Ask John: Why Isn’t Lupin III Anime Streaming?

Question:
why is there no one else picking up Lupin, in spite of the fact that Crunchyroll has proved that there is an audience you can cultivate for older shows on-line? I don’t think anyone imagined the original Harlock getting any release in this market, but it happened, and now I’m just waiting for the DVD collection.

Answer:
No one in America outside of Crunchyroll employees knows precisely how many viewers are watching vintage anime like Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Wonder Beat S, and Hokuto no Ken online. My guess is very few. Despite these classic shows being easily and legitimately accessible online for the first time in America, I don’t see any evidence of the American fan community embracing, watching, or discussing these older shows. As an unafiliated outside observer, I don’t know exactly how Crunchyroll selects or acquires the programming it hosts, but I suspect that its offerings are primarily determined by the desires of Japanese distributors rather than the interests of American viewers. Independently produced Japanese animation including Electric Soldier Dokan-kun, Mighty Max, Pitekanto, and Shikorobo are available on Crunchyroll despite this type of anime having effectively no audience in America. Mushi Production spokesman Samuel Pinansky has stated that Wonder Beat S has been previewed on Crunchyroll because the show would “fail miserably in the West if it was tried to be sold in the usual channels.” Similarly, there’s evidence that a number of Toei’s titles available on Crunchyroll are there primarily because Toei wants to promote certain titles to American viewers. Air Master failed in conventional American commercial release, so now Toei is streaming it online for free. Pretty Cure failed to earn an American television broadcast, so it’s now streaming online for free. Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express are among Toei’s most venerable signature works in Japan, so it shouldn’t be surprising to see Toei try to expose those titles to American viewers.

In roughly the past week I’ve watched episodes of current anime including Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, Guin Saga, Basquash, and Ristorante Paradiso, along with episodes of obscure, vintage anime including Kick no Oni (1970), Danguard Ace (1977), Captain Future (1978), Chikkun Takkun (1984), Cho Kosoku Galvion (1984), Princess Sara (1985), and Bakufu Doji Hissatsuman (1990). I’m not trying to show off or impress anyone. I routinely watch a wide variety of anime like this because I enjoy vintage shows just as much as I like contemporary anime. However, I have a strong suspicion that I’m highly atypical of average American otaku. I’m aware that there are American fans of vintage anime, particularly 70’s and 80’s robot anime. But these viewers represent a tiny and insignificant fraction of America’s anime viewers.

Despite being one of Japan’s longest running and most successful anime franchises, Lupin the Third has been handled in America by 6 different distributors (7 if we include the manga, 8 if we include live action feature rights). Yet Lupin has never firmly established a foothold in America. In fact, after releasing one Lupin film in America, Discotek canceled its release of a second although the company continues to acquire and release other anime titles. The recent Japanese broadcast of the Lupin III vs Detective Conan special generated some interest in America’s otaku community, but not enough to stimulate any appreciable renewal of interest in other Lupin anime. Lupin the Third is simply a title that average American otaku associate with aged anime. For that reason, even brand new 2009 installments don’t garner a lot of interest from American viewers. So it should come as little surprise that American distributors aren’t showing great eagerness to acquire and distribute more Lupin anime in America.

So far, Japanese distributors haven’t exhibited much desire to distribute vintage anime online for English speaking viewers. Toei has 40 years worth of vintage anime, yet it’s streaming only three series made prior to the 1990s. Veteran studios Sunrise and Pierrot are only streaming works from the 2000s. Mushi Productions has expressed interest in offering its vintage anime to American online viewers, but has so far offered only two translated episodes of Wonder Beat Scramble. It’s long been known that Americans don’t buy old anime. Moreover, Americans don’t watch old anime, nor do they have much interest in anime perceived as being old. Seemingly roughly half of the anime currently streamed online in America is delivered at the behest of Japanese distributors. If American companies have little interest in pushing Lupin anime, that leaves Japanese companies. And most Japanese distributors have either not adopted international streaming at all, or have concentrated primarily on contemporary productions.

The nature of streaming anime abets distributing older works and franchises, but there’s only purpose in offering select anime if American viewers are prepared to watch it. TMS Entertainment, the distributor behind Lupin III, has allowed American streaming distribution of its 2005 Glass Mask and Buzzer Beater television series, but none of its anime from the 90s back to the 60s are online in America, although several of its vintage productions are officially streamed online in Japan. The fact that FUNimation is one of America’s Lupin III anime distributors and is a leader in American anime streaming, and the fact that TMS Entertainment has made tentative steps into American anime streaming suggest that future streaming distribution of Lupin anime for English speaking viewers isn’t entirely unlikely. However, circumstances also suggest that the probability isn’t great.