Source: @Tencent Comics, World Style Feature

Introduction

For the majority of our generation, AnimeJapan2015 (referred to as AJ2015) must still be unsatisfying, unlike comiket, which allows ACG fans to play freely, AJ has always had a strong official color, so many of the contents on display and various messages conveyed by it also have a strong guiding significance. Needless to say, as the largest industry sector in the current ACG field - the highlight of the year in the animation industry, this year's AJ is also as good as the all-round stimulation of otaku adrenaline, and the most popular otaku culture elements are presented in physical forms such as guò products, which is not only a summary of the hot field, but also a guide to the trend of ACG culture. So, let's take a look back at what we saw and heard at AJ2015 and see what the current otaku pop culture looks like.

Thousands of activities give back to readers

As the largest animation event in Japan every year, AJ2015 was held on March 21st and 22nd. Compared with the lively new broadcast period,The animation industry at the end of March tends to be a little lonely,And AnimeJapan's timely filling,Just fill the gap,In addition to consolidating the popularity of existing works and deriving,It also built a stage for a number of high-profile new debuts。

This year's AJ is composed of 19 well-known companies in the industry, such as Aniplex, KADOKAWA, Sunrise, Shogakukan Shueisha Co., Ltd., and Bandai Vision, and the content on display is also varied. Heavyweights such as voice actors took the stage to interact with the audience at close range, which not only further heated up the atmosphere of the scene, but also conveyed the latest information about the current otaku culture on the largest Cheng dù. This article intends to start from these rich programs and experience the most cutting-edge otaku culture trend with you.

Waste Meng is still in power, and selling meat never stops

The reason why the waste and the sale of meat are mentioned together,It's because the line between the two in the current ACG world is becoming increasingly blurred,Even Kyoto, which has always adhered to the principle of only moe and no meat,After the tepid "Tamako Market" and "The Other Side of the Realm", it also played a handful of elegant and vulgar sharing in the recent "Savior of Gancheng Brilliant Paradise", with a round cute face and turbulent waves, and won the model worker crown at the end of last year in one fell swoop......

Cough, it's far away, since the beginning of "Lucky Star", the waste culture has always firmly controlled the leading position of ACG in recent years with its strong commercial operability. Otaku culture itself has a strong sensory experience and symbolism, for many people in the house world, what they value is that their favorite symbolic elements (the most typical is the "moe element") are stripped out and then placed into an acceptable background. Different from traditional plot-focused anime works, the plot direction of the moe or scrap moe series is no longer so important, as long as the various cute characters that everyone likes to see are smart under the three-dimensional creation of dynamic pictures and sounds, it is the best viewing experience for otaku.

In connection with the stage activities of AJ2015, the more typical moe works include "Detective Opera Girl Sherlock Holmes TD", "The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan", "Idol Master Cinderella Girl", etc., interestingly, these works are not new works, but sequels to existing well-known works that are about to be broadcast. However, it is worth mentioning that the works that are purely based on selling cuteness have experienced the popularity of the "Light Sound Girl" era, but the overall trend is gradually declining, and the vast majority of such works in recent years can basically only take the small grade route, and it is difficult to become S-level. Among AJ's exhibited products this time, although there are also recent pure selling works such as "Lucky Belly Graffiti", they are relatively low-key on the whole, and there is no big "ambition". It can be said that although the moe element has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with the overwhelming online and physical promotion, it is precisely because of the lowering of the threshold for "entering the moe" that the competition between such works is becoming increasingly cruel. For the majority of cute dolphins (the author is also one of them), although they often put words such as "moe is justice" on their lips, their tastes are becoming more and more picky, and simply selling moe can no longer satisfy their insatiable desires, so it may be a good choice to flexibly use the moe elements in other forms of works.

As mentioned earlier, selling cute and selling meat have now complemented each other, showing a symbiotic posture, which is actually a relatively successful workaround. In otaku culture, the elements of different Cheng dù are all over again, the more the merrier, which must not be said, but purely relying on simple and crude means to show the flesh of the white flower, on the other hand, it has been criticized by public opinion, and it has cast a sign that ACG is not suitable for children, on the other hand, it is easy to make yourself tired, because of this, the combination of moe + meat has become a popular option at present. Readers who often follow Japanese anime information should know that Kadokawa Shoten's magazine called "Musume Type" is mainly used to provide illustrations for various large-scale meat posters...... This time, AJ, "Niang Type" has a special stage event, and the editor-in-chief Tsuyoshi Kato personally appeared on the stage, mainly promoting the new theatrical version of the hit work "Dating Wars" "Manyuri Trial". There is no need to say more about the scale of selling meat in "Dating Wars", but in addition to the characters written by the painter Tsunako with a soft and sultry posture, the facial features that are so cute are also much better than the average cuteness. Judging from the popularity of the event, this trend of otaku culture that sells cute and meat is likely to continue to be strong for a long time.

