Court Documents Reveal Anime Licensing Costs

Ever wondered how much it costs to license a show?

Those of you who wait (and wait) for licensed, western-releases of anime shows rather than just nab them off the internet the second they appear may remember a company called ADV. Taking over after Manga Entertainment began to sink into obscurity, ADV dominated the western anime market for nearly a decade. It was responsible for the first official western releases of Neon Genesis: Evangelion, Hellsing, Dragon Half (the trailer for which is nine different types of amazing) and Excel Saga, to name but a few.

Sadly, things haven’t been going too well for the Texas-based company. In 2007, ADV took ARM corporation to court for breach of contract. ARM responded by claiming it had spent $10.5 million on content for ADV as part of a licensing acquisition agreement, and that ADV had only paid back $1,592,994. The case was eventually dropped, but ARM transferred the right to enforce the contract to FUNimation, which is currently trying to collect on the debt.

Anyway, the upside of this tale of legal woe is that during the original court case, ARM corporation filed a document showing how much it had paid for each show ADV licensed. The document was acquired from the Harris County District Clerk’s Office by the Anime News Network. The following figures are all in US dollars.

• Guyver 746,665
• Comic Party 30,336
• Jinki:Extend 91,000
• Pani Poni Dash! 138,666
• Utawarerumono 109,201
• Moeyo Ken 43,335
• Coyote Ragtime Show 224,000
• UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie 21,335
• Nerima Daikon Brothers 124,800
• Air Gear 780,000
• Sgt. Frog 408,000
• Le Chevalier D’Eon 440,000
• Ghost Train/Synesthesia 58,668
• Kurau: Phantom Memory 960,000
• 009-1 325,000
• Shin Angyo Onshi 130,000
• Ah! My Goddess 2 (Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy) 516,000
• Innocent Venus 120,000
• Pumpkin Scissors 780,000
• Red Garden 660,000
• Welcome to the NHK 240,000
• Magikano 65,000
• Xenosaga 120,000
• Tokyo Majin 780,000
• Project Blue Earth SOS 180,000
• Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (The Wallflower) 500,000
• Air TV Series 145,000
• Air: The Movie 20,000
• Moonlight Mile 156,000
• King of Bandit Jing in Seventh Heaven 50,000

Welcome to the NHK is a steal at $240,000, but nearly a million for Kurau: Phantom Memory seems a touch excessive, as does the $725,665 paid for the 2005’s forgettable Guyver remake. These prices do seem a bit low, considering the ludicrous cost of anime boxsets, but I guess those (terrible) dubs don’t produce themselves.

Source: ANN