Forum - View topicAnswerman - Do Anime Creators Pay Attention To Reviews?
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NGK
Posts: 244 |
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Indeed, there's actually a Japanese way for forming reviews
For example... just watch or read any car reviews from Japan. You will never see "Top Gear" style take downs. A demerit or two is usually a faint and half-hearted praise. As for japan-based anime/manga "critical" reviews... that stuff is left to die hard fans of the franchise to 2ch forum and amazon.jp review entries. I think Japan-style "critical-review" take on anime is comparing the anime to the original source like manga or LN or VN. A faithful 1:1 adaptation and even improving on it gets a good reception. A deviation from the source (gakkou gurashi manga to anime, for example) gets all original source fans all riled up and really show their displeasure by going to 2ch and then post 1-star reviews on amazon.jp or rakuten. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2238 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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On the other hand "kuchikomi" (word of mouth, e.g. user reviews) seem to be where you go for real critical reviews of consumer products in Japan (and movies, too). They can be pretty harsh like western user reviews because they are pseudo anonymous. Especially true of restaurant reviews on sites like tabelog |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1247 |
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I don't know about now, but through much of its existence, the Japanese magazine "Animage" has published anime video reviews in which four people watch the same thing, give it a score and write a short paragaph about it. These were generally positive, but one of the reviewers -- a mangaka named Yoshito Asari -- stuck out as being pretty brutal. He scored some stuff highly, but it feels like he gave a lot more one- and two-star ratings than fours. (I used to think of him as "Animage's credibility.") In their competitor "Newtype," everything is wonderful, though.
This is non-anime, but the yearly publication "SF ga Yomitai," covering the world of literary science fiction, always has a roundup of the year's SF movies in the back. As with "Animage," they're capsule reviews, but those guys aren't afraid to call something bad when it is. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Is there also an absence of critical reviewers for books, movies, theater, etc., in Japan? Reviews have been a part of American publications for as long as I can remember. Are there no Japanese equivalents to A.O. Scott in the New York Times or publications like the The New York Review of Books? I can understand why a niche genre like anime might not attract much attention, but you'd think movies and books would be reviewed.
Last edited by yuna49 on Sat Oct 24, 2015 12:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9875 Location: Virginia |
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I do hope you are kidding. The point of the forums here is to allow fans to discuss their hobby. This allows for a wider audience than most have locally (really wider, the whole English speaking world apparently). However anyone who really thinks that the Japanese anime industry would listen to the opinions of random English language posters is really kidding themselves. There are some indications that, at least, Funimation and some of the larger online retailers monitor the site. Probably along with several other fan sites. However, I have yet to see evidence that even one of those businesses has accepted advice from random people on the forum. Seriously, on the internet, anyone can say anything and the most active are not necessarily the most representative of opinion. Do you really think listening to that would be a good way to run a business? |
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Herald Of JOJO
 Posts: 144 Location: Malaysia |
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Since Justin mentioned that there were some anime creators that overeacted to people's criticisms on social media, can anyone here give examples of those situations?
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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Back in the days before streaming, I would have thought licensors would pay attention to sites like this, ASuki, and others to help gauge interest in a particular work. Companies like Funi used to give the "politically correct" response that they didn't pay attention to fansub download counts either, but I never believed that. Why would you ignore a solid indicator of interest in your target market? There were many people, myself included, who watched fansubs and later bought series based on our reactions to them. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5873 Location: Virginia, United States |
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I never have realistically believed that anything said here matters much to the Japanese, not even the anger at Aniplex and Pony Canyon. If you want the Japanese folks to hear you, go to the conventions and hammer them and their representatives. Even email might be filtered through publicity representatives, and perhaps even Twitter accounts. Convention events are probably the only way to be sure you are heard by the actual Japanese people that matter. Sure they can ignore what you said, but at least you know you were heard. These forums are for us and they do matter. I use ANN to keep up to date to everything out there. I use the forums to see what other anime fans and ANN personalities are thinking and expecting. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2549 |
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Thanks guys. Alan45 I like discussing favorite shows and items of interest but sometimes it seems there is little actual discussion. @yuna49's comment mirrors my thinking, there is a saying something like "one opinion shared is worth a hundred" (multiplier may vary) and while I never thought Japanese marketing execs would hang out here, I thought the moderators at least might monitor enough to feed some opinions to ANN site operations who might offer the input as a service to industry contacts. Guess not. However, the point about streaming is good, that it is a better, more direct metric. @TarsTarkas I appreciate the advice, but it sounds a little like harassing convention guests. If I get worked up enough I might do it
 . I like ANN a lot in general for the information too but I think I'll lay off the commenting a bit. You and Alan45 are right, I should think of this as being for us fans, to share what we think and generally try to appreciate each other's points of view across a broader group and that's all it is. Sorry you all had to see that last post, it won't happen again (bow)
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5124 |
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Dayblack
Posts: 148 |
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I never would have had a second season, even if he had good sales. The anime deviated from the plot of the manga and the end is invented. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Well, when I was working in Hollywood, one producer noticed I talked a lot about reviews and what people say online. He said I put way too much stock in them--the only concern they have is viewership and box office, as movies have to turn a profit, and if a movie does well in viewership, then someone is liking it. It's the silent majority principle at work.
