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Sentai Filmworks, LLC (or simply as just Sentai) is an American entertainment company. Based in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Anime and Asian cinema and is one of five successors to ADV Films, others being Section23, Switchblade Pictures, Maiden Japan, and AEsir Holdings. It also runs its own post-production arm Sentai Studios.
The company's origins can be traced back to its predecessor A.D. Vision, which was founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and Matt Greenfield. ADV collapsed due to low sales and eventually liquidated their assets in 2009. Ledford founded Sentai in 2008 and acquired the majority of ADV's titles. It was then acquired by New York City-based AMC Networks at the start of January 2022 and has been a subsidiary since then. Its offices are in the International District in Southwest Houston. and Privacy Policy states: "Attn: SENTAI FILMWORKS Privacy Administration, 10114 W. Sam Houston Parkway South, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77099-5109"
Despite its name, the company has no relation to and therefore has no involvement in any international distribution of the Super Sentai media franchise.
However, in January 2008, ADV mysteriously removed a large number of titles from their website. Among the titles which were subsequently removed was Gurren Lagann, which had test disks sent out with dubbed episodes. As a result, ADV Lawsuit ARM Corporation and its parent Sojitz for a breach in a contract made previously. In the suit, the exact amount ADV paid to license twenty-nine titles was disclosed. The lawsuit was withdrawn and no ruling was made. That July, Funimation announced the acquisition of thirty of these titles licensed by Sojitz from ADV.
Ledford established Sentai Filmworks in 2008. Some of its first titles to be released were Clannad, Princess Resurrection, Indian Summer, Appleseed and Mahoromatic (formerly licensed by Geneon). On September 1, 2009, ADV went defunct and sold off its assets, which included transferring distribution rights to Section23 Films.
On July 4, 2013, during its industry panel at Anime Expo, Sentai Filmworks announced its plans to release a number of classic titles from Tatsunoko Production. The current list of released titles from the partnership include the original Gatchaman series and , , and Casshan, and more titles followed.
Sunrise announced a licensing deal with Sentai Filmworks that included a number of titles from Sunrise's library that were formerly licensed by Bandai Entertainment during its Otakon panel on August 8, 2013.
On June 1, 2015, Sentai made an announcement on its website that Akame ga Kill! had been picked up by Adult Swim for broadcast on its Toonami programming block, almost one week after its announcement at MomoCon 2015. The show began airing on the broadcast night of August 8, 2015, and its premiere night was one of the most watched programs in the block's history with over 1.8 million viewers. Later that year, Parasyte, premiered on October 3. Sentai has promoted the time that the two shows air as "#SentaiHour" on social media. On July 6, 2019, began airing on Toonami.
In March 2017, Sentai signed a deal with Amazon to stream the majority of its new licensees exclusively on its Anime Strike channel on Amazon Prime Video in the United States, starting with the Spring 2017 season. After Anime Strike was shuttered in early 2018, all titles previously exclusive to the service were made available to Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. at no extra charge.
The company launched its own streaming service HIDIVE in June 2017.
On July 18, 2019, Sentai Filmworks launched a GoFundMe appeal in the wake of the arson attack at Kyoto Animation. With a target of US$750,000, it surpassed the $1 million donation mark within the first 24 hours, and reached $2,370,910 at closing.
On August 1, 2019, Sentai Filmworks' parent company Sentai Holdings, LLC announced that the Cool Japan Fund invested for shares of the company, stating that "Sentai's independent status makes it a rarity in North America as a licensor of Japanese anime". On September 30, 2020, the Cool Japan Fund made an additional available, stating that Sentai had achieved better financial results in 2019 compared to 2018, with plans for medium and long-term growth, and strategic changes following the COVID-19 pandemic.
On September 5, 2020, Crunchyroll announced that they had entered in a partnership with Sentai Filmworks to distribute Crunchyroll licensed titles onto home video and electronic sell-through, with Granbelm, , Ascendance of a Bookworm, and World Trigger being the first titles distributed through the partnership.
After Right Stuf was acquired by Sony in August 2022, Sentai announced on March 7, 2023, that the distribution of all future home releases from them along with Section23 Films would be managed by Distribution Solutions (DS), the releasing unit of wholesaler Alliance Entertainment, on April 3.
On March 2, 2023, Sentai announced a partnership and distribution agreement with Mainichi Broadcasting System.
In March 2018, it was revealed that Sentai held the distribution rights to the film that the company gave to the Mexican distributor Madness Entertainment. It was revealed that they directly commissioned a Spanish dubbed version for the film. On March 15, Sentai announced the acquisition of Alice or Alice to Spain and Portugal.
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