Ask John: Where’s Robot Carnival?
Question:
Why is Robot Carnival not released on Region 1 DVD yet?
Answer:
Robot Carnival is a relatively old anime film, so it’s not a high priority for Japanese distributors and export licensors that encourage international anime licensing. It may also remain in Japan due to its existance as a Studio A.P.P.P. production. In 2002, Super Techno Arts, the now-defunct American branch of Studio A.P.P.P. announced plans to eventually release the 1987 Robot Carnival anime film on American home video. However, not only has Super Techno Arts ceased operations, no Studio A.P.P.P. production has reached American home video in years. The most recent Studio A.P.P.P. production to reach American home video was its 2003 adult anime OVA Nami SOS! First Battle, which hit American DVD as “Sexy Sailor Soldiers” in 2006. The studio’s 2000 television series Sci-Fi Harry and 2004 ninja action OVA series Shadow were announced for American home video release but neither ever did reach American home video. The 2009 Street Fighter: a-Generation OVA remains a Japanese home video exclusive. And the studio’s 2007 Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood motion picture has never been released on home video at all, even in Japan. So while anime that Studio A.P.P.P. has worked on, including Fairy Tail, Shin Koihime Muso, Loveless, Aquarion, and 11eyes have come to American home video, seven out of the fifteen anime that Studio A.P.P.P. cites as the studio’s own primary works have never seen American DVD release.
No American distributors have mentioned any efforts to persue acquisition of Robot Carnival, and I honestly don’t know if the title is available for international or American distribution licensing, but I do want to provide reminder that the ability of small domestic distributors like Anime Midstream and Discotek Media to acquire vintage anime like Raijin-Oh and Unico demonstrates that a single determined individual or a small group of American otaku interested in entering the anime distribution business may be able to accumulate enough capital to acquire the domestic distribution rights to Robot Carnival themselves.
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At this point, the real question is where’s Robot Carnival on remastered 25th anniversary Blu-Ray?
Stuff like this makes me glad I kept all the anime I collected on laserdisc!
Yeah, my Streamline LD of Robot Carnival is nothing to write home about — it looks like the dirty VHS master it was mastered from(!) — but at least I have it to watch or digitally remaster for portable viewing.
I’d say that roughly 40% of that LD anime has never been re-released in the States, period. Probably at least 20% of it has never seen a minimum of DVD re-release in Japan, either.
There’s very little interest in re-releasing most older anime series or feature films unless they’re well-known franchises (Gundam, Macross), associated with prestige studios (Ghibli), or earlier works of well-known directors/producers (Hayao Miyazaki).
That’s just the way it is… It’s all about what the companies think they can make money from! Unfortunately, that means some anime will never make its way to the States any time soon because the licensors will ask for too much money from domestic licensees… even on some of the older stuff.
Good news/bad news about Discotek… Great they’re getting the old stuff but bad news that you have to special-order/order online because hardly any store carries their video releases in-store! Darn shame, too, because they have a fairly solid anime catalog small as it may be.
George: “There’s very little interest in re-releasing most older anime series or feature films unless they’re well-known franchises (Gundam, Macross), associated with prestige studios (Ghibli), or earlier works of well-known directors/producers (Hayao Miyazaki).”
It’s got Otomo, the director of Kite, and one of the Gundam people attached to it. And a “dub”. So the marketing potential for Robot Carnival would be a snap.
Or maybe the reason we don’t have it is because it’s because the dubbed version’s out of order?
I doubt most anime fans now are even aware of who Otomo is or even care…
That, and his most recent films have been uniform, unrepetant flops financially and critically.
His relevance in current production is close-to-nil. He just doesn’t have the consistency of either Miyazaki or the late Satoshi Kon, IMHO.
The fact that people are citing an over 20-year-old film (Akira) as his signature work is not inspiring…
In show biz and many fan circles, people remember and respect you by your last hit, not your best-known film.
Regardless, I’d still like to see a remastered, HD version of Robot Carnival released but I haven’t heard anything about it in years. I know there was a Japanese DVD release but it’s long out-of-print for all I know and I am not interested in region 2 DVD’s. That’s what I love about Blu ray Region A — not of the hardware B.S. that plagued importing of last generation DVD’s!