Ask John: Are There Anime in America That Didn’t Deserve to be Licensed?

Question:
Is there an anime title currently released in Region 1 territory that you felt did not deserve to be licensed?

Answer:
Before even attempting a direct answer to your question, it’s necessary to address the rhetoric of the question itself. Doing so provides necessary context for an answer. First, the matter of deciding the propriety of particular anime coming to America can be interpreted in two opposing ways. In one philosophy, all anime deserves exposure to viewers. Even contemporary anime that’s no longer hand painted is still hand drawn and is still artwork created by devoted and talented artists. Even if an anime may not be very good, or may be one that very few viewers will like, it still deserves at least a chance to appeal to consumers. On the other hand, especially in the early days of the American anime industry the common presumption among anime fans was that only titles worthy of respect and international recognition would be distributed internationally. While there’s nothing wrong with inferior titles being released, priorities should focus squarely on promoting the best titles available. Especially during the early days of the American anime industry, the presumption was that creating a positive first impression would ultimately benefit all anime.

But these days the American anime distribution industry is clearly not just a collection of professionals concerned with satisfying the demands of American anime fans. Today’s American anime distribution industry is predominantly a business that exists to generate profits by distributing anime and manga in America. To that end, the quality of the anime and manga licensed and distributed are largely irrelevant as long as they generate profits. It’s exactly that principle that’s largely responsible for the often cited current American anime market saturation. I can’t lay the blame for the state of the American anime industry entirely on the industry itself, or on the number of manga and anime titles available in America, but doubtlessly both are major contributors.

A superficial, pseudo-intellectual argument would criticize the definition of “deserve” and claim that it’s impossible to conclude a precise answer because “deserve” is too subjective and varies with every individual. I’ll acknowledge the dilemma but won’t let it restrain me. After all, regardless of semantics, every anime fan with any significant degree of experience knows that there are anime titles available in America that are deserving of their exposure and recognition, and titles that are best forgotten. An objective determination of technical, cinematic qualities and analysis of unquantifiable influence are sufficient to distinguish anime titles that just aren’t good and may have served the American fan community most by not having ever been licensed for American release. Given that average consumers can’t buy everything, the purchase of one DVD of terrible anime may be one less purchase of outstanding anime. It’s not my goal to blame particular distributors, and it’s not my goal to criticize any anime fans or consumers. I’ve said before that there may be entertainment value to be found in bad anime. And differences in personal taste are not the same as differences in technical quality. That said, titles including, but not limited to, Amazing Nurse Nanako, Art of Fighting, Bastof Syndrome, Cosmo Warrior Zero, Cybuster, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, Detonator Orgun, Divergence Eve, Early Reins, Geisters, Genma Wars, Grandoll, Gravion, I Wish You Were Here, Ikkitousen, Labyrinth of Flames, Melty Lancer, Psychic Wars, Spectral Force, Sword for Truth, Virgin Fleet, and Yumeria have contributed nothing of significant value to the American anime community besides diversity. These titles don’t boost exposure of under represented genres. They don’t represent significant works by major artists who have a fan following in America. They don’t exhibit any significant originality or uniqueness. They don’t provide Americans with exposure to vintage anime that would be otherwise unknown. These shows make no significant contribution to the fabric of American anime fandom beyond offering alternate selections for consumers. In that respect, it could be argued that these shows weren’t “deserving” of American release.

I’m not saying that these shows don’t have fans. And doubtlessly all of these shows were licensed and released in America because their domestic licensors believed that they would somehow benefit from the releases, either through earning profit or by having another catalog title. But on a relative scale, even easy targets like Landlock, Gundress, and Domain of Murder at least make some noteworthy contribution to the American anime fan community- respectively by offering Masamune Shirow works to American Shirow fans, and offering another example of the under represented mystery genre in America. Although it may seem controversial to make such straightforward statements, I think that an Evangelion or Rahxephon is more deserving of American release than a Divergence Eve or Gravion; Najica and Aika have more to contribute to American anime fandom than Labyrinth of Flames. I don’t object to any particular anime being licensed and released in America, but there are certainly some titles that I believe are more deserving of international exposure than others.