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NEWS: Queen's Blade's 2nd Season Green-Lit


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GWOtaku



Joined: 19 Jul 2003
Posts: 678
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:40 pm Reply with quote
jsieczka wrote:

It is good for the short run in that shows like Queen Blade bring in large sums of money that allow the industry to keep afloat. Catering mostly to this small group is very poor long term strategy for the anime industry. Like everything in entertainment these people will move on to something else and the industry has done little to bring in a new group of fans. In truth they have done alot to drive away the casual viewer with a slew of shows devoted to a small group who have the collective industry by the balls.


Thank you! I'm glad there are folks like you and Zac (among others!) that get it.

I'd only add that it's outright silly to compare the likes of Gundam 00 and Code Geass to this. If anything the season 2 uniforms in 00 tone down fanservice, if you consider the casual clothes Sumeragi and Feldt were wearing in season one. Anime is much more than a fanservice vehicle, and it's "passive" in 00 because 00 was actually busy telling a good story and doing everything that a good or great series is supposed to do. We need more effort like that.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:41 pm Reply with quote
hissatsu01 wrote:
jsieczka wrote:
Charred Knight wrote:
GWOtaku wrote:
And there's the latest example of the anime industry's problems.


What making money?

Look the main purpose of an anime studio is to make money. Sure it would be nice if art was included but if sex sells than by golly put everyone in a skin tight outfit.

Hell I have to hand it to Queen's Blade where as other series like Gundam 00 and Code Geass made passive fanservice (why the hell do you think Celestial Being's pants where pratically glued to their asses), this series knew what the hell it was about and made no bones about it. The imaginative ways they showed off boobs where a revolution in fanservice.

It is good for the short run in that shows like Queen Blade bring in large sums of money that allow the industry to keep afloat. Catering mostly to this small group is very poor long term strategy for the anime industry. Like everything in entertainment these people will move on to something else and the industry has done little to bring in a new group of fans. In truth they have done alot to drive away the casual viewer with a slew of shows devoted to a small group who have the collective industry by the balls.


I hate you. Mainly because I was about to type much the same thing. Laughing

Aside from the short-sightedness of catering almost exclusively to the most hardcore of fans, the anime industry also face the problem of an aging, shrinking Japanese population. Japan already has the highest proportion of elderly citizens and one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and both trends are rising.

Continuing to make mostly plotless tits and ass contests like Queen's Blade for Akihabara otaku to jerk off to and bland flavorless moe fests brings in the dough for now, but at some point this business model simply will not work any longer, and the industry is doing next to nothing to try and bring in any new fans.


Look their are plenty of shows like the various shonen jump and stuff like Pretty Cure that sells well to the casual crowd. Series like Queen's Blade aim at an audience that will buy a ton of figures and DVDs. Theirs only so many series that can be aimed at casual people, someone has to go after that niche and that series is Queen's Blade.

As for it drying up, Evangelion has been milking it for more than 10 years so it's probably not going to dry up anytime soon.
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GWOtaku



Joined: 19 Jul 2003
Posts: 678
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:46 pm Reply with quote
No, you've got it backward, there is too much niche stuff getting made. Queen's Blade is an example of that niche isolating itself more and more.

Give this recent article from the Japan Times Online a good read, you'll find it very informative. It touches on this issue and some others too (hat tip: Toon Zone)

-GWO
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:55 pm Reply with quote
GWOtaku wrote:
No, you've got it backward, there is too much niche stuff getting made. Queen's Blade is an example of that niche isolating itself more and more.

Give this recent article from the Japan Times Online a good read, you'll find it very informative. It touches on this issue and some others too (hat tip: Toon Zone)

-GWO


If you have a sure fire way to make money that doesn't pander than I would love to hear it. Look I would love to have stuff that is intelligent, well thought out to sell well, but frankly it doesn't. The shonen that sell best are frequently mindless action pieces (One Piece) or are simply badly written sustaining on old glory (Bleach, Naruto)

Personally I find less fault with say stuff like Queen's Blade then say with One Piece who has taken the idea of abuse of power to the point where imprisoning Crocodile for trying to blow up a country is considered an abuse of power.


Last edited by Charred Knight on Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:04 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Big Hed



Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:00 pm Reply with quote
GWOtaku wrote:
I'd only add that it's outright silly to compare the likes of Gundam 00 and Code Geass to this. If anything the season 2 uniforms in 00 tone down fanservice, if you consider the casual clothes Sumeragi and Feldt were wearing in season one. Anime is much more than a fanservice vehicle, and it's "passive" in 00 because 00 was actually busy telling a good story and doing everything that a good or great series is supposed to do. We need more effort like that.


