Central Park Media

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

Central Park Media Corporation (often simplified to Central Park Media, and abbreviated to CPM) was a relatively well-known anime and manga company founded in April 11, 1990 by John O'Donnell, headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, on the corner of Central Park. It was one of the first companies (along with AnimEigo, U.S. Renditions, Streamline Pictures and ADV Films) to release uncut anime in the United States. They did very well in the 1990s and early 2000s (even serving as distributor for AnimEigo, U.S. Renditions, ADV Films, and Right Stuf Inc. at one point in the early '90s), but they closed on April 27, 2009. Today, some Central Park Media titles have been relicensed by different companies, such as Media Blasters, Discotek Media and Viz Media.

Logo (July 11, 1991-2000s?)

Visuals: It starts with a stylized olive green New York City skyline on a black background, then, a light blue gradient background (which is supposed to be the sky) fades in from behind the skyline. Below the skyline, the beige words "CENTRAL PARK" in Gill Sans Bold fly in from the right and the word "MEDIA" in the same font and color spins up from the bottom.

Variants:

  • An alternate variant exists where when finished, the logo zooms out to show the logos of U.S. Manga Corps & Anime 18.
  • A remastered version exists where the logo begins with a photo of a view of the New York skyline from (what looks like) Central Park, the logo fades over the buildings from the photo, which later disappears. The logo itself also appears to be brighter.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: Crickets chirping for the first half of the logo; then sounds of car horns and a jackhammer.

Audio Variant: The remastered version added additional traffic sounds.

Availability: It made its debut on early prints of Dominion Tank Police: Volume 1, distributed by BMG Video.

  • Most releases from CPM had only used either the U.S. Manga Corps or Anime 18 logos.
  • The remastered version is currently only known to appear on the 2009 ADV Films re-release of Grave of the Fireflies as a legacy credit.
  • The alternate variant was discovered on a screener VHS of Project A-Ko 4: FINAL and was also spotted on Cyber City Oedo 808: DATA ONE.

Final Note

On May 26th, 2006, CPM had laid off many of their employees. They laid dormant until April 27th, 2009, when they filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and liquidated with a debt of over $1.2 million.

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