Manga Entertainment has been responsible for bringing arguably the biggest titles into the UK in 2008 – specifically Death Note, Bleach, GitS and Naruto. How have those titles performed for you, and do you think they’ve helped to expand your market?
JM - You forgot to mention The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Origin - Spirits of the Past! But yes, it's been a tremendous year for Manga. Naruto is by far the best selling ANIME franchise in the UK outside of the Studio Ghibli Collection. Bleach is the second best and Death Note the third. I have to thank the terrific and dedicated fans of these shows for their continuing success.
What was the biggest title for Manga in 2008? And what didn’t hit expectations?
JM - Origin and The Girl Who performed really well. Better than expected. Origin outsold Vexille and Applesed Ex Machina as did The Girl Who.
Both films have sold over 10,000 copies over the counter in their first 8 weeks of release. I was a bit disappointed with our Voltron release though.
Your recent deal with Funimation gives you a huge catalogue of hit titles to distribute – how did that deal come about?
JM - I must clarify a few things about Manga's relationship with Funimation. We don't have a sales and distribution deal with them like our arrangement with Viz Media. What we have done with Funi is license specific titles from them on a case by case basis. The deal came about through Funimation reaching out to me through our parent company in the US. Manga has built a great relationship for itself in the UK and this has not gone unnoticed by our friends in Japan and the US.
Are there any series for which you won distribution rights for that surprised you? Are there any series you wanted but missed out on?
JM - We all work really hard at Manga to secure the best content possible. I am not being arrogant, but Manga's track record in achieving the best distribution and exposure for our releases has meant that potential Licensors approach us first, so we usually get what we want. I love some of the stuff Bandai Visual is producing at the moment. Titles such as Freedom, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzamiya, Sword of the Stranger and Gurren Lagan are all shows I wish we could distribute in the UK. But they handle their own sales through Beez. Those are the titles I really wish we had. And of course the Studio Ghibli Collection.
How do you think the performance of other key distributors has affected the market as a whole? ADV in particular has gone through a sticky period – did that affect you?
JM - It has saddened me to hear of ADV's problems. Contrary to what some people think, none of us want to see the fan's miss out on their favourite shows. I like working with MVM, Beez and ADV/Lace. We all share information and work together to do our best to meet the fan's needs and further the ANIME cause. Manga has also helped Momentum to promote Vexille and Warners with Appleseed Ex Machina. We do stuff with Otimum too. We're all competitors, but we all understand the importance of working together to maximise the categories potential in the UK.
With the launch of Crunchyroll as a distributor, does Manga Entertainment have plans to expand into digital content? Are such services a threat or a new opportunity?
JM - We already have been. A selection Manga catalogue is already available on ITunes and XBOX Live with more new titles like Origin, The Girl Who, Afro Samurai to go live soon. We offer clips on our Manga.co.uk site and we also start working on mobile. Crunchy Roll is interesting, we'll see how it goes. I wouldn't rule anything out at this stage.
Finally, a question from our forum:
Having heard that Manga are possibly planning to begin the release of Naruto Shippuden as early as this summer, how does this square with the large amount of Naruto still left to run?
JM - it will be impossible for is to release Shippuden this year. We have to get to the end of Naruto first. We're up to episode 126 in February and should be finished with the seirira by the end of the year. At least you can watch it on Crunchy Roll!
