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MVM Oct Expo 2009 Interview

MVM Oct Expo 2009 Interview

Written by Kevin Leathers on 11 Nov 2009



During the course of the London Expo not only did we manage to capture Jerome of Manga, but we also cornered Tony of MVM and dragged him off to the shadows to get an interview. So without further ado, here it is.

UKA: MVM has been licensing anime for nearly 12 years, seeing the rise and fall of companies during that period; what do you think has helped MVM to be a successful business over the years?

MVM: Undoubtedly it’s because being a one man operation I control everything and can move faster than lumbering large companies when problems arise. In essence MVM’s operation is just as large as other publishers but is all put out to third parties, - sales, marketing, PR, distribution – everything.

I don’t have staff or glitzy office premises to maintain. Marketing anime in the small UK market could not be done any other way if you are not backed by a multi-National operation spreading its risk and costs over several territories and genres.

UKA: MVM has been offering live-action titles for release, have these been successful for the company?

MVM: Yes very much so and quite an eye opener. No offence to anime fans but anime is hard work.

Live action sells three times better and for much less effort. Those fans who moan about UK anime distribution should think themselves lucky it exists at all.

UKA: MVM are releasing a fair amount of older titles such as X and Slayers, as well as upcoming releases; are you seeing many sales for these older titles?

MVM: Older titles do OK. FLCL for instance achieved excellent results. Slayers should have done better – that’s me listening to the vocal minority again. (Nightmares of Sailor Moon!)

To be honest that batch of older titles were picked up to maintain a release schedule in the face of new product drying up.

UKA: The new Slayers series are set to start in 2010, has Slayers proved to be a success for MVM in terms of sales?

MVM: See above. Maybe the box sets will be better received.

UKA: FUNimation is also planning to release Slayers Revolution and Slayers Evolution-R in 2010, will the UK release be quite close behind the US release?

MVM: We have the rights. UK release will depend Australian PAL release.


Kevin Leathers

Author: Kevin Leathers


Kevin hasn't written a profile yet. That's ruddy mysterious...

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