About once a month, I get a letter asking:
Those who have contacted Voyager Entertainment, Inc., the company which owns the rights to STAR BLAZERS, say that the company claims that the product is indeed available for airing, but that nobody -- so far -- will buy it.
Those who claim to have asked such networks as "The Cartoon Network" and Sci-Fi Channel say that among the explanations are these reasons:
Keep in mind that this is second-hand information, and may or may not accurately represent the positions of any network or of Voyager Entertainment, Inc.
The above-stated objections to airing STAR BLAZERS are, of course, quite debatable. Before every good STAR BLAZERS fan comes out of their seat wanting to refute all these rationales, let me just briefly discuss them here.
I don't know how much, in relative terms, VEI is asking for the rights to show STAR BLAZERS. It may or may not indeed be too much for the networks' tastes.
I do know that the quality of the First Season tapes must be fairly good since the retail VHS tapes made from them are fairly clean and clear. However, if the video and audio quality of the Second and Third Season tapes sold in retail is any indication of the condition of their master tapes, I would agree that they are probably not what a network would want. Whether VEI has enough money to spend cleaning them up as it did for the First Season is unknown to me. The process surely isn't cheap.
It is true that the animation quality is crude by today's standards. Of course, that never stopped Speed Racer from being re-aired. This does show that nostalgia forgives (and sometimes even cherishes) dated animation techniques and relatively poor quality. As a side note, everyone should know that the animation quality of STAR BLAZERS was, in fact, quite superior to what contemporary American cartoons offered at the time it was aired. We do not compare the quality of vintage films (even as late as the 1980s) to that of modern motion pictures.
As for the fourth point, Speed Racer had a very vast appeal to the nostalgia of American youth. It was aired much more extensively in its heyday here in the States than was STAR BLAZERS, and is immediately identifiable to nearly everyone I know. That isn't as true for Star Blazers, unfortunately. Although I am surprised often when I do run into someone who recognises the Argo, the degree of familiarity is less than that of Speed Racer. Consequently, it is difficult to dismiss networks' concerns over market appeal. Of course, when dealing with something like the Sci-Fi Channel, the demographics change vastly, and intuition tells us that the familiarity and appeal there are probably much greater than in the general sector. And, of course, as all STAR BLAZERS fans know, the easiest way to generate market appeal for STAR BLAZERS is to air it. This is not just a cute overstatement. I know that sounds circular, but, the show's merits -- plot integrity, character depth, space opera story arc, etc. -- shine through if someone has the opportunity to see even a couple of episodes. It's simply one good story.
Nevertheless, these are the reasons for the absence of STAR BLAZERS from the air waves which have reached my ears. If you have more, or you have any corrections or issues with what I have stated, please let me know.
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