Manga Entertainment (formerly Island World Communications) was founded in London in 1991 by
Chris Blackwell and Andy Frain, with Laurence Guinness in a key role, as a subsidiary of
Island Records' Island World Group. Manga Entertainment expanded into North America in 1993 with the purchase of L.A. Hero, forming Manga U.S. while Manga UK entered the Australian market in late 1993, off the back of strong import sales. Manga UK had originally chosen
Village Roadshow to be their Australian distributor, but began releasing titles in January 1994 in conjunction with the Australian division of Island's parent company,
PolyGram (through
PolyGram Video) and local independent distributor Siren Entertainment. Madman Entertainment assumed the Australian operations of Manga Entertainment in the late 1990s and inherited the Australian rights to the entire Manga U.S. & UK catalogue, while retaining Siren Entertainment as a distributor until 2001, when Madman Entertainment established its own distribution company, The AV Channel. On May 13, 2004,
IDT Entertainment, a division of
IDT Corporation announced they would purchase Manga U.S., becoming a subsidiary of IDT Entertainment. In 2005, Manga UK and Manga U.S. began to operate independently from each other, but still remain under the same ownership. In 2011, Manga U.S. ceased licensing new products after the release of
Redline and was absorbed into Starz Media. On August 8, 2012, Liberty Media announced that it would spin-off Starz Media into a separate publicly traded company. The spin-off of
Starz Inc. was completed on January 15, 2013, which included all subsidiaries.
2015–present On February 26, 2015, the UK branch was acquired from Starz Media, alongside its parent Anchor Bay UK, by managing director Colin Lomax. Anchor Bay UK was renamed to Platform Entertainment and went on to have exclusive rights to the Manga Entertainment branding and catalog in the UK and Ireland. In June 2016,
Lionsgate announced they would acquire
Starz Inc. which would eventually be completed in December 2016, placing Manga U.S. under
Lionsgate Home Entertainment. In the same month, Kaleidoscope Film Distribution announced they had purchased Platform Entertainment and confirmed that they would split Manga UK off to become separately operated. After Platform Entertainment stopped distributing Manga titles, they went on to having their titles released in the UK by Spirit Entertainment. In 2017,
Lionsgate Home Entertainment relaunched Manga U.S.' website and its
Facebook and
Twitter pages, and confirmed a relaunch in the near future. Lionsgate currently licenses the Manga Entertainment brand-name from
Crunchyroll. As of April 2026, Manga U.S.' website was shut down, with some of Manga's titles like
Ghost in the Shell being rereleased under the main Lionsgate banner. == See also ==