The fall season has been underway for both anime and Hollywood and as much as I do follow anime, I follow the Hollywood side just as much. So far this season, the cancellation wagon has been pretty light with only two casualties in the first month or so with Lucky 7 and We Are Men. Neither are surprises, but it is surprising that there aren’t more of them.
The anime season is a far different beast with what it does in how shows are made, where they’re largely planned commercials for products and the home video release, so they’re not bound by the same problems Hollywood faces with their seasons. But it does make you wonder, if anime series were to get cancelled after the first few episodes, what would that do to the industry? And how would fans react to it? At this stage of the game, fans know that even if their show has a small audience for its twelve episode run, it’s almost guaranteed to finish out so there’s a certain safety in it. That also allows low performers to bring some diversity to the market as they can try something offbeat and different that may not always click. But it also brings in a bit of safety that keeps some shows from challenging themselves. Of course, when the end goal is promoting more of the manga, the music or the people involved in some way as well as merchandise, the show sometimes isn’t all that important.
What anime series do you think should be cancelled, either in this current season or should have been given the red light early on in their runs years past?
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…the only manga based series that I can remember getting an “American” style cancellation is Bt’x-stopped mid arc with a end of series card in the end credits…