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Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] of [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* Toei notoriously won't release the fifth season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', ''Sailor Stars'', in the United States, or ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'' outside Japan and Latin America. For some reason, a Mexican company (Inter-track) got to make a pretty decent dub of all of ''Sailor Moon'''s seasons. Indeed, more recently, they've refused to license ''any'' of their ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' properties and have offered no explanation as to why, despite multiple licensees like Cloverway (who handled the dub), [[Geneon]] (before they went under) and [[ADV Films]] expressing open interest in licensing the entire series including ''Sailor Stars''.
** Also, for whatever random reason, Toei didn't give [[Geneon]] (then known as Pioneer) or [[ADV Films]] the next episode previews for the seasons they ''did'' license, and left one episode out of ''[[Sailor Moon]] R''. The episode was simply a filler [[Beach Episode]], but it apparently took Geneon by such surprise that they had to revise their boxart and packaging at the last minute to get rid of references to it. They were given a vague explanation that the creator didn't like it, though the episode was released for the later Japanese DVD. [[Bad Export for You|It's also well-known by now that the masters ADV got were the original masters DiC used to make their dub almost a decade earlier, and time had not been kind to those tapes. Needless to say, the video quality on the ADV release was generally quite poor and showed significant age and coloration loss. One recalled disc even had an episode with about 10 seconds of DiC's audio mistakenly spliced in. Plus, ADV was forced to use Toei's pre-made subtitles rather than doing their own, resulting in an extremely wonky translation]].
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** The manga went out of print in 2005, according to rumour [[Naoko Takeuchi]] herself didn't really like [[Bowdlerise|what other countries did with her series]], both anime and manga-wise. This apparently meant that the ''Sailor Moon'' manga couldn't be exported to any other country anymore, and Nakayoshi had troubles with the author herself, making the woman almost give up shoujo altogether. Perhaps it has a bit to do with the situation. However...
*** [http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/16792.html NOT SO FAST! Italy will see a rebroadcast and new merchandise to go with it in 2010(!)]
*** And in March 2011 [[Kodansha]] [http://www.animenewsnetwork.
*** VIZ has the rights to the anime, and as of January 2015 the first box set is listed for pre-order in the usual places.
* A brain-breakingly moronic version of this trope is the state of [[Go Nagai]]'s [[Super Robot]] anime ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer|Grendizer]]'' in the French-speaking world. When [[Toei Animation]] exported it to France in [[The Seventies]], they conveniently "forgot" to notify Go Nagai of the fact and proceeded to reap a colossal fortune from merchandising without giving him one aluminum yen in royalties; since the series was only marginally popular in Japan, he only found out '''ten years''' later, which led to a long legal spat between Toei and Dynamic Planning (Nagai's personal publishing company), meaning rebroadcasts and video releases simply couldn't happen after 1985, to the chagrin of millions of fans (yes, it was ''[[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|that big]]''). When they finally reconciled, it seemed that a DVD release would finally see the light of day... and then a French company issued an unauthorized box set, Toei and Dynamic sued the company, [[EBay]], and even ''individual buyers'' for copyright violation, and it's been in limbo ever since. The entire fiasco has the French fanbase in tears.
* Because of Tokyopop closing down its North American division, many series will be left unfinished or not even started (including ''[[Kämpfer]]'') and thus this trope will be invoked unless Tokyopop manages to outsource some of its titles to another company like [[Geneon]] did for [[FUNimation]] when the former shut down its American operations. However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for some lucky titles, as ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' may get a limited release for its third and fourth volumes, and if they sell well then other companies might make similar arrangements.
* While the 62-Episode TV Anime adaptation of [[Hunter X Hunter]] got an Ocean Group dub (a pretty good one too) and even a nice 4-piece DVD box set, the 3 OVA's have not been dubbed and there appear to be no plans to do so.
