Ask John: Can You Explain the Relationship of Sponsors to Anime?

Question:
What is the deal with sponsors in an anime series? I ask this question because I have noticed that Fruit Basket and Inu-Yasha both have sponsors at the end of their opening themes. I know Fruit Basket’s sponsor is King Records and Inu-Yasha’s sponsor is Playstation. What does having a sponsor for an anime mean? Also what are the chances of Fruit Basket and Inu-Yasha getting released over here? Also have any other anime shows beside these two had a sponsor?

Answer:
Sponsors are the companies that contribute money toward the production of television anime. Every TV anime series has numerous sponsors, and without them wouldn’t exist. Animation studios including TBS, TOEI, Xebec and Shogakukan don’t make anime TV series just to be kind to anime fans. They make anime specifically to convince sponsors to pay to have commercials broadcast during the TV anime. Successful anime TV series will convince viewers to watch. Sponsors want those particular viewers to see the sponsor’s TV advertisements and commercials. Anime is simply an effective way to bring commercials and potential viewers together. Thus, without the money sponsors pay for broadcast time, studios either wouldn’t have the money necessary to produce anime, or simply would produce other types of programming instead of anime.

Home video releases edit out the commercial sponsor names so that video consumers get a “clean” video presentation, and many fansub versions are either mastered from home video versions or delete out the commercial sponsor messages for time or digital data size concerns. If you watch anime directly on Japanese television or on unedited video recorded directly from Japanese television, though, you’ll find that every anime TV series, including even pay channel direct satellite programs, will include one, two or even more “pages” or scrolling lists of commercial sponsors at the end of each week’s opening credits and a soothing Japanese voice urging viewers to support these commercial sponsors.

Commercial sponsors can have a tremendous impact on anime. Evangelion was almost pulled off the air twice because its commercial sponsors thought that the series was too graphic and threatened to discontinue their financial support, which would have meant the end of the Evangelion animation. Sega was a massive financial backer of both the Evangelion and Rayearth television anime. In return for contributing the money necessary to make these anime series, Sega was granted a wide range of merchandising rights to both series. And in another famous example, there was, for a short time, fear that Majo no Takkyuubin (Kiki’s Delivery Service), which literally means “Witch’s Express Mail Service,” wouldn’t be named “Majo no Takkyuubin” as the word “Takkyuubin” is actually the copyrighted trademark of Japan’s Yamato Transport Company. However, Yamato Transport Co. donated a large amount of money to Studio Ghibli for use in the production of the movie, becoming the film’s main sponsor and in return enjoying national recognition as the corporate sponsor of the biggest movie of the year.

Inuyasha has already been licensed for American release by Viz Video. Fruit Basket has not yet been announced for American release, but considering that it’s directed by Akitaro Daichi, whose Jubei-chan, Ima Soku ni Iru Boku, Kaze Makase Tsukikage Ran and Fairy Princess Ren have all been licensed or already released in America, there’s good precedent that this show will eventually be picked up as well.