Wii Puts Japanese Television Under Pressure 98
Knuckles writes "The Times reports that Japanese consumers have been 'abandoning television' in order to play with Nintendo's Wii. Recent figures from Japan's audience-tracking firms show that 'last week was the first in nearly two decades where no single show on any commercial station attracted more than a 9 per cent audience share ... According to one senior executive of the country's largest commercial television channel, Fuji TV, families who used to tune in to its colourful diet of soap operas, panel games and comedy variety shows may, instead, be drifting away and choosing to spend the same, economically-critical golden hour time playing on their Wii.'"
Re:Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
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Gay "black face". I'd say thats pretty repressed. Make a characature of a gay person done by a straight person. I'm sure it'd be pretty offensive if we did that here or subsituted gay with spanish or chinese.
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Eric McCormack (Will from Will and Grace) is straight. You were saying?
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And the US is a paragon of acceptance and liberal attitudes. In fact your president rode in on a platform partially about gay marriage. I didn't read it but it must have been progressive and positive.
Mod Parent off topic & Flame Bait (Score:1)
Do some research before flaming please.
In a country with almost no laws on discrimination over age, sex, nationality, sexual orientation, education, voting history, or musical tastes a positive character, stereotype or not, is a big step (yes even if he is a Pro Wrestler / Comedian).
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Re:Maybe (Score:4, Funny)
Do you find this comment more disturbing:
A) In context?
B) Out of context?
C) Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
D) Cowboy Neil?
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Of course he is (Score:2)
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TV is going the way of the Dinosaurs? (Score:4, Interesting)
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I guess that's what Wii Fit is for, although... now that I think about it, you could conceivably put a comfy chair on top of the pad and control it by shifting your weight around on the seat.
Same as World-Class Track Meet for NES (Score:2)
Nintendo's vision was that you'd play World-Class Track Meet by running/jumping in place on the mat to simulate the necessary running and jumping in events.
People eventually realized they could just cheat by pounding down on the mat with their
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I agree. Kids who play Wii Tennis while sitting down? Unheard of! Until now, of course.
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Japanese TV quality (Score:1)
You can just turn on the TV and there's almost always something interesting, funny or nice. But life in Japan is very busy and time is very limited. It's a tough tradeoff.
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Nintentdo to sell TV sets next to their consoles (Score:1)
Secret reliable sources say that Nintendo will start to sell TV sets as well...
Journalism, or Nintendo press release? (Score:3, Insightful)
But television is destined to become as irrelevant and ignored as commercial local radio stations. Maybe one day we'll get to reclaim the bandwidth that it wastes, and use it for something more worthwhile.
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Local Radio Stations Irrelevant? (Score:1)
So? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Except that lately, even their anime is sucking. (unless you happen to enjoy cardboard cutout fanservice series, that is) It started about three or four years ago, and while there have always been a couple of good series, they are getting pretty thin.
Right now it looks like mainly just Lucky Star, and Oh Edo Rocket (which is getting severely neglected by fansubbers, at 2 episodes subbed out of 16 so far; looks like it's time to find some raws). And Blue Dragon may not be the best series, but I've been watc
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Sturgeon's law applies to Anime. But then, don't apply your tastes and assume that everything you don't like -is- in fact bad.
And to the GP, the move away from TV to the Wii will definitely affect Anime. You don't seriously think they actually release directly
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Depends on the quality. See, there's this thing called "Otakus" that wouldn't miss their favorite anime just to play Wii.
Think about it - the article says PRIME TIME. In other words, for all the family. Anime isn't exactly "for all the family". It's aimed at either teenagers or children. And don't forget that Anime, most of the time, is a byproduct of Manga.
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Well, you have to look for the really good series (i.e. Fullmetal alchemist). Unfortunately, they're rare
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Err, not that I watch either show. Cough.
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Baccano! looks neat, and starts next week. Maybe your taste in shows just sucks?