* [[Viz Media]] did not release the first eight volumes of the ''[[
** Given that it was unpopular to begin with, the sequel manga, ''Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo'', probably won't be exported at all.
** Spain isn't getting Shinsetsu despite the first series ending with a [[Sequel Hook]]. Combined with the [[Schedule Slip]] of nearly 2 years to finish the last 2 volumes, a lot of Spanish ''[[
** Similarly, the anime only got two volumes released (the first eight episodes); the small company that was releasing it went kaput rather abruptly, and for whatever reason, Viz themselves won't take in the license. The only way to obtain all of the other episodes is via [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]] if someone else taped the episodes and uploaded them on the internet.
*** A third dvd volume was actually released but is extremely rare.
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* Any anime and manga adaptations of the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' video game franchise, with the most noteworthy being the ''[[The Great Mission To Rescue Princess Peach]]'' OVA. While web users have made that particular film known to other fans, there are a bunch of others that never went past Japan, including three OVA videos of the Mario cast starring in three fairy tales and the ''Super Mario-kun'' manga (which is actually ongoing because of the fact that it draws from the games themselves).
* The KZB (KanZenBan) updated re-release of ''[[Shaman King]]'' took a year and half to start being published in Italy. That makes two countries/languages thus far. VIZ Media said they'd look into it but no word yet.
* Most later manga adaptations of ''[[Slayers]]'' were never exported, possibly because of their drastic state among the series' [[Alternate Continuity]]; in particular, one manga has all six protagonists (including the two that would replace Zelgadis and Amelia in the novel series) together, which would probably create some confusion among fans. The [[Light Novel]] series had eight of its fifteen books published in English (with no promotion, so they all went out of print rather quickly) with the other seven (and a crapton of prequel novels and a crossover book) not released. There were also five video games that were never exported, but they would probably have bombed anyway because the first game was on the [[Super Famicom]], making it outdated to audiences who would own the series in the states (the game came out in 1994, versus the anime coming out four years later), and only one (''Slayers Wonderful'') is on a mainstream console (the original [[
* A [[Screwed by the Lawyers|large assortment of absolutely hideous legal snarls between Harmony Gold, Studio Nue/Satelight, Tatsunoko Production, and Big West]] - especially the last two - means that virtually nothing of the ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' series that wasn't incorporated into the original ''[[Robotech]]'' adaptation has seen the light of day <ref> and even then, the non-Robotech versions of ''[[Southern Cross]]'' or ''[[Genesis Climber Mospeada]]'' have never been dubbed either. Quite possibly because of this issue.</ref>. ''[[Macross Plus]]'' apparently got released only due to absolutely ''titanic'' pressure from fans, critics, and other distributors for the parties involved to not completely sit on triple-A-quality material needlessly; the same ''may'' happen to ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' (especially with the DVDs and soundtracks of that show pushing sales numbers not seen in at least a decade) but so far no plans for export have been announced (and as time grinds on, it begins to look less and less likely). ''[[Macross 7]]'', ''[[Macross Zero]]'' and various video-game projects and the like stalled out completely and will almost certainly never see release overseas.
** Although, with ''Macross Frontier'', its incredible popularity works against it. Even if all the parties to the legal morass were to agree to let it get licensed ''at all'', it would cost any licensor (especially an American one) several appendages and probably a few internal organs to get it, and that's before having to deal with Harmony Gold and their notorious price-gouging.
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*** Answer: Oh my yes they do.
** And none of the above paragraphs even begin to cover the ''other'' nasty mess the franchise is known for: music rights. It has been said that clearing all the music rights in ''[[Macross Zero]]'' would cost more than the license fee for the entire rest of the show. This goes double for the even more popular (and pop-heavy) ''[[Macross Frontier]]''. Even ''[[Macross 7]]'' had it too when the fictional [[Show Within a Show|Band within a show]] Fire Bomber got popular in Japan.
