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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Monster is not the sort of series to sell well as an anime. I've heard SyFy ratings were horrid (though not as bad as the infinite Street Fighter movies and the weird anime B-movies it's always showing like Psychic Wars). I wouldn't be surprised if the DVD sales were low too.
From what I've seen, the very word "anime" has a strong connotation in the English-speaking world; people who come in knowing something to be an "anime" will expect big fights, laser blasts, or a lot of Japanese demon/ninja/samurai action. Instead, Monster is a slow and contemplative psychological thriller set in Central Europe, focusing mainly on middle-aged to elderly people, and has (relatively) realistic looking characters with no abilities beyond that of normal people (though calling Johan normal would be a stretch). Thank goodness it portrays a world of stark good and evil or it would get no viewership at all. (Though you can argue that evil is a necessary part of the world of Monster rather than something to be vanquished.) Paranoia Agent and Moribito, despite both being excellent shows with no corners cut, fared poorly on Adult Swim. The American audience largely does not exist for much besides shonen. Heck, even Death Note had ratings troubles against Code Geass until the final episode. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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Monster is not the sort of series to sell well as an anime in America. From what I gathered it did well in Europe. The series, both manga and anime, is available in multiple languages. For instance, if you understand Dutch or French, you could buy thisneat little box with all 74 episodes. I wonder why Viz doesn't make an affordable box like that for the US and Canana. Sure, there's not a ton of extra's to be found in there, but wouldn't most fans be happy with just owning the whole series? |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Good point--I meant in the United States, based on my own experiences. If Monster is doing well in Europe, that's great!
I think the reason why Viz is hesitant to release any volumes past #1 is due to music-related issues. From what I've heard, the Monster anime uses a lot of pop songs from the early and middle parts of the 20th century, most notably Baby's introductory song and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. In order for Viz to get the rights to use the music, it may have to pay so much in royalty fees that the DVDs wouldn't be profitable short of it being the sensation of the millenium. And while Viz may be comfortable changing the music to generic stuff, it might not be able to get permission to do so for the Japanese audio track. (Well, this is the reason why EarthBound and MOTHER 3 have so many localization problems. I know Nintendo Co. Ltd. refused to let Nintendo of America tweak the soundtrack to avoid the wrath of the RIAA, and so these games were left ignored.) |
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Tamaria
Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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I didn't know that. Yeah, something like that can complete things.
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