Forum - View topicThis Week in Games - Pokémon, Kaiju, and Pals
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malvarez1
Posts: 2094 |
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The Nintendo horror teaser was completely out of left field, but I’m here for it.
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Greed1914
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The F-Zero updates are quite impressive. Team Races are especially fun now because it feels more like everyone can contribute meaningfully.
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TsarPlatinum
Posts: 41 |
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If the rumors of Bloober developing it are true then I'm going to temper my expectations. |
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Nekbone
Posts: 42 |
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One of the main goals of Digimon according to the producers of Digimon Adventure was they wanted to target audiences who felt they were too old for Pokemon and were looking for a more mature series that people felt they could graduate onto after moving on from Pokemon. I feel that's only gotten truer over time as Pokémon has toned itself down over the years due to it's focus on reaching global audiences while Digimon has focused more and more on the adult fanbase.
So I don't think Palworld needs to censor itself to appeal to kids although I'm sure there's kids still into it anyway. Plus it means we might see merchandise like figures of the Palworld girls or a late-night anime down the line. I'd hate for Palworld to pull a Shadowverse and completely ruin itself chasing the kid audience. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 636 |
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When it comes to the "older audiences" thing, though, it's worth remembering that they mean "older" as in "ten-year-olds to thirteen-year-olds" vs, like, seven-year-olds. As for the newer Digimon stuff being aimed at adults... a lot of us wish they wouldn't. I really don't want to see Gennai being weird with Sora. I really don't. Nevertheless: your point stands. It's possible to make Palworld aimed at an older audience. I just don't think that that "older" audience will be the "20-30 year olds who are mad Ash never grew up"; it's way more likely it'll be in the ballpark of older tweens and up. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2340 |
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Pretty much; it's the same trap American superhero comics fell into with pandering to an increasingly aging audience and turned an entire genre insular. "Aging with the audience" sounds like a good idea until you realize a lot of that aging audience moves onto other things for one reason or another. Anyway, I have no clue what to expect from Emio but it's always amusing for people to act like Nintendo doing horror is out of left field when they've been doing stuff like this since Famicom Detective Club. They only really do it when there's a neat idea to utilize instead of just doing what everyone else is. Now back to looking at Dragon Quest III stuff |
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King Chicken
 Posts: 129 |
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Yet superhero comics remained insular even after trying to pander to newer and younger audiences. Marvel and DC's problem isn't with appealing to only the fans it's that they generally appeal to no one at all because of how impenetrable they are to get into. If anything the only people still buying them are the hardcore fans who just can't quit due to sunken cost fallacy or optimistic investors who still think the 30th time Marvel puts out a new Spider-Man #1 comic is going to be worth millions someday in the future so they always buy it. Generally speaking the stuff that knows it's fanbase and panders to it do the best. Even in this case we can say Pokemon is pandering specifically to kids because that's it's audience and that's why it'll never do adult stuff ever again like it did in it's first few formative years because it would damage it's reputation if they put out anything like the early anime episodes or Electric Tale of Pikachu. "Growing up with your audience" is just another aspect of that of realizing what your fanbase wants and adjusting to the changing markets and demographics. Pokemon could very well be a case of suffering from success. Even if someone wanted to do an adult Pokemon story in 2024 it would be hard to get off the ground compared to a franchise that's more malleable and able to experiment. The fact something like Digimon isn't the top dog means they have reason and room to experiment to do things like Tri or other out-there concepts. It took the Pokemon anime decades to muster the courage to ditch it's lead protagonist out of fear of rocking the boat. Financially, it's a great problem to have. Creatively? Perhaps not. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 636 |
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Eh, tough argument to make because everything involving comics from The Big Two have the major issue of their distribution chain also being completely clownshoes. Like, you can't just buy comics at a store, you need to go to a specific kind of store that might be out-of-the-way in your city, and your individual purchase doesn't count towards any kind of sales figure because it's a direct market. The untold part of that story is that when comics are made available to kids--say, through means like Scholastic book fairs--they sell gangbusters because that's where the audience is. You mentioned Digimon but that one's blown up in their face because as it turns out, their attempt at making Digimon "grow up with their audience" has just been to make the entire cast miserable (or potentially assaulted), which fans... really didn't like. Or you have the case of Harry Potter, which also famously "grew up with its audience"... and in hindsight has some of the dumbest worldbuilding out there because it went from a Roald Dahl-esque world of intentional nonsense to having to retroactively incorporate rules into how magic worked. As late as the very last book. Ironically, Pokémon is successful at growing up with its audience because Pokémon has recognized how it's been such a massive part of people's lives over the decades and has offered merch specifically for adults. Similarly, while something like Pokémon Concierge is certainly an all-ages show it's also one that you definitely wouldn't make for a specifically kid-oriented franchise. A show about an adult person managing a hotel for Pokémon without any battles or tension in the form of Team Rocket, set to the music of Mariya Takeuchi isn't the kind of thing you'd present to a kid audience. And ironically, it's got the world development people clamor for in Pokémon: this is how everyday life in the world of Pokémon is for folks who aren't trainers or gym leaders. It doesn't have the stereotypical hallmarks for "mature storytelling" (no guns, violence, sex or edgelord bullcrap), but the laidback tone and emphasis on an adult protagonist with plenty of adult anxieties is definitely the kind of thing that would appeal to the older 20-somethings who write coffee-shop AUs. There's a lot you can do to make a story more mature or aimed at adults, people just need to actually grow up to understand what a mature story entails. |
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Zimmer
Posts: 199 |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 636 |
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Bit of a running gag I have, what with all of the Jeanne d'Arcs we have going on in gacha games. Fate has, like, four Jeannes; there were two in Dragalia Lost; Granblue Fantasy has a Jeanne... |
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funkfoot
Posts: 82 |
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I'm a bit hesitant to anime based on video games since they generally seem pointless since most games will always do a better job with the story and characters. But given the type of game Palworld is a one cour series based on the in-game lore and notes depicting the rise of all the tower bosses and their factions would be nice. Or a gag series would be fine given the comics the official Palworld account tends to post. Or if it's just some AU with the characters in a school setting or something like that Final Fantasy 14 Academia Eorzea manga. Or go full Persona 5 and do a Valentines Date POV OVA which was the best thing the Persona 5 anime ever did.
