Any sign of Kamichu?

It's appeal isn't limited to me (well, more so than Princess Tutu, but less than all the Elemental Gelade crap that gets released here). Surely non-generic-ness is best possible reason for licensing something? Surely people would rather rather something different than the same thing with merely different names for everything (which seems to be what most series are like)?
 
Turtleheart said:
It's appeal isn't limited to me (well, more so than Princess Tutu, but less than all the Elemental Gelade crap that gets released here). Surely non-generic-ness is best possible reason for licensing something? Surely people would rather rather something different than the same thing with merely different names for everything (which seems to be what most series are like)?

Just because it isn't limited to you doesn't mean it wouldn't be to a lot of other people.

This market can hardly cater for the mainstream titles, let alone non mainstream. That's where ADV went wrong, and look at them now.

If the market was solely trying to target anime fans, then fine - this'd be a great license. But the thing is that they're trying to get it into stores, and I'm pretty sure that people are going to pick up something that's splattered in blood with flesh everywhere (including that in a sexual way), over something that looks like a cute little anime with bright colours all over the cover. That's why hardly any of Geneon's titles that come under the same genre have been released, and all the mainstream action/gore/horror/whatever else ones have (i.e from MVM and in some cases ADV).

I've seen the first episode of Kamichu! and think it's absolutely fantastic, so it's best just to find the R1 while you still can.
 
I can think of plenty of people who woulds be more likely to buy Kamichu! or Princess Tutu than anything "splattered in blood with flesh everywhere" – primarily, the large majority people with two X chromosomes, or, alternatively, a Kinsey scale higher than 3. Possibly also anyone younger than 12 or 15 (as much else wouldn't be legal for them to purchase). My mother, for example, loves Haibane-Renmei, but dislikes anything else on region 2 other than a few of the Ghibli films.

Now let's test your theory. Let's look at the anime DVD charts on Amazon.co.uk. And look what's at the top – Tales from Earthsea and My Neighbour Totoro. Yes, there's Ghost in the Shell right beneath them, but these top two, and Totoro in particular, hardly fit your description.

The failure of Geneon, from my point of view, lies in the inability of anime specialists to get their products bought by anyone other than teenage boys. This is a deep-rooted problem which goes back much further than simply how they market things, though it has been exasperated by this. Essentially, it lies in the public's perception of "anime" as a genre (rather than as a shorthand word for the animated output of one particular country) – this myth was greatly encouraged by distributors during the '90s, as it encouraged people who liked one title in particular to try out other anime which they had the licence to. This kept everything going along nicely enough for a decade or so, but are two great negative side-effects to this marketing trick.

The first, and most obvious, is that because anime is perceived as a genre, if someone sees an anime and does not like it then they presume that all other anime is similar to that, and so avoid it as a whole for the rest of their life (unless someone intervenes to change their mind). The second is just as important, but it is only very recently that it has become all too apparent – this is that it has limited the type of anime which can be successfully released in the west. Because people think of anime as a genre, or, more commonly among fans, being divided into a few stereotypical formats, when they see something which defies this categorisation, they dismiss it as being not really anime. And so, because these fans are the only people who know about it, and the distributors are unable to reach the majority of people who would appreciate it, series like Haibane-Renmei fail to get the sales which they deserve.
 
Turtleheart said:
Now let's test your theory. Let's look at the anime DVD charts on Amazon.co.uk. And look what's at the top – Tales from Earthsea and My Neighbour Totoro. Yes, there's Ghost in the Shell right beneath them, but these top two, and Totoro in particular, hardly fit your description.

Ghibli doesn't count, it's more or less mainstream.

Turtleheart said:
The failure of Geneon, from my point of view, lies in the inability of anime specialists to market their products at anyone other than teenage boys.

I don't think I ever saw Geneon do any advertising. By anime specialists I take it you mean ANN/AoD, etc? Though you're right on that perspective, seeing as any kind of drama series seems to be marketed as a breast fest, i.e Shuffle being marketed for having the most amount of 'panties' in whatever it was, and various others, 'girls with guns' etc. I think the facts though are that most of the people who buy anime are male, so that just market it like that. EDIT: By failure do you mean Geneon going under? Because that's not the point I was making.
 
Its a shame not getting an anime released due to appeal.

But you never know. I thought to heart was NEVER going to be dubbed, but low & behold right stuf international pick it up and do the entire 13ep from the first season.

most say gave me quite a shock :p

Give it time, and I'm certain it will come out over here
(give or take half a decade)
 
melonpan said:
By anime specialists I take it you mean ANN/AoD, etc?
I mean distributors/licensors who specialise in Japanese animation. Manga and ADV in particular.
melonpan said:
By failure do you mean Geneon going under?
I mean them pulling out of distribution in the west because they released too many series which failed to be financially successful in the market. Admittedly, there are most likely more reasons than simply this, but that's the one which I've been explaining.
 
Turtleheart said:
I can think of plenty of people who woulds be more likely to buy Kamichu! or Princess Tutu than anything "splattered in blood with flesh everywhere" – primarily, the large majority people with two X chromosomes, or, alternatively, a Kinsey scale higher than 3. Possibly also anyone younger than 12 or 15 (as much else wouldn't be legal for them to purchase). My mother, for example, loves Haibane-Renmei, but dislikes anything else on region 2 other than a few of the Ghibli films.

I agree with your point on the whole but just want to say that as a possessor of two X chromosomes who buys an awful lot of discs, Kamichu is to me a show aimed very much at a male audience. I'm sure it has plenty of crossover appeal, like most decent shows, but it's not quite to my tastes, and sadly the male "moe" buying fanbase just seems almost nonexistent over here. And what they do buy is probably imports.

We do though need more stuff aimed at kids and girls in general, I'm just not sure this is mainstream-friendly enough to break into that. In R1, stuff aimed at girls has sadly tended to tank utterly. Whereas the crossover value of series like Shounen Jump spinoffs has lured them in instead. Obviously this wouldn't work on your mum who would probably be behind slower series (which I can't stand) like Aria or Kamichu.

I think "moe" shows have the problem that guys perceive them as girly and girls either has boring or guyish, and they fail to sell enough. I would like to see more of a variety of shows here too - I suppose it's just that nobody wants to test the market when it's failed in R1 and in the past here, but until someone does, it won't be able to grow :(

I wonder how Fruits Basket did though - did your mum enjoy that?

R
 
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