Yeah, I'm not gonna deny their place in the industry but putting them on the same level as Steven Spielberg who changed the entire movie industry is madness.Zephyr wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 8:25 am No. Siskel and Ebert were well known household names. If they talked about something, chances are that thing's existence would be general public knowledge. Meaning, anime was in the mainstream public consciousness.
And this has all been a huge tangent anyway: nobody gonna bring up shit like Astro Boy and Speed Racer?
Astro Boy (and Osamu Tezuka in general) is the godfather of all anime and manga, but a lot of people today don't even know about it. It was way ahead of its time.
Speed Racer's "legacy" is a meme.
The Simpsons show was still pretty damn popular at the time.On closer inspection and reflection, this isn't as incredible as you'd think.
"posted on 2002-09-28"
"Beating out everything from Digimon to the Simpsons and other Prime Time broadcast shows, the season premiere of Dragonball Z was the most watched show on TV last week (week ending September 22nd) for its key demographics."
So, it's a common point of agreement that The Simpsons had a "golden age" in the 90's, after which its quality began to decline. When that moment exactly was will vary. I've seen everything from Season 7 to Season 14 argued, with 9 or 10 being the most common sticking points.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_T ... s_episodes
Looking at this, The Simpsons would have been well past its prime by late 2002, when DBZ had its season premiere. So, DBZ bodied a weakened Simpsons.
The 13th Season of The Simpsons ended on May 22, 2002. The 14th Season didn't begin airing until November 3, 2002. So, DBZ had a season premiere that bodied a weakened Simpsons which was between seasons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_D ... Z_episodes
Looking at this, that DBZ 'season' was much of the latter Boo arc, beginning after Vegeta's sacrifice. These new DBZ episodes were the first ones after a major cliffhanger, the continuation of an ongoing arc.
Keep in mind, DBZ wasn't airing on primetime and FUNimation was basically an indie company at the time yet it was #1 among a sizeable demographic.
In no way at all did it need to do big numbers but it far, far exceeded expectations.
