[Bri]

Some interesting discussion going on.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Anyway, to bring thing back around to the main point again, Kyoto Animation is almost certainly going to keep on animating projects in partnership with Kadokawa, and Haruhi has been a proven solid seller. What other properties to Kadokawa have on hand that have a reliable chance of being an even better seller? Even though K-On is selling well, Kyoto Animation still needs other projects as well to fill up their schedule. So it's not as if the two properties are really "in competition" with each other anyway.

Agreed, the Kadokawa Kyoani relationship doesn’t seem to depend on Haruhi alone. Tbh I don’t know much about Kadogawa’s line up of light novels and (4-koma)mangas as I’m an animation fan. But some browsing through their bestsellers would probably tell us what we can expect for Kyoani in the near future.

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

K-On! and Bakemonogatari both sold a lot better BR-wise than Haruhi (2006) did with its DVDs. Since Haruhi 2009 only came out on DVD, it'll be interesting to see how a BR release will do. A lot of fans are speculating (but nothing at all is confirmed) about a BR-BOX release like Kanon and Clannad were (but both of those were Pony Canyon releases unlike Haruhi for Kadokawa so that may not be in the plans).

Originally Posted by Ice Block

On BD sales: IMO, part of the reason why K-On! (and Bakemonogatari, though the commentary tracks and remastered scenes were what really mattered) BD sales were stupidly high because we are currently in the process of transitioning from HD DVD to Blu-Ray. DVD is getting phased out, and most DVD buyers already have BD players / PS3. Also, eyeballing these lists, the BD to DVD sales ratio is somehow related to the titles' genre(s). Interesting... .

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Agreed, I’ve been saying this before sales in new anime have been skewed by the Blu-Ray introduction. Gundam00, Macross Frontier, K-on and Bakemonogatari all sold far more on BR then other anime did on DVD. Not surprising that visually impressive shows do very well on BR. If your a collector, your going to go for the best possible quality.

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

I'm tired of hearing about "KyoAni trolling" as well since I'm pretty sure a lot of the hints came from Kadokawa instead (like a lot of the stuff to do with the website since that's owned by Kadokawa). I don't want to say that it's a good thing because waiting three years to put out something new isn't a smart idea, but everything seemed to have been planned in hindsight, or at least since the December 18th 2007 Yuki poster. I wrote a post about the past three years for Cartoon Leap if anyone wants to hear my full thoughts on the situation.

I don't think any fans know what's going to happen with the franchise; only the executives at Kadokawa and maybe KyoAni do. I'd love to hear that there will be new episodes as soon as this fall in addition to the tenth novel, but I don't think it'll come out that way or anything resembling that. Patience will hold us through the tough times (just like a wait for DVD/Blu-Ray release for Shōshitsu).

It takes quite a bit of time for an anime in terms of preparation and production to reach broadcasting. There are plenty of anime franchises that had to wait far longer than three years for a sequel. If we discount the viral marketing to keep the fans hot and bothered, there are plenty of potential reasons why a sequel wasn’t created sooner: Kyoani had projects on order from Key, rights negotiations with Tanigawa, contracts with other mangake or writers for an anime version etc.

In fairness we do know who does what, Kadokawa has announced that they themselves controlled the marketing, while Kyoani or more specifically Tatsuya Ishihara has full creative control over Haruhi anime. The only thing I can imagine stopping more Haruhi projects would be a lack of source material in the long run. Speculating, we may not have to wait as long as last time as there have been no Key projects for Kyoani since Clannad AS and the latest went to P.A.Works. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they announced a new TV series or second movie soon.

Originally Posted by aegisofrime

Fine, but do you have any recommendations?

As you yourself have pointed out directly or indirectly on more than one occasion, the popularity of anime series can be hype-driven. Thus, those "artsy-fartsy", or less mainstream works then to get buried. I for one, will like to know what you yourself think is overwhelming impressive.

I don’t think anyone will ever accuse Kaioshin Sama of being a bundle of joy but he makes a fair point in regard of unwarranted fan adoration of Kyoani, especially when it concerns the quality of the source material. Kyoani is a very good studio when it comes to animation techniques, directing and adapting. (Munto, the often critizied and only original Kyoani work, really shows what they can and cannot do, and it left me pretty impressed in animation terms). Kyoani was really innovative in the mid 2000s when FMP:TSR , Air, Kanon and Haruhi set the standard for TV anime by blending CGI, digital coloring, photo-effects and hand drawn animation with great success. But other small studios are catching up, at least in technological sense.

As for other companies in 2009 I was really impressed by two Type-Moon based productions, Canaan and Kara No Kyou Kai by P.A.Works and Ufotable. Type –moon creates much darker and violent works then Key. Then off course the big studios like production IG and Bones delivered as usual with anime like Eden of the East, Kimi ni Todoke and Darker then Black 2.