UPDATED: Funimation Acquires Manga Entertainment UK

Joshawott

Joshawott

Monsieur Monster
AUKN Staff
Funimation Entertainment announced today, a major power move into the UK anime industry with the acquisition of historic distributor Manga Entertainment!

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Papers in Companies House revealed, that legally Sony Corporation (Japan) - not Funimation (USA) - took over Manga Entertainment Limited.
 
Relaxo said:
Papers in Companies House revealed, that legally Sony Corporation (Japan) - not Funimation (USA) - took over Manga Entertainment Limited.
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Funimation's statement refers to themselves as the acquiring party, and Manga UK is named as a subsidiary of Funimation. So the legal letter could be a technicality of Sony holding the cheque book?
 
Don't really care about the streaming, I just hope we can get titles like Nichijou, Saiki and Golden Kamuy? on Blu-Ray/DVD...
 
Saiki no way due to S2 not being FUNis Its dead. I dont know why they didnt get S2 but yeah.
Golden Kamuy is probably the safest bet but thats CR too.
 
Not sure how I feel about this... last time Funi got merged (acquired by sony) the UK got shafted, there's a lot moving Funi's way and not a lot moving manga's
 
Paul said:
I'd rather the UK anime industry had more autonomy. As was pointed out above, Funimation & Manga UK are now just different names for Sony, and the decision-making will reflect that.
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Its Japans fault in a way they sell all English speaks rights in one go and these companies can afford them. So FUNimation owns all english AoT , all english MHA,, all english Hyouka etc.
I think thats why AL and discotek get smaller titles these days as they want just UK and US rights respectively. AL can get UK rights if they go in first like Tokyo Ghoul and FMP IV but usually FUNi or CR gets them, or Sentai
 
@thedoctor2016 Think larger ;)
Since 2014 Crunchyroll tries to licence Worldwide ex-Asia, Netflix and Amazon even extended this to Worldwide ex-China.
Funimation claimed that the Crunchy-Funi-Partnership prohibited Funi to expand to non-english territories...
 
I would say Madman/ AUS is the only one they have a monopoly in. As nobody else’s seems to release BDs there. But it is worrying how much Sony is putting into western anime companies.
 
Well this may finally improve things. The less middle men a show has to go through to get released, the more likely we are to get it.
 
I'm working on updating the article now, but thought I'd drop in now with some nuggets from a call I had with Jerome this morning:
  • Manga UK will still be allowed to pursue licenses from other companies.
  • They will likely be able to license more content, due to now being part of a global family instead of having to pitch solely for UK/IRE rights.
  • He sounded really enthusiastic about working with Funimation Now to boost their digital offering.
  • Will look at catalogue opportunities where available. Said My Hero Academia S1 was a priority.
  • Couldn't comment on Dragon Ball Super or One Piece at this time. Said a lot is still being worked out with licensors, materials etc.
 
Still being able to pursue licenses from other compaines is pretty good

Edit: Though i think a lot of this will be assuming Sony/Funi or whoever is fronting the BBFC costs to get more licenes here would be willing to do so.
 
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