America’s National Hockey League is said to be discussing a partnership with such top Japanese anime studios as Kyoto Animation, Madhouse and J.C. Staff in a deal which could see Azunyan and Kuroko promoted against the unlikely backdrop of gangs of burly men whacking each other with sticks.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman supposedly confirmed that the evidently desperate league has been discussing a partnership with Japanese animation studios:
“Everything we do is with one goal in mind – preserving and propagating the great sport of hockey, seeing that the best players in the world get the recognition they deserve, and thrilling the fans.”
However he was apparently very keen to emphasise the preliminary nature of these discussions:
“The reported negotiations are part of what is only one of a plethora of options on the table. Nothing is set in stone.”
No concrete details are known but Kyoto Animation, Madhouse, and J.C. Staff are purportedly involved in the discussions. The agreement itself would allow anime to be aired during intervals at games on television or at the arena, as well as the usual array of events and anime goods associated with such tie-ups. Studios for their part would each have to purchase a 10% stake in the league.
The partnership could commence as early as the next season.
The president of one team was less than enthused about the possible implications of the deal, and the fact that it was being discussed behind closed doors:
“When the owners are the last to hear about the potential sale of their team, there’s a problem. When fans are the last to hear about the possibility of their mascot being turned into a pink-haired girl, there’s a problem.”
A business professor who specializes in sports marketing asked to comment on the NHL’s chances with the “otaku” demographic was apparently rather positive however:
“Otaku a very dedicated bunch, and, more importantly, are a large demographic that intersects with current NHL viewers very little. If the NHL can turn the Otaku crowd into regular viewers, advertising for their games suddenly becomes much more lucrative.
That’s to say nothing for increased ticket sales. The League ownership would like nothing more right now than for gametime crowds to start looking like an anime convention.”
With US anime fans not known for their interest in sports, and with Japanese interest in ice hockey virtually nil, this is certainly an optimistic assessment – doubtless the report should be treated with the scepticism and incredulity it deserves until moeblobs do indeed appear over the bleachers.
Update: As seemed far from unlikely, the story’s publisher has retracted it as having no basis in fact.
Gaisensha at Kashihara Shrine: “Itasha for Crazy Nationalists”
Racing Miku Nendoroid Set
Top 10 Cutest Things Guys Do On Dates
Hirasawa Ui Tiny Bikini Figure
Zero no Tsukaima F Yuri Skinship Anime
Yozora Mikazuki & Sena Kashiwazaki Figures
To Love-Ru Darkness Totally Tentacular
Ano Hana Naruko Anjo Anal Dress Figure
Top 10 Most Followed Seiyuu
Wonder Festival 2012 Winter Wondrous As Ever
Ciel nosurge: “Your Date With Ion = $170″
Nisemonogatari – “Where Did All The Ero Go!?”
Police Hunt Ushijima for “Public Indecency”
Cops Bust Cop in Nude BDSM Club Raid
K-ON! “Causes Keionbu Girl Band Boom”
Vippers vs Vankers: 2ch Targets “Korean Propaganda”
Overflow Delays “Final” Game: “We Are Not Going Bankrupt!”
Ritsu Topless Manga Time – “She Has Boobs After All!”
Top 10 Most Boring Anime of Winter 2012
Behold: The ONACOUNTER
Lenfried Sakuya Anal Tail Ero-Cosplay
Wonder Festival 2012 Winter Cosplay
“Post The Highest Level Cosplay Ever!”
“Share The Cutest Cosplay Ever”
“Dolls vs Figures – Which is Best?”
“Why Do Girls Always Have Such Cute Rooms!?”
Ranka Lee Wedding Dress Cosplay by Tomia
Shoko-tan’s Madoka & Ika-chan Cosplay “Excessively Cute”
Guilty Crown Yuzuriha Inori Cosplay by Sasa
IdolMaster G4U: “Who Needs 3D Idols Now?”
probably one of the most unlikely collaborations ever if this shit goes through.
even in japan crossover to baseball with anime is rare.
This is totally absurd. They honestly think a little anime dressing will get anime fans to give a shit about hockey?
Anime fans are literally the scum of the earth, and the bottom barrel of members of society, so I would say that hockey could care less if "anime" fans give a shit. They can stick to their oversexualized children and lonely 2d fantasies.
I am thoroughly confused. As someone who used to watch hockey I cannot see the connection.
It being Fake, its bleacher report. IT CLEARLY is fake.
As a Canadian Otaku I approve... anything to see Railgun on Ice here in Canada :3
Eklund has this rated as an e5. It's not like Eklund could ever be wrong, right?
National Hentai League?
Um... wow, what a bold idea.
I like anime and I respect professional sport.
Thus I want this to succeed so more people have
understanding for anime in general.
