Manga Entertainment

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Manga Entertainment
Type Subsidiary of Starz Media LLC
Founded 1991
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Industry Entertainment (Anime)
Products Anime theatrical and direct marketing and production
Website [http://www.manga.com/ Manga Entertainment

Manga Entertainment UK

Madman Entertainment(Handles Manga's Remaining Licences In Australia)

Manga Entertainment is a producer, licensor and distributor of Japanese animation in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand. Manga's original offices were in the UK and Australia, but due to another anime company forming in Australia in the mid 90's, Madman Entertainment, Manga gave the distribution rights to Madman and Madman Entertainment is now Australia and New Zealand's No.1 Anime Distributor and Licensor. Siren Entertainment was the distributor in Australia from 1994 to 1995, then Siren went to distribute other Anime and now rarely distributes Anime and only distributes Hentai. Anime was known in Australia as Robotech and Astro Boy in the mid to late 80's (Astro Boy and Robotech both licensed by Manga), but when Akira was released in Australian Cinemas in 1991, that all changed and Manga Video popularised Anime in the 90's and still does in Australia today (Through Madman), but was referred to as Manga than Anime in Australia.

Manga Australia merged into Madman Entertainment in mid 2003 but still licenses Anime to Australia so Madman Entertainment could distribute them. Until 2003, Madman had a menu on which Madman sited you could go to, and Manga was one of them. Manga's old web domain name, www.manga.com.au is now used by Madman for it's Manga Volumes website. Manga has lost a few anime licenses in Australia due to the quality Australia demands when it comes to DVDs, but Madman has released most of Manga Australia's lost licenses.

Manga also released in 1996,The cyberpunk collection, which consisted of A.D. Police, Cyber City Oedo 808 and Genocyber with each title having all 3 episodes compiled to a VHS tape like Angel Cop (also released by Manga Video), but Genocyber only had 3 episodes instead of 5. The company was founded by Laurence Guinness working for Chris Blackwell's Island World Communications group in London in 1991. Manga came to be when Laurence Guinness and Mike Preece was to start up and found Island Visual and Island World Communications by order from Blackwell. Guinness's eye caught the anime that started Manga, Akira. After Island acquired the license for the UK and Australian divisions of Island, Island Visual and Record Staff went to Japan and after the trip, came with some more licenses like Dominion Tank Police, Urotsukidoji, Goku Midnight Eye and Genocyber.

In 1993, Manga Entertainment was formed with Guinness as the Director of Acquisition and Production and was the Exectutive Producer of Most of Manga's releases until 1999 for unknown reasons. All of Island's anime licenses were transferred to Manga Entertainment, still apart of Island World Communications. Manga also started its Australian Division in 1993. Siren Entertainment was still on Manga's VHS and DVD cover releases until 2001 when Manga was integrated into Madman so IDT Entertainment (now Starz Media) couldn't touch Manga Australia, so Madman wouldn't be influenced by IDT. This merger was a great boost to Madman's sales and is a main contributor to Madman's profits, even though a fair few releases have been lost by Manga, but have been re-released by Madman. In 1994, Manga started operations in the USA with Marvin Gleicher as the CEO with Laurence Guinness as the Director of Acquisitions and was the Executive Producer of most of Manga's licenses until 1999. Then Manga started in house dubbing of titles in the USA like Angel Cop, Blackjack, Fist Of The North Star: The Series, Tokyo Revelation, Landlock and Patlabor.

Manga UK also did in-house dubbing in 1993 until 1998, eg Cyber City Oedo 808, 3x3 Eyes, Macross Plus, Battle Angel Alita, Devilman, Ghost In The Shell (ADR by Animaze...), Tokyo Babylon, Dominion Tank Police, Venus Wars, Genocyber and Roujin z.

After Island Records was bought out by Polygram, a Subsidiary of Universal Records. Even though Polygram wasn't distributing any of Manga's releases, Polygram was a bit faster than Palm Pictures when trying to move all the remaining licenses and rights of Manga from Island to Palm Pictures in Australia. If anime wasn't being touched by Madman Entertainment would be distributed by Polygram until 1999. Polygram started distributing volumes 2 and 3 of Violence Jack, but not 1 due to the Australian OFLC banning volume 1 from retail sale. Chris Blackwell moved Manga Entertainment to Chris's new company, Palm Pictures. But Manga was bought out by IDT Entertainment a few years after Manga was apart of Palm Pictures. It is now headquartered in Chicago, with offices in London, Los Angeles Australia, and Tokyo. Manga Entertainment is a subsidiary of Starz Media (formerly IDT Entertainment), a division of Liberty Media.