A slightly "tasteless" teenager to the work

When it comes to juvenile works, most of the high-exposure figures that come to the mind of ordinary people will be "One Piece" and "Naruto", right? In the usual definition, the plot of this kind of work will generally be more orthodox and pure, with clear character characteristics, suitable for all ages. But in recent years, with the expansion of the power of rotten girls, the animation works of teenagers who used to only focus on blood and friendship have gradually become a little peachy.

In this AJ stage event, the standard juvenile works include "Soaring Otaku GRANDEROAD", "Volleyball Boy", "Reincarnation of the Realm", "Seven Deadly Sins", etc., and the first two have already been the new favorites of a group of rotten girls. In fact, since the early "Slam Dunk", works with sports competition have entered the field of vision of Tanmei lovers, and the earlier "Kuroko's Basketball" once again set off such a climax, and the subsequent "Speed Otaku GRANDEROAD" and "Volleyball Boy" carried forward this trend, so that the original author was consciously or unintentionally affected when drawing zuò products. As a result, the traditional definition of "friendship between men" has a little more ambiguous meaning, and the words of encouragement between each other are like confessions, which make people's hearts pound, and even a support and a contact can produce a little bit of a red heartbeat...... The characters in the shonen manga are also becoming more and more feminine, and the lines have become delicate and soft, just like the current trend of Japanese society towards neutral aesthetic taste.

The author recently went to Japan, and naturally couldn't help but linger in homesteads such as animate, so I made an interesting discovery - the product area of "Soaring Otaku GRANDEROAD" and "Volleyball Junior" is adjacent to the display area around the works of women, and most of the people who wander in front of their product area are women. Obviously, the situation of these two works is not an isolated case, even if it is the aforementioned "One Piece" and other migrant worker-level juvenile works, Tanmei fans and rotten female fans are still flying all over the sky, although I dare not say that it must surpass the scale of the male fan camp, but it can indeed show an interesting ecology of juvenile works in the current ACG culture.

Traditionally, it is believed that the consumption power of male otaku is stronger than that of women, so based on commercial considerations, the vast majority of animated works are male-oriented, and in recent years, with the popularity of works such as "The Prince of Song" and "Flower Card Love", female-oriented animated works have also been on the rise, but they are still far from being comparable to male-oriented works at the order of magnitude level. The female audience's involvement in the field of traditional male anime works can be seen as a benchmark for the further rise of female culture in otaku culture, so it is not difficult to understand why recent boyhood-oriented animation (especially those with corrupt potential) has served the female group so much in the choice of voice actors. AJ, the stage event of "Speed Otaku" is full of male character voice actors, Yamashita Daiki, Kosuke Torikai, Fukushima Jun, Yasumoto Yotaka, Morikubo Shotaro, and Kentaro Ito are almost all the darlings of otaku (especially rotten girls), although the idolization of voice actors is not a new trick for a long time, but the method of linking the character to the CV and packaging and promoting it is still tried and tested, and the screams from the scene can be understood.

Not only is it limited to corruption, but all kinds of female aesthetic interests and the consumption of male sex can be regarded as the expression of this cultural invasion. Of course, this feminine taste is also mixed with a little bit of male romance, but that's another topic (laughs).

The royal road and the classics are eternal

It should be noted that the royal road mentioned in this section is mainly used to refer to orthodox dramatic works. In the current otaku culture, consumer roles and attributes are the main keynote, and at the same time, they are also the easiest direction for commercial operations. The aforementioned popularity of the aforementioned scrap is a major manifestation of this cultural trend. However, for relatively old-school animation works, they still follow the traditional rules of literary and artistic creation, and advocate the routine of winning with plot.

The Japanese are both conservative and avant-garde, and this is just as evident in anime works, especially in anime works. Therefore, on the stage of AJ2015, there are not only new works that are about to be unveiled, but also old trees and new flowers such as the theatrical version of "Dragon Ball Z Resurrection "F", and even period objects such as "Arslan Wars" have also won a second spring under the new interpretation of Sister Niu (Arakawa Hiroshi), and they have jumped to the position of popular publicity. In fact, in otaku culture, some classic works that transcend the times have been able to continue to blossom and sprout, and have been regarded as masterpieces by generations of otaku, and from this point of view, otaku culture also has the dual characteristics of being cutting-edge and conservative.

Especially in recent years, IP adaptation games have become popular, and some slightly old classic IPs have rejuvenated their second spring, such as "Dragon Ball", "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", "Saint Seiya", "Slam Dunk" and other old IP adaptation games can often win the best table, and even many games that emphasize the ACG style have also become popular, just like the previous terminal game "Fantasy God Online", and for example, the hunting online game "Dragon Hunting", which has recently become extremely popular in Japan. It's all the products of the anime elements (strictly speaking, the otaku anime elements) to the extreme, and it's only natural that they are respected by the majority of otaku. It is worth noting that the picture style and character settings of "Dragon Hunting" all adopt the Q version of the cute route, and the close combination with ACG's "cute culture" must also be one of the reasons for the popularity of this game.

