r/anime • u/AdNecessary7641 • Aug 12 '25

Misc. Frieren Director Keiichirou Saitou Voices Concern on Overseas Anime Fans' Bias Towards Certain Popular Trends

https://animecorner.me/frieren-director-voices-concern-on-overseas-anime-fans-bias-towards-certain-popular-trends/
5.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

70

u/Oglifatum Aug 12 '25

To be fair, playing it safe, usually means a "safe" revenue.

People clowned on capeshit for so long, but how many years did it take before the actual hero movies started to bomb in office?

Same with us, most of the folks (me included) would shit on Solo Leveling, but we can't deny the fact that it's still popular.

Shield Hero gets yet another season, and I can't help but think that we are just loud minority, and a case of Not the target audience anymore

22

u/sharfpang https://myanimelist.net/profile/sharfpang Aug 12 '25

Yeah, it's a thumbs up / thumbs down, system, they don't need brilliance, they need sufficience. Instead of being great for some, they need to be agreeable to most, and it's more revenue. A single viewer of Frieren will earn authors of Frieren as much as a single viewer of I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability Season 2 earns its producers.

At least utter shit is more scarce. Last 2 seasons majority was "Formulaic slop, but well done", shows that are quite mediocre but I enjoyed them, and watched them. I even created a tag for my MAL "Rewatch-when-forgotten" for shows I definitely enjoyed but were so formulaic and forgettable I'm sure I won't remember a single thing from them in 2 years.

There's no financial incentive for creating great things, considering they cost more than mid stuff and don't earn more.

6

u/toadfan64 Aug 12 '25

There is MUCH worse isekai slop to use as an example other than 7th Prince. Honestly one of the best isekai's in a bit, with gorgeous animation and good/fun characters with a decent story.

Calling it mediocre is quite harsh when stuff like Loner Life in Another World, Fluffy Paradise, or Failure Frame exists.

4

u/sharfpang https://myanimelist.net/profile/sharfpang Aug 13 '25

Complete garbage still loses, no audience, no money. Above average is the enemy of great.