Ask John: Why Hasn’t Memories Been Released in America?

Question:
I was wondering, what is the barrier blocking the licensing of Memories? Being done by the same director as the ever-popular Akira, you would think that it would sell great here in the US, but I haven’t even heard rumors about a US distribution license. Who’s holding up the parade?

Answer:
There are two major reasons why Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories has never been released in America. First, according to highly probable rumor, the film carries a very high licensing fee. Because Otomo is such a well recognized name, any film project he’s attached to is virtually guaranteed a degree of success and sales based on name recognition alone. This “big name” recognition value is accounted for within the expensive licensing fee Sony is rumored to want for international distribution rights to the film. A second obstacle to an American release, in addition to the movie’s expensive distribution license, is the film’s very limited market potential in America.

Memories is an anthology film consisting of three unique short animated segments. Many fans are familiar with the Magnetic Rose segment of the film which involves virtually photo-realistic art and a science-fiction story about unlikely explorers encountering the “ghost” of a long dead opera singer on an abandoned space station. The second segment, the comical “Stink Bomb” is a satire of the Japanese “salaryman”- the Japanese businessman that concentrates all of his attention on his work, ignorant of obviously more important external factors. While the segment does carry a satirical message, it’s still little more than a disposable extended one-line joke. The third segment, “Cannon Fodder,” the only segment of the film actually directed by Otomo himself, is a work of experimental animation and broad social commentary, and arguable the least successful third of the film.

The anthology nature of the film and its presentation as a clearly non-mainstream “art film” makes Memories suitable only for a relatively small audience of hard-core animation and cinema fans, and not very attractive to mainstream consumption. Expensive licensing fees coupled with highly limited return potential simply makes licensing Memories for American release a very unwise business decision.