Hisato-Turner Broadcasting

There was a time when no one would have used the word “edgy” to describe the Japanese half of Hisato-Turner Broadcasting. They were the suit-wearing conservatives in a stodgy media conglomerate kept going by the posthumous paranoia of a wealthy visionary. Then the Horizon Group quietly purchased HTB and everything changed. Lifetime executives producing shows with flagging ratings were tossed on the street and replaced with young, media-saturated Japanese mavericks who suddenly and repeatedly challenged Japanese social taboos.

And it’s working. Not only have the Japanese youth latched onto HTB’s fl ood of manga, anime, trideo, and sims, but the older Japanese who are fascinated by their own youth have started tuning in.

— Baka Dabora

Their Live Action Anime is something to behold. Syndicated in 124 countries.

— Slamm-O!

That’s the kind of reach that gets the old guard quaking, both in the government and the corporations. HTB throws out stuff that promotes strong female characters, equality with metahumans, free and creative (read: not corporate) lifestyles, and anything else to shake up the status quo. Even NewsNet Japan, a Hisato-Turner division, has broken with every single existing precedent and started embarrassing Japanese officials on the air.

— Sunshine

Then there’s HTB’s support of technomancers and AIs. The tempered media coverage coming from the lords of hard-hitting news alleviated some of the hysteria in Neo-Tokyo, and since then they’ve gone so far as to highlight technomancers and AIs in their programming. It’s taking the steam out of politicians who want to regulate and monitor us.

— Netcat

Armed with the phrase “social responsibility,” the corporate-backed Diet and the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs has fined and punished Hisato-Turner for some of their content, but so far the corporation has not backed down. In response, the Imperial Ministry of Justice has threatened investigations and trials.

It looks like HTB has decided to court every kind of trouble they can find. They’ve been repeatedly fined for broadcasting simsense feeds that exceed legal standards—not BTL-level, but much higher than normal. Their adult programming also exceeds normal standards; the popular Tentacle Hour simsense series is notorious for being poorly protected from underage subscribers.

— Rigger X

Hey, I love that show! The only freaky weird part is the Kobayashi Kalamari commercial they pop in the middle.

— Slamm-0!

News flash: Six employees of Channel Two’s “Tokyo Metro Talk” have been arrested on charges of endangering public security. Their story on the military’s treatment of metahumans in Yokohama incited riots that led to the deaths of ten people.

— Sunshine

While the government threatens HTB with its laws, the corporations have taken the fight behind the scenes. Horizon is a foreign company, and the Japanacorps do not want it controlling the mainstream media. The shadows have gotten thick and down-right dirty against HTB, including sabotage and kidnapping.

The whole thing makes Hisato-Turner and Horizon out to be the good guys, but since when is any corp looking out for anything besides themselves? Horizon wants control of the Japanese media because, between Japan and California, they’d have two-thirds of the world’s entertainment production locked up.

— Baka Dabora

A Corporation

Parent Organization

Horizon Group