Kyoto Animation: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot.

[Ithekro]

It is better than the 2009 Haruhi release...or even existance, that they more or less never confirmed nor denied. Mixed with the Haruhi-chan release for cover even. Then covered against by the "repeat" when Haruhi started airing that April almost hidden by K-On's unexpected success.

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by brocko

Nor for how long or whether they have anything else up their sleeves either. So yea typical business as usual.

My bet is, Hyouka will be a season anime, while Chu2 Byo will be OVA(s) release. That will leave them with one more empty slot on 2012. Lets expect it to be a surprise (even though, there is Nichijou re-air in winter)

Originally Posted by Ithekro

It is better than the 2009 Haruhi release...or even existance, that they more or less never confirmed nor denied. Mixed with the Haruhi-chan release for cover even. Then covered against by the "repeat" when Haruhi started airing that April almost hidden by K-On's unexpected success.

What're you talking about, everyone were talking about E8 back then. And boards became a fun place to hang around.

[Ithekro]

That was before Endless Eight. That didn't hit until around the time K-On's first season ended. We were speculating like crazy if the show was even going to have new episodes after we found it was coming back as a "repeat". We even had to do a wait and see based on the old "Haruhi order - minus Episode OO" list to guess when the new episode might come out (Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody) some eight weeks into the shows reairing. And that was only after the first episode aired because we had to figure out what order they were showing it in. Then guess when "Endless Eight" might start. Then we got the ride of..."when will Endless Eight end?" and "will there be Disappearance this season?" There were no episode previews...not even the old ones. We had nothing to go off of for a while but best guesses.

And that was after trying to piece together if there was even going to be a season reairing...or if they were talking about Haruhi-chan, as things keep appearing and cancelling, and renaming. Now we can see what they did between the first hints of Disappearance through to Haruhi-chan, the reairing in 2009 with the additions of Bamboo Leaf, E8 and Sigh, then finally Disappearance as a movie. It makes sense after the fact...but during and before...not so much.

"The Second Season Speculation of Haruhi Suzumiya" has it all. A lot of it on or around April 2, 2009. And finally gets some explosives results on May 21, 2009.

[brocko]

As bad of an after taste that the PR for Haruhi 2009 left, you still gotta admit it did manage to generate quite the buzz. So mission accomplished there in that regards, even if they did piss off a significant portion of their fanbase.

They had a whole newspaper spread teasing it as far back as 2007 among all the other stuff like the Newtype and website shenanigans. I personally think they had a change of plans half-way through (when they did that 2nd season is cancelled shenanigan) and decided to stay quiet either as a form of damage control or to further feed the internet hype machine that they had created (or maybe a little bit of both). It's understandable why people got so worked up after being led along for those 2 years.

This time is a little different though since they havn't hinted at anything beyond Disappearance at all. This time it's all on the fans themselves for getting anxious.

[kyouray]

Originally Posted by thirdlc

Since I'm not satisfied with CobaltBlitz's translation, I translated it.

Full article if anyone's interested :

[thirdlc]

Originally Posted by kyouray

Full article if anyone's interested :

Thank you. I really enjoyed it.

Here is the first half of it.

Spoiler for long:

Inoue talks about K-ON as animation.

Interviewer: What was your impression of KyoAni's productions?

Inoue: I haven't worked with KyoAni or contacted them. So I only watch their products in the same way as normal anime fans do. In the very beginning, I only recognized KyoAni as the studio where Kigami worked. He probably doesn't know of me, but I've been under the impression he is my rival, or rather, that I'm no match to him. When KyoAni was performing gross subcontracting works, I just watched them as Kigami's works. Full Metal Panic! (Fumoffu) too. But I began to think their young animators were working hard since Haruhi. I felt it's as if key animators stubbornly aimed for increasing the number of drawings.

