Noitamina Editor To Shave His Head As a Penalty For the Poor Rating

Yamamoto Koji, the chief editor of Noitamina, announced to fulfill his promise made on April 29th that he will have his head shaved if the rating of Noitamina (Saraiya Goyou (pictured) episode 3 and Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei episode 2) is low. The rating on April 29th turned out to be 1.7%.

Yamamoto's tweet

However, his head has already been almost bald (see the picture below), so he said he is going to shave his head thoroughly.

Picture of Yamamoto in 2009

Yamamoto said he has been warned by the staff of the production studios so many times that Noitamina is going in a wrong direction. But he didn't give up his belief. He intentionally creates a small disagreement between the trend among the audience and the production staff's mindset. He believes it'll produce an unexpected outcome.

Yamamoto's tweet 2, tweet3

ahaha that's great.

Why does he even bother doing that just because of poor ratings? Jeez.

inb4anotherlolscene

what exactly he will get if he get's bald anyway?

Go baldie ^_^

wow is all i can say

Well, he gets some attention to the aforementioned shows. All he has to lose is what little hair and in return, people that are curious might check out the shows. If people are turned off by the stated low ratings, nothing really changes for that audience.

Life is fun, ravel in it.

Haha, I've heard a lot of people joke by saying "..., then I'll shave my head." before, but this the first time I've heard of someone actually doing it. lol

I'm pretty sure it's just a friendly publicity stunt.

And it never occurred to him that his lack of hair could be the exact reason behind the low ratings and by shaving the rest of his hair off he could cause the ratings to drop to 0?

This is important to know. Thank you very much.

It used to be suicide. Now it's shaving of the head.

How come the ratings are still so low? Saraiya goyou is great series so far though I don't really know about Shinwa Taikei...
But to shave his head for this~~worth?

Sariya Goyou is slow-paced and doesn't appeal to the target audience.

Yojouhan has too much dialogue and is extremely hard to follow without pausing (we're talking about live television here, remember)

Next season on noitaminA, we have an adaptation of a shounen manga (IDK if the novel it's based on is aimed towards male or female audiences, which could be key to it's success, along with the Gackt gimmick) and a live-action series. God help them.

I know that Moyashimon was one of noitaminA's more popular tiles, but can a live-action series in an anime programming block really work?

yeah well at least they're not sticking to the generic shit. unfortunately trying something different doesn't get enough appreciation, even if it deserves it (especially in comparison to a lot of other SHIT that gets popular).

Haha x)

I wonder since when different = good. There's enough shit among the so-called "different" anime, and among noitaminA titles as well. Actually, everything they broadcasted after Toshokan Sensou could go well into "shit" category.

Well, he has to show that he tried to take responsibility for the poor ratings...

You've got a point there~

LOL, is this to get more attention from people? Hmmm...

shit different shows > shit generic shows. probably

also kuuchuu, nodame, and eden are not shit

Fixed. You gave that a 10 and it was broadcast on noitaminA the season directly after Toshokan Sensou.

Personally, I thought that Kuchu Buranko was pretty good from their more recent releases. You do have a point, though, although I think it applies more to "complex" anime vs "simple" anime than "weird" anime vs "normal" anime.

I think that both of those anime are pretty good, but I was just pointing out why they were not doing so well in terms of ratings.

Although I like them, they are certainly not the only contenders for anime of the season. Arakawa Under the Bridge, Giant Killing and Rainbow are also good enough to considered for this title, and I haven't decided which one is the best just yet, although I am leaning slightly towards Rainbow at the moment, but my opinion could change when I see more of the other anime (namely Yojouhan).

ah yeah, well I haven't seen either of them (though I talk about them based on previous works from the same people so I can guess what they might be like); so I'm sure if I watched them I'd agree with you about that.

saraiya hoyou is not a bad show I wonder why... maybe because of the art, it looks like old people

I like Saraiya Goyou... it's not that slow, I've seen way worse. The weird art makes it look like ukiyo-e which fits the settings of the show ^^ Now I'm curious about the mangaka's yaoi manga now, I may go check it out >D

as for Yojouhan... well, just trying to keep up with the subs was exhausting enough, I don't know if I can keep watching it, I don't think I even paid too much attention to what was going on... I don't know how it would be like for a native japanese with the fast speaking... especially at the time it airs..

tbh, if I was in Japan I wouldn't stay up late at night to watch either show, but would probably record sraiya or something like that...

I lol'd.

Nice display of faith towards your own productions.. jesus. Asshole.

Oh wow. I'm not really surprised, but can't help it is a bit out doing.

Saraiya Goyou.. I haven't watched it at all. Probably because I'm always too sensitive to the character art. In case of Youhou-han, I was waiting for whether other subs are going to do it.

