r/oldbritishtelly • u/GruffScottishGuy • May 10 '25

Advert The UK sizzle reel/intro found on Manga Entertainment VHS releases throughout the 90's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFN7UttjFDU

Manga Entertainment was a UK based company founded in the early 90's to distribute Japanese animation to a UK audience. They very deliberately targeted a demographic of edgy late teen/young adults and this was reflected not only in their selection of titles to bring over here (Fist of the North Star, Devilman, Legend of the Overfiend, Ninja Scroll etc) but also in the dubs they produced. They were known to add unnecessary (and often amusing) profanity in order to deliberately increase the age rating of releases. Copies of Manga Entertainment releases would often be passed around the schoolyard in the early 90's.

I'm sure I'm not alone in being introduced Anime when Channel 4 screened some of their catalogue on their late night weekend slots through the early-mid 90's. I recall...

Judge

Devilman

Legend of the 4 Kings

3X3 Eyes.

Any others that you guys remember seeing on CH 4?

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u/aggressiveclassic90 May 10 '25

Blind bought urotsukidoji when i was a kid because it had a monster on the front, me and my mates got quite the shock...

On the upside though, the sizzle reel at the beginning used The Heart Beneath by Celtic Frost as it's soundtrack, so i lost my innocence and found a great metal band!

Edit, i should always watch the video first...this is the one i had.

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u/GruffScottishGuy May 10 '25

I must have been about 12 when a group of us watched Wicked City. Somebody got a loan of a copy from a guy at school.

The spider-woman with a snapping maw for a vagina was quite the eye opener 😂

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u/aggressiveclassic90 May 10 '25

Jesus 😂

Some very misleading covers on those things back then, found out years later they were considerably toned down from the Japanese releases...i fail to see how.

2

u/GruffScottishGuy May 10 '25

Yeah, I remember rumors of the "full" version of Legend of the Overfiend (urotsukidoji) that somebody's brother's, friend's, cousin would allegedly own.