Producer of Noitamina Apologizes For Poor Rating of Saraiya Goyou

by dtshyk
Apr 16, 2010 5:55 AM | 72 Comments

Yamamoto Koji, the producer of Noitamina, apologized to the staff for the low rating of Saraiya Goyou in his twitter. According to his post, the rating of the episode 1 was 1.5%, which was considerably low compared to other Noitamina series (eg. Nodame Cantabile Finale: 3.9%, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: 5.8%, Higashi no Eden: 4.8%, Moyashimon: 5.2%).

Generally, rating of an anime program aired after midnight doesn't matter to its producer since the business model mostly relies on the DVD sales. However, keeping high rating is crucial for Noitamina to maintain the timeslot because they aim to attract the general viewers, who rarely purchase anime DVDs

Sources: Yamamoto's tweet, Mainichi, Web Anime Style
related topic: Noitamina Suffers From the Discrepancy between Rating and DVD Sales

20 of 72 Comments Recent Comments

No moe ...is seems to be the problem ...

Apr 27, 2011 1:12 AM by BlackSnake56

Yes, i'm a female too and this story is really interesting to me. Dont expect all female to dislike this just because it's seinen. >_< I have other female friends who are in love with this anime too.

Apr 27, 2011 12:39 AM by sakurai93

no second season...?

*sniff sniff*

*cries*

Mar 13, 2011 5:43 PM by eyerok

tehnominator said:

kuroshiroi said:
looks like it's too intellectual and not very fun.

kuroshiroi said:
Doesn't interest female viewers

kuroshiroi said:
reasons are all kind of related

What are you saying here?

In any case, I'm surprised that Moyashimon got higher ratings than something like Higashi no Eden, but I suspect the audience that watches that time slot would have liked a zany college humour anime rather than a series about political intrigue.

Sorry to bring this up again, but I agree with thehominator, I'm female and I loved this anime, the art, the mostly dark ambientation, the characters, the story and of course the social critique.

Feb 1, 2011 7:42 AM by Yakarin

On the other hand though, at least these shows are getting made. They might not get good ratings, and there may be less of them, but in America, when a show doesn't get good ratings, it gets cancelled after two episodes. At least these shows can finish. No golden age can last forever. I think it's pretty unrealistic to expect tons of great shows every season for years and years.

It's pointless to complain about the state of the anime industry, because no one in the industry really cares. If you want to make a difference, get your friends to watch the shows on Hulu (they keep track of how many people are watching) or go buy the DVDs of shows you really like if they're released in your country.

Jun 24, 2010 5:51 PM by removed-user

kuroshiroi said:

Doesn't interest female viewers, apparently it's a seinen about Samurai.

Please don't stereotype girls. There are those of us who are interested in shows like these.

Jun 17, 2010 11:16 PM by starrysky

I'm not the least bit surprised. Looking at the DVD sales and popularity of various shows, when is the last time a true seinen has done well? Seinen is a genre virtually doomed to failure these days in the anime market, regardless of quality.

Look at Kaiji, One Outs, Kaiba, even shows like Michiko to Hatchin and to a lesser extent Detroit Metal City. (At the least the latter roughly broke even)

The things that make money are softcore porn shows with 12 year old-looking girls AND/OR adaptations of popular visual novels AND/OR simplistic shoujo AND/OR slice of life high school romcoms AND/OR the less macho, more cartoony shounen.

With a few exceptions, that pretty much covers everything that has done well in the last 2-3 years.

So essentially, producers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They can either make pandering crap which still has no guarantee of making money because of how similar all these shows are, or make a potentially great show that will lose them money.

The conclusion being that working in the anime industry is not worth it. Small wonder guys like Watanabe, Kon, and Kawajiri have been inactive.

May 11, 2010 11:11 PM by YoungVagabond

Hatman said:
TL:DR. I think it's not the fans or the producers of the show that are to blame so much as the obnoxiously one track mind of the anime industry.

I agree with most of your comment but what is the anime industry made of if not of its fans and producers/studios?

Maybe it is best if we dump the guilt on luck...

May 11, 2010 7:08 PM by mirichan00

It is a great shame that House of Five Leaves has been such a commercial failure, I think we can all agree that it deserves better. To say that viewers or producers caused it I believe is both right and wrong in various ways. The fact is that the anime industry is suffering pretty badly. Studios make shows to appeal to fans, the fans mindlessly gobble it up, the shows succeed and all is well. At this point it would be stupid to try and break from the norm. When the novelty of a type of show wears off, however, the formula for success that has gradually emerged becomes useless and the hunt for a new big thing begins anew. Just look at the moe boom of the last few years and you should see it has oversaturated the market. Many people were annoyed by the announcement that there would be a second series of K-ON and there would be more moe shows this season, so experiments like House of Five Leaves are necessary to try and find something new that will make money. However, if studios were more diverse in their program creation then issues like this would be less likely to arise, as then there would be a wider selection of known ways to succeed instead of having seasons almost exclusively filled with slice of life shows about high school girls or whatever the latest fad is.

