The Untold Story of UK Anime | Jerome Mazandarani | Nani Talks | Episode 16

How did Naruto reach the UK? Jerome Mazandarani was the person who licensed it along with a great team under Manga Entertainment from TV Tokyo. For our Season 1 finale, he sits down with us to tell that story and trace the road to Manga Entertainment, from Akira's run at the ICA to the DVDs that introduced a generation of British fans to anime.

We get into the five year pursuit of Dragon Ball Z, the days of LimeWire and early MCM London Comic Con, and Jerome's work on Cannon Busters and In This Corner of the World. He also takes us back to the shows he watched growing up, including Kimba and Robotech.

Then we ask what happens when hundreds of anime arrive each year but only a handful get a real push. Who gets to build a relationship with fans: the platform carrying a show, or the people who made it? The conversation moves from Crunchyroll to creators building anime in Singapore, Paris and Trinidad.

Finally, TC, Slick, The Quantum and the crew put four original anime in front of Jerome for the Greenlit Gauntlet. He gives each pitch an honest response, then leaves us with the older films he thinks new fans should see. Come for the Naruto story. Stay for the pitches and the watchlist.

The only anime podcast from the culture.

GUEST
Jerome Mazandarani
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerome-maz-anime
Substack: https://jeromemazandarani.substack.com/

CHAPTERS
00:00 The Godfather of UK anime
00:45 Welcome
01:55 Discovering Anime
10:13 Into the Industry
23:37 The VHS Years
34:59 Inside Manga Entertainment
40:47 Selling Anime to the UK
53:21 Streaming and Crunchyroll
58:35 Cannon Busters
1:09:54 The Content Rush
1:21:03 Creator Owned IP
1:36:03 Breaking Into Japan
1:55:57 The Creator Economy
2:05:54 Game Time
2:06:20 The Pitches
2:39:30 The What List

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#NaniTalks #UKAnime #MangaEntertainment #Naruto #Naniverse

Host
TC The Vision: http://instagram.com/tcthevision
The Quantum One: http://instagram.com/the_quantum_one
Slick: http://instagram.com/slickcrafted
Junior: http://instagram.com/juniorox_
Tun3s: http://instagram.com/_stay_tun3d
Jazzy: http://instagram.com/_jazmine4

Producer | Director: http://instagram.com/theblackkstar
Sound Design: http://instagram.com/kayper.d.w
Visual Architect: http://instagram.com/tcthevision