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YouTube Launches 'Anime Bancho' Channel for Original Anime Content (Updated)
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
YouTube launched the original YouTube channel "Anime Bancho" on Tuesday for new anime content. The anime studio CoMix Wave Films (5 Centimeters Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Kono Danshi series) is providing the content for the channel.
CoMix Wave Films told ANN that the channel is not restricted to Japanese viewers, and noted that Anime Bancho plans to release English-subtitled versions of its videos, although the English-subtitled versions may not be uploaded at the same time. CoMix Wave Films also noted that it will decide later if it will add subtitles in other languages.
CoMix Wave Films added that it plans to update the channel with new content twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. Anime Bancho will also stream other related content, such as interviews with directors and collaborative projects with users. Anime Bancho's content will consist of mostly anime shorts, and it will depend on the project whether the content will be a one-shot episode or a series.
CoMix Wave Films also told ANN that Anime Bancho is considering producing content that reflects the reactions and feedback of the viewers.
The channel's description notes that it also plans to stream original works from directors Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt), Riichiro Mashima (Ski Jumping Pairs: Road to Torino, 2006), and Masaaki Yuasa (The Tatami Galaxy, Mind Game, Kaiba). The channel will have its formal opening on December 19.
Anime Bancho's first video is a promotional video for a new season of Ryōichi Mori's Peeping Life series titled Peeping Life -World History-.
CoMix Wave Films' Peeping Life comedy anime series is a "slow-life anime" from series producer and director Ryōichi Mori ("Each Life"). The series combines motion-captured improvised acting with computer animation to depict the listless minutiae of everyday life in a series of comedy shorts. New episodes of Peeping Life -World History- will be shown only on Anime Bancho weekly.
Crunchyroll is streaming the first Peeping Life season outside of Japan. The anime series has had four seasons between 2008-2011.
YouTube announced on Tuesday that it would be launching 13 original Japanese YouTube channels. YouTube provides these channels with funding for their content. Among the other 12 channels, Crypton Future Media, the media company behind the Vocaloid software, will also have an original channel. The talent agency HoriPro is also hosting a new channel.
Update: New episodes of Peeping Life -World History- will be uploaded to Anime Bancho weekly, not bi-weekly.
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