Hunter × Hunter
The first "Hunter × Hunter" anime adaptation was produced by the company Nippon Animation and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, who had previously directed the "Rurouni Kenshin" television series. A total of 62 episodes of "Hunter × Hunter" were broadcast on the Japanese terrestrial television network Fuji Television from October 16, 1999 to March 31, 2001 during the same Saturday evening timeslot as the anime version of Togashi's previous series "Yu Yu Hakusho". Additionally, "Hunter × Hunter" has aired on the satellite television station Animax. Although it closely follows the manga, the violence in the anime version is lessened for younger audiences. Marvelous Entertainment has released all episodes of the series in Japan on DVD in 13 separate volumes between September 20, 2000 and September 19, 2001.
Manga
Japanese publishers began pursuing a U.S. market in the mid-1990s due to a stagnation in the domestic market for manga. The U.S. manga market took an upturn with mid-1990s anime and manga versions of Masamune Shirow's "Ghost in the Shell" (translated by Frederik L. Schodt and Toren Smith) becoming very popular among fans. An extremely successful manga and anime translated and dubbed in English in the mid-1990s was "Sailor Moon". By 1995–1998, the "Sailor Moon" manga had been exported to over 23 countries, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, North America and most of Europe. In 1997, Mixx Entertainment began publishing "Sailor Moon", along with CLAMP's "Magic Knight Rayearth", Hitoshi Iwaaki's "Parasyte" and Tsutomu Takahashi's "Ice Blade" in the monthly manga magazine "MixxZine". Two years later, "MixxZine" was renamed to "Tokyopop" before discontinuing in 2011. Mixx Entertainment, later renamed Tokyopop, also published manga in trade paperbacks and, like Viz, began aggressive marketing of manga to both young male and young female demographics.