Forum - View topicAnswerman - Are There More Anime Remakes And Sequels These Days?
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Morry
Posts: 756 |
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The sooner the long continuous series supplemented with tons of filler dies out, the better. Fans want content, not to be strung along with dozens of episodes that ultimately degrade the overall story and visual experience.
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I_Drive_DSM
 Posts: 217 |
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I feel it's often not stated enough but character goods are something that often really push a series more so than an anime and can be used as gauges that lead to remakes or sequels and the likes. The 90s/00s seemed like a heyday in that all sorts of character goods were produced on things like phone cards, reproduction cells, pencil boards, etc etc. Nowadays since all animation is digital it's a re-focusing of sorts for various related products such as figma, which has always been relatively big but we see more of a focus on quality figma rather than overall quantity. For example, various character goods are ways to push special episodes or similar OVAs onto fans to try and force them to buy particular goods, and while usually these appear alongside a manga volume it's not unheard of to have to buy say a particular quality figma to get a bundled OVA.
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5516 |
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jdnation
Posts: 2121 |
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I think there's room for notable exceptions of franchises like Ghost in the Shell, Macross, Gundam etc. where new original content in separate universes utilizing the same concepts continues to be made - kind of like Final Fantasy - where there are endless possibilities for revisionism and new takes as time goes by.
And it's also the case that old anime adaptations of manga/novels, like Fruits Basket, were never fully adapted, so I'm sure Fruits Basket fans will be happy that the show will finally animate the entire story with new animation. Same for stuff like Full Metal Panic I certainly would love to see continuations of old faves like Claymore, Alita, Shigurui Death Frenzy etc. get made, though one other reason for hesitancy would be that we'd also wish upon a star that the same staff/directors were also capable of returning, but with the passage of time that is indeed difficult, particularly for something like Shigurui which was amazing in style. And I for one preferred the style of the original Full Metal Alchemist over Brotherhood, and the original Hellsing over the Ultimate OVAs, which really lost something by not keeping the music style of the original show. So it's always a gamble, but Brotherhood and Ultimate were still good. And hell, I'm not opposed to some nostalgia cash ins like Trigun Badlands Rumble. Or stuff like the Evangelion Rebuild films that are going new places. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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This doesn't really answer the question of whether there are (significantly) more of them now than at some time in the past. Although, laborious statistics aren't really what this column is about.
Remakes have probably become more common, if only because there are a lot more many-years-old classics to choose from. Scanning through the 1990s on MAL, though, there's a lot fewer new shows each season than there are now. Maybe it just seems like there's more sequels and remakes because that's what gets the most hype. |
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Wrangler
 Posts: 1346 |
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I blame greed and nostalgia. Continuing a franchise for the property owner is sometimes necessary to a) keep it alive, b) So it don't go Public Domain. Also people will always remember anime when it was fresh and new, always want revisit the story, even if it's same. (This Reboot thing)
While sequels, can be a hit and miss sort of thing. In old days, television series for anime could go on to 25 to 50 episodes, but writing wasn't so bad and costs to make anime was insane as it is today. Anime now a advertising tool for Manga or light novels. However. I think anime houses who want put out new product have get alot funding and convincing to be get capital make something new. Its less dangerous in the investors eyes if its known franchise such as Yamato, Macross, Voltron (Go Lions) etc. Which to me is sad. |
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Triltaison
 Posts: 796 |
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There's also the whole thing where your first exposure to an anime might be one of its reboots/sequels/remakes without realizing it at the time. Lots of people in the US were exposed to Macross Plus before any other part of the series if they missed the Robotech fanwagon. I found New Cutey Honey, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, and Dirty Pair Flash before the originals because that's what was easily available at the time.
OP is probably just noticing the prevalence now that the stuff they were into when they started is old enough to start getting remakes. Gegege no Kitaro has had at least one new series every decade since the '60s, Astro Boy and Tetsujin-28 have had a reboot about every 20 years since the '60s, Cyborg 009 has various adaptations and crossovers, practically everything in the Leijiverse is an alternate take on a previous entry, and most of Go Nagai's giant robots and Devilman have crossed over with everyone else. It's really nothing new. |
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AntiKuro
Posts: 203 |
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I think series that weren't fully put out, or deviated hard from the manga should get updates if it's wanted.
