Ask John: Why Don’t Some Titles Get License Rescued?

Question:
I’ve always wondered why there are well-known anime that have yet to be rescue licensed. Are there reasons why many anime have been rescue licensed (Haibane Renmei and Serial Experiments Lain), and others haven’t been rescue licensed in years (Patlabor: The TV Series)?

Answer:
Although I have been involved in domestic anime licensing, I haven’t ever been involved in negotiations for re-licensing or “license rescue.” However, I have heard tales from other domestic licensors which I can combine with my own experience to form a partial picture.

Acquiring distribution rights to a title previously released in America is sometimes an appetizing option because the process nets a catalog title that will require less investment to distribute to market. Typically after an anime distribution license expires the anime reverts back to its Japanese master owner along with any adaptation produced in America. In effect, when a license expires, the Japanese distributor not only gets the rights back but also any subtitle translation and English language dub audio that was produced for the release. So when a new licensor acquires the title in the future, the new licensor gets not only the anime footage but also the existing translations. That’s why, for example, ImaginAsian’s release of Orguss included the Streamline produced dub, DiscoTek’s release of the Fist of the North Star TV series included the Manga Entertainment produced dub, and Nozomi’s forthcoming releases of Nadesico and Gasaraki will include the AD Vision produced dubs.

However, license rescuing depends partially upon the desires of the domestic licensor and partially upon Japanese availability. Media Blasters CEO John Sirabella, for example, has publicly expressed distaste for acquiring “license rescues” because such re-licenses are often a case of picking up titles that have already exhausted their American market potential. Furthermore, in some cases older anime titles are simply no longer available to license because their Japanese distributor and master licensor is no longer active. Particularly numerous OVAs from the 1980s and 90s cannot be “license rescued” now since the studios and distributors that originally produced them have gone out of business, leaving their Japanese ownership uncertain.

Finally, in the case of a title like Serial Experiments Lain, which recently got an extensively remastered Japanese Blu-ray release, since the title is still viable in Japan, it’s worth just as much as any other contemporary release. In that case, a domestic licensor may choose to invest in a contemporary title new to America instead of spending the same amount on a vintage title that has little contemporary consumer buzz, or a title with future franchise potential instead of an archival title.