Forum - View topicNEWS: Masamune Shirow Talks About Ghost Hound
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Unholy_Nny
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So, the anime adaption takes the original idea and kind-of puts it in reverse?
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Carl Horn
Posts: 90 |
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I personally would like to see fewer coming-of-age stories from anime, and more anime that take it to the next stage, about being an adult. After all, that's where people spend most of their time in life.
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TokyoGetter
 Posts: 416 Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards. |
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I can feel you on this. Shows like Master Keaton were certainly entertaining to me in school, but they really resonate with me now because I am a bit older. Then again, you know, Peter Pan syndrome... |
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Carl Horn
Posts: 90 |
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I think this remains anime's big challenge--to expand into a wider adult demographic. If you're, say, a Japanese person in your 30s, and you're not an otaku, you can still find plenty of manga that might interest you. That's not nearly as true when it comes to anime. It so happens I am an otaku, but I'd still like to see more shows starring characters closer to my own age. |
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TokyoGetter
Posts: 416 Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards. |
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True. Even with the ever-shifting focus towards late 20-somethings for fans and whatnot, I think that would be THE big challenge, seeing as how the target audience is changing. Time and accessibility remain a huge factor as well.
Now that you mention it, I think I will try to make a list sometime of shows like that... right now, I am seriously blanking. |
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mufurc
 Posts: 612 |
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That's because while many non-otaku adults read some manga from time to time (pick up a weekly or monthly Jump magazine to read while commuting/etc.), they don't watch anime. It seems to me that there are different attitudes to watching anime and reading manga in Japan, and while the latter is something pretty much everyone does, the former requires time, energy and circumstances that not every adult has, and besides, anime is not regarded much less differently than cartoons over here: stuff mostly for kids and geeks. Shows like Bartender, Master Keaton, Gallery Fake, etc., my be potentially interesting for non-otaku adults, but that audience is so small that it's simply not worth targeting alone, especially nowadays. You need to appeal to younger/otaku viewers in order to produce ratings and keep the show afloat, and few shows are able to find the balance, let alone be financially successful. An example: Ayakashi Ayashi, a show that tried to combine elements so it would appeal for adults as well as younger people. The protagonist was an adult (in his late 30s) and had a mature view of the world, topics like being an adult, making choices about your life, differences between younger and older generations were regularly touched on, etc. etc., basically, it had stuff for adults as well as for young people and otaku. It didn't work out: the young/otaku audience was bored with the pace, didn't care for an older protagonist and wanted more shiny stuff and fanservice, while the adult audience wanted fewer juvenile elements, was prejudiced by default (anime is for kids and otaku, after all), or simply didn't even know that the show existed (it was woefully underhyped, which is surprising for a doroku show). |
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Carl Horn
Posts: 90 |
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The points you raise are true, and they illustrate why more of an effort has to be made. The greater struggle might not be within the minds of the general public, but within the anime industry (in the larger sense that includes both its studios and financiers). They know a fair amount about appealing to young viewers and otaku, but are on more uncertain ground when it comes to reaching out to a more general adult audience, and the path of less resistance is to stick to what is known. Yet it should be remembered that adults didn't start out reading manga in Japan; it took years to develop that demographic, too.
And if anime wants to grow, it will ultimately be necessary to do so, because every year the youth market in Japan gets slightly smaller; the median age in Japan is now 42, the oldest among the major industrial economies. Obviously this assumes a limited (but apparently common) conception of "otaku" as wanting to be mainly pandered to, rather than also wanting progressive change and growth in the medium. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Carl Horn wrote:
From my limited experiences in Japan, I don't see 'Otaku' crying out for progressive change or mature growth. As an older fan who finds increasingly little of interest I feel where your coming from, but in reality market pressure will push demographic targets younger and shows more narrow in scope if anything. While one can fondly remember the rollicking OVA days of the 90's, the output of today is solidly tween/teen melodrama, and I think that's the way it's going to stay. When invoking the specter of 'Otaku' as a Japanese viewing base, note that the term doesn't signify 'niche/harcore fan' like folks use it in North America, it comes off socially as 'Oddball Loser' in Japan. In Japan anime is firmly socially entrenched as tween/teen stomping grounds, with 'otaku' being social misfits who are handy to make yen off of. While I'd love to look at something like Masamune Shirow back in action as an indication of a return to the shows/themes of yore, I just see no legitimate market pressure at this time that's going to push the anime demographic/genre type older. |
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