The title is a bit misleading, as there is a mountain of anime that has never and will never be available outside of Japan, including many titles that are not even available in Japan commercially. The point of this post is to highlight a handful of anime that unfortunately will never see a release in North America. Given the age of some of them, the fansubs that once existed are probably long gone for general discovery. These days, when almost everything under the sun see's some form of release, even if only via streaming platforms, its strange to think about all of the shows that have passed into the realm of popularity that are out of the hands of normal western otaku. Given that not everything produced in Japan will find a large enough audience to justify distribution, there are some titles that have come out in the 21st century that have defied licensing, many from the first decade of the century, before streaming but not outside of the licensing frenzy of the third wave of anime in America.
Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu (Iriya's Sky, the Summer of UFO's) is a six part OAV series based on the light novel series of the same name. The story revolves around a high school boy who befriends a strange girl name Iriya, falling in love with her. Since 1947 a secret war has been waged between the combined government of Earth and alien invaders. Iriya is a military pilot who uses implants to battle the invaders but the strain of flying puts her life in danger.
Minami-ke is a slice of life comedy franchise that has seen four separate TV anime and various direct to video releases on top of its original manga. The three eponymous Minami sisters, all under the age of 20, have been left as orphans to fend for themselves, living off of the savings left behind by their parents. Yet they live on, free of worry or regret, enjoying their lives as much as possible. Having as much fun as they can with their friends and each other. Out of all of the shows on the list, Minami-ke and its entire run seems like the biggest loss by never being released in North America. The series is sure to be quite popular.
Macross Zero is the prequel OAV series for the long running Macross mecha series. This one is a bit of a cheap inclusion given the long and complicated history of Macross in North America. The story takes place a few year before the original series and deals with conflict between different Earth factions over the use of alien technology from the original Zentradi ship that crashed on Earth. A secluded island and its native inhabitants find themselves caught up in the conflict and struggle to protect their identity and heritage.
REC is a short slice of life romance based on a hentai manga of the same name. A man who works for an ad agency has a fateful encounter with an aspiring actress. After a one-night stand and the loss of her apartment she ends up being his room mate. In a twist of fate the talent firm she works for begins working with his ad agency on a commercial campaign and both of the them need to hide their external relationship from their employers.
Nanami-chan is a NHK produced children's program. The cute and short series follows the adventures of a young girl, her family who live in an a giant tree/apartment complex and the strange forest creature she befriends. Given this is a straightforward program aimed at young children, outside of adapting it for PBS children's programming, it makes sense it was never licensed in America. It's super cute and enjoyable though!
Kamisama Kazoku is a super natural slice of life romance series that follows the budding love between the son of god and the girl who acts as his guardian angle. In order to prepare him for his eventual role as god, he has grown up as a normal child in modern day Japan. It is surprising that this series was never brought over, given the penchant for comedic slice of life comedy aimed at a male audience.
Final Approach is a slice of life comedy romance that did see French and Spanish releases, but nothing in English. The story deals with a random high school student who's life is turned upside down when the girl he is being forced to marry by edict of the Japanese government moves in and works to seal the deal for the sake of increasing the countries population. This is a weird show that takes a few jokes and runs them into the ground...not sure it would have ever had a home anywhere really.
Gag Manga Biyori is a collection of gag segments. Gag manga and its anime adaptations have a limited audience outside of Japan, where most of the references and humor styles are hard to comprehend. This series is a collection of largely unrelated shorts transforming the original manga into animation. Incredibly funny for some people but not exactly easy to find an audience worth the cost of translating and distributing.
Maido Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku is another long running gag manga adaptation, this and all of its earlier renditions showcase a motley crew of misfits who struggle to make any sort of progress in modern Japan. Again, hard to find an audience for such a narrow brand of comedy outside of its home country. The original series form the early 90's did get some form of release in the west but its pretty obscure.
Master of Epic: The Animation Age is an animated companion to the Japanese MMO Master of Epic. The series is equal parts tutorial and sketch comedy revolving around internal mechanics and memes for the game. Even without understanding its original intent, the series was actually quite amusing...but makes sense why it also was never licensed in North America.
Moyro no Hako is a super natural historic mystery series set in the 1930's. Detectives from Tokyo have traveled to rural Japan to investigate a series of grisly murders, in order to find a link between them and to ultimately put and end to the terror. Maybe this series will get looked at given a more recent influx in dark mystery anime series being semi popular.
Kurayama Santa is a short format series designed to look like an anime that would have been produced in the 1960's. The story deals with a demon working for the demon lord Enma who has come to post war Japan to judge the quality of the nations existence and growth, encountering the poison inflicted on the land with the rapid redevelopment and changing moral compass.
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