X Killer Cleanup

A few anime/manga examples of Genre-Killer I think are misuse:

• The Otaku Killer and the media circus surrounding his deeds in Japan resulted in the death of the ultra-violent Shounen series. Before that, manga like Fist of the North Star, Devilman, Bastard, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure could get away with large amounts of Family-Unfriendly Violence and nudity despite running in magazines that were geared towards the 8-14 demographic. After about 1990, shounen manga, while still able to show more sex and violence than the average American comic targeted at the same age group, would never reach the same level of content they could before, and extreme violence has largely (with a few exceptions, like Apocalypse Zero, Deadman Wonderland, Attack on Titan or Akame ga Kill!) been relegated to Seinen.

A lot of things here. First, this is referring to an event, not a work. Second, I don't think "violent shonen demographic series" is a distinct enough genre to qualify. And third, it mentions a number of exceptions, one of which (Attack on Titan) was one of the most popular series of the 2010s.

• The success of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its spinoffs have largely killed off the idealistic magical girl series. While several concrete examples such as the Pretty Cure series still exist due to the Grandfather Clause (and even then, Pretty Cure itself still defies conventions by being far more action-oriented than the usual series), most magical girl series now involve re-imaginings of earlier series (Sailor Moon Crystal) or Darker and Edgier original works (Kill la Kill) that subvert some aspect of the genre.

First, "idealistic magical girl series" doesn't seem distinct enough to be considered a genre. Second, it tries making exceptions with mentioning how "several concrete examples still exist", which is also a sign of mis-use. Also, though it's not anime/manga, several Western shows, such as Miraculous Ladybug, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil use a lot of Magical Girl tropes. It is already listed under Genre Turning Point, which I think fits it better.

Should they be cut?

Edited by HaydenM2001 on Oct 29th 2020 at 5:40:02 AM

Yes and yes. I believe your assessments to be correct, although admittedly I don't watch much anime so I could be wrong. I still think they can be cut though.

Found on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater:

• Genre-Killer: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was reviewed and sold so poorly, that it killed off any motivation within the industry to make any more skateboard games for the rest of the 2010s. The success of 1+2 , along with other releases like Skater XL and the news of a new Skate game from EA, seems like the subgenre is ripe for a comeback.

Now, there has been discussion here that a Genre-Killer isn't permanent, and if that's true I accept that. However, the alleged "Genre Killer" here came out in 2015, and the entry claims a comeback is already happening 5 years later. If a genre came back 5 years after it was "killed," is the game that "killed" the genre still considered a Genre-Killer?

In the general sense, yes; a "killed" genre can later resurface.

However, I question if one that is receiving (what appears to be) a strong resurgence less than five years later can really count as killed.

Alright I deleted the example.

I'm starting to notice that the misuse on Genre-Killer is much worse than the misuse for Franchise Killer and Creator Killer. Obviously we'll keep cleaning misuse from the other two, but should something more be done for Genre-Killer besides cleaning it up? I don't know what specifically but Genre-Killer seems to be a magnet for misuse. Should anything more than just cleaning it up be done?

Related to the earlier Drum and Bass entry, and also on Music:

• Depending on where you sit regarding Drum and Bass, Pendulum came close to this, by way of becoming the public face of the genre despite never intending to be in it. Rob Swire himself isn't sure if this has happened, but appears to revel in it, as can be discerned from this extract from his rant on the Dogsonacid forums:
  "Oh, and by the way — I'm not sure if drum and bass is dead or dying (I've been in the studio/on tour too long to tell). However, if your genre was flimsy enough to be knocked over by ONE SINGLE RECORDING ARTIST who happened to — god forbid — sell some fucking records for the first time in about 5/6 years, then I'm glad it was us that got to drive the final stake through its stale pig shit heart — and good riddance. Wake me up when your genre is making something that people outside the scene think is worth listening to again."
  • Arguably, Drum and Bass really suffered more from the development and rise of Electro House and Dubstep more than Pendulum; Pendulum even shifted almost completely to a rock style.
    • With the 2010s rise of Electronic Music in the United States though, Drum and Bass has seen a comeback of sorts (although it's much smaller and niche compared to other electronic subgenres).

The first bullet does not clearly state if Pendulum actually killed the genre, only that they "came close" to it. I think it can be cut, though I feel as though I need second thoughts first.

The second bullet is more clearly legit, as it describes an actual killer, but the following sub-bullet states the genre came back afterward, which goes back to the question "was the entry a Genre-Killer if the genre came back?" In this specific case I'd argue no, as Electro House and Dubstep were both at their most popular in the same decade Drum and Bass allegedly came back, meaning that the window of time in which the genre was allegedly killed was too small for the two genres to have killed Drum and Bass. Any other thoughts?

I think the second bullet should be cut. The trope is about a specific work that kills a genre, not an industry trend.

Alright, it's gone. Thoughts on the first part?

Found on Live-Action TV:

• The advent of digital video helped diminish the need and demand for sitcoms to be shot on video tape. During the 1970s and even on through the '90s, a number of television programs, particularly sitcoms, were videoed as opposed to being shot on 35mm film. Videotape was far cheaper than film, and its processing and post-production costs were far lower. The tradeoff was that quality of videotape was inferior to film and most of the series shot on videotape have not fared well in syndication, especially since the early 1990s. While some overcame the "stigma" of being shot on video (All in the Family, The Cosby Show and Three's Company being among the most prominent examples of this) the majority of such programs have either lost ground, or are simply no longer aired. On the other hand, filmed programs (M*A*S*H, Cheers, Friends, etc.) remain quite popular not only due to the talent of their respective casts, but also in part due to the quality of their production values. It's much easier ("easier" being a relative term) to "clean up" the filmed footage of older program than it is a video. Ultimately, quality and cost were the decisionmakers in the past when shooting television productions in either film or using video.