** Finally, we'll get ''Frontier'' in the US, but the bad news is [http://www.animenewsnetwork.
* ''[[Gundam]]'', on the other hand is all nice and clean, and free of legal snarls, if only because [[Namco Bandai|Bandai]] owns it lock, stock and barrel. They even have a corporate post with an utterly awesome name of "Chief Gundam Officer", who is THE head producer for the whole franchise and [[Executive Meddling|makes the calls]] where it should go and what should be done with it, and [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7029685.stm isn't affiliated with the Japanese Agriculture Ministry.] [[Sunrise (company)|Sunrise]], while having the say in policy discussions and almost free hand in production, is only a contractor. This is why something like ''[[Dynasty Warriors: Gundam]]'' (a.k.a; ''Gundam Musou'') can see the light of day outside Japan, while something like ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' sees nothing but a few [[Original Generation]] games.
** Not ''entirely''. <s>The original ''Gundam'' has never seen a bilingual DVD release outside of Japan</s> A bilingual release of the original series was announced for 2011. However, there is one [[Missing Episode]] because [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]] specifically asked it be removed from circulation (mainly because it's horrendously [[Off-Model]]).
** Also, Bandai has yet to export at least <s>four</s> three ''Gundam ''series (''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ|ZZ]]'', ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|V]]'' and ''[[After War Gundam X|X]]'').
*** Except that Bandai's ownership of ''Gundam'' isn't "nice and clean" at all. For starters, beginning around the mid-2000s, most ''Gundam'' games became [[Bad Export for You]] since Bandai Namco couldn't/didn't bother to license the official music, meaning that they have to make due with a pool of generic tunes instead of the iconic theme songs and background tracks. Further, those three shows will probably never see any foreign release since 1) they flopped in Japan, and Sunrise would consider it a waste of time and money to try exporting them, 2) Sunrise seems to be trying their damnedest to forget that those failed shows even exist except for compilations and retrospectives (seriously, TRY to find decent merchandise for ''[[After War Gundam X|Gundam X]]''), and 3) after their attempt to sell the West on the One Year War failed, they stopped caring, especially since Japanese merchandise sales are more than the entire rest of the world combined.
**** Well, the second one seemingly not so much anymore, what with the introduction of a fair number of new toys for Turn-A lately, including the honorary position of making the Turn-A itself the 100th Master Grade model kit produced, and the recent release of some toys from Victory Gundam as well. Mind you, it may still not be worth it to them, but hell, [[ADV Films]] brought over ''[[Aura Battler Dunbine]]'' (which apparently -also- was virtually unknown in Japan), and we've got other weird/failed Tomino stuff like ''[[Brain Powered]]'', so really anything is possible. It might require the industry to, you know, recover first. On top of that, Bandai recently made an [http://img706.imageshack.us/f/1279306100396.jpg/ announcement] on it's Facebook page: An apparently random selection of Tropes that happen to be all on [[Turn
***** ''[[Turn
*** Nope, nevermind, the NA release has been cancelled ([[Angrish]]).
** With [[Mobile Suit Gundam
* The TV series ''[[Armored Trooper VOTOMS]]'' originally via [[Central Park Media]], but when they went under nobody picked it up again leaving it to fall out of print. None of the OVAs have been released in the States either.
* [[ADV Films]] ''did'' license the ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' anime at one point, sat on the license for a year, and then dropped it without a single release. The official reason given was that a 52-episode [[Magical Girl]] [[Widget Series]] needed a TV deal to not be a marketing disaster, and getting any TV network to pick something like that up -- or, really, any [[Shojo|girls' series]] -- is ''hard''.
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*** Except for the above paragraph's very last sentence, ADV had the same situation with ''[[Keroro Gunsou|Sergeant Frog]]''. They dubbed the first few episodes three different ways and shopped the show around to several different kids networks, but nobody was willing to air it. The show sat in effective [[Development Hell]] for nearly 3 years, until [[FUNimation]] got the series and was able to give it a proper DVD release.
