However, top ten on rightstuf also isn't a decent indicator of market penetration. Getting sales on a otakucentric site is a minimum. If it been gotten on the billboard video sales charts in a significant position, that would be a real success. Also, for every Eiken, you have 9 flops, and well, you can't support 9 flops with one Eiken. You can't even do that with one Evangelion (ADV.)
Yeah, truly fluid/consistent animation is not in play in the shows listed (Haruhi they are not,) they couldn't seem to stick their character sheets, and wackyness hinges on the show sticking the humor, which requires good direction, which was also absent. Thus, even a fanservice show can be held to some pretty standard quality measurements. It's little things that make that world of difference between Tenchi or Ranma or Onegai Teacher vs. Daphne in the Brilliant Blue or Onegai Twins or the harems on our listed series. It isn't just the hi-jinks or the bounce, it's how and what you surround them with.
I mean, let's take Midori Days, which on concept sounds like a prime suspect for a worst of list. However, it sticks all the technical hallmarks, and it does so by giving the humor and drama (which defines and sells your characters) the same attention as the fanservice (which means the direction had to be good.) Good direction often comes with good animation and storyboarding (as it does in Midori,) but even in the absence of good animation, you can cheat if the direction is good (Evangelion is the ultimate example of this, but even shows like Niea_7 and Legend of Black Heaven brilliantly underscore that principal - direction covers more failures than fanservice ever can.)
Yeah, but the shows on our list are often lauded by their supporters for delivering story in addition to the titillation (even Kiss X Sis, which is no doubt more more vapid than KnJ) but I would contend otherwise because the titillation (which there fans would contend is secondary or at most par) gets in the way, and then does damage not only to the story, characterization and direction, but also to the technical aspects by creating inconsistent quality through out, jarring viewers out of there suspension of disbelief with suddenly stiff or off-model animation or clumsy pacing or storyboarding. To buy in at the point where the story/animation is being mucked up with service, then you have to be enjoying the fanservice alone, and that kind of fanservice hasn't sold in the US, making them a very poor pick up for a US company.
I mean, if you want to do a fun fanservice show, it's gotta be fun, not a chore. You want to make an emotional/dramatic fanservice show, you have to feel for the characters. You want to do both in a service, you've got to be brilliant because you're juggling a range of emotions, and if you don't, you're gonna drop the ball, and that's exactly what happens to the shows on our list. The service out runs the directors ability to stick the other elements they are attempting to interject, undermining their overall intent.
In short, they are exactly like a martial arts film made with bad actors who can't fight, and a director who can't even capture/compensate for the pulled punches.
I guess on that basis, I concede that Queen's Blade wouldn't make it if it'd been unlicensed. It's a porn show, and it pretends to be nothing else but a porn show, and a nicely rendered one at that, so yes, it's a success. It's still a questionable pick up because unless it was dirt cheap it won't pay for itself as it's audience is too narrow (and too prone in the US for skipping out on DVDs and buying merch instead since they probably already watched it via various methods sans payment.) It's also still not something I'm ever going to recommend over something that uses it's sexuality as part of a more rounded, polished package that actually tells something of a story.
PS: 400+ downvotes. No one is ever going to touch that. Thanks internet
Yeah, truly fluid/consistent animation is not in play in the shows listed (Haruhi they are not,) they couldn't seem to stick their character sheets, and wackyness hinges on the show sticking the humor, which requires good direction, which was also absent. Thus, even a fanservice show can be held to some pretty standard quality measurements. It's little things that make that world of difference between Tenchi or Ranma or Onegai Teacher vs. Daphne in the Brilliant Blue or Onegai Twins or the harems on our listed series. It isn't just the hi-jinks or the bounce, it's how and what you surround them with.
I mean, let's take Midori Days, which on concept sounds like a prime suspect for a worst of list. However, it sticks all the technical hallmarks, and it does so by giving the humor and drama (which defines and sells your characters) the same attention as the fanservice (which means the direction had to be good.) Good direction often comes with good animation and storyboarding (as it does in Midori,) but even in the absence of good animation, you can cheat if the direction is good (Evangelion is the ultimate example of this, but even shows like Niea_7 and Legend of Black Heaven brilliantly underscore that principal - direction covers more failures than fanservice ever can.)
Yeah, but the shows on our list are often lauded by their supporters for delivering story in addition to the titillation (even Kiss X Sis, which is no doubt more more vapid than KnJ) but I would contend otherwise because the titillation (which there fans would contend is secondary or at most par) gets in the way, and then does damage not only to the story, characterization and direction, but also to the technical aspects by creating inconsistent quality through out, jarring viewers out of there suspension of disbelief with suddenly stiff or off-model animation or clumsy pacing or storyboarding. To buy in at the point where the story/animation is being mucked up with service, then you have to be enjoying the fanservice alone, and that kind of fanservice hasn't sold in the US, making them a very poor pick up for a US company.
I mean, if you want to do a fun fanservice show, it's gotta be fun, not a chore. You want to make an emotional/dramatic fanservice show, you have to feel for the characters. You want to do both in a service, you've got to be brilliant because you're juggling a range of emotions, and if you don't, you're gonna drop the ball, and that's exactly what happens to the shows on our list. The service out runs the directors ability to stick the other elements they are attempting to interject, undermining their overall intent.
In short, they are exactly like a martial arts film made with bad actors who can't fight, and a director who can't even capture/compensate for the pulled punches.
I guess on that basis, I concede that Queen's Blade wouldn't make it if it'd been unlicensed. It's a porn show, and it pretends to be nothing else but a porn show, and a nicely rendered one at that, so yes, it's a success. It's still a questionable pick up because unless it was dirt cheap it won't pay for itself as it's audience is too narrow (and too prone in the US for skipping out on DVDs and buying merch instead since they probably already watched it via various methods sans payment.) It's also still not something I'm ever going to recommend over something that uses it's sexuality as part of a more rounded, polished package that actually tells something of a story.
PS: 400+ downvotes. No one is ever going to touch that. Thanks internet