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TheOnePieceIsReal
Posts: 77 |
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I just have to say that I completely agree with what FinalVentCard has said and I'd figured I'd add a bit to what he said.
While there's nothing wrong with works that have blood, gore, violence, edge, and cursing if it relies too much on it then it starts to become derivative and immature. Basically what a teenager would think is "high quality". It can also become too dark and bleak for adults as well as seeing all the characters, major and minor, suffering and go through huge levels of depression can make the work become hard to sit through. Dark and edge are at the end of the day a tool to use to make a good story. No different from cuteness and soft stuff too. But over relying on one does not make for a better product. It's all about having a perfect balance. |
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light turner
Posts: 177 |
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This is sounding more like a deeper dive into personal psychological issues that watching a cartoon or playing a video game should be reasonably be expected to take into consideration. While there no doubt are a section of people who have issues with confronting reality and often embrace children's media as a form of escapism to retreat from their problems I would argue that says more about the individual person than any individual piece of media. The deep dive psychologists and other fields have done into stuff like the "Disney Adult" phenomenon is probably worth considering and if people don't want to engage with media that deals with more than kid-friendly topics or issues that's fine but the option would be nice so it's appreciated that a lot of franchises offer the option. If we're mentioning tokusatsu then it seems like the perfect example of something that can target both kids and adults. I appreciate all the things franchises like Ultraman, Super Sentai, and Kamen Ride do for it's older fanbase even if they're kids franchises. Whether it's sequels and specials of older series aimed at older audiences, or the content in said series themselves attracting adults, or even things like Toei doing pinups of the actors and actresses like when they went full yuri-mode once fans started shipping Hymeno and Rita together in Kingohger. All I'm saying is it'd be pretty cool to actually see a series in the style of that Black and White 2 trailer at some point. I remember when people were hyping that up a lot back in the day to see a "proper" anime adaption of the games. |
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OpenYourEels4TheNextFeels
Posts: 129 |
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Since no one else seems to be talking about in this thread, thanks for the write-up on Ultraman's influence! It frustrating how few western anime fans seem to know how impactful it has been, so any opportunity to inform more people is a welcome one.
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i got the shivers!
 Posts: 114 Location: Brazil |
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Did it age with the fans? I remember Miriam Margolyes said something along the lines of adults into Harry Potter need to grow up because it's a series for kids and still liking it as an adult is pathetic. I saw a lot of people agreeing with her although personally I think a lot of them just did so to hate on Harry Potter since a lot of them were fans of other kids franchises so it'd make no sense for them to agree with someone insulting adults liking kids stuff but turn around and enjoy Pokemon. Hogwarts Legacy might count as it was aimed at adults who always wanted to go to Hogwarts and live the fantasy. Although being nostalgic for something from your youth is probably different than an adult being into a currently airing kids show and having no nostalgic ties to it. Franchises like Transformers and Power Rangers seem to survive off older fan nostalgia alone these days as less kids seem to be interested in them as time goes on. Seeing adults into modern Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network shows can be odd especially some of the more disturbing fanbases who make a kid's show their religion. The idea of adults being into kids franchises can be a tricky one. Although I think it's less strange when a franchise goes out of their way to appeal to adults and invite them to be in the fanbase as opposed to a franchise doing it's best to ignore them and focusing on kids. I would say that people expecting Pokemon to age up with it's audience should probably move on at this point and get into another monster battling series that has but I guess giving stuff up is hard to do for some people. |
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