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Answerman - Who Watches Late Night Anime in Japan?

Paiprince wrote:

You still can't say demographics is already outdated, when there are just certain genres men and women most won't touch with a ten foot pole. Barring Love Live and I think K-ON, has there been any "moe" series that became a hit with the fujoshi? Even better, a straight up non reverse harem series that is also a VN adaptation that got fujoshis railing over it.

Does Fate count? A ton of women/fujoshi/etc. have a thing for the male characters and my ex had a crush on Saber.
There are more women interested in male-targeted VNs (including eroge) than you might originally imagine, actually. Sometimes they have an interest in dressing up as characters or just like the art, but you'll definitely come across them if you go to an anime-related event in Japan. I went to a store in Osu with a lot of tapestries and artbooks and doujinshi and whatnot and there were lots of women working and shopping there. And let's not forget that some erotic manga targeted at men is drawn by women (though I can't say I know of men who draw erotic manga targeting women).

The Fate series is a good example. Not VN's, but now that I put more thought over it, the Monogatari series and IM@S are also otaku aimed anime that managed to grab the female demographic quite well.

You're right about more Japanese fujoshis being very interested and involved in the male oriented eroge market (The Rance series up until recently was written by a woman). I think I'm basing my earlier statements on the Western side of the fujoshi sphere which are more or less not interested in these with a few exceptions of course.

Aren't shows like K-ON, Gochiusa and Kinmoza at a late time slot, but aimed for a young female audience? Think about it.

It seems like the gender neutral series are the way to go since they tend to be the biggest sellers however there are some exceptions such as Kill la Kill which sold so well some people called it the Anime that saved the industry.

Kill la Kill sold well at around 11k per volume but saving the industry? Now if you are talking about Osomatsu-san ... the first volume sold over 100k!!! Now THAT is saving the industry!

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Also somebody not wanting to watch a show because it is shoujo is the same as someone not wanting to watch another show because is sport.

And you are confusing demographic and genre. Lol.

Also demographics are kinda BS. I can understand something like REAL to be seinen, but Wondering Son? Doesn't make any sense to me.

Categorizing by genre is sooo much more helpful. IMO

Uhhhhhh. Putting Ikki Tousen in the same "demographic" category with Trigun for example should be a crime. =p

It's not surprising when you think about it, if you are selling a product - anime is definitely a product - then you don't really want to turn away any group. Not deliberately.

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nearly everybody has a DVR or a DVD/Blu-ray set-top recorder. (People actually bought those in Japan.)

I actually bought one of those in the early 00's, it never proved as useful as I'd hoped. I still have some DVD-R's around here that were recorded on it.

Mark Gosdin

Late night anime's audience is indeed otaku (male or female). But I still think most 'otaku" are supposed to be teens or young adults. That's the reason why a lot of anime features high schoolers/middle schoolers as main characters and with a lot of teen life situations (like who has a crush on who while denying it, such trival stuff). Someone older than that age range is obviously not supposed to be an anime fan in Japanese society. And even if they are, they are not suppsed to make up the majority of the audience (even the authors/companies think so). Older adult otaku have to somewhat put up with all the middle/high schooler characters in anime. They might not like it, but they have to put up with that to keep watching anime.

Or maybe the older adult otaku are also identified with all the anime teen life situations.

WTF, they make shows with heavy ecchi every 3 seconds while the characters are still talking about who has a crush on who while denying it, while blushing!

It's funny you mention Free because back when it was airing there was an argument over the Blu-ray and DVD sales, and how it was clearly a shounen aimed at men because it had way more BD sales and people got upset at the notion.

Demographics means a rough target audience that the publishers are aiming for, not who you think it should be aimed at.

Older adult otaku have to somewhat put up with all the middle/high schooler characters in anime. They might not like it, but they have to put up with that to keep watching anime.

It's not surprising when you think about it, if you are selling a product - anime is definitely a product - then you don't really want to turn away any group. Not deliberately.

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nearly everybody has a DVR or a DVD/Blu-ray set-top recorder. (People actually bought those in Japan.)

I actually bought one of those in the early 00's, it never proved as useful as I'd hoped. I still have some DVD-R's around here that were recorded on it.

Mark Gosdin