Forum - View topicWhere are we going as far as licensing goes?
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Pessimistic Angel
Posts: 24 |
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Increasingly of late, I feel like many of the distributors are more or less locking themselves into primary action or comedy, or echhi oriented titles. More and more,
I see less and less of slices of life or philosophical titles. Being brought to West. Are anime industries as a whole in the state of ossification? think about it, what are our chances of ever getting Honey and clover in West? |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6921 Location: Kazune City |
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Who's to blame for this turn of events? Before taking up torches and pitchforks and marching up the hill to Castle FansubStein, consider that the Japanese licensors have dramatically raised licensing costs in the past few years, which means that a "risky" series like Someday's Dreamers that was an acceptable risk back in 2003 would be an unacceptable risk today. You can also blame the "silent majority" of [AS]-watching "casual fans" who don't necessarily download anime, but don't want to take risks buying series that aren't dark/action-packed/full of fanservice. (Marketing failure? Or maybe that's just how the fanbase is.) Incidentally, after finishing this post I'm going to watch the last four episodes of Human Crossing, a straight-up episodic slife series; honestly, if it were up on the auction block today, I don't think any licensee would even think about it, because it's too "boring" to interest a significant portion of the fandom. |
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LightYagami
 Posts: 257 Location: around the midwest |
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I agree. Because more companies seem to be more geared toward action oriented titles we may never get to see a stateside release of Monster, Mushishi, or possibly DeathNote. Especially(in my opinion at least) the former two are brilliant masterpieces, but yet few people have heard of them. Yet I'll admit they lack in the action department but the quality and substance of the plot of all three more than make up for it. And how many action titles out there can say that? |
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selenta
 Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I don't know about Monster, perhaps you're right, there's a decent chance it won't come out here. Death Note will though. Absolutely no question. The manga were extremely extremely high sellers here, the live-action movie was a top seller in Japan, they're making an anime series, and there's rumors that Hollywood is/was considering a remake. It'll make it here.
Mushishi I'm really questioning though. I knew it is an awesome show... but I never knew it's as popular as it is. Apparently it ranked number 6 or something on a best anime of all-time poll in Japan not too long ago, and if it's that popular there, how can the industry watch an episode or two of it and not liscense it? Then again, Haruhi hasn't been liscensed either 
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Curtis W.
 Posts: 94 Location: KCMO |
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All I am going to say is the Funi Told Fansubbers to stop subbing Mushishi. I will bet my life that they licenced it. |
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Animefreak6969
 Posts: 587 |
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YA the majority of casual anime watchers are normally action and/or ecchi lovers and affects what the companies are licensing and i dont like this because i WANT my Mushishi to come here along Death Note, and slice of life shows are some of the best, I didn't know Rumbling Hearts was licensed by Funimation until earlier today and i was like YES!! its wonderful to see this, and RightStuf needs to effing put out To Heart. I live To Heart its better than To Heart 2...........thats all from me
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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The marjority of any fanbase tends toward the easier to watch titles since people are taught from an early age that thinking is bad. (Remember being in school? Heaven help bookworms, for we are the target of relentless bullying.) Still, I think part of the problem with the more dramatic titles and the slice of life titles is marketing. Most people aren't checking ANN or their favorite licensing company's website daily for announcements. Marketing is key to a title's success but the anime companies don't like to spend much on this. Rumbling Hearts was licensed a couple of months ago, but the marketing budget is very small and you basically don't hear about this title. Also, I think hardcore subbers turn a lot of people off to these kind of series and to anime in general. You don't really have to pay total attention to what characters are saying in a comedy or an action series, since a lot of the imagery speaks for itself. A drama or a slice of life requires you to pay attention to the words and, for some people, watching subtitles for a series like that is too annoying or difficult. Not everyone has the eye speed necessary to catch all the words without pausing on the subtitle. And there are a lot of casual fans that strictly watch dubs. When hardcore subbers go off on tirades about how "bad" dubs are, it makes it harder for people to listen to their advice when they say that Obscure Title X that was just licensed is great. And Rightstuff really does need to get To Heart out. They've had to do a lot of work on restoring it though, so who knows when they'll be done. The long wait does have it's benefits. They announced not too long ago that they'd acquired the DVD extras for To Heart. *Edited to correct some errors. My proofreading skills need work. |
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bahumut75
 Posts: 65 Location: Rochester, NY |
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I'll have to pretty much agree with all the points made here so far. I do feel as though the drama / slice of life series are just alot less appealing to your average American viewer. For example, my best friend loved series like Hellsing, Full Metal Panic, Full Metal Alchemist, etc. However, I couldnt get him to watch more than like 5 minutes of Hikaru no Go (which IS licensed i know, but its not exactly an action or ecchi) or Yakitate!! Japan. I wouldn't even think about trying to get him to watch something like Rumbling Hearts (which, by the way, I only found out was licensed from the little booklet that came with the FMA movie). That being said, I would like to see more of those titles come out over here, because I really do enjoy them, and I do like owning the DVDs of things that I enjoyed.
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Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6921 Location: Kazune City |
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Richard J.
Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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Wouldn't the moe factor actually help the series given the current trends? (Haven't seen so don't know how far it goes.) Anyway, thanks for the update on To Heart. Hadn't heard anything about an actual (albeit vague) date for the release until now. Spring of 2007 isn't too bad, although by then I may have been checked into an asylum due to serious anime withdrawl. I'm heading back to college soon to start finishing my preparations for law school. On the plus side, I'll be living on my own for two years (maybe less if I double up on the course load). On the minus side, massive boredom and no where near enough time for anime (I have to study this time, 3.5 GPA isn't good enough for some reason.) |
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Animefreak6969
Posts: 587 |
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OOOOOOOOH College ouch, im still in highschool so im not to terribly deep in that, I've never studied EVER and dont do much of anything but watch anime, i still get mostly good grades though i mean my last report was B,B,D,A,A,A,A, i suck at english. anyway Sweet A To Heart Date, im glad to hear that one and i understand about the subtitle thing, i mean i dont have a problem with the reading to fast thing (except Pani Poni Dash!, GEEZ) but A LOT of people i know do so.....eh
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varmintx
 Posts: 1320 Location: Covington, KY |
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I'm reminded of the fact that my search for discussions of Gankutsuou resulted in threads dating back to a year ago from people saying they just finished the series. The last DVD was released a month ago. I wonder, how many of the "hardcore" who download fansubs actually buy the series. If the already small fanbase isn't contributing to these series financially, then why would the companies release those series here?
With regard to marketing, we (as in me and anyone reading this thread) can always try to push the casual viewers, whether we know them personally or via the internet or anime clubs, into watching more intelligent shows. As Richard J. pointed out, that isn't easy. It requires you to not be abrasive, especially towards dubs which almost all of the region 1 DVDs now have and almost all the casual fans (and I) watch. Hopefully, the audience for anime will continue to get older by the kids now watching Naruto continuing to invest their time, and later their money, in anime, resulting in what should be a natural progression towards more challenging series being brought over. On the other hand, I've been hoping for that for a decade now, and things are actually starting to get worse. |
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Animefreak6969
Posts: 587 |
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Worse and worse..........I try to buy what I've already seen fansubbed like Kannazuki no Miko and OTHERS!!!!!!! but i need a job before i can TRUELY get my collection going.
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