HomeAnimeHanabee in 2014 and Beyond the Boundary - Interview

Hanabee in 2014 and Beyond the Boundary – Interview

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beyondtheboundary
Beyond the Boundary – Now available to watch via the Hanabee VOD service

As 2014 comes to a close, it is time to reflect on just how big a year this has been. It has undoubtedly been a massive year for the Australian anime industry with the rise of simulcasting / online streaming, numerous conventions with high turn-outs, a wealth of anime releases and a few other surprises and treats along the way. As I did last year, I have reached out to representatives from each of Australia’s major anime publishers with some questions about the year – and potential plans for 2015.

Having now almost completed their second full year in the Australian anime industry, Hanabee Entertainment can no longer be considered newcomers to the market. While Hanabee started out with only a couple of anime licenses and the significant backing of being Australia and New Zealand’s Rooster Teeth distributor back in 2012, they have expanded into being a publisher with many series under their belt, running their own video-on-demand service and successfully making their staff well known figures to their followers.

Last year I was fortunate enough to get Hanabee Entertainment’s CEO and President Eric Cherry to answer a few questions regarding their experiences in 2013 and ambitions for 2014. This year I have enlisted Cameron Rooney (Aka. Mr Awesome Hair) to answer some questions on behalf of Hanabee regarding their big changes this year and what they hope 2015 will hold for Australian anime fans. What he had to say can be found below:

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Gatchaman Crowds

Hanabee Entertainment has come a long way since I first saw your team at Gold Coast Supanova in 2012, drawing in huge crowds with special guests from Rooster Teeth. Now in your third year and well and truly part of the Australian anime industry, how has 2014 been for your team/company?

We’ve made great strides in 2014 and learned a lot. It’s actually incredible to look back at! We did over 20 conventions this year alone. We launched a new VOD website and online store. Released over 45 new anime titles. We streamed 15 episodes of Hanabee LIVE. One of our films got in to the Melbourne International Film Festival, another nominated for an Academy Award. We hosted our first Japanese Director and took him to the zoo…Needless to say, 2014 was huge and we had A LOT of fun.

I asked this question to Eric Cherry last year, but would love your opinion on it. With the Australian anime industry being more active than ever before – what do you feel gives Hanabee Entertainment a competitive advantage / uniqueness compared to other publishers?

a. What Eric said.

b. We’ve spent the last 2 years with our community and we’ve found a lot of really talented people. This year we met some developers from Opaque Multimedia who created a game for us where you can become Ruby Rose from RWBY. We just love doing things differently whether it’s a virtual reality kiosk at our booth, a Beyond the Boundary Maid Café or a special feature on Patema Inverted we filmed at Healesville Zoo. And we know that people appreciate our uniqueness.

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AKB0048

With an even wider range of acquisitions and published releases this year, were there any titles that have drawn in strong or a greater than expected reception in terms of public interest or sales?

I could list all of our titles but this year we were happy to get new films like Patema Inverted and Short Peace. Getting Patema in to the Melbourne International Film Festival and then both it and Short Peace in to the Japan Film Festival was incredible. We knew they were great films but to see such an awesome public reception was impressive.

One of your major announcement for this year was the introduction of a VOD service via your website. How has the reception towards the website been from the community so far, and what are some of your expectations/goals for the service in 2015?

People love the titles on there like No Game, No Life and Irregular Magic at High School. When it first came out we had so many people message us via social media explaining how they love the design and layout. The whole team had such awesome ideas that we can’t wait to see its future.

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Little Busters!

Earlier this year you held your very first film festival screening of Patema Inverted, and this month have released both it and the film compilation Short Peace in stores. Do you see Hanabee paying more attention in film festival and film releases in 2015 and beyond?

We couldn’t be happier with how Patema Inverted and Short Peace went. Getting Yasuhiro Yoshiura down for MIFF was a great honour and he’s such and incredible director. The more films we can get down for Australia and New Zealand the better and so many people discover anime through festivals, sometimes for the first time. We’d love to do it again next year.

With 2015 only a few weeks away, what can your fans expect to see from Hanabee in the new year?

Hanabee is still the fastest growing anime company in Australia and gets bigger and better every day! I’m in the thick of it at the office and I can’t even imagine where it’s going to be next year! (Honestly, I can see where it’s going and I’ve already planned 1,000 things but I can’t talk about them yet…it isn’t 2015 yet? Geez!)

Finally, if the entire Hanabee team were to name their favourite release(s) from 2014, what would they be?

It’s like asking which of my children do I like more! I can’t do that. … Personally, it’s Watamote.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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