* [[4Kids! Entertainment|4Kids]] reportedly had the same problem with ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure]]'', with the same results, despite the ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' franchise being much less "weird" than ''Pichi Pichi Pitch''. Considering this company and their [[Macekre|dub jobs]] with ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' and ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'', the fandom was thankful. This seemed to be the last that we would hear of an English-licensed Precure, but recently, Toei ''has'' released the first season in North America... but direct download is the only way to get it.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110809123124/http://www.prettycure.org/index.asp?p=lapis&v=67 Recently] however, Canadian station [[YTV]] managed to grab the license to ''Pretty Cure'' and will be broadcasting it in 2009. Who knows if it will be as big a hit as their handling of ''Sailor Moon'' a decade ago?
*** On the other hand, you can watch a free sub version of ''Pretty Cure'' on [[FUNimation]]'s website--but only in America. And it looks like an old VHS Tape.
*** Even so, most fans do wish for the YTV dub to make it south of the 49th parallel. Though it's highly unlikely.
*** The problem with Pretty Cure is that it's too violent for TV-Y7-FV level, but it's too kiddy for most older children. In that case, Why can't they just make a TV-G-FV rating, air it like that, and call it a day?
*** Nope, the true reason is that it falls on the fact that its a [[Magical Girl]] show and And executives are very queasy about shows aimed at girls. The Naked Transformations MIGHT be a bit too much for American Sensibilities, though. 4kids Licensed the show but gave it back to Toei because they couldnt get a TV deal (In Spite of already owning a [[Sat AM]] block all to themselves.)
** It's also region locked to America, making this a double NEFY for anyone who dares to darken Toei's doors with British money. This also applies to
** The gods must have heard you, the [[Pretty Cure]] dub is available in the UK on cable satellite channel Pop Girl! And its actually one of the highest rated shows the channel has! But still no word on America airing the show.
** In full effect with the sequel, ''Futari Wa Pretty Cure Max Heart'', which has not been dubbed at all. Effectively making the English dub of the show end in a [[Downer Ending]].
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*** At this point it's also "old" by anime standards; try getting young fans to buy something that began in 1989 that doesn't have the word "Dragonball" in it. Nevermind how good it is...
** Fan scuttlebutt posits that the main reason for LoGH not being brought over is that the Japanese owners are demanding exorbitant licensing fees for it.
* It's not just anime and manga themselves: In Japan, EVERY, and I mean EVERY, franchise gets at least one line of collectible statues; then there's additionally one line of candy, jewelery, cosplay accessories, [[Transformation Trinket]] toys, etc., etc., etc. Also, there are countless untranslated manga to popular [[Video Game]] series. (Did you ever know that there were ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' and ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' manga? Well, now you know!) Most of this merchandise usually wouldn't leave Japan in a million years. But luckily, there are some export stores for otaku like us, who buy as much of this stuff as they can and sell it to us poor, merchandise-obsessed souls.
* Subverted with the ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' movies; they're being released, but because of the lack of network-airing demands, the company that distributed them doesn't want to bother with dubbing them in English.
* While this was originally the case with most of ''[[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' (Part 3: Stardust Crusaders having been the only part of the series released in the U.S. until 2014), the launch of The Animation in 2012 (and subsequent MASSIVE boost in popularity overseas) ensured that not only have the first two parts been released in both manga and anime form (with both parts getting a dub courtesy of Warner Bros.), but the seasons of the anime that cover Part 3 have been simulcast by Crunchyroll. On top of this, the anime adaptation of Part 4 is ALSO being simulcast on both CR and Viz's Neon Alley streaming site, with dubs of Part 3 and Part 4 (along with possible redubs of Parts 1 and 2) coming later on. Not only that, but the game JJBA: Eyes of Heaven has been slated for release in the West in Summer 2016, with it's prequel All Star Battle already having been released previously in 2014. It's safe to say that this trope is no longer a thing for Jojo.
