Utena Update

Central Park Media Production Associate Justin Sevakis has revealed to Anime on DVD the reasons behind the delay of more Utena anime coming to America, Sevakis stated.

CPM initially announced the impending release of more TV episodes but then encountered demands from the Japanese licensor to renegotiate the terms of the established contract. “Although we consider this to be a breach of our contract, we have been willing to be flexible in order to continue the release. Discussions have been underway for a long time, and are likely to continue for a long time, due to the nature of the consensus decision making process,” Sevakis stated.

The rights to the Utena movie were licensed from a different source. As a result CPM will be progressing with its translation and release.

“While we are disappointed that we are unable to continue the television series in a timely manner, we hope that you will enjoy the movie version in the mean time. In addition, we are flying the original series and movie director, Mr. Kunihiko Ikuhara, to New York City this month so that he can personally oversee the production of the English version. The subtitled version was written by his hand-picked translator, and Mr. Ikuhara himself will be on hand to autograph copies after the film’s English language premiere at Big Apple Anime Fest this October.”