Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - The Boys in Toyland
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2345 Location: Online Terminal |
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Not only did I appreciate CFV for trying to be a kind of rules-lite card game (compared to YGO, Weiss, etc) what made appreciate the anime was: while I was in Japan in 2013(?), the current arc was in the middle of a 5-on-5 series presumably between the protag & his 4 friends against the rival squad. The cold open for the episode was setting up for the 3rd(?) game and was just about to start when the OP hit. When the OP was done, the game was over and the rest of the episode was game 4. They just skipped a whole match for the sake of tighter storytelling (because obviously the thing was gonna go 2-2).
I remember thinking it was one of the most genius things I ever saw. |
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Saeryen
 Posts: 1045 |
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Something really rubs me the wrong way about using the words “nakedly capitalistic” to describe Pretty Cure in any way. Yes, it’s primarily for kids so of course there’s toy tie-ins, but it’s a whole lot more than that. It’s about finding hope and following your heart, particularly for marginalized communities (besides having mostly girls, Cure Wing’s outfit is also gender non conforming, and Cure Soleil is Latina, and I expect there will be more representation in the future).
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Joe Mello
Posts: 2345 Location: Online Terminal |
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To the creative team(s), it's the latter. To the production committee, it's nakedly capitalistic. You can say that for shows for any gender or community. One of the reasons viewership is measured is so networks can set the cost of advertisements. Commercial art is art, but it's also a commercial. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1866 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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JAM Project adding their voices to some of the series mentioned:
GARO - Savior in the dark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N69bl_F2JcM Transformers EVO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7F-DhZF34 Vanguard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ2TTMtPrfs Believe in my existence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gtLbOo9Mg Music also plays its part in building an experience for selling merchandise. |
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Saeryen
Posts: 1045 |
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If you put it that way, every piece of media sold for money is a commercial (if not for toys, then for more media by the same creator). IMO, the franchise is a lot more art than it is a commercial, considering how it has touched mine and others’ hearts. |
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FishLion
 Posts: 348 |
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I think that's how we got a lot of great shows with commercial tie-ins. For example, Transformers is a story people care deeply about, but it was designed with making toys in mind and that is part of its history. I think the way it often happens is a creative is wildly passionate about the world they have made and they get a ton of money to fund that creative vision because the producers see dollar signs. The creative work can be completely uncompromised and built for people who want to consume an earnest story and have all the things you mentioned, but Precure has this many seasons at least in part because it moves so much merch. We can enjoy the creative parts free from worry about the capitalistic parts, but it is also fair to point out that the productions and the toy parts are interdependent. Personally, I'm glad they sell so many toys. I like merch and it gives the series a ton of longevity. We should all be wary of a show prioritizing sales over quality, but that doesn't seem to be the case and I know kids love things from their favorite shows. There are much worse stories that anime producers could use to sell toys and if it gets PreCure this many seasons then I am very happy about it. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4735 |
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I think my favorite product promotion anime might be WIXOSS. I went into it thinking it was a card game promotion, and came out of it having to check if that was right because it didn't exactly make an effort to make you want to play the game. If anything, it did the opposite.
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tinyirnfist0
Posts: 59 |
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It's also a very dark anime. |
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InNeedOfAName
Posts: 241 |
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I doubt it'll happen but I'd like to see someone review the first season (eps 1-51) of Beyblade X once it's all dubbed. Whoever reviews that would be in for quite a ride.
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Doubleclouder
 Posts: 93 |
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This is only an issue if you think capitalism is bad. All anime is capitalistic by default - and that's a good thing. That's why the industry is doing well and we get more entertainment as a result. There's nothing wrong with capitalism. I never got why people get offended at pointing out a franchise was made to sell merchandise. Maybe it's similar to when people get upset you point out an anime is for kids. The idea they're watching a kids show, let alone one made to sell merchandise, is somehow an insult. I see it a lot in the mech community where people will swear up and down shows like Gundam are not made to sell model kits and are actually serious dramas. As if a show can't do both at the same time. |
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 26 |
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I think a lot of it comes down to how it is often framed. Like here we get "how anime can turn out to be a half-hour toy commercial", which gives off the impression of "at first glance it seems like this has artistic merit, but it turns out it's just an excuse to sell merchandise". |
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FishLion
Posts: 348 |
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I think that and also the fact that there is so much art out there that seems only produced to make money. It's true many series aim to do both, but calling something nakedly capitalistic or a toy commercial definitely insinuates that it is the shallow type of money making and not a complex interaction of creators trying to make art while producers want to also make money. I do feel like PreCure is unique and the reviewer was referring to the more producer side of things where they certainly push for there to be plenty of unique toy designs and not trying to denigrate the artistic qualities of it though. |
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CreativelyFwrd
Posts: 14 |
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Unless it's an entirely self-published doujin work, everything is made with making money in mind. And even then doujin artist also more likely than not have thought about what would sell well or be popular to some degree because printing and getting a booth at conventions costs money. Some of the Japanese artists I follow have mused about what would be a good thing to make to attract people to their next booth at Comiket. Even all the way at the top legends like Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda have made tons of concessions at the behest of their editors at Jump to add or remove things they were asked to to make their work more marketable.
Nothing appears in any show without the consideration of how it will affect the bottom line. Some things only the production and writers will know because it's all behind the scene. Was Cure Wing successful i.e. did he move merchandise? If he didn't then maybe that's why the last two series didn't have another male Cure. Did the lack of fighting in Wonderful Precure hurt the bottom line? If it did maybe that's why they went back to physical fights for Kimi to Idol . It's hard to plot a trend so quickly so we'll need a few more years of series to see if they repeat or avoid previous experiments they tried but my main point is at the end of the day Precure or any series is not going to just throw something in at the behest of the writers if the people at top think it would negatively impact the show's success. That's the answer to the common questions you see in fandoms about why there isn't more or less ____ in a series.. |
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 26 |
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We do have the numbers for this though, Wonderful was the best selling Precure since Hugtto and Star Twinkle by a pretty sizeable margin. And the decision for what to do with You and Idol would be made well in advance of any of those numbers |
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meiam
Posts: 3475 |
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Infamously, when the transformer movie was greenlight, they asked for most of the show recurring character to be killed so they could come out with new characters/toys next season, a purely capitalistic decision. Even show aimed at adult rarely have this many character (including the main character!) getting killed. Without this decision, the movie would have almost certainly just become another one of those forgettable tie in movie (like HE-man movie). Capitalistic decision and great art can go hand in hand, it can even push the medium in new and interesting way.
Heck, I'd love if gundam show had less character/plot in them and focused more on pure mech porn to push more gunpla. |
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