Cloverway Inc.

Cloverway Inc. (abbreviated as CWi, also branded as Cloverway)[3] was a media licensing agency based in Long Beach, California which specialized in Japanese animation and manga licensing, and they were best known for being the representative office of Toei Animation for the Americas, mostly distributing Toei properties for syndication and home video. They were also acting as an intermediary agent between Japanese companies (Shueisha, Shogakukan, Nippon Animation, etc.) and local companies both in the U.S. market (Viz Communications,[4] Tokyopop,[5] Pioneer Entertainment,[6] ADV Films, and Bandai Entertainment) and Latin American market (Televisa, TV Azteca, Turner, PlayTV), for film distribution or manga publishing of their contents in the continent, to various TV channels in each country, regionally and pan-regionally as well as arranging publishing deals with several manga publishers in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Cloverway Inc.[1]
IndustryMultimedia entertainment;
Anime licensing and distribution
Founded1991
DefunctAugust 2007
FateClosed[1][2]
HeadquartersLong Beach, California, U.S.
Area served
North America and Latin America
Key people
Yasuo Matsuo (President)
Mary Jo Winchester (Vice President)
Daniel Castaneda (General Manager)
Takeshi Okajima (Accountant Manager)
ProductsAnime, Manga, Merchandising
OwnerYasuo Matsuo

History

The company was founded in 1991. In 1992, the first anime series distributed by Cloverway for Latin America was the Knights of the Zodiac TV series, first broadcast in Mexico and Brazil. It was followed by Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball some time later.[7]

In 1995, Dragon Ball was re-dubbed by Cloverway, after Bandai[8] failed distributing their first episodes and a movie, dubbed under the title of "Zero y el Dragón Mágico" ("Zero and the Magic Dragon", based on the Harmony Gold version[9][10]).

Generally, Cloverway commissioned dubbing for the Spanish versions to the company Intertrack (until its closure in 2005, later on to Optimedia Productions in 2006) in Mexico, and the Brazilian versions to Álamo (with exceptions like Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakusho and Mirmo) in São Paulo Brazil, while some other works were dubbed into Spanish through Cloverway's arrangements with Televisa's owned Audiomaster 3000 in Mexico. Other Cloverway's arrangements were made with International Telefilms Inc. for first-run syndication broadcasting in Chile (ETC TV and CHV) and Spanish dubbing recorded by Technoworks/HispanoAmérica Doblajes in Santiago. As for the series owned by TMS, Spanish versions were already dubbed by VDI Multimedia in Los Angeles and previously distributed by other companies, but Brazilian versions were never produced and Cloverway couldn't get a deal for them to be dubbed and broadcast in Brazil. Also, Spanish versions of Kimba (Tezuka Productions) and Nippon Animation series distributed by Cloverway, were formerly dubbed and licensed by other companies, so Cloverway just distributed and offered them for reruns or inside TV programming packages.

Parallel in the United States, Cloverway tried to distribute the same series by himself as in Latin America, but due to the regulations that led to the series censorship, they delegated licenses to local distributors who managed the production of English localization, dubbing and distribution. However, Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS were the only two licenses whose English versions were produced by Cloverway, dubbed in association with Optimum Production Services in Canada. As for the U.S. Hispanic market, Cloverway syndicated the series Tenchi Universe to Univision (Univision[11] and Telefutura[12] networks) and Dragon Ball Z to Telemundo[13][14] networks.

When Shueisha became a joint owner of Viz Communications in 2002 and with the subsequent merger with ShoPro in 2005,[15] Cloverway eventually lost the representation of Shueisha (for N.A. and L.A.) and Shogakukan[16] (for L.A.) for publishing licensing in the Americas.