But honestly I think if I had to pick two series to get rebooted just because it'd be Escaflowne and Yu Yu Hakusho. |
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Aphasial
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Posts: 122 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Thanks for touching on one thing I always found a little odd -- Sailor Moon considering each of it's "seasons" as distinct "series" despite them (from I was always told) running back-to-back without interruption.
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John Thacker
Posts: 1009 |
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This is mostly because of two things:
The maximum number of TV programming time was actually in the 2000s, after the late night anime boom had started (plus the infusion of US money from the American anime boom), but before weekday after school and prime time anime came to a near halt in the crash and haven't recovered. Imagine the days when, e.g. Revolutionary Girl Utena was shown at 6 pm on a Wednesday, as it was by TV Tokyo. I believe it was also the maximum number of shows, as the 13 episode count series started to pick up in the 2000s as well (Jubei-chan was one of the earlier ones in 1999.) That's leaving out OVAs, which swiftly decreased in number with the rise of the shorter, late night anime that were essentially paid advertisements for OVAs. Now, with the decline in home video sales of shows already broadcast, it seems like we're getting a bit of a resurgence in OVAs (or simultaneous theater-only plus OVA releases, like Gundam the Origin or Yamato 2199, that may have TV cuts later.) |
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King Pickle the Wise
 Posts: 37 |
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The most popular anime in Japan are those long continuous series. Because series that don't do that tend to fall off the map. Attack on Titan and Osomatsu-san were such huge hits back in the day, but taking a few years off saw a 90% decrease in their sales and they became just a shadow of their former iconic status. MHA is smart enough to at least air a season every year rather than every two or three years, but it's sad that the days of iconic long running shounen adaptions are probably over. And MHA will never reach One Piece or Naruto levels of mainstream success or popularity because of it. |
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Aphasial
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Posts: 122 Location: San Diego, CA |
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The nay-sayers will say that that's just the appropriate thing to do now (piecemeal it while funding and ROI figures come in), but if anything's going to become truly iconic it's *going to have to* take risks in a commercial sense unless it's truly, extraordinarily avant-garde. Lain is a 12 episode "must-watch" classic, but not many from any era are. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2121 |
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I think the best compromise to make here is to fill in the gaps between seasons with new original canon or non-canon theatrical films or OVAs. Attack on Titan has many spin-offs like Before the Fall that could've been adapted in between. My Hero Academia had an original film. So I'd prefer if the main series stuck to the original manga storyline. But there are plenty of spin-offs like movies or that Vigilantes one that can be the filler, without necessarily taking up episode numbers reserved for the main series and ignored by those who only want the core stuff. Anyway, someone brought up Escaflowne, and I think a sequel would kick ass. But I'd want it to take place long after the events and characters of the show (outside of references), so that nothing messes with that story, but I do love the world. Sometimes I think Escaflowne could also make a great setting for an epic mech RPG video game. As for Sailor Moon, I found it to largely be a pretty boring remake, that despite new animation was kind of missing the fun charm schlock of the original, despite being more faithful to the manga. |
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AkumaChef
Posts: 821 |
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That's absolutely true. But those "long continuous series" are popular because they appeal to a large portion of the population of Japan as a whole, not just anime fanatics. Pretty much everyone might be familiar with, say, Pokemon or One Piece. That's a totally different genre or niche compared to what fans (remember, that's short for fanatics) want.
Agreed completely about the risk-taking, and while I agree that Lain was certainly avant-garde I'm not sure I share your opinion that it's a must-watch. IMHO Lain targets a very specific niche, and even if you are part of that target audience you won't necessarily care for it. I think there were quite a few extraordinary shows from that time period (many of which are the same hyper-specific niches), and more if we turn the clock back to include the early 90's and the late 80's. I think the reason is entirely economic: when the Japanese economy was booming they could afford to take more risks and a lot of money got thrown around for things that would never get greenlit today. That's where the OVA boom came from. And as the economy cooled off we saw fewer and fewer shows that were willing to stray from the norm. I think there were easily just as many spinoffs, sequels, and anime based on other media like video games back then as there is today. The difference that I see is that back then there were also more avant-garde experimental sorts of shows that seem to be far fewer and far between today. But sequels, spinoffs, etc? That hasn't changed much as far as I can tell. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1347 |
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I would love to have some of my favorite anime that is not DB and AoT to have some sequels.
But knowing their niche status, I don't see that happening. |
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