U.S. Renditions, a division of the bookstore chain Books Nippan, was an early player in North American anime licensing and distribution. In partnership with company L.A. Hero, U.S. Renditions would release numerous titles before their parent company would pull out the United States. After that, L.A. Hero was bought by Manga Entertainment, and became the US division of the company.
Most titles were distributed on VHS under the U.S. Renditions name, however some of the more violent titles were distributed under the label Dark Image Entertainment. Additionally, Ultraman: The Adventure Begins was distributed under the Ultra Action Video banner, which was primarily used for Tokusatsu shows Books Nippan / U.S. Renditions / L.A. Hero had licensed.
On LaserDisc, most titles carried only the L.A. Hero label. After the Manga Entertainment buyout, the final three LaserDiscs had the L.A. Hero logos hastily changed to Manga Entertainment ones, but the releases are still essentially pre-Manga releases.
As the VHS releases used sequential SKU numbers, it is possible to highlight a numerical gap in known SKUs where a title likely exists, and these have been highlighted in yellow. The LaserDiscs unfortunately did not follow this scheme.
The primary purpose of this document is two-fold. First is to simply catalog the numerous releases of a historically significant anime distributor, but the second is slightly more complicated. The exact relationship between Books Nippan, U.S. Renditions, L.A. Hero, Dark Image Entertainment, and Ultra Action Video is somewhat confusing, with conflicting information on who actually owned what and the complex divison between licensor, distributor, and label. By copying down the logos and copyright information on each and every title, hopefully a pattern can be formed, allowing greater insight into the workings of this company (or companies).
As always, if you have any information or corrections, feel free to comment below!
