[Lynk Former]

This is a big shock but it looks like Funtastic has just bought out Madman Entertainment. Tim Anderson of Madman Entertainment will be making an official announcement about this soon.

Stay tuned.

[darktruth]

Hi everyone,

I have a message from Tim and he has asked me to post this on his behalf.

Fellow Madboarders,

It has been awhile since I appeared here, but you all helped us get where we are today and so I wanted to address your concerns personally.

Many of you are correct: nothing will change! Funtastic were interested in Madman for what we do right and I like to think (for the most part!) we keep you all pretty happy. There will be no upsetting of apple carts and in fact, if anything, we will be teaching Funtastic a thing or two!

When it comes to anime, Funtastic trust us. They know that we are fans of anime. They know we read manga. They know we talk to you guys and do our best to address your concerns. They are right behind anime and INSIST that we keep doing what we’ve been doing and they want to give us the tools to do it BETTER!

I am staying right here as Managing Director of Madman. Sly and the rest of the anime team remain in place. For the record, AV Channel (our distributor,) is part of the deal, but this too will not affect the way we do business. Our products will show up in stores as normal.

Now, the other point of concern I can see is the references to Funtastic and kids properties. Let me assure you, if “Ninja Scroll 2” or a new Gantz series is released, I’m going to jump right on them. Remember: I love this stuff too!

We WILL be pursuing more kids properties, but under our new “Mad 4 Kids” label. Think of this like Eastern Eye – separate to the anime.

Keep an eye on Madman guys – there’s lots of exciting, POSITIVE stuff planned and I hope you’ll stick around to see us take anime and manga to the next level!

- Tim Anderson
Managing Director

Hmmm...well at least it doesn't appear to be as bad as I first thought it was gonna be but that doesn't mean problems and issues won't arise from this acquisition Funtastic has done.

The thing that really gets me concerned about any future anime acquisitions Madman want to get that's targeted towards teens and mature adults was Tim's quote "Let me assure you, if “Ninja Scroll 2” or a new Gantz series is released, I’m going to jump right on them. Remember: I love this stuff too!". That doesn't really confirm if Madman will have any future chances of licensing more mature and darker anime titles and since he's sold Madman it would appear that he wouldn't have the final say and we know the market that Funtastic aims for.

[Moelman]

Surprise move indeed. I've never even heard of Funtastic but I'm probably the only one.

[darktruth]

Well at least Madman still remain Australian owned, I thought Funtastic was part of Funimation until I checked their website lol.

From that sale I suspect Funtastic merged with Madman so they could sell more of their toys since Madman appeals to a lot of audiences from a wide variety of ages and they were starting to specialise in anime toys as well.