Launched in March of this year, Synch-Point, a division of Digital Manga, Inc., is among the youngest of the anime production houses in North America. But its acquisition of Studio Pierrot's popular "Tenshi ni Narumon" ("I'm Gonna be an Angel") and Gainax's cult hit "FLCL" (as well as APPP's "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure," which was announced just last week at Anime Expo) has sparked many questions about the company and its plans for the future.

"Synch-Point is the production division of DMI, so it's not its own company," clarifies Stephanie Sheh, producer and division head at Synch-Point. Further, DMI itself continues to work at establishing brand recognition in a growing market dominated by the likes of Pioneer, Bandai and the gargantuan ADV.

"The most difficult part of acquiring titles has been the fact that we have nothing with which to prove ourselves," says Shizuki Yamashita, vice-president of operations for DMI. "Most of the licensors ended up offering us their 'second tier' titles because they had no proof that we would be able to put out quality products."

It did help that DMI president, Hikaru Sasahara, comes from an animation family. His parents ran Art Animation Studio in Japan. To secure the rights for "Tenshi ni Narumon," Sasahara went straight to the president of Studio Pierrot, Yuji Nunokawa, who knew Sasahara's father very well. Mr. Nunokawa facilitated a meeting with Bandai Visual to pick up the rights for the show.

"With 'FLCL,' we were just lucky," Yamashita quips. "We had several meetings with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, president of I.G (the company that animated the series from Gainax's original concept and owns the international rights to the property), and I brought up the fact that I used to translate for fansubbing groups, and that fascinated him, that people would pour that much effort and energy into creating fansubs."

But "FLCL" isn't DMI's outright. The Japanese hit will make its way to the US as a co-production with Production I.G, Synch-Point working with I.G representatives here in the US on all aspects of production.

"JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" isn't entirely a Synch-Point project either. This title, based on a long-running manga series by Hirohiko Araki that appeared in Shonen Jump, will be a co-production between Synch-Point (responsible for the translation, subtitling and dubbing of the OAV series) and Super Techno Arts, the North American subsidiary of APPP, the Japanese animation studio that produced "JoJo's" (responsible for all post-production). Both companies will engage in marketing and distribution.

"I have faith that a smaller company like Digital Manga will grow," says Kazufumi Nomura, president of APPP. "It would be more secure to go with a company like ADV. However, I want to be able to have a say in production and a bigger portion of the proceeds, and for that I've decided to go with a smaller company."

But despite its diminutive size among the movers and shakers of the industry, Synch-Point's short-term goals are certainly bullish. They released their first title, "Tenshi ni Narumon, Vol. 1," at the beginning of July, a mere three months after the ink dried on the contract with Bandai Visual.