Anime distributor AnimEigo and parent company MediaOCD have released the latest episode of The Anime Business on YouTube featuring an interview with former Manga Entertainment Managing Director Jerome Mazandarani, who has been at the forefront of the UK and European anime licensing industry for over 18 years.
The Anime Business Episode 15 is available now on the official AnimEigo YouTube channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/@AnimEigo/videos
Founded in 1991 by Chris Blackwell and Andy Frain, Manga Entertainment was a prominent producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, and Australia. Andy Frain was interviewed in The Anime Business Episode 5 with a companion interview with Executive Producer Lawrence Guiness in Episode 6. Together with the new segment, the interviews provide an important first-hand history of the pioneering brand.
Mazandarani grew up in Australia and emigrated to the UK in the 90s. It was while working at Pinnacle Entertainment and managing distribution for a variety of Japanese video game titles where he reignited his love of anime. Pinnacle shared its London office with Manga Entertainment and Mazandarani was soon immersed in the burgeoning scene that was sweeping across the UK and Europe during the early and mid-2000s.
Manga Entertainment was acquired by Anchor Bay Films in 2004, and recommendations from colleagues introduced Mazandarani to Manga Entertainment Managing Director Kaoru Mfaume and Anchor Bay’s UK Managing Director, Mo Claridge, who hired Mazandarani as Manga Entertainment’s Marketing Manager in 2005. Andy Frain had departed the brand by then and a new era in home media in the UK was taking off as more fans discovered and embraced anime.
Until this juncture, Manga Entertainment had largely built its reputation and business model on anime films such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell, but Mazandarani quickly recognized a significant opportunity existed to license anime series. With the assistance of Kaoru Mfaume, Mazandarani added Naruto to the catalog. It was a massive bestseller and underscored an inflection point where anime finally became mainstream in the UK.
Manga Entertainment quickly followed with a string of hits that included Death Note, Bleach FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Soul Eater and Dragon Ball Z. Mazandarani also continued to expand the feature film roster with notable masterpieces like Mamoru Hosoda’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Mazandarani eventually rose to become Managing Director, and even as the success continued, a series of media brands were acquired and sold Manga Entertainment, which included Anchor Bay, Starz, and eventually Funimation and Sony. He goes on to recount how things began to change in 2015 as the advent of streaming platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll radically altered the anime home media market and business model. But Mazandarani also recalls proudly his work as a Producer of Cannon Busters, an innovative East-meets-West anime-style adaptation of the acclaimed comic book that streamed on Netflix.
Mazandarani ultimately notes that a huge part of the enjoyment of anime is not merely the content, but also the strong relationships within the fan community that have helped it endure and grow. Like music, he notes how anime is a critical tipping point for youth culture and, in addition to video games, it is the first audiovisual genre that can become a lifestyle and a critical benchmark for the identity of the fan. It is something that defines them and aspects of their life.
Source: Press Release
