[justinstrife]

Originally Posted by Littlewashu5

Who controls the license for Air TV/Kanon 2006?

If Key controls the licensing for the TV adaptations of their shows, than there is very little chance that we will see Air TV/Kanon 2006 released outside of Japan

If some other company controls the licensing than chances of seeing Air or Kannon getting an R1 release increase drastically. If you really think about it, Air TV isn't THAT old. We haven't even reached the two year anniversary of the end of it's original TV run. And Air in Summer wasn't even released till fall of 2005. Also one has to consider Air TV was probably (and might still be) a costly license for an American distributor, (the Japanese license holders for reasons unknown to us Gaijin like to gauge how well a series will do outside Japan by it's popularity IN Japan at the peak of it's initial run. Given how popular Air TV was in Japan vs how well it would do in America, one can imagine how it wouldn't be a very sound investment for a potential R1 distributor). Plus there have been plenty of older and less expected licenses over the years. A great recent example would be Rozen Maiden. The original series predates Air TV and would probably be a lot harder to market to a more mainstream audience than Air.

Needless to say, the "Kanon 2006 won't get licensed because Air TV wasn't licensed" argument doesn't hold as much water as one might expect. I've been an Anime fan for over a decade, and have seen plenty of series that people claimed would never get licensed, get licensed. Granted, some of the more obscure series have fallen through the cracks, but I can't remember any instance in my thirteen years of Otakudom where obvious fan favorite such as Air TV and Kanon 2006 remained on one side of the Pacific forever

I think the best chance Air and Kanon have of being released outside of Japan is through Kadokawa. They seem like they have pretty good relations with KyoAni, holding the R1 licenses for FMP: TSR and SHnY, and all. Plus having Kadokawa distributing these series in the US would "cut out the middle man", (the middle man being a US license holder) and would probably make a US release of Air or Kanon much more economically viable. Plus if Key/Visual Arts does in fact control the licensing for Air TV and Kanon 2006, Kadokawa would probably have a better chance of selling them on the idea of a R1 release for these series than an American-based company like ADV or Funimation

I got you beat by 10 years. Not all great shows make it to the U.S. my friend.