* Speaking of Viz, they are unable to release the last 7 volumes of the ''[[Zatch Bell]]'' manga due to the nasty legal fight between creator Makoto Raiku and Shueisha, which ended with Raiku having complete ownership and control of the series (and no desire to see it republished anywhere, including Japan). The side effect of this was that all international contracts immediately became null and void. Since Viz is partly owned by Raiku's enemy Shueisha, he probably would not even bother to return their calls.
* ''[[Animal Crossing]]''. The anime movie adaption of Wild World may never be dubbed.
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*** Although, even if more light novels get released, they may still have [[Bad Export for You|problems]]. Case in point: the previously-well-selling Vampire Hunter D series, whose translations have become more garbled with each new release.
*** Still have yet to see the release of the third light novel for ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]''. It's been at least 3 years since the release of the second light novel and I have yet to hear a word on if it's going to continue or if it's been dropped...
*** Word has it that [[Tokyo Pop]] is finally going to release the 4th volume of "[[Full Metal Panic!]]" after almost 2 years of no word on it even though an ISBN was assigned.
**** [[Tokyo Pop]] on the other hand after ten years since the last ''[[Good Witch Of The West]]'' novel have given no comment whether or not they will publish the rest. And now they're out of business, so that series - like all their others - is officially dead in North America until further notice.
*** At first it [[Hope Spot|''looked'']] like the ''[[
*** Dragon Magazine is a potential kick in the crotch for an anime fan who wants to read the source material, as a lot of the light novel originated anime come from here: Sorcerer Stabber Orphen, Slayers, Slayers x Orphen (bet when Orphen was compared to Slayers in its western release, no one thought they came from the same place), Full Metal Panic, Mahurabo, Scrapped Princess and Kaze no Stigma are the notable ones. It also printed the Chrono Crusade manga. Out of those, which one got a complete western release? Chrono, because it's a manga. Crotch hurting yet?
* With Central Park Media dead in the water, America will never see most of the ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' sound tracks and the Tenth Anniversary stuff.
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** Headmasters, Super God Masterforce and Victory were released in the UK as part of the Takara Collection. All three series received a English dub for a Singapore TV station. The Headmasters featured the dub as an extra...Masterforce and Victory thankfully decided not to bother
*** Shout!Factory has [http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Transformers-Headmasters-DVDs-Announced/15225 announced] that they'll be releasing ''The Headmasters'' in the US (Masterforce and Victory is next in line for release). The only thing that's looking "No Export" is the hilariously awful English dub by [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Omni_Productions Omni Productions] years ago, and Hasbro's not too keen on using the dub for several reasons according to one of the guys working on Shout's release.
** Several episodes of ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'' were banned from the US [[Too Soon|due to the events of 9/11]], including one where Megatron smashes through a building resembling the World Trade Center.
* 4Kids were forced to drop plans to release the uncut subtitled version of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]: Duel Monsters'' online (both Hulu and their own Toonzaki channel) when Yugi's seiyuu refused to clear the use of his voice (or something, it's rather unclear). 5D's was released uncut on YouTube (along with uncut [[Sonic X]] on Hulu) but the first series of Duel Monsters will never get an unedited translation unless Shunsuke Kazama pulls his head out of his ass, which is highly unlikely. And while 4Kids announced plans to sub GX, nothing has come of it yet.
** GX's last season was never dubbed; 4Kids skipped straight to ''5Ds'' instead.
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** It was feared that this would happen to future ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' series when 4Kids got into a court case, but they ended up keeping the licenses and releasing the ''Bonds Beyond Time'' movie and ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal]]''.
* A [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Category:Manga majority] of ''[[Pokémon (manga)|Pokémon]]'' manga are never exported outside of Japan and occasionally Singapore, to the point where people only know of [[Pokémon Special|"Adventures".]] This can be due to licensing problems, such as "[[How I Became a Pokémon Card]]" or censorship problems, such as what happened with ''[[Pocket Monsters (manga)|Pocket Monsters]]'', but usually it's not.
