Ask John: Will Law of Ueki Be Popular in America?

Question:
What are your views on the release Law of Ueki? Are we looking at another Inuyasha/Yu Yu Hakusho anime? I’ve never seen Geneon release a brand new anime title at $20. What’s going on? What are our predictions?

Answer:
The Law of Ueki anime series has proven to be quite popular in Japan considering that it’s now over 40 episodes long. It’s original manga is published in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine along with the seemingly equally successful and popular Mar ~ Marchen Awakens Romance series. So, in effect, Law of Ueki is perfectly designed and suited to become popular among mainstream Japanese viewers in the same way titles like One Piece, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Detective Conan, and Inuyasha are popular mainstream Japanese hits.

But while Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho have become popular and successful in America partially because they’re able to appeal to both male and female viewers, and they’re stylistically just a little bit closer to the feel of anime for “otaku,” programs like Detective Conan, One Piece, and Dandoh, which skew closer to the mainstream Japanese viewer than the hardcore otaku, haven’t been tremendously successful in America. I’d say that Law of Ueki is most similar in tone and target audience to programs like Groove Adventure Rave, Dandoh, and Flame of Recca. None of these three programs have been highly successful on American DVD. Even within America’s underground fan translation and distribution community, Law of Ueki isn’t an unusually popular title.

Since the Law of Ueki anime is a successful current Japanese title, it virtually demands international release. But I suspect that Geneon realizes that it’s a title with limited American sales potential. So a $20 per DVD price point is a carefully considered marketing tactic. Since the show has little established anticipation within the American market and isn’t expected to become a breakout success, the domestic DVDs have to be cheap because a $30 price point will reduce the show’s already anticipated minimal sales. But a lower price per disc may tempt American viewers to take a chance on the show. And the more viewers that watch it, the greater the chance of it becoming successful based on word of mouth, and viewers literally discovering it for themselves. I don’t see the lower than average $19.98 per disc retail price of the American Law of Ueki DVDs as an example of a trend in lowering the price of anime. I think the lower price of Law of Ueki is an isolated exception determined by necessity.