Focus on Be Beautiful Line

John O’Donnell, president and founder of Central park Media, said that he will first focus on CPM Press's "Be Beautiful " line which was releasing many yaoi manga series recently. Yaoisuki blog reports that there was a licensing issue with many of the titles that were licensed from Biblos. Publishers weekly writes that Biblos was bought out by Libre in 2006, and that Libre sent out a public statement saying ""We strongly protest this illegal infringement of our property and issuing a strong order for CPM to cease their illegal acts."

Yaoisuki Blog reports that O'Donnell said he paid for the Biblos titles up front, and Libre's acquisition of Biblos does not cancel out the contract. O'Donnell said they still legally have the rights to those titles. Yaoisuki Blog says that after Libre made the statement they have not taken any action to resolve the matter and refuse to sit down and discuss the issue with O'Donnell or any other CPM representative. Libre has not filed a lawsuit. Yaoisuki Blog writes " He (O'Donnell) hopes that Libre will bring their lawyers to the U.S. so that the matter can be settled, but thinks that they are trying to deliberately harm the sales of the books until CPM's license expires so that they can license the series to another company. " This was reported from Yaoi-Con '07 .

Yaoisuki Blog reports that "Be Beautiful has been in flux since its problems with Biblos/Libre in 2006-07 and O’Donnell mentioned that a lawsuit against Libre might be in the works." Since then nothing else has developed regarding this issue. The Be Beautiful official website is currently down temporarily, while the site is being redesigned. The "Be Beautiful " line still holds the license to many titles that haven't been fully released, some with many volumes yet to go.

CPM Sponsors Con Events

Recently Nigorimasen blog has reported that "During CPM’s panel at last December’s NYAF/ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga, President John O’Donnell said that one major cause of their troubles was the collapse of retailers Musicland and Tower Records and that he’s never tried to engage in a “heavy bidding war over popular titles in a volatile market”. Nigorimasen Blog also writes that Central Park Media has been keeping their name alive by sponsoring con events in 2008. CPM has spent "$3,200 to sponsor four events during Anime Expo 2008 including the Otaku Parliamentary Debate ($1,000) and the two-evening Karaoke Contest ($950), warranting them Patron status". CPM has plans to sponsor con events in 2009 as well.

O'Donnell says "CPM is here to stay"

"A Geek by Any Name" blog has reported that John O’Donnell said at NYAF07 that "they are still recovering from all their various issues. They have no NEW titles but they’re working on making older titles more accessible." The blog says that Central Park Media is not dead, and they are working on re-releasing many of their older titles. The blog also says that John O'Donnel commented on the bidding wars between Geneon, FUNimation, and ADV and Geneon leaving the market. Anime News Network reported in 2007 that CPM is "continuing to work through its back catalog". So now we know officially CPM has plans to re-release many of their older tittles. Anime News Network’s coverage of New York Anime Festival states “O'Donnell said that CPM is here to stay and explained the position the company was placed in due to the collapse of major anime retailers Musicland and Tower Records. Calling the event a “tragedy”, he said that the effects of this collapse were one major reason that the company is still in a recovery phase. This was also the reason given when O'Donnell explained that the company had no new acquisitions to announce.”

What is Central Park Media?

Central Park Media is a multimedia Entertainment Company based in New York City, New York. It was founded in 1990 by John O'Donnell. Their three main product lines are "Central Park Media", "U.S. Manga Corps", and "Software Sculptors", and all release anime in North America. At their peak Central Park Media had the licenses to over 85 Anime TV Series, OVA's, Movies, and TV specials. U.S. Manga Corps "mascot" is Geist, a popular anime character from the early 90's. This is shown in the begining of every DVD and VHS from U.S. Manga Corps, above their logo. Another division of CPM is called "Asia Pulp Cinema", and this division deals with live action East-Asian film distribution. "CPM Press", another division of CPM releases manga in North America, under many different lines like "CPM Manga”, "Be Beautiful" and "Manga 18". CPM Press also licences and releases manhwa.

Their office is across the street from the southwest corner of Central Park in mid-Manhattan, thus the name of the company. Their first releases were Dominion Tank Police, Project A-ko, and M.D. Geist. M.D. Geist, despite its reputation, was the first top selling anime. It was a big hit, even staying on VHS top ten charts for weeks after the release. Re-releases of the title (on VHS and later DVD) also sold very well. They were also the first company to release a hentai in theatres nation-wide, "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend " (the second X-rated animation ever released theatrically) which was even reviewed by the New York Times. CPM was already well established when the other R1 companies came into the market, even to the point where CPM actually did the distribution for ADV, Urban Vision, AnimEigo, Bandai and Pioneer for awhile. Central Park Media is still in buisness and people still work in their offices. As of 2009 Central Park Media is in "hibernation", they have not released or re-released a DVD since early 2007. Officially they have plans to re-release some older titles in the future. Currently Central Park Media still licenses its anime for American television and VOD, and many of its shows are available through iTunes. Recently, some anime series and OVA's licensed by Central Park Media have aired on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Official Website: http://www.centralparkmedia.com/

sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_Media, http://www.dvdvisionjapan.com/cpm.html, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=6,

Welcome to Central Park Media News

Welcome to Central Park Media News.



This is an unofficial site, operated by a fan, and is completely independent. We aim to cover news and opinion on the company Central Park Media (CPM) and it's subsidiaries (U.S. Manga Corps, Software Sculptors, Asia Pulp Cinema, CPM Press). Central Park Media releases anime, manga, manwha, hentai, and live action titles in North America. We aim to help cover news about CPM that hasn't gotten very much exposure lately, as well as other revelations of the company that other news sites haven't covered. We also will re-post news about the company that gets good coverage.