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I remember Kill La Kill generating a lot of buzz in the lead-up to it, and throughout its first few episodes.

The first Little Witch Academia OVA also generated tremendous hype, even with cries of "anime has been saved!"

Animation studio Trigger quickly gained a lot of love and support, especially from people who wanted a more mature or a more diverse or a more west-friendly anime world.

But Kiznaiver came and went without a great deal of fanfare, and now, much to my surprise, I haven't noticed much buzz surrounding the Little Witch Academia TV series. And it's not like there's a Madoka Magica or ERASED level show that's understandably dominating anime fandom discussion. Winter 2017 has been a little better than I expected, but there's no one show that seems to be gaining steam in that PMMM or ERASED kind of way. So even without that to compete with, Little Witch Academia seems to be getting treated as just another anime show, more or less.

This is something Pocari_Sweat drew to my attention, and I have to admit, he seems to be right based on what I've seen here and a couple other places.

So this all begs the question - What happened? Why does excitement over Trigger seem to be down a fair bit? Even when it comes to a very faithful spin-off of a highly lauded OVA?


A few possible answers cross my mind. One such possible answer is that Flip Flappers has rose the bar for the type of show that LWA is, and so maybe LWA itself doesn't impress as much as it once did. While this idea intrigues me, it also doesn't strike me as fully explaining the situation. So I'd love to hear what the Knights of the RRRound Table think when it comes to this topic.


Note: Thread title is purely in the context of fandom response to Trigger's recent shows, not necessarily the quality of its shows, which continues to be pretty good in my view.

Flip Flappers wasn't that popular. Although it was relatively well received, the hipsters thought it wasn't experimental or arthouse enough (and that it had too much focus on cute girls) and the moe/yuri crowd thought it wasn't cute or yuri enough.

The biggest reason I think is that Netflix licensed LWA and it's not officially going to be streamed until the start of next season. For Crunchyroll users or more mainstream/casual fangroups like MAL I can understand the lack of popularity, but here on AS it leaves me puzzled. Perhaps I'm wrong but I thought AS didn't have a similar audience like those.

I definitely think the lack of a legit streaming option is a factor (the interesting point of comparison would be with shows on more obscure streaming services like Scum's Wish, Urara Meirochou, Sacred Slayer Matoi or Chivalry of a Failed Knight).

Crunchyroll simulcast the Japanese premiere of Kiznaiver at Sakuracon 2016 at f---ing 2:30AM Seattle Time and it had one of the longest lineups I saw at that con to get in. I think they had to turn people away(admittedly, they should have rented a larger room). But I think the show itself turned out to be a bit of a dud that kind of damaged the studio's "do no wrong" reputation. I have one friend who was a huge Trigger fanboy and spent $300 on the LWA OVA #2 Kickstarter and I remember him not being that into Kiznaiver after seeing the premiere.

BTW said friend is a total hipster when it comes to anime, exactly the kind of person prone to saying that LWA "saved anime" (probably meant to be semi-ironic BTW). I say this because a TV series just doesn't, you know have the hipster appeal of a kickstarted OVA or series of crazy ass shorts (like Inferno Cop).

I also feel like KyoAni has struck an oddly similar nerve with Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon (heavy emphasis on charm and quirkiness) and that Maid Dragon may be stealing a bit of LWA's thunder.
Edit: Forgot about Demi-chan too, this season is heavy on "quirky and cute".

Annnnnd this is why I stopped being a hipster. I got sick and tired of being grumpy and even if a "great" show comes along once in a row, it seldom lives up to its potential (*cough Erased*).

Hurry up Spring 2017. I wanna see redemption of PA Works with their double whammy of Sakura Quest and Uchouten Kazoku S2. Sad times when their last good show was Shirobako...

Well Kiznaiver was kind of a dud wasn't it? The story for that show kind of went nowhere fast and then it was over. I was honestly wondering by the end of the last episode whether that was the end or not because nothing felt truly resolved... in the end I rate the show as a massive "meh". A pretty "meh" but a "meh" nonetheless. I felt that When Supernatural Battles Become Common Place was immensely more enjoyable than Kiznaiver for example (cue obligatory rant scene).

Looking back on that scene I can now see that it was the scene that elevated the show from yet another forgettable show to something worthy of mention. It's still no masterpiece but it's the bit of brilliance in execution that maintains that show in the memory of those who've seen it.

On the other hand I can hardly remember much from Kiznaiver. The opening sequence was pretty good looking and had a great song but that's about it. The show itself never had that wow moment for me that previous Trigger shows did. I actually think Kiznaiver was the point when people around these parts kind of drifted away from the Trigger worshipping. Maybe mixing Okada with Trigger gave a tummy ache to everyone

As for LWA I'll probably assign blame to the disappointment coming out of Kiznaiver and the fact that, despite all its quality, the show still feels very much the same as both OVA and we've already seen that in 2013. It just doesn't feel as "fresh" as it once did despite being very good so far. Not brilliant, just better than 80% of stuff out there.

But overall I'm still blaming When Supernatural Battles Become Common Place and Kiznaiver for the lack of interest. The community at large felt disappointed first that trigger as handling an average adaptation and then Kiznaiver did nothing to restore the hype for the studio. It just never felt special and people's interest just trailed off I guess.

The studio is lucky though. At least people aren't instantly insulting everything they do before it even airs like a certain Kyoto studio got after their massive music-inspired hit