I recently had the chance to pose some questions to the creative staff at Manga Entertainment. Manga Entertainment is one of the largest translators of anime and manga around the world, oginally founed in London, England and currently headquarted in Los Angeles, California. They are known for translating titles like Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

1. Who founded Manga Entertainment and why?

Manga Entertainment was founded by Andy Frain for Chris Blackwell's Island Records in 1991. Our first release, Akira, was both a critical and commercial success, and led the company to license more anime for release in the Europe, Australia and, subsequently, the United States. Manga Entertainment became a hugely successful brand, consistently achieving Top 20 entries in the UK video charts

2. Why the name Manga Entertainment when your primary product is anime?

It’s a bit of a misnomer, but Manga was, at the time, synonymous with Japanese art. It was not generally known that Manga meant explicitly Book or Magazine in Japanese. That said the name is short, simple, and hard to forget.

3. For those who are still unfamiliar with anime or manga and how it differs from western comics/cartoons, how would you describe the differences to these people?

While Western cartoons/comics have started to catch up in recent years with the ideals portrayed in Eastern art, anime and Manga tend to deal with more introspective issues. They cover a wide array of stations in life from the salaryman to intergalactic hullabaloo. Regardless, they tend to heavily weigh on the big questions of life like, “why are we here?”

4. What anime is the most popular that Manga Entertainment's currently? ever? What about for manga?

Strait Jacket has been doing rather well. Overall, I’d have to say Ghost In The Shell as its popularity hasn’t diminished. Actually, we’re coming out this Fall with Ghost In The Shell 2.0 (not to be confused with GITS 2: Innocence) that will feature re-mastered scenes as well as new 3D CG scenes.

5. What genre is the most popular? Have you seen a change in this trend?

I’d have to say Shonen (younger male-oriented) because of Naruto. I do see other forms, such as Shojo (female oriented) becoming more popular. An interesting trend is in Motion Comics. Essentially, comic panels with select elements animated in the context of the panel with voice over. We’re going to be releasing a motion comic for Street Fighter, Voltron (to air on SyFy AniMondays in September) and one for the upcoming Sam Raimi series they just announced at Comic Con “SPARTACUS”.

6. What you do you prefer to watch: subtitles or dubs and why? Which do you prefer to work on?

Subs without a doubt. I much prefer to hear the original Japanese. That said, BangZoom! has done a great job with our dubs.

7. We have recently seen the decline of a major US anime retailer, Geneon, as well as a reduction in titles by other companies. Now we are in the middle of a global recession. How does Manga Entertainment see itself getting through this? What about the animanga industry as a whole?

Certainly, everyone’s been hit hard. It’s a natural cycle though. What goes down must come up eventually!

8. Has anime or manga peaked in North America? Do you think it will decline or increase in popularity in the future?

I don’t think it’ll ever decline. We haven’t recently seen the growth that we saw with its introduction to the US market. However, you have to realize that it’s ever more integrated with American art. Ultimately, I see anime and many forms of western animation becoming the same. Marvel’s Mangaverse line is a brilliant example. Really, Mangas and Comics have almost become synonymous. With our anime block on SyFy Ani-Mondays, we have a great opportunity to introduce new fans to the genre every week.

9. How does translating for dubbing and subbing differ in the way content is translated? What kind level of level do you assume the audience has of Japan for each type?

Heh heh. Well, Japanese obviously don’t need subs to translate Japanese tracks. Subbing is much cheaper and quicker to produce. All you need is a translator and a fast typist. Dubbing on the other hand is much more expensive and requires a whole army of voice talent and production personnel.

10. How do you view fansubbing and scanlation, both currently and historically? Do you think they were a help to the industry or not? If so, do you think they still are? What do you say to people who think a lot of the issue has to do with relative pricing compared to other DVDs and time delay?

I’ve seen some great fansubs and some terrible ones. The biggest problem with them is they’re distributed for free. It certainly makes it hard for the production companies to stay in business with this kind of thing going on. However, I’ve yet to meet a dub house or any voice talent for that matter who isn’t a fan. You could consider all professional subs to be fansubs on some level. As for Scanlation or any illegally distributed content, it’s really just theft, pure and simple.

11. Do you think a more literal translation is better or a one where more liberties are taken with the dialogue?

As with any translation, some liberties need to be taken to make the dialogue flow more naturally. I see a lot of literal translation that just read like broken English. Amusing, but doesn’t work very well especially in serious or dramatic scenes.

12. Where the narrative takes place. FE: if the manga takes place in Japan, does the translation still take place in Japan or are the references to items made more local to the intended audience's country?

We keep the translations as true to the original as possible. If it takes place in Feudal Japan, we’re not going to change it to modern day Brooklyn.

13. What are your personal favorite titles?

I have to say Ghost In The Shell and Ninja Scroll. Absolute classics.

14. Are there any projects you particularly liked working on?

The Dead Space Animated tie-in to the EA game was fun (and it was nice to get a free copy of the game ^_^).

15. Any final words?

Check out our anime block on SyFy’s Ani-Mondays Every Monday night at 11/10C. We’re also running horror-inspired anime titles on the Chiller Channel every Monday night at 9/8C. To get a heads up on this and other cool stuff, sign up at Manga.com to get the latest anime news!!!