Ask John: What’s the Future of Naruto in America?

Question:
Do you know the plan for Viz putting Naruto Shippuden online? Are they going to make any money by doing it, and are they done trying to put it on TV when 90% of Naruto fans is up to date with the Naruto Shippuden episodes in Japan?

What happens to Viz once Naruto finally ends? What is their future shonen series to gain more sales than Naruto?

Answer:
These two questions come from different people, which suggests that there’s a significant amount of curious uncertainty in the American fan community over the future of the Naruto anime franchise. While I may work in America’s anime industry, I’m not privy to the internal decisions of Viz Media or American distributors including The Cartoon Network, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Joost. So I can only speculate based on observation and extrapolation. I can’t provide definite answers, but I hope that I can provide points for consideration.

I don’t believe that Viz, or the anime fan community, needs to worry about the Naruto anime franchise concluding any time soon. The two Naruto television series currently have a combined 310 episodes, which is well behind One Piece’s nearly 400 episodes, and very far behind the Dragon Ball franchise’s combined 508 episodes. Furthermore, there’s no reason why the Naruto anime series can’t continue well beyond 500 episodes. As long as the franchise remains popular, Toei can continue it. Remember that Toei continued the Dragon Ball anime series even after creator Akira Toriyama ended his Dragon Ball manga and his creative involvement with the anime adaptation. At least in the present, Viz probably doesn’t need to be especially concerned about securing a new franchise to take the reins of profit generation from Naruto for two reasons. First, Naruto is still profitable. Second, there isn’t another blockbuster shonen adventure series waiting to explode into worldwide distribution right now. But that’s not to say that a new franchise won’t appear in the future. A steady stream of highly successful shonen adventure franchises have appeared over the years, including Hokuto no Ken, St. Seiya, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto. So it’s almost inevitably just a matter of time until the next member of this class makes its debut.

Viz Media’s decision to distribute Naruto Shippuden online may be motivated by necessity. The Cartoon Network hasn’t yet confirmed plans to renew the series’ broadcast next year, and in light of the proficiency of the fan community to distribute new Naruto episodes online within hours of Japanese broadcast, the only practical option that legitimate distributors have is to respond to obvious viewer demand by distributing new episodes online promptly. No commercial business launches a major corporate initiative without plans to profit from the endeavour. Doubtlessly Viz Media will earn some monetary profit from its online distribution of Naruto Shippuden episodes. Viz, TV Tokyo, and Studio Pierrot will also intangibly benefit from the increased exposure generated by free, immediate international distribution. This sort of tremendous international marketing establishes brand name recognition, confirms success, and may lead to increased business opportunities and future corporate partnerships and sponsorships. With the future of Naruto on American broadcast television uncertain, taking the series directly to its most devoted audience through online distribution may be necessary for Viz, and may also be Viz Media’s most successful way of gathering potential customers and revenue.