The anime and older fans

[SinnohEevee]

So we have seen that the anime doesn't give any consideration to older fans, going from older characters not getting recent follow-ups to (for some people) M20. Why do you think is that? Do you think that fans outside the target audience are a very small minority? The anime is too popular to care about us?

Yes, I know this show is for kids, not grown-ups, but so are the games, yet they try to cater to older fans too. Heck, Game Freak even remade some older games and said they would continue to make new ones, even though they could have just said that little kids don't care about Hoenn and that they won't remake it.

The manga (Advantures) too seems to revisit past regions and characters, even though they could just do like the anime (some say there are too many characters to keep track of, but I barely read it so I don't know).

 

[Wishy-Washy]

They aren't the target audience and their less likeable to buy the merchandise. THat and probably something to do with Japanese culture and how most of the adults time shuld be devoted to work and such things, I don't know I'm just making guesses. Remeber Game Freak doesn't make the anime so what they think probably doesn't count.

 

[SinnohEevee]

They aren't the target audience and their less likeable to buy the merchandise. THat and probably something to do with Japanese culture and how most of the adults time shuld be devoted to work and such things, I don't know I'm just making guesses. Remeber Game Freak doesn't make the anime so what they think probably doesn't count.

I know what Game Freak does doesn't count, but the games show that you can appeal to both little and grown-ups, and it sells well for them.

Do other popular long-running shows intended for kids, like Naruto and One Piece, care about older fans?

 

[Wishy-Washy]

I think Naruto and One Piece are aimed more for an older audience than Pokemon with them aiming more for Teenagers. Also I have no idea about whether Boruto and One Piece care about older fans, but its a different case than with Pokemon with each series Pokemon tries to appeal for a new audience so that they will buy the games and merchandise,while Naruto and One Piece has one continuous story that the fans are expected to watch from start to end so they don't have to appeal to older audiences because they are expected to watch the story from start to end to know how the story finishes.

 

[Silktree]

I wish they would just create a separate series for an older audience. How naive of me to think that the movie could serve that purpose.

 

[SinnohEevee]

I wish they would just create a separate series for an older audience. How naive of me to think that the movie could serve that purpose.

Would they make profit by appealing to older fans?

 

[Wishy-Washy]

Probably not from them buying the games or merchandise which they are probably already buying or won't buy, in which case watching the anime again probably won't convince them to buy them if it didn't the first time they watched.

 

[SinnohEevee]

So I guess that even if one day, all the grown-ups stop watching, TPC won't give a damn.

 

[Jaye]

My take on it is:

When it comes down to it, whether older fans are watching the anime or not doesn't matter so long as they're continuing to buy the games. From a money viewpoint, the games are far more profitable than the anime. Hence, the games make more of an effort to keep the older fanbase invested. The drop in game sales prompted the launch of Pokemon Go and the bigger focus on Kanto Pokemon to target people's nostalgia for the series.

The anime, on the other hand, is more of a window for new fans to become invested in the series. Kids may become interested in buying the games if they see the show. The anime doesn't need to cater to the older fans because, ultimately, they already have us. To use an anecdotal example: I would have brought all the games regardless of whether the anime was still airing or not. But for a child, it's more likely that they'll turn on the TV, see the show and get into it than for them to see the game in a shop and get into it that way.

That an older audience still watches the anime is almost like a happy bonus. From their perspective, they don't do anything to draw older fans in but keep getting older fans watching regardless, so all they have to do is count on their loyalty.

 

[Wishy-Washy]

Does anyone have any idea how many grown-ups watch compared to children?

 

[Silktree]

Would they make profit by appealing to older fans?

Yes, they definitely would if they created at least one movie for said series. Kanto nostalgia would be needed for maximum profit, but I don't see the problem with that.

The upcoming movie pretends to be about nostalgia. Because it fails at that so miserably, it won't get a theatrical release outside Japan.

And before anyone says it: No, I don't want an exact retelling of the original series. A sequel with an older Ash would be just dandy.

 

[Hidden Mew]

So we have seen that the anime doesn't give any consideration to older fans, going from older characters not getting recent follow-ups to (for some people) M20. Why do you think is that? Do you think that fans outside the target audience are a very small minority? The anime is too popular to care about us?

Yes, I know this show is for kids, not grown-ups, but so are the games, yet they try to cater to older fans too. Heck, Game Freak even remade some older games and said they would continue to make new ones, even though they could have just said that little kids don't care about Hoenn and that they won't remake it.