The company's representation of Toei Animation in America ceased, due to Toei's decision to start licensing and distributing directly since 2004, thus ending the contracts with their agents Tokyo Business Consultants[17] in Europe and Cloverway in America, and launching their own offices in 2004 (Toei Animation Europe[18][19] based in Paris and Toei Animation Inc. based in Los Angeles). In 2005, the Toei Animation licenses arranged by Cloverway were transferred to Toei Animation Inc. as a requirement, leaving Cloverway only with the catalog of the other Japanese producers they licensed. As a consequence of this, there has been a chain of irregularities, such as the loss of master tapes of many series formerly distributed by Cloverway, with the Latin American versions being the most affected for this change in distribution.

After losing Toei's successful catalog, Cloverway continued representing and distributing anime from other Japanese companies, adding new properties and selling most of their new catalog to Cartoon Network L.A. and other local TV stations in Brazil and Hispanic America. At the middle of 2006, Cloverway licensed an Anime Free-TV programming block titled "Otacraze"[20] to Brazilian broadcaster PlayTV[21] who begun airing the block in March 2007, including the series Ranma ½, Samurai Champloo, Trigun, and Love Hina.

Due to economic problems, Cloverway closed its operations in August 2007.[22]

Licensed titles

The following list features the anime and live action series licensed by the company:[23]

Anime

Japanese live action

See also

References
  1. "Articles of Incorporation of Cloverway Inc". www.manta.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  2. "Explosivo éxito en la región para franquicia de Adness Entertainment". todotvnews. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  3. "CWI. Representing the best in Japanese Animation". Cloverway.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  4. "A Viz Communications Manga". Viz Communications, Inc. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2022. [English translation rights in the United States of America and Canada arranged by Shueisha, Inc. through Cloverway Inc.]
  5. "A TOKYOPOP Manga". TOKYOPOP. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2022. [English translation rights in the United States of America and Canada arranged by Shueisha, Inc. through Cloverway Inc.]
  6. "Pioneer To Release SMS & SuperS TV Series Before Syndication". Archived from the original on March 15, 2008. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  7. "Answerman - Who Was Cloverway, And What Were They Doing With Anime?". Anime News Network. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  8. "El Éxito de Dragon Ball en México (Parte 1)". Bandai (in Spanish). August 24, 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  9. "Dragon Ball Intro Latin America (English)". www.youtube.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  10. "Zero y el Dragón Mágico | Especial de Dragon Ball". August 15, 2015.
  11. "TENCHI MUYO!". Archived from the original on November 2, 2001. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  12. Toonturama, a three-hour lineup that mainly consisted of dubbed versions of American and European animated series natively produced in English as well as anime series (Lost Universe, Tenchi Universe and Red Baron);
  13. "Spanish DBZ returns!". www.toonzone.net. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  14. Telemundo Kids is on weekend morning blocks made their debut on October 6, 2001, including the animated series as well as anime series (Dragon Ball Z);
  15. "MERGER BETWEEN TWO JAPANESE ENTERTAINMENT GIANTS COMPLETE". Viz Media. Archived from the original on October 28, 2005. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  16. "PREGUNTAS Y RESPUESTAS SOBRE IVREA!". Ivrea (in Spanish). Archived from the original on November 11, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  17. "French court orders Toei to pay up". Variety. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  18. "Activité". Toei Animation Europe. Archived from the original on November 28, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  19. "Historique". Toei Animation Europe. Archived from the original on November 19, 2008. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  20. Monte, Sandra (September 25, 2006). "Interview with Daniel Castañeda from Cloverway". Papo de Budega. Archived from the original on December 26, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  21. Monte, Sandra (January 29, 2007). "OTACRAZE will premier on Brazilian Play TV". Papo de Budega. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  22. Bianchin, Victor (October 28, 2020). "O que houve com a dublagem de 'Guerreiras Mágicas de Rayearth'? Fãs reagem..." UOL (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  23. "Cloverway". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  24. News, Aza (August 3, 2005). "Cloverway trae nuevas series y Cartoon Network forma su bloque Adult Swim". Animezonearg.info (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 25, 2006. Retrieved April 10, 2022. {{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
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