Magical Girls not Popular in North America

The genre does well in the European countries(to thew point where they started to make their own), but not so much here in North America.

Why less interest?

Magical Girls not popular? Ha! They played Sailor Moon back in the day here and it was well watched....until what's their name pulled it from foreign distribution.

Madoka seems to have garnered a lot of interest too.

Yeah, to be fair, it's not as if any other Magical Girl series has had mainstream exposure to the US. (There was Cardcaptors, but we all know about that debacle.) so it's really hard to say.

I feel that Nanoha (the first two seasons at least), could have made a bigger splash over here if it had aired on Toonami(either on-air, or Jetstream).

Execs take one look at the costumes and transformation sequences and demand that the series be marketed to little girls, which would require some alteration. The series that does make it through loses a lot of what made it special in the first place and ends up tanking. Replace, wash, rinse, repeat.

edited 3rd Aug '11 6:06:08 PM by Recon5

Well Tokyo Mew Mew Mew Mew Power was popular over in the US. It only got canned because 4Kids failed to get the second half of the series.

Outside of anime, Winx Club has been hanging around for several years now, although it probably doesn't have to face as many alterations as the average Magical Girl anime.

MG is a popular concept even in North America, particularly because of Sailor Moon and many that came after.

Isn't Winx Club an European series?

The fact that Winx and W.I.T.C.H. get screen time in North America is proof that it has some popularity. Off the top of my head, and idk if this qualifies, but the last one I can think of produced in America is The Life And Times Of Juniper Lee.

edited 3rd Aug '11 11:09:34 PM by Scherzo09

It would be far more popular if people actually marketed right (let people know they exist and are not for two year olds....) I think Nanoha would of been big (Nanoha As would of been huge.) Maybe even Heartcatch Pre Cure.

Madoka I hope will change things

Then again, isn't Madoka only big in real weaboo/otaku circles? I mean we're talking popularity in mass market appeal here, right? I don't think Madoka's themes and content would be digestible by Magic Girls nominal demographic. Is there an English dub in the works?

Yep. Madoka's getting dubbed.

LOLZ. Madoka will shock parents across America, thinking this anime is for kids. Cue HEADCHOMP and NOMNOMNOM, killing you best buds while losing yourself, and angst several dimensions long.

Now that will be a sight to see.

Sadly, it probably will be marketed as the dark series it is. Which will make it all the funnier when ignorant parents purchase it for their kids.

edited 3rd Aug '11 11:28:28 PM by Spirit

Of course, it doesn't actually make a goddamn difference if Magical Girls are popular in North America or not. The only people who buy anime in the US are anime fans. No children will mistakenly watch Madoka because their parents thought it was for kids because their parents will never know it exists because it won't be on TV, won't be in Best Buy and will only be available at online retailers that cater to anime fans.

So, you know, who gives a shit whats "popular"? Just watch the goddamn shows if you like them.

Actually Best Buy's do have an Animu section in their DVD department, so....

But yeah, Madoka won't air on TV. I think that should be its own topic, how can anime get more of presence on cable tv. Seems to me in recent years the old standbys like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon have opted to create their own content to franchise rather than license out anime to broadcast. Is there anything that can change that?

Edit: Popularity is important because there means there is a higher demand for a certain thing, thus more content. You run the risk of a lot of shit getting produced, though.

edited 3rd Aug '11 11:36:53 PM by Scherzo09

I'm saying that Madoka will almost certainly not be in Best Buy's anime department. I know they have it, I'm not stupid.

But its being released by Aniplex, who has demonstrated that they do not give a flying fuck about casual buyers, which is, as far as I'm concerned, the proper strategy to take.

Yeah true. TBH, I don't think anyone besides maybe Sy Fy would run it, and even then that'd be a tough sell. Its themes are too dark to be marketed to kids, but its aesthetics and the Magic Girl genre on a whole just wouldn't appeal to most young adults. So its pretty much only marketable to a niche, anime consuming audience.

Still the whole senario, if ever it DOES happened, will 4ever be blog-worthy and LOL-able.

No, it about as funny as all those "HURR HURR WHAT IF 4KIDS DUBBED <insert show 4kids would never even know existed>"

Its not funny, its juvenile and all it does is allow people to make dumb jokes about how stupid something that would never even conceivably happen is. Which is just dumb. Its been done, and its not funny.

Oh come on, watching parents FAIL is fun.

And it will really call attention too: a parent complains and CNN reps would rant again how anime is a virus of sex and violence as much as drugs are and senators will use that for the next elections... It's domino, US-is-partly-a-duffus-country, fun.

No, its not funny. Its not funny now, it wasn't funny 2, 3, 4, 7 whatever years ago. Its boring and all it leads to is stupid comment threads about things that NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

No one gives a shit about anime. Especially not late-night otaku anime that never sells more than a few thousand copies in the US. They NEVER cause any controversy, people always go "ZOMG THIS WILL BE SO CONTROVERSIAL WHEN LICENSED!" and it never, ever is.

The fact that they're letting Adult Swim play Durarara!! kinda counters that argument. I believe I even read somewhere that they PAID [AS] to air it. ([AS] usually never airs an anime if its DV Ds are already out.) Granted, it may only be a rumor, but it gives me a bit more hope that Madoka will get an Adult Swim airing. I guess whether or not it does all depends on how DRRR does in the long run.

Most Japanese media hardly gets any controversy when it gets brought over here anyway. Let's put it this way: If the methods of summoning Persona in Persona3 didn't cause widespread controversy that would rival that of GTA's, I doubt anything will.

edited 4th Aug '11 12:11:55 AM by Rynnec

And I said IF anyway.

LOLZ... did everyone shoot their heads when summoning in P3?

edited 4th Aug '11 12:15:33 AM by djmaca

But his point is that AS doesn't matter. Broadcasters and Cable Providers beyond those who cater to Otaku just don't care. Anime's popularity in the mainstream peaked in 2003 or 2004 I think, and its been declining ever since. And even then it was stuff like Pokemon, Yugioh and DBZ. There's no way in hell Madoka will have any kind of culture impact here. Even Miyazaki films, with their Disney backing, barely make a dent over here.

So that means what? I dunno what Americans watch, Glee? Or NCIS Los Angeles?

Meh, so what does kids do? Study, sleep or play? SO they haven't heard what anime is?