MVM Entertainment, also known as MVM and MVM Films, is a British licensor and distributor of Japanese animation. The company also sub-licenses anime titles from US anime companies such as

Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

Geneon (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distributi ...

AnimEigo AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to lic ...

and

US Manga Corps Central Park Media, often abbreviated as CPM, was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York and was headquartered in the 250 West 57th Street building in Midtown Manhattan (on the corner of Central Park, hence ...

, which do not have a UK presence, and releases them on Region 2

DVD 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 ...

. It is part of the MVM Group, which also has

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

and

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

arms, and specialises in anime, manga and related merchandise. It is headquartered in

Chepstow Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the wester ...

, Monmouthshire,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

History

MVM Entertainment came into existence in 1990 as a

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing ...

and retail shop that specialised in niche market items. It grew as did the demand for anime and manga products into the nineties, allowing the company to start licensing anime series for the United Kingdom market in 1998. MVM currently have over 250 titles listed on their official website. The company continues to license TV series and films from major Japanese productions such as the ''Monogatari'' series, the '' Fate'' franchise, ''

Girls und Panzer , abbreviated as ''GuP'' or ''Garupan'' , is a Japanese anime franchise created by Actas which depicts a competition between girls' high schools practicing tank warfare as a sport. The series was directed by Tsutomu ...

'', as well as popular titles that include ''Berserk'', ''

Samurai Champloo is a 2004 Japanese historical adventure anime television series. The debut television production of studio Manglobe, the 26-episode series aired from May 2004 to March 2005. It was first partially broadcast on Fuji TV, then had a complete a ...

'', ''

Tenchi Muyo! is a Japanese anime, light novel and manga franchise. The original series began with a six-episode OVA called created by Masaki Kajishima and directed by Hiroki Hayashi, and released in Japan on September 25, 1992. The series was ...

'', ''

No Game No Life is a Japanese light novel series by Yuu Kamiya. It is published under the MF Bunko J imprint with ten novels released between April 25, 2012, and January 25, 2018. The author and his wife, Mashiro Hiiragi, adapted the novels into a mang ...

'', '' Land of the Lustrous'', '' Flip Flappers'', ''

Toradora! is a Japanese light novel series by Yuyuko Takemiya, with illustrations by Yasu. The series includes ten novels released between March 10, 2006 and March 10, 2009, published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. Three ...

'', ''

The Garden of Sinners ''The Garden of Sinners'', known in Japan as sometimes referred to as , is a Japanese light novel series, written by Kinoko Nasu and illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi. Originally released as a series of chapters released independently onl ...

'' and ''

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai ''Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese light novel series written by Hajime Kamoshida and illustrated by Kēji Mizoguchi. ASCII Media Works have published twelve volumes since April 2014 under thei ...

''. Many of their releases have been jointly mastered with Australian distributors, including

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 ...

and Hanabee to save costs, and are therefore dual-region (Region 2 and Region 4). The company also won the ''Best Anime distributor'' award in the 2006 ''Neo'' Magazine Awards. MVM Entertainment had also managed to win the 2009 ''Best Anime Distributor'' award in ''Neo'' magazine amid stiff opposition from the likes of Beez and Manga Entertainment UK. On 5 July 2018, owner Tony Allen gave an interview to The Anime Independent where he announced that MVM would begin to remove DVD from their new acquisitions in line with their partners at

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

and

. He states:

We all suffer the same problem of minimum print runs on two formats where sales are then split across those formats and often leaving us large quantities of stock. Recent increases in costs of warehousing unsold and slow moving stock has made it all the more important to consider the hard economics of servicing two formats. It's just a repeat of the old VHS / DVD position.

The official dropping of DVD began in Q4 2018.

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 ...

Up until November 2006,

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 ...

distributed their titles in the United Kingdom through MVM. However, in a surprise announcement, Funimation switched their British distributor to

Revelation Films Revelation Films is a British film and television production and distribution company delivering visual entertainment via cinema, television and digital platforms. Tony Carne founded Revelation Films in 1992 as a video and television production ...

, starting in early 2007. This move has been credited to Funimation's takeover by the

Navarre Corporation Navarre Corporation was an American public distribution and publishing company founded in 1983 by Eric H. Paulson. The company was headquartered in New Hope, Minnesota. Navarre owned three subsidiary companies: a software publisher, Encore, In ...

, which already distributed titles via Revelation in the UK. MVM retained their licences for some series animated by studio

GONZO Gonzo may refer to: People * Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname * Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo * Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose sta ...

and licensed by Funimation in North America, such as ''

Samurai 7 ''Samurai 7'' (stylized as ''SAMURAI 7'') is a 2004 anime television series produced by Gonzo and based on the 1954 Akira Kurosawa film ''Seven Samurai''. The seven samurai have the same names and similar characteristics to their counterparts f ...

'' and '' Burst Angel'', since they were licensed directly from GONZO. Nevertheless, MVM's market share was damaged, and the publisher lost some of their most popular titles, including ''

Fruits Basket , sometimes abbreviated , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya. It was serialized in the semi-monthly Japanese manga magazine , published by Hakusensha, from 1998 to 2006. The series' title comes from ...

'' (although re-licensed by MVM in late 2011) and ''

Fullmetal Alchemist is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. It was serialized in Square Enix's ''shōnen'' manga anthology magazine '' Monthly Shōnen Gangan'' between July 2001 and June 2010; the publisher later collected th ...

''. They later lost access to ''

Chobits is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by the Japanese manga collective Clamp. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Young Magazine'' from September 2000 to October 2002, with its chapters collected ...

'' when the US rights passed from

Geneon USA (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. The ...

to Funimation; however, they succeeded in re-licensing it in late 2010, followed by ''Fruits Basket'' and ''Kiddy Grade'' in late 2011. MVM's most recent releases of Funimation-licensed titles (who have had an exclusive distribution agreement with

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 ...

since October 2008) are '' Aquarion'', '' .hack//Quantum'', ''

Shakugan no Shana , also known simply as , is a Japanese light novel series written by Yashichiro Takahashi with illustrations by Noizi Ito. ASCII Media Works published 26 novels from November 2002 to November 2012 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. The ...

'', '' Ga-Rei: Zero'', '' Sankarea'', ''

Is This a Zombie? , also known as for short, is a Japanese light novel series by Shinichi Kimura, with illustrations by Kobuichi and Muririn. Since January 2009, 19 volumes have been published by Fujimi Shobo under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint. There ...

'' and '' – Control''. On 2 January 2014, MVM had acquired Accel World, We Without Wings, Chrome Shelled Regios anime with Accel World releasing in June 2014.

References

External links

MVM FilmsMVM Group
(Archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mvm Films Entertainment companies of the United Kingdom Anime companies Companies of Wales Entertainment companies established in 1990 Mass media companies established in 1990 1990 establishments in the United Kingdom