Let’s take a break from news in the U.S. and head over the Atlantic Ocean to check in on the United Kingdom.
In case you missed it, Funimation is acquiring Manga Entertainment, a distributor of anime in the U.K. Manga Entertainment is no stranger to shakeups — it was established in 1987, and later branched out in the U.S. and Australia markets. However, Manga Entertainment is no longer connected to the American anime market, having sold off its assets, but media company Lionsgate is supposedly going to relaunch the brand under their ownership.
They may not be as well-known in the US because of this, but over the years, Manga Entertainment has licensed or produced series like Ghost in the Shell, but recently they’ve been distributing titles from Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks, and, yes, Funimation as well as releasing Power Rangers and Pokemon titles.
But now Manga Entertainment is being taken over by Funimation. Funimation did have some operations in the U.K., and Manga Entertainment is immediately taking over. Some changes are already noticeable for anime fans: for U.K. and Ireland residents, FunimationNow is adding Manga Entertainment titles to their streaming service. A Certain Magical Index and Sword Art Online are already available and others like Naruto Shippuden and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood will be added soon.
Of course, it’s good that fans in these two countries will be able to stream these series legally for the first time ever. It softens the price increase that Funimation is implementing for new subscribers, and fans won’t have to turn to yet another streaming service to get anime.
On the other hand, some are worried that this will lead to higher pricing. Funimation titles haves already disappeared from rival Anime Limited, and Manga Entertainment prices releases competitively. Going forward, many titles that probably would have gone to Manga Entertainment will be farmed out to other licensors, and some may not get a release at all if these other companies don’t want to take a chance.
Plus, this could be another notch on Sony’s plan for global domination. They’re big in the US and Canada, now even bigger in the U.K., signing streaming agreements in China, and owned by a Japanese company. While this is a small number of countries, these represent many of the major markets that anime production companies are interested in.
But making acquisitions is a major part of most media companies’ modern strategies. Hulu, which was a jointly owned between several companies, is going to be fully under Disney’s control in 2024, but the effects of this buyout is already happening now. And this isn’t a huge gameshaker considering Manga Entertainment had already been cooperating with Funimation for years.
Licenses for a lot of these new-to-U.K./Ireland titles were likely too expensive or locked down despite their overall popularity. For any new companies, there’s the issue of having the infrastructure to launch a streaming service, and throw in some Brexit confusion, and it’s not that hard to understand why Funimation would want to acquire a company rather than building up more there. And while prices may go up, the U.K. releases may soon also include DVD and digital rights to help lessen the shock to your wallet.
Do you have to like it? No, since the less competition factor is a reason to be concerned. Hopefully Funimation and Manga Entertainment can get those pulled titles from Anime Limited back in the market very soon. But while physical release fans may be hesitant, digital fans should be over the moon to have so many major titles added. They may have wished that Funimation had added these anime without losing a well-liked distributor, but I’d say the list of titles makes up for it.