How do you feel about cross-marketing?

[lubczyk]

How do you feel about cross-marketing?

Like Berserk. There's a 20-something episode anime that's basically a setup to get people to read the manga afterwards.

Or how Gundam, whether it be UC 0079, SEED, or OO has at least 2 side-story mangas.

Or how Haruhi has a radio drama and a series of books.

Or how a lot of anime are basically a teaser for the Game if you want to understand what's going on: Tsukihime.

I don't mind manga to anime adaptions or live-action adaptations, I just want one medium to expect me to be familiar with another.

Personally, I don't like cross-marketing. If I play an JRPG, I expect the game to be self-inclusive and not be expected to have seen the anime to understand what's going on and vice-versa.

I'm not going to search out the obscure manga, anime tie-in, radio drama or game just to "finalize" the story.

I like how X-TV did it. It assumed the viewer hasn't seen or read (or heard) of any of the source material, and even though the manga is/was still on-going; the studio made its own ending.

So how do you feel about cross-marketing? Are you the obsessive type that just has to finish the story whether it's finding the obscure OVA or Live-Action Show along with reading all the available mangas, whether translated or otherwise?

Perhaps you like to treat the TV series or the OVA (Tenchi and AMG! anyone?) as their own canonical source material, ignoring any further "supplemental" material?

[solomon]

It all depends on the show really.

Scince we are talking about a foriegn product made for a foriegn audience, I prefer individual works, other wise cross marketing is an excersize in being needlessly esoteric as far as foriegn non Japanese audiences goes. After all not everything will be licenced.

[lubczyk]

To expand further, personally, if I read the book then I won't watch the film.

If I watch the anime I won't read the manga.

If I read the manga, I most likely won't watch the anime.

I don't like seeing the same story be told to me in 2 or more different mediums.

[animeboy12]

well it depends on how it's down and the circumstances. I hated Tsukihime because I didn't know what was going on because I didn't have the game and I agree that cross-marketing is bad in a way.

I wish that studios would wait for the manga to finish or make it the opposite of most case where it's anime to manga and make it manga to anime.

but also you have understand that most anime series run 12-26 episodes long and when you have mangas that are 4-30 volumes long it's easy to see why cross-marketing goes on and personally I don't no if I agree with anime series making that own ending and being different from the original sources

[DragoonKain3]

You forget that anime has very strict limits, ranging from budget to make the animation to the very schedule of airing it on TV itself. So either you compress ALL of the available material into the constraints you have, or you just animate a part of the story that the studio can reasonably do underneath those constraints. And vast majority of the time, the former is crap, while the latter is what you're labeling as 'cross marketing.' I dunno about you, but I'd take the latter anyday... sure you might not have finished the entire story, but the story they do tell, they at least try to make it stand alone.

This applies to stuff you mention like Haruhi, which in all honesty, would be as much as you can pack into a 13 episode series without screwing up the pacing. And in the very end, while there are some things left in the open, at the very least there's a sense of closure by the time the final episode aired. Which really, is all I ask for in such adaptations...

I mean, seriously now, take a look at Monster, which is probably the best 1:1 manga to anime conversion I have ever seen. And THAT took 74 episodes to fully animate the 18 volumes. You really think that everyone has the money to make that kind of adaptations? Or investors willing to take a risk that big on just about every adaptation you see?

So as much as I would like to see a proper ending to such shows, I know it's all but a dream for the vast majority of them. Full-on anime adaptations are the exceptions and not the rule; just deal with it already.

Of course, they can try to make up their own conclusive ending, but that usually ends up failing pretty hard. To this day, I still have nightmares from what Gainax did with Kare Kano...


As for those like Gundam, they're pretty much supplementary material that only expands on the world that the original took place. They're hardly integral to the main plot at all, and would be a waste of time and money to animate them. They're made for the especially hardcore who just can't get enough and wants to know more about the universe. Great for trivia, but hardly a necessity to enjoy the original material.


As for Tsukihime, I really thought it was pretty much self contained, and is the reason why I rate it highly. Fate/Stay Night on the other hand...

[Vexx]

wait.. .what?? um, a major point of the existence of anime broadcasts are to get you interested in the merchandise (manga, dvd, figures, cd, games, etc). That isn't "cross-marketing" as it is understood -- that's just marketing.

Now the trend of putting important story points in different, sometimes less accessible media is annoying (e.g. a fair amount of Nanoha storyline between series has been done in other mediums), but otherwise it hasn't really gotten out of hand because the fans in Japan will only tolerate being jerked around so much (though they willingly put up with a lot more than American fans would). More often the problem with anime series is that the story hasn't played out yet in the manga (or light novels) so they're somewhat forced to leave an ending open --- or take a risk and produce an anime-only ending which *might* really piss off fans. A series based on an eroge has more options but often they take the worst: the non-ending or reset.

[yezhanquan]

To expand further, personally, if I read the book then I won't watch the film.

If I watch the anime I won't read the manga.

If I read the manga, I most likely won't watch the anime.

I don't like seeing the same story be told to me in 2 or more different mediums.

Usually, different mediums WON'T tell the same story. If you think the Full Metal Alchemist manga tells the same story as the anime, well....

Also, I agree/disagree with the "standalone" issue. While I believe that every different medium should be comprehensive enough to stand alone, the creators should put in tidbits for us who decided to give everything a try. Personally, I find the Iriya no Sora OVA an excellent summary of the series, but I don't mind getting the novels, which expanded several parts, but also have some.... strange parts.

[Kyuusai]

I am disappointed when I find that a story is not inclusive to the format I am enjoying it in. I am severely aggravated when I find that important parts of a story are split across mediums for no good reason.

