The corporate world has noticed that fanbases, more so than individuals, can be weaponised for mega sales. It's like Taylor Swift, billions of devoted fans and streams for the most mundane, repetitive, intellectually boring music, which is all driven by a rabid fan base that marketeers have truly dialed into. This trend is made worse by the fact the in the 2020s we're in a worldwide artistic lull in the entertainment world. There really isn't much choice against quality.
With a constant demand for stimulation and escape, quantity definitely trumps quality in many spheres. Fans have always been impatient, but my sense is that they would rather have something, anything, to feed the connection, rather than wait for carefully-crafted perfection. I feel for both sides, because it can't be fun being insatiable for stimulation all the time, nor is it easy being a creator with that pressure looming over you.
That's a great way of putting it. No one is waiting 4,5 years between albums and films like these anymore. It's like fast food. Cheap thrills society. Happy for the last one to be done so we can go onto the next. Same in the world of literature now, people want to finish the book before they've started it, just a desire to finish it, rather than slowly 'be with it' so to speak. So authors have adopted that to their way of writing novels. I just can't help but keep going back to the slow, thoughtful tone and making of Miyazaki as the benchmark. His work to me is standing out even more as years go by. Similar to Ozu, whose work just looks better with every passing year.
I think one reason why even a movie that is "repetitive, unimaginative, and overlong, less a story than a string of battles punctuated by flashbacks" is doing well is that it has limited quality competition. If other anime or movies were released that were better then fewer people would want to watch it. But AFAICT Hollywood and most other sources of video entertainment are producing dreck that hardly anyone cares about.
Good point. I also wonder if “Oshikatsu”superfandoms play a role. Many Japanese fans went to see it multiple times - I’ve seen some claiming 4 or 5x! - to show support & “hang” with their favorite characters. This is probably true to some degree abroad as well.
It did not go the way I expected. Unlike Infinity Castle.
FYI. The Entertainment Strategy Guy writes on his Substack today about the “Taylor Swift Box Office Fallacy” and how it applies to this Demon Slayer movie. You may find it interesting.
Thanks for pointing it out to me. I can’t read the fallacy part as it’s unfortunately behind a paywall, but I do agree with the assertion that data is often, if not inherently flawed itself, being used in a flawed way.
Netflix metrics are truly opaque; I suspect this is by design as it lets them tout different genres as“the most popular” as needed.
Diehard fans may well be inflating the numbers, but only to a degree, because there’s no arguing with demon slayer’s success at the box office. I just do not believe it represents some kind of great sea change in the way anime is going to be made, consumed, or distributed. It’s just another (big) hit.
The corporate world has noticed that fanbases, more so than individuals, can be weaponised for mega sales. It's like Taylor Swift, billions of devoted fans and streams for the most mundane, repetitive, intellectually boring music, which is all driven by a rabid fan base that marketeers have truly dialed into. This trend is made worse by the fact the in the 2020s we're in a worldwide artistic lull in the entertainment world. There really isn't much choice against quality.
With a constant demand for stimulation and escape, quantity definitely trumps quality in many spheres. Fans have always been impatient, but my sense is that they would rather have something, anything, to feed the connection, rather than wait for carefully-crafted perfection. I feel for both sides, because it can't be fun being insatiable for stimulation all the time, nor is it easy being a creator with that pressure looming over you.
That's a great way of putting it. No one is waiting 4,5 years between albums and films like these anymore. It's like fast food. Cheap thrills society. Happy for the last one to be done so we can go onto the next. Same in the world of literature now, people want to finish the book before they've started it, just a desire to finish it, rather than slowly 'be with it' so to speak. So authors have adopted that to their way of writing novels. I just can't help but keep going back to the slow, thoughtful tone and making of Miyazaki as the benchmark. His work to me is standing out even more as years go by. Similar to Ozu, whose work just looks better with every passing year.
I think one reason why even a movie that is "repetitive, unimaginative, and overlong, less a story than a string of battles punctuated by flashbacks" is doing well is that it has limited quality competition. If other anime or movies were released that were better then fewer people would want to watch it. But AFAICT Hollywood and most other sources of video entertainment are producing dreck that hardly anyone cares about.
Good point. I also wonder if “Oshikatsu”superfandoms play a role. Many Japanese fans went to see it multiple times - I’ve seen some claiming 4 or 5x! - to show support & “hang” with their favorite characters. This is probably true to some degree abroad as well.
(This could well be akin to the Taylor Swift effect Jerome mentioned in a separate thread.)
Another banger of a blog. Thanks Matt.
It did not go the way I expected. Unlike Infinity Castle.
FYI. The Entertainment Strategy Guy writes on his Substack today about the “Taylor Swift Box Office Fallacy” and how it applies to this Demon Slayer movie. You may find it interesting.
Thanks for pointing it out to me. I can’t read the fallacy part as it’s unfortunately behind a paywall, but I do agree with the assertion that data is often, if not inherently flawed itself, being used in a flawed way.
Netflix metrics are truly opaque; I suspect this is by design as it lets them tout different genres as“the most popular” as needed.
Diehard fans may well be inflating the numbers, but only to a degree, because there’s no arguing with demon slayer’s success at the box office. I just do not believe it represents some kind of great sea change in the way anime is going to be made, consumed, or distributed. It’s just another (big) hit.
Great article ! Could not agree more