Is Girls Band Cry stalling in the West? Can we jump-start it?

Nov 13, 2024 3:35 PM

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Dec 2017

496

Hello,
It seems to me Girls Band Cry (GBC) failed to break through in the USA and rest of the western cultural sphere, despite all of our great expectations.

Originally there was no legal availability, just super enthusiastic fans and fansubs sailing the 7 sees, so few people heard of it or saw it - despite the best efforts of Reddit posse to evangelize for GBC with daily meme uploads and subbing wars. Then came digital rent/buy availability on Amazon, Microsoft, Fandango etc. Those online venues were considered highly unusual and inconvenient for the majority of potential viewers, who enjoy simplicity of streaming. Thus few people heard of or watched GBC even after August 2024.

But now GBC is up on Crunchyroll globally, potentially reaching millions of eyes, yet it has just 1300 viewer ratings in total after a whole week (and I assume anyone who sees GBC either hates it or loves it, so they would leave a rating, be it 1-star or 5-star). I also see just 70-80 comments in the daily GBC rewatch / CR watch threads on Reddit, versus the several hundreds hoped for. It feels like those mere 103 views

Something just doesn't click in real life as well. My theory is there are several factors at play:

The rebellious nature of GBC is not as revolutionary in North America, Europe and the western cultural sphere in general, compared to socially conservative Japan and Asia. (France an exception of course, with their zero-day ADN simulcast but they had always been the revolutionary nation.) Should GBC's storyboard be perceived as relatively uncontroversial, that removes a lot of bite from the series.
GBC's visuals are not as revolutionary in the eye of western audiences (who likely compare it to movie-budget animated productions from Hollywood, rather than the quasi sweatshop anime/manga ecosystem). The exaggerated, even ham-fisted movements and facial gestures of the characters, which remind me of old silent movies, are possibly seen as unfashionable or not trendy - but those are crucial for the series' great comedy to function.
The "unbearable" and "unreasonable" nature of MC Iseri Nina is paradoxically less amenable to western audiences than japanese domestic one. On home turf she can at least be related to as a quasi-ronin, but in the West she's simply seen as not business-like, therefore undeserving of sympathy (or even gets hated). Furthermore, problem kids like Nina are routinely medicated in the West for various psychiatric diagnoses like ADHD - thus viewers can't grasp why there is a maniac on the floor, running amok when a pill a day could keep the gremlin at bay...
Crunchy release was timed unfortunately right around the elections and US people can now look forward to an even bigger and real-life brat from January, so they want to spare themselves the emotional exhaustion caused by GBC's orange red-haired buffoon.
I don't think lack of dubbing or the chosen music genre hurt GBC much. The 5 real-life TogeToge rocker girls are super talented voice actors, despite not being professional seiyuu. Ever since the 1960s, each decade had seen japanese rock musicians occasionally make it to US billboard, so that's not an absolute barrier either.

- Do you agree that we already have reason to worry about GBC's worldwide prospects?
- Can you think of more roadblocks to conquering the West, other than those listed above?
- Did Studio Toei maybe foresaw the potential barriers to western acceptance and that's why they were reluctant to export license GBC in any form for almost half a year?
- If there is a slump or even a crisis, what can we do to kick-start GBC frenzy in the West? Even if people can't stand Nina, nobody's life can be full without Momoka and Subaru!

Tacsk0Nov 15, 2024 12:11 PM

Nov 13, 2024 3:58 PM

WestOnAndrewAve

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Jul 2022

407

Official sub took way too long to come out that's pretty much it. Anyone who was interested already watched it unless they either didn't know how/want to/couldn't watch by unofficial means or didn't care about watching within a reasonable time frame of initial release.

Nov 13, 2024 7:20 PM

Rathifiend99

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Aug 2022

I watched it as it was releasing and loved it. When I get caught up on my current anime, I will rewatch it on CR. It was easily in my top 5 anime this year.

Nov 13, 2024 8:23 PM

wizdom224

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Jul 2021

1894

I feel like you're missing the point. It's probably more like this:

For mainstream audiences, it just looks like another girls in a band CGDCT anime (which doesn't interest them) and it's old enough that it won't be anyone's priority.

