Ask John: Will There Ever Be Star Wars Anime?

Question:
Now that there’s a new official Star Wars manga (and of course, Episode II itself), is it likely that we’ll see a real Star Wars anime anytime in the near future?

Answer:
It’s not surprising to see manga adaptations of Star Wars because there have been Star Wars comics for as long as there has been Star Wars itself. And numerous manga artists have acknowledged the tremendous influence Star Wars has had on the Japanese manga and anime industry. It’s natural to expect that individual manga artists would be interested in adapting Star Wars themselves. However, we do not anticipate Lucasfilm commissioning a Japanese produced Star Wars anime mainly for two reasons. Because the mainstream American acceptance of anime, relative to Star Wars, is still quite small, it’s debatable how marketable and successful a Star Wars anime production could possibly be in America. Second, the history of Star Wars in animation form has not been particularly positive compared to its success in live action, so, from a businessman’s perspective, there’s little reason to make another attempt at a production with a history of failure. Furthermore, considering George Lucas’ notorious protective control over his franchise, it seems unlikely that Lucasfilm would commission another animated Star Wars production to be created on the other side of the world, outside of daily, hands-on supervision by Lucasfilm directly.

It’s unlikely that any Japanese studio would seek out the option to produce an original work of Star Wars anime for several reasons. While manga requires only one dedicated artist, an anime requires dozens of artists and months of expensive production time and effort. Considering the expense of licensing the Star Wars trademark and spending the time and effort to produce an original Star Wars anime, it’s simply much more cost efficient to produce an original work. Largely because of the extra expense and difficulty associated with adapting a pre-existing foreign work, original Japanese anime adaptations of established Western works are very rare. The only examples of entirely original Japanese anime adaptations of American science fiction that I can think of are the Lensman TV series and motion picture from 1984 and the Starship Troopers OAV series from 1989. (Productions including Sin: The Motion Picture, Satanica and Warrior Nun Areala do not count because they are not original Japanese adaptations. They are works commissioned by American companies for American release.) Considering that it’s been over a dozen years since the last entirely Japanese produced adaptation of American sci-fi, it’s unlikely that there will be any sudden revival of interest in this type of anime production among Japanese studios in the foreseeable future.