Ask John: Will Madoka Magica Reach America?

Question:
Your last question and answer about the death of magical girls series in the West bears another look. Do you think “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” has the pull to make it over here. I haven’t had this much interest in an anime series for a long time. Each week the wait is frustratingly long. Looking at the never ending Magica threads on 4-Chan and a full scale wiki dedicated to “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” makes one wonder just how popular this series is in the West. So just how popular is “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” in the West and do you think it is popular enough to make the jump over the Pacific? I know I am buying the Japanese BDs as they come out.

Answer:
For anime fans, the distance between possibility and probability is frequently frustratingly large, and frequently frustratingly uncertain. The current Puella Magi Madoka Magica television series certainly has a considerable potential to reach America, but whether or not it actually will remains to be seen. The shockingly grim, violent, and emotionally brutalizing magical girl series is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, director of shows including Dance in the Vampire Bund, Hidamari Sketch, Lyrical Nanoha, Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~, Mariaholic, and Detatoko Princess, that have been officially released in America. Madoka Magica’s original character design was created by Hidamari Sketch creator Ume Aoki. Both the Hidamari Sketch manga and anime have officially reached America. The series was written by Gen Urobuchi, creator of Phantom of Inferno, which has also reached America. Anime created by the animation studio Shaft has, in recent years, become quite popular among American otaku, and the Madoka Magica staff have proven viability among American anime fans. The Madoka Magica television series has created waves of fascinated interested among followers both in Japan and internationally. No magical girl anime has been this popular among American viewers since 2005’s Lyrical Nanoha A’s (although Heartcatch Precure did reach an untypical height of interest among American viewers). However, even a shockingly grim, consistently high quality magical girl anime series is still a magical girl anime series.

Fans of cult hit titles like Lyrical Nanoha, Lucky Star, the Air/Clannad/Kanon triumvirate, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni have been unable to push their favored shows into mainstream American success. Average American casual anime fans that follow Dragon Ball, Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, and Fullmetal Alchemist are unlikely to flock to Madoka Magica, despite the appeal of its grim, deconstructive themes and brutal plot twists, because it’s still a magical girl show starring cute girls, a talking mascot animal, and scenes of conventional school-life emotional angst. Regardless of the show’s cult popularity, Madoka Magica is doomed to never earn more than an insular cult fan following in America, which may hazard its chances of reaching America. Japanese production partners and distributors including Animax, MBS, TBS, MOVIC, and Nitroplus may want the show to get significant American exposure commensurate with the program’s Japanese popularity and success. But the show’s Japanese popularity will be difficult to replicate in America because America is traditionally and practically less receptive to magical girl anime than Japan. Furthermore, with a franchise so ripe for potential profit in Japan, its Japanese producers and distributors may insist upon American acquisition fees or royalties that will make the show impractical to distribute domestically.

In recent years, seeming “guaranteed license” anime franchises have become less frequent, and nearly all of the high profile contemporary titles and series that seem especially viable for domestic acquisition have been acquired. Madoka Magica has become the anime industry’s latest sleeper hit, and as such it should be a very desirable acquisition for any and all of America’s active anime licensors. Considering the advance promotion that the show got, and the fact that Akiyuki Shinbo and Shaft’s prior collaboration, Dance in the Vampire Bund, was quickly licensed for official American online distribution, I’m surprised that Madoka Magica hasn’t already been announced for American release. However, fans should at least wait for the show to hit Japanese home video before fretting about an overdue American release. Particularly with a show like this that has taken Japan by storm, its producers may naturally want to maximize Japanese home video sales before allowing cheaper, potentially competing, foreign home video releases. Sometimes deserving shows remain unlicensed in America. Director Akiyuki Shinbo’s Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko TV series, for example, springs to mind. But even in today’s smaller and more selective American anime industry, hit shows including K-On, Durarara, Sekirei, Queen’s Blade, and Toradora, and fan-favorite shows like Working and Garei Zero do regularly get licensed for official American release. So I do expect that we have only a matter of time to wait until Madoka Magica materializes officially for American viewers, in some format.