The manga (Advantures) too seems to revisit past regions and characters, even though they could just do like the anime (some say there are too many characters to keep track of, but I barely read it so I don't know).

The remake example isn't a good one since they aren't remaking games simply for older fans. That certainly is a factor, but it's also to introduce these regions for people who weren't fans or even born when the original games came out. Not to mention the video games are more profitable than the anime, so they wouldn't remake a game simply because of kids might not be familiar with Hoenn.

As for Adventures, they usually revisit past region and characters if they're covering a remake, such as with the HG/SS and OR/AS arcs. There are other cases where they include other characters though.

Does anyone have any idea how many grown-ups watch compared to children?

I don't know how we'd be able to determine that exactly. I assume that older fans are a minority compared to the target audience, but I don't think we have any numbers to go with it. I don't know if ratings include data on people watching it older than the target audience or if that would be all that accurate given how people could still watch the show online instead.

I don't think this is a case of the anime staff not caring about older fans or being too popular to really factor us in. I think it's more like they don't expect a large group of people to still follow the anime for years. I've heard people losing interest in the anime for years to the point where it's kind of expected for people to not follow it by a certain point. With the games, that isn't as common as it is with the games. It still happens of course, but I do think that there is a larger amount of older fans playing the video games than those who have watched the series for ten or more years.

Even now, if you talk about the anime with other people, the chances are pretty good that they'll be shocked that it's still going on more than anything else. The anime's primary service is to promote the games and you can definitely see it as a means to introducing the games to kids as well. If they see cool/cute Pokemon on TV, then they may want to get the games to train them. I got into the franchise because of the show and that eventually led to me getting the games. I'm sure that the staff involved would be happy with anyone enjoying the show, but it's not something that they actively seek out to do with the anime.

Personally, I've never been bothered by how they don't cater to long time fans. It would be nice if they could do a project to appeal to long time fans and I think it could be profitable depending on how they handle it, but focusing on just the target audience has always been their goal. Even when they were throwing in more continuity references, kids were still the target audience. Just because I'm watching the show nearly twenty years later doesn't mean that a clearly kid show should cater directly to me. It's like complaining that the anime has to promote the game. The anime has always been a kid's show designed to promote the newest games. The fact that I'm watching well outside of the target demographic doesn't change that nor should it.

 

[Jaye]

The only thing with a separate project catered to older fans is that making anime is expensive and not very profitable, regardless of the audience. At best, they may do OVAs (Pokemon Origins) or a series of shorts (Pokemon Generations), but something like a full series - even one that was only 12-24 episodes - would be a big ask to do alongside the main anime.

I also don't believe this type of thing would be as profitable for them as some may believe. The drive of most anime is to boost the sales of something else, usually merchandise (hug pillows, figurines, DVDs, art books, stationary sets, CDs, posters, etc.) or the source material (manga, light novel or game, usually). Game sales are very healthy so there's no need to drive those up by specifically targeting older fans (especially as there were much cheaper ways of doing so available) so they'd be looking at merchandise sales and how likely it is that their audience will spend money on things.

 

[Silktree]

Hello... A short series would lead to a movie, which could be insanely profitable. Add that to potential Kanto sequels and game promotion would be involved, too. That is to say, kids could be interested in the separate series (through their parents in some cases!) and, in turn, the Kanto games.

Digimon Adventure Tri has a much weaker reason to exist (alongside the kid-oriented Appli Monsters) and it still does. Let's not give OLM and TPCi any excuses.

I like the fact that Hollywood is working on a Detective Pikachu movie of all things, but I don't understand why OLM can't do something innovative for once. And no, replacing companions and storyline elements for the hell of it isn't innovative at this point.

 

[Unbeatable HoennMon]

@QueenEevee
It's very sad but incredibly true what you always write...
I was always curious why they simply can't do anything like DigimonTri.

 

[SinnohEevee]

So it won't make them profit showing back older characters instead of the countless CotDs?

 

[Wishy-Washy]

I think the problem with that is that it would be hard to fit previous characters in a plot that CotDs are made to be a part of.

 

[Silktree]

That remains to be seen for Makoto and what's-his-face, lol.

 

[SinnohEevee]

That remains to be seen for Makoto and what's-his-face, lol.

If M20 proves successfully, then they may just make a Sinnoh movie without Dawn.
And since it's Pokémon, I expect M20 to still make enough money.

 

[Silktree]

I don't know if it will make more money than the last one, which did... badly by Pokemon standards. It may be more interesting, but it is sure as hell controversial for 20+ year olds who are a chunk of the typical movie viewers.