I've flicked myself back to watching some Detective Conan, from the beginning and it got me thinking - Why are the obscurely drawn shows much more prominently featured and popular with the general public within Japan? It also seems like the episodic ideal is much more popular, to add to that.
This comes from the idea of shows like Sazae-san which can draw in 20 million, a la The Simpsons in the US. With the animation (for lack of a better word) rather crude. Even in 2008. This also applies to some of the foundational fictional character in Japan, like Doraemon. Now I know why they are popular (Relating to the audience and such), But with a show looking like that in the west they would get kicked right out the cartoon market. [Note: I understand they they started decades ago]
Shin-chan has found a variable degree of success in the US, but I think that would be the only exception to the whole thing.
Then, With quite a extension, We move onto One Piece. Its obviously not a story about a robot cat or a middle aged women but yet it attracts viewers (Albeit, much less than the others I have mentioned) and one of them reasons I would bet is because of the style of animation.
Now my thoughts are out there, What do you make of the general popularity of the mainstream regular viewing as seen by the Japanese in contrast to the otaku viewers whom watch everything else and [probably] despise such shows. Personally, I'm quite interested in some of the thoughts you guys might concoct.
This comes from the idea of shows like Sazae-san which can draw in 20 million, a la The Simpsons in the US. With the animation (for lack of a better word) rather crude. Even in 2008. This also applies to some of the foundational fictional character in Japan, like Doraemon. Now I know why they are popular (Relating to the audience and such), But with a show looking like that in the west they would get kicked right out the cartoon market. [Note: I understand they they started decades ago]
Shin-chan has found a variable degree of success in the US, but I think that would be the only exception to the whole thing.
Then, With quite a extension, We move onto One Piece. Its obviously not a story about a robot cat or a middle aged women but yet it attracts viewers (Albeit, much less than the others I have mentioned) and one of them reasons I would bet is because of the style of animation.
Now my thoughts are out there, What do you make of the general popularity of the mainstream regular viewing as seen by the Japanese in contrast to the otaku viewers whom watch everything else and [probably] despise such shows. Personally, I'm quite interested in some of the thoughts you guys might concoct.