That thought makes me wonder: If truly critical pieces don't really exist in large numbers in Japan, what happened when simulcasting became popular and now they were getting feedback from western countries, both good and bad? Do westerners have a reputation for bluntness?
My issue is with freedom of speech, or, specifically, freedom to say your opinion on things. I don't know any Japanese so I wouldn't be able to read or hear any reviews even if I wanted to, but the very idea that someone is afraid to say they dislike something out of fear of being branded a criminal sounds disgusting. Silencing critical voices is something a dictator or a gang leader would do.
That, and if they're done over the anonymity of the Internet, they wouldn't have to fear repercussions of talking about a product that its makers don't want to hear.
I would've chalked it up to different tastes between regions. I mean, JRPGs are still quite popular in its native country, but they tend to be criticized harshly everywhere else due to their linearity, fixed protagonists, turn-based battling, and their very Japanese character design.
They can do that if the audience is sufficiently small and the person is a very trusted name in most to all of its audience. Food critics, at least until the rise of social media, could deeply affect the business higher-end restaurants get, for instance, as they depend on a relatively small but high-paying audience, and since this audience pays so much, they want to know everything they can about the restaurant before choosing it. From what I've noticed, the same deal happened with luxury cars: If you want to buy one, chances are you're getting only one, if any at all, so unless you go test-drive every model you're interested in, you'd look for other people's impressions. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9875 Location: Virginia |
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@Hiroki not Takuya
Don't go away, your input here is appreciated even if it doesn't go to Japan.  There was nothing objectionable in your post, just a bit misinformed.
Just for your information, the moderators here are volunteers, their only contact with management is limited to serious forum problems. They do not have the time or inclination to monitor the popularity of any given show. While management here undoubtedly has some industry contacts I seriously doubt they would be offering unsolicited opinions on shows. From what Justin said even industry insiders in Japan don't do that. The people from Funimation saying a couple of pod casts back that the Japanese monitor streaming numbers as a show is released is the first I have noticed of them paying any attention to the North American market. I should also point out that, according to Tempest, only a very small portion of the people who view ANN actually participate in the forum in any fashion. Even the polls taken here are voluntary participation and limited to people who read and post in the forums. As such they can not be considered representative of the fandom in general. While I do think some people in the North American anime industry may monitor ANN and other fan sites, I suspect they take that information with caution and use it with their own numbers. On the internet it is often the loudest not the most representative that get heard. |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Neither Devil's Third or Sonic Lost Worlds are JRPG's. Regardless what some joker with Westaboo leanings (90% of today's gaming journalism) say in his latest review trashing, Japanese games, JRPG's included, are still much loved outside Japan. How else are we getting more of them localized now compared to 3 decades ago? On topic, I'd shudder to think of an industry that gauges success from certain "elitist" critics. Let's be honest here. Anime is firstly entertainment. Trying to make everything into Tatami Galaxies, Haibane Renmeis or Ergo Proxies would cause a huge implosion. Even back then in ye olde days studios weren't putting out "high brow" shows by the bucketload because guess what? They still paid attention to numbers. I mean for the most part, DVD/BD sales works as a gauge of quality to a certain degree. Kill Me Baby, for one, had laughably abysmal sales and deservedly so. |
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maoyen
 Posts: 170 |
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I can't believe no one's mentioned the Gurren Lagann Incident. A perfect example of the damage reviews can do to a show, and how NOT to handle pr.
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