J-List is in “last-minute shipping mode,” picking and packing packages and rushing them out to everyone at a fast pace. Thanks to the new DHL express shipping from Japan, currently available to the U.S. and Canada only (other regions coming in 2020), the last day to safely order and receive your order by Christmas is December 22. Want to save a little money instead? Our EMS half price shipping sale goes on until December 26! And don’t forget the last-minute 10% Christmas Sale we’re giving you, starting today!
I’m taking off work early today so I can head down to Tokyo and see the new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with my son. It’s always fun to have a new Star Wars film, to pick apart and complain about this production choice or that, despite the fact that we’ll all feel very differently about the film after a year or so has passed and we’ve watched it a few more times. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Anime, Star Wars and the Rise of Fandoms
I’m of a certain vintage that I experienced Star Wars back in the theatres in 1977. I was immediately enthralled and started collecting Star Wars figures and carrying a C-3P0 lunchbox to school every day. I idolized Ralph McQuarrie, the lead designer of the mecha and visuals for the film, and re-read my copy of The Art of Star Wars so much that I wore it out.
It’s interesting to trace the explosive growth of fandoms since the appearance of Star Wars. I say “fandoms” instead of “fandom” because, over the decades, the world has become ridiculously overcrowded with different franchises, all vying for our love and attention. Are you an active Star Wars fan, geeking out about The Mandalorian each episode? How about Star Trek? Doctor Who? Game of Thrones (the books or the HBO series)? Do you love the John Wick action films? Do you follow the smart American animation series like Adventure Time? There is an infinite number of choices for us as fans today.
And as I’ve written before, this has meant that the “long tail” of popular series like Star Wars once got to enjoy, with fans taking years to comfortably interact with the story and characters at their own pace, has been cut down to a very short tail. Today, the mass of competition by various TV shows, movies, video games means that we’re always being pulled in different directions. This is the main reason that movies have changed so much over the past 20 years and is why almost every movie in theatres is a sequel, prequel or a reboot of something you’re already familiar with. It’s just too dangerous for studios to take a chance on something totally fresh and new, with all the competition out there.
Anime has changed, too. I have fond memories of the slow days of the mid-1990s when J-List could prepare for a year or two for a show that was popular in Japan, like Evangelion, to slowly be noticed by fans around the world. We could stock up on figures, music CDs (which we used to sell back then) and other items and wait for anime fans to latch on to the new show over several months.
But those days are long gone. Today there are so many anime series produced — there are 90 new-and-continuing series in the current season alone, not counting films or OVAs — that each gets only a tiny slice of fans’ collective attention. For every breakout series like Kobayashi-san’s Dragon Maid or Kaguya-sama: Love is War, there are many shows that are popular while they’re airing, yet are forgotten instantly by fans the minute the final episode ends. (This seems to happen much more often with 1-cour shows rather than longer series with 24 episodes.) This is why a great show like Princess Principal didn’t enjoy any lasting success with fandom once its final episode aired.
Will the “short tail of anime popularity” trend continue? What if instead of a minimum of one 12-week anime season, popularity lasts only for a few weeks, or days? Will anime one day be like YouTube, with this or that video going viral, then being forgotten immediately after? And with American streaming sites increasingly providing funding for anime (thanks, Netflix and Amazon!), will sequels and reboots like Brave Witches one day take over anime?
Got any comments about anime, Star Wars and the rise of “fandoms”? Any topics you’d like us to write about in the future? Tell us on Twitter!
It’s almost time for a certain man in a white beard to come down the chimney, but J-List has one more present for you: a last-minute J-List Christmas Sale through Dec. 22 giving you 10% off ALL items on our website, except for preorders. Since we’ve got a fast new DHL shipping method, you can get your items by Christmas, too. See more details on our DHL shipping here. The last day to order is December 22, so get your orders in fast!
