Ask John: Will Xam’d Get a DVD Release?

Question:
The Xam’d: Lost Memories anime is on the Playstation Network, but what about a release on Blu-ray or DVD? Any chance to see the Bones anime on any of the 2 media [from] anybody but Sony? Look how great the release of Blood+ is going. Could the Funimation empire get involved? They buy everything!

Answer:
Regrettably, both for the American consumers that wish to own a permanent, archival copy of the Bounen no Xamd anime series, and for the majority of American anime viewers that don’t have access to the official American release distributed exclusively through the Playstation 3 online retail network, we’ve heard no word yet of any plans for the Xam’d: Lost Memories series to receive a DVD or Blu-ray release.

The series is scheduled to debut in Japan on the 24th. While a Japanese DVD/BD release hasn’t been announced yet, I have little doubt that the series will get a Japanese disc release. On the positive side, since an official English translation exists and the US and Japan reside within the same Blu-ray encoding territory, if the Xam’d anime series is released on Japanese Blu-ray, which is certainly a possibility, the release may prove to be American import friendly.

Consumer response to anime on Blu-ray appears to be much more supportive in Japan than in the US. Since the Xam’d series is distributed via the Playstation 3, which doubles as a Blu-ray player, an archival Blu-ray release for Japanese consumers would seem logical and appropriate.

Unfortunately, the probability of a domestic packaged media release is less certain. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has done an admirable job with the American home video release of anime feature films (with the notable exception of the Street Fighter II movie), but Sony’s support for serialized anime has been less stellar. And the domestic release of the Cyborg 009 series was never completed. The domestic release of Blood+ is dubtitled and presently incomplete with no announced plans for the completion of the release. So even if Sony does announce plans to release Xam’d on American DVD or Blu-ray, there’s no certainty that the release will be completed.

The possibility of the series’s packaged media release being handled by a third party distributor, for example, FUNimation, isn’t outside the realm of possibility, but also doesn’t seem especially probable. FUNimation has distributed anime series on behalf of 4Kids Entertainment and AN Entertainment, so it wouldn’t be unusual for FUNimation to handle the physical media distribution of another anime series that’s not actually one of their own licenses. However, since Sony does have its own, well established home video distribution channels and has previously manufactured and distributed its own anime DVDs and Blu-ray media, it would seem most practical for Sony to again just distribute its own license itself.

While anime officially distributed in America have traditionally typically received a “hard copy” release, that policy seems less certain with contemporary digitally distributed anime series. So far, titles including Keitai Shoujo, Blassreiter, Tower of Druaga, Strike Witches, Digimon Adventure 02, Neko Rahmen, and Pretty Cure have been officially released, subtitled, in America, but none of these shows have scheduled domestic packaged media releases. Being an especially partial fan of Pretty Cure and Strike Witches, myself, I’m very anxious to see these series receive a domestic DVD release. However, in light of drastically declining domestic anime DVD sales and the expense of producing and distributing physical media, certain distributors – particularly Japanese companies without a physical presence in America, and major American distributors like Sony – to whom the domestic anime market is almost insignificantly small – may decide that online exclusive distribution, much like TV broadcasts that don’t get DVD releases, are a preferable corporate strategy.