U.S. Restrictions
However, the sexual content of the adult anime market is undeniable. This has created some special emphases in acquisitions and marketing. John Sirabella says, "There are definite legal restrictions which must be taken into consideration. The main problem is that U.S. child pornography laws forbid showing children in sexual situations, so all the characters in erotic videos have to look 18 or older. But this is not a restriction in Japan. Also, Japanese women are so small that even one who is supposed to be an adult may look underage by our standards. We have to turn down more adult anime titles than we can accept because the characters look too young to be called adult."

CPM's Jeff Zitomer concurs. Due to the American tendency to assume that cartoons are for kids, CPM is very careful that the packaging of every Anime 18 video makes it unmistakable that it contains adult content and is for adult viewers only. This is done in a tasteful manner which emphasizes the story's dramatic content rather than a sex-appeal hard-sell, but which leaves no way that a parent or a video-shop clerk could mistake it as suitable for children or young teens. Also, due to recent federal child pornography laws, the packaging and a special video header at the beginning of the tape states clearly that the entire cast is 19 years old or older.

The adult anime market exists primarily through direct sales: mail-order to customers, and wholesale to specialty shops which cater to anime and to comic-book fans. CPM's Joe Cirillo, sub-licensing coordinator, says that at the anime fan weekend conventions which are spreading around America, "The Anime 18 titles often almost sell out by the end of the first day." All three companies refer to their adult labels as safe, steady sellers. In comparison with the general anime market, there are no best-sellers but no bombs, either. Also, there are almost no adult titles which start off selling strongly but soon taper off. They just sell steadily--and without requiring the advertising expenditures needed to promote the general anime titles.

Speaking of the comic-book specialty market, CPM is also a publisher (as CPM Manga) of American editions of Japanese adventure comic books, especially those which are the sources of the anime titles which CPM sells. The company is about to launch an adult label, CPM Manga X, beginning in July 1998. The May issue of Diamond Dialogue, the promotional magazine of Diamond Comics Distributor, describes CPM Manga X as "... bringing Japan's best adult manga to American audiences ... in a 32-page, black-&-white format priced at $2.95 per issue. The line will open with the English translation of the manga version of the adult anime classic Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend #1, written and illustrated by Toshio Maeda. The manga will contain many scenes which were not included in the video series ... (A highlight of the first issue for Overfiend fans will be a manga treatment of the film's classic scene in the nurse's office.)"

On the whole, the anime distributors have not been able to get their adult labels into the general home video market yet. Cirillo refers to the major video distributors and video retail chains as "staying clear" of adult anime. Sirabella says that some distributors and chains carry the Kitty Media titles, while others will not take them. All three anime distributors try to produce two versions of their releases (but with some titles this is not possible); one uncut for the adult market and a "general release" version that will be acceptable to the chains like MusicLand and Sam Goody's.

Still Outside the Mainstream
The general American adult TV/video market remains largely untapped. Cirillo says that Penthouse Comix has reviewed some of the Anime 18 videos, but that the adult pay-per-view TV channels are mostly not interested. Sales to the American erotic-shop market have been very small, and the anime distributors have mixed feelings about trying to increase them. Sirabella says, "The adult book and video specialty shops have a bad reputation for non-payment. Also, the American erotic video industry is used to price-points of $9.95 or less, which we can't sell at. And the anime specialty industry is having enough trouble with anime's reputation as nothing but sex & violence for us to want to risk making it all look even more like pornography through guilt by association by increasing anime's visibility in the sex shops."

(Intriguingly, the first adult anime to be released in America appeared in adult book shops in the late 1980s. The Brothers Grime was a three-video cartoon-pornography series produced by Excalibur Films, Inc. of Fullerton, CA in 1986, 1987, and 1988, using titles primarily from Japan's Cream Lemon series, the most popular of Japan's erotic anime before Urotsukidoji. Since Excalibur Films had no creative ties to the anime field, there was no attempt to remain faithful to the original versions. A secretary at Excalibur says that The Brothers Grime is still selling well today, and she has no idea why the company never followed those three videos up with more anime imports. The Cream Lemon series is one in which most of the characters appear to be much too young to be plausibly described as over 18.)