Ask John: Do Nazi Characters Keep Anime Away From America?

Question:
Does the fact that no one’s shown any problems with certain German soldiers in Hetalia make it less “controversial” to release Pataliro and the original Kinnikuman in the U.S.? And maybe finally get The Cockpit on R1 DVD? Is it enough to take into account the intent of the artist nowadays in how they depict “amicable” Nazis, or is it still “taboo?”

Answer:
I can’t see the future, so my predictions always entail a modicum of uncertainty, but I feel secure in saying that Patalliro and unaltered Kinnikuman will never reach American home video, and a domestic DVD release of The Cockpit stands only a marginally stronger chance. And Nazis, in a literal sense, have nothing to do with it. These three titles may include Nazi characters or references, but I honestly and sincerely doubt that it’s the portrayal of these supporting characters which make these titles potentially controversial or unattractive for American release.

The 1982 Boku Patalliro! television series is just plain weird. Even by anime standards it’s a strange beast because it’s an odd looking bishonen political and dialogue-based comedy that’s entirely unsexy. The title has proven to be quite popular among a strata of Japanese fans, but the series is virtually unknown outside of Japan because Patalliro is a comedy that seems to largely only appeal to distinctively Japanese sensibilities. The 2005 Patalliro Saiyuki television series aired during the height of America’s anime boom, yet despite sharing a similar origin with the popular Dragon Ball and Gensomaden Saiyuki anime series, it was practically entirely ignored by American otaku. Patalliro looks, practically speaking, like nothing else – especially not like typical popular anime. And it’s pacing and humor are a bit slower and more abstract than conventional anime that appeals to average American otaku. Even among esoteric anime, Patalliro is an especially acquired taste, even for American die-hard anime fans.

Kinnikuman is an internationally recognized and successful children’s anime franchise. It’s a signature series for Toei Animation, which is specifically why Toei will aggressively oppose any American release of the title that could possibly jeopardize or compromise the series’ child-friendly international image. America will never get unedited Pokemon episodes in America because Japanese and American distributors Nintendo, TV Tokyo & Viz don’t want to risk losing sales and merchandising opportunities by giving conservative or easily offended American consumers and critics reason to oppose the program. Such reasons have included playful cross-dressing and violence. Similarly, Toei reportedly prevented the American release of the Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars television series in America because of fears that gender-switching characters and non-graphic nudity in the series would potentially offend Americans, compromise sales, and reflect poorly on the Toei brand name. The presence of a Nazi character in Kinnikuman may arouse some corporate anxiety, but I suspect that violence deemed inappropriately intense for American children and sexual innuendo gags are more likely to prevent Kinnikuman from ever reaching American unedited.

Urban Vision released the Leiji Matsumoto created OVA The Cockpit on domestic VHS. Since the anime anthology is a historical drama targeted at young adult viewers, I don’t believe that the presence of sympathetic Nazi characters may cause much offense. The bigger problem is that not only is The Cockpit a Matsumoto anime, it’s a historical drama. That’s two strikes against it. No Leiji Matsumoto created anime has ever been especially successful in America. And historical drama anime are definitely not a genre that American anime consumers immediately gravitate toward. I could envision Discotek license-rescuing The Cockpit since Discotek has already license-rescued two Matsumoto films and clearly skews toward distributing vintage esoteric titles. But I can’t envision any other active American distributor picking up The Cockpit for a fresh American release.

I do think that it should be noted that anime series which have included Nazi characters or clear references, including Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Urotsukidoji 2, the Hellsing OVA series, Urda, Angel Core, and Kishin Heiden, have been released domestically before without causing any controversy. So while figurative Nazis may be keeping Patalliro, uncut Kinnikuman, and The Cockpit out of American circulation, it’s not their Nazi characters that are to blame.