Ask John: Will the Remaining XXXHOLiC Anime Reach America?

Question:
Do you think the rest of xxxholic will be released in the U.S? It’s been quite a few years since the first TV season and motion picture have been released in the U.S. Do you think the second season and OVA’s will eventually reach the U.S.?

Answer:
FUNimation has maintained a fairly shrewd perspective on extended acquisitions. In 2011 FUNimation stated, “Unfortunately, because WTC [When They Cry] series 1 sold poorly, we will never buy the license to the sequels or any other title that bears even a minor resemblance.” Similarly, FUNimation has not extended its acquisition of subsequent and remaining seasons of titles including Lyrical Nanoha, Zero no Tsukaima, Jigoku Shoujo, Kodomo no Omocha, Ookiku Furikabutte, and, so far, XXXHOLiC. I don’t have personal knowledge of how well the first season of XXXHOLiC sold for FUNimation, nor how it performed in relation to expectations, but it’s always been a show with niche viewership in America, and it’s not a title that I frequently see American fans clamoring for more of. Although the series’ 2008 second season is fairly accessible, the subsequent Shunmuki, Rou, and Adayume OADs are somewhat difficult to fully comprehend without familiarity with the original manga that they’re adapted from. That remote accessibility makes the OADs even less appealing as a desirable domestic home video acquisition.

The possibility of the remaining XXXHOLiC anime getting picked up by an alternate distributor certainly exists. Sentai Filmworks licensed the subsequent three Jigoku Shoujo television series after FUNimation evidently decided to pass on them. NIS America picked up Umineko no Naku Koro Ni after FUNimation announced that it wasn’t interested in the title. But the most recent XXXHOLiC anime, excluding the tangentially related Blood-C: The Last Dark motion picture, is now two years old, suggesting that domestic distributors have had plenty of time to negotiate a domestic acquisition if they were interested. The recent premiere of the live-action XXXHOLiC drama on Japanese television suggests that the franchise still has an interested audience in Japan. However, the audience for the XXXHOLiC anime franchise here in America, particularly the American audience willing to purchase the anime on DVD or Blu-ray, appears to be too small to convince any domestic licensor to invest in bringing the remainder of the anime to American home video.