"Sitcoms being shot on video tape" doesn't sound like a genre. Cut?

It seems to attract enough shoehorning to warrant TRS. I think another part of the problem is that there may be a valid concept of a "Trope Killer", like that South Park episode that deconstructed Save Our Students, that we don't cover yet.

Cut.

I cut the offending example. I'd like to do TRS, but I haven't a clue as to how to do it. I think I need a wick check-should I bring this up in the Wick Check Thread?

Yes. A lot of the entries we've been discussing are on-page examples, so it may be a helpful supplement (but not a substitute) as well.

Yeah, check wicks to make sure it's not just a problem with the page itself.

Alright, I will do that.

Hey there. I had written this entry up for the Film — Studios and Production Companies section of Creator Killer but I'm not sure if it really qualifies. As a matter of fact, I'm getting the feeling that half of the examples on the page don't really fit the description of a 'Creator Killer' as there are some companies that were either taken down by a multitude of flops, went dormant only to bounce back, or were killed for unrelated circumstances (some not even broad enough for a Role-Ending Misdemeanor). I'm not even sure if a company counts as a creator so to speak.

Here is my entry in question:

• Aviron Pictures themselves didn't fare much better. While they started out with moderate hits in Kidnap and The Strangers: Prey at Night, they soon found themselves releasing more bombs as A Private War, Serenity (2019) and After (though it had done well internationally), the latter of which caused the film's producers to sue Aviron for not marketing the film properly. Not helping matters was that key financers BlackRock also sued Aviron for fraud, structural impropriety, and conflict of interest, which resulted in founder William Sadlier being removed from his position. Sadlier was soon prosecuted for defrauding BlackRock by using identity theft to trick them into investing and later using their funds for his lavish lifestyle. He also transferred the COVID-19 emergency fund he applied for into his bank account when they were supposed to be used to keep Aviron's staff on payroll. Now financially drained, Aviron was forced to let go of what would've been their final release The Informer^note later released by Vertical Entertainment and sought bankruptcy soon after.

That example's a weird one. It sounds like After did kill the company partially, but it seems the main factor that took the company down was a massive scandal. I think it fits in Role-Ending Misdemeanor, I believe film companies are considered creators so it might fit there. Unless I'm wrong. Any other thoughts from anyone?

From Trivia.The Last Airbender:

• Genre-Killer: The 11th hour 3-D conversion and the special Razzie it won put a serious dent in the viability of 3-D movies that has not gone away.

I can cut this, right?

Yes. 3D films are still being produced.

ANNOUNCEMENT: There is now a TRS thread for Genre Killer. I invite others to participate.

Could the Youtube Rewind Series count as a Franchise Killer? The backlash against the 2018 version was so strong that it led to a bland 2019 version, and led to the 2020 version getting cancelled altogether.

That's too recent to list as an example, unless you can show reliable sources confirming that the series was officially cancelled after 2019.

From the Franchise Killer main page:

• The ratings failure of Super Mario World, along with the cancellation of Captain N: The Game Master and the closure of NBC's Saturday morning cartoon block, killed off any further attempts to keep the Super Mario Bros. on television. The only subsequent Super Mario Bros.-related television series made since then was The Super Mario Challenge, a live-action game show from the United Kingdom that aired and ended around the same time as World (although one could also count the Donkey Kong Country CGI cartoon, if they considered the Donkey Kong franchise to be part of the Mario franchise). However, Super Mario World may be one of the rarest examples of a cartoon being Vindicated by You Tube Poop, having been a staple of said videos for years.
  • Another, much bigger reason for the show's failure was the passage of the Children's Television Act of 1990, which was designed to put an end to the Merchandise-Driven cartoons that had permeated The '80s. After the law came in to effect, the show effectively became Screwed by the Network since NBC knew it could no longer do what it was designed to.

You can cut the sub-bullet and move it to Screwed by the Lawyers if it is not already there.

This example is on Film:

• In an odd twist, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle also heralded the above sub-genre being shortly succeeded afterwards by the similar "live-action/CG character" sub-genre; with the industry seeing a boom in live-action films aimed at families/kids that featured non-human characters presented in CGI (with the majority of them being adaptations of popular works in other media). While this style of films had first taken its roots with Casper (1995), the genre only really took off with the commercially successful 2002 Scooby-Doo adaptation, which was then followed by a glut of similar films throughout the Turn of the Millennium. By The New '10s, however, audiences' perception of these films began to fall in line with reviewers; who (with rare exceptions) largely panned the subgenre for their increasingly repetitive formulas of narrative beats, Shrek-inspired low-brow, pop culture-heavy humor, "realistic" depictions of characters, and — concerning adaptations — having little to do with the source material. Combined with increased competition and popularity of CGI animated films (especially due to Illumination's successful entrance into the industry, and Disney's return to form following their 2000s-era Dork Age), the declining popularity of live-action family films, and the success of Ted (an adult-geared Deconstructive Parody of the subgenre), the collapse of the genre had a firm grip in the industry until Peter Rabbit in 2018 got okay reviews and was a financial success, along with Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) in the subsequent years, so the genre could live on.