Broccoli (company)

Broccoli Co., Ltd. (株式会社ブロッコリー kabushiki-gaisha burokkorii) is a Japanese media company that publishes manga, anime, and video games through its various subsidiaries. Broccoli is the parent company of Broccoli Music Publishing, Broccoli International USA, and Anime Gamers USA Inc. Broccoli also published manga under Broccoli Books. Broccoli is well-known for the Di Gi Charat franchise and series.

History
Satsuki Yamashita, the editor of Broccoli Books, explained that the company derived its president's desire to create a memorable name similar to the memorability of Apple Inc. While trying to imagine of another fruit or vegetable, he arrived at broccoli. Incidentally, this coincidentally has the same name in every language.

On January 23, 2008, Broccoli announced it would be collaborating with rival Animate to form a new company called "AniBro". Broccoli holds 30% ownership of the company, which is managed by the CEO of Animate.

Gamers
Broccoli owns a chain of retail stores, Gamers, which are used for distributing anime, manga, anime music CDs, figurines, snacks, stationery, apparel, posters, calendars, trading cards and accessories such as cell phone straps and keychains. Headquartered at the Akihabara, Japan location, the stores has locations throughout Japan. The first Gamers opened in Ikebukuro, a district of Tokyo, Japan, but closed its doors on January 15, 2006. Broccoli opened a store in Los Angeles, California, Anime Gamers USA, that also acted as the main distributor of Broccoli Book's releases in the United States. On November 20, 2008, Broccoli announced that they would be withdrawing from the US market and closed down shop, shortly afterward.

Broccoli Books
Broccoli Books was a subsidiary that published manga in North America. It had a boys love imprint, Boysenberry Books, that launched in 2007. It ceased operations in December 2008 and all the titles reverted back to the Japanese holders.

Synch-Point
The Synch-Point division produces English-language versions of anime and manga for North American distribution. As of March 2005, this company, its productions, and acquisitions appeared to be on an indefinite hiatus.