Quote:
Originally Posted by sa547
Offtopic: As much as I don't want to say this, but it appears that you're trying to convince some that "the old days are the better days" kind of thing, and then you're expecting the whole sky to fall down on the whole anime industry (reminds me of the fierce debate over the relevancy of moe at the General Anime section) because of fan pandering.
These are hard times, and a studio has to make a profit in any way it could for the sake of survival, considering how expensive anime production can be (and still is), so I can't blame most Japanese studios taking risks (except for the big ones).
Ontopic: To be frank, this project has a lot of risk and money riding on it, a massive gamble. We can't be sure if this'll fly or crash and burn. Anyone has to wait and see, as this is clear the project could be called the Titanic of anime.
|
Not at all, I'm simply stating that there was a time when when it came to coming up with ideas for a TV anime the first inclination that producers had didn't seem to be to check for what was currently popular in Light Novel scenes (mostly because Light Novels weren't even around back then, though you'd honestly think the way things are now with anime being so beholden to whatever is a hit in the Light Novel scene nowadays that Light Novels came around before anime ever did), idol culture and 2ch (something anime also predates) so much as trying to make their own splash.
Sure a lot of these shows "failed" and are long forgotten (kind of like the "successes" of today are quickly forgotten for whatever is currently popular or for the next big otaku/LN fan friendly show), but at least they failed at being their own thing as opposed to someone else's.
So yeah if anything these posts are more a cry for more original in-house produced TV series (preferably ones that aren't like Guilty Crown
). Again not everything has to revolve around pro-moe/anti-moe and old vs. new. This is purely an issue of creativity and pride in ones work versus copy/pasting whatever is popular onto the formula that is least likely to backfire with a volatile audience. And yes this is indeed a volatile audience in AKB48 fanboys and there is indeed the chance of failure, but that is also precisely the problem as well cause it pressures writers and creators to not do anything that could conceivably offend said audience, which is yet another trend I kind of fault for making these series often turn out so cookie cutter and bland.
In these types of shows any sort of extended drama is a risk cause it could result in offending a particular sensibility towards the fans concerning one or more of the AKB48 idols. In these types of shows any sort of character conflict also runs the same risk as nothing is really allowed to come at the expense of the AKB48 crew or it might offend the hardcore fans that are going to supply the profit margin. In these types of shows you have to tread very lightly and carefully for what they are, and that usually results in the aforementioned formula of cute girls doing cute things, everyone being perfect and without character flaw (arguably read without character intrigue) so as not to unintentionally make offense of the idol and thus the fandom, and this usually results in all the drama (if there is any) being pushed towards the very end after the series has already made it's profit margin where it can be converted to pure sentimentality regarding the fact that the project is now over in what have become sort of meta-referential scenes that masquerade as the characters being emotional and conflicted when in reality it's just one last play on the audience that has just witnessed 12-25 episodes of something they've actually already seen done borderline verbatim, albeit with a different skin like say....Idolmaster or K-On.
With each series like this that anime studios do, the better they seem to get at playing the otaku/idol audience. Kyoani in particular used to get credited with being the genius company that had figured out how to work this audience around their little fingers, but frankly other companies have now made it look really easy too by doing what appears to be little more than what I've mentioned above. Also good promotion and holding of community events have helped as well (something Kyoani surprisingly lacked, but seems to have proven to be a key piece of the puzzle in the long run), but yeah it's all very cynical looking to me and comes off as pure pandering. Maybe if I gave anything approaching a damn about AKB48 I could potentially be hooked, but again it's just something that is so localized and I'm trying to understand why creators seem to think they can keep doing all this localized stuff and niche stuff and still expect to grow anime as a medium.
My only conclusion is that they are still just thinking short term and are unconcerned with growing anime at all and merely just trying to survive since as you put it these are tough times, but I'll add just one counter to that. Why does it seem like OVA and Movie creators are consistently able to put out intriguing and variable types of experiences while TV anime lags behind and struggles so much on the creativity front? Maybe it's cause those that are capable of affording OVA's and Movies are just capable of more, but then I look and see people like
Makoto Shinkai,
Takeshi Koike or
Mamoru Nagano who are basically funding and developing ambitious movie projects out of their own pockets almost singlehandedly and it makes it look like it's really not all that hard as long as you just have the will. Have TV anime creators merely lost the will? It's an interesting question, but indeed this is going off topic and should probably be turned into it's own in the General anime thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fertygo
As long its actually involving the singing, dancing, n concert.. this kind of anime is fine for me.
And I think people should not worry this is the new "thing" in anime, because this kind of anime is hard to pull. Its need big budget and most likely established franchise to back it up (Im@s, AKB48, Maybe they gonna try make legit Vocaloid anime next time) and actually involving thing that's rare in anime : animation. |
Yeah like I said some people can get into these things really easily, and I'm sure it would be especially easy if you're into the idol scene or just stage performances in general (I'm more of a theater/opera guy myself but have no love for pop-idols), but for those that aren't into that sort of thing and are starting to wonder if this isn't actually the next big thing (cause lately it's kind of looking like it is) I have to ask....what is here for us if indeed the next market being mined after Light Novels is the idol scene? I will also ask, why does something like an idol series even need a big budget or established franchise or even any established thing to back it up? Is it simply not possible anymore to just do an interesting original story about somebody struggling to make it as an idol or coming off the peak of their career or something and to just do it with good old-fashioned character drama and storytelling? Will that just not work at all anymore in your estimation? Does everything need a gimmick or hook to be at the forefront of a production like TV anime producers seem to think they do today?
I refuse to believe that making any given idol show is as challenging as you are making it out to be considering what I've seen from the ones made so far and how easy it looks to play the audience for them by following the cute girls doing cute things formula, and certainly the way you are putting it doesn't sound like much of a creative challenge so much as a manufactured financial one. Basically if we follow that formula, the sole key to TV anime success in the Japanese market can be summed up by paraphrasing from Scarface:
In this country, you gotta get the big names first. Then when you get the big names, you get the cute girls. Then when you get the big names and the cute girls, then you get the fanboys attention, and then when you get the fanboys attention, then you get the money!