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Miyazaki's Call Out of Otakus
Grimpak:
hmm... this thread is popcorn worthy.
Zalis116:
--- Quote from: jinhong91 on February 01, 2014, 03:10:24 PM ---I don't like his idiotic antics but he has a point.
I want more substance.
--- End quote ---
And how many "substantial" anime have you purchased? That's the problem; either "normals" who want non-otaku anime don't actually buy anime, or they and their purchases aren't numerous enough to have an impact on what gets made. People in the epic-but-locked ANN response thread accused the industry of being insular and "going back to the well" too often. But going to the well is far preferable over randomly wandering through the desert trying to find an oasis, which is what making "respectable" anime for normals constitutes these days.
Nodame-chan:
I personally like fanservice and ecchi at times (emphasis on: AT TIMES).
But if I had to choose between say.. HOTD, Kore wa Zombie desu ka?, etc., all together and just one random Miyazaki movie I'd go with Miyazaki.
Because that's the real anime. Beauty, love, friendship, courage and so many other things you can find in Miyazaki's movies.
And what is fanservice providing us with? Right... the "PLOT" >_> 'tis all about boobs. Oh and asses.
Bob2004:
Have all the people claiming that "Oh, nobody other than otaku buys anime, so making anime aimed at normal people wouldn't work", or "Oh, nobody would pay the high prices anime blurays normally sell at" stopped to consider that maybe, just maybe, "normal" people (ie. people who don't watch TV so they can jack off to semi-explicit shots of underaged cartoon girls) might buy more anime if it were targeted towards them?
The only reason most anime sales are to otaku is because they're the only ones who would consider watching a lot of the shit that gets made these days. And the reason its so expensive (beyond the fact that DVDs and blurays generally are more expensive in Japan to begin with) is because otaku are few in number, so they have to charge a high price to get the same returns. Also otaku are very easy to trick into paying five times the price for 'special editions' etc.
This isn't America we're talking about here - this is Japan. There's no particular stigma against anime, and virtually everyone has grown up watching it as a kid. Manga is read by the majority of the population too - I see at least as many bored salarymen reading manga on the subway as I do reading other books. Possibly more if anything.
Ghibli films, when they hit cinemas, are invariably among the highest grossing films in the country. Not just among anime, but among everything - be it other japanese films, or the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Trying to say there is no market for anime targeted at anyone other than the crazy otaku who spend all their free time watching hentai and going to schoolgirl cafes in Akiba (yes, they exist. Yes, there are a lot of them. Yes, they are exactly how they sound) is just stupid. Because there really, really is.
That is why anime only targeting this one incredibly niche market segment is a problem. It excludes the entire rest of the potential anime market, and due to the nature of the niche it's targeting, only ends up making anime as a whole look bad. And when that niche is no longer profitable - which will happen eventually, either due to demographic changes, social or economic changes, or just people losing interest - a lot of anime studios will be in a pretty sticky situation, having put all their eggs in that one basket.
shabutie:
I think something people are missing here is he isn't talking about the fanbase.
He's stating the people in the industry, those making the anime, are all otaku's.
They're only making stuff that other otaku's would like, and focusing on their current market, and not the overall picture.
Obviously the industry is going to decline if you ONLY cater towards those who you already have as fans, and don't actively pursue new fans. That's what Miyazaki is getting at here. (Lets face it... If I show some of my non-anime fan friends moe/ecchi based shows, they'll say things like, "Pfft, Typical Japan". But if I were to show them something that digs a bit deeper, they may think differently. Where it's at now, and what's in the spot light now isn't doing much to help that cause.)
But yeah, He's attacking the industry here, not the fanbase (well... he is attacking the fanbase by proxy)
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