To make it successful, content must be chosen carefully. Maybe studios can make some short
exclusive scenes with existing and new characters of
their which doing some fancy action scene and
safe comedy. Hire comedy writer from States and Canada
is good too.
Make a hockey anime series with 10 minutes each
and air it during interval.
I just simply want to see what it looks like
if it succeeds.
In general, people who watch hockey do not watch anime. And if anime is aired during hockey....well there will be a lot of angry fans.
Yes, because disparate hobbies are, without fail, always mutually exclusive.
I would beg to disagree. I happen to be a big fan of both . . .
ME TOO SO THAT'S THREE PEOPLE BY NOW SO FU ANON!!! HAR HARRR
Beating each other with sticks? What kind of hockey have you been watching? o_O
I've followed hockey since before I really started to enjoy anime. I still follow the Av's to this day, as well as my local farm team the Cyclones.
Honestly I don't see this mixing very well... Like at all.
I like both things, but I don't want to see anime when I want to see killer one-timers, bone crunching body checks, and insane glove saves. Last thing I want is to see some chibi yeti dancing around on my TV screen during an Avalanche game.
I like the game because of the tradition and athleticism. Anime doesn't strike me as bridging those two gaps.
looks like Mr. Hockey Commissioner is finally coming out of the closet lol
As someone who is not interested in hockey (again, I don't hate it, I'm just not interested) I seriously doubt that this will bring in any notable ammount of newcomers to Hockey.
And the power and influence of Japanese anime, manga, and culture continues to seep into America
That's amazing, seeing how Japanese anime/manga is making such an impact in America.
SanCom gets mentioned and linked to on Greg Wyshynski's Blog for posting this story. Wyshynski is the main hockey blogger for yahoo. I can only imagine the average hockey fans reaction SanCom.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Bleacher-Report-causes-erroneous-stories-on-NHL-;_ylt=AoAo2cZRJN1sZImz1qzT2Sx7vLYF?urn=nhl,235162
Weird, nothing good will result of it...
Nice pic btw
http://blog.bleacherreport.com/2010/04/18/clarification-re-recent-article/
"The information presented in a recent blog post, which speculated that the NHL is pondering an anime partnership, is completely fictional and the post was a misguided attempt at humor."
As expected...
Inazuma Eleven + Hockey = ?
Finally a hockey anime
Candians might as well watch that anime series about hockey.
What a surprise. Apparently the Bleacher Report article's already been deleted, which pretty much confirms it was a hoax. Good thing too. I like hockey, as well as some anime, but they would not work well together.
I really don't see hardcore otaku watching regular hockey. An animu about it? If it's got enough moe shit, but I doubt many of them would watch regular hockey.
The idea is really bold and unexpected.
On a side note, a Hockey anime could be really cool.
Not going to happen, guys. The article was BS.
Bleacher Report allows anybody to write articles, so long as they've commented on other articles in the last two weeks, and the author of this one - which is no longer up, BTW - has no previous connection with the web site. So, it's definitely not official and it's not going to happen.
Granted, as both a hockey and anime fan, I would have been curious as to see what a hockey anime would have looked like. It can't possibly be as cheesy as that JDrama Pride.
Also, "America’s National Hockey League"?
America? NHL? Seriously?
Sankaku Complex, I am disappoint.
As so many Canadians object to calling the US "America" what's wrong with calling it (North) American?
I learned from the NHL anime that your team wins in hockey if you summon red eyes teal skinned dragon to wipe out your opponents life points then drop a space colony on your goal ... the earth.
Obvious troll is obvious. Canadian hockey and anime fan here. If for some reason something like this actually happens, I'm not sure how I would feel about it, but it's safe to say it's probably bullshit.
wow everything is really going to be taken over by anime and stuff
No, 3d will become trendy again once there's only two people left on Earth.
by that I mean me and myself. muhahaha.
That's 3 people
There's only one letter difference between NHL and NHK and they are right next each other in the alphabet. Coincidence?
Inbou da!
Nihon Hikikomori League...
Real or not, sounds like a fail to me.
Guys, Basquash was badass and it was sponsored by Nike, so this could work.
basquash was garbage. BELEIVE IT.
Hockey, Anime & Manga are among my favorite things.
I think it needs to be the right match ups to work. The whole Mo thing definitely is a no go. but something on the order of Soul Eater, Naruto, DBZ, or some of the sports Anime like Prince of Tennis. These may work.
Also Hockey is only about fights, (just like all Anime isn't about big eyed girls with their clothing in disarray) it's about stamina, strategy and speed. Very like some of the fast paced battles in various Animes.
none of the companies mention have those kind of animes. Madhouse might have some as there are many titles that I'm not formilar with, but Kyoani and J.C. Staff don't have any animes in that category
Bettman is fucking stupid. The choices he makes are stupid. Won't give Canada(winnipeg, hamilton, waterloo) another team by saving franchises(pheonix, other nhl teams) that are bankrupt. Now this shit. Otakus won't go to an NHL game even if there were anime to watch. Unless it's some limited edition episode I don't see how this would work. There are other places (conventions, stores) to purchase anime merchandise.
