Ask John: Why So Many Recent Preemptive Licenses?

Question:
I’ve noticed over the past few weeks that several anime have been licensed in the US by companies before the shows have even aired, or only aired a couple of episodes. Sentai in particular just picked up Medaka Box, Sakamichi no Apollon, and Mysterious Girlfriend X even though these shows are as of yet unproven in their native markets, much less the more particular American one.

Any insight into this action? Given how fiscally prudent American licensees have been of late, tossing money around before shows are even finished airing seems risky on the face. The only mitigating factor that pops to mind is, since the shows are an unknown quantity, perhaps these companies are able to negotiate favorable conditions based upon that uncertainty?

Answer:
In several respects, the American anime industry is not what it once was. Particularly the contemporary influence of digital distribution – both licensed and unlicensed – and the constitution of the contemporary American anime consumer market have a bigger influence in licensing trends and decisions today than in the past. But at the same time, swift acquisitions of untested titles is not a sudden, new development in anime licensing. In the early 2000s even small licensors had the opportunity to acquire new anime titles preemptively. AN Entertainment, for example, was offered exclusive American distribution rights to Afro Samurai and Yugo: The Negotiator before a single frame of animation for either title had been drawn. (As history now knows, AN Entertainment passed on both titles, for various reasons.)

With the exception of corporate owned Viz Media, today’s active anime licensors – FUNimation, Sentai Filmworks, Maiden Japan, Discotek, Media Blasters, NISA, and Nozomi Entertainment – are all privately owned distributors managed by anime enthusiasts. These licensors are mainstream distributors like Hulu or Sony that distribute anime as a sideline, or bulk distributors like Crunchyroll that seek to obtain any and every title available. Today’s active home video distributors are managed by individuals that are familiar with anime and the domestic anime consumer audience and can therefore make licensing decisions based on intangible considerations including genre, originating studio, and creator profile. Sakamichi no Apollon may be an original, untested property, but the mere fact that it’s the first series collaboration between Shinichiro Watanabe and Yoko Kanno since Cowboy Bebop is an appealing marketing angle that mainstream executives may not appreciate, but which hardcore anime fans and knowledgeable anime licensors salivate over. Likewise, Medaka Box may be a largely unknown title in America, but knowledge that it’s written by Nisio Isin and animated by Gainax is enough substantial pedigree to make it an investment with great potential.

The domestic anime distribution industry moves faster now than it ever has before, by necessity. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, an anime title jumping across the ocean within twelve months was a rapid localization. These days, when Crunchyroll streams Saint Seiya Omega a week behind the Japanese broadcast, the American release feels out-of-date. The competition to acquire top shelf, high profile, and eagerly anticipated anime titles these days is so intense that multiple licensors are now acquiring overlapping rights to the same titles. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a distributor like Viz Media could afford to sit on titles like Recca no Hounou and Monster for years before finally shuffling them onto American DVD. Domestic licensors don’t have that luxury anymore. Online distributors including Crunchyroll, NicoNico, and Viki have pressured physical media distributors into a brisker licensing pace. And the domestic audience, which is now almost exclusively just hardcore anime fans, has largely adopted a Japanese mentality of “out of sight, out of mind.” Contemporary visible anime are hot while shows from a mere season ago – a mere four months ago – are already old news. When domestic digital distribution and the remaining American fan community are literally on the cutting edge of anime releasing, the physical distribution industry has to keep up or get left behind. Domestic distributors that specialize in niche releases for small sub-divisions within the niche anime community, like DiscoTek and Nozomi, don’t need to keep up with the rat race. But distributors like FUNimation, Sentai, and Media Blasters that seek to remain high profile and relevant to the entire domestic anime market, instead of just small fractions of it, are now obligated to consider speculative licensing rather than sure-fire acquisition. Thankfully for anime fans, the experience and knowledge of the active “zero-day” licensors results in domestic DVD and Blu-ray licenses for titles with strong credentials and American collector & consumer appeal, like Sakamichi no Apollon, Tasogare Otome x Amnesia, Medaka Box, and Eureka Seven AO rather than shows like Sengoku Collection, Kuroko no Basuke, Shirokuma Café, and Arashi no Yori ni ~ Himitsu no Tomodachi that have practically no American DVD or Blu-ray sales potential.