Ask John: Why Haven’t Certain Video Game Anime Reached America?

Question:
Why didn’t the Parappa, Mario, and Ninja Gaiden anime ever get a U.S. release? Those were based on very popular and successful games, but they seemed to have been relegated to Japan-only. Meanwhile, we got titles like Viewtiful Joe, even though the system it was on was niche, and Ganbare Goemon/Legend of the Mystical Ninja, even though the games have been flops here.

Conversely, if video games are becoming the medium for more anime adaptations over there, why don’t they make more console-based anime in Japan instead of just flooding the market with dating-sim based TV shows and OVAs? I’d really love to see anime variations of Zelda, Metroid, and Strider, for example. But the best we can usually hope for are manga adaptations. I’d figure it’d be easier money than just pandering to moe-loving otaku, so why did it take this long just to even get a Devil May Cry series? Is it just that developers are more protective of their properties than manga-ka and hentai software companies?

Answer:
I don’t have a confirmed answer to your questions, so please accept my speculation as a possible explanation. I can’t say for certain why certain video game adaptations including the 1986 Super Mario Bros: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! movie, 1991 Ninja Ryukenden OVA, and 2001 Parappa Rapper television series never received an official American release, but my best guess would be a matter of timing. The Super Mario movie is a rarity, even in Japan. The hour long film did get a Japanese VHS release, but no laserdisc or DVD release. The film’s relatively short 60 minute length would have made it too short for American theatrical release and difficult to market on American commercial home video in the late 1980s or early 90s. Furthermore, at that time Japanese animation still hadn’t established itself in America, so there were few potential American distributors. The film now likely remains unavailable in Japan and America because of its age. If master footage even still exists, it’s probably buried and forgotten somewhere in Toei Animation’s vaults.

Similarly, the Ninja Ryukenden OVA has never been especially well known within or outside of Japan (although I can say that I first watched it back in 1993). It’s never been released on Japanese DVD. The single episode OVA was released in Japan just at the dawn of the American anime distribution industry, and obviously America’s early anime licensing companies simply picked other titles among the many that were available. As time went on and American licensors became better able to acquire a larger number of anime properties, the Ninja Ryukenden OVA got older and simply faded into oblivion.

The Parappa television anime was contemporary with the growth of America’s anime industry, and the Parappa the Rapper Playstation game was mildly popular in America. The TV anime may have been prevented from reaching America due to licensing costs or difficulties in rights acquisition. But I suspect that the style and content of the show may have also limited its American distribution potential. It’s been a number of years since I watched any of the Parappa anime, but I vaguely recall it being very similar to the game, without the interactivity. In other words, it doesn’t look like conventional anime, and it doesn’t have the interactivity that made the game popular among American players. It’s true that AD Vision licensed distribution rights to the Ganbare! Goeman television anime despite the games not faring well in America and the content of the anime not appealing to typical American anime fans. But I account for this with the recollection that AD Vision simply attempted to secure licensing rights to every title it could get during the early 2000s, regardless of quality or domestic market potential. So AD Vision licensing Ganbare! Goemon but not Parappa Rapper may be just a case of ADV acquiring whatever was easily available.

Excluding anime based on computer games, it can’t be said that there’s a lack of current anime adaptations of video games. Titles including Sengoku Basara, Tales of the Abyss, Tower of Druaga, Senjou no Valkyria, Blue Dragon, Inazuma Eleven, and Biohazard: Degeneration prove that point. Certain major Japanese video game franchises have gotten anime, including Sonic, F-Zero, Pocket Monster, Rockman, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy. Certain other franchises haven’t made the leap to anime, or are under represented in anime form, including Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, Zelda, and King of Fighters. I’m sure that the decision to create anime adaptations is based partly on considerations including the contemporary relevance of the title, the anticipated market and audience potential of an anime adaptation, the wishes and interest of the original game developers and publisher, and the relative ease of adapting a video game story into a screenplay. How and why Japan’s anime industry decides which video game titles to adapt into anime and when will always be mysterious to outsiders. Ultimately, I think it’s much more fun to continue wondering and hoping about anime adaptations of franchise X or title Y rather than having certain predictability.