Forum - View topicAnime Spotlight Spring 2014-The List
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zeo1fan
Posts: 1016 |
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Defer to my above comment. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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Guys, you're comparing apples to oranges with American shows and Japanese shows.
Most American shows are designed to have long-running capacity. You create a pilot, pitch it, they pay you to run the show, and then you try to keep it going long enough that you can get it into syndication. Japanese anime shows that air late-night are designed to be mini series of 11 to 26 episodes, maybe getting a second season if you do well. Many are also never intended to make money, but rather to increase sales on the original novels/manga or merchandise. Now, there are differences. Some anime shows that air during the day are designed to be long-runners, and cable has introduced "anthology series," i.e. series of miniseries into American TV. But it's a very different market, with very different concerns about profits and critical reception. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23883 |
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The fact that anime has a lot of derivative content is undeniable. You are liable to find that to be the case in any niche entertainment sector that has a static market size. Late night anime - which is primarily what we are talking about here - pays for itself primarily through physical release sales in Japan, not through broadcast license fees or a share of ad revenue from broadcasters.
A show's bottom line is helped through license fees/royalties from foreign distributors. From what I understand, the otaku demographic that buys anime releases in Japan is pretty static. It doesn't appear to be either growing or shrinking (from what I can determine). A volume that sells 50,000 copies would be considered an out of the ball park smash hit. That's 50,000 copies in a country of almost 150 million. So clearly we are dealing with a niche, static entertainment sector. It's no wonder then, that that niche, static entertainment sector produces so much derivative content. There is huge risk in trying to be innovative and not much incentive to veer from what your niche, static market seems to want. Having said all that, I think that sector does produce good stuff on a pretty consistent basis, so it would be wrong to dismiss the industry as a whole as derivative, but it would also be wrong not to acknowledge the situation at all. |
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Rederoin
 Posts: 1427 Location: Europa |
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I'm aware of that, I was just disagreeing with western tv shows being superior to anime. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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It depends on which Western shows you're comparing them to. If you were just comparing what runs on TV between 10 pm and 2 am (when a lot of these shows air), then they'd be par, and anime might even come out ahead. If you compare most anime to, say, anything that comes out on HBO, then sorry, anime overall loses. But so would most other American TV shows. All the person was saying was that anime is very derivative due to its market considerations. Some American TV is likewise, but as Blood- noted, anime's niche nature increases its derivative factor considerably. You can't deny that. It's just the reality of the economics. It doesn't meant there aren't great anime shows or terrible American ones, just that, yes, when a lot of shows feel like they're rehashing old elements, there's a reason for that. A lot of anime shows are glorified commercials, they're not intended to be high art. |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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Not changing because your audience isn't growing is kinda of a self fulfilling prophecy. Of course it's not gonna grow if you always make the same 10 anime, everyone who watch them and didn't like them is obviously not gonna enjoy more of it.
I think the problem is that the bulk of anime are aimed at the same demographic and there are very few anime who dare to make stuff for adult (and by that I don't mean porn, or super dark edgy stuff, I consider that to be for teenager). There are some, but it's hard to convince anyone who isn't already into anime to actually start watching it, we'd need a good steady supply, of course I'm mostly talking about what I'd like to see more of. |
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zeo1fan
Posts: 1016 |
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Wow, wow. What is this? Not once did anyone mention 'superiority'. Were you and I having two different discussions, or what? 
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zeo1fan
Posts: 1016 |
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And in case it wasn't clear (I thought it was obvious), harems are not the only way to pander Otaku.
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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And otaku aren't a completely unified front. You've got the hardcore mecha fans, the ones who are into dating sims/eroge, the ever-present fujoshi, the sci-fi/fantasy fans who'd be pretty similar to American nerds, and so forth. |
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Tenebrae
Posts: 487 |
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So does Dragonar pass the Bechdel test?
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zeo1fan
Posts: 1016 |
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I'm surprised by the lack of idol chit-chat here.
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Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
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With character descriptions like this one, you know this is going to be keeper:
Yeah... no. |
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phoenixalia
Posts: 1408 |
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I'm watching nothing on The List so far.
These shows will be good, but what about other shows like Haikyuu!, Kiniro no Corda Blue Sky, Captain Earth and Sidonia no Kishi? 
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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Omg rofl. Is this just a translation issue or did someone actually decide on that particular phrasing?? These preview descriptions are just so wacky sometimes, I think we could have a hilarious show that just discusses and cracks jokes about them. |
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TheAncientOne
 Posts: 1875 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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Reading further, it appears it would have been more accurate if it stated, "A beautiful, big-breasted woman with no luck in finding good men" or even "A beautiful, big-breasted woman with no luck with men". Certainly women (or men, for that matter) that fit either of those statements aren't a rarity. |
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