Ask John: What are the Chances of a Title Being Picked up After a License Expires?

Question:
What are the chances of a title being picked up after a license expires? I recently heard that Manga Ent. had several titles that expired. For instance what would be the chances of another company picking up the original “Fist of The North Star” or “Guyver”?

Answer:
In January 2006 Manga Entertainment confirmed that its distribution rights to the Guyver OAVs, Fist of the North Star TV series, Patlabor first and second movies, New Dominion Tank Police OAV series, Red Hawk, Dark Myth, Gunbuster, and Black Magic M-66 OAVs, and the Wings of Honneamise movie were all expired. However, some of these licenses had actually expired a year or even several years earlier. For example, Manga Entertainment’s VHS release of Gunbuster has been out of print for years, and their Fist of the North Star DVDs went out of print roughly a year before the recent confirmation that Manga no longer had distribution rights to the show. So if titles like Fist of the North Star have actually been available to American licensors for a year or more yet no one has pursued the licenses, perhaps no American distributors are interested in distributing the show.

It’s not uncommon at all for expired licenses to be renewed by new companies. The Fist of the North Star movie was released in America by Streamline then Image Entertainment. Urban Vision has re-released Streamline’s Golgo 13 movie. AD Vision has re-licensed and re-released Streamline’s Windaria, Dirty Pair movies, Robotech, Nadia, and Crying Freeman. Media Blasters licensed Iria after Central Park Media’s distribution rights expired, and re-released Giant Robo after Manga Entertaiment’s license expired. Geneon picked up the license to Akira after it traveled from Streamline to Orion. The original Megazone 23 went from Streamline to Image to AD Vision. FUNimation acquired the three Slayers TV series after CPM’s license expired. There are more examples, but I think the point is well established. There’s certainly precedent for older American releases getting renewed distribution through different distributors, so there’s no reason why the Fist of the Noth Star television series or Guyver OAVs couldn’t be licensed and released in America again by a company other than Manga Entertainment. However, since these titles have possibly been available to potential American licensors for quite a while, I suspect that there’s just no interest in re-releasing these titles in America. The Fist of the North Star franchise has failed in America for at least three different distributors, and Guyver has never been a strong seller in America. In fact, even though AD Vision is a co-producer on the recent Guyver television series, they’ve announced no plans to release the series in America, possibly because they recognize that Guyver is far more popular and profitable in Japan than it is in America.

There are also numerous instances of American releases going out of print and their licenses expiring, never to re-appear in America. Titles including the Macross movie, Ambassador Magma, Guyver: Out of Standardized, the Raven Tengu Kabuto OAV, Dragon Slayer, Ogre Slayer, Galaxy Express 999 movies 1 & 2, the Lensman movie, Silent Mobius movie 1, Robot Carnival, Twilight of the Cockroaches, CLAMP Campus Detectives, The Cockpit, DNAsights 999.9, Homeroom Affairs, Shonan Bakusozoku, Girl From Phantasia, Fire Emblem, and numerous other titles have been released in the past by America’s core anime industry but are presently not available in America.

American distributors are most likely to acquire and release titles that they believe will be profitable investments. So if fans want a particular anime series released or re-released in America, they should let their favorite distributors know via e-mail requests and talking to company representatives in person at anime conventions.