Ask John: Are Sports Anime Finished in America?

Question:
I realize sports anime isn’t literally nonexistent in the west, but do you think releases are so scarce that sports anime could be considered done in the west? With Funimation giving up on releasing the second season of Ookiku, it’s safe to assume they won’t be touching any Adachi either right? I love sports anime and manga, but should I give up hope that I’ll get much of either anytime soon?

Answer:
Sports anime remains active in Japan with the current Inazuma Eleven Go television series and the upcoming Kuroko no Basuke basketball anime and Area no Kishi soccer anime. However, the prominence of sporting anime in America has been even smaller in America lately than usual. Sentai Filmworks appears to have thrown in the towel after releasing 52 of the 145 episodes. Depending on how liberally one chooses to define sports anime, Taisho Baseball Girls and Bamboo Blade have also reached American DVD relatively recently. Both titles skew more heavily toward moé drama than sports drama. And no further sports anime titles have been licensed for future American release. While plenty of sports anime are available in Japan, many of them are now older shows. As a result, the dual hurdle of age and subject make them particularly difficult to market and distribute in America’s contemporary tough anime retail environment. Crunchyroll simulcast last year’s interesting soccer anime Giant Killing, but the show went largely overlooked. The 2008 baseball anime One Outs was fascinating and even adicting, yet it’s been largely overlooked by even America’s hardcore otaku community. So when demand for sports anime is so minimal even among America’s most devoted anime fans, the motivation to invest in official domestic commercial distribution is predictably lacking.

I can’t yet say that the 2010 American DVD release of Eyeshield 21 will be America’s last true sports anime home video release. Today’s active distributors sometimes surprise with unexpected acquisition announcements. However, with no domestic home video releases of recent sports anime including One Outs, Giant Killing, Major, Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger, Cross Game, and Ring ni Kakero 1, I think that the odds of seeing older sports anime like H2, Captain, Aim For the Ace, Attack No. 1, or Ashita Tenki ni Naare reaching American DVD or Blu-ray are even more remote. Unfortunately, with the domestic market for anime home video in America as small and unforgiving as it is now, the few remaining domestic distributors just can’t afford to test the waters with out of the ordinary anime genres that traditionally have limited audience in America.