Ask John: Is the American Movie Industry Scared of Anime?

Question:
My question is, why do U.S. movie makers like Buena Vista have a problem with anime movies that make it big in Japan? Like Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, what I am hearing is that it will not be that successful at all in the U.S. and it’s too over-the-heads of American’s. And why did Buena Vista cancel it’s contract with Ghibli. I am wondering if U.S. movie makers are worried that a standard 2D animation would kill the box-office of live action movies. Like what if Mononoke Hime, in the U.S. was a wide release? It would have done very good. I would like to know what your answer will be.

Answer:
The problem is not that American distributors are “afraid” of anime; the problem is that anime isn’t profitable enough to be worth their time or effort. Allow me to address your points in order. It’s true that Buena Vista did have “some problem” with the violent content in Mononoke Hime, but that did not prevent them from spending a lot of money on the film, hiring major Hollywood actors to provide voice roles, creating and distributing a theatrical print, then distributing a home video version that was delayed in order to accommodate the fan demand for the inclusion of an English subtitled version. No matter how much it may pain me to defend the Disney company, Disney did take significant steps toward treating the American presentation of Mononoke Hime better, and with more respect for its artistic integrity, than even a lot of America’s recognized “anime companies” have done with other major anime releases. The reason why Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi may not come to America is because, even after Disney went through as much trouble as they did to create a faithful and respectful American version of Princess Mononoke, the film still didn’t make any money. If, after that kind of effort, the Disney company saw no results, it’s difficult to blame them for being hesitant to try again. Understand that it’s not the Disney company that has publicly predicted that Sen to Chihiro wouldn’t do well in America, it is Hayao Miyazaki himself who has publicly stated his lack of faith in the American market. Miyazaki-sensei stated in a Japanese press conference that Sen to Chihiro was created specifically for Japanese audiences, and while he’d be happy to see Americans embrace the film, he doesn’t think that Americans will understand or appreciate the themes in the film that are intended specifically for Japanese viewers.

Buena Vista has not canceled its contract with Tokuma Shoten or Ghibli. Disney partnered itself with Tokuma Shoten in order to gain control of the very profitable international home video distribution rights to the Ghibli films. The “Disney deal” never guaranteed American release of any of the Ghibli films, nor was even the release of Kiki’s Delivery Service or Princess Mononoke necessary for Disney. Disney managed a wide release of two Ghibli films, and neither one turned out to be a major hit in America. It’s difficult to justify why Disney should be obligated to continue to release foreign films in America that don’t make a significant profit. And that may be what many American anime fans don’t realize. It’s unreasonable to expect Disney to have released an untested film from an untested genre to thousands of American movie theaters nationwide. It’s true that Princess Mononoke had a very limited theatrical release, but that alone is not what sunk the movie in America. That limited theatrical release just didn’t generate increasing interest or demand for the film. The limited theatrical run for Princess Mononoke simply didn’t justify a wider release. In comparison, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon also open in a very limited number of art theaters, but word of mouth and positive critical praise kept it moving from theater to theater through an ever widening market. Crouching Tiger had been in American movie theaters for 6 months or more before it received its American wide release. If the same support from movie-goers and critics had been there for Princess Mononoke, Mononoke too would have eventually made it big.

American studios aren’t “afraid” of anime because, in America, anime still is no threat to the established American movie industry. In fact, the theatrical support that films including Princess Mononoke, Spriggan, Jin-Roh and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust have received just continue to validate the fact that anime in America simply isn’t popular enough to deserve theatrical distribution beyond limited art theater runs. American anime fans may believe that anime has the potential to overtake the biggest Hollywood releases, but this simply isn’t true. If there really was a major interest in anime lying just below the surface of the American public, that interest would be swelling in reaction to the current theatrical screenings of Jin-Roh, Spriggan and Vampire Hunter D, but it’s not. Parents still consider anime “children’s cartoons” or “that Japanese stuff my kids like.” Film critics continue to criticize anime as a hyper-stylized substitute for live-action rather than a viable cinematic art-form in-and-of itself. Anime will never be mainstream in America until these same parents consider anime not only entertainment for their children, but a legitimate entertainment for themselves as well. Anime will never be mainstream in America until film critics recognize it as a legitimate form of foreign art film rather than “fanboy entertainment;” or novelty; or testosterone laden cyber-punk that uses animation to film what’s too expensive or too difficult to produce in live-action. Anime is simply still too foreign for the American mainstream. The average American does consider the opinions of mainstream film critics, and film critics are the voice of the masses. Anime may be massively popular among American teens and the relatively small American hard-core anime fan market, but several thousand American “otaku” and a fraction of the teen-age consumer market simply can’t compete with the millions of dollars and millions of fans that mainstream American movies bring in. If there was genuinely a lot of money to be made off of anime, you can be certain that the American entertainment industry would be licensing and commissioning and distributing anime with unprecedented fervor, but that’s not the case. The mainstream Hollywood movie industry isn’t trying to bury the anime industry. Anime is simply too insignificant to be noticeable by the major American entertainment industry.