End of an Era: Manga Entertainment Rebrands to Funimation in the UK and Ireland

I understand their reasoning (and as a company they had their issues) but it still leaves a bit of a bad taste with Manga being such a pioneering UK brand in the anime scene not just in the UK, but in the English speaking world in general. Would there even be a UK anime scene without Manga and their sensationalist ways and ridiculous dubs? Certainly not on the scale there is now.

Besides, I've always hated the name "Funimation" it just sounds so cheesy and more like they produce animation for pre-schoolers or something.
 
ayase said:
I understand their reasoning (and as a company they had their issues) but it still leaves a bit of a bad taste with Manga being such a pioneering UK brand in the anime scene not just in the UK, but in the English speaking world in general. Would there even be a UK anime scene without Manga and their sensationalist ways and ridiculous dubs? Certainly not on the scale there is now.

Besides, I've always hated the name "Funimation" it just sounds so cheesy and more like they produce animation for pre-schoolers or something.
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I agree it just feels wrong as it was such a staple of the UK industry (Madmans probably bracing themselves).
I agree too that Funimation sounds like a kids brand but at the same time 'Manga' is a stupid name for a predominantly anime company 😂
 
This is sad.... I also first got into anime via Manga VHS tapes, leading to my family referring to anime as "Mangas" for a while, which made me finding out and getting into manga rather awkward.

Oh well, what can you do? I'll just roll with it.
 
It makes a lot of sense to consolidate brands so that people can actually find things online, so I approve overall. It is weird to think of a UK anime industry without some flavour of Manga, though, even though I haven't bought anything from the brand in more than a decade.

R
 
I have also been buying anime since the Manga ent. VHS days. I still have some of my Manga VHS tapes.

Even though I don't buy much from Manga ent. anymore, I must admit when I found out Manga is changing over to Funi I did feel an emptiness.

I have not finished buing Naruto Shippuden DVDs. I probably should get that done.
 
Don't think I'll be buying anything else from them again. Had to cancel my pre-order of Golden Kamuy as they kept pushing it back.
 
Rui said:
It makes a lot of sense to consolidate brands so that people can actually find things online, so I approve overall.
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It does make sense, perhaps it’s just my Britishness prickling slightly, I dunno, but even putting a business head on I still find the Manga name and logo far stronger and snappier from a branding perspective than Funimation’s bland eyeless smiley and four-syllable stupid name.

Perhaps they’d sell it to me and I could use it to market digital audio-only British talent dubs that bore no resemblance to the original scripts. Take them back to their roots, as it were. Would I be breaking any laws if I did that, out of interest? It wouldn’t be any different to DSotM syncing up to The Wizard of Oz, surely? But then perhaps they’ll sell it to Jerome and he’ll start Manga Mk.9 or whatever it would be now.
 
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As much as I know nothing lasts forever, and it's hardly the end of the world, I'm finding it really hard to process this.

What gets me is how many of my cherished memories as a fan of anime Manga are tied into, and how I've taken it for granted. From dashing down to Woolworths to buy my first anime on VHS to scouring the fanzines and mail-outs for news of the company's new releases. Or even just stopping off at the two local branches of John Menzies to check the spinner racks for new tapes. The early 90s were such an exciting time.

It's weird, but as I've been working tonight, I've found myself looking at the massive bookshelf I've got stuffed with DVDs and Blu Rays and looking at the Manga logo on the spines. To think that I was in my middle teens when I discovered the company, and I'm an old fart of 44 now.

Thirty years is a damned good run, I guess. But I'll miss seeing that logo around, all the same.
 
Aww, Manga go back such a long way. I'll miss them. Feels like an end of an era, though actually I think that happened years ago, when streaming started and then the likes of AL turned up with their "we'll sell you this series for the price of your soul, just because it's got a cardboard box around it labelled Collector's Edition" business model. Manga's releases were always just about the content, and I respected that.
 
The world is a little sadder without that Manga logo in it. Manga were the true antiheros and badboys of the anime industry, and like most people in this thread, they played a massive part in introducing me to anime and making me love it. They were so synonymous with anime to me that I was one of those dunces that used to call anime 'manga' for years and years, I don't think I actually stopped doing that until I was like 20 years old or something!
 
Some relevant counter-points to consider:

Manga may have dipped a toe in the premium release format market, but it's worth noting that it was never their default approach. That had a really important knock-on effect when it came to most their releases. It made them attainable for a lot of folks from day one.

What I think might be interesting with regard to Manga Entertainment being rebranded as part of Funimation is the possibilities that could pose for the UK physical media market. Let's remember, Funimation is the biggest Stateside distributor of anime. And they have access to a HUGE library of licensed shows - as well as past form for putting out budget priced releases of older shows from their back catalogue with the S.A.V.E. line over there.

Would that necessarily carry over to the UK market? Who knows. Something the retiring of the Manga branding brings home is that this industry is changing all the time, so it's hard to predict.
 
People seem fo have forgotten its been Funimation since 2019

As I said on Twitter:

Look at when they were owned by Starz, huge collection of Funimation titles, licensing shows like Panty and Stocking and Madoka Magica.

The main reason they wanted to go independant was because USA companies had almost all control over digital content

Now look at when they seperated from Starz.

Animatsu mostly had Sentai releases so for a year we pretty much had 2 MVM's. And between 2017 and 2019 they mostly released Shonen Jump shows

Only really getting better post-2019 when they got bought out by Funimation

As soon as they got bought out by Funimation we began to see great shows like New Game, Dragons Maid, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, Star Blazers and Clannad

Stuff that would never have been touched by Manga UK. How many years have people been asking for Clannad Bluray for example?
 
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