Hey, Answerman!

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Enough of this jibba-jabba; let's get to work.

I've recently become a fan of Honey and Clover.  I think it's a very good series and should be licensed, however I'm beginning to have my doubts.  Among other things, the show has no real, for lack of a better term, "hook".  While being a very funny show with a touch of poignant romance, it has no real "thing" that makes it sticks out like some of the other titles brought stateside.  For example, Negima has the Harry Potter angle, Strawberry Marshmallow has the quasi-moe tooth-rotting factor, and even Kamichu has the whole "oh by the way, I'm a goddess" thing going for it.  Am I just a pessimist or is there something to my argument?

Well, to be fair, Strawberry Marshmallow and Kamichu don't really have "hooks" in America either; neither of them are being sold on anything more than the cover art. From a marketing standpoint, although Honey and Clover lacks the stomach-turning "moe" factor, it's just as much a challenge as something like Strawberry Marshmallow or the considerably less nauseating Kamichu. While those shows might have popular hooks in Japan, in America they're basically all the same; unless it has the "hook" of a badass guy with a big sword and a trench coat, a tie-in to a popular game or it's "from the creator of Cowboy Bebop", generally the show is going to be a challenge to sell.

That said, there's hope on the horizon for you, I think. Honey and Clover would fit very well in the pages of something like Shojo Beat, and as we all know, they recently launched Shojo Beat video, with Full Moon. If - and this is a big if - Viz decides to pick Honey and Clover up, they'll undoubtedly consider the anime as well. The title is well-known among English-speaking fans now that I think a manga license is inevitable (if not by Viz, perhaps Tokyopop or Del Rey). The anime is less of a sure thing; shojo comics outsell shojo anime by a very wide margin.

Music rights are always a sticky situation, regardless of the show. Paradise Kiss had the good fortune to close with Franz Ferdinand's last giant hit (and yes, they do have a very successful recording contract in North America...), but remember, the show can be licensed without that single. This has happened with plenty of other shows, like Kodomo no Omocha, where the rights to the opening or closing theme were unobtainable so they had to replace the song. So, to answer your questions in order:

1. If an American distributor wants the show WITH the Franz Ferdinand song, it's going to cost a lot more, yes. Odds are eventually they'll license it minus that song, however.

2. Not sure what you mean by this, but Paradise Kiss was a top-selling manga here in America so I'm pretty sure the anime will find its way over at some point.

3. Not really sure what you mean by this either, but the "Yazawa" name just means the series is going to cost a lot more to license.

4. Personally, I found Paradise Kiss to be massively entertaining and accessible, and it's also one of the few anime series I've seen that has the kind of high fashion appeal that would sell it to people who don't usually watch anime. I think the series would be pretty popular if they aired it on Bravo, for instance, which has had a history of success with shows like Project Runway and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Take a look at Bravo's lineup and tell me Paradise Kiss wouldn't be a great addition to their programming schedule?

first is Why is it when an american company lisences an Anime they change the intro from the awesome J-Pop to some crappy rap song? is it due to the fact that they don't have rights to use the song or is it because they honestly think that the rap intros are better?

my second question concrens the licensing of Tsubasa Chronicle. Funimation lisenced the first season but left the second season of the series unlicenced...why would they do this? Is it common practice in the anime buisness to liscence each season seperately or is this a special case?

Sometimes, as mentioned above, the licensor can't get the rights to the opening theme so they have to replace it; in the cases you're talking about, however, generally it's a marketing decision. Companies like 4Kids tend to think that for whatever reason kids will respond better to some rap song than the original opening theme (or a translation of the opening theme), so they replace the original song with whatever they come up with. Usually the result is some horribly embarrassing, written-by-committee piece of trash that ultimately detracts from the series rather than making it more palatable to today's youth.

I personally don't mind when they go with a basic instrumental song set to scenes from the show, a'la what they did with Naruto. It's a respectable way to have a generic opener that serves its purpose and then gets out of the way. Remember, opening and closing themes in Japan are designed to sell singles and CDs; they serve no such purpose here and generally just take up time that would otherwise be used by the meat of the show itself, so it makes sense to do away with them for the broadcast run of a popular series.

As for your question about Tsubasa, it depends on the show. Tsubasa had a break in between seasons and generally when that happens (or for a multitude of other reasons), the company licensing the title will only announce the first season since that's what they have plans to release immediately. If the show sells well enough, they'll announce season 2 somewhere down the line, if they had an option on it in the first place. It really depends on the conditions in the original licensing contract, and that's different from show to show. Either they only licensed season one, or they licensed the whole thing and only announced the first season, or whatever.