** Most of the older series don't go for the typical shonen tone, making them unlikely to sell much in America, while most of the newer ones are too short (some even being only a volume long), meaning that there isn't much point in licensing them. Other than ''Pocket Monsters'' (a gag manga), ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' is the only long-running Pokemon manga with no forseeable end, meaning that only that one has incentive to keep around.
** However, it is worth noting that ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure]]'' did relatively well in America, it being eight volumes long and having a fairly engaging plot outside the games it was based on, making it a bit of an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] in the Pokemon fandom. Also, the manga based on the anime movies also continue to sell.
** However, ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' has had its annoying run with this trope. Its initial run in America didn't go too well as the volumes were overpriced during a non-friendly manga age, leading it to being canceled after 7 volumes. Years later, the manga was re-released in America with a more reasonable price tag, [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]] when it went the GS arc reached American shores for the first time...and then the fandom cried when Viz announced that they had no plans to release the third generation arcs. The fourth and fifth gen arcs have been skipped ahead to, meaning many plot holes and spoilers are sure to come for any new readers.
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* Japan is notorious for not releasing products for the international market, due to the belief that they wouldn't be understood well enough outside Japan, and therefore wouldn't sell. The producers originally considered ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' to be "too Japanese" for the international market, and had no intentions of licensing it anywhere else. They directly credited the huge cult following resulting from bootleg fansubs of the show as a major reason for the official US release (although these same fansubs no doubt crippled its sales potential). Other companies - particularly those producing licensed figures and similar toys - have stated that they're simply not interested in offering their products to the non-Japanese market.
** Even the great [[Hayao Miyazaki]] has gone on record saying that, while he appreciates that his films are enjoyed by non-Japanese fans, he is surprised and baffled that non-Japanese can 'understand' them.
* It doesn't look like ''[[Dennou Coil]]'' will be released outside Japan anytime soon, despite its high production values, which led to much critical acclaim. Of course, it may be hard to market a show in the West that's filled with bad-ass high-tech virtual reality action, but which at its core is still a [[Shojo|girl's series]].
** ''[[Dennou Coil]]'' has been slated for release in Australia in September 2011
* Neither the manga nor the anime of ''[[Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou]]'' have ever been officially released in the west--and they will likely never be.
* ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'' has yet to be seen in the UK, Morocco, or Malaysia.
** Likewise, ''[[Digimon Savers]]'' in Morocco.
*** While the series did have a presence on VHS back in the day, if you're expecting a DVD release of the dub or a sub of any ''[[Digimon]]'' instalment besides ''Savers'', don't get your hopes up...[[And the Fandom Rejoiced|unless]] [[Digimon Adventure|you happen]] [[Averted Trope|to be]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130718181542/http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/15101/digimon-digital-monsters-1999-collection-1-eps-127 Australian].
* ''The Legends of the True Savior'' movies and OVAs based on ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' have yet to be licensed for an official English release, even though all five installments had already been dubbed in French and Italian. This may change in the future with Sentai Filmworks working on dubbing the Raoh-centric spinoff ''Legends of the Dark King'' (having already released a subbed-only DVD collection of the anime). Chances are that they may work on the ''True Savior'' movies too, but this remains to be seen.
** In fact, "Fist of the North Star" in general seems to have gotten screwed out of dubbing. Let's see, only the first nine volumes of the manga were published in America, we only got the first 36 episodes dubbed (it's taken us until 2010 when Discotec had announced that they will finally finish it), and let's not forget "The Legends of the True Savior." You know, it's ironic that of all animes, "Fist of the North Star" was one of the first to get an American live action adaptation.