Despite their name, the company's principal business is the distribution of anime rather than manga, although they have published some manga in the UK under the Manga Books imprint e.g. Crying Freeman.[1] Their focus is primarily on short anime titles such as OVA series and movies.

Contents

Manga Entertainment is an entertainment company that co-produces new animation such as Ghost in the Shell and Iron Kid,[2], usually through financial contributions toward production costs. However Manga is primarily involved in the distribution of anime in Europe and the U.S.

Manga has also played a part in the dubbing of anime, when it is not sub-licensing a production that has already been licensed by another company (e.g., Akira, licensed and redubbed by Geneon in 2001, Bounty Dog, and Lupin III: Bye Bye Liberty Crisis).

Manga is a division of Starz Media, a subsidiary of venture capital firm Liberty Media, a company specializing in the entertainment and media sectors.

Manga Entertainment originally opened in London in 1991 in order to bring anime to the European market. The companies first release was the film Akira. The success of Akira was unprecedented and the Manga Entertainment company was quickly created. The U.S. arm debuted in July 1994 and the company now operates internationally from Chicago. Manga has become a very well known brand around the world due to its continuing distribution of anime, which have proved to be a great success with fans around the world e.g. Ghost in the Shell This can be seen when Manga released Ghost in the Shell which was the first and only Japanese animated film to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Top 40 Video Sales chart (August 24, 1996), but has also become associated with controversy concerning the distribution of hentai anime Urotsukidoji.

The company's success is rooted in its catalogue which includes titles like Akira, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and its more recent releases of Karas and Noein.

Managing Director, Kaoru Mfaume, oversees Manga Entertainment's worldwide operations. Mfaume was named MD of Manga’s U.S. operations in October 2005. His tenure at Manga follows an extensive career in the anime industry originally working as a production and development executive under Guinness before becoming Manga’s Vice President of Acquisitions. He has served as executive producer on a number of high profile anime projects including Dead Leaves, Blood The Last Vampire, Street Fighter Alpha Generations, Iron Kid and is a permanent member of the Ghost in the Shell Production Committee.

Manga was rumoured to be releasing Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society on Blu-ray, which would have made it one of the first anime titles to be released in HD in the US, but the solicitation was erroneous information and was subsequently removed.

Main article: Manga Force: The Ultimate Collection

From January 2007 Manga UK started to produce a fortnightly magazine aimed at promoting both the company itself through the use of some of its more revered titles. Issue one for example used Ghost in the Shell. The magazine will run for fifty issues and cost £8.99 for each issue after the first issue which was £2.99.

DVD cover for Anime Showcase
DVD cover for Anime Showcase

Anime Showcase is a promotional DVD which is being distributed for Manga UK by HMV. The price of the DVD is £3.99 and includes various snippits of different anime including:

  • Noein - Episode 1
  • Heat Guy J - Episode 1
  • Otogi Zoshi - Episode 1
  • A five minute preview of Hellboy: Sword of Storms
  • Trailers For 'Tokyo Zombie', 'Noein', 'Tactics' and others.

As of 2005, Manga Entertainment owns the English rights to 57 anime titles. Their UK arm, Manga Entertainment UK, also sublicenses a number of titles such as Akira and Naruto from American companies who do not have a UK division.

  • Cyber City Oedo 808 (Re-Released By Madman Entertainment, OFLC's Manga VHS certifications, M and MA 15+, DVD certification, M)
  • Demon City Shinjuku (OFLC: M, Re-Released By Madman Entertainment, used to be called

by Manga's Name, Monster City,)

See also the list of anime licensed by Manga Entertainment.[3]

  • Ninja Scroll
  • Patlabor the Movie 1 (expired)

Both Patlabor Movies were subsequently licensed by Bandai Visual USA and released through its Honnemise distribution label. Their releases included remastered video and audio and new English dubs for both movies (they were released in 2006). Bandai Visual USA also released a subtitled-only DVD set of Gunbuster February 2007.

  1. ^ Shirow, Masamune [1985] (1995). Appleseed Volume One: The Promethean Challenge, trans. Studio Proteus, UK ed., London: Manga Publishing. ISBN 1-900097-01-X. 
  2. ^ Manga Entertainment Announces International Partnership for Iron Kid. Anime News Network (September 8, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
  3. ^ Anime which Manga Entertainment has licensed. Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.

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Starz Media: Starz Home Entertainment · Film Roman · Manga Entertainment · New Arc Entertainment
Website: www.starz.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_Entertainment"
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