Media Factory (メディアファクトリー, Mediafakutorī), formerly known as Media Factory, Inc. (株式会社メディアファクトリー, Kabushiki gaisha Mediafakutorī), doing business as Media Factory, is a Japanese
publisher and
brand company of
Kadokawa Future Publishing.
History
The company was founded on December 1, 1986, and was a subsidiary of
Recruit Co., Ltd., based in
Shibuya,
Tokyo. Media Factory was possibly the first anime distributor to ask for sites to not link to
fansubs of any anime produced by the company.[2] On October 12, 2011, Media Factory was purchased by
Kadokawa Corporation for ¥8,000,000,000.[3] Media Factory also has a monthly
manga magazine, Monthly Comic Alive, and its own
light novel imprint, MF Bunko J. Media Factory also holds the license for the distribution of The 39 Clues in Japan. Media Factory ceased being a
kabushiki gaisha, as well as retired
the Pokémon anime series on October 1, 2013, when it was merged with eight other companies to become a brand company of Kadokawa Corporation.[4] It had a record label, Pikachu Records, that produced Pokémon CDs and Pokémon soundtracks in Japan from 1997 to 2012. Most Pokémon albums in Japan came from Pikachu Records during this period. It was retired when Media Factory was purchased by Kadokawa Corporation. On August 17, 2021, the website for Media Factory was officially closed with a notice directing readers to Kadokawa's website for future products and services.[5]