and the Tenchi Muyo! franchise.


Both companies plan to develop new content for these properties, such as AIC's ongoing "Anime Reboot Projects" to celebrate AIC's 35th anniversary. Toei Agency will serve as the conduit for future business opportunities.

The Megazone 23 reboot project includes both Megazone 23 SIN — remaking both the Megazone 23 and Megazone 23 Part II original video anime — and the planned brand-new Megazone 23 XI sequel.

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki Dai-4-Ki (Fourth Season), the fourth original video anime (OVA) project, debuted in 2016 as the first entry in the OVA franchise in 11 years since the last episode of the third OVA project debuted in 2005. The fifth season of the anime is ongoing, with the fifth and latest episode debuting on home video on February 26, and the sixth episode debuting on May 28. AIC has been developing a sequel of the Pretty Sammy spinoff.

I wonder if this helps or hurts the chances of more happening.

[WarOmnimon]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-04-16/aic-toei-agency-sign-deal-to-co-own-megazone-23-tenchi-muyo-other-classic-anime/.171765

Anime production company AIC announced on Friday that it has concluded an agreement to transfer partial ownership of some of its existing copyrights to Toei Agency, with the two companies now sharing joint ownership. The intellectual properties that the two companies now share include the Megazone 23 franchise, Hades Project Zeorymer, Dangaioh, the Bubblegum Crisis franchise, the Gall Force franchise, and the Tenchi Muyo! franchise.


Both companies plan to develop new content for these properties, such as AIC's ongoing "Anime Reboot Projects" to celebrate AIC's 35th anniversary. Toei Agency will serve as the conduit for future business opportunities.

The Megazone 23 reboot project includes both Megazone 23 SIN — remaking both the Megazone 23 and Megazone 23 Part II original video anime — and the planned brand-new Megazone 23 XI sequel.

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki Dai-4-Ki (Fourth Season), the fourth original video anime (OVA) project, debuted in 2016 as the first entry in the OVA franchise in 11 years since the last episode of the third OVA project debuted in 2005. The fifth season of the anime is ongoing, with the fifth and latest episode debuting on home video on February 26, and the sixth episode debuting on May 28. AIC has been developing a sequel of the Pretty Sammy spinoff.

I wonder if this helps or hurts the chances of more happening.

The answer is "help". Toei is still very, very active with a large catalog of franchises. Pretty Cure, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider don't go on break at all (Every season for those is literally a new entry in their franchises), One Piece is still going, and they also have Dragon Ball, Digimon, and Sailor Moon, though those aren't "keep it going, keep it going" like the 3 I mentioned are (Digimon is going right now, Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon are not). This is definitely one way to counter AIC's financial trouble, and I'm for it all the way. Especially if it means that most of the stuff that AIC tried to crowdfund will finally get off the ground. Come to think of it, this may also make it easier for us to see these franchises in video games and so forth given how many of Toei's properties have appeared in video games (Super Robot Taisen definitely comes to mind as a possible video game series for at least some of these to show up in).

On the other hand, I also noticed that El Hazard is not mentioned in the co-ownership deal, which means that we may have to press F to pay respects there...

[Harls]

Oh, I think they're included.
Every title AIC controls: http://www.aic-r.com/contents/  (in JP)

Of interest here: All Tenchi Muyo! series, Pretty Sammy, Dual, Photon, Sekishi Monogatari, all El-Hazard series.

I expect we'll see alternate storylines ala the new Battle Athletes.

[Ryo-Okay]

You know AIC is in bad shape when this partnership with Toei means animation quality will likely improve. This is actually really good news though.

[Nonsuch Ned]

Ai Tenchi, and the OVAs are the only thing AIC has lead-produced since... 2014? This Battle Athletes series is mainly produced by Seven.

Anything could help.
I just imagined the current animation team trying to do an action oriented Geminar series *shudder*

[WarOmnimon]

You know AIC is in bad shape when this partnership with Toei means animation quality will likely improve. This is actually really good news though.

Agreed times infinity.

Oh, I think they're included.
Every title AIC controls: http://www.aic-r.com/contents/  (in JP)

Of interest here: All Tenchi Muyo! series, Pretty Sammy, Dual, Photon, Sekishi Monogatari, all El-Hazard series.

I expect we'll see alternate storylines ala the new Battle Athletes.

The thing there is...

Anime production company AIC announced on Friday that it has concluded an agreement to transfer partial ownership of some of its existing copyrights to Toei Agency, with the two companies now sharing joint ownership. The intellectual properties that the two companies now share include the Megazone 23 franchise, Hades Project Zeorymer, Dangaioh, the Bubblegum Crisis franchise, the Gall Force franchise, and the Tenchi Muyo! franchise.

