Ask John: Will OADs Ever Reach America?

Question:
With the announcement of another Negima?! OAD to be released, I wonder if we will get to see any of them either with domestic manga releases or stand alone DVDs? What’s the possibility of getting the Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei and KissXSis OADs?

Answer:
I think that there’s a qualified answer to this question, a “yes, but” answer that lies largely in the differences between the Japanese and American manga publishing industries. America is likely to eventually get OADs but unlikely to get them as premiums with manga the way they’re released in Japan. To clarify, an OVA or OAV is Original Video Animation – anime created for straight to video release. The first OVA was Dallos episode 1, released in Japan on December 21, 1983. An OAD is an “Original Anime DVD” – an anime episode exclusively released as a premium with a volume of manga. If I’m not mistaken, the first formally recognized OAD was the Kodomo no Jikan: Anata ga Watashi ni Kureta Mono episode released on September 12, 2007 as a bonus with limited edition copies of the fourth volume of Kaworu Watashiya’s manga, although the term “OAD” may not have been introduced until the November 2007 release of the first episode of the Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelation anime series. Strictly speaking, the OAD may actually date back to at least August 2000 when the sixth volume of Yukito Kishiro’s Gunnm Complete edition manga included an exclusive DVD containing a CG animation motorball race short video. In any case, since 2007 the OAD format has caught on, with many manga titles getting book releases with bonus DVDs, including Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, Minami-ke, Kamen no Maid Guy, Nodame Cantabile, Kyo no Go no Ni, Negima, Kiss x Sis, and upcoming releases Hen Zemi, Haiyore! Nyaru-Ani, Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san, Chi’s Sweet Home, and Ashiaraiyashiki no Junin-tachi.

OADs are a shrewd marketing tool because they encourage manga consumers to spend more on limited edition publications and attract fans interested in exclusive anime who may not otherwise have bought manga. OADs are also practically viable for Japanese production and release because many Japanese publishers are massive corporations with subsidiaries or affiliations in video production or distribution, so simply deep pockets. Manga publishing in America is quite different. Del Rey is certainly a massive corporation; the Hachette Book Group which owns Yen Press and DC Comics’ CMX are large companies, but many of America’s manga publishers are relatively small companies that concentrate on book publishing, not licensing and distributing video. Similarly, while it was once common for America’s anime distributors to also publish manga, that strategy is less prominent now.

Rather than see OAD releases reach America as bonus discs packed with manga, I envision OAD productions licensed for American release separately and released as stand-alone DVDs or additions to TV series DVD sets. American consumers seem willing to spend $8 to $14 for volumes of manga, but less likely to spend double that for limited edition books that include bonus DVDs. Furthermore, I think that many of America’s distributors are either manga publishers that don’t want to invest in acquiring, producing, and releasing bonus DVDs, or DVD distributors that don’t want to bundle select DVD releases with manga volumes. Note that I’m referring to exclusive releases, not the policy of bundling manga and DVDs that are also available individually, as Viz Media has done with Death Note and Naruto. Tokyopop did release the Psychic Academy anime series exclusively bundled with volumes of the manga, but the anime was not originally an OVA series or manga bonus in Japan.

FUNimation has released all of the Tsubasa, XXXHOLiC, and Negima anime excluding the Japanese OADs, so it may be just a matter of time until FUNimation acquires some of those releases for domestic DVD release separate from Del Rey’s manga releases. Other titles with OADs available in Japan, such as Kamen no Maid Guy, Minami-ke, Kyo no Go no Ni, Denpa Teki na Kanojo, and Kiss x Sis simply haven’t reached America yet in manga or anime form.