Ask John: Why Do American Anime DVDs Use Original Covers?

Question:
Why don’t domestic anime distributors keep the Region 2 DVD covers? Using the artwork of the Japanese releases, translating the title/logo where necessary, would result in a more authentic and usually better-looking release while saving time and money on DVD production.

Answer:
I’ll have to speculate a bit with my answer because I don’t recall ever reading or hearing a formal explanation for this practice from any domestic distributor that routinely designs its own DVD covers. The most logical and probable explanation for original American DVD covers is belief that the domestic licensor can create eye-catching cover art that will be more appealing to American consumers than the original Japanese cover art. For example, while the original Japanese DVD sleeves for Rahxephon exclusively featured the series’ human characters, the domestic DVD covers split their focus evenly between human characters and robots, or featured robots exclusively. While the Japanese DVD release may have been targeted at viewers that had already watched the program during its television broadcast, or may have wanted to market the series as a human drama, the American release was obviously designed around marketing the program as an artistic and dramatic giant robot anime. The same principle applies even more obviously to Patlabor. While the original Japanese home video releases concentrated on Akemi Takada character illustrations, the American releases of the OVAs and TV series used original illustrations of the Patlabor mecha in action in an effort to advertise Patlabor as an exciting, action-oriented robot anime although that’s certainly not what Patlabor actually is. It’s important to remember that DVD covers are often times the first imagery of a DVD product that a consumer sees, so the effectiveness of the DVD cover can make or break a potential impulse purchase.

Technical concerns may also influence packaging design decisions. Average, private anime fans may not be aware that anime licensors frequently have to pay additional fees for the use of original Japanese packaging and advertising art. These fees are usually rather minimal in relation to the cost of the licensing fees for the anime itself, but fees are still extra fees. Furthermore, Japanese licensors sometimes specify what can and cannot be depicted on American DVD covers, which may encourage domestic licensors to simply create their own, original cover designs rather than modify Japanese covers. Finally, differences in disc counts between domestic and Japanese releases may occasionally preclude the ability to use original Japanese covers. If a DVD cover is specifically relevant to the episodic content of the disc, the cover may not be appropriate for the American DVD that contains different episodes or more episodes.