I recently went to the cinema in what seemed like a very, VERY, long time to see the newest Godzilla film, Godzilla Minus One. For those wondering, I thought it was an excellent movie and is one that I’m eagerly anticipating seeing again with some friends once the home video release is out but I also took note of the UK and Ireland distributor of the film, that being Anime Ltd. I was already aware of this as I’d read that they’d expanded the number of cinemas due to demand but I still wondered whether the film would prove successful for them. It seems that it has as Godzilla Minus One has already become the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film ever in the UK and Ireland box office! Therefore, I believe that now is the time for Anime Ltd to finally move into an area that I’ve been asking companies for a while now, that being to release tokusatsu films and TV series.
Just to briefly remind readers of what tokusatsu is, it refers to Japanese live-action media that focus on the use of special effects and is most heavily associated with the Kaiju and Henshin Hero genres. I was curious whether Anime Ltd had even released any live-action media before and, while certainly not comprehensive, I looked through their website’s catalogue in order to see. As far as I can tell, the only live-action media that Anime Ltd have released prior to Godzilla Minus One is the live-action adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul as well as two documentaries, Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki and 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki. Even if they have released some others, if you’re aware of any others feel free to leave this information in the comments below, it’s clear that tokusatsu is a relatively underdeveloped part of their business model and one that I would love to see expand.
As I wrote for UK Anime Network, tokusatsu is a growing area of interest for Western otaku with Hideaki Anno‘s involvement in Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider as well as the Mill Creek Entertainment releases of Ultraman and the establishment of the Toku Time label under Discotek Media. In particular, an interview with Mike Toole, the associate producer for Discotek Media, noted that “We wanted to create something distinct for tokusatsu fans because we’ve seen that fandom emerge in the past few years“.
Despite this, we’ve seen very little when it comes to tokusatsu in the UK and Ireland. Criterion have released the first fifteen Godzilla films in a box set, Manga Entertainment released Shin Godzilla, Arrow Films have released the twelve Gamera films and the Daimajin trilogy and Eureka Entertainment have released Mothra but, as far as I’m aware, we’ve yet to see any tokusatsu TV series released here. Even returning to tokusatsu films, many important films such as Rodan, War of the Gargantuas, the Heisei and Millennium Godzilla films, Gappa: The Triphibian Monster are unavailable here!
The question now is whether Anime Ltd can capitalise on the success of Godzilla Minus One and gain access to a whole new market. They already have great relations with numerous Japanese distributors and studios and have strong brand recognition amongst fans of Japanese media. It’s hard for me to imagine that series such as Ultraman and Kamen Rider would struggle here and is a logical expansion of Anime Ltd’s business model. Whether Anime Ltd will agree with me that Godzilla Minus One is an opportunity or if they’ll merely see it as a successful once-off remains to be seen but, as someone who’s become more and more fascinated by tokusatsu, I hope to see them make the best of this situation.
Let me know if you agree that now is the time for Anime Ltd to release tokusatsu, what you think about the success of Godzilla Minus One, whether you’re aware of any complications with regards to releasing tokusatsu in the UK and Ireland, what tokusatsu you’d like to see released over here and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!