When someone says Disney, what is the first thing you think about? For some, it’s their animated movies. For others, their theme parks. For an increasing amount of people, they think of Disney park Cast Members who are paid so little money they sleep in their cars. What you don’t normally think about when you hear their name is anime. Now, Disney has had their hand in anime before (and continues to have their hand in anime today), but they are nowhere near as invested in that industry as Sony and Netflix are.
There are several reasons why the company does not associate with anime very often. One of the main reasons is that Disney prefers to make their own content rather than license it. Not only that, anime has a reputation for being edgy and mature, and Disney is primarily known for family-friendly entertainment. However, one year they decided to outbid Cartoon Network for an anime series that was a HUGE hit at the time! The series was a rating powerhouse, kids loved it, and Disney decided they wanted it for one of their cable networks. Shortly after acquiring the rights, Disney would be faced with a headache and regret this decision.
Disney’s History with Anime
While Disney does have a presence in Japan (the existence of Tokyo Disney proves this), they have famously not dived too much into the anime marketplace. They have produced some series though. In the past they did allow Madhouse to create an anime adaptation of their hit animated film Lilo & Stitch called Stitch! What’s more, Disney+ is currently the home of Star Wars: Visions. Merchandise and video games based on The Nightmare Before Christmas were initially kept alive due to the movies almost immediate popularity with Japanese audiences.
In the States Disney acquired the prestigious Studio Ghibli catalog and produced dubs that have been hailed as some of the best anime dubs of all time (though the movies and dubs are now in the hands of GKids and HBO Max). It may also be worth noting that ESPN in Japan does air sports anime. So Disney does have a history with anime. For the most part though it’s a small history. Disney would prefer to export content to other countries rather than make region-specific content for the most part, and since their movies are universally loved, it's hard to argue that they don’t have a winning strategy.
Toon Disney is Rebranded to Disney XD
When Disney entered the cable industry they launched The Disney Channel as a premium channel that aired original Disney movies and vintage cartoons from Walt Disney’s time. When the channel started making more tween-oriented programs like Lizzie McGuire and Even Sevens, the channel became a basic channel network that came part of customers' basic cable package. As animation started to move off of The Disney Channel, they launched a sister channel called Toon Disney, which was basically Disney’s response to Cartoon Network.
As the years went on Disney decided to rebrand Toon Disney as Disney XD, with the idea being that The Disney Channel would primarily market to kids and young girls, while Disney XD would be targeted towards boys and teenagers who liked more action-packed programming. It was with this target audience that someone at Disney XD caught wind of this anime on Cartoon Network that young boys seemed to be going crazy over. More importantly, the show's contract was up for renewal, and it was ripe for a bidding war. Disney stepped in and won the bid. But they may have bitten off more than they could chew.
What Anime Gave Disney a Headache?
The anime in question was Naruto: Shippuden. Cartoon Network had a lot of success when they aired Naruto for many years, however Naruto: Shippuden was technically a new show, and the network needed to reacquire the rights. While they were interested in doing so, once Disney made an offer the network decided it wasn’t a big enough hit to make a counter bid, and Disney acquired the rights fairly easily. Naruto: Shippuden premiered on Disney XD in October 2009, yet it soon was apparent that Disney had not done enough research into what they had just bought.
While the program was a hit on Cartoon Network and kids loved watching it, Naruto was the first anime Cartoon Network aired on daytime TV with a TV-PG rating, letting more violence, crude humor, and even a bit of language slide. This was also the first TV-PG series Cartoon Network advertised for kids, and the success of the series helped inspire them to green light more PG-rated cartoons that would air during ‘school hours.’ Not only did Disney fail to realize this, but Naruto: Shippuden was a more violence sequel, with action sequences that would easily earn the show a TV-14 rating if left uncut.
Probably the worst part though is that Viz Media’s contract with the anime producers meant that they were under no obligation to edit the show. Viz Media would dub the show uncut and deliver the tapes to Disney “as is.” Disney (who mandated all their programs be no higher than a TV-Y7 at the time) was forced to go to the editing room and edit out many sequences. While it never got so bad that episodes got combined, it wasn't uncommon for multiple lines of dialog to be redubbed, blood to be digitally removed, and extreme violence to be cut. Several episodes would have three to four whole minutes cut from episodes.
What’s more, while Naruto had a humorous tone, Naruto: Shippuden was more serious by comparison. While it did have a lot of action, the mood of the series was more serious than fun, and it didn’t mesh with the audience Disney wanted to target. It was quickly decided that the program was not a good fit for Disney XD, and on November 2011 the program was removed from the channel. 96 episodes aired on Disney XD before the company decided not to buy any more episodes. Less than a year later, the show would return to Cartoon Network, this time geared towards teenagers, and retained a TV-14 rating. Turns out the only good thing about the situation for Disney is that Disney XD was watched by so few kids at the time, few parents bothered to complain.