MVM Entertainment

MVM Entertainment, also known as MVM and MVM Films, is a British distributor of Japanese animation. The company sub-licenses anime titles from US anime companies such as Media Blasters, Geneon, Nozomi Entertainment, Urban Vision, AnimEigo and US Manga Corps, which do not have a UK presence, and releases them on Region 2 DVD. It is part of the MVM Group, which also has wholesale and retail arms, and specialises in anime, manga and related merchandise. It is headquartered in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales.

MVM Entertainment came into existence in 1990 as a mail order and retail shop that specialized 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. Today MVM have over 40 different titles for the UK market and is the largest anime distributor in the country by volume of titles.

Some of their DVD releases have been jointly mastered with Australia's Madman 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.

Up until November 2006, Funimation distributed their titles in the United Kingdom through MVM. However, in a surprise announcement, Funimation switched their British distributor to Revelation Films, starting in early 2007. This move has been credited to Funimation’s takeover by the Navarre Corporation, which already distributed titles via Revelation in the UK. MVM retained their licenses for some series animated by studio GONZO and licensed by Funimation in North America, such as Samurai 7 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 (although re-licensed by MVM in late 2011) and Fullmetal Alchemist. They later lost access to Chobits when the US rights passed from Geneon USA 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 since October 2008) are Aquarion, .hack//Quantum, Shakugan no Shana, Ga-Rei: Zero, Sankarea, Is This a Zombie? and [C] – Control.

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