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Media Home Carl Macek and Jerry Beck had perfectly matched backgrounds when they started Streamline. Both had experience in the more rarefied world of cultural studies, as well as with the bottom line of movie distribution. They shopped anime films around the country together. Their efforts generated a buzz for that milestone in anime, "Akira ," and garnered an enthusiastic thumbs-up from one of the most influential critics in America, Roger Ebert, for " Macek's background in academia shows when he compares ancient Japanese woodblock prints and modern comic books, but he maintains a healthy disrespect for those who worship at pop culture shrines. Though he has been accused of being too conservative about the crossover potential of Japanese material, he has always been willing to back films he truly admires, like Hayao Miyazaki's children's fantasies "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" or Yoshiaki Kawajiri's futuristic "Wicked City ."
CRYING FREEMAN is presented in five 50-minute minimovies. Yo Hinomura, the assassin called "Freeman," explores a Hong Kong underworld haunted by the 108 Dragons. Brainwashed into servicing the Dragons, he battles African terrorists, the Bear God cult and females on both sides of the law. The artist Emu becomes his wife after being initiated under the name Fu Ching Ran, which means Tiger Orchid. Forget what you've heard about girls who wear glasses! In volume three, called "Shades of Death Part 2," Emu fights off an ancient curse by tracking down the demon herself. Freeman's co-creator Ryoichi Ikegami helped break ground in "shonen" (or boy's comics) by collaborating on "Mai the Psychic Girl" so he was pleased to hear that "Crying Freeman" is finding a female audience in America: he defines his projects in terms of romance, strong women and adult sexuality.
Streamline is also re-releasing its most popular video titles like "Akira" and "Dirty Pair " at a more affordable price. The feature-length Wicked City is the newest release, following a 1993 theatrical tour which garnered raves from papers like the New York Post, the San Francisco Examiner- Chronicle, and the Washington Post.
(Streamline has been covered in Animag, Viz-In, Animation Velocity and Protoculture Addicts. Carl Macek scored a two-part profile in 1993 issues of Animerica. "Crying Freeman" artist Ryoichi Ikegami was interviewed by Satoru Fujii for Animerica in September 1993.)
