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Old 2012-05-16, 11:59   Link #1032
Triple_R
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TJR View Post
That would be an ideal. I'm just saying that it really isn't the case for the anime industry, given its particular set of circumstances. As you probably know, most studios don't have much brand strength either, and the content they create caters to client demand (i.e. moe would be immediately dumped if industry demand were to shift. They wouldn't really care what today's fans had to say but would look toward the next trends and financing opportunities).
I get and respect where you're coming from. There's some truth and facts in much of what you've wrote on this thread.

But I think that you're taking your overall line of reasoning a bit too far. You're creating a false division between "industry demand" and fan demand.

Who determines "industry demand"? Paying fans do.

It's the fans that demand moe, not the client. If the fans all suddenly lost interest in moe, do you think the client would keep wanting to make it even if it didn't sell and gave them poor return on investment? Of course they wouldn't. Not unless they have a taste for financial suicide, anyway.

And if the fans continue to demand moe, are clients going to ask for it to stop even if that's what the fans overwhelmingly demand? Of course they won't, because it's simply bad business to refuse to give your customers what they want to pay you money for.


Kadokawa and KyoAni are not immune to fan demand, or fan disinterest. No company working in the entertainment industry is, no matter what part of the chain that company is in.

Yes, KyoAni works directly for their client Kadokawa, but if fan support was to dry up, that would obviously negatively impact KyoAni anyway, right? So it's only good sense for KyoAni to also want to please their fans. And it's obvious that KyoAni itself has fans - This thread alone proves that.


So it's not an either/or situation. It's not like the client is the only thing that matters. A smart contractor wants what he's contracted to do to be popular and well-received in and of itself. Some companies pass customer service responsibilities over to third-party contractors, for example. I personally have worked for such a third-party contractor in the past. It didn't mean that myself or my bosses didn't care about the customer, and only cared about the client (I can tell you for a fact that we did care about the customer). If we provide poor customer service than that reflects poorly on us even if we're working directly for the client and not the customers.


Quote:
SHAFT and J.C.STAFF are not exceptions, even if they produce many sequels. If their clients were to suddenly request all-original products and no sequels (which means cutting existing series short), they'd go with that.
Then SHAFT and their clients would both be ran by idiots deserving of criticism, which thankfully they're not.

That's all I'm really crediting SHAFT and its clients for - For recognizing where the fan demand is, and making an actual effort to meet it. Even if that effort is a mere "side-effect" of something else, it's functionally the same from a fan perspective, and so deserving of fan support and thanks, imo.


Quote:
Originally Posted by DonQuigleone View Post


Anyway, as for Kyo Ani, I think the way they're doing new shows is a good idea. They've done well off haruhi, but I think the success of that franchise is beginning to peter out, so it's a good idea for them to branch out. I don't think they're doing a disservice to "the fans" by doing so.
Let me throw out an analogy here.

Let's say Peter Jackson had decided to not complete the Lord of the Rings trilogy in spite of how well the first movie did. Let's say he did TV interviews saying "Sorry, but I hate doing repeat work. Also, I think it's a good idea to branch out with a bold artistic vision, and not focus too much on franchises that are petering out. So I'm not going to bother adapting the rest of the Lord of the Rings book into film."

How do you think Lord of the Rings fans would react to that?

Their perfectly reasonable hopes and expectations (given how well the first movie sold) have now been crushed. Many would angrily say "Part of the reason I so strongly supported the first movie is because I wanted to see all of the Lord of the Rings book adapted into film!"

These Lord of the Rings fans would be absolutely incensed.

To me, this is obviously a very poor way to treat the paying customers who supported you in the first place, and so it would be deserving of fan criticism. It is doing a disservice to the fans, in my view. Now, would Peter Jackson have an actual legal obligation to finish off the Lord of the Rings movies, based purely on fan demand? Of course not.

But that doesn't mean that fans wouldn't feel like they have a right to expect to see the Lord of the Rings films completed, given how the first movie did really well financially and clearly leaves lots of story left to be told (just like Haruhi 2006 and the Disappearance movie is clear here).


And Haruhi is about as big in the anime world as Lord of the Rings was in the movie world (the movie world itself is much bigger worldwide than the anime world, of course, but that's beside the point here).


Now, I don't think that anybody is saying that Haruhi should last forever. Honestly, I hope it doesn't. You mentioned Marvel and DC comics, and yeah, part of the reason why I transitioned from comic book fan to anime fan is I got tired of endless stories without true finality. Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and Wolverine - They never get to see their stories finished, they never truly get the happy end, or finality of any sort. Unlike, say, Shana. Or Tomoya in Clannad.

That's one of the great things about anime - Actual, complete stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And that's precisely why many of us want to see more Haruhi adapted into anime - We want to watch it get to the end. Or at least that's why I want it anyway.

I can't think of many things more unsatisfying than a great story left unfinished. That's all some of us are asking for here: Finish the work that you began. Eventually.

It's not like we're asking for sequels for Toradora, or endless Haruhi spinoffs. It's not like we're refusing to accept that a story has reached its natural end, and it really is time to move on.


In fairness to you, though, if you didn't like the Disappearance movie, I can certainly see and respect why you personally might not want more Haruhi. But from what I can tell most Haruhi fans (including myself) were pleased with the Disappearance movie, so for the sake of those fans, I think that KyoAni should continue making more Haruhi at some point anyway.
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