Author: John Oppliger
Source: Anime Nation
Dated: April 2nd, 2003
Question:
I heard somewhere (possibly in your column) that the Japanese don't generally have a lot of loyalty to anime titles and always want to see something new. I also read your recent comments on "Renewal of Evangelion." It seems like Neon Genesis is the exception to the rule, as far as people's continuing interest in Japan goes. Do you think this is the case?
Answer:
Based on my very limited, second hand knowledge of Japanese fandom, I wouldn't call
Evangelion exactly an exception to the rule. With roughly 75 new anime TV series released
in Japan every year, it's certainly understandable that Japanese fans would tend to forget
about older programs in favor of new ones. In the same way that American TV programs from
the past like Twin Peaks, for example, still have small and very devoted American fan
followings, anime programs like Evangelion, which is now an 8 year old show, still have
small cult followings of hardcore otaku in Japan. The extensive character popularity poles
published each month in Animage Magazine prove that 10 year old anime characters still
have a following among devoted Japanese fans, but these hardcore fans represent only a
small minority of the millions of Japanese viewers that watch current anime broadcast on
Japanese television who care very little about shows that were broadcast five or ten years
ago. A little bit of legwork will further support this theory with the fact that it's
relatively rare for an anime TV series to get a second season if it's been more than a
year since the prior season has ended. In simple terms, what's out of sight is out of
mind, and a series that's been out of the mainstream public eye for more than a year in
Japan has probably lost 85% or more of the audience it had when it was current.
Evangelion is an unusual case, but not really an exception. Allow me to clarify that I
like and respect the show quite a bit, but I'm not nearly as devoted to Evangelion as many
American fans are. Once again, a little bit of research will adequately prove that
Evangelion is Studio Gainax's golden cash cow. For the past eight years, Gainax has
perpetually kept new Evangelion merchandise and video games filtering out to the
relatively small market of hardcore Japanese otaku that continue to buy them. In a
brilliant marketing strategy, Gainax has managed to turn the third Japanese DVD release of
the series into a media event by utilizing a massive multimedia advertising campaign.
Renewal of Evangelion contains no new animation footage, and it is at least the third time
the Evangelion TV series has been released on DVD in Japan, but full page Japanese
newspaper ads, free promotional DVDs included in Newtype Magazine, a TV re-broadcast, and
the catchy tag-line "An Evangelion no one has ever seen" have managed to turn
what would normally be a mundane marketing ploy into a highly anticipated event. Gainax
Studios does produce exceptionally well written anime, and few studios can match the
animation quality of Gainax drawn action scenes, but Gainax is also a studio will an
easily documented excessive love of profit, capped off by the studio's 1998 criminal
investigation on charges of tax fraud and subsequent arrest of studio president Takeji
Sawamura on charges of concealing 1.5 billion yen in profit by falsifying company business
records. Gainax Studio's continued release of Evangelion merchandise, including multiple
remix CDs of previously released music, repaint and alternate versions of previously
released Evangelion toys, and not one but two Evangelion typing tutorial video games, in
addition to the heavily hyped Renewal of Evangelion, all seem to suggest that Evangelion
is not so much a legitimate exception to the Japanese trend of mainstream interest in old
anime titles cooling off as it is a masterfully orchestrated marketing scheme successful
in taking advantage of a small cult following and turning it into a major, mainstream
international event.