Ask John: Will We See Ranma or Street Fighter on TV?

Question:
And what are the odds of a series like Ranma 1/2 or Street Fighter II V getting on Cartoon Network?

Answer:
As anime grows more and more popular in the US, it’s very possible that we will see more anime broadcast on American TV, but I can’t offer any predictions about specific series. At one time I would have said that Ranma would never have made it onto American television because of the brief nudity contained in the series, but the digital editing used to eliminate the nudity in original Dragonball and especially in Tenchi Muyo make this a moot point. More so than many anime television series, Ranma would be possibly a good choice for television broadcast because it’s a long series, easily capable of providing a season worth of episodes, and it has only the barest minimum of continuing story, allowing new viewers to pick up the show easily. Street Fighter II V would likely be a bit more problematic, mainly because the series, especially toward its mid-point, is extremely violent. Digital editing could remove the blood, but there’s no denying that the series is about young people physically beating each other up, which I imagine could be a very tough sell in today’s climate of teen-violence.