It would be referring to Maison Ikkoku rights to license, release, and whatnot. Seems like a complicated game to be in the business of distributing or relicensing these titles. This would probably indicate a 'no go' for a campaign to see at minimum a DVD release RumikWorld titles like the Mermaid Saga. Last a saw of any of those titles were VHS releases.
Following a more expensive two-part release from 2013 & 2014,
Maison Ikkoku received a priced-down Blu-ray set in Japan in 2017, although it still retailed for approximately $380.00. Conceptually, the material is available. What's potentially telling is despite Rumiko Takahashi's international popularity, especially in Europe, older series like
Maison Ikkoku and
Urusei Yatsura haven't seen Blu-ray releases anywhere outside of Japan.
Ranma 1/2 is the one anomaly, thanks to VIZ's Blu-rays and a BD release that just started this year in Spain. Keeping in mind Europe has traditionally seen notably cheaper licensing fees than the U.S., we can guess series like
Maison Ikkoku aren't currently being made available to license or the rights holders are asking exorbitant fees.
As for more minor Takahashi works like
Mermaid's Scar, most saw their last release in Japan on now out-of-print DVDs. The lack of HD materials for titles of already marginal interest probably means few--if any--companies are actively inquiring about them.
There's a good chance series along the lines of
Mermaid's Scar will remain lost, until Japan starts making renewed movement on them. I suspect the international markets will see the likes of
Maison Ikkoku, once the Japanese rights holders are less concerned about devaluing their property through cheaper overseas editions.
:: edit ::
I need to slightly amend the above. Italy recently saw a release of
Urusei Yatsura, across four sets, from late 2020 through mid 2021. The priced-down Japanese re-releases of the series are also of a 2017 vintage, with those two sets costing Y38000 & Y40000, respectively. The four Italians sets are each retailing at Euro 45,00 for the DVD versions and Euro 53,99 for Blu-rays; they also seem to have locked subtitles, when playing the JP audio track.
With the Japanese BDs of
Ranma,
Urusei Yatsura, and
Maison Ikkoku no longer seeming to be in active production and some series leaking into Europe, the takeaway may be Japan is starting to consider international releases for this material. The situation also make me wonder if the Japanese rights holders ultimately regretted allowing VIZ to begin selling their
Ranma 1/2 Blu-ray editions less than a year after the first Japanese set hit retail. For context, without any usual discounts, the three Japanese sets for Ranma had a combined total cost of Y129600 ($1,296), while purchasing all seven of VIZ's sets at full retail price would have cost $384.79 for the LEs with the standard editions currently running $349.93
Space Runaway Or is it worth putting off longer.
