Manga Entertainment Anime Company

Company Overview

• Company Founded: 1991
• Website: manga.com
• Info last updated: 2010-05-09

Manga Entertainment, while not the most prolific North American distributor, has some very high profile titles to their name. In particular the company has licenses for a number of big-budget and critically-acclaimed films, among them the original Ghost in the Shell. Manga also operates in the UK, and, until recently, Australia.

Manga has taken a particularly active role in the production of anime, as well, helping finance the production of several films. They've also participated in anime productions created as tie-ins for other media, for example the Dead Space anime. The company has changed hands several times, but is currently under the banner of the Starz media group, of cable network fame.

Somewhat ironically, given the company name, they have almost no presence in comics at all, apart from a few US tie-in series.

Their Catalog

Manga's catalog makes up in quality what it lacks in breadth, with a focus on big-budget films. The centerpiece of their collection is probably Ghost in the Shell, both the original film and both SAC TV series. Other well-known titles are Blood: The Last Vampire, and the Street Fighter II movie. Due to various cross-licensing deals, they also show up in one role or another in the online distribution of titles licensed by other companies.

What Their Releases Are Like

Manga's releases tend to be top quality from end to end. Their original Ghost in the Shell DVD was one of the earliest anime DVDs released in North America, and included a wealth of special features impressive even a decade later. This set the tone for future DVDs, which feature at minimum bilingual audio, and often a wealth of extras. Inexpensive, however, they are not--prices are usually on the high end.

Manga has a catalog ripe for re-release in high-definition, and indeed they've already put out a few Blu-ray discs, including the enhanced-for-re-release Ghost in the Shell 2.0. They are alson on the VOD bus, with a number of titles available on iTunes (though pricing isn't particularly kind, with the $1.99 per episode Ghost in the Shell SAC series, for example, being all of $1 off if you buy all 26 episodes).