Crunchyroll Pty. Ltd., trading as Madman Anime, is an Australian distribution company focused on anime and Japanese media. The company handles licensing and distribution of anime in Australia and New Zealand. Originally part of independent film distributor

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatr ...

, the company is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures and

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both '' Fullm ...

's joint venture Crunchyroll.

History

As part of Madman Entertainment

Madman Entertainment was founded in 1996 by Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard as a mail order business specialising in imported anime titles, after following the success of

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyr ...

in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally selling titles on VHS, the company became the second Australian distributor to author

DVDs The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in-house, with the 1995 film ''

Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of ''The Ghost in the Shell'' ...

'' being their first DVD release. In 1998, Madman began airing anime on television, with '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'' airing on

SBS TV SBS may refer to: Broadcasting * SBS Broadcasting Group, Belgium, formerly many countries * Talpa TV, formerly SBS Broadcasting B.V., Netherlands ** SBS6, Dutch television channel ** SBS9, Dutch television channel * Special Broadcasting Service ...

. On 23 February 2008, Madman Entertainment announced that it had reached a distribution deal with

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

to distribute its manga titles in Australia and New Zealand. The distribution deal ended in April 2016, with

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

taking over distribution of Viz's catalogue, and Madman Entertainment ceasing distribution of all manga titles. At the 2008 Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Madman Entertainment announced plans to explore new distribution methods. Madman Entertainment launched the Madman Screening Room, a video on demand streaming service, with ''

School Rumble is a Japanese ''shōnen'' manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 345 chapters were later collected in 22 ''tankōbon'' volumes b ...

'' being the first title on the platform. Madman Entertainment also began releasing Blu-ray Disc titles, starting with '' The Transformers: The Movie'' in June 2009. On 1 June 2009, Madman Entertainment produced an English adaption of '' Tamagotchi: The Movie'', a 2007 film based on the

Tamagotchi The is a handheld digital pet that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the USA on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the biggest toy fads o ...

digital pets from

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

and WiZ. Madman also intended to dub the film's sequel, '' Tamagotchi: Happiest Story in the Universe!'', but the dub was cancelled for unknown reasons. In early 2016, Madman Entertainment announced Madman Anime Festival, an annual anime convention to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The convention was held in Melbourne on 3–4 September of that year. Following the inaugural convention, Madman announced that it would expand to Perth and Brisbane in 2017, and Sydney in 2019. The convention also became the host for the preliminary rounds of the Madman National Cosplay Championship in Perth and Brisbane.

As Madman Anime Group Pty. Ltd.

On 12 October 2016, Madman Anime Group Pty. Ltd. was incorporated as a separate company, being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Madman Entertainment. On 17 February 2018, Madman co-founder & CEO Tim Anderson confirmed that on 15 November 2017, Sony Music Entertainment Japan subsidiary

had acquired a minority interest in Madman Anime Group, and was issued an undisclosed number of shares. In late 2018, Madman Anime confirmed that they had reached a distribution deal with

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

, with Madman Anime becoming the local distributors for select Funimation titles in Australia and New Zealand, and Funimation handling licensing and localisation for titles. On 6 February 2019, Madman Entertainment's owners Five V Capital sold Madman Anime Group to Aniplex for . On 24 September 2019,

and

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainme ...

announced that they were consolidating their international anime streaming services under a new joint venture comprising Funimation, Madman Anime Group and Wakanim. The consolidation reorganized AnimeLab as a direct subsidiary of Funimation. The company changed its name to Crunchyroll Pty. Ltd. on 23 March 2022, following the rebranding of its parent company Funimation to Crunchyroll, LLC. On 29 March 2022, Madman Anime announced that Madman Anime Festival would be replaced with

Crunchyroll Expo Crunchyroll Expo (CRX) is an annual three-day anime convention held during August/September at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California over Labor Day weekend. The convention is organized by anime licensor Crunchyroll and L ...

Australia, with the first event scheduled for Melbourne on 17–18 September 2022.

AnimeLab

AnimeLab Pty. Ltd. was a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

service that specialised in the online streaming and simulcasting of Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series, serving the Australian and New Zealand market. AnimeLab originally launched in beta on 28 May 2014 as a Madman Entertainment

skunkworks project A skunkworks project is a project developed by a relatively small and loosely structured group of people who research and develop a project, often with a very large degree of autonomy, primarily for the sake of radical innovation. The term orig ...

with 50 series and 700 episodes, and replaced the Madman Screening Room. During its beta, AnimeLab streamed its series for free without advertisements. Originally streaming titles exclusively from Madman's catalogue, on 4 September 2014, distributor Siren Visual announced that they would release titles on AnimeLab, starting with ''

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is a Japanese light novel series written by Satoshi Wagahara, with illustrations by Oniku (written as 029). ASCII Media Works has published the series in Japan, while Yen Press has published the series in North America. The story is abou ...

''. AnimeLab also simulcasted '' Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works'', despite Hanabee acquiring the distribution license for the series. On 26 May 2015, AnimeLab announced that the website had exited beta, and introduced a paid subscription, alongside an ad-based free service. In August 2016, AnimeLab launched ''AnimeLab On-Air'', an anime programming block airing on Friday nights on

C31 Melbourne C31 Melbourne is a free-to-air community television channel in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its name is derived from UHF 31, the frequency and channel number reserved for analogue broadcasts by metropolitan community television stations in ...

and C44 Adelaide. The block later moved to a Monday night schedule. On 25 August 2017, AnimeLab announced that they would begin streaming select titles from

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

's back catalogue. The Adult Swim titles were later removed in 2020. At Madman Anime Festival Melbourne 2018, AnimeLab announced that they had reached one million users. AnimeLab also announced a collaboration with the

Australian Red Cross The Australian Red Cross, formally the Australian Red Cross Society, is a humanitarian aid and community services charity in Australia. Tracing its history back to 1923 and being incorporated by royal charter in 1941, the Australian Red Cro ...

to promote blood donations in Australia with the simulcast of ''

Cells at Work! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akane Shimizu. It features the anthropomorphized cells of a human body, with the two main protagonists being a red blood cell and a white blood cell she frequently encounter ...

''. On 24 January 2020,

announced that it would be shutting down access to FunimationNow in Australia and New Zealand on 30 March, merging all of Funimation's titles onto AnimeLab. On 10 June 2021, AnimeLab announced that it would begin the process of rebranding as Funimation on 17 June, with current AnimeLab subscriber credentials being transitioned onto Funimation's website on that date, and staff transitioning to Funimation ANZ. On 2 November 2021, AnimeLab announced that it would retire the service on 9 December 2021.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Australia, New Zealand, Companies, Anime and manga 2019 mergers and acquisitions Anime companies Australian companies established in 1996 Australian companies established in 2016 Companies based in Melbourne Crunchyroll Entertainment companies established in 1996 Entertainment companies established in 2016 Film distributors of Australia Home video companies of Australia Home video distributors Madman Entertainment