Ask John: Will More Kino’s Journey Reach America?

Question:
I love Kino no Tabi (Kino’s Journey) and was sad to see Tokyopop discontinue the light novels after the first volume. Do you think the novels will be released in the US again? What are the chances of the movies “Land of Sickness” (2007) and “Life Goes On” (2005) being licensed?

Answer:
My best guess is that only Tokyopop and its Japanese licensing partner know precisely what happened to the English language release of author Keiichi Sigsawa’s Kino no Tabi novel series. At the same time Tokyopop discontinued its “Kino’s Journey” novel series, it also canceled further publication of Scrapped Princess novels while continuing to publish novels from other series. A licensing issue of some sort seems the most logical explanation for the sudden cancellation of continued publication as it’s difficult to determine consumer interest from just one volume released. If some sort of unanticipated issue regarding international distribution of the novels did arise, causing Tokyopop to abandon the franchise, that issue may also prevent any other domestic publisher from bringing the novels back to America.

Since there’s been no similar mysterious disappearance related to the Kino no Tabi anime in America, presumably the only obstacle preventing a domestic release of the movies is hesitancy from domestic distributors. And that hesitancy may be justified. The Kino no Tabi anime series has a small following of very loyal supporters, and the television series was not unsuccessful on American DVD. But at the same time, the Kino no Tabi anime has never been an especially big hit in America. The feature films pose difficulty for domestic distributors for a number of reasons. The short length of the movies makes them difficult to sell individually in the American DVD market in which consumers expect an hour or more of content on a commercial DVD. But putting both films on a single domestic DVD may not be cost effective for a domestic distributor because that would require licensing two separate films but earning revenue from only one DVD release. FUNimation has used precisely that distribution strategy with the paired Tsubasa Chronicle and XXXHOLiC movies, so the possibility isn’t alien. But it’s also not necessarily probable.

If the American anime consumer market was more robust and domestic distributors could comfortably license and release anime titles with uncertain or niche consumer potential, well, if America’s anime community was in that situation, the Kino no Tabi movies would probably already have reached American DVD by now. The fact that the Kino no Tabi movies haven’t been acquired for domestic release may be taken as one of many signs of the weakness and tentativeness of today’s American anime distribution industry. Having already established a presence in America and demonstrated their market potential, my best guess is that the Kino no Tabi novel and anime franchise has a stronger possibility of relaunching in America than many other niche audience titles that haven’t established an American audience yet. But I’m not anticipating any immediate new licensing announcements.