Frankly, I'm not sure why this is always the first question when a new license is announced. The exchange always goes like this:

Company A: "We licensed Super Ninja Love Squad!"
Fan A: "BUT DID YOU GET THE 15-MINUTE OVA PREQUEL?!"
Fan B: "DID YOU LICENSE SEASON 1.5 AND THE OMAKE DVD THAT WAS AVAILABLE TO PREORDERS IN JAPAN?!"
Company A: "Well we can't announce anything yet but..."
Fan C: "ARGH! MAKE SURE YOU LICENSE THE ANIMATED OPENINGS TO THE JAPAN-ONLY VIDEOGAME AND INCLUDE THEM ON THE FIRST DVD!"
Fan D: "YOU JERKS, NOW I CAN'T DOWNLOAD THE FANSUBS ANYMORE!"

I remember the 90's, though, when that conversation was a little more like this:

Company A: "We licensed Super Ninja Love Squad!"
Fans: "Hooray!"

Ah, the good ol' days.

Here's this week's rant, again courtesy of Jen Parker, in response to last week's discussion about yaoi. Originally, Jen apparently thought I wrote the rant, so she addressed all this to me and every instance of "Clockwork Butterfly" or "CB" used to be my name. Thank god for search and replace. A reminder: the following is in no way representative of the opinions of Anime News Network, Zac Bertschy, or anyone else save the person who wrote it.

I am a 22-year-old woman who has enjoyed yaoi and slash for a long time— but I've never considered myself to be a "yaoi fangirl" for reasons similar to what Clockwork Butterfly expresses. The term has the implication of this rabidly eager 13-year-old attached to it that I've never identified with. That aside though, I've long since learned to live with— and even appreciate —the classic fangirl.

CB is simply going to have to face a fact that I pointed out to another male yaoi watcher (a rare breed indeed) the other day: the yaoi/shounen-ai genre exists for women. It is created by women, and the vast majority of its audience consists of women. In Japan as well as America, these women are often on the younger side. The ones who are active in the fandom— convention attendees, community members, etc. —are often the most vocal / "into it" fans. And CB is surprised that he comes across young, excitable fangirls?

Maybe I can explain this better with an analogy. Say a young (maybe late teens/early 20s) girl gets into traditional western porn (as in watching, not starring). She starts trying to find online communities of fellow porn fans. And she is horrified to find that a large number of these fellow fans are actually middle-aged men who tend to objectify women and wank off a lot! "Well, duh," you'd say. "That's who porn is MADE for. What'd she expect?"

So: well, duh, CB. Those young, eager fans with disposable cash are exactly who Gravitation was made for. What'd you expect?

That older and even male fans exist is immaterial— they still aren't the majority demographic that the audience is seeking OR getting. I'm sorry you find young fangirls annoying (I often do too), but they're the reason that anime and corresponding manga (and slew of other merchandise) exist, and that's something that you just have to deal with— it comes with the territory.

Additionally, what's so "seriously wrong" about 13-year-old girls watching Boku no Sexual Harassment? No one's ever surprised to hear about a 13-year-old boy catching a few pornos online— even lesbian pornos. Girls have their own sexualities (surprise!) and on average, their sexual development starts earlier than that of boys. Yaoi is another outlet to let them experiment with their sexual identities without them actually having to go out and have sex, which I would say isn't a bad thing.

Oh, but there is good news for you, CB. Those young, over-eager girls are a large part of the reason why shows like Gravitation, Sukisho, and Loveless (not to mention Getbackers, Kyou Kara Maou, Yami no Matsuei, and other 'slashable' series) make it over to North America. And many of them grow up into more mellow and open-minded fans— and cool friends to have —in the end. I promise.

So what do you think? Do they have a point? Sound off on our forums and let the discussion begin!

If you have a rant of your own and would like to see your work in this space, just follow the rules below and you could be the next featured fan in RANT RANT RANT!:

Welcome to the newest segment in Hey, Answerman: RANT RANT RANT!

What I'm looking for are your best and brightest rants: no shorter than 300 words, on any topic you like related to anime. I'm expecting decent writing, and a modicum of sensibility. Send me a well-written and thoughtful rant that's a decent length, and I'll print it in this space, regardless of whether or not I agree with it, with no further commentary from me. The goal is to provide a more visible and public space for those of you with intelligent things to say about anime, the industry, anything you like related to the subject; discussion in our forums will surely follow.

The rules? Well, here they are:

1. No excessive swearing. "Damn" and "Hell" are fine, anything stronger than that needs to be excluded or censored.
2. Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
3. The word "Rant" must be in your email subject line.
4. Your rant must be at least 300 words, and use proper spelling and grammar. Internet speak, like 'lol' or 'u' instead of 'you' will not be tolerated.

Remember, your editorial doesn't have to be negative at all - feel free to write whatever you like, so long as it's on-topic. We're looking for solid, well-stated opinions, not simply excessive negativity.

Send your rants to [email protected], and watch this space next week for our first installment!

Congratulations to last week's contest winner Tamiko Honda. Apparently it was a really tough one, since only one or two people actually got it right.

The painting was Gustav Klimt's "Music I",