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Answerman - What Ever Happened to Manga Entertainment? (PART TWO: UK Edition)


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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 1:24 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
He sees a future where in order to grow beyond core anime fans, Japanese and Western companies will have to come together to find stories that production teams in both countries can be excited about.

Answer: Give Watanabe all of the things.
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cloud8100



Joined: 30 May 2010
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 2:48 pm Reply with quote
Interesting... Hopefully this means good things for the company in the future.

Also, I need Fairy Tail to be released in the UK again.
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2261
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:03 pm Reply with quote
Glad to hear that they are trying to make a comeback and seem to have a plan in mind going into the future.

However, I have to ask: Does this mean that the mangled GITS 25th Anniversary BD will be re-released at some future date with corrected subtitles and fixed dub audio?
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:10 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the followup article, Justin! It's nice to get a better idea of what's going on.
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fathomlessblue



Joined: 28 Mar 2012
Posts: 348
Location: Manchester, UK
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:19 pm Reply with quote
I wonder if this means it's actually been Jerome or Andrew ghost-writing the promotional facebook posts in recent months, or if that was left to some nameless behind-the-scenes person? The move from personality-based interactions with the fanbase to generic posts was a worrying sign.

Jeremy not joining them at Animatsu also seemed a little surprising as the three of them appeared to have a good rapport. Hopefully him going to Anime Limited was the result of convenience and not personal issues.

In any case, it's good to hear the company has been given a new lease of life. More competition with AL & MVM can only be a good thing for the consumers. Still, this change ultimately needs to lead to an improvement in how they actually author the disks for me to start buying their products again. The last year or so has been pretty dismal qc-wise and so far they've lacked the same accountability as AL, who've made clear and obvious steps to rectify issues. Maybe the average shounen fan might not even notice the constant subtitling, timing, chapter issues, etc. that have been cropping up, but the dedicated disk community have been only become more agitated and reluctant to buy for them. Hopefully this change will benefit everyone.
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Tempest_Wing



Joined: 07 Nov 2014
Posts: 305
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:21 pm Reply with quote
Hmm. Glad to hear they're getting back on their feet, but about the US division. I don't think it would work. There are already a a handful of companies firmly in place here in the US with two new additions (Ponycan and Aniplex) with only so many new anime. if Manga Ent revitalized their US division, they would just end up licensing the stuff nobody else wanted.
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Gasero



Joined: 24 Jul 2009
Posts: 939
Location: USA
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:52 pm Reply with quote
A great follow up story. I would like to see a few more of these follow-ups if the Answerman features bring attention to industry experts.

That's wishful thinking though.

I'm happy to see that some employees who desired to modernize are somewhat successful at remaining in the industry as independent.


Last edited by Gasero on Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:12 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
"The niche is not enough to maintain a streaming platform," Jerome says. "The valuation of a [streaming platform] is based on how many subscribers they'll have, and there's a ceiling we can't go beyond if we only act as a portal for purely Japanese content." Many previous US/Japan co-productions, he says, are examples of times where the Japanese crew just wasn't all that into it, and the end result suffered. He sees a future where in order to grow beyond core anime fans, Japanese and Western companies will have to come together to find stories that production teams in both countries can be excited about.
That's going to be the difficult one to crack, because Japanese anime seems to be stuck in the snow of high school fanservicing moe trying to create a spring of merchandise to sell to the otaku who are the only one's spending their money on any anime at all, where as the long running shounen Jump type shows are becoming rather threadbare and running out of fresh ideas, or ending altogether. The old guard of producers, directors and story writers are either retiring, dying, or dead already, and it seems fresh talent is either far and few between, or not discovered as yet. In short, a monumental task that will not be overcome in the short term.
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Buzz201



Joined: 21 Jun 2015
Posts: 266
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:16 pm Reply with quote
Tempest_Wing wrote:
Hmm. Glad to hear they're getting back on their feet, but about the US division. I don't think it would work. There are already a a handful of companies firmly in place here in the US with two new additions (Ponycan and Aniplex) with only so many new anime. if Manga Ent revitalized their US division, they would just end up licensing the stuff nobody else wanted.


The fact they let them keep the Manga branding for the UK, but not the Anchor Bay branding, suggests Starz has no intention of using it for anything big in the US any time soon...

Now we just have to hope somebody gets the big FUNimation deal Manga apparently no longer has.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 6:40 pm Reply with quote
Lemonchest wrote:
Answer: Give Watanabe all of the things.

I hope you don't mean CowboyBebopGuy, because after Japanese Zero-Consequences Nine Eleven, dude needs to be beaten with a rake.
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 7:58 pm Reply with quote
Glad to see a follow up with a nice spin on it.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5324
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 3:52 am Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Lemonchest wrote:
Answer: Give Watanabe all of the things.

I hope you don't mean CowboyBebopGuy, because after Japanese Zero-Consequences Nine Eleven, dude needs to be beaten with a rake.

I'm sorry what?
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vanfanel



Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 1242
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 5:52 am Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
Quote:
I hope you don't mean CowboyBebopGuy, because after Japanese Zero-Consequences Nine Eleven, dude needs to be beaten with a rake.

I'm sorry what?


"Terror in Resonance," his last show that didn't turn out so well. [edit: forgot about "Space Dandy"]

I'd downgrade the punishment to a knuckle-noogie, though, since he did give us "Kids on the Slope" as well.

I think it'll be hard for Manga to reach beyond an otaku audience when relatively few Japanese productions are even trying to do that themselves these days.

Might I recommend they take a look at "The Case of Hana and Alice," and possibly license the original film along with it? Shunji Iwai is a filmmaker who can grab the attention of film buffs outside anime fandom, and the fact he's made an animated prequel to one of his (IMO) better live action films might help get a few cinemaphiles to take their first look at an anime that isn't Akira. Of course, if that's successful, the problem will be, 'What do you give those guys next?' since it was a pretty unique film.


Last edited by vanfanel on Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:39 am; edited 3 times in total
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8461
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 6:02 am Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Lemonchest wrote:
Answer: Give Watanabe all of the things.

I hope you don't mean CowboyBebopGuy, because after Japanese Zero-Consequences Nine Eleven, dude needs to be beaten with a rake.


Space Dandy redeemed the lackluster Terror in Resonance.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14767
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 6:34 am Reply with quote
vanfanel wrote:

I think it'll be hard for Manga to reach beyond an otaku audience when relatively few Japanese productions are even trying to do that themselves these days.


It's recently recovering....... slowly but surely. The Great Recession Years really did a number on anime production: save for kids/toys anime, generally anime went into a shell, became conservative, and heavily relied on the sure thing that would bring them income --even during uncertain times-- which is otaku anime.

Yet while it got them surviving The Great Recession, it also steadily separated them from people who don't consider themselves otaku, like a population drift in the West. So it got harder to offer those people some things for them to enjoy.

But anime is expanding again, slowly but surely becoming a bigger tent that could accommodate more different populations, and not just concentrating on a few specific ones. So it may get there anew to be part of the Western zeitgeist and not just based on shows of past era such as Pokemon, DBZ, Naruto but newer ones like Attack on Titan.
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