Quote:
Originally Posted by hadora
I agree there's some people who judge anime that way but fans in japan aren't as mindless than you think they are and a lot of them don't play eroges anyways, I guess it's a matter of personnal prefference in the end.
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I have absolutely no idea how or why you took my comment as a slight of any sort.
Japanese anime DVDs are
expensive. That DVD 1 I bought cost me $60, and I'll have spent a little over $220 on the DVDs for this show alone (not including shipping and taxes) by the time it's over. There are some 50 Fall shows airing in Japan -- how do I choose what to buy? I can only buy so many before I'm broke. Not to mention, rather than buying, they (in Japan) could always go rent the DVD whenever they want to watch it (a luxury I personally don't have). It's not a matter of being "mindless" or "judgemental" or what have you -- it's about prioritizing.
People will prioritize purchasing shows from their favourite franchises over others because they
want to own it -- they want to have it on their shelf. Unlike here in North America, oftentime those favourite franchises are established before the show even starts to air. This season in particular has a number of popular franchises making an outing, taking away some of that precious available discretionary income. Keeping in mind, of course, that barely a single show gets greenlit these days if it doesn't already have either big-name staff, big-name seiyuu, or a large established audience/fanbase (or, preferably, all of the above). So if you're not a "big name", you've got a tough uphill battle ahead of you. The fact that the show is garnering such praise at least among this audience is a testament to the show's appeal (at least in certain circles), but critical appeal doesn't always translate into sales. And this phenomenon is hardly uniquely Japanese.
That aside, I'm curious on what basis you make the assumption that a lot of the Japanese audience for this anime wouldn't be people who played the game (or would at least be willing to). Airing at 1:30am like this, who else is going to randomly stay up to watch it, and/or what would their motivation be to set their PVRs for "some ero-game show called 'ef'"? Again,
this is not a slight or an insult, it's a question of prioritizing. It's simply not the same culture as here in the English-speaking world, where every single show to air has a near-equal potential to be "the next big thing". When the market is
saturated with product -- anime, manga, games, light novels -- all competing for the same dollars (or in their case, Yen) some will rise to the top, while others sink. And it doesn't always have much to do with quality.
All that aside, have
you purchased your DVD 1 yet? Really, that's all either you or I can do about it, no matter what the Japanese market decides. I say the show's worth it, at least.