However, I thought its animation style was old-fashioned at that time. Young animators at the time used more sophisticated shape and animation. But in Haruhi, character shapes were not new one, and its animation was the type of frequently inserting a preliminary action and a back-swaying before and after the movements such as young animators' work on Sasuga no Sarutobi in the 80's. Still, they were working hard without doubt. If I had been a young animator, I'd no doubt had shared a rivalry for KyoAni.

That impression of mine was changing since Lucky Star. Their design and art has been very polished and the direction has been also great. Their eighties-art-style turned into today's style. Like I said, since I don't know much about KyoAni, I don't know about what kind of people works there, how they developed and how it changed their works. But I can anticipate there were changes of generations and people developed there. And a higher level of professionalism might have enabled them to produce what fans prefer.

I watched all their works at once before this interview. Their early ones vary in quality. Episodes in one series vary. There are variations in one episode. In that respect, the thing that had an impact in Lucky Star was whichever episode you watched, the qualities were alike. It's very difficult to equalize quality through the series. I was surprised at their doing it at a high level. That's my impression on Lucky Star. Furthermore, they are keeping on it in later works.

Interviewer: Even from your viewpoint, KyoAni's work is surprising.

Inoue: It is. It's astonishing to churn out high-quality well-averaged series. In addition, their recent projects definitely reach a stage of accomplishments. Although that's what animation should be, but it's pretty difficult to reach the stage with animation.

Interviewer: Can you explain more specifically on "accomplishments"?

Inoue: How should I put it? I think they had been doing hard to aim for arriving at a certain level until some point. It seems that is not the case now and that they are controlling needed skills. They are consciously doing "I'll use this skill to bring out that kind of atmosphere" or "this shot is meant be funny, I'll use a stunning skill to make viewers laugh by the difference between the skill and the animation". Not do animators do what they want, but episode directors understand what they should do and demand animators to do so. The animators answer the demand easily such as "OK, you need that kind of skill, right?". I sense accomplishments to it.

The same goes to how realistic or symbolic, design, art and animation style are. My impression is they can use different kinds of reality like "K-ON needs this reality" or "Nichijou needs that reality". Everyone in the anime industry thinks it as ideal, but has trouble doing it.

I don't know about what kind of style KyoAni will use if they do a project which needs true realism, but so far they are doing really great as far as they can do. I don't know the fact, but they have leeway in terms of both human element and skills. That's what I sense accomplishments to. Each part is homogeneous. It's not that a few parts are excessive. When they make things excessive, they maintain communication between animators and episode directors, excessive ones are calculated under direction. It's the real stage of accomplishments.

Interviewer: Just because each is averaged doesn't mean the animation isn't interesting.

Inoue: I think that's really amazing. Viewers got used to it and are no longer impressed by it though.

Interviewer: This links to "it's not that a few parts are excessive". They don't do needless things in their recent works. In Air, while there were shots they put great effort into, we often wondered if the effort was needed.

Inoue: Yeah, that's why I think in their recent works they "understand what they should do". When it comes to it, there is a less movement type of direction Shinbo does in Shaft works. I mean, showing still shots a lot to spare the workload and focusing human resource on shots which need it. It's a method based on the idea that you can't raise quality of all shots. Normally, that's the smartest and most right method. I'd not say KyoAni takes the opposite approach, but...

Interviewer: It's the opposite approach. (Laugh)

Inoue: The animation is very rich while they have excellent control over it.

Interviewer: Let's focus on K-ON. Is K-ON's animation rich?

Inoue: It is. I would be lying if I said no. It wouldn't hurt if I said K-ON is an ideal form of Japanese TV anime. I'm praising them all this time, but I can't help but praise them right? (laughs) However, I do admire it, but can't get into contents of productions like K-ON. I see the ones in the way a parent sees their children. I guess I'm getting old.

(To be continued)

Maybe not to be continued. Fansubbers are insane.

EDIT: Here is the second half.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by brocko

As bad of an after taste that the PR for Haruhi 2009 left, you still gotta admit it did manage to generate quite the buzz. So mission accomplished there in that regards, even if they did piss off a significant portion of their fanbase.

