Forum - View topicAnswerman - What Makes An Anime A Crossover Hit?
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stilldemented
 Posts: 232 |
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Something I'm noticing is that a lot of the shows mentioned as being popular among Western audiences tended to have a cast of characters with Western Names.
Spike Spiegal, Vash, Edward Elric, Eren Yeager, Light Yagami, Guts, etc. Of course, there are always exceptions but you see where this is going. It wouldn't surprise me if casual watchers just have a really hard time keeping up with Japanese names. They can't get as invested in heavier Japanese shows because they're frustrated with connecting tongue-twisting names with faces. Western audiences aren't as used to hearing names like Kururu or Daichi as they are Annie or Timothy. It takes more effort to keep track of Japanese names until you're acclimated to the medium. But that's my extra two cents to throw at the table. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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I believe you are confusing the question somewhat. The question was not "what makes something successful among Western anime fans" but "what makes something successful with mainstream Westerners," non-otaku. There are plenty of things that have been successful among American anime fans, including my friends (e.g. Love Hina) that certainly wouldn't be called crossover hits. You do have an excellent point that sports anime have a pretty good track record of mainstream success in Europe-- shows like Touch, Captain Tsubasa, have been broadcast on Italian, French, and Spanish television, among others. I think it's partially because Hollywood produces its own quantity of sports movies and some TV shows, so American fans have a large number of options with less cultural hurdles to overcome, but I'm sure it's also a difference in expectations. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Oh please. If that was even remotely true then how do you explain Dragonball Z, Naruto, Sword Art Online and Gundam Wing? All were huge overseas, all were poorly written at best. Live action example: how do you explain Bayformers? Quality and popularity have little to do with one another. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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It's a possible explanation, but when creators name their characters with "Western" names, it usually indicates that the show is set in a generic fantasy setting (and thus not "too Japanese"), in an explicitly Western setting, or even just that the creator is a big fan of American pop culture, such Hirohiko Araki and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure or Kazushi Hagiwara and Bastard!! (Sometimes of course the names are still "off;" Keiichi Sonada may love Chicago and they did a good job portraying it in Gunsmith Cats, but "Larry Vincent" as a name for a woman is still unusual.) So it's hard to know where the causation lies, as it's all part of not being "too Japanese." |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5316 |
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Kill la Kill had the whole retro vibe, so I imagine a lot of people who were fans of 70s Anime watched it. |
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Buzz201
Posts: 266 |
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I would say that your opinions are too general and wouldn't even apply to all of Europe. Sports anime doesn't sell in the UK, then again apparently mecha doesn't sell here either. Also, nudity and perversion probably wouldn't offend you as Continental Europeans tend to be less offended by that. In the UK, it has to be cut if it even looks the person(s) depicted in sexual or sexualised activity is below the age of 16, and that law is very far reaching. Hell, even Code Geass had to be cut for sexualised activity featuring a character that looked below the age of 16. UK distributors will avoid titles that are "too pervy" too, Anime Ltd. were asked about Prison School and they said they couldn't risk it not making through the BBFC. |
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kgw
 Posts: 1061 Location: Spain, EU |
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Well, every country has its own perks. For example, here:
Sport anime sells like hotcakes here... manga, not so. Unless it's kids' (Inazuma Eleven) Romance: Candy, Candy and Marmalade Boy were BIG hits on national TV. Mecha: never sell here* * well, at least we have Gundam Origin finished... |
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DmonHiro
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That's not a quality, that's a strike against it. Less then half the episodes are actually relevant to the plot. |
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Jonny Mendes
 Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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I didn't know that about UK. That's very restrictive about the "pervy stuff". My experience comes from talking to friends in Portugal, France, Spain and Germany. But is very interesting that anime fans all over the world have different opinions what makes a anime good. Even inside Europe. That's why i said that the rules may not apply to all West. And that's why is so good to have so different anime in a season so fans for all parts can have the shows they like. |
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ParkerALx
 Posts: 194 |
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It would only be a strike if Cowboy Bebop was a plot-driven show -- which it isn't. It's a character-driven work that focuses on the lives of a motley group of space-faring misfits. Not all shows need a neat story arc that progresses from one plot point to the next. Sometimes it's fun simply to watch the lives of likable characters unfold. Even then, a large majority of Cowboy Bebop episodes still contribute something to the "main plot," whether it's introducing a new recurring character or revealing something new about their past. |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
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Disagree, though it may look that way on the surface. One-off episodes can be fun for their own sake, but in Bebop, getting to know the cast and seeing how they behave in various situations is essential for understanding the actions they take at the end. It wouldn't have had near the impact without those other stories. |
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Lili-Hime
 Posts: 569 |
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I haven't really seen KLK get much attention outside of the type of people who are already anime fans. It's no Attack on Titan, where pretty much everyone knows what it is. It may have got high ratings on Toonami, but so did Space Dandy. Both KLK and Space Dandy did well enough, but not enough to make an impact on western pop culture like Deathnote, FMA, DBZ, AoT or Cowboy Bebop. Could change in time though. FLCL only got more popular as they ran it over and over and over again.
