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I've been thinking lately about shows that used to be all the rage and now seem to have completely fallen off the otaku radar. They've become 'classics', but nobody seems to even talk about them anymore, except in passing reference to something they used to really like. It's kind of shocking when you think about it; some of these shows, not more than 2 years ago were seemingly at the height of their popularity, and now, they're little more than footnotes. You hardly see anyone in costume for these shows anymore at conventions; merchandise is all in bargain bins or flat out doesn't exist anymore, and the DVDs create little fanfare.

The first one that sprang to mind was Slayers. Just last year we had a new Slayers movie, Slayers Premium, come out. It was a fan's wet dream; it had all the characters from both the TV series and the movies in one 30-minute adventure. Xelloss and Naga and Zelgadiss and everyone else was in this thing. Nobody said a damn thing about it; it didn't get asked about at conventions, it didn't get widely circulated as a fansub. Slayers, which was once on the tip of everyone's tongue as theur favorite or second-favorite show, had become old news. I don't see so much as one Lina Inverse cosplayer anymore. There's nothing new coming out. Nobody seems to care about ADV's budget-priced DVD releases of the Slayers movies; I mean, for a show that created such a huge phenomenon back in 1999-2000, this thing has completely gone the way of the dodo.

Sailor Moon, believe it or not, is another one. People are making a little noise about the unedited TV box sets, but other than that, the manga isn't really sought after, I don't see a lot of merchandise for this series anymore, and you know, people just seem to have stopped talking about it. The recent live-action series seems like more of a nostalgic throwback to a dead franchise than something that's continuing a modern pop culture phenomenon. I don't see a lot of Sailor Moon cosplayers anymore, either; there are a handful of them in every convention (mostly prima-donna fangirls who think they look JUST LIKE Sailor Jupiter, realize Sailor Moon is about as popular as the plague but just can't let it go), but nowhere near as many as there used to be.

I suppose my point is that so many other fandoms, like Star Wars and Star Trek, are based entirely off of a relatively small amount of media. Anime is so huge and so vast we're at the point now where the new stuff completely replaces the old. We have a few standbys that everyone still discusses (Akira and Evangelion, anyone?), but a lot of these shows are becoming roadkill. It's amazing to me and good sign that anime fandom will last a very, very long time if we maintain this pace. So long as the hobby remains fresh, it will continue to grow.

Can anyone else think of shows that seemed like they were so incredibly popular that they'd never go away, but now they're all but completely forgotten?

-Z

Sailormoon fandom in America won't be dead till we get Sailor Stars!! Wink

Hmm... Does Pokemon count? Or Utena? Well, just throwing Utena in there because it pretty much has the same thing as Sailormoon with dvds finally being released. Does Cutey Honey count? Eva is still immensly popular...

Last edited by Foljo on Tue Jan 13, 2004 3:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

Well, you can’t talk about old things forever, now can you? I think the only reason people still talk about Akira or NGE is because there are many different ways to understand these series.

As for other anime.. well Pokemon, how about that? Heh, I remember turning on TV and seeing dozens of commercials about new Pokemon toy or game, whatever. Now it is quite, not a mainstream anymore? But then again, I don’t visit anime forums a lot, so I can’t really say anything. I mean I just watched NGE, and it came out, what, 10 years ago?

Robotech

Ranma and DBZ aren't fairing too well either

I'll tell you a dead franchise: Tenchi Muyo!

There are a few of my associates that have never seen a bit of it and the new OAV series is hardly generating any interest that I'm aware of.

All this regarding, IMO, one of the most influential (and copied) shows in anime history.

I can't believe I forgot DBZ.

Utena certainly counts, yes. It ran its course.. it seemed like once the movie came out, everyone just kinda threw it out. Even the fangirls abandoned it. Then again, fangirl culture in general has drastically changed over the past 2 years, so maybe that's responsible for some of these shows falling by the wayside.

And yes, please, don't endlessly respond with 'people have to stop talking about it sometime!'. I know that. I wasn't asking WHY people do this, I was just curious what other people thought of it and if they remembered anything else that was huge like a year ago and totally forgotten now in anime fandom. We tend to celebrate things for years at a time (ex. Tenchi, Ranma, etc), and those seemed like the only things available, and now the pace has really picked up so a lot of what used to be 'required viewing' for new anime fans is dead and gone.

How about "Ranma 1/2"?

I wasn't into anime back when this series was first released in America, but from what I've heard this show had a lot of fans and was known very well.

But nowadays "Ranma" isn't that big anymore. Maybe it's because the final seasons of the show were meaningless filler milking a franchise Rumiko Takahashi had already ended in the manga. Or maybe "Ranma" was being replaced by Takahashi's newest epic, "Inuyasha". Whatever the reason, "Ranma" certainly isn't the "most widely recognized anime" these days.

Oh! I just remembered another! Cardcaptor Sakura! CLAMP sort of brought them back from the dead, along with a lot of other titles of theirs in the new manga Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

As to why we stop crazing overthem, I dunno. Utena and Sailormoon *sadly in the sailomoon case* Will always be in my top 5 anime list. You can count on me cosplaying characters from these series simply because I love them. I'm never really one to get into a fad. If I get into something and fangirl over something, it's because I love it for some off reason, and my fangirl love doesn't dimish just like that.

