Logo Pictures by Eric S.
Videos by LogicalSmash and ElMuvimaiker

Background: Based in Barcelona, Spain, Manga Films was created in 1993 as a distributor for Japanese anime (mostly from Toei Animation) and Asiatic action and horror films. Its success took it to diversify its catalog in the late '90s, starting to distribute independent American films and many British movies and TV shows (sometimes under the name of its subsidiary Sherlock Media), and even entering in the production world. Nowadays Manga Films is maybe the most powerful Spanish-based independent media distributor: for instance, it currently holds he rights of all the RKO library in Spain as well as a major part of the Hammer Productions library. Their website is: http://www.mangafilms.es/


1st Logo
(1993-1999?)

Nicknames: "Fire!"; "Anime no Fayaboruu", "Anime Fireball", "Red-Hot Metal"

Logo: On a black background, we see a fireball crossing the screen diagonally from left to right. Then silver letters zoom out while flipping and place themselves in the center of the screen. Then a huge burst of fire engulfes the screen and the letters turn red as it dissipates. The lines glow and pass from 3D to 2D, as a light streak forms the word "F I L M S" in white. The URL of the company's site fades in below.

FX: The fire, the letters turning from 3D to 2D.

Cheesy Factor: The CGI animation is a bit dated nowadays, and the URL fading in looks cheap, but that's all.

Music/Sounds: A somewhat weird mixture of (a bit stereotypical) Japanese folk music with powerful percussion when the fire bursts and synths that ends with a little "ping".

Availability: Almost extinct. You can find it on [not quite] old VHS tapes from Manga Films, like its Dragon Ball GT release. On later vhs releases (for example on Monty Python's Flying Circus VHS release from year 2000) it was substituted by the "Orbiting cubes" logo.

Scare factor: Medium; all that fire and the eerie music can startle some viewers, though, as many other logos, is more annoying than scary.

2nd Logo
(1990s?- )



Nickname: "Orbiting Cubes"

Logo: On a black background, some red glowing lines start zooming out while twisting. As they make their way, they reveal themselves as three rectangles that keep twisting and finally merging together with a quick flash. Then a streak of identical rectangles is formed and we zoom through it at a very high speed while in the background some vertical and horizontal hyperspace-like lines appear. At the end of the streak we reach a web-like structure formed by moving lines which are formed by 0's, 1's, and the word "films". In the web, four stars are formed (distributed in a way that resembles part of the Great Bear constellation) and merge together as a set of silver cubes enters the scene and starts orbiting the new star, which glows, rotates and moves down until disappearing. The cubes then go out of orbit and start falling until crashing - perfectly aligned and leaving trails of light - into some kind of floor. The floor zooms out as white trails form letters in a down-to-up pattern, leaving the words "manga films" as a white, glowing rectangle surrounds the now finished logo.

FX: Very nice CGI animation that features glowing lines, weird moves and angles and flashes.

Cheesy Factor: OK, now this is a very nice and visually appalling logo and all that jazz, but what is it meant to represent? Moreover, the logo ends quite abruptly.

Music/Sounds: Some "whoosh" sounds, followed by a dramatic fanfare with synths and strings.

Availability: Fairly common.

Scare Factor: Low to medium; the numbers, all those sudden movements, the dark environment, and the dramatic fanfare may get to some, especially if they see it for the first time.