Licensing Question

[bearcounty]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this not to mention if
this question has been asked or not, but if one was interested about
licensing an anime what is the process that one would have to go to
achieve this goal? Anyone know?

[Lego]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this not to mention if
this question has been asked or not, but if one was interested about
licensing an anime what is the process that one would have to go to
achieve this goal? Anyone know?


There was an Answerman or an "Ask John" article about this a looooong time ago. Suffice to say you'd need to break open the piggy bank for most series.

[bearcounty]

I'm curious about licensing an anime because it's a project
I would like to tackle if I knew more about how to license.
I'm well aware that it's expensive, but if anyone has any
information I would be very appreciative.

[BluWacky]

Bear in mind I'm basing this off licensing of plays, which is part of what I do for a living, so it probably won't be exactly like this.

You'd need to contact whoever it is that holds the licence for the show; this isn't going to be the animation studio, it'll be the producers or a licensing agency of some kind. I'm not actually sure who many licensing agencies are; I think this is where companies like Media Factory and Sojitz come into play.

You'd come to them with an initial proposal, not just for how you would plan to release the show but also for the terms of the licence agreement; how will you pay and how much simply to get the licence? What percentage of the net profits will go to the licensor? What royalty package will the creative team receive (if they haven't signed all their rights away; I'm not sure whether anime staff/seiyuu get royalties, to be honest, although I would presume so)? Obviously if the licensor is interested they'll haggle with you rather than just turn you down flat.

If you reach a decent compromise (although still with room for negotiation) both the licensor and the licensee (you) will probably sign a letter of intent to signify you're both interested. With this, the licensor will agree to suspend negotiations with any other party regarding the licence, and you'll pay some money towards the cost of the licence itself. This is probably the stage that ADV were at with Kurau while it was in limbo; they were still haggling over negotiations before they could really get started. Typically, though, you can still start dubbing, marketing preparations at this point.

Eventually, if all goes well, everything will be hunky-dory. A licence agreement will be drafted that both parties will sign to signify the legally binding doohickies, and then matters will continue from there, hopefully with a nice release. Of course, everything could go tits up; I'm not sure what happened with ADV's licence of Gurrenn Lagann, for instance, although I highly doubt that they just sold the licence off to someone else as it's not really in their power to do that.

Bear in mind that the licensor essentially holds all the cards; they approve (or more likely forbid) absolutely everything if they want. Given the tight control the Japanese like of their properties you'll need to be a pretty shrewd negotiator especially if you're trying to licence something really big.

[something]

I'm curious about licensing an anime because it's a project I would like to tackle if I knew more about how to license. I'm well aware that it's expensive, but if anyone has any information I would be very appreciative.
While it's hard to say with license prices in flux, figure you wouldn't be able to give a standard release to a typical 2 cour anime without... quarter mil? half a mil? Much more depending on the show? Dubbing alone could be a quarter mil, and even if the license fee is waived up front for a cut of the profits later, there's an obscene amount of work involved. Unless you own a large company with a lot of capital to work with, you won't even get in the door with the Japanese, I'd imagine. Of course, if you're looking into some small independent anime film or something for limited distro, no dub, etc., then I imagine it'd be different. But you wouldn't be able to just walk into Sunrise's offices and start negotiating for the next Gundam, for example.

[bearcounty]

But you wouldn't be able to just walk into Sunrise's offices and start negotiating for the next Gundam, for example.
Of course, my thoughts exactly. If I were serious about diving headfirst
into something like licensing anime I think I'd start with something small
like an OVA or maybe a 13 episode series, but nothing outlandish like Gundam.

[HitokiriShadow]

But even for that, they aren't going to just start negotiating with you just because you say you have a bunch of money and want the license. I'm sure they wouldn't even consider dealing with just an individual, you'd have to represent some company that has the means to actually produce and distribute it.

[dragonrider_cody]

The licensing process can also happen in reverse from time to time. If a Japanese distributor wants a TV show in the US, they may approach an American partner to make it happen. Sometimes they even waive a licensing fee, if they are desperate enough. But they aren't usually A-list titles in these cases.

[DocWatson]

See the "Licensing" thread (http://www.animeondvd.com/aodvb/showthread.php?t=80585) here in General Anime, especially my second post (#30), plus "Ask John: How Can A Fan Start A Distribution Company?" (http://www.animenation.net/blog/2006/06/14/ask-john-how-can-a-fan-start-a-distribution-company/) (I'm sure that "Answerman" has addressed the question as well, but I prefer Mr. Oppliger.)