'Popular' series that never got a UK release

[Buzz201]

This was briefly mentioned on the UK Anime Network podcast, Andy Hanley seemed to think Shirobako would be the next series people kept going on and on about getting a release.

I can see that. Remembr the 'Shows we want in the West' thread back along? (I haven't forgotten about that feature, by the way - just waiting to see what happens with the layout of the forums here and whether we stick to the current board.)

Almost EVERYBODY asked for Shirobako. I don't even know anything about the show, but it's evident that there's an audience for it.

It sounded like a cult affair to me, I wouldn't have expected it to be that popular. But apparently it did huge numbers in Japan, so there will probably be more of it at some point.

 

[Smeelia]

I think one of the issues Shirobako has with being "popular" is that it's a really tough one to describe (because there's a lot to it) and it's also very easy to misunderstand. I'd imagine plenty of people assume it's just a standard "cute girls doing cute things" show and watching the first few minutes won't do anything to convince people otherwise. Trying to "judge by the cover" doesn't work at all with Shirobako and I'm not sure any cover could really do justice to the content.

I'd put Shirobako up there with your Cowboy Bebops, Evangelions, Gundams and/or whatever else you feel should be up there. It's one of those shows that anyone who has been an anime fan for a while should really be trying to see. Obviously it's not going to be for everyone but what it does is basically unique. I wonder if a show can be a "classic" (probably not the right word yet, given the implication of age) without action or violence, Shirobako certainly deserves to be (to be fair, it does kind of technically have a little of both).

I kind of wonder if we're past the age of "classics" though. With so much variety and new potential "gateway" anime every couple of years (or even more often), it's much more difficult even for deserving shows to get significant recognition. Even the old classics sometimes seem to struggle these days.

Anyway, Shirobako is worth seeing. Especially if you have an interest in how anime is made. Or if you're interested in animation itself. Or if you work in/are interested in a creative industry. Or if you work at all. Or if you don't work. Or... (I could probably go on, as if I haven't gone on enough).

Sorry if this is a little off-topic, I think some of it is relevant to potentially "popular" shows in general though.

 

[Buzz201]

I kind of wonder if we're past the age of "classics" though. With so much variety and new potential "gateway" anime every couple of years (or even more often), it's much more difficult even for deserving shows to get significant recognition. Even the old classics sometimes seem to struggle these days.

I'm not sure we are past the age of "classics", people seem to really love Space Brothers, the more recent Hunter x Hunter and I've yet to hear a bad word about Shirobako. (All three could arguably qualify in this list, but I think the popularity of one or two of those is tenuous at best.) There are many that would probably consider Attack on Titan or the Fate/ franchise a classic.

The question is really whether something has to be insanely popular to be a classic?

 

[Smeelia]

I'm not sure we are past the age of "classics", people seem to really love Space Brothers, the more recent Hunter x Hunter and I've yet to hear a bad word about Shirobako. (All three could arguably qualify in this list, but I think the popularity of one or two of those is tenuous at best.) There are many that would probably consider Attack on Titan a classic.

The question is really whether something has to be insanely popular to be a classic?

Well, I suppose what I was getting at is that classics don't seem to bring in the numbers they may have done in the past. Or at least, proportionally there are going to be a lot more anime fans that haven't seen them to ones that have. That could at least partly be due to a rise in anime fan numbers and/or the fact that anime fans have more to choose from and thus less time to see all the "must-see" anime.

I know there are still several that I haven't seen (only just watched the Ghost in the Shell film the other day) and I'd say I'm more inclined than some to try and watch them (though perhaps more restricted by my choices of viewing methods).

So I guess shows don't have to be popular to be classics, assuming you're measuring popularity by viewing figures (which seems to be the idea here).

Good point about those three. Hunter X Hunter doesn't seem to be talked about as much as things like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece and so on (which are similar types of shows) but it does seem to be talked about more positively when I hear about it (possibly partly due to less/no filler compared to the others?).

 

[Yami]

The question is really whether something has to be insanely popular to be a classic?

I would say that 'classic' status is linked to time. I certainly wouldn't call anything from the past ten years a classic as it hasn't shown itself to be able to stand the test of time and still be regarded as good/great by the next generation.

 

[Buzz201]

Well, I suppose what I was getting at is that classics don't seem to bring in the numbers they may have done in the past. Or at least, proportionally there are going to be a lot more anime fans that haven't seen them to ones that have. That could at least partly be due to a rise in anime fan numbers and/or the fact that anime fans have more to choose from and thus less time to see all the "must-see" anime.

So I guess shows don't have to be popular to be classics, assuming you're measuring popularity by viewing figures (which seems to be the idea here).

Good point about those three. Hunter X Hunter doesn't seem to be talked about as much as things like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece and so on (which are similar types of shows) but it does seem to be talked about more positively when I hear about it (possibly partly due to less/no filler compared to the others?).

I think that's partly because the number of shows airing each season is huge, and two of the three are long running shows (Space Brothers is 99 episodes, Hunter x Hunter is 140-something), none of them are dubbed, only one is currently available on home video, and whilst all three have good reputations, none of them have yet achieved the prestige of Ghost in the Shell or Cowboy Bebop, and as Yami mentioned prestige is something that can only really be achieved with time.

The common complaints I've seen about Bleach and Naruto is that both went on far too long and attempted to drag things out too much. I've yet to watch either, but both Hunter x Hunter and Space Brothers started well after the manga, so had a lot of material to adapt, and both ended their run when they got too close to the manga, rather than trying to pad it out with original material.

 

[Buzz201]

The question is really whether something has to be insanely popular to be a classic?

I would say that 'classic' status is linked to time. I certainly wouldn't call anything from the past ten years a classic as it hasn't shown itself to be able to stand the test of time and still be regarded as good/great by the next generation.

I think I'd consider something that I keep coming back to, within the first decade or so, a modern classic. Then maybe it'd be upgraded to full classic status after the first decade. I wouldn't completely write a title off being a classic, purely because it was only 8 years old instead of 10, that'd be silly.

 

[Smeelia]

Did Mushi-shi get a full release in the UK? I know it was at least partly released. It's actually surprisingly high in the "most viewed" list on ANN (well, I was surprised anyway).

If we're including out of print things then we'd probably have to include stuff like Haruhi as well.

 

[Buzz201]

Did Mushi-shi get a full release in the UK? I know it was at least partly released. It's actually surprisingly high in the "most viewed" list on ANN (well, I was surprised anyway).

A certain Andrew Partridge of Anime Ltd. has recently revealedthat Mushi-shi was on his list of things to look at. He seemed to believe all rights now lie with Aniplex of America so a complete boxset might be possible.

 

[Yami]

I think I'd consider something that I keep coming back to, within the first decade or so, a modern classic. Then maybe it'd be upgraded to full classic status after the first decade. I wouldn't completely write a title off being a classic, purely because it was only 8 years old instead of 10, that'd be silly.

It was just a conveniently arbitrary number, but 'classic' is a rather arbitrary term anyway. It's only really benefit is to Penguin to sell more copies of a book that you've probably never heard of but you're then pressured into buying

 

[Buzz201]

It was just a conveniently arbitrary number, but 'classic' is a rather arbitrary term anyway. It's only really benefit is to Penguin to sell more copies of a book that you've probably never heard of but you're then pressured into buying

This is massively OT, but did you hear about how Morrissey had a clause in his contract that stated his autobiography had to be printed as a Penguin Classic, even in it's first edition? I guess the definition of classic is very flexible...