Tuesday Notes...

Sigh...

Patience, I keep telling myself, is a virtue.

So is keeping your initially committed-to launch date, though, as well.

I think they should just watch Kaleido Star over again themselves. I mean, Sora overcame so many trials (including low sales!) you'd think they could learn something from her.

I'm just gonna be over here in this corner muttering to myself. Don't mind me.

It's not "difficulty selling it to retailers", there's this thing called the Internet nowadays, and they themselves declared Princess Tutu would be one of the web-only titles not that long ago. It's not that the show has lack of interest, if it did they'd have not ever licensed it. What it IS, is ADV wanting to push stuff that sells far more and therefore fattens their wallets more. Even to the extent of losing money on other titles. (They're being very short sighted here.)

If Magical Girl shows are hard sales it's because nearly every major US anime company continues to ignore the fact that there are actually little girls that, you know, might be interested in shows like that. Given the ties many of them have with Japanese parent companies it continues to amaze me that they can grasp the concept of a market of little girls in one country but not another. I was saying this back when WB butchered CCS to make Cardcaptors as well. If someone will take the "chance" and market a title like this at young girls it'll do incredibly well. I will admit one problem there is getting the major broadcast networks to air it. They still think cartoons are only watched by young boys.

Ultimately though ADV's just doing what they do best -- walking all over their fans and making up excuses that are easy to tear apart. They've been doing this as long as I've known of them (dating back to 1997) so why would they change now?

Much as I love it, I don't reckon Princess Tutu would sell well to young girls in the West - there's no tie-in merchandise, it's bloody weird, gets very dark and has no exposure aside from its DVD release. Anime is not the kind of thing that young girls (or boys, for that matter) are going to go after sight unseen - it would need massive TV exposure or something along those lines, something which Tutu would never get - partly because it is far, far too girly to attract a large enough audience, partly because it may well prove too adult, and also because ADV keep their properties on Anime Network with very very few exceptions ;)

Tutu is a niche title. An exceptionally good show, indeed, but its audience is very small - while hardcore fansub watchers all over the place extol its virtues, Joe Suncoast is going to have no idea what it is, and one look at the tutu-wearing little girl is going to send anyone with an ounce of testosterone (the core anime buying audience, compared to the massive female demographic for manga) running for the hills.

While I am obviously not exactly chuffed about its release being indefinitely delayed, I can understand why ADV has pulled it in some ways - they're definitely going through a tough patch at the moment; it seems as though they've splurged on a lot of underperforming licenses and expanded too quickly (this may not be the truth, but who knows?) and are now feeling the effects. In such circumstances, of course they're going to play to their financial strengths - they can't afford to churn out underachieving titles at the moment, basically, and both Kaleido Star and Tutu fall into this category.

It's not to say that there's no market at all for shoujo - DN Angel is selling extremely well, although the busty female characters probably contribute to that slightly. But ADV took a gamble on Tutu that hasn't exactly paid off in dividends, and they're being cautious about their next steps.

I'd like to know how Geneon's new shoujo properties like Ultra Maniac and Kyou Kara Maou! do, though. Hopefully there is enough of a market to sustain SOME releases, at least.

(plus I damn well want Honey and Clover licensed pronto!)

BluWacky: I think the Anime and Manga markets both (at least here in the US) have reached much closer to 50/50 male and female interests than people give it credit for. That it's gotten that far is amazing since little has been done to target anime (in particular) at a female audience of any age. Using the excuse that the market doesn't exist for it will only perpetuate both the fact and the attitude.

I probably made it sound too rosey, but if done right, and pursused, not backed away from, there's a market there waiting to be opened. I come at this from a different perspective than some may though, I grew up in the 80s and I distinctly remember that My Little Pony, Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake were all enormously popular -- with little girls. Two of those have made a comeback now and both (Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake) are doing quite nicely.

I haven't watched Princess Tutu so I don't know about it getting dark and all, but I'm not sure it's fair to say that would turn little girls off. Who's to say they wouldn't like something more interesting than what little drivel is given to them? Basically there's Barbie (mindless, even bad for self-image), Care Bears (nice, but the message of caring gets old after a while I'm sure), and Strawberry Shortcake (no clue, I know very little about it).

As far as niche titles, isn't ADV's announcement of "web-only" titles intended for just that? I see this as their telling two tales of what they're going to do with titles in demand by fans in two months. They could at _least_ pick a story and stick to it!

I agree fully on their financial state though. Personally given the announcements of the last few months I think they looked at the manga market, got greedy, tried to jump in too far too fast and the undertow got them. I really suspect all of this is backlash from the manga division generating red ink by the cubic ton. I also wonder how well Newtype is doing. For a magazine that costs over $10 an issue retail I expect some semblance of accuracy. Frankly I could write the section on now playing from watching raws and be more accurate than they are, and I know almost no Japanese at all!

I too wonder how Geneon's shoujo titles are doing. Ultra Maniac is one that could do really well if marketed right (I actually am familiar with the story of it, unlike Princess Tutu). It would be a nice coup to see them get it on TV during the afternoon or saturday mornings. :)