Sad, but true. There's so much fanboy nostalgia for anime as bad as Outlaw Star, Tenchi Muyo, and Yu Yu Hakusho, but a shoujo masterpiece like Utena gets comparatively ignored. Kind of continues today too. Princess Jellylfish was great but got little attention outside its own niche audience. You made a good point though about appealing to a broad audience . Shows like Escaflowne, Rurouni Kenshin and FMA were hits because they had both action and character drama/romance. It's a bit saddening that recently anime studios have forgone the drama/romance aspects and just include hot guys to get the female fanbase (Death Note is a great example of this).
Cannot stress this enough both to appeal to non anime fans as well as anime fans who have left because they perceive anime as nothing but harem/moe now. (It isn't, but there's enough to give off that vibe). I know quite a few people that want to get back into anime and watch the new action shows like Gurren Lagann & AoT, but in general hate anime because it's all schoolgirls and panties now (according to them). Some anime fans don't realize how unappealing that is outside its target demographic (single straight guys in their 20's & 30's). |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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I'd argue that each of these were "good" in that they did something unique for American kid's TV when they released (with the exception of Gundam Wing--can't quite figure that one out, except that maybe it was filling the "I need something dark in my life" void that Eva introduced--and SAO). People I've reminisced with told me they thought Dragonball Z was "new", "cool", "different", and "edgy" when they first saw it, and it was certainly very different from most kid's TV (notable exceptions being the Batman cartoon and Gargoyles), so it's not too hard to see why that worked. Naruto feels like it was something of a spiritual successor to Dragonball Z, in that it was also "new" and "different" because of its setting and its unorthodox take on ninjas. And it feels like (though I may be way of base here) the demographic that consumed the most Naruto were kids who grew up on or were introduced to anime via Dragonball Z. As for SAO, I may actively dislike that series, but I still hold that it has a lot in common with Twilight, in that it has a blank-slate protagonist who is easy to associate with, all while providing a fun power fantasy (which works even better if you've managed to project yourself into Kirito in the meantime, similar to how readers often projected themselves onto Bella Swan). It's brain candy and it looks pretty, basically. Then again, this is all from the perspective of someone who was in elementary school with DBZ came out, so I have no knowledge of what the buying/watching trends of actual adults were at the time. And it's veeery "hindsight is 20/20". |
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Lili-Hime
Posts: 569 |
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As a girl who was 15 at the time Gundam Wing hit TV... I'll just answer that with this: 
Last edited by Lili-Hime on Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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NeoStrayCat
 Posts: 610 |
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In other words as what this "Answerman" article is for...Go with what works, and if it gets good, then yeah, its good! X3
Also, Lili-Hime, the image from "Angelfire" is hotlinked and not displayed properly, had to see the image into another tab to see what it was...And...there it is, lol. X3 |
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) but most of the rest are not really something that makes me think "whoo this is sooo ecchi".
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