Indeed. Apples and oranges.

Anyway, this really seems to be a day for fantasy show follow-up seasons. Hell, it's been a trend for little while now actually.
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GWOtaku



Joined: 19 Jul 2003
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:03 pm Reply with quote
Charred Knight wrote:


If you have a sure fire way to make money that doesn't pander than I would love to hear it.


Quality. Making the effort to tell a good story instead of being lazy and targeting the lowest common denominator with cheap thrills and odd fetishes.

Look at the greatest series that have been made in the last 10 years. Consider the shows that come from before then that are considered classics today.

The vast majority are nothing like this or the small array of C-grade efforts that have come out in the last few years that only exist to sell fanservice.

It can be done. It's just a question of when, and a question of how bad things get before there is change for the better out of necessity.

Edit: I really disagree with you about One Piece and Naruto too, but that's a whole other discussion I suppose.
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TheBigN



Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 62
Location: Somewhere in DC
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:10 pm Reply with quote
GWOtaku wrote:
Quality. Making the effort to tell a good story instead of being lazy and targeting the lowest common denominator with cheap thrills and odd fetishes.


It can't just be quality though, as one can claim that there have been a couple of shows that have been quality but don't rack in the money. How do you get that quality out there such that more people will take notice and decide to pay for it. Are there any other incentives (merchandise, how it's promoted, where you can get it, etc.) involved?

And while Queen's Blade isn't quality, it's enjoyable, so I don't mind seeing a second season of it come out. Razz


Last edited by TheBigN on Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Annf



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:11 pm Reply with quote
I think a lot of people misunderstand the Queen's Blade TV series.

It's not actually erotic like something like KissxSiss (or maybe Mnemosyne, depending your tastes Laughing) but rather it's more like the no-pants thing in Strike Witches, where there's this meta-humor aspect from the contrast between theoretically serious situations which the characters are taking seriously, and the extremely silly impression the visuals make on the audience. (I get the impression Aika and Najica may be similar, but I’ve not seen them to compare.)

QB’s been panned as “unfappable” on both English and Japanese sides of the net by the folks looking for a “real” T&A show and, well, they’re right, but I don’t think it was intended to be. (The original game books are another story…) QB is a joke show. It’s juvenile humor but it’s just plain fun.

(Although calling it “juvenile” may be ironic—when I was a teenager, I’d have been too embarrassed to watch this, but now that I’m in my 30s, my reaction is “acid boobs, lol.”)
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luisedgarf



Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Posts: 656
Location: Guadalajara, Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:15 pm Reply with quote
GWOtaku wrote:

Give this recent article from the Japan Times Online a good read, you'll find it very informative. It touches on this issue and some others too (hat tip: Toon Zone)


Maybe the main problem is the Japanese anime studios seems to focus all their exports to the U.S. instead to focus to around the world
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:16 pm Reply with quote
GWOtaku wrote:
Charred Knight wrote:


If you have a sure fire way to make money that doesn't pander than I would love to hear it.


Quality. Making the effort to tell a good story instead of being lazy and targeting the lowest common denominator with cheap thrills and odd fetishes.

Look at the greatest series that have been made in the last 10 years. Consider the shows that come from before then that are considered classics today.

The vast majority are nothing like this or the small array of C-grade efforts that have come out in the last few years that only exist to sell fanservice.

It can be done. It's just a question of when, and a question of how bad things get before there is change for the better out of necessity.


I beg to differ, out of the big three (One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach) One Piece's latest arc where Luffy "Heroically" free's a bunch of criminals for decoys is the best. I mean Tite Kubo has clearly stopped caring probably about 20 volumes ago. I mean he just redid the Soul Society arc right after he finished it. Half the fights have included some type of asspull to explain how the good guys won.

If Quality sells no one would read Bleach.

Gundam Seed Destiny sold incredibly well and it sucked, as did Code Geass R2.
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GWOtaku



Joined: 19 Jul 2003
Posts: 678
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:18 pm Reply with quote
TheBigN wrote:


It can't just be quality though, as one can claim that there have been a couple of shows that have been quality but don't rack in the money. How do you get that quality out there such that more people will take notice and decide to pay for it. Are there any other incentives (merchandise, how it's promoted, where you can get it, etc.) involved?


