As anime distribution companies flail, UK press does little to support fledgling anime enterprises. In Akadot's own club profile of an Oxford anime fan club, Oxford Anime Vision, president Ian Roberts laments anime's decline in popularity, citing both the media and poor title release choices as being at fault.

"We've lots of bad publicity for anime in this country and the super-violent and super-sexual releases by Manga Video have given rise for a definition of anime in the shorter Oxford English Dictionary as 'Japanese Animation predominantly known for excessive sex and violence,'" Roberts admits.

On top of poor publicity, a rigorous, government-sponsored ratings program increases the difficulties that an anime distribution company faces in the UK.

"Under UK law, all video recordings must be censored by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) before they can be legally sold or rented," informs Weeks.

Numerous titles have been edited by the BBFC for sexual and violent content, while "La Blue Girl" and the first two episodes of "Urotsukidoji IV" were banned outright. The BBFC causes further legal problems for anime distribution companies.

"It is a criminal offence in the UK to supply any video recording that has not been registered with the official censor (the BBFC), certified by them, and labeled accordingly," Weeks reports. "Also, copyright holders license the supply of videos by territory, so the supply of any video outside its intended area of distribution is a breach of copyright."

And the MVM web site warns that it is illegal to sell imported videos to UK customers.

In spite of all these draw backs, the UK still enjoys an extensive anime release list, which can also be viewed in Weeks' "UK Anime FAQ." And hope that anime will reach mainstream audiences persists as television networks continue to air popular anime series like "Cardcaptors," "Digimon," "Dragonball Z," "Escaflowne," etc. Perhaps a country known for nursing underground movements has not yet totally sunk anime's chances to reach popular heights.