Forum - View topicAnswerman - Are Anime Sequels Ever Made Just For The West?
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motormind
 Posts: 91 |
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I think a good example of this is Uchouten Kazoku. The first season didn't do all that well in Japan, but was really popular in the west, and now a second season is in the works.
Yay! I hope they will put more Kyoto locations in there. It was a blast to check out the ones from the first season. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7584 Location: Wales |
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Among the notes that were supplied on the UK Sol Bianca DVDs from Kiseki was a passing mention of remake Sol Bianca: The Legacy (itself unreleased in the UK) and how it was considered by Japanese fans to "smell of butter".
--edit-- Looks to be reproduced essentially verbatim in the Anime Encyclopedia:
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chronos02
Posts: 272 |
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I guess the new FLCL season falls into this category?
Regardless, I believe most companies that decide to "cater to western audiences" are making a humongous mistake, we watch anime because we like how it's done in Japan, for Japanese audiences, otherwise, we'd simply watch some western series, since they'd be doing a better job at catering to western tastes than any Japanese company. That's not to say we wouldn't find it fun to get some easter eggs, special appearences or whatever cattered at us, though I wouldn't want a joke about Trump or Merkel in any instances, one of the reasons I watch anime is to forget where I live, after all. What's more, I don't know if I'm the only one, but I essentially avoid any kind of anime that is "too western", not in terms of design, nor story, but on how the stories are told (and I guess some that look like western serious cartoons). I had a hard time getting into Space Dandy, and I could barely watch Panty & Stocking (it kept reminding me of power puff girls... gods). However, I'm able to watch even the "worst" anime of each season without problems, as long as they don't have a "western smell", I enjoy them very much too. Oh, and I also watch western cartoons (or rather, used to watch), such as Asterix, and Tintin, which I loved very much, I even rewatch them from time to time; that can't be said about the Looney Tunes (safe for Coyote and Road Runner, I could watch that any time), or essentially any series from cartoon network some odd 10 to 15 years ago, eventhough I enjoyed them as a kid, I simply can't stomach them now. I guess anime changed my view on how animation should look and feel like, but well, I guess this is obvious, I haven't seen a single western animation that can compare to the Japanese creations, be it design, animation quality, quanitity, plot, story, acting... the Japanese create so much more anime than the rest of the planet every year that it's plainly obvious that they'd get better at it than us, plus, we (westerners) are simply too biased on what animation should be like (for kids, simple, cheap), though that started to change recently, but we can't catch up. And please, do not mix up animation with CGI animation, it's not the same, has never been, will never be. CGI animation is leaps better than traditional animation here, though sometimes the japanese come to slap us on the face and to get in our place (Kingsglaive says hi). Anyway, I'm all for the west making more seasons of a certain title possible, but I do hope the studios don't mix up their objectives: "More Japanese Anime for the West", and not "More Western Anime for Japan". |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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The JoJo series is one of the more recent examples of "Western pandering" that Japanese cherishes. To say Sol Bianca "reeks of butter" when the former is proverbially neck deep in it sounds rather hypocritical.
Still, I agree that anime as a whole shpuld keep to its own native sensibilities, despite having series set in a non typical location outside Japan. Berserk and Monster are good cases for this. You can still feel its Japaneseyness from them even when they don't express the typical stuff that is expected out of anime and manga. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I was thinking of that very example. From what I understand of the franchise, its liberal application of Western pop-culture has been to its benefit overseas. Of course, I can but speculate as to how much it succeeded because of its references and not in spite of them. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6381 |
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......No we don't. That claim is particularly contradictory especially when you hear people complain about things like the humor in a series not making sense or the fanservice.
We don't really need to catch since at the end of the day Anime will never be as popular as it is in Japan and other Asian countries
Animation is animation even if the process in creating it, is handled differently.
.....Final Fantasy The Spirits Within and Advent Children says what's up. |
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Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
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JoJo has been popular long before the current anime series. Don't see how it was made for the western market. Seems like an adaption Japanese fans have been clamoring for for ages and only now possible thanks to late night timeslots instead of 1 or 2 OVAs like back in the 90s. Pretty sure the Cowboy Bebop movie existed before Adult Swim was even a thing as well.
Vocal minority. Fanservice sells well in the American market. People on tumblr who complain about it are the minority. http://www.funimation.com/blog/2010/12/02/boobies-for-the-win-sekirei-sells-out-at-distributor-level/ Other countries exist besides America as well  Some are even bigger markets like China and France.
I definately like anime because I like how its done in Japan. |
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tomssnook
Posts: 1 |
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I remember 4Kids occasionally would have stuff produced for the American market, like the Capsule Monsters saga in Yu-Gi-Oh, and the 2nd season of Ultimate Muscle. I also believe that they played a significant part in the production of Yu-Gi-Oh The Movie? Can't remember if there was anything else. Pretty sure that 3rd Season of Sonic X wasn't made with the West in mind, although it was definitely made for the West. 4Kids had to censor the hell out of it, so I want to think that 4Kids had very little to do with the production of that season, which was regardless an oddly WEIRD season for that show...
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Heishi
 Posts: 1364 |
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Let's not forget Deadman Wonderland.
It was big enough here in the west but for some reason doesn't seem to warrant a sequel here like Big O, but I suppose since both were flops in Japan. Especially considering it has an unfinished ending. |
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perroloco
Posts: 308 |
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IIRC 4kids made a Yugioh original show and also Ultimate Muscle season 2 or something like that..
As for anime that's made for audiences outside Japan, I think the Saint Seiya franchise applies here, it's not that is unpopular in Japan, but I think the new anime Toei makes every year wouldn't exist without the overseas market, Saint Seiya is wildly popular outside Japan.. Just not in any english speaking country for some reason.. |
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Guy Schellens
Posts: 1 |
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I think Cowboy Bebop was designed for a Western public.
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1800 Location: South America |
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Non-Japanese markets are traditionally irrelevant for Japanese comics and animation. I read that in 2004 only 15% of the Japanese animation industry's revenues came from overseas. Manga industry doesn't have significant revenues from overseas.
Now it's bigger thanks to the growth of the Chinese market, which is a much better ground for the grown of Japanese comics and animation market outside of Japan than Europe and the Americas given the closer cultural similarities. Shows like Cowboy Bebop are very popular among North American fans but North American anime fans are insignificant as a market compared to the domestic Japanese market specially if you take into account Japanese firms only sell distribution rights. And Cowboy Bebop was quite popular in Japan although not as popular as stuff like Evangelion. Saint Seya sold 20 million copies in Japan. That's almost as many as Berserk and it is popular mostly in Latin America whose currencies are typically worthless and where piracy runs rampant and so these regions are not significant markets for the Japanese entertainment industry. It becomes easy to believe if you interact with a lot of anime fans that Japanese pop culture is more popular around the world than it really is. I think that anime/manga will probably grow a lot in China and there the industry will eventually become larger than in Japan itself. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2917 |
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2004 is really old, it's more like 50% now, considering china and taiwan, streaming rights and probably disregarding the grey market of people buying stuff in japan then importing to their countries. |
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Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 371 Location: Finland |
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You think wrong. It wasn't even shown in the US until 2001 and the movie started its development in 1999, was released in Japan in 2001 and in the US in 2003. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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I have no problem enjoying anime shows of a Western theme as long as they're made with Japanese viewers in mind. An anime that attempts to cater Western viewers through pop-culture references and/or stereotypes from other Western shows is almost guaranteed to fail.
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