AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - P.A. Works: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot

~~Pocari_Sweat~~ · 2011-04-17, 01:31

As Westlo said, the reason why Angel Beats felt out of place was because the script writer was Jun Maeda. Jun Maeda's writing definitely appeals more to the otaku base, whilst Mari Okada writing (her slice of based works) seems to be more of a style out of an Asian Drama. Jun Maeda has quite a lot of slapstick comedy and anime humour followed by intense moments of drama (often over-the-top), whilst Mari Okada style is more transitional but its drama moments aren't as intensive or over the top.

And as this is anime, where the primary audience are otaku males, Jun Maeda's style is much more popular. It's too bad that teenage girls/young adult women, whom Mari Okada's style is most suited for (as it seems Asian drama like) don't tend to watch anime. I can already see sparks and similarities of True Tears in Hanasaku Iroha, but I hardly see any Angel Beats like writing. And we already know how True Tears bombed in sales, despite getting generally positive reviews.

Unfortunately, I predict the same for Hanasaku Iroha. P.A. Works is almost falling into the same trap that the notaminA timeslot has lately been facing (this slot was originally aimed at young adult women, but viewership amongst this demography has been falling with each passing season), although AnoHana for some bizzare reason has a lot of pre-order Bluray/DVD already. It's a good thing they did a otaku-centric show to keep their business functioning online or else I'm pretty sure Hanasaku Iroha wouldn't have existed.

Like Westlo, I'll be more than happy if P.A. Works does a "cash cow" series once in a while to stay afloat if they need the funds to do quality series in the future. This approach is vastly different from say Kyoto Animation who have been a purely an otaku-centric "fluff" studio in recent years.

Personally, if I was part of the P.A. Works management team, I would expect Hanasaku Iroha to not do well sales-wise (rating wise it would be pretty high) and prepare the next otaku-centric show in advance. This might even possibly be say Little Busters, which has been dying for an adaptation and I'm pretty sure that P.A. Works will be able to handle it, as long as they get 2-cour worth of slots. Assuming that does well, they go for another "quality but not popular" series, possibly something entirely out of the slice of life genre altogether - something like an sci-fi or fantasy/adventure story. This of course is all just my personal speculation, and is more than likely not going to turn out this way.

2011-04-17, 01:31	Link #16
~~Pocari_Sweat~~ <em style="color:#808080;">Disabled By Request</em> Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Australia	As Westlo said, the reason why Angel Beats felt out of place was because the script writer was Jun Maeda. Jun Maeda's writing definitely appeals more to the otaku base, whilst Mari Okada writing (her slice of based works) seems to be more of a style out of an Asian Drama. Jun Maeda has quite a lot of slapstick comedy and anime humour followed by intense moments of drama (often over-the-top), whilst Mari Okada style is more transitional but its drama moments aren't as intensive or over the top. And as this is anime, where the primary audience are otaku males, Jun Maeda's style is much more popular. It's too bad that teenage girls/young adult women, whom Mari Okada's style is most suited for (as it seems Asian drama like) don't tend to watch anime. I can already see sparks and similarities of True Tears in Hanasaku Iroha, but I hardly see any Angel Beats like writing. And we already know how True Tears bombed in sales, despite getting generally positive reviews. Unfortunately, I predict the same for Hanasaku Iroha. P.A. Works is almost falling into the same trap that the notaminA timeslot has lately been facing (this slot was originally aimed at young adult women, but viewership amongst this demography has been falling with each passing season), although AnoHana for some bizzare reason has a lot of pre-order Bluray/DVD already. It's a good thing they did a otaku-centric show to keep their business functioning online or else I'm pretty sure Hanasaku Iroha wouldn't have existed. Like Westlo, I'll be more than happy if P.A. Works does a "cash cow" series once in a while to stay afloat if they need the funds to do quality series in the future. This approach is vastly different from say Kyoto Animation who have been a purely an otaku-centric "fluff" studio in recent years. Personally, if I was part of the P.A. Works management team, I would expect Hanasaku Iroha to not do well sales-wise (rating wise it would be pretty high) and prepare the next otaku-centric show in advance. This might even possibly be say Little Busters, which has been dying for an adaptation and I'm pretty sure that P.A. Works will be able to handle it, as long as they get 2-cour worth of slots. Assuming that does well, they go for another "quality but not popular" series, possibly something entirely out of the slice of life genre altogether - something like an sci-fi or fantasy/adventure story. This of course is all just my personal speculation, and is more than likely not going to turn out this way. Last edited by Pocari_Sweat; 2011-04-17 at 01:53.