Ask John: Will Lyrical Nanoha Come to America?

Question:
What are the chances of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and its sequel, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s being licensed for US distribution? Considering the fact that the Nanoha series is not your typical mahou shoujo series, how do you think the US anime consumers, which typically has little interest in the mahou shoujo genre, react to the series?

Answer:
Especially lately it seems as if any time I say that a show is unlikely to be licensed for American release, that very show is formally announced for American release shortly later. So the fact that I don’t foresee Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha being licensed for American release may be, in fact, good for the show’s fans. But steering away from the possibility of ironic coincidences, my instinct is that Lyrical Nanoha is a longshot for American release.

Especially the second Lyrical Nanoha series is definitely not conventional magical girl anime. The inclusion of sci-fi themes and a heavy emphasis on vicious fighting are quite different from the conventional romantic and domestic pratfalls of magical girl anime. However, despite the show’s content, Lyrical Nanoha still overtly looks like a girls’ show staring a cute pre-adolescent witch. Magical girl anime typically doesn’t sell well in America. Nurse Witch Komugi-chan, Akihabara Cyber Team, and Princess Tutu are all unconventional magical transforming girl series, yet none of them have become major hits in America. The simple problem is that an average American consumer who sees a Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha DVD on a store shelf will immediately presume that it’s a show for pre-adolescent girls and decline to purchase it, regardless of the show’s actual content or target audience.

Since Lyrical Nanoha is a better than average magical girl show, there’s certainly some possibility that it will be licensed by a company that will seek to market the show primarily to the hardcore anime fan community. That’s exactly what AD Vision revealed its plans for Princess Tutu were. However, considering the popularity and success of the series in Japan, Lyrical Nanoha will probably be an expensive license, which may discourage American licensors from investing in it. It’s not good business sense to spend a lot on licensing a show that’s popular in Japan but has a very small following and small potential audience in America.

I don’t expect to see Lyrical Nanoha licensed for America because I suspect that it’s an expensive license that has very limited American market potential. It may be an excellent show, but many American consumers purchase anime based on appearances rather than quality or content. And Lyrical Nanoha appears to be a cute and happy children’s program for little girls, although it’s actually a fan service show for young adult men. (Keep in mind that “fan service” doesn’t always mean sex.) But predicting licenses is often unpredictable, so I may turn out to be proven wrong.