Ask John: Why is So Little Japanese Experimental Animation Available in America?

Question:
I find it amazing how much foreign experimental animation is available in America to those who are willing to look for it. However, I am not aware of any Japanese releases, even though many have been shown at American film festivals. How likely do you think it is that experimental anime such as Tezuka Osamu’s Experiment will be released in America? Or are you not qualified to answer because it concerns art film fans more than the anime community?

Answer:
Although my primary love is anime, I think that the variety of movies I’ve watched and the diversity of my DVD collection adequately qualifies me as a fan of international and art films. However, I must admit that I’m not aware of a large variety of international experimental animation available on official American DVD. In fact, the fact that major works like Michel Ocelot’s two Kirikou movies are not available on official American DVD suggests that the state of international animation on American DVD is not particularly strong. More specifically, I don’t perceive a significant demand for international animation on American DVD. In fact, even the Criterion Collection, America’s premier line of significant and notable motion pictures, has only inducted one animated picture: Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. The fact that relatively mainstream anime “art films” or experimental animation like Angel’s Egg, 1001 Nights, Mind Game, Robot Carnival, and Piece of Phantasmagoria are not currently available on American home video suggests that even America’s hardcore fan community has little interest in Japanese experimental animation.

The 2006 Annecy International Animated Film Festival held in France hosted screenings of 18 Japanese animated works, of which only two came from the mainstream anime industry (the Gin-iro no Kami no Agito and XXXHOLiC movies). The 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival recognized artistic excellence in works by Kihachiro Kawamoto, Daisuke Hashimoto, Koji Yamamura, Junpei Fujita, and Sumito Sakakibara (along with the anime industry’s Koji Masunari). So evidence proves that there are no shortage of Japanese animators working outside of the mainstream commercial anime industry. Yet even the Oscar nomination of Koji Yamamura’s short film Atama-Yama in 2003 didn’t encourage increased importation of Japanese experimental or personal animation onto American DVD.

I don’t believe that the absence of Japanese animated art films on American home video has anything to do with a division between anime fans and art film fans. In my observation, there’s simply so little awareness of this genre of animation in America that there’s no interest in it. It’s not just anime fans that are unaware or uninterested in Japanese experimental animation. America’s art film community seems likewise ignorant of or uninterested in Japanese animated art films. Osamu Tezuka’s Legend of the Forest was released on American VHS years ago, but these days there seems to be little demand for such animation. With America’s home video industry contracting, I don’t foresee either the art film community or the anime fan community suddenly supporting a significant flow of Japanese experimental animation into America unless some work creates a significant impact and generates significant awareness of such animation in America. In other words, I don’t expect to see a significant increase in Japanese experimental and personal independent artistic animation released on official American home video in the foreseeable future.