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Illumitoon & Westlake Acquire Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo

ILLUMITOON & WESTLAKE ACQUIRE BOBOBO-BO BO-BOBO

Joint Venture Enterprise Acquires Distribution Rights
for Popular Cartoon Network Series


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— FORT WORTH , TEXAS — Illumitoon Entertainment and Westlake Entertainment announced today that they have joined in acquiring North American distribution rights for a series from Toei Animation titled “BOBOBO-BO BO-BOBO”. Illumitoon and Westlake are rolling out with the first 50 episodes of the series currently broadcast on Cartoon Network's Toonami Block. Westlake , recently purchased by Larry Cohen and Luke Stefanko, has been repositioning itself into more original content, specifically in the anime and features areas. Together with Illumitoon Entertainment, whose stated mission is to “focus on acquiring accessible anime for the US market,” the team expects big results.

“We're thrilled at the BO-BOBO acquisition. It's a quirky series that's poised to do great in the US .

The ratings are strong and the series has a lot of support” stated Barry Watson , Illumitoon's President/CEO. It's based on a popular comic that sold over 5 million copies in Japan . Tony Vandeveerdonk, Vice President of Sales for Westlake Entertainment says, “the series has a very strong fan base among the anime community. But additionally, the television exposure has increased its appeal to a more mass audience as well.”

The series is an offbeat saga of a hero who defends people's right to hair. The surreal title character, with his golden afro, struggles to defend the citizens in the kingdom of Margarita from the authoritarian tyrant, Czar Boldy Bold 4th, who has initiated a "Hair Hunt" to crack down on individuals who insist on holding on to their curly locks.

The BOBOBO-BO BO-BOBO anime series is based on stories from Japanese publisher Shueisha, Inc.'s popular manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, which is known for introducing other well-loved content such as Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yū Yū Hakusho, Naruto and One Piece. BO-BOBO manga is available in North America from Viz Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Shueisha

Inc., Shogakukan, Inc. and Shogakukan Production, Co. Ltd. Viz Media also publishes SHONEN JUMP magazine, the North American counterpart of Weekly Shonen Jump.


The new releases are initially planned to street as early as January, 2007.

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