For anime fans, they're probably using less than official methods to watch it.

You could also point out that many people nowadays are under the impression that CGI is always bad and just won't give it a try on that basis.

Tacsk0 said:
Crunchy release was timed unfortunately right around the elections and US people can now look forward to an even bigger and real-life brat from January, so they want to spare themselves the emotional exhaustion caused by GBC's orange red-haired buffoon.

^ This is absolutely just mental gymnastics for the sake of hating on the orange man. Completely unnecessary and nonsensical.

Nov 15, 2024 12:07 PM

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Hello,
It just dawned on me there is one more factor which badly hurts Girls Band Cry's foreign popularity:
The absolutely toxic nature of its western fandom (or more precisely, the self-designated leaders of said fandom). Extremely vain and juvenile admins have taken over both Reddit and Discord locales, banning people left and right and so the content found there becomes ever more imbecile and inbred.
This is an expected development from "similis simili gaudet" and Nina was easily the most toxic substance in the universe, so fans become like her. Still the situation got out of hand and the rabid ones are now literally killing the fandom from the inside!

Nov 26, 2024 7:53 AM

hermgonewild

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Sep 2021

Reply to Tacsk0

@Tacsk0 it is not that deep. Holy shit man.

Nov 30, 2024 10:50 AM

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Hello,
GBC had been rock stable at 8.40 MAL score for the past several weeks, but fell to 8.39 since yesterday which makes me worried. Toei / Universal / Crunchy are certainly not doing enough to promote the anime beyond Asia!

There is even speculation on Discord that IP owners want the anime to wither, so real-life Togenashi Togeari girls' rock band could be promoted without the otaku baggage and with the replacement drummer and synth members as new regulars.

Dec 12, 2024 12:28 PM

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Girls Band Cry among best anime of 2024 on Rolling Stone site

Girls Band Cry among best anime of 2024 in Paste Magazine

Dec 17, 2024 12:48 PM

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Discrepancy continues to grow ever more between East Asia and the West regarding Garukura. Anime has just 1900 viewers total on global Crunchyroll, which is ridiculously low, even less than the currently airing season 44 of Love Live Whatever at 2300 viewers.

Meanwhile GBC's real-life TogeToge band gave two performances in Shanghai, P.R.C. this week. There were more than 25 flower stands sponsored by fans and those are far from cheap. Tickets were sold out, so hundreds of fans who couldn't get one gathered in the underground parking lot, waving light sticks in silence and listening to any sound filtering down from the concert hall above. Comiket 105 (winter) organizers in Tokyo are drawing up contingency plans because the large number of GBC themed publishing circles and expected extra long lines for their goods might block access to other stalls. Apparently all GBC themed circles will be relocated right next to the entrance area.

Btw, GBC anime has finally hit Bilibili (chinese YT / Nicovideo) with official subs but the infinitely wise chinese commie censors had at least two snippets cut from the authorized version. One is Nina double-flipping off Tomo and Rupa in the fast food restaurant during ep1, thus confusing viewers as to why Tomo wants to hit her with the soup ladle. Other thing missing is ep8's famous

word, which had led to the "Great Fansub War" between Nakayubi and SobsPlase. By cutting that part (due to China's ban on promoting same-sex love), the bright censors managed to officially certify GBC as proper yuri...

Tacsk0Dec 17, 2024 12:54 PM

Dec 19, 2024 11:26 AM

#10

RedFoxRara

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Jun 2015

Is this an elaborate troll, someone new to the anime industry, or a high-functioning autistic? GBC didn't do well because of many reasons; Key of which being that it's an anime in an unpopular genre that wasn't officially subbed for nearly half a year post-airing. Factor in that many westerners have this weird blind hatred towards any and all CGI (which the show is 100% made of), and it's no wonder the views are bad. I love idol/girl band anime, and GBC is a hidden gem, but the reasons it failed are all over the walls man.

