Notable licenses of late
June 30th, 2007 by Shirukii
A slew of licenses have been announced at ADV’s and Geneon’s Anime Expo panels, and while most of them make sense, there’s one among them that doesn’t quite fit…
Geneon’s major acquisition is the licensing rights to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s. StrikerS is safe for now (not like it’s being subbed anyways -_-).
I can’t believe it took this long for someone to latch on to the Nanoha series, it’s fanbase is huge and if done right would provide steady revenue for quite a while. Think of the possibilities: Nanoha Z, Nanoha GT…etc.
ADV picks up Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, one of the series that really surprised me this past season. At first glance I was expecting generic mecha, but ended up being graced with mecha of epic proportions, GATTAI!, and one of the GARest characters of late. A worthy license, though it was probably expensive as hell.
ADV also bought the rights to Devil May Cry, an anime based on Capcom’s extremely popular video game series of the same name (DMC2 excluded). While I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with the first episode of the anime, there’s a large fanbase and chances are it will sell well enough to make the license worth it.
However, ADV’s third license baffles me, Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora. If you don’t know how crap this series ended up being, there are a few bloggers that managed to get all the way through it. But save your time and read summaries if you’re unable to hold back your curiosity. To sum it up: it failed, hard. If you still insist on watching, at least do yourself the favor of stopping at ep 6.
The only reasons I can think of that would explain ADV picking up Kyousora is that:
1. It was forced on to them, sort of like a combo deal in order to get GL.
2. It was so cheap that they would break even if they sell like…10 copies.
In any case, I feel sorry for the uneducated weeaboo that comes across Kyousora in the bargain bin and decides to pick it up just because it’s dirt cheap.
Stay tuned for more licensing news as AX continues! Maybe…
~ Shirukii ~
9 Responses to “Notable licenses of late”
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Oh I don’t know, Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora works if you see it as a huge parody, especially when the main bad guy shows up. He’s so ridiculously over the top you can’t possibly take it as anything but a sendup!
But that said, I’d not be surprised if it wasn’t a contractual obligation of some sort.
Sometimes, I really don’t understand why some animes get liscened to bring to america. Like most mecha stuff is good for the little kids who like explosions, and ecchi romance is good for everyone else. But like, school life stuff. American schools don’t have school festivals and athletic school-wide exhibitions. Most don’t even have school uniforms and etc etc. Oh, but I really didn’t understand why Pani Poni Dash was brought over. It references so much stuff that American people couldn’t begin to understand unless they watched a huge number of animes and frequently go to 2ch.
I saw the appearance of the Big Bad as, “We’ve run out of ideas, let’s just send in the obligatory final boss who is Out to Destroy the World.” Not so much a send up as the story writers just stopped trying to adapt the source manga into something viewable.
If ADV picked KyoSora based on fan/online reaction, they clearly need better sources to draw from. I’m also thinking (hoping?) it’s a contractual thing.
The reason that ADV licensed Kyosora is that: it’s one of those small series that so boring to us who haven’t see fansubs. But those who haven’t will be intrigued and say: “Meh it’s only 13 episodes…why not watch it?”
Then after they finish it they will be disgusted .
intro: The last part of your post was so true that it made me laugh.
On other licenses
Gurren Lagann: makes sense as a license. Ever since ADV sold well with EVA. Their thought process is: Gainax work = sells.
DMC: makes sense….though it’s funny how they licensed it with…only two episodes being released so far.
Nanoha: Geneon made a cool decision there…….though I’d be able to live with hearing the dub within a earshot (Geneon can’t dub children for shi*….after hearing some of their Higurashi dub).
@ Dop: It started out as a crazy, nonsensical story in the first place, but it worked because of Kuu’s retarded naivety and random ChikaniXHimeko yuri. But then it just went downhill as they TRIED to focus on a plot D=
I’d like to see it as a parody that was done horribly wrong on purpose, but if it was, I have no idea what they were parodying.
@ clazy: The fact that there aren’t things like cultural/sports fests and awesome uniforms in North America is what makes anime like School Rumble interesting though. It’s a type of school life that’s different from what we know, and all mediums of entertainment usually do so via escape from reality. Although realistic anime pop up now and then, most of the time I don’t want to relive the boring real world through an anime series.
I totally agree with PPD though, the references are so obscure that the typical anime fan has no chance at understanding half of them (much like L*S)
@ intro: Exactly what I thought. Kyousora had a potential for a decent followthrough, but when they threw Kazuya in, he ended up as the typical overpowered bad guy who was to be overcome by love and friendship -_-
I’m more and more thinking that it was a matter of fulfilling a contract.
@ Avisch: I’ve done the whole “Meh it’s only 13 episodes so even if it sucks I don’t mind” thing. I don’t know why, it’s stupid but I keep doing it.
I just hope they don’t mangle it with censorship and etc, there’s been quite a bit of swearing in it so far. Plus there was Kamina’s death, which made me cry manly tears ;_; even though the supposed target audience is like…6 years old.
I guess they know DMC will sell in any case, seeing it has a decent fanbase.
Most companies can’t dub for shit =( so I’m not expecting much out of Nanoha anyways.
actually i don’t think dmc was that bad =D it had lots of blood and flying heads/limbs and even the akuma were drawn pretty nice and scary as well so i enjoyed it pretty much ^___^ although i agree the storyline wasn’t thattt interesting but i think i will stick around and follow it a bit, i think i’m curious to see why the game is so popular ;x if the game’s storyline wouldn’t be good then the game wouldn’t be that popular right? ;x so maybe we’ll have to wait until the anime picks up the game’s storyline or smth.. heh i dunno >.
“@ Avisch: I’ve done the whole “Meh it’s only 13 episodes so even if it sucks I don’t mind” thing. I don’t know why, it’s stupid but I keep doing it.”
Yeah I actually find myself doing it sometimes. It’s wierd.
@ twsl: The game’s storyline is so generic it burns, what is amazing is the gameplay. Beautifully structured weapons, styles and controls backed by a great combo system and intense difficulty. DMC3 in particular had a unique weapon change system that allowed you to create some crazy combos.
@ Avisch: Personally, I probably do it because I’m just bored and don’t have anything better to do =\
NOOOOO!!!!! Gurren Lagann got licensed!!! (T__T) Darker than black got lincensed!!!! (>o