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Manga Entertainment is a producer, licensor and distributor of Japanese Animation in the United States and United Kingdom . The company was founded by Laurence Guinness working for Chris Blackwell's Island World entertainment group in London in 1991, and began to operate in the US in 1994. It is now headquartered in Chicago , with offices in London, Los Angeles and Tokyo .

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.1 Their focus is primarily on short anime titles such as OVA series and movies.

Manga Entertainment is owned by Starz Media , which is owned by Liberty Media .


ABOUT MANGA ENTERTAINMENT

Manga Entertainment is an entertainment company that specializes in the production of new animation, for example the Korean animation '''') However Manga is primarily involved in the distribution of anime in Europe and the U.S.A. .

Manga has also played its part in the ''.

Manga is a division of Starz Media , a subsidiary of Liberty Media , a venture capital firm specializing in the entertainment and media sectors. Manga is also part of Palm Pictures an entertainment business dedicated to bringing Asian cinema and music into the western world.

Manga Entertainment originally opened in London in 1991 in order to bring anime to the European market. The companies first release was the seminal film "AKIRA" which Laurence Guinness successfully acquired rights to. 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.

The Manga logo is now an established brand in the anime marketplace. Manga DVD releases are distributed throughout all key retailers in North America and Europe.

Manga was rumored to be releasing 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. {Link without Title}


CONTROVERSY


  • A frequent complaint is that the name of the company is inaccurate and, because of its early prominence in the release of anime in the west, has led to a perception that anime as a whole is called Manga. Manga technically refers to printed Japanese comics rather than animation. However, even in Japanese, the word is often used to refer to both printed and animated material, in the same way as the English word "cartoon."


  • Manga is also known for releasing many DVDs with technical problems including edited content (''Lupin III'', ''Virus Buster Serge'', ''Macross II'', ''Ghost Sweeper Mikami''), low quality DVD transfers from s instead of true translated subtitles (affected discs include ''Akira'', ''Naruto: Uncut (Naruto: Unleashed in the UK)'', ''Red Hawk'', ''Ghost Sweeper Mikami'', ''Orguss 02'', ''Angel Cop'', and ''Street Fighter Alpha Generations''). These and other problems have resulted in some critics pejoratively referring to the company as "Mangle".



MANGA FORCE

See Also: Manga Force: The Ultimate Collection



From January 2007 Manga 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.


ANIME LICENCED BY MANGA ENTERTAINMENT


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.


Current Licences UK



Current licenses North America


See also: List of anime licensed by Manga Entertainment .


US Spanish-language releases

  • ''Ninja Scroll''

  • ''Patlabor the Movie 1'' (expired)



Expired licenses North America


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.


ANIME SHOWCASE


''Anime Showcase'' is a promotional DVD which is being distributed for Manga by HMV in the UK. 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 ''''

  • Trailers For 'Tokyo Zombie', 'Noein', 'Tactics' and others.



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