Dec 19, 2024 2:17 PM

#11

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Reply to RedFoxRara

@RedFoxRara

> it's an anime in an unpopular genre that

Bocchi the Rock has 56k viewer ratings on CR, despite it's ugly experimental animation and 1-dimensional characters. There is also Hibike Euphonium, which at least has the looks, even if season after season are made from the same mold. Thus music anime genre isn't unpopular.

> many westerners have this weird blind hatred towards any and all CGI

Considering 99% of western animation are CGI nowadays, that's a difficult position. In particular, GBC is the very anime which can face western works without losing face: it has fluidity of animation, expressive character models, with palpable personality, great story and music.

> GBC is a hidden gem

I'm thinking about organizing a renewed grassroots PR campaign for the turn of 2024/2025 anime hiatus period - those are a precious few weeks when Garukura could be pushed right under the nose of bored weebs who haven't seen it yet or didn't even hear about it. Some won't tolerate it, because of how much Nina is unbusinesslike but the crazy amount of comedy in it would certainly keep many binging. Dr. Subaru's patent remedy against boredom!

However what would be the proper venue for organizing? I've only got bad experience with Reddit and Discord, while MAL seems to have lost most of its patronage since the ownership change and CR doesn't allow commenting any more. The animedom landscape is really fragmented nowadays.

Tacsk0Dec 19, 2024 2:34 PM

Dec 20, 2024 6:17 AM

#12

RedFoxRara

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Jun 2015

You can't use the music genre as a whole when I meant idol anime/girls band anime which is very different. I also don't think we can use Bocchi the Rock (an outlier by all accounts) as a prime example of music anime being popular.

Also, I meant westerners don't like CGI in terms of anime, which IS true. I did not mention Disney for these kinds of reasons. Just look back at the Attack on Titan fiasco for proof of that.

Jan 9, 9:48 AM

#13

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Love polygon Girls Band Cry Polygon loves Girls Band Cry

Jan 20, 10:02 AM

#14

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Reply to Tacsk0

@Tacsk0

Tacsk0 said:
organizing a renewed grassroots PR campaign for the turn of 2024/2025

A few days ago YT influencer Gigguk rated Girls Band Cry #5 anime of 2024 and some say that turns the tide. I don't follow anybody online or otherwise so can't really grasp how significant is that, but maybe it helps?

Jan 23, 2:35 PM

#15

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

GBC is Anime News Network's champion against the isekai epidemic:

"...The trio of top titles mentioned had just as much estimated viewership and interest in them as the bottom 120 combined. This kind of “feast or famine” distribution is fairly normal in media, but that doesn't make it any less hard as a consumer to conceptualize how big the gap is between a Solo Leveling and a Girls Band Cry is, particularly when they sit side-by-side on Crunchyroll and are discussed at similar rates on social media..."

Jan 29, 9:46 AM

#16

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Compared to how near-invisible GBC remains the West (total 2675 viewer ratings on Crunchyroll as of today), the TogeToge girls are significant enough in China to be mentioned in a Shanghai Daily news article about what makes shoppers happy:

https://www.shine.cn/feature/district/2501288216/
"... For anime fans, Jing'an Joy City is a must-visit, featuring pop-up stores like Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf's 20th Anniversary event. Also on offer are exclusive Girls Band Cry products ..."

Wish some miracle would bridge the great East-West divide, so Girls Band's Cry could be carried over from Asia to America and Europe!

Jan 30, 8:50 AM

#17

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Nina is so precious ... especially when signed. Definitely worth 1030.48 USD!

Jan 31, 6:14 PM

#18

OrdinaryOriginal

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Nov 2020

Crunchyroll didn’t promote it. Their homepage focuses on mostly forgettable seasonal anime. So maybe the number of Crunchyroll ratings isn’t the best indicator.

GBC is often mentioned online in English-speaking anime spheres.

I’m just watching the show now. I like that it shows characters who didn’t finish school; I can relate to that as someone who got a GED at 17. Really I never expected to see this in Japanese media, the traditional pipeline of school —> 4 years of college —> immediately taking an office job is quite baked into the Japanese psyche. People who fail at any point in that path are looked down on.

