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NEWS: Fireworks Anime Film Earns US$522,600 in U.S. Theaters

I'm sad that I'm remided how little other people in the West don't even give anime movies a passing glance.

Oh well, I look forward (hopefully) to a home media release! (He says still wishing someone would license A Silent Voice already! )

I'm sad that I'm remided how little other people in the West don't even give anime movies a passing glance.

Oh well, I look forward (hopefully) to a home media release! (He says still wishing someone would license A Silent Voice already! )

I’m just baffled that they thought picking this up would be a good idea.

We had no showing at all for Canada. Excluded so often.

SquadmemberRitsu wrote:

I’m just baffled that they thought picking this up would be a good idea.

GKIDS passed on Your Name. pretty early on because they were given very little information on the movie. I guess they've been salty about that.

It's not just anime...
In general animated films that are NOT Disney or Pixar (or DreamWorks) which don't follow the princess formula or road trip/buddy formula just don't get attention from audiences. They are aimed at little kids and/or families because that's been the stable theatrical audience for animated features since forever in the West. That has not changed in over 80 years despite on-and-off attempts to broaden the appeal of animation in the West and tackle different subjects and genres.
On TV, there's more variety BUT animation is still generally considered a kids' thing, even the better-written action/adventure series are aimed at kids. Only Fox has had success with "big kids" animation and those are all sitcoms, it's the safest format to do "more adult" topics and even then it's sophomoric humor and less satire. I wouldn't call Family Guy, American Dad, and or The Simpsons for the past 18 years brilliant satire!

They've tried to break Disney's formulas a few times but those films have generally been bombs. It also hasn't helped that the films that don't follow the general formula have been mostly piss-poor efforts.
Treasure Planet, Titan AE (one of the worst animated science fiction films I've seen), and most of Bluth's films and Bakshi's films have not followed Disney formulas -- and they were colossal bombs in most cases. They've tried these things at least 20 times. There's perhaps 5 "adult" or "serious" animated films that were hits and only one is still remembered today and even that's a comedy -- Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

In the West, you're supposed to be out of the "animation phase" by the time you become a teenager. There's an unwritten rule that only geeks and nerds keep following this stuff after a period of time. It's short-sighted but it's the general rule.
things past your early teens. It's very rare for me to go to a theater screening an anime feature and have more than 20 people tops watching that film along with me -- and that's in a major American market that has state university with over 50,000 students!

BAHAHAHAHA that’s so funny. Yeah I bet Funi is really gutted.

Considering the movie didn’t even make 1/10th of Your Name, flopped in most international markets outside of China and got handed a VERY Rotten 43 on RT I’m gonna have to say they made a bad call there even if I’m doing so with the benefit of hindsight.

I think basically anyone who saw this movie will tell you, but Your Name this ain’t. The story is sloppy, the character motivations are wonky, its sense of humour is creepy and not at all kid friendly, the animation is super inconcsistent, it’s a mess. Its only saving grace is the music and the occasional good cuts of animation. So just stay home and watch the music videos on YouTube, they’ve got all the good stuff.

Seriously, even the friend I went with was all ‘hmmm yeah not great’.