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** A little background: The first five volumes were released by [[Dark Horse Comics]] to generally positive reviews, with a brilliant translation and few if any edits to manga; it sometimes had, though never really gratuitous, level of sex and violence. There was even surprisingly little bitching about the fact Dark Horse had chosen to release the English version mirrored, a practice that was already falling out of favour when they began releasing in the early '00s. Then came Volume Five, featuring a sex scene between the hero and his girlfriend that had to be trimmed down for various reasons, mostly out of fear that since not only were both of them highschool-aged, but Hoichi was considerably more mature-looking than the childlike, [[Moe]] Akane, it would open Dark Horse up to [[Paedo Hunt|the depredations of increasingly fascistic law enforcement agencies trying to stamp out depictions of underage sex in the media]]. While nothing important to the story was cut, and some say the edits even improved the overall flow of the story, as the sex scene was a bit overlong and gratuitous, the fans still went ballistic. Dark Horse was flooded with hatemail. Frustrated by the fans turning on them after going to so much trouble to get the thing published in America in the first place, they dropped the entire series out of spite. While scanslations of the remaining chapters are available, the [[Woolseyism]], sadly, is not. Depending on the chapter, the fan translations range in quality from [[So Okay It's Average]] to [[Translation Train Wreck|Translation Trainwrecks]] that make you wonder just ''what'' the translator's first language actually was.
* The M.U.S.C.L.E. toys and the NES game of the same name, both based on ''[[Kinnikuman]]'', were exported to the US, but the anime was not. Its sequel series ''[[Kinnikuman Nisei]]'' was released stateside as ''Ultimate Muscle'', after the toy line.
* None of the ''[[
* ''[[Blue Comet SPT Layzner]]'' was actually licensed by Bandai Entertainment for a North American release, but Bandai received damaged, blue-tinted masters from Sunrise and didn't acquire replacements or put out any [[DVD|DVDs]] before their license expired in 2005.
* The "Renewal" edition of the ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' TV series, which featured greatly improved audio and video quality over the original DVD release, was distributed outside of Japan as the "Platinum Edition." The remastered versions of the movies ''Evangelion: Death and Rebirth'' and ''The End of Evangelion'', however, have yet to be exported. Even worse, the rights to the movies themselves, originally held by [[Manga Entertainment]], have now expired, meaning there is currently no legal way for ''Evangelion'' fans in the Western world to obtain the movies apart from tracking down old DVDs. Some fans are still holding out hope for [[FUNimation]] (the distributor of the [[Rebuild of Evangelion|new movies]]) to rescue the license, as they have done with many other properties, but currently most are waiting for an eventual [[Blu
** This is (again) due to the absurdly high cost of the licenses. ADV passed on the movies when they were first available because Gainax was asking for over a million dollars. Although they could've afforded it at the time, they decided their money would be better spent on several TV shows instead. [[Excel Saga (anime)|It]] [[Azumanga Daioh|was]] [[Saiyuki|a]] [[Full Metal Panic!|smart]] [[D.N.Angel|move]].
*** Considering ADV's fortunes in recent years on account of having purchased bunches of unsuccessful TV shows and losing the rights to numerous hit series... was it?
* Despite the fact that both seasons of ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' were popular enough to get a second DVD print run each, the ''Fighting Wings'' episode pair made for the manga's [[Print Long Runners|20th anniversary]] has never been dubbed into English, or released subbed to Western markets. Further, an original 7-minute OVA and a new full-length episode to be included with volume 42 of the manga are under production, with no plans for an overseas release.
* The ''[[Peacemaker Kurogane]]'' manga is now released through Japan-only mobile service, making scanslation pretty much impossible. This, after a four-year hiatus. *headdesk*
** This also applies to the traditional manga release. ADV released the series started where the anime did (Volume 4) and printed 3 volumes before stopping. Tokyopop eventually picked up the license and printed the first 3 volumes, but nothing beyond Volume 6 has ever seen the light of day in North America.