Feb 1, 7:33 AM

#19

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Reply to OrdinaryOriginal

@OrdinaryOriginal

OrdinaryOriginal said:
Crunchyroll didn’t promote it. Their homepage focuses on mostly forgettable seasonal anime. So maybe the number of Crunchyroll ratings isn’t the best indicator.

Regrattably that's not so simple, e.g. "Bocchi the Rock" has more than 56k ratings on Crunchyroll. Difference is Bocchi isn't disagreable: she's a 1-dimensional character, who has social phobia maxed out and that's all.
In contrast, Girls Band Cry's main chara Iseri Nina is entirely disagreable (= Nina is rock). Every facet of her personality is grating and people don't want to leave their comfort zone to watch an unbearable egomaniac gremlin throw tantrums.
Strangely, the West which always babbles about the cult of individuality and liberty, is much less receptive to GBC's misfit story and characters, compared to streotypically conformist and reserved Asia.

OrdinaryOriginal said:
GBC is often mentioned online in English-speaking anime spheres.

Problem is at least 90% of those using Crunchy / Hulu / Disney etc. streams for anime access are casual watchers, who don't participate in anime forums, blogs, Reddit, Discord, etc. People present in those venues are seasoned otaku / weebz, not the "mainstream" watchers of anime and they almost exclusively talk to each other, thus not reaching wider audiences.

Feb 1, 11:10 AM

#20

OrdinaryOriginal

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Nov 2020

Fair enough. I do agree with your point that people with “difficult” personalities are ostracized in the US. Or people who do antisocial things (in its original meaning, == going against societal norms).

Another reason why I hope for the success of this show. I can quite relate to the characters.

If it’s any encouragement, merch / “character goods” sales for GBC are quite high in Japan. But I haven’t seen anything for sale stateside yet.

I have suggested GBC to some causal anime watchers that I work with, but the 3D visuals turn them off. Unfortunately.

Feb 1, 12:51 PM

#21

Tacsk0

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Dec 2017

496

Reply to OrdinaryOriginal

@OrdinaryOriginal

OrdinaryOriginal said:
merch / “character goods” sales for GBC are quite high in Japan

I wouldn't call it high, but outright crazy... There was a scandal two weeks ago where hoarders bribed part-timer shop staff to sell them all the new GBC merch before official opening and then re-sold the loot on Mercari for big money or exported to China, which is even crazier about our rocker girls. A pack of Weiss-Schwartz GBC trading cards signed by the TogeToge girls is currently being advertised for 1030.48 USD

OrdinaryOriginal said:
3D visuals turn them off.

Medalist, the currently prevailing anime in Japan also uses motion-captured 3D CGI extensively. Today's skating performance by that junior pro girl was breath-taking. Nay-sayers better get used to CGI characters, because there is no other solution for animator workforce shortages, while the tech is already good enough to make it spendid! Btw, Medalist scriptwriter Jukki Hanada also created Girls Band Cry.

Mar 30, 2:00 PM

#22

Tacsk0

Offline

Dec 2017

496

Hello,
Looks like Girls Band Cry may now be stalling even in Japan, not just the in the West:

The upcoming collab concert of TogeToge (GBC IRL band) with She is Legend (some kind of Angel Beats game spin-off?) apparently has difficulty filling a 7-8000 capacity venue, due to relative lack of common fanbase and the event taking place on a workday. So the organizers are holding a second round of advance ticket sales (with discount?) which is unusual to say at least.
The new TogeToge single has only about 3000 disc sales total (Bluray+DVD) thus far and I don't think any volume had less than 9000 before, usually it was in the 12-16,000 range.
Fanart activity regarding the Garukura x Yorukura collab announced last month is now essentially non-existent and fanart output related to the new TogeToge song "Daremo" unexpectedly withered after about 10 days or so. Fan artists are unwilling to engage in non-official collab ideas, like GBC x Medalist and so can't reach new audiences.
Fans couldn't care less