Ask John: Why Aren’t There Very Many H-Game Anime Adaptations Available in America?

Question:
I’ve always been a big fan of Kanon and I’ve noticed that as of late, I’ve been favoring other anime that have at one point been h-games (To Heart, Comic Party, Da Capo, etc). I’ve also noticed that American companies don’t try to license these titles, granted that Comic Party was recently licensed. I’m wondering if there’s a specific reason as to why they don’t license these titles and, other than Comic Party, if there are any other h-game to anime that have been licensed for US distribution.

Answer:
I’ll assume that the question is in reference to mainstream anime adaptations of adult PC games including Mizuiro, Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, Popotan, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, and Green Green as there are quite a few hentai adaptations of adult PC games available in America. Just a handful of examples include Bible Black, Immoral Sisters, Night Shift Nurses, Welcome to Pia Carrot, LUV Wave, Blood Shadow, Wordsworth, Yu-No, Can Can Bunny, Akiko, Five Card, Moonlight Lady, Mystery of Nonomura Hospital, Mei-King, VirtuaCall, Shusaku, Isaku, Angels in the Court, Gloria.

Typically the dating sim and life sim anime genres just aren’t very successful or popular in America. From a business perspective, it’s very difficult to market these titles to mainstream viewers. It’s hard to convince people to pay $30 per DVD for an anime that’s about average teenagers’ daily lives. There’s just nothing particularly exciting there. And unfortunately, guaranteed DVD sales to the relatively small niche market of English speaking fans that either buy every anime DVD released or who, like yourself, enjoy life simulation based anime just don’t bring in enough profit to justify the massive expense and risk of licensing, translating and distributing these shows in America.

Several years ago Mixx Entertainment released an official English language version of the classic PC dating simulation game Graduation. The game did not sell well in America. A few years later Atlus released an American version of the Playstation RPG Thousand Arms. It featured dating sim elements and a Japanese language theme song sung by J-pop diva Ayumi Hamasaki. It did not sell well in America. Media Blasters decided to skip over the “dull” Graduation OAVs 1 & 2 and release only the third and fourth Graduation OAVs in America: Sailor Victory. Even with the added appeal of giant robot parody, these Graduation OAVs did not sell well in America.

To their credit, Right Stuf International prioritizes localizing anime titles that they believe in and respect, virtually regardless of American market potential. Sadly, a number of good to excellent RSI releases including Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, Dangaizer-Three and KO Beast Century, have not been breakthrough successes. Comic Party will probably be another quality title destined for only marginal domestic success because, outside of an estimated few thousand hardcore fans, there’s just not enough consumer demand or support for dating sim based anime in America to urge more companies to translate more of these shows.