* ''Wonder Beat Scramble'', a [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]]/[[Womb Level]] anime with a (big) touch of [[Edutainment]], never saw release in the
* A potential example are the Ginga-series manga and anime. Despite gathering a huge popularity in Japan and in Scandinavia, the series' chances making it to US are slim. The reason for this is, sadly, fairly sensible, the series is almost all about bloody violence directed towards animals, includes scenes of animal abuse by the ''heroes'' and promotes (Japanese) dogfighting.
* ''[[Only Yesterday]]'' has only been shown a few times on Turner Classic Movies. Disney holds the license for the foreseeable future and refuses to release the film on home video at all. They won't even allow other North American companies to sublicense it. The only legal way for Americans and Canadians to see it - outside of the occasional TCM airing - is to region-hack their DVD players (or get a region-free one) and import the subtitled PAL-DVD from Australia or the UK.
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* While the first two ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' series were released in the west, it seems that it was unusually unpopular and so the other seasons aren't going to be released.
** This was due in large part to original licensor [[Geneon]] going belly-up before the show could even be dubbed, let alone released. [[FUNimation]] released it as part of their distribution deal with Geneon (that included several other, far more popular, shows), but gave the show next to no advertisement of any kind. In addition, there were some issues with the dub that probably hurt sales. The two seasons sold badly and quietly went out of print.
*** It also seems its due to the series premise. It's geared [[Seinen|at men]], yet the covers show a cute anime full of girls (and the protagonist is young) that happens to be a [[Magical Girl]] series. That'd work well in Japan, but in the west that'd make most men put the box back on the shelf.
* Despite the sound novel and manga popularity, along with the popularity of the [[When They Cry|series]] among the anime community as a whole, anything besides the first season of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' doesn't seem to be coming out anytime soon. Even with that, the first season -- another late-era [[Geneon]] release it must be noted -- is becoming increasingly hard to buy or find online.
** Funimation's license [http://www.animenewsnetwork.
** [http://www.animenewsnetwork.
* While the ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' TV series have been licensed in the US, the OVA sequels and most of the video games based on the series are not. And the poor sales of the DVD box set in the US and it quietly went out of print ensures that the OVAs will never make it to US shores.
* While Puerto Rico usually averts this, notable anime have not been released there. Notables include ''[[K-On!]]'' (On Blu-Ray), ''[[Durarara!!]]'' (luckily, at least it's on TV) and the third season of ''[[Koihime Musou]]'' (despite releasing the first two seasons without a problem).
* ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'' is one of the most popular anime ever, yet the only other notable language version that isn't English? Just German.
* Any of the ''[[Battle Spirits]]'' anime. The card game has been discontinued in America. Worse, the game came out before releasing the anime in America. So most likely because of that, no one ever really heard of it. That's why it might have tanked.
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* America is stuck with the first 26 episodes of ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]''. Why? Because Toei pulled 4Kids's ''[[One Piece]]'' license as punishment for doing to it the one truly Godawful dub they've ever done, and given that ''Ojamajo Doremi'' (as well as another Toei show, ''[[Ultimate Muscle]]'') was part of the package...
* The American ''[[Cartoon Network]]'' has yet to air ''[[Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z]]''.
* ''[[Kodomo
** To be fair to Seven Seas (and they were very open about the whole situation), they licensed the series after only a single volume had been published in Japan. The first volume isn't nearly as bad content-wise as what comes later. However, Barnes & Noble and Borders refused to carry it (the latter openly sold [[Yaoi]]) and - it was implied - threatened to blacklist Seven Seas if they published it at all. It was at that point that they finally got a look at later volumes and saw how inappropriate it got. Seven Seas has a staunch "no censorship" policy, so they decided they'd rather just drop the license and eat those costs rather than deal with the mountains of bad PR from either compromising their principles (the fans) or from publishing an openly lolicon book (everybody else in the world).
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