The mid way point of the challenge brings us to a question that is very easy to answer for me as it asks what anime series do you want to see that you haven’t. While I do watch quite a lot of anime, an understatement to be sure, I am limited to series that are licensed for distribution in the US or have simulcasts. Of course, not everything gets brought over or finished so there’s plenty that I haven’t seen. They may be older shows, series that have licensing issues or are simply unavailable for overseas distribution because of convoluted ownership issues back in Japan. Thankfully, most of what I want to see I do get to see, but I don’t feel put out by not being able to see something either. I don’t view it as my right to see a show that’s unavailable to me and there’s always something else out there to watch. But there are some shows that I’d dearly love to see make the leap here.
The Most Desired Show
Because of its age, length, and value back in Japan, the Legend of Galactic Heroes was a show that I have no real hope for in seeing a release here barring a significant change in Japan. That changed a few years ago with Sentai Filmworks putting it out but unfortunately, they did it in a way, likely due to licensor demands, where it was a box set that was so far priced out of my range that I couldn’t afford it and it’s made me sad for years since. This series deals in an epic, sweeping science fiction story with large amounts of politics and intrigue, a huge cast, and a slow-moving pace that works its magic with huge space battles where fleets work with the big picture. I’ve seen parts of it over the years back in the ’90s and the thought of it still has me captivated to this day.
The Legal Quagmire Shows
I’m going to tie two of these up together since they’re related by the same issue. Having come of age with anime through Robotech and seeing the Macross movie subtitled, I’ve longed to see the further adventures of the Macross universe. We lucked out in getting Macross Plus here (and Macross II, but few think that’s lucky), but we’ve had no hope beyond that due to a lengthy legal battle that’s likely to never be settled. Macross 7 has a ton of music licensing issues associated with it as well but both it and Macross Frontier would do well here and is just a huge pile of money sitting on the table. Even Macross Zero would garner sales just by name alone. I desperately want to see these shows.
The Unfinished License
There are a few shows that never got everything licensed, such as more Saint Seiya and additional Crest of the Stars material, but the one that I’ve wanted to see more of is the series Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl. AnimEigo brought over the first box set of episodes and it was a great deal of old school fun that sadly had to end as the rights and licensing became problematic with future episodes. This was a cruel tease after so many years of waiting to be able to own a set only to learn that we’d never get more. The series has a lot going for it and proved itself easily in that first set of forty episodes that it begged for more to be seen. I still very much lament the loss of this series.
