Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Can You Tell If An Anime Is Popular?
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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It's true. It's difficult to compare directly, thanks to the fact that its BDs were bundled with a guidebook instead of sold as volumes in the traditional way, but it is in fact one of the biggest shows of the year, and one of the biggest of the decade, to be honest. Tatsuki attracted a line of 40,000 people at Comiket and a couple of other places had him entirely swamped, in addition to the show selling, as Laethiel mentioned, roughly 200,000 copies for just one volume of the BD/guidebooks. If you compare it directly, which may or may not be fair, it is the BIGGEST show of the year. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2416 Location: Germany |
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Ok, it actually IS the biggest show of the year by that guidebook metric. Which begs the question, was it secretly genius to release it in such a convoluted way and will an increase in production values hurt the appeal of the show.
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I think it worked, but I don't think there was anything genius about it, to be honest. They expected so little from the show(and spent so little on it) that they decided the best way to make back their investment was to sell it as part of a guidebook.
I don't think an increase in the production values will inherently hurt the show, but I think the removal of the core staff, which made it literally out of love, will hurt it. The intangible sense of passion and giving-it-their-all that came through in the finished show, I think is a large part of what made it resonate so well. Not necessarily that it looked bad, but you could just tell that the people who made it cared deeply about it. If it looks better in a sequel, but you still get the sense that the staff genuinely cared about it, I don't think that'll hurt it at all. |
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residentgrigo
Posts: 2416 Location: Germany |
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The show is made by complete nobodies and they lucked into as big a success as a TV anime can have in the year of our lord 2017, outside maybe Dragon Ball and it´s export appeal. I wonder how that must feel to wake up in that world.
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Success is rarely, if ever, a matter of pure luck. They released the right thing at the right time, but they have to have dome SOMETHING right for it to catch on as it did. There is no lottery for "most-watched anime of the year," after all. People will watch what they want to watch, and if an anime is successful, it's because it delivered what people wanted in a way such that many people watched and enjoyed it. That is, I don't think it's because the staff simply got lucky. It's because Kemono Friends filled a want, whatever it may be, that had been unanswered until this show came along, even if it was unintentional. (I haven't seen it, so I couldn't begin to make any guesses as to what it may be.) |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4074 |
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How can I tell if a show is popular? Usually if I don't like it is a good indicator. Occasionally some shows are made that are both popular and happen to meet my own expectations but they are so few and far between that it comes off more as an accident.
I think the better question is "why should popularity even matter?" When was the last time I wasn't disappointed by an anime sequel season? I found the first group of Attack on Titan to be very deliberately paced because the characters were cautious and were right to be but for "season two", things happened because everyone gained the intelligence of a bag of rocks. I was yelling at the characters "There is no hall in the wall so stop sending search parties that you don't believe anyway, go back to suspecting Abnormal Titans of being "abnormal", that crater is where he fell... look up!" and so just gave up on the franchise. One I did like was the Girls Und Panzer film but it's just a condensed version of the TV series right done to the same stakes for the battles So "more of the same" is the bare minimum but why is even that a challenge? Just like what you like, appreciate what you get and don't expect anything better if something with the same title should appear. Popularity? That's for producers to worry over. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Because popular things are more likely to get more content than things that aren't popular. It's pretty obvious why it matters. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9828 Location: Virginia |
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Not really, there doesn't seem to be much relationship between popularity and additional seasons. In order to try to figure if a show will get a second season, you would be better off looking at a chicken's entrails than sales statistics. More to the point, why would it matter to anyone in the US? We have no control over what gets made or what gets licensed. If something is legally available and you like it, watch it. If you don't like it, or it doesn't get licensed, forget about it. How hard is that? |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Occasionally, an anime becomes more popular overseas than domestically, and more content gets produced in that way (especially if it bombs in Japan but succeeds elsewhere). I can think of Kinnikuman, Big O and Space Dandy each getting an additional season made especially for viewers in the United States, even though they were not originally going to continue had they paid attention only to Japanese audiences. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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That's the cynic in you talking, but historically, it's very true. Popular things are significantly more likely to get more content. Period.
Huh? I expected more from you specifically, to be honest. The US, and international fandom as a whole, has a lot of control over what gets made, licensed, and becomes popular. Come on man, we've been bashing people over the head with these statistics nonstop for the last 3 years. There is tons of international money in the industry. Crunchyroll, Amazon, Netflix, even Funimation. These guys are literally making anime. Not to mention funding significant portions of productions on a seasonal basis. They obvious pay quite a lot of attention to what is successful/popular in their territories. I'm honestly so tired of having this conversation. 
I guess take a look at those sources if you so choose, the first one has an English version(sad they still haven't put out 2016 and 2017, since the growth internationally there is even more notable). |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9828 Location: Virginia |
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@leafy sea dragon
I know, but that is something that just happens, it is not as if anyone can control it. In any case, three shows in thirty + years is not really a trend. If streaming money continues to become a significant factor, you may see more in the future where a US company had a say in what is made. I'm not looking forward to that since I think it will result in the loss of part of why we watch anime. On the other hand, I doubt even US money can screw up everything. @relyat08 I should have known you would jump in while I was trying to compose a reply. 
I agree that really popular stuff is likely to get a new season, but that is limited to one or two shows a year. Those are usually so obvious that you don't need to look at statistics to know that. (Attack on Titan) However, it is the tier just below that I'm speaking of. There are simply too many factors that go into a production committee's decision to green light a show or not and too many of those factors are unknown. Popularity will give hints but will not provide an answer. Every time they announce a second season for something here, one of the first ten posts is usually "I can't believe this got a sequel and show X didn't" I gather you enjoy playing with statistics and sales figures, more power to you. I don't, show me a chart of plotted information and my eyes glaze over. While I do have a cynical side, this is more a result of fatalism. If a show I like gets a new season, great. If it doesn't, well, there is always something else to read or watch. 
Last edited by Alan45 on Tue Oct 03, 2017 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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Additional Kinnikuman and Big O episodes were specifically financed and paid for by 4Kids and Cartoon Network specifically. As far as the Japanese production team noticing a series popularity in America and making more content on their own drive specifically for that market, forgoing their domestic market, I can't think of any. If a show fails to gain momentum in Japan, they drop it unless another foreign company picks up the production check. Space Dandy was always 26 episodes, they just split it up into two cours. So far it hasn't gotten any additional episodes outside its initial production. -Stuart Smith |
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