TL:DR. I think it's not the fans or the producers of the show that are to blame so much as the obnoxiously one track mind of the anime industry.

May 11, 2010 5:12 PM by Otakuisine

mirichan00 said:

Commercial failure and quality may not always go together. That was just the point I was trying to make. So yeah, call me a fool.

Yes, making a quality product may not always insure success, but the reason I called you a fool is because you were saying that it's the viewers' fault that the show is getting bad ratings. All I'm saying is that the viewer is never to blame for the ratings, it's always the product. If you want to make a highly artistic experimental anime, that's fine. Good on you, but don't complain when you don't make any money off it. As a director, you should know the marker well enough to know what could generate a profit and what could not. This guy seems to have known he was going against that, but didn't care, so he gets no sympathy from me, now that his show bombed.

May 10, 2010 5:13 AM by DmonHiro

DmonHiro said:
You are a fool. The purpose of anime is to make money. If your anime can't make money, then you have failed. He was even warned by his team about this, but he ignored them. In business, you can never EVER blame the consumers if your product does not sell. No producer will ever be proud about not making money (unless it's the ef anime, but that one did sell a lot, just that they overshot their budget).

tl;dr: if an anime doesn't sell/get rating, it is a commercial failure. That is fact.

No need to offend or to state the obvious. Though, it only took me a single view at your list to understand your comment.

Commercial failure and quality may not always go together. That was just the point I was trying to make. So yeah, call me a fool.

May 10, 2010 2:13 AM by mirichan00

mirichan00 said:
The producer needs to know that the problem is not Saraiya Goyou or all the previous Noitamina anime. The problem is the people and their bad taste. Saraiya Goyou is a great anime. It's not the staff's fault that it can't mingle with all the moe-bishie-emo crap that is spreading among the industry.

This news is ridiculous. The producer should be more proud.

You are a fool. The purpose of anime is to make money. If your anime can't make money, then you have failed. He was even warned by his team about this, but he ignored them. In business, you can never EVER blame the consumers if your product does not sell. No producer will ever be proud about not making money (unless it's the ef anime, but that one did sell a lot, just that they overshot their budget).

tl;dr: if an anime doesn't sell/get rating, it is a commercial failure. That is fact.

May 10, 2010 12:44 AM by DmonHiro

The producer needs to know that the problem is not Saraiya Goyou or all the previous Noitamina anime. The problem is the people and their bad taste. Saraiya Goyou is a great anime. It's not the staff's fault that it can't mingle with all the moe-bishie-emo crap that is spreading among the industry.

This news is ridiculous. The producer should be more proud.

May 9, 2010 1:09 PM by mirichan00

It's Noitamina. I thought everything on that timeslot was destined to have low ratings. Saraiya Goyou just happened to be the lowest.

May 9, 2010 12:47 PM by Soundtrack

I thought the first and second eps were rather dull, not much complications here and there, just intriguing. Moreover, still no clear plot. Too much senseless slice-of-life.

May 9, 2010 9:02 AM by Dunkjoe

This happens in America too. Remember Arrested Development? They aired it during the Olympics for christs sake. And Firefly?

The good thing about anime is it usually doesn't get cancelled midseason because they're usually pretty short. Although it would suck if noitamina got pulled. I think their shows are the only good ones this season (Senkou no Night Raid on Anime no Chikara is not that good).

Apr 29, 2010 4:27 PM by removed-user

Ah well if it's competing with Oofuri and Durarara that might explain it.. super tough call having to choose between these 3 (and if I were watching them live, Oofuri would have won out for me because I'm already a fan). But that doesn't necessarily mean people hate the show. I'm adoring Saraiya Goyou so far- love the art, the story and characters, so it might just be an unfortunate time slot.

Apr 27, 2010 3:24 AM by crowtree

I think many people are still confused about the expanded slot and the 'otherness' of those shows, so they need some time to get used to them, especially because they start relatively late in the season...those were all rather bad decisions regarding series' like that.

I just hope they don't ditch the whole concept of giving 'strange' shows a chance with noitamina

Apr 23, 2010 3:39 PM by seizonsha

It went up, which is good! Because it sort of validate the argument some made about Saraiya Goyou being in the expanded noitaminA slot.

Apr 23, 2010 8:19 AM by omo

Ahuri said:
Yesterday's ratings, from 2ch:

1.6% - 24:45-25:45 - Fuji TV - noitaminA - Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei - Saraiya Goyou

Yeah, pretty low, but not unexpected.

Apr 23, 2010 7:06 AM by DmonHiro

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