Note the use of "some" rather than "all", hence why I bolded "some" in that quote. Anything not explicitly mentioned there still has a question mark over it, including El Hazard. This has to be considered because as Ned mentioned, the Battle Athletes sequel is in Seven's hands. However, given that the deal includes Tenchi and Dangaioh, it's safe to assume that it also includes at least Pretty Sammy, Dual, Photon, Seikishi Monogatari, and G Dangaioh, as those are part of Tenchi (Sammy, Dual, Photon, and Seikishi) and Dangaioh (G) to begin with.

For those wondering which franchises are in Harls's link but, as I put it, still have question marks over them as to if Toei co-owns them now or not, those would be, in ABC order...

•AD Police
•Battle Athletes (Given what I mentioned above, it's likely that Toei didn't get this one)
•Burn-Up (Excess and Scramble are specifically mentioned in Harls's link)
•Daimajuu Gekitou: Hagane no Oni
•Detonator Orgun
•El Hazard (Definitely the one we need clarification on the most)
•Fight! Iczer One
•Gakuen Tokusou Hikaruon
•Genocyber
•Iczer Reborn
•Moldiver
•Riding Bean
•Sousei Kishi Gaiarth
•Vampire Princess Miyu

^ TLDR We still need official clarification as to whether these are included in the deal or not. We cannot assume that they are or aren't until it is spoken on.

On another note. Given how good Toei is at promoting their own stuff and so forth, it's actually possible for us to get an anniversary logo for Tenchi Muyo!'s 30th anniversary next year now. We didn't even get that for the 20th and 25th. I know we got an anniversary logo for the 10th anniversary (It was used when promoting GXP and OVA 3), but I can't remember if we got one for the 15th anniversary or not.

[GP cadet 87]

This is good news to me. Toei may not be as consistently high quality as Bones, Madhouse or MAPPA. but they have resources that AIC needs, and they're obviously still high profile with good reason.

I would love to see sequels to Bumblegum Crisis and El-Hazard after all these years. It's ironic that I'm finally watching Wanderers and loving it.

Better AIC try to keep these great franchises going than have them (and the company) die off.

[antvasima]

Good news.

I hope that this means animating all of the Tenchi Muyo novels and throwing out the mess Nabeshin made of GXP, rather than more Tenchi in Tokyo- and Ai Tenchi Muyo-style spin-offs.

[antvasima]

On another note. Given how good Toei is at promoting their own stuff and so forth, it's actually possible for us to get an anniversary logo for Tenchi Muyo!'s 30th anniversary next year now. We didn't even get that for the 20th and 25th. I know we got an anniversary logo for the 10th anniversary (It was used when promoting GXP and OVA 3), but I can't remember if we got one for the 15th anniversary or not.

That would be nice to use for the front page of the wiki, if it is well designed.

[WarOmnimon]

That would be nice to use for the front page of the wiki, if it is well designed.

Pretty much. Toei is on top of anniversary logos like white on rice. Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Pretty Cure, and Sailor Moon always get anniversary logos, for example. (Kamen Rider in particular also tends to get anniversary logos for specific seasons!) About the only anniversary in recent years that they didn't make an anniversary logo for last I checked is for the Dragon Ball anime's 35th anniversary this year (Though that's justified in that the Dragon Ball anime isn't running right now). Everything else, though? Yup, anniversary logo. Even the Ojamajo Doremi 20th anniversary two years ago got one, as did the Digimon Tamers 20th anniversary this year (Which is quite the pleasant surprise given Toei's bias towards Digimon Adventure).

For that reason, I'm sure we'll be getting a Tenchi Muyo! 30th anniversary logo next year. I'd say about an 85% chance.

[antvasima]

Okay. That is good.

[WarOmnimon]

To put things into perspective, here's a quick collage I threw together of some (But not all) of Toei's anniversary logos from 2016 up until and including this year, including a couple of individual Kamen Rider season anniversary logos. The points I'm trying to make here are that Toei is on top of this kind of thing, and that if even franchises such as Ojamajo Doremi that aren't consistently active lately can get an anniversary logo from Toei, so can Tenchi.

Yes, I actually collect anniversary logos. You may now proceed to call me out for it if you feel inclined to do so.

[antvasima]

Well, let's hope for the best then.

[RyannVonDoom]

So excited for Gall Force to get some love, hopefully. Any more on this whole deal? Funimation took off the tenchiverse link and the DVD/blurays are selling out on their site.

[WaitoKon]

Things are changing hands, very intriguing