Ask John: What Would Be The Best American Licensor For Air?

Question:
Which North American licensing company do you think should license the TV series “AIR”?

Answer:
I’m not sure that I can answer this question because doing so would require me to place myself in a position that I’m not in and have no right to be in. Only the Japanese owner of the home video distribution rights to the Air television series has a right to say which American company “should” get the distribution rights to the show. Instead, I can offer a subjective analysis of which American licensors are best suited to release the show in America.

Since I work for a licensing company, naturally I want to say that AN Entertainment is an ideal licensor for any respectable anime title. AN Entertainment is consistently respectful of both the integrity of Japanese animation and the expectations and desires of America’s hardcore anime fan community. So I have no doubts that AN Entertainment is capable of producing a praiseworthy North American release for the show. But presently AN Entertainment is concentrating only on Haré+Guu.

Among the remaining active distributors in the American anime industry, serious, dramatic romance like Air is completely foreign to Bandai Entertainment. Manga Entertainment gets eliminated from contention because the company doesn’t handle romantic anime either, and because of Manga Entertainment’s firmly established reputation for defective, edited, and poor quality releases. AnimEigo and Discotek may be eliminated because they don’t license contemporary anime.

Among the stronger potential candidates, Viz has some experience and precedent with distributing romantic, dramatic anime with Saikano, but Air (and the Saikano anime, for that matter) don’t fit Viz Media’s conventional demographic of distributing mainstream Japanese properties, or anime that have the potential to become mainstream hits. Synch Point may not be an ideal licensor because of the company’s unstable release schedules and the possibility that the series will never see complete release through Synch Point. I respect the diversity of Media Blaster’s acquisitions and catalog, and their willingness to distribute titles that fall into under-represented or unpopular genres. But Media Blasters also has a tendency to unceremoniously dump niche market titles into the American market with little support.

AD Vision has earned the adoration of America’s fan community because of its savvy in acquiring and distributing eye-catching, trendy, and fan favorite titles. The Air television series is almost ideally suited to AD Vision’s signature style of acquisition. And AD Vision currently distributes the Kita he television series, which is a romantic drama based on a computer visual novel game, just like Air.

Geneon has an excellent track record of licensing and distributing character relationship dramas including Someday’s Dreamers, Haibane Renmei, and Ai Yori Aoshi. Among America’s primary anime distributors, Geneon may be the distributor that has contributed most to respectfully releasing and promoting low-key, relationship oriented dramatic anime.

The Right Stuf International is the domestic licensor for Piano and Boys Be, as well as visual novel game adaptations To Heart and Comic Party, which also makes them a very experienced and established distributor of shows in the style of Air. However, TRSI doesn’t have the same degree of exposure or market penetration that AD Vision and Geneon do, so some compromise may need to be made between which company can give Air the best localization and which distributor can give the show the most exposure.

So far, FUNimation’s only experience and exposure in distributing romantic, dramatic anime is Fruits Basket – a show that’s much more mainstream and accessible than the very niche market Air. But FUNimation has proven itself capable of successfully distributing a variety of anime genres, and FUNimation is the domestic licensor for Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, a show with very similar roots to Air. While FUNimation hasn’t yet successfully released any anime similar to Air, I’m confident that the company is capable of effectively doing so.

Rather than single out one distributor that I think is best suited to translate and distribute the Air television series in America, I’ve provided a subjective list of distributors whom I think are experienced and capable of distributing shows in the style of Air, and distributors with strengths in other genres. I think that doing so identifies some of the strengths and weaknesses of American distributors, and encourages critical analysis of the American anime industry. I’m not making predictions, though. On one hand, I know that Air is a major Japanese franchise, which makes its American release likely. On the other hand, the Air television series may be an expensive license in a genre which typically isn’t profitable in America. So I can’t confidently predict whether or not Air will be released in America. And there’s no way I can predict which American company may eventually release the show.