Ask John: Will Angel Heart Ever Reach America?
Question:
Golgo TV & the new Cobra have been licensed for DVD & online respectively. But Angel Heart, the alternative reality sequel to City Hunter has not, despite it being arguably the best City Hunter story of all. It has Ryo & Falcon & Saeko plus a new very lethal girl assassin. And Kaori too! Why do you think Angel Heart has not been licensed for the US yet, & do you think it is likely to be?
Answer:
The 2005 Angel Heart television series reveals a core conflict within the American anime fan community. Vocal pronouncements from America’s otaku community bemoan the absence of anime starring adult characters and stories outside the confines of high school hijinks, shounen adventure, card or monster collecting, or oogling breasts. Yet the massive majority of American viewers seem to ignore shows like Angel Heart that avoid all of these seemingly undesirable characteristics. Despite claims that American otaku are tired of conventional fan service anime, FUNimation sold out of its initial production batch of Sekirei DVDs while titles like Angel Heart, Bartender, Gallery Fake, Yomigaeru Sora, Hataraki Man, Nodame Cantabile, Souten no Ken, and Tetsuko no Tabi that seem to offer all of the adult drama that fans claim to want remain not just unlicensed but virtually unknown in America. Maybe the most vocal and demanding of American otaku are also a small minority. Maybe the most vocal American otaku make disingenuous demands in order to create a false facade of refinement. Regardless of the reason, the active effect is that shows like Angel Heart have very little market viability in America.
Nearly all of creator Hojo Tsukasa’s City Hunter anime has been released on American DVD: four television series, two OVAs, the motion picture, and two out of three TV movies. Yet none of it can be considered a domestic success. The first season of Hojo Tsukasa’s Cat’s Eye has hit American DVD to no success. Even comparable titles have struggled on American DVD. Gintama on domestic DVD seems to be going nowhere. The Anime Network labeling the 26th episode of the Golgo 13 television series “finale” has generated fan speculation that Sentai Filmworks does not intend to release all 50 episodes. If I was an acquisitions representative for a domestic licensor, Angel Heart would not be a title that I’d aggressively persue, not because the show is bad but because it’s not an acquisition likely to recoup its costs or generate profit. The majority of American anime viewers gravitate toward stylish, sensationalistic, sexy, and trendy anime. Angel Heart is an engaging action drama, but it doesn’t include a tremendous amount of action; it’s not the latest and hottest anime out of Japan; and its art and character design aren’t as stylish and trendy as that of many other, more conventional otaku-oriented anime. In an environment in which viewers gravitated toward the anime with strong narrative development and nuanced characterization, Angel Heart would be an attractive title. But those characteristics aren’t what the majority of American anime viewers are most interested in, regardless of what many of them claim.
A domestic licensor may be willing to distribute Angel Heart domestically if petitioned to do so by a Japanese licensor, or a domestic streaming outlet may be glad to host the series if it’s offered, but both possibilities seem unlikely. Although Angel Heart is not well known domestically, the franchise is successful in Japan to an extent that a Japanese licensor is unlikely to consider overseas distribution without fees or significant royalties. A tremendous variety of anime gets streamed online in Japan, but domestic streaming of shows older than roughly three years is almost unheard of. Japanese distributors are interested in promoting their current titles with online distribution, not five year-old titles that won’t gain a revenue boost from international streaming. Considering the widely unexpected, albeit not especially successful, domestic licensing and distribution of anime series including Eyeshield 21, Glass Mask, and Kaiji, I can’t state that Angel Heart is absolutely never going to reach America. Unlikely domestic acquisitions do still occur. But Angel Heart feels like a longshot despite its seeming accessibility for American viewers.
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Aniplex appears to own the rights to Angel Heart, so the ball’s in their court. I always wondered why Gutsoon didn’t publish it first over City Hunter myself, or at least Cat’s Eye, but I was told you needed to know the back-story of CH to get into AH. Bartender could be brought over, given that that slot sluts anime just got uploaded to CR. But I have a feeling that Viz is worried they’ll be accused of enabling minors to drink alcohol if they publish the manga. I think Hataraki Man could happen when people find jobs again. ^^; Souten No Ken should be a no-brainer, though, if Fist and Raoh are indeed making money for their respective companies. I imagine that actually happening sooner than we think. Nodame Cantabile will depend on whether or not you can prove Americans still like musical compositions longer than five minutes. They took that badly inserted Beethoven music in Eva seriously, though, so anything’s possible.
As for City Hunter, it could’ve been a hit, or at least a non-failure, if the separate companies which had it all cross-promoted their stuff. I mean, Fox had the Jackie Chan movie, ADV had most of the anime, and Gutsoon had the manga. And what the hell did they do but just sell them separately and assume people would make the connection. In fact, when Hojo was at BAAF ’03, they actually asked the audience at his panel how many people saw the Jackie CH, and most people raised their hands. So that was just a major missed opportunity there.
As for Golgo, I’m hoping my theory about Sentai looking for a way to cash in on the similarly-themed “The American” by releasing similar covers holds up. [Someone on Youtube said “LOL George Clooney” when they saw The Professional trailer. Though when you think about it, Besson’s Professional also cribbed from the movie.]
“Japanese distributors are interested in promoting their current titles with online distribution, not five year-old titles that won’t gain a revenue boost from international streaming. ”
If they’re also willing to promote reboots and sequels based on franchises older than five years, than anything’s possible.
I blame 4chan.