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Central Park Media

defunct US multimedia entertainment company

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ5061612 ↗
Source-derived summary

Central Park Media Corporation, often abbreviated as CPM, was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York and was headquartered in the 250 West 57th Street building in Midtown Manhattan (on the corner of Central Park, hence their name). They were one of the first companies to be active in the distribution of East Asian cinema, television series, anime, manga, and manhwa titles in North America, notably helping to make hentai popular in the region. Over its history, the company licensed several popular titles, such as Slayers, Revolutionary Girl Utena, the Tokyo Babylon OVAs, Project A-ko, and Demon City Shinjuku.

They had multiple divisions, each of which focused on offering different types of products and services. While a majority of their divisions handled anime and manga distribution, they also offered anime-related software and even ran a website for UFO conspiracy theorists.

CPM filed for bankruptcy on April 27, 2009, but remains nominally active as of July 3, 2023 without holding many of its former assets. Since their bankruptcy, many of their former titles have been re-released by other companies.

History

Founding and growth

Central Park Media was founded in 1990 by John O'Donnell as an anime supplier. He was the former founder of Sony Video Software and he championed its first anime titles Tranzor Z and Voltron: Defender of the Universe. During its heyday, CPM incorporated MD Geist as part of its U.S. Manga Corps logo.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Central Park Media” as defunct US multimedia entertainment company. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009, 2023, 1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1990. The account is most persuasive where Central, Park and Media can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as defunct US multimedia entertainment company. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5061612. VIAF identifies the subject as 130486848. The Library of Congress control number is no96004485. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009, 2023 and 1990.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Central Park Media”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Central Park Media primary sources, Central Park Media archive and Central research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Central Park Media”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Central Park Media” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.