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04-17-2015, 11:31 PM | #101 |
Neppu Yarou.
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Quote:
The difference?
They don't have a 40 year legacy of expectations to meet. I'm not saying it's not a viable tactic to try to market to both gender groups, but the primary difference is that, as a franchise, attempting to do so would be a major shift in how it operates. Here's an example. Look at the full title of the brony documentary. "Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony" It's not quite the same scenario, but it'll suffice for the comparison. MLP holds a stigma of being for adolescent girls, and when the newest series was announced, it still held that stigma. Friendship is Magic was created not to intentionally attract fans of all genders and ages, but merely to appeal to them at some level (Primarily so that fathers watching with their daughters wouldn't want to chew their own faces off). However, even the most die hard of fans *Cough* can admit that, ultimately, the series still targets the primary audience of adolescent girls, still being a series fueled by toy sales. My Little Pony and Kamen Rider are both decades old franchises, and they actually do the same thing in aiming at the market that will net the most sales. However, FIM's attraction to alternate audiences wasn't an attempt to draw them in and get their money. It was just a unforeseen incident, and even with that, they still put most of their efforts in the toys that appeal to the younger fans, rather than boys and older collectors. Kamen Rider intentionally trying to get the little girl market wouldn't necessarily be successful, and would just as well run the risk of alienating their main market, ending in a major collapse. It's just not worth the risk for a small chunk of the market. The problem therein lies is that scenario doesn't apply to everything. You could literally use the same argument for a number of things, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't take risks without intentionally broadening a brand or reaching out to fans or even creating fans of all sexes, race and age, regardless of how minute people think those sections are. How many black people got into comics because Marvel took a chance with Black Panther? How many girls loved seeing Wonder Woman be as heroic as Superman and Batman? How much did the sales of Batman grow after the introduction of Robin? How many people were fascinated by the drastically different Amazing Spider-Man? And how many people were brought into those growing fandoms because of those gambles, versus how many felt alienated by how different they were from those before? But most importantly, maybe there's a girl that doesn't want to be a Sailor Senshi, or a Precure, but a Kamen Rider. Not a secondary- who's toys, even the child aimed ones, get relegated to web exclusives, -but a title character, someone to look up to, someone to emulate from a franchise she may already love or wants to get into. If Kamen Rider didn't fall because of Shin, Gaim, or a lead Rider that outright forgoes a motorcycle all together, a lead Female rider will not kill the franchise or even cause a collapse despite how stubborn attitudes towards women are in Japan. "Tradition" be damned, that's a pitiful slippery slope excuse to not do it. They can still make a toyline the way they normally would, the can still try to make the show appeal to everyone, just with a female in the lead role. They can take the risk, and I believe it's one worth taking. |
04-18-2015, 12:06 AM | #102 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
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It just feels that Toei has a very knee jerk reaction when it comes to decisions, wanting to pin the blame for low sales on an easy target, such as rumors that they blame Hibiki's low sales on Shuki.
So when I couple that willingness to blame the one off beat change with sales akin to Go-Busters, all I can picture are a group of higher ups going "See, we tried. It failed. Not doing that again" as if they're unwilling to look at any other trouble points and just picking the easy target for what caused the failure. Despite how I may sound, I'm not against a main female Rider in the slightest. I guess I'm just more afraid how poorly it'll be handled and used as a scapegoat for why a series is bad.
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04-18-2015, 12:12 AM | #103 |
Tree Princess
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 1,420
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one thing you guys need to take note is that Toei has had Kamen Rider go into ratings death TWICE, both leading to a long hiatus, so they probably aren't too trustworthy of new ideas or different things, because it doesn't matter if the end product is good or bad, the ratings do matter. ;-;7 Amazon deserved more love back in the day.
I say the slow and steady route of slowly introducing some secondary female riders would be the safest bet. you get to have more females, but not take the spotlight, and when you've got the idea of more female riders situated comfortably in the public eye, THEN you can work on a female rider. I don't think ANYONE is opposed to a female main rider, but if it were to be NOW, no. it would be too big a risk for Toei to take a chance in. but take note, the last thing you want to do is force a new idea as something special. keep all the tokenism out of the character.
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04-18-2015, 12:24 AM | #104 |
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I don't think any of us are against the idea. Nor are we so desperate to see it that we'll die painfully if we don't get it. We just have varying levels of confidence & faith in them for trying it & doing it right.
Like you said, they're quick to blame their creation for mishaps despite the fact that they created it themselves. Rather than trying to make it better next time they'd sooner sweep it under the rug. My feelings & thoughts are, though, that a change in marketing & merchandise (Go-Busters) is different than a change in a cast member (main female rider) because of fans' responses. It's pretty easy to guess that people will be vocal about a change in a line of heroes' gender after so many years & strong opinions will arise because of it. Both good & bad of course, but they're there & they're loud. That's what's important. It's more likely that people are more passionate about that than how one year's mecha toyline were made & distributed. That's why it's easier to blame Go-Busters; not nearly as many people are offended by it. If they tried to make a female main Kamen Rider a scapegoat it wouldn't be as easy because people would eventually speak up. I can't say how much when comparing countries, but I'm sure someone somewhere in Japan wants to see a female main rider just as much as we do, if not more. All we need is that one Kamen Rider heroine to get their foot in the door. The one that can get people talking. Mind you, that won't guarantee success or equality. But it's a chance to get there, one that hasn't been there before. |
04-18-2015, 02:50 AM | #105 |
I FOW our new Hasbro OLs
Join Date: Nov 2013
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Another thing to consider is Toei owns both Precure and Sailor Moon so why would they change either SS or KR to appeal to little girls when they already have that demograph covered?
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04-18-2015, 01:41 PM | #106 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
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It's less people wanting it to appeal to young girls, and more for Kamen Rider to be a show to appeal to all demographics.
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04-18-2015, 01:54 PM | #107 |
I FOW our new Hasbro OLs
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Quote:
Hasbro considers Transformers an appealling to all demographics franchise despite there being only 1 woman on the team.*and even that's spotty at best* |
04-18-2015, 02:27 PM | #108 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
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Quote:
Additionally, the most recent series, Prime and RID, feature a female character in a lead/important role. While Arcee may not have been the most important character in terms of plot development, she was arguably the main character of Prime. The equivalent would be having a Sentai where the lead character would be one of the female rangers (She may not necessarily be the leader of the team, but the character the audience is made to follow and connect with). It's harder to create a brand that appeals to all demographics when the "Main character" spot is, often times, a solo hero. Note: Not impossible or implausible, just harder.
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04-18-2015, 02:43 PM | #109 |
I FOW our new Hasbro OLs
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Quote:
That's a substantial difference due in no small part to Transformers having a huge cast of characters.
Additionally, the most recent series, Prime and RID, feature a female character in a lead/important role. While Arcee may not have been the most important character in terms of plot development, she was arguably the main character of Prime. The equivalent would be having a Sentai where the lead character would be one of the female rangers (She may not necessarily be the leader of the team, but the character the audience is made to follow and connect with). It's harder to create a brand that appeals to all demographics when the "Main character" spot is, often times, a solo hero. Note: Not impossible or implausible, just harder. |
04-18-2015, 03:00 PM | #110 |
Tokusatsu Hero
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 6,588
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Y'all do know that Arcee's been around since the 80's right?
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