However, I feel insulted when I find that the alternate medium presentations marketed to me for a particular creative work have nothing to do with the original author. I'm not interested in novel adaptations or manga side stories by a different author. Likewise, though, I'm also not interested in anime that diverges from the author's original, even if it's to make a tidy ending for the anime (Nausicaä and Trigun get passes from me because the alternate endings were by the original authors--and I feel these two examples actually ended up better than their manga counterparts). I've actually been avoiding watching the Itazura na Kiss anime because the original manga was left unfinished--and now I'm feeling foolish because its ending is adapted from scripts the original author provided her publisher.

[othera]

I do not read books when i have seen a movie, etc.

If i watch the anime, i usualy wanna read the manga but i end up not.

If the anime makes no sense without reading manga : i aint reading or watching any of it, thats just stupid.

[mg1942]

Each episode of anime (especially late-nite block) is usually made at a loss of money for the production company. Isn't merchandising just a way for production companies to cover losses?

I mean look at Haruhi. I bet this anime was made at a HUGE loss, and the only way for the production company to recover is to aggressively shove Haruhi original soundtracks, DVDs, drama CDs, figures, PSP games, PC games, snacks, drinks, t-shirts, pillows, and even an AV adaptation (Hahiru:heh:) to consumers.

[lubczyk]

Each episode of anime (especially late-nite block) is usually made at a loss of money for the production company. Isn't merchandising just a way for production companies to cover losses?

I mean look at Haruhi. I bet this anime was made at a HUGE loss, and the only way for the production company to recover is to aggressively shove Haruhi original soundtracks, DVDs, drama CDs, figures, PSP games, PC games, snacks, drinks, t-shirts, pillows, and even an AV adaptation (Hahiru:heh:) to consumers.


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I'm not against merchandising (music CDs, figurines, model kits, toys, et cetera) I'm just against, as a poster above me stated, "splitting the story across several mediums."

I mean what if you watched a 52 episode anime, read the manga, read the novel, then found out that the only way to experience the ending is if you found both the obscure live-action adaption followed by the even more obscure Drama CD?

[WolfCoder]

... why, find the live-action adaptation and the obscure Drama CD of course, that's what~!

[solomon]

Each episode of anime (especially late-nite block) is usually made at a loss of money for the production company. Isn't merchandising just a way for production companies to cover losses?

I mean look at Haruhi. I bet this anime was made at a HUGE loss, and the only way for the production company to recover is to aggressively shove Haruhi original soundtracks, DVDs, drama CDs, figures, PSP games, PC games, snacks, drinks, t-shirts, pillows, and even an AV adaptation (Hahiru:heh:) to consumers.

Excellent point, the media mix marketing structure has been ingrained scince the 70s some would argue the 60s, scince 9/10 anime is an extention of manga.

Cross Marketing as the original poster highlighted in examples is for the hardest of the hard core. It's becoming increasingly evidednt in otaku themed shows scince they are a HUGE bedrock of the anime industry now, but then again part of the reason gundam rose to fame in 78 after bombing was due to model kit sales so like I said, nothing really new.

[yezhanquan]

______________


I'm not against merchandising (music CDs, figurines, model kits, toys, et cetera) I'm just against, as a poster above me stated, "splitting the story across several mediums."

I mean what if you watched a 52 episode anime, read the manga, read the novel, then found out that the only way to experience the ending is if you found both the obscure live-action adaption followed by the even more obscure Drama CD?

Besides, there will be forums where people discuss such content. If you enjoyed the series, you shouldn't mind doing a little search.

[4Tran]

In my opinion, the effect of cross-marketing storywise depends on a sub-work's relationship to the original, the target audience, and what it's supposed to accomplish.

Sequels - they are meant mostly for those who saw the original, so it's no problem if the creators assume that any viewer would already know what happen in that original. Sometimes a sequel will have material that either creates or eliminates a plot hole in the original. I consider any change of this type to affect the quality of just the new work.

Spinoffs - this is very similar to a sequel save for the fact that it's not necessarily meant for the same viewers, and there's usually less connection to the original work.

Concurrent works - this is where the problems begin. There's no problem with a concurrent work that explores something very different from its "parent" (My~Hime manga and anime) because there's little relationship between the two. It's very different though, if one of the works is the sole source of events that impact the other one - hence making the second work required viewing to comprehend the former. Gundam Seed anime and the Gundam Seed Astray manga are a good example of how this can be done poorly.

Supplementary material - Ideally, this kind of information should be nice to know, and knowing it can provide for a richer viewing experience. However, a viewer shouldn't ever be required to look it up in order to understand the main work.

In general, a non-sequel/spinoff work should be able to stand on its own. If it doesn't, then it's a case of poor writing. Finally, as a matter of courtesy, sequels should be in the same medium as the original work. For example, some fans are only interested in anime and not books or manga or games so it's often a mistake to make a viewer switch between media. A good example of this is the relatively poorly received Nadesico movie which was actually a sequel of the Nadesico game. Spinoffs are exempt from this since their relationship to the original is usually pretty tenuous to begin with.

I mean what if you watched a 52 episode anime, read the manga, read the novel, then found out that the only way to experience the ending is if you found both the obscure live-action adaption followed by the even more obscure Drama CD?
It depends on how important you feel the ending to be. Sometimes, it's just a nice cap to end off the show; sometimes, it's a long denoument; but at other times, it's utterly essential material.

In a way, it's not even all that uncommon for someone following a long non-cross-marketed series. Some examples would be the Berserk manga, the Twelve Kingdoms novels. Heck, sometimes, the author even dies. You've got to feel sorry for those folks waiting for the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem: they had to wait 357 years after he died. And all that because he didn't have enough space in a margin.