But back to why people stop talking about it... well, there's only so much things you can talk about when a series has gone the dead way, and there's usually so many people to talk about it. You get tired of talking about the same thing over and over eventually I think. You can either resort to the horrid fangirl habit of writing fanfiction, or just move on with finding new things to talk about.

Now on Sailormoon's case, the fangirls such as myself are having a blast with the live action tv series. It gives us more stuff to talk about because well, it's a new rendition of Sailormoon, with different twist then the manga and anime. >.> We won't shut up about it in our blogs and on mirc channels. Sailormoon also has a musical that's still going on, and up to this point it's been the only new material diehard sailormoon fans could talk about.

Anyway, my love for what I classify as my faveorite shows won't die. It's at least once a year I rewatch one of my old shows and fall in love with it again. And I'm one of those rare Utena/sailormoon cosplayers you see at conventions. AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE I LOOK LIKE THE CHARACTERS! Anime smile

; The costumes are fun...

In Japan or in North America?

In Japan, I know Urusei Yatsura ruled the 1980s and it was the series that built Studio Pierrot into a major anime powerhouse, but, since 1991's 10th anniversary special Always My Darling (called the 6th "movie" in North America), there hasn't been a single frame of new animation for that series drawn, other than for one Sega Megadrive CD game, I believe, and, in Studio Pierrot's 25th anniversary poll, Urusei Yatsura came in a disappointing 20th out of all the series Pierrot had ever done, and, lest someone think the poll was biased towards newer shows, I gotta point out that 1987's Kimagure Orange Road came in an impressive third (with the first two being Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Hikaru no Go). Okay, it was still biased towards newer shows, but not completely.

Also, the reactions I've read to the 3rd Tenchi Muyo OVA series have been fairly lukewarm, and, for the most part, I've said "meh" to the complete synopses of the first two episodes that I've read, though I know to wait to see it for myself to actually have an opinion on the new episodes. It's difficult for me to gauge from the reaction on English-language message boards whether the new series has revived interest in the franchise in Japan, though.

Not sure if this counts as a franchise or not: Serial Experiment Lain

At Otakon 2000 Lain was huge at that time (at least it seemed to my nooby self). There was awesome performance by BoA and a panel with Yoshitoshi ABe. I also saw a lot of Lain merchandise including artbooks. At AX 2003 I don't remember seeing anything except a few CDs.

I definitely agree on how almost all dead franchises (for better or worse) simply remain dead. For a once overwhelmingly popular series, like the former undisputed KING of anime, Urusei Yatsura, is a sad indicator of how even the king can fall from its lofty pedestal. The same is easily said for other lesser popular series, such as: Sailor Moon, Kimagure Orange Road, Tenchi, Maison Ikkoku, Slayers, City Hunter, and Ranma etc. Why this continues to happen, IMO really is not much of a mystery. Remember that most people in Japan (which is the primary market, not the US) have grown up and are currently working adults already in their mid if not late-20s. Anime losses its importance and this is easily evident with one of the former largest fan-base found with UY.

Also keep in mind, some of the older series were geared specifically for young girls, like with Sailor Moon. The market for this series especially does not last very long. By the time SM commercially arrived in the US, the series was nearly dying in JP. With comparatively newer titles like Yu-gi-Oh, the target audience/market in Japan and in the US is not restricted to young boys, young girls also follow this series.

The same loss of interest holds true for other titles and you can also trace this trend with the otaku obsessed anime cel market. Most series pretty much remain uncollected and ignored. However exceptions include specific famous and respected mangakas and character designers, such as: Nobuteru Yuki, Tsukasa Hojo, Toshihiro Hirano, Kakinouchi Narumi, Akemi Takada, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Kenichi Sonoda, and naturally, Takahashi-sensei.

Lastly, I think the main thing to keep in mind with how anime franchises die, is that once the series slips out of sight (demand goes down), they remain out of mind (demand stays dead). Afterall, the remaining fans need new things/series to keep them distracted.

Umm, yeah, Ranma had the final parts of the series hit up to volume 20 of the manga. There are about 18 volumes that were never animated, the problem being the show was full of filler and being produced in the middle of production. The real good stuff, the best parts of Ranma are the final two volumes. These, as well as the herb storyline were never animated, and they have just gotten to in the manga. It has taken them 14 years to get this far. Viz is trying to stretch Ranma out into 20 years worth for them. Saffron might have his battle in 2010, if Viz hurries up.

Personally I think demand for these shows will probably end up being cyclic... as mahoro said, the fans will always get older. However as people get older they generally get more disposable income and on top of that you have nostalgia value. Witness the recent re-release of the Robotech - Complete Macross Saga (et al.) just in time for fans who watched it growing up.

It's like the yo-yo... first it's cool, then everyone forgets about it, then it's back in again, now it's forgotten again.

Sadly, it does seem that the 3rd OAV of Tenchi Muyo is being highly overlooked. It's a shame, too, because Tenchi Muyo is almost the last stand of the old fashioned romantic comedies. Once the last episode of the 3rd (and final) OAV is released, we may never see its like again and the trend of lousy Love Hina knock-offs will continue.

Why oh why did this happen? I'm going to go cry in a corner for a while, lamenting the passing of a hallowed era and the coming of tripe.

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