Ask John: What Sort of Titles Does AN Entertainment Intend to Import?

Question:
I had this notion, that you might choose to import the sort of titles that other distributors tend to neglect. In other words, titles that ought to be available to Western audiences, but have too small a target audience demographic for the other (more profit oriented ^_-) distributors to bother with. “Risky-Safety” certainly seems to be just such an anime (that won’t stop me from buying it though!).

Answer:
Like all businesses, unrelated to theoretical ideals, AN Entertainment has to be able to earn a solid profit to remain in business and afford to continue licensing. We have taken into consideration licensing suggestions including Yokohama Shopping Log, Captain Tsubasa, Yawara, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, and other niche market titles that theoretically ought to be available in America. I can’t reveal whether or not AN Entertainment has, or is actively considering licensing any of these titles, but I can say that the reason why many of these titles aren’t available in America is because they just don’t have enough market potential in America to be a safe investment. It’s not that distributors don’t bother with titles like these; it’s that when you’re talking about investments in the six figure range, it’s just too risky to spend that much money on a title that may not be able to recover it’s licensing and production costs. Especially for a small translating company without a massive cache of investment capital, a single expensive license that doesn’t sell well can easily be enough of a financial loss to put a company out of business. Some of the best examples of this are Star Anime Enterprises and Dark Image Entertainment. Star Anime Enterprises localized Homeroom Affairs (Tanin no Kankei) and Dragon League, both positively reviewed anime titles that never sold well, resulting in Star Anime Enterprises falling into obscurity even among die-hard American anime fans. Likewise, Dark Image Entertainment released quality anime titles including Bio-Booster Armor Guyver: Out of Control and Buichi Terasawa’s Raven Tengu Kabuto OAV in America, but the titles didn’t sell well, and Dark Image Entertainment faded into the annals of American anime history.

If you’ll indulge me with a bit of self-promotion, the goal of AN Entertainment is to bring exceptional anime titles to American fans. Some of our planned titles may not be familiar names, but we are not specifically seeking out under-represented or niche market shows. Some of the best anime ever created are titles that simply aren’t very well known among American fans. If we succeed in accomplishing the goal we set for ourselves, you’ll be able to collect AN Entertainment anime DVDs with the knowledge that you’re collecting some of the best anime series ever filmed. Some will be titles you’re probably familiar with; others may not be. But our objective is to bring great anime to English speaking viewers, not to fill in the gaps left by other domestic anime translating companies. We want to be known for the quality of our licenses and the care we put into localizing them for American viewers. We don’t exactly want AN Entertainment to be, “That other company that licenses stuff that Pioneer/Bandai/AD Vision/Media Blasters/etc. don’t license.”