They had a whole newspaper spread teasing it as far back as 2007 among all the other stuff like the Newtype and website shenanigans. I personally think they had a change of plans half-way through (when they did that 2nd season is cancelled shenanigan) and decided to stay quiet either as a form of damage control or to further feed the internet hype machine that they had created (or maybe a little bit of both). It's understandable why people got so worked up after being led along for those 2 years.

This time is a little different though since they havn't hinted at anything beyond Disappearance at all. This time it's all on the fans themselves for getting anxious.

Now that, Endless Eight, is definitely making a hit out of mediocrity. Or more like making sales out of nothing.

I feel bad for the Haruhi fans. :/ Sure the FMP fans live in oblivion, but Haruhi fans live in limbo...

[Ithekro]

Ah..so that is why people were complaining about K-On and Haruhi 2009 (before or early in Endless Eight). They did change styles during Lucky Star from what he calls an 80's style to something more modern. Though he seems to be talking more about animation details rather than art detail (which seem to be the complaints...such as Haruhi getting teeth "like Yui"). So maybe people noticed something, but couldn't put their fingers on just what it was.

[brocko]

^ This post earlier on in the thread by thirdlc seems kinda relevant.

Originally Posted by thirdlc

Ikeda Shoko didn't work on Haruhi 2009 but worked on Disappearance, as General Animation Director. I think that's the reason.

She took a maternity leave for one year after Clannad AS, so her style is not much k-onised as we can see it with the character model sheets for Haruhi 2009 and Disappearance.

Not sure if the change in style was due to a lack of her prescence or if it would've occured regardless of that. But referring to this chart you can see that all of their shows from and after Clannad AS had prodominantly embraced this new style with the Haruhi movie being the only major exception thus far. Don't really know what that says about KyoAni but I just felt like pointing it out incase someone else might be able to make something of it lol

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Now that, Endless Eight, is definitely making a hit out of mediocrity. Or more like making sales out of nothing.

I feel bad for the Haruhi fans. :/ Sure the FMP fans live in oblivion, but Haruhi fans live in limbo...

E8 may've been part of the reason why they decided to keep hush hush about the 2009 episodes in the first place. It's remarkable how convenient those eight episodes were so that they'd be able to perfectly cover all of the pre-Disappearance material in the 2009 run.

I still think Haruhi fans have it better than FMP fans though, in the sense that FMP has been shafted for a lot longer. Not to mention that the FMP franchise wasn't as big of a hit and as a result seems rather more uncertain than Haruhi. I'm confident there'll be another Haruhi season. It's only just a matter of when, so imo Haruhi fans really only need to battle with patience whilst FMP fans as you've mentioned need to fight out of oblivion (plus limbo if you ask me lol ).

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by thirdlc

Thank you. I really enjoyed it.

Here is the first half of it.

Spoiler for long:

Inoue talks about K-ON as animation.

Interviewer: What was your impression of KyoAni's productions?

Inoue: I haven't worked with KyoAni or contacted them. So I only watch their products in the same way as normal anime fans do. In the very beginning, I only recognized KyoAni as the studio where Kigami worked. He probably doesn't know of me, but I've been under the impression he is my rival, or rather, that I'm no match to him. When KyoAni was performing gross subcontracting works, I just watched them as Kigami's works. Full Metal Panic! (Fumoffu) too. But I began to think their young animators were working hard since Haruhi. I felt it's as if key animators stubbornly aimed for increasing the number of drawings.

However, I thought its animation style was old-fashioned at that time. Young animators at the time used more sophisticated shape and animation. But in Haruhi, character shapes were not new one, and its animation was the type of frequently inserting a preliminary action and a back-swaying before and after the movements such as young animators' work on Sasuga no Sarutobi in the 80's. Still, they were working hard without doubt. If I had been a young animator, I'd no doubt had shared a rivalry for KyoAni.

That impression of mine was changing since Lucky Star. Their design and art has been very polished and the direction has been also great. Their eighties-art-style turned into today's style. Like I said, since I don't know much about KyoAni, I don't know about what kind of people works there, how they developed and how it changed their works. But I can anticipate there were changes of generations and people developed there. And a higher level of professionalism might have enabled them to produce what fans prefer.

