What Happened To Manga Entertainment’s Cartoon Network Releases?

Those of you familiar with my story of how I got into anime will know that I’m not just a fan of anime but animation as a whole. However, I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to collect Western animated series over here in Ireland and that difficulty was part of the reason why I celebrated the news that Manga Entertainment was going to be releasing some Cartoon Network series. However, as of 2021, I have to ask the question “What happened to Manga Entertainment’s Cartoon Network Releases?”

I should begin by explaining why the release of Cartoon Network series was so significant. Cartoon Network has been at the forefront of the rise in quality in Western Animated TV series with many of their shows such as Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Regular Show and many others garnering critical acclaim and loyal fanbases. Several attempts have been made to release these shows in the UK and Ireland in the past with a particularly notable example being the original Adventure Time releases which saw entire episodes missing.

The initial Manga Entertainment releases of Cartoon Network shows seemed very promising. They began by rereleasing Adventure Time seasons 1-5 uncut on DVD and Blu-Ray which was quickly followed by a release of the entirety of Samurai Jack on DVD and Blu-Ray. They also announced the release of the highly critically acclaimed miniseries Over the Garden Wall on DVD and Blu-Ray and a release of Season 1 and 2 of Steven Universe on DVD and Blu-Ray. It truly seemed that the days of Cartoon Network shows not being released on home video here were over.

However, Steven Universe was delayed and while Season 1 was eventually released, I picked up a copy of it myself, Manga Entertainment announced that their release of Steven Universe Season 2 was cancelled. The only explanation that they offered was that it was “due to unforeseen circumstances”, a statement that you might notice is very cryptic. As far as I’m aware, Manga Entertainment has not elaborated on the cause and has not released any further Cartoon Network series since then as of this article.

As you might expect, I’m quite frustrated by this development and have been continually wondering what happened to Manga Entertainment’s Cartoon Network releases. However, this is not the first time things have changed seemingly without reason. Manga Entertainment served as one of the primary distributors of Funimation titles in the UK and Ireland prior to 2016 when they were suddenly dropped with little to no explanation in favour of Anime Ltd. This was reversed recently when Funimation announced their acquisition of Manga Entertainment.

The reason I bring up that story is to explain how little we know of what goes on behind the scenes at Manga Entertainment with drastic changes coming from seemingly nowhere. Without any knowledge of what specifically happened, I can only conclude that the licensor of Cartoon Network series dropped Manga Entertainment either because they were unhappy with the way that Manga Entertainment was marketing and distributing their series, they were unhappy with the distribution deal for whatever reason and withdrew their licenses or there was some type of dispute in the background.

Ultimately, I do not know what happened to Manga Entertainment’s Cartoon Network releases but I remain frustrated enough that I wanted to raise awareness of this as I haven’t seen or heard of many people discussing the issue. Let me know your thoughts on the unusual disappearance of Cartoon Network titles from Manga Entertainment’s release plans, whether you were excited like me to be able to collect these shows, your thoughts on any of these shows and any additional information you might have on the topic.

Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!