TheMikado wrote:sintzu wrote:Kinokima wrote:I am just arguing with the fact that the sole purpose of the series is to sell merchandise and that telling a good story is not important. I don't see that at all.
What I'm saying is that unlike before, the story is being written around the merchandise. Black for example turned out great so someone cared enough about the story to make him the best he could be. Other things like what they did with Trunks was a mess and most likely wouldn't have been done had the show not been as merchandise driven as it is, he most likely would've been used just as support like in the manga.
The phenomena of creating cartoons with the primary purpose of selling merchandise is a very well documented and applies to many of the shows currently in rotation. Pre-cure I believe is a contemporary example while transformers is an example of the an older model of this. There's actually been quite a few books written about this process in Japanese anime and how it devalues the quality and "artistic merits" of the medium. That being said it is certainly possible to do both.
The argument however is that previously the anime was made to promote, sell, or capitalize on the manga. Your example of One Piece is excellent. The end product is the story. It's designed to be good to continue viewership first and foremost.
Other types of shows viewership may be a secondary concern to the merchandising aspect.
Well I did mention mecha shows which are definitely designed to sell toys of the mecha. But that doesn't mean they can't have a good story.
As for Pre-Cure it is hard to compare it to Super since I personally don't watch it but I do know adult fans of the franchise.
As for One Piece even though the manga is the main product one can argue that the fact that it is so popular has extended its life beyond where it was originally meant to go (in fact I don't even think we need to argue this. It's definitely true). I am not saying One Piece isn't still good (as I've fallen so far behind I wouldn't know) but the fact that keeping a popular series ongoing now is probably more important than the integrity of the same story. But that doesn't mean that you can't tell a good story and prolong the life of something like One Piece.
Wanting to use a show to market toys doesn't mean the writers don't care about the story. In fact if they want to sell toys they
should care about the story & the characters. Of course we can argue if Super is any good or if its integrity has been compromised. Personally I think not.
I think some fans are worried that it may go on past its prime. Its a valid concern. But then Japan has series even longer than Dragon Ball and One Piece that are still popular to this day. One can argue that Dragon Ball as a franchise has gone beyond most other anime series that just want to tell a simple story (and please note as a general rule I do prefer my anime series to do just that) . It and its characters are iconic. Whereas now you have parents who watched DB as kids watching this new series with their kids.
So I agree that Super may not be telling a story with a beginning, middle or end. I see it as more spending time with favorite characters and seeing "certain stories" for them play out. But then again maybe I do look at it differently because even with DBZ it was the characters not the plot that I was most interested in.