I watched all their works at once before this interview. Their early ones vary in quality. Episodes in one series vary. There are variations in one episode. In that respect, the thing that had an impact in Lucky Star was whichever episode you watched, the qualities were alike. It's very difficult to equalize quality through the series. I was surprised at their doing it at a high level. That's my impression on Lucky Star. Furthermore, they are keeping on it in later works.

Interviewer: Even from your viewpoint, KyoAni's work is surprising.

Inoue: It is. It's astonishing to churn out high-quality well-averaged series. In addition, their recent projects definitely reach a stage of accomplishments. Although that's what animation should be, but it's pretty difficult to reach the stage with animation.

Interviewer: Can you explain more specifically on "accomplishments"?

Inoue: How should I put it? I think they had been doing hard to aim for arriving at a certain level until some point. It seems that is not the case now and that they are controlling needed skills. They are consciously doing "I'll use this skill to bring out that kind of atmosphere" or "this shot is meant be funny, I'll use a stunning skill to make viewers laugh by the difference between the skill and the animation". Not do animators do what they want, but episode directors understand what they should do and demand animators to do so. The animators answer the demand easily such as "OK, you need that kind of skill, right?". I sense accomplishments to it.

The same goes to how realistic or symbolic, design, art and animation style are. My impression is they can use different kinds of reality like "K-ON needs this reality" or "Nichijou needs that reality". Everyone in the anime industry thinks it as ideal, but has trouble doing it.

I don't know about what kind of style KyoAni will use if they do a project which needs true realism, but so far they are doing really great as far as they can do. I don't know the fact, but they have leeway in terms of both human element and skills. That's what I sense accomplishments to. Each part is homogeneous. It's not that a few parts are excessive. When they make things excessive, they maintain communication between animators and episode directors, excessive ones are calculated under direction. It's the real stage of accomplishments.

Interviewer: Just because each is averaged doesn't mean the animation isn't interesting.

Inoue: I think that's really amazing. Viewers got used to it and are no longer impressed by it though.

Interviewer: This links to "it's not that a few parts are excessive". They don't do needless things in their recent works. In Air, while there were shots they put great effort into, we often wondered if the effort was needed.

Inoue: Yeah, that's why I think in their recent works they "understand what they should do". When it comes to it, there is a less movement type of direction Shinbo does in Shaft works. I mean, showing still shots a lot to spare the workload and focusing human resource on shots which need it. It's a method based on the idea that you can't raise quality of all shots. Normally, that's the smartest and most right method. I'd not say KyoAni takes the opposite approach, but...

Interviewer: It's the opposite approach. (Laugh)

Inoue: The animation is very rich while they have excellent control over it.

Interviewer: Let's focus on K-ON. Is K-ON's animation rich?

Inoue: It is. I would be lying if I said no. It wouldn't hurt if I said K-ON is an ideal form of Japanese TV anime. I'm praising them all this time, but I can't help but praise them right? (laughs) However, I do admire it, but can't get into contents of productions like K-ON. I see the ones in the way a parent sees their children. I guess I'm getting old.

(To be continued)

Maybe not to be continued. Fansubbers are insane.

Thanks for your effort. Highly appreciate it.

So, KyoAni indeed managed getting their name carved in anime history for their remarkable performance in animation since FMP? Quite bit of ironic since KyoAni is not a big studio to begin with, compared to Sunrise or Toei.

EDIT: also, sounds so sad since KyoAni don't have any control over their works

[kyouray]

Originally Posted by thirdlc

Thank you. I really enjoyed it.
Here is the first half of it.

Thanks a lot ! That's very interesting, it's always a pleasure to read Inoue's interviews (I highly recommend his old interview with Kenji Horikawa : part 1, part 2)

[rulfo]

Originally Posted by thirdlc

Thank you. I really enjoyed it.

