Ask John: Can the Anime Network Succeed?

Question:
Upon reading the news of the upcoming ADV anime network, I began wondering if such an endeavor could really work. Do you think the market here in America could really support such a network? Can this actually work from a monetary standpoint?

Answer:
I’ve actually tried to avoid discussion of the Anime Network at this early date, but the number of requests I’ve received for information or speculation about it have virtually mandated that I generate some sort of address. At this early date, there’s virtually no confirmed information available about AD Vision’s recently announced all anime TV channel beside what AD Vision themselves announced and what Anime News Network dug up. ADV Films marketing director Ken Wiatrek has stated that the goal is for the Anime Network to be a basic cable channel in order to reach “the nation’s estimated 85 million cable television subscribers.” The Network will also tentatively broadcast AD Vision licenses including Gunsmith Cats, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Getter Robo, Gasaraki and RahXephon, along with non-ADV licensed titles. Finally, the Anime Network seems to be the fruit of a partnership between AD Vision and Newtype USA, owned by Japanese publishing company Kadokawashoten.

This small amount of known information does not provide any insight into specifics, but does provide some room for private speculation. Presuming that the Anime Network is to be mainly funded by the deep pockets of Kadokawashoten, it makes sense to assume that Kadokawa will want to establish as large a foothold for itself in the American market as possible. The most effective means of doing that is through creating a basic cable television network. As AD Vision’s press release states, a basic cable network offers the potential to expose anime to an estimated 85 million homes across America. No other distribution means can come even close to that degree of mainstream anime exposure and commercial potential. In fact, it would be almost wasting market potential for the Anime Network to be anything besides a basic cable network. But for the current American anime fan, the prospect of a basic cable anime network may be a mixed blessing.

As cable TV increasingly becomes representative of American television distribution itself, basic cable must be considered a rough marker of American television broadcast standards. While premium cable television networks including HBO and Cinemax can offer uncut, uncensored adult oriented content to their opt-in subscribers, basic cable cannot. As basic cable is accessible to all viewers at all times, basic cable has to remain mass market friendly at all times. Select animated cable programs like South Park can push the envelope in limited instances- namely 30 minute episodes broadcast at night, but there is no existing basic cable network that can air potentially controversial, offensive content around the clock. And anime is potentially controversial. As animation is still massively perceived as a children’s medium in America, there is a massive potential for significant public backlash to “children’s cartoons” accessible to impressionable children on broadcast television showing graphic nudity, sex and sexual innuendo, drug use, violence including gun violence, death, destruction, religious themes and iconography and other mature content. With its graphic bloodshed, depictions of sexual experimentation, revisionist Christian themes and iconography, and realistic human violence, there’s virtually no way that a series like Evangelion can be broadcast on national American television when it can be seen by impressionable five year old channel surfers. Not even adult oriented live action programs like NYPD Blue and CSI feature the degree of graphic violence present in Evangelion, and remember that to the average American basic cable subscriber, Evangelion is a cartoon, and therefore something for children to watch.

This suggests two options. The Anime Network can and most likely will broadcast anime edited to meet mainstream American network television standards. But the network also has the potential to revolutionize perception of anime in America. Currently America’s only all animation TV channel, the Cartoon Network, broadcasts children’s programming for more than three-quarters of every broadcast day. America has no TV network that consistently presents animation as viable, legitimate cinema for mature viewers. This is where lies the Anime Network’s greatest potential. Advertisers like children’s programming because children are a powerful influence on consumer spending. Children and their parents watch cartoons, and also watch the commercials broadcast during cartoons. The Anime Network would be wise to target this market, but also consider the affluent, older market that is not currently being targeted in America. In Japan, it’s certainly not small children that are buying $1500 Yu Yu Hakusho DVD boxed sets and $2000 Ranma DVD boxed sets. The Japanese market has proven that anime can market to affluent young adults and adult viewers. If the Anime Network markets to this same target audience in America, the possibility arises that the Anime Network will create mainstream recognition that animation isn’t just for kids. In essence, the Anime Network has the potential to alter perception of anime and animation in America by broadcasting both edited anime, as mainstream standards will virtually force it to, and uncut, unadulterated anime, probably late at night until market share and ratings deem it acceptable for prime time hours.

The Anime Network will almost certainly attract a massive swell of new fans to anime. A basic cable Anime Network offers casual viewers the opportunity to stumble onto the anime medium while channel surfing, and offers established fans the opportunity to discover new shows. The network also has the ability to finally prove the diversity of anime to the American mainstream. Especially with the influence and industry penetration Kadokawashoten has in Japan, it’s easily believable that Kadokawa can propagate a television network with a great variety of programming, ranging from family friendly shows to titles like Evangelion that stretch the boundaries of acceptable American network television, to even subtitled anime that brings elements of international flavor, culture, art and education to mainstream entertainment. With the backing of a major Japanese corporation and national syndication, the Anime Network does have the potential to succeed and even flourish. But mainstream American perception and established American television broadcast standards are major obstacles that the Anime Network will need to address and compromise with. The degree to which the Anime Network will be able to conform with mainstream America while maintaining its own integrity remains to be seen, and will the make or break boundary for the endeavour. So, considering that the Anime Network will have to weigh its potential with its opportunity, and determine to what degree its goals lie in immediate profits or long term investments, anime fans would be wise hope for the best, but not develop unreasonably high expectations.