{"id":1502,"date":"2007-02-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/2007\/02\/19\/ask-john-why-hasnt-tri-zenon-been-licensed\/"},"modified":"2007-02-19T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-19T14:00:00","slug":"ask-john-why-hasnt-tri-zenon-been-licensed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/ask-john-why-hasnt-tri-zenon-been-licensed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask John: Why Hasn’t Tri-Zenon Been Licensed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:<\/strong>
\nThere have been anime titles that have gone unlicensed for unknown reasons, one of them being Muteki-Oh! Tri-Zenon, a show that featured the same staff and seiyuu cast from fan favorites Slayers & Lost Universe. While it didn’t have the same success than those two hits, the series had a significant amount of popularity while its run on TBS back in 2002. While the entire franchise of Slayers and Lost Universe TV series has been released in North America, Tri-Zenon is like an invisible title for licensors. What made Tri-Zenon go overlooked by licensors? It has Megumi Hayashibara, robots, comedy, a close resemblance with Lost Universe. I’ve seen some spin-off series that weren’t considered good but have been licensed in the US with fair success just because they have some resemblance to the original series. Tri-Zenon didn’t have that chance. I was wondering if that had something to do with that rumoured second season of Lost Universe that was never made.<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong>
\nHonestly, my personal theory on why the Tri-Zenon television series has never been licensed for American release is two-fold. First, the show is very obscure. Second, the show just isn’t very good. I’d personally been watching untranslated, imported anime for years before Tri-Zenon premiered in 2000, so even at that time I think I had a fairly good knowledge of which TV series were popular and which were not in Japan’s anime community. (For reference, Tri-Zenon never aired in 2002. The series premiered in 2000 and ended in 2001 after only 22 episodes.) While Slayers was a big hit and Lost Universe a passable success, Muteki-Oh Tri-Zenon was not a big hit in Japan. The show was an uneven mixture of super robot, fantasy, and comedy that didn’t excel in any category. The series had a rather large cast, but none of the characters were especially memorable or unique. Tri-Zenon was simply a show that felt haphazardly sewn together, and it felt like a program designed to fill a time-slot more than a show designed intended to aim for success.<\/p>\n

2000 was the debut year for a number of high profile and very successful robot anime, namely Escaflowne, Argent Soma, Gear Fighter Dendoh, Vandread, Gaogaigar Final, and Transformers: Car Robots. Karakuri Kiden Hiwou Senki and Megami Kouhosei were also relatively successful that year, marginalizing not only Tri-Zenon, but also Ginsou Kikou Ordian and Soseiki ki Devadasy. In fact, a superficial similarity between Tri-Zenon and Lost Universe may have contributed to Tri-Zenon’s unpopularity. Lost Universe was universally panned for its poor animation quality and a rumored second Lost Universe series was apparently canceled. The bad taste left behind by Lost Universe may have convinced viewers to avoid another sci-fi action comedy from the same staff and cast. The fact that the Tri-Zenon series wasn’t even fully translated may suggest why the series has never been licensed for American release. If American hardcore anime fans aren’t interested in watching Tri-Zenon even when it’s available for free, there’s probably little chance of any significant number of American consumers being willing to pay to watch it.<\/p>\n

I mean no offense, as I’m aware that everyone has different tastes in anime. If you like and respect the Tri-Zenon anime series, than my comments shouldn’t change your opinion. There are a number of overlooked and forgotten anime gems that have yet to reach American release, but Muteki-Oh Tri-Zenon is not one of them. Although not quite as bad as Lost Universe, which was never a big commercial hit in America, Tri-Zenon is not an especially good show. Furthermore, with rare exceptions, mecha anime has never been highly successful in America, and I can’t think of a single giant robot comedy that has ever been a big hit in America. Considering the relative obscurity of Tri-Zenon and its estimated American commercial potential, I think it’s quite natural that the show has never been licensed for American release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: There have been anime titles that have gone unlicensed for unknown reasons, one of them being Muteki-Oh! Tri-Zenon, a show that featured the same staff and seiyuu cast from fan favorites Slayers & Lost Universe. While it didn’t have the same success than those two hits, the series had a significant amount of popularity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-john"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}