Here is the first half of it.

Spoiler for long:

Inoue talks about K-ON as animation.

Interviewer: What was your impression of KyoAni's productions?

Inoue: I haven't worked with KyoAni or contacted them. So I only watch their products in the same way as normal anime fans do. In the very beginning, I only recognized KyoAni as the studio where Kigami worked. He probably doesn't know of me, but I've been under the impression he is my rival, or rather, that I'm no match to him. When KyoAni was performing gross subcontracting works, I just watched them as Kigami's works. Full Metal Panic! (Fumoffu) too. But I began to think their young animators were working hard since Haruhi. I felt it's as if key animators stubbornly aimed for increasing the number of drawings.

However, I thought its animation style was old-fashioned at that time. Young animators at the time used more sophisticated shape and animation. But in Haruhi, character shapes were not new one, and its animation was the type of frequently inserting a preliminary action and a back-swaying before and after the movements such as young animators' work on Sasuga no Sarutobi in the 80's. Still, they were working hard without doubt. If I had been a young animator, I'd no doubt had shared a rivalry for KyoAni.

That impression of mine was changing since Lucky Star. Their design and art has been very polished and the direction has been also great. Their eighties-art-style turned into today's style. Like I said, since I don't know much about KyoAni, I don't know about what kind of people works there, how they developed and how it changed their works. But I can anticipate there were changes of generations and people developed there. And a higher level of professionalism might have enabled them to produce what fans prefer.

I watched all their works at once before this interview. Their early ones vary in quality. Episodes in one series vary. There are variations in one episode. In that respect, the thing that had an impact in Lucky Star was whichever episode you watched, the qualities were alike. It's very difficult to equalize quality through the series. I was surprised at their doing it at a high level. That's my impression on Lucky Star. Furthermore, they are keeping on it in later works.

Interviewer: Even from your viewpoint, KyoAni's work is surprising.

Inoue: It is. It's astonishing to churn out high-quality well-averaged series. In addition, their recent projects definitely reach a stage of accomplishments. Although that's what animation should be, but it's pretty difficult to reach the stage with animation.

Interviewer: Can you explain more specifically on "accomplishments"?

Inoue: How should I put it? I think they had been doing hard to aim for arriving at a certain level until some point. It seems that is not the case now and that they are controlling needed skills. They are consciously doing "I'll use this skill to bring out that kind of atmosphere" or "this shot is meant be funny, I'll use a stunning skill to make viewers laugh by the difference between the skill and the animation". Not do animators do what they want, but episode directors understand what they should do and demand animators to do so. The animators answer the demand easily such as "OK, you need that kind of skill, right?". I sense accomplishments to it.

The same goes to how realistic or symbolic, design, art and animation style are. My impression is they can use different kinds of reality like "K-ON needs this reality" or "Nichijou needs that reality". Everyone in the anime industry thinks it as ideal, but has trouble doing it.

I don't know about what kind of style KyoAni will use if they do a project which needs true realism, but so far they are doing really great as far as they can do. I don't know the fact, but they have leeway in terms of both human element and skills. That's what I sense accomplishments to. Each part is homogeneous. It's not that a few parts are excessive. When they make things excessive, they maintain communication between animators and episode directors, excessive ones are calculated under direction. It's the real stage of accomplishments.

Interviewer: Just because each is averaged doesn't mean the animation isn't interesting.

Inoue: I think that's really amazing. Viewers got used to it and are no longer impressed by it though.

Interviewer: This links to "it's not that a few parts are excessive". They don't do needless things in their recent works. In Air, while there were shots they put great effort into, we often wondered if the effort was needed.

Inoue: Yeah, that's why I think in their recent works they "understand what they should do". When it comes to it, there is a less movement type of direction Shinbo does in Shaft works. I mean, showing still shots a lot to spare the workload and focusing human resource on shots which need it. It's a method based on the idea that you can't raise quality of all shots. Normally, that's the smartest and most right method. I'd not say KyoAni takes the opposite approach, but...