April 1st was 18 days ago
I bet Canadian hockey players are watchning eechi anime! hahahahahaha!
muhahahaa.
I'm Canadian. I play hockey. I love the NHL. And I love anime. But this doesn't make any sense.
sorry for the english of watchning instead of watching.
The only doenst make sense to you is you dont understand what i meant.
he never said anything about you making no sense. Ghostchase only said it(NHL+anime) didn't make sense.
Lol! I bet Canadian are anime fans as well! hhahahaaa.
but they get arrested for importing loli manga so their all demotivated
This would be so fucking great - this should happen only to see the reaction from the people. Why wouldn't some fat American guys like a 16 year old girl showing them hers pantsu :) c'mon, many of them would go only to see that.
And Americans are half otakus - they are fat and now what it needs is anime and 2D waifus :)
i'm not fat, i'm just big boned!
...my dad can beat up your dad!
*waddles away*
I doubt these two will partner up.. Hockey and anime.
If the US hockey fans suddenly see anime (Which they don't even know what that is)on the hockey screen.. They won't understand.. They will just thing it's some weird cartoon. Maybe laugh at it a little. But if they hear the characters in the anime (Example: Konata Izumi and Kagami) on the screen.. and shouting "Konata shoot the goal!" Americans will just be like.. "Whats her name? What am I watching?".
I personally hope Hockey and Anime stay away from each other. Yes its alright to make an anime about hockey..
But not for Hockey to have anime during games. Anime isn't exactly manly.
And judging by how otakus in Japan like loli's and such.. American men will get grossed out by seeing panties on the screen of a 12 year old anime girl.
Did he get downvoted just because he called anime "cartoon"? I would bet a million cents
not only that what he wrote was also shit and tl;dr at that
another way to cashcow the otaku community
You guys cashcow yourselves.
At first I didn't like the idea of anime being exposed to a shit sport like Hockey.....
But now that I think about it some more, and reading that team's president speech...I...kinda want to see it happen, ONLY if I get to see a bunch of gay die hard hockey fans raging at the idea that their shitty sport is going to get exposed to anime.
The anti-anime riots that could ensue...
THAT would be funny as hell look at.
If only this had been in discussion a couple weeks ago- totally sounds like air of an April Fools hoax.
It sounds completely improbable. I await confirmation that it is factually deficient.
Speculations against...
http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?p=1758775
The article you linked to (BleacherReport) got deleted, so does this mean that it really was BS?
Presumably? Seems a well constructed hoax, but a rather pointless one.
This is far from "confirmation", but I would like to point out that the guy who wrote that article on Bleacher Report joined that site three days ago, it's his only article to date, and he didn't cite any sources.
Additionally, the first page of Google has many articles on the subject, but the only source cited by any of them is the same Bleacher Report article.
Also, the author mentions that this "comes on the heels of the leaking of documents [...] to the Bleacher Report", despite the fact that a quick search of that site for "anime", "animation" or even "documents" reveals nothing related, and the contributor clearly doesn't work there and so wouldn't be privy to inside information.
tl;dr: I could be wrong, but this sounds like a well-written hoax.
That was my initial reaction when I first saw an article reporting on this. "April Fools was two weeks ago..."
The article was written on April 14, 2010 according to the website. So there is a strong probability it is real(considering it is on a reputable site that reports College FB, MLB, NBA, NHL, etc).
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/378675-nhl-mulling-anime-partnership-nothing-set-in-stone
However, only time well tell if the plans are actually going to be initiated or is nothing but mere talk. :P
Bleacherreport is hardly reliable
I can just see the fat beer guzzling american hockey fans raging at the anime pictures.
A more effective plan would be to make an anime/manga about hockey. There's probably one out already. Throw in some product placements, and you'll have otaku running to purchase hockey sticks and pucks featured in the anime.
I do hear of something called "My Heavenly Hockey Club".
Like I said in the forums, weird shit is weird.
Hockey-tan, anyone?
This made me think of some sort of variation of Strike Witches meets Whistle/Prince of Tennis. Not sure why but it definitely sounds possible. Assuming the girls are as cute as the ones from S.W. :o
I'm trying to figure out why they think this would be a good idea but the harder I think about it, the stupider it seems. They say they want to attract otaku fans but what makes them think that otaku are going to watch an anime about ice hockey?
not neccesarily about hockey, mostly (i imagine) regular anime used as bait and then you get hockey, if it were to happen i might see it, but unlikely.
It's not that unlikely considering that we've already got shows about card games and board games (mahjong, go, shougi, etc.).
