MVM Films is a British distributor of Japanese animation. The company sublicenses 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.
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MVM entertainment came into existence in 1990 as a mail order and retail shop that specialised in niche market items. It grew as did the demand for anime & 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.[1]
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 have 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 Entertainment released its titles in the United Kingdom through MVM. However, in a surprise announcement, FUNimation switched its UK licensee to Revelation films[2], starting in early 2007. This move has been credited to Funimation’s takeover by the Navarre Corporation, which already released titles via Revelation in the UK. MVM has retained its licenses for series animated by studio GONZO and licensed by FUNimation in North America, such as Samurai 7 and Burst Angel. Nevertheless, MVM’s market share was damaged, and the publisher lost some of its most popular titles, including Fruits Basket and Fullmetal Alchemist.