Ask John: Why Hasn’t Tokyo Tribe 2 Reached America?

Question:
Why do you think no effort’s been made to bring over the Tokyo Tribes anime and/or rescue the manga? The success of The Boondocks and Afro Samurai proves there’s a market for action anime with an urban theme, so Tokyo Tribes should be a shoe-in for a come-back. Or do you think the rights are somehow tied up in that failed MTV movie?

Answer:
Before even beginning to address this question I feel vitally compelled to assert that I intend no cultural or racial disrespect, nor do I suppose myself as any sort of cultural or racial authority and expert.

Manga author Santa Inoue’s 1997-2005 Tokyo Tribes 2 manga series sequel to his own 1993 Tokyo Tribe manga is a unique effort to localize and adopt American urban black gang culture into a Japanese setting. The manga spun-off a 13 episode Tokyo Tribe 2 anime television series in 2006, animated by Madhouse. A number of years ago, in its effort to ingratiate itself into American teen pop culture, Tokyopop published some of the manga and aggressively promoted the franchise and creator Santa Inoue. The effort met little response. Current manga and anime distribution rights to the title may possibly be connected to an unproduced American film project, but my own guess is that regardless of availability, there’s just little domestic licensing interest in the property.

Animated projects targeting an urban black audience including The Boondocks and Afro Samurai have proven popular and successful in America. However, both of those titles have a degree of racial legitimacy. Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder is African American. Afro Samurai starred and was co-produced by Samuel L. Jackson. Tokyo Tribes, solely created by a Japanese artist, includes components like a street gang called “Saru.” While Japanese readers may perceive fictional black people identifying themselves as “monkey” as creative and legitimate, a foreigner identifying black characters with the name “Monkey” may come across as highly offensive to American perception. In fact, the entire depiction of black culture from a foreigner’s perspective may seem distant, insensitive, and inappropriate to contemporary American readers. The 2006 anime series slipped by in Japan and internationally almost without notice. I recall watching only one or two episodes of it because my reactions to it may be summed up by the words “repulsive” and “ridiculous.” The anime was not successful in Japan and was almost totally ignored by the American fan community. So it doesn’t immediately promote itself as a strong candidate for American licensing. Furthermore, domestic licensors that may be familiar with it may realize that the show has as much, if not more potential to cause outrage, controversy, and criticism as engagement and positive sales.

Tokyo Tribes may be a fascinating insight into Japanese society’s interpretation of American black culture as stereotyped by American pop culture media, but I’m not convinced that American consumers are actually willing to embrace a skewed, foreign illustration of American urban culture stereotypes. The Boondocks has legitimacy because it originates in American black culture reflecting upon itself. Afro Samurai draws primarily from 70’s blacksploitation movie stereotypes to create modern homage. Tokyo Tribes may be easily perceived as social criticism of contemporary American culture from a foreign perspective with no first-hand knowledge of what it’s depicting. In the same way that American animators may realize that trying to publicize and popularize an animated fantasy about Middle-Eastern religious practices to American teen audiences may not be a very wise decision, domestic distributors may realize that Tokyo Tribes may not really be the best, most legitimate depiction of black urban culture to market to American teen audiences.