Touch H2 and Cross game are all done by the same person. That kinda doesn't count. Now if you'd thrown in Eyeshield 21, Prince of Tennis, Hajime no Ippo that'd be more valid.
Also, lets not forget about physical sports anime.
Baseball: Touch, H2, Major, Cross Game, and more. Most baseball related series are also quite long (100+ episodes). In addition to these, some mainstream anime (Haruhi, Clannad, etc.) also has baseball.
Surely baseball is present in analogue Japan as well which makes it more understandable it's present in anime as well. Not all otaku watch baseball anime but on the other hand not all otaku who do, watch these series because of baseball.
As for ice hockey, maybe they could make an Americanized / European stylized anime in hope to fish English speaking countries toward animation (like the Animatrix). Trying to make an easier transition for Japanese toward ice hockey would require severe moeblobbery which contradicts ice hockey as the most braindead sports (or maybe on par with boxing). Even if they made it a shounen competition and aspiration to become worlds #1 type series, they'd still have the problem with ice hockey not being played in Japan, thus being disconnected from reality. (Not that it usually matters, but sports anime might be more ruthless in this aspect than anime on average.)
There are plenty of sports anime out there already, ranging from tennis (Prince of Tennis) to American football (Eyeshield 21), basketball, fuck there's even one about golf.
a tan for all sports..
That NHL commissioner must be a closet otaku
Hockey is for ice skating fags... end of discussion.
F this, Anime does not belong in Hockey. Stay the F away. Stupid ass Bettman.
Hockey is not for fags; instead of an anime partnership (whatever it means) what amerifags need better players, otherwise Canada will keep kicking your asses in ice ñ_ñ
LOL, It's one of the few things that Bettman's ever thought of that I could live with . . .
So many things start to use moe these days that this will simply pass unnoticed.
@ anon 5:17
agreed, they're violent ice skating fags.
Agreed,5:17.
Anon 04:39; any of those so called "fags" can beat you until you beg for no more punishing PERIOD
This is just sad. They shot themselves in the foot with the strike a few years ago, shafted (no pun intended) themselves getting out of their ESPN contract and going onto Versus (lol). Now, the NHL sees no other option to get fans than to attract the English- and French-speaking otaku of N. America?
It's desperate, but it might work. However, I won't be holding my breath since hockey only interests me every time the winter Olympics come around.
I'm going to sportware shop.
Dokuro-chan would be a good mascot, what with all the bludgeoning involved in hocky and all
Bokusatsu Player Hoki-chan
"Pipiru piru piru pipiru pi!
My magical hockey stick,
is gonna crush your d*ck,
Pipiru piru piru pipiru pi,
Your ass I'm gonna kick,
it will be bloody sick."
Oh shit!
Lol'd at both. xD
More like Canada-tan vs Russian-tan, eh???
Hockey? If it's for fags that don't like sports, or kids that don't like sports they may as well go find a SOCCER team..
Well obviously you are not a fag but you sure are a world class moron. I'll give you 25 seconds on the ice against any NHL player who fights, and you'll go down faster than a hooker getting paid triple for a happy ending
It's like mixing sausage and ice cream. Two good things combine to make an unholy mess.
This will never happen. Americans barely watch hockey as it is compared to us Canadians. The amount of people lost due to this would be drown out the number gained.
lol isn't that because Canadians always win by a milestones, American's aren't interested in anything they lose at.
Someone doesn't know shit about hockey.
An overtime goal in the Olympic final does not a milestone make.
"A milestones", eh?
Dude... did you watch the Olympic confrontation, by any chance? Breaking a tie score in overtime isn't exactly a landslide win.
Depends on what part of America you're referring to. There are hockey fans in the USA. Most American hockey fans live in cities that get a lot of snow(New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Denver and the like). I don't understand why there are teams in cities like Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix, Nashville, Dallas and cities where it doesn't snow.
I personally like the San Jose Sharks, BTW.
I'm not sorry about Denver beating you the other day.
GO AVS!
But yeah I would say America does have a pretty strong base for hockey fans. Just needs to be marketed to the right places.
Sharks are still gonna win. We're not gonna have a repeat of last year.
Anyway, NBC should try to make the NHL a success like the did when they had the NBA from 1990-2002. During the 12 years the Peacock has the NBA, the NBA's popularity skyrocketed. NBC should try to do the same with the NHL. But first, they need to get rid the Peacocksucker who's ruining NBC.
I can't imagine anyone who truly enjoys hockey would completely forsake it because of some advertising deal, it's kind of like when CTV gave up the Hockey Night in Canada theme; no one liked it, but it doesn't stop us from watching.
That was CBC that lost the HNIC theme, CTV bought the rights to it for TSN to use.
Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland...
I heard the "Canadian Gold" variant of the HNIC theme and it's really cool. I kind of wish Versus and NBC had a cool theme like that.