Madhouse Studios Forum

I saved myself a link yesterday to this 2ch thread hoping that there would be a bunch of comments later for me to do a big Japan Responds post-- but it looks like Japanese otaku aren't really very interested in anime adaptations of big Marvel properties. 
 
The thread is about an anime!anime! article announcing that Madhouse will also be adapting X-Men and Blade into anime as they're already doing with Iron Man and Wolverine (which we already knew as of Comic-Con). But as of this writing, the only responses I had were:

"I wonder if I'm the only one who doesn't find a Japanese manga-style cartoon very interesting."

"It's really becoming a gray area..."

"Only kids and reals* will watch it."  

(* Real-juu (リア充) is, in fact, Internet slang for non-Internet nuts-- people who live their lives more or less fully IRL rather than online. I kid you not.)

"Which is higher ranked, Osamu Tezuka or Stan Lee?"

...Not exactly a very excited response. On the other hand, I think commenter #3 kind of hits the nail on the head: the people who are most likely to watch these anime, depending on their time slots, are people who got into the Hollywood flicks when they were released, a mainstream audience, not so much otaku. Of course, if they force it into an anime timeslot, the projects could be doomed...domestically, anyway. 
 
But therein lies the key: what doesn't sell in Japan could sell here. Just like how Dragonball Evolution made almost no money in the US, but more than made up its expenses overseas. But...in reverse!

Speaking of, Iron Man is currently scheduled to air in Japan this April, along with the other spring shows I just spotlighted.    

As long as Madhouse doesn't go too off-the-wall with their adaptations of Marvel's properties, then the likelihood of an anime adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series would make me all the more giddy.

 Does anyone know how well the X-Men Animated Series (from the 90s) did with the Japanese dub that TV-Tokyo did? 
 
Off course the anime otaku don't care for it, there won't be enough moe to keep them interested.       
/thread

@crusader8463: But it was "in reverse" so it's okay, right? 
 
@Dream: I would love to see that-- but I don't know how likely it is. ^^; Actually I'm still kind of amazed I haven't heard any significant gossip about a movie given all the comic property snatching up that happened a few years ago. 
 
@Halberdierv2: Real-juu is my new favorite Japanese term =P

@gia: Rumor has it Hollywood tried doing a very dumbed-down version of Sandman in the 1990s which Neil Gaiman strongly hated.

I've only seen the briefest trailer for the Iron Man and Wolverine animes. Iron Man seems fair, but the Wolverine version looks completely off. Far too 'pretty'. Their Wolverine looks like some sort of pretty boy. It looks too Trinity Blood. A much better fit for a Wolverine story would be examples like Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo. Mugen was kind of a Wolverine-esque character. A little more reality based and gritty.
 
When it's considered that Dragonball Evolution had a budget of $45,000,000 and it only grossed $57,000,000 world wide. That's looking at only a $12 Million gross profit. If you consider the $9 Million it made domestically "almost no money". That's hardly making up for expenses. Also consider that the $57 Million is gross and not net profit. There is also adverting costs to be considered as well as other overhead expenses. Not all of that money went back to paying off the production of the movie.
 
I site an example:
The blockbuster hit Forrest Gump was released in July 1994. A year later in May 1995, after grossing $661 Million world wide over it's $55 Million budget and winning an Academy Award for best picture, the movie had still not reached a net profit. It was considered by the makers to still be $60 Million in the hole.
Story HERE.

I wonder if its going to be as good as Gotham Knights was? the Iron man trailer was nice. I'm going to check it out. I rember seeing somewhere that its going to be 2011 before we get it here in the USA (that seems backwards). I'd rather see batman again though.

@Nerx: I dunno...that'd be a tough call for me. 
 
Luckily I don't have to make it XD