That's certainly the big question, and I certainly don't claim to be an expert, though it does say a lot that big franchises like Macross and Gundam have accomplished a successful mix of good storytelling and very successful merchandising. Gundam has model kits, Macross has music and there are people that love the mecha in that too of course. Not every series can do that, clearly.

I'm admittedly just expressing the obvious; not all quality necessarily gets the success it deserves, but without quality and having a certain amount of standards and integrity for your work you aren't going to get very far either.

And a few do accomplish significant mainstream success, and that is what the industry really needs--not just a bunch of series that only appeal to a very specific, very small group of people.

Edit: Without getting into debates over a bunch of series, I'm also not arguing that only quality sells. I'm saying that it's necessary for the anime industry to survive.


Last edited by GWOtaku on Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:25 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Brass2TheMax



Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:21 pm Reply with quote
A contributing factor to these "low-quality high-selling" production values might be the fact that "hardcore" otaku's *think* buying merchandise for a show like this gives them some sort of status in the anime community. A show like Queen's Blade, as most of us realize, is utter garbage, but for some reason, it's shows like these that "hardcore" otakus eat right up and go all out on buying figures, books, etc. The question is, why???

I consider myself hardcore enough about anime to call myself an otaku, but I didn't give this garbage the time of day. I'd almost go so far as to say that any fan who did is far from "hardcore" about anime, but if I do that I'll probably get reamed out for it. /facepalm

I want a good series. A F*CK YEAH series. Haven't had one of those in a while. Let's get some good stuff and toss this Queen's Blade (and the like) trash out the window.


Last edited by Brass2TheMax on Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:24 pm Reply with quote
Hell yeah! I watch this stuff raw! Hopefully they download the Aya Hirano role and up play everyone else that isn't Leina, Risty, and Claudetta, or the flat-chested annoying ones like Ymir and whatever the elf was.

Also related, anyone ever get any of them Megahouse figures? I think once my paychecks start flowing in I might get that Cattleya one, it's awesome.


Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:27 pm Reply with quote
I just love how tame the ad picture used here looks. You'd never guess the kind of show it's attached to.



(And yes, Bleach has been nothing but one-on-one fights for almost a year now, with 0 plot and 0 humor. I may dislike Naruto's plot and its humor, but at least it still has some. Kubo Tite is either stalling to keep the series from ending or he has truly run out of ideas....)
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zanarkand princess



Joined: 27 Oct 2007
Posts: 1484
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:55 pm Reply with quote
Charred Knight wrote:
GWOtaku wrote:
Charred Knight wrote:


If you have a sure fire way to make money that doesn't pander than I would love to hear it.


Quality. Making the effort to tell a good story instead of being lazy and targeting the lowest common denominator with cheap thrills and odd fetishes.

Look at the greatest series that have been made in the last 10 years. Consider the shows that come from before then that are considered classics today.

The vast majority are nothing like this or the small array of C-grade efforts that have come out in the last few years that only exist to sell fanservice.

It can be done. It's just a question of when, and a question of how bad things get before there is change for the better out of necessity.


I beg to differ, out of the big three (One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach) One Piece's latest arc where Luffy "Heroically" free's a bunch of criminals for decoys is the best. I mean Tite Kubo has clearly stopped caring probably about 20 volumes ago. I mean he just redid the Soul Society arc right after he finished it. Half the fights have included some type of asspull to explain how the good guys won.

If Quality sells no one would read Bleach.

Gundam Seed Destiny sold incredibly well and it sucked, as did Code Geass R2.

I wouldn't compare those because for one thing no one expects quality from a long running shounen manga if it can still prove to make money after so many years. It just exists so bored high school kids have something to read and that's fine too because it's not going to make the industry any worse in the end. CG only started to suck when it started pandering to this Queens Blade watching audience and it sold for exactly that reason. Gundam Seed Destiny was awful but it's the exception not the rule to Gundam series and it sold on it's name. Sunrise was just being Sunrise when they are allowed to focus on something for so long. They messed it up, it was to be expected.

The point is that the industry may be making money from this now but they are alienating people. I even noticed the number of Shojo and Yaoi shows being made are less then in the 2000-2007 period. There's a whole audience right there. The moe moe and borderline hentai market will dry up because otaku are fickle. Look at the way they practically worship characters for a while. By next season it'll be "Mio who?"
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