[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

So, I suggest, remove the "otaku" complexities* from anime with which you want to reach a broader range of audience. At the same time, look into the ideal means of distributing the media, be it via streaming or pay-per-view download, or whatever other means of delivery. [...] I'm not asking for producers to stop making moe anime. I'm asking for creators to start targeting a wider audience with stories that have broader adult appeal.

1. Who exactly is this "broader adult audience" and what do they want?
2. Why are the existing options available to this audience not meeting their needs?
3. Why is the proposed anime content uniquely positioned to fill the gap?
4. How much investment is needed in order to effectively reach this audience?
5. When and how is the investment going to be recouped? What is the anticipated ROI?
6. What partners (domestic and beyond) are needed in order to accomplish the goal?
7. Why will this initiative succeed at capitalizing on this demographic where others have failed before?
8. Is the investment worth the risk?

It's not like it hasn't occurred to anyone in the anime industry that some of the shows they make are only designed to reach a tiny fraction of a percent of the world's population. But serving a niche is good business, as long as you can manage your costs. Most anime is commissioned by companies trying to promote their new/existing brands and to sell merchandise to a fairly-defined audience, and this isn't necessarily going to stop as long as there are still franchises to promote and merchandise companies who believe in the business model. Of course there is still incentive to create shows that the audience will find appealing in terms of the characters, the story, and the overall production... but they have a pretty firm grasp of who they're targeting and how they're going to monetize them.

Really, the key is who you're going to get to fund these "mainstream projects" and what's in it for them (and how much time and investment will it take before they start getting their money back). The second is, of course, how you're going to make money off of these viewers in a direct sense. From my point of view, the demand is too low, the cost to market is too high, and the ROI is far too uncertain at least for animated TV series designed to reach this "broader adult" demographic, because you still generally need to get them on TV and in a timeslot where that audience can watch it. If the concept is so good that it can appeal to a broad cross-section of people in that format, I'd really wonder if it wouldn't be better to make it live-action, at least to reach a broader domestic market. Animated movies are perhaps a bit more feasible (and there are animated movies released every year in Japan that can appeal to a "broader adult audience"), but when Disney can't make even the best Ghibli films work overseas, I'd really want a clearer understanding of what they're doing wrong.

I think there will always be some shows that can also appeal to a broad cross-section (because "otaku" are people too, and universal themes also appeal to them, go figure), but specifically chasing after that elusive "broad adult market" that must be out there somewhere isn't where I'd place all my chips, anyway. I really can't believe in "if you build it, they will come."