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Except that lately, even their anime is sucking. (unless you happen to enjoy cardboard cutout fanservice series, that is) It started about three or four years ago, and while there have always been a couple of good series, they are getting pretty thin.
I have to agree with you. Of course, when I got into anime, the shows I was introduced to were a "best of" from the last two decades so it seemed like anything that came from Japan was gold. No, it's just that the importers only brought over the best of the best. If you were a 13-yr old boy from a far distant country and your introduction to American cinema consisted of Star Wars (original trilogy), Terminator 1 and 2, Alien, Aliens, Predator, Matrix (first one only), Boondock Saints, Casino Royale, Braveh
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Excuse me? What about Gurren Lagann (Gainax at its best), Seirei no Moribito, Bokurano, Dennou Coil, Darker than Black, etc? Even the "generic" shounen anime of the year, Claymore, is pretty enjoyable.
Your statement may have been somewhat true in 2006, which was mostly dominated by Haruhi, but so far 2007 has a fuckton of excellent titles. Lucky Star is actually one of the worst examples from this year.Akira desu!~ (Score:2)
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What's anime have to do with it? (Score:2)
1) Kiddie stuff shown in the after-school time slot.
2) Otaku-oriented stuff shown at night on premium channels like WOWOW and direct-to-video stuff.
The stuff they're talking about is all live action: soap operas, comedy shows, game shows, etc., and Japanese live-action television takes Sturgeon's Law to 11.
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The Internet and game consoles have replaced TV for me.
Yup. (Score:2)
Not sure how to take this... (Score:2)
2) Bad news. Japanese watching less TV => likelihood of fewer cool anime shows being made => bad for me as otaku
Actually... I'm with Japan on this. Wii > Anime. But it's a damn tough trade-off to make!
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So you can have your Wii and new Anime, but it requires the anime fans support the studios.
Re:Not sure how to take this... (Score:5, Funny)
* examines T-shirts, wallscrolls, DVD boxsets, figurines dotted around room *
* examines ridiculous amount of bandwidth being consumed by Azureus for Haruhi-related purposes *
... I probably come out around even.
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Under Pressure (Score:3, Funny)
At first, I tought that japanese television were under pressure with all those flying wiimotes. Imagine all the stress the TVs must have when someone starts to play the wii, they never know if they're gonna make it or not.
It will never really be significant (Score:2, Funny)
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I haven't had a TV for years. I assuring I'm enjoying my PC, consoles and anime.
This isn't about Television sets, this is about service.
Also, the only numbers were given are for the low TV viewers. There's nothing that suggests it's due to the Wii or anything else. For all we know the Japanese have all taken up outdoor activities.
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And be prepared to go there for a line-up at around 7:00 (yes, in the morning, possibly even on saturday).
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Then again, it was at Costco, and the Sample Grannies are all at the other end of the store handing out food. If there's one thing that can trump the Wii, it's free food. Maybe that accounts for
No reports in the Japanese press? (Score:3, Interesting)
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I found one page in Japanese reporting that there was such a report in British news [news-digest.co.uk]. The report is based on a comment of one TV executive, and many Japanese disagree [livedoor.jp] to his analysis. They say that it's because recent Japanese TV sucks.
Agreed, dramas are stale, I hear (Score:2)
Also, I found it amusingly predictable how it didn't take long for someone to blame Soka Gakkai for it all.
Too few Wiis to notice? (Score:2, Interesting)
As much as I love my Wii, I find it very hard to believe that there's enough of them out there to really make a noticable difference.
Well, not totally outside the realm of possible... (Score:2)
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Pick any major network show in the US, and drop it's viewership by a million or two, and people will be VERY concerned. Every ratings point is worth big bucks. Take the numbers from your prime-time (i.e. costly to produce, highest ad revenue) programs, and the crying turns to wailing.
Japanese TV (Score:3, Insightful)
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This is so true. (Score:2)
TV was the worst par
Golden hour (Score:1)
Well... (Score:1)
TV don't worry (Score:2)
There, is that enough repetitions to make it true already?
Ironically... (Score:2)
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