Although the current ACG field takes the market as the top priority, and the phenomenon of consumer roles is very common, not all otaku eat this set. Wang Daofeng's plot development can still maintain a certain audience, and the ups and downs of the story can also become an important guarantee for the popularity of the work. The recent popularity of "Algontia of the Green Star" and "Tokyo Ghoul" can be regarded as the best of this kind of works, and this time AJ, the two works will appear on stage with the new theatrical version and the second season of TV animation respectively, and they have great ambitions to continue the previous glory. It can be said that no matter how far the otaku culture materializes, this kind of royal drama works and enduring old series can always occupy a place, which can also be regarded as a relatively unique case in the ACG world, which has always been extremely iterative.

A light novel adaptation during the debilitating period?

From the very beginning of its birth, light novels have become a seemingly unique but quite reasonable existence in ACG culture. In the vision of otaku in recent years, light novels and their various derivative works can be said to be really popular, and a number of heavyweight series with no less influence than other ACG works have emerged. "Sword Art Online", "Catalogue of Forbidden Books of Magic", "How Can My Sister Be So Cute!" "Persona of the Headless Horseman"...... The thunderous names have long gone beyond the scope of light novels as a form of work, and have become multi-habitat stars across platforms such as ACGN.

But in the past year or two, the craze for light novel adaptation of animation seems to have cooled down somewhat. For this type of work with a low threshold for creation and little difficulty in adaptation, major manufacturers once flocked to it, and almost every quarter of the new series was mixed with the shadow of one light novel after another, but with the saturation of market demand and readers' love of the new and disgusted with the old (yes, this is very important!) Light novel adaptations are becoming more and more difficult to be regarded as a panacea to save the box office, and the similarity of the appearance and the number of successions make the audience no longer have a sense of freshness, and the taste is becoming more and more picky. In the current otaku culture, reading light novels is no longer a fashionable topic, and it is an indisputable fact that the expectation of light animation changes every quarter is gradually cooling down.

Looking at the content of AJ's stage activities, it is not difficult to find that the light novel adaptation includes the theatrical version of "Date Wars", "The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato-chan", "Headless Horseman Persona X2 Inheritance", "My Youth Love Story Really Goes Wrong", "Is Seeking an Encounter in the Dungeon Something Wrong", "Overlord". In addition to the pure business operation novel "Dating Wars", which has been aimed at animation from the beginning, and the upstart of the "Haruhi Suzumiya" series, "The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato", which has countless derivatives, "Headless Horseman Persona X2 Inheritance" and "My Youth Love Story Really Problematic Continuation" are also well-known series that have long been famous. As one of the witnesses of the early rise of light novels, "Headless" was finally animated again after 5 years, and it was broadcast in three periods, and the momentum is so strong that Kadokawa has also put a lot of effort into this work. And the winner of the two consecutive "This Light Novel is Really Amazing" Awards, "My Youth Love Story Is Really Problematic", also launched the second season of the animation in due time, taking advantage of AJ's east wind to further save the sense of zài for the big teacher and his cute girls who have no fate.

To sum it up in this way, the only new talents that have really been hyped are "Is there something wrong with seeking an encounter in the dungeon" and "Overlord", and "Overlord" is of a special nature, although it is a popular online game through the theme, but from the plot to the illustrations are very American hard-style, there is no soft cuteness and edge ball in the Japanese light novel (but there are some straight balls, interested friends can check it out by themselves), so the adaptation that really represents the "essence" of the light novel, there is only "" Seeking an encounter in the dungeon, is there something wrong?"It's just a part.

Compared with the overwhelming light changes in the past few years,AJ's relatively cold reception is a little embarrassing,But profit is not deceiving,Refer to the past not long in October 2014New BD sales will find,In addition to the king of the industry, Kyoto Animation's "Gancheng Brilliant Paradise Savior" BD sales reached an unsatisfactory 7000 pieces, other light changes such as "The King of Magic Bullets and War Queen" and "I,To become a double ponytail" sales are struggling around 2000, Such dismal sales are a clear proof of the otaku's growing feelings about the form of light reform, and as far as the current situation is concerned, this declining trend may not be able to improve in the short term. In fact, the industry has discussed and thought about this a lot, but only time can tell us the final answer.

epilogue

The lively AJ has come to an end, and the richness of its exhibits and the number of activities are beyond the reach of other similar anime exhibitions, and the current otaku cultural trends reflected in it are by no means exhaustive in this article. But no matter what, the two-day animated feast has already brought a lot of joy and anticipation to my people (I think many of you are still reminiscing about the videos related to various events). Otaku are not only the creators of otaku culture, but also the experience and consumer, no matter how the culture changes, as long as the happiness obtained from it lasts forever, it will be worth the hard work of chasing new products, checking information and finding resources day and night. May the OTKU spirit be with you!