However, it's obvious that either of them has zero appeals in ''first look, in terms of art and story. (I just love Yuasa Masaaki's interpretations, although I'm pretty sure it is definitely not sort of thing that appeal normal viewers in Japan house holds.) Kuuchu Buranko was extremely popular novel which is even sold in other Asian markets and Nodame finale was adaption of extremely successful manga, so no doubt there were at least kept 5 % of rating. But five leaves and tatami galaxy? They are too different.... way too much different. And if the difference goes too far, it will be countered.

Also, noitamina is not the only program that airs at that time... there are probably more other factors going on here.

Next season's nomitamina; I'm sure it will be better. Shiki has so much appeals to the general audiences.

Pics or it didn't happen. xD

The problem with Shiki is that it's going to be animated by Daume, who have absolutely no experience with horror whatsoever because they specialise in comedy.

Then there' the fact it is directed by Tetsuro Amino, who has equally little experience in horror anime, directing mecha for the most part. Previous works include Gundam, as in SD Gundam, and Macross 7, both of which are considered to amongst the weakest entries in their respective franchises.

So even if the novel isn't Shounen, I don't have much hope for it, simply because of the lack of experience in the staff involved. If this was a slice-of-life/comedy, then it would probably have been good, as that's Daume's speciality, but I don't hold much hope of them pulling this one off, but you never know...

Maybe this will be some kind of "abridged series" type parody, where it points out all the plot holes and exaggerate stuff on purpose, but I doubt it, even if that's something I would actually like Daume to do (Sensei and Ninomiya-kun is the best part of Minami-ke IMO).

A new strategy perhaps ;)

Well, he showed some faith in his products and...failed miserably.

I think it's a pity that those two shows don't get any real attention. For me they are the only shows which I really like to follow this season. Everything else is either out of obligation or because I just want to see how it turns out.

But well, as many people already said, those two shows just aren't comaptible enough with main stream otaku market. Additionally the extended noitamina slot couldn't be placed any worse, as it's competing (at one end) against a BASEBALL series of all things...
That's as if you would place a new series against soccer in German television...of course almost nobody would tune in.

Even though most of the noitamina shows were genre I did not like, the shows were mostly solid and at least they tried something different. And to me at least Genji Monogatari, Higashi no Eden and Kûchû Buranko were great shows, even later in.

Concerning Shiki...I think it will be a bit more succesfull because of some of the stunts they pulled to make it appeal to people. But honestly, if they follow the manga (which it looks like) it's gonna be average at best.

Hahahaha! My how times have changed, eh?

Well, it got my attention.

I actually love Saraiya Goyou... it's my favorite of the season. They shouldn't be that upset over low ratings, not every single anime can be the most popular thing ever. And just because the majority doesn't like it, doesn't mean there aren't a lot of fans.

Too bad about the ratings, both Saraiya Goyou and Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei are good so far, among the best this season.

No he didn't. They threw in the towel with the first episode. In every other aspect of selling products and ideas, if you don't believe in your own product and vocalize that, no one else sure as hell will. And with stories about apologizing over the ratings of the first episode, that's not a vote of confidence. It certainly doesn't help and probably harms.

How pointless

I like Saraiya Goyou; storyline is interesting enough, and the food shots are great.

Yojouhan pains my eyes, but it looks like it'll be a wacky storyline to follow.

LoL WTF .. tht'a funny

actually .. Saraiya Goyou have a nice storyline .. but Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei .. is horrible =="
i didn't understand anything from it .. the only thing i got from it is the headache & sea sick =="
oh .. but both animes have an interested graphics in a strange way

Saraiya Goyou is awesome so I really don't get the low ratings. I don't see why it wouldn't appeal to it's normal viewers. It doesn't take long to get use to the character designs and the story has this nice slow pace.

Probably a lot of people doesn't seriously and shaving head.. seriously?

I vote seppuku next.

he just want some attention..thats all..geezz..

Well at least it's an improvement.




Picturing an army of baldies is quite scary tho... D:

Dunno why Sariya Goyou is so unpopular is probably one of my favorite shows of this season

This guy is a warrior for all anime that doesn't suck.

Not to mention that fact that it will star Nakamura Yuuichi, who is a piss poor actor...

if not getting fired. shaving his head makes it sound like a joke.

Japan is making progress!

Edit: Darn, it loses the effect when everyone is doing the same thing.

You don't seem to get it. In creating the illusion of "throwing in the towel" by shaving his head, he's pulling a little publicity stunt, which might end up getting noitaminA more viewers. He said he'd shave his head if the ratings were low, which implies that he had confidence in the shows that would be airing. The problems apparently have more to do with a live action show airing before House of Five Leaves... so that doesn't bode well for next season, but we'll see.


This guy gets it.

Actually... even if two anime are equally crappy, I would still prefer some sort of variety in the crappiness. Not just different anime with different hair colors, but the same characters and plot hahaha.

I actually think House of Five leaves is very good.
The animation is unique. The characters are interesting. The plot isn't too confusing, but they're hiding alot of elements still. It has alot of potential I think.
Personally I found this to be the only satisfactory anime of the season =/
All I'm watching at this point is Durarara, House of Five leaves, and Hetalia.