Interviewer: It's the opposite approach. (Laugh)

Inoue: The animation is very rich while they have excellent control over it.

Interviewer: Let's focus on K-ON. Is K-ON's animation rich?

Inoue: It is. I would be lying if I said no. It wouldn't hurt if I said K-ON is an ideal form of Japanese TV anime. I'm praising them all this time, but I can't help but praise them right? (laughs) However, I do admire it, but can't get into contents of productions like K-ON. I see the ones in the way a parent sees their children. I guess I'm getting old.

(To be continued)

Maybe not to be continued. Fansubbers are insane.

Why?

In any case thanks for the read. It'd be great if you can post the continuations. It's an interesting read.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Now that, Endless Eight, is definitely making a hit out of mediocrity. Or more like making sales out of nothing.

I feel bad for the Haruhi fans. :/ Sure the FMP fans live in oblivion, but Haruhi fans live in limbo...

That's a good way of putting it, yeah.

In a sense, FMP fans have it worse, because they have indeed been shafted for much longer.

However, and with apologies to FMP fans, I'm going to be brutally honest here: There's simply no good reason whatsoever to expect for there ever to be more FMP anime. The fact that FMP didn't sell that well compared to most KyoAni anime shows, and the fact it's been so long since a FMP anime was last made, makes it crystal clear that there may simply never be another FMP anime. At the very least, Kadokawa does not seem the least bit interested in continuing FMP as an anime.

Deep down, FMP fans probably know all of this, and while this is sad and I feel for them as such, it can make it easier for them to "move on", so to speak. Sometimes having a little hope is actually worse than having no hope at all, as at least "no hope at all" won't leave you disappointed.


With this in mind, Haruhi fans are the ones truly in limbo, which is a nasty place to be, because you can't even "move on" when you're in limbo.

Haruhi has consistently sold very well, so you'd think KyoAni would want to make more, but then there's some signals coming from KyoAni lately that this may not be the case.

Then there's the arguments that Westlo made earlier on in this thread which seems to suggest that:

1. Kadokawa couldn't care less about anime fans, and only cares about making its LN and manga properties popular.

2. KyoAni has no intention of ever forcing the issue with Kadokawa.


Well, if that's correct, then Haruhi could very well get caught in limbo, as Archon aptly puts it. It could be caught in a place where, in spite of its popularity, no more of it is ever adapted into anime format.


tl;dr --- FMP fans know that one of their favorite properties, in anime format, is dead. It's sad, but as in real life, the confirmation of death eventually lets you move on. Haruhi fans are like the family members of someone who's been missing for months. You don't know if they're dead or alive, and that is what eats away at you.

[Chanbara]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Well, if that's correct, then Haruhi could very well get caught in limbo, as Archon aptly puts it. It could be caught in a place where, in spite of its popularity, no more of it is ever adapted into anime format.

It's sad, but I think this is true. If another Haruhi anime came out, as if by magic, I'd watch it the very second it came out on the internet, then buy it when it came out on DVD, but if anything it's time has already passed. Even if KyoAni was working on another series right now, we wouldn't see it until 2012, which is 6 years after the original. Even if KyoAni worked themselves to death the entire LN series wouldn't be adapted until about 2014 as a very early guess, 8 years after the original series.

And the thing is if Kadokawa were going to bother, they'd probably want to emulate the original series mega popularity, but too many people have moved on for that. Too many people would want to knock it down to size, too many people would want it to be the greatest thing ever and it would suffer from it's previous popularity. There's also the fringe issue of Hirano's supposed misdemeanours that would prove awkward when it came to selling the series. So while I would like nothing more than another series I've already accepted it will probably never happen.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Chanbara

It's sad, but I think this is true. If another Haruhi anime came out, as if by magic, I'd watch it the very second it came out on the internet, then buy it when it came out on DVD, but if anything it's time has already passed. Even if KyoAni was working on another series right now, we wouldn't see it until 2012, which is 6 years after the original. Even if KyoAni worked themselves to death the entire LN series wouldn't be adapted until about 2014 as a very early guess, 8 years after the original series.

This touches on my second fear as it pertains to the Haruhi series.

Just look at how badly Shana III is currently selling. This is what can happen when a popular anime series is put on hiatus for too long. If we don't get more Haruhi until 2013 or later, then we're looking at a time spread between Haruhi's two most recent TV anime airings that's roughly the same as what was between Shana II and Shana III.

There's a big risk of losing fans/customers when you leave them out in the cold for that length of a time period.

So while I would like nothing more than another series I've already accepted it will probably never happen.

I'm slightly more hopeful than you are, but I do see where you're coming from. Personally, I've set January 1st, 2013 as my own cutoff date. If KyoAni and/or Kadokawa shows no intention by then of producing more Haruhi anime, I'm also just going to accept that it will probably never happen.

[Chanbara]

Shakugan no Shana III was actually on my mind as I was writing that, I'm honestly surprised how much it's bombed both in Japan and abroad. And to be honest as I'm watching it at this time I'm feeling really disconnected from it, and I know I'm mostly watching it for old times sake. While I love Haruhi and I'm sure I would love watching another series I think there are probably many people who feel the same way about Haruhi as I do about Shana, and a third series could easily disappoint in the same way, especially given how many of the scary otaku were driven away by Hirano's behaviour (didn't see that much of a problem personally).

All that said I still really, really want one. The same way I really want a Nichijou DVD, but that will also probably never happen now that Bandai's American DVD branch (whatever it was called) has decided not to do any more releases.

[Stealther]

The deal with Shana could also be that she didn't have much competition when she hit big. Nowadays half the shows contain a tsundere-loli with same artstyle.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by Chanbara

It's sad, but I think this is true. If another Haruhi anime came out, as if by magic, I'd watch it the very second it came out on the internet, then buy it when it came out on DVD, but if anything it's time has already passed. Even if KyoAni was working on another series right now, we wouldn't see it until 2012, which is 6 years after the original. Even if KyoAni worked themselves to death the entire LN series wouldn't be adapted until about 2014 as a very early guess, 8 years after the original series.

I don't think that the time of a series whose bluray rerelease sold 34K - an industry record for such a box set - one year ago is passed. My gut feeling on this one is that a new season within the next couple years would see an average "season to season" sales drop and not something like SHana s2 to s3... actually, I'd expect higher sales than season 2.

(I was going to mention that Shana III gave me a very strong "it's just not the same" feeling early on due to the plot twist, but then I realized that there's strong evidence that the drop from S2 to S3 sales levels occured during the run of the Shana S OVAs, and I thought those were great.)

Now that being said, I can totally see Kadokawa killing the franchise by simply not doing anything.

[all_flying]

As if that would happen to Haruhi. Note: Haruhi =/= Shana

Pardon me but, that kind of comparison is off, and wtf please don't bring sankaku troll here. We're all know that was not the case.

Shana LN = End
Haruhi LN = On Going

So of course Kadokawa still cares (Heck, they still making season III despite the LN is already ended). And we're talking about large-scale business industry here, not a small indie label. I bet Kadokawa is still drooling over Haruhi's anime, but it just a matter of time until they put the flag out. Besides, different from JC Staff which leaved fans in despair, KyoAni actually put an apologize letter (for E8) by making Soushitsu unforgettable.

[Chanbara]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

I don't think that the time of a series whose bluray rerelease sold 34K - an industry record for such a box set - one year ago is passed.

Hmm, OK my impression was mostly based on time I've spent in Japan in 2007, 2009 and this year, and when I went this year there was a notable lack of the Haruhi phenomena compared to previous years (first time I've actually had to actively look for Haruhi merchandise), but that's apocryphal against the fact that it's still selling really well. I still think that 5 years+ is too long for a proper sequel to capitalise on the original popularity of the series (only series I can think of that did such a thing is Gundam), but it's obviously got a popularity that's more enduring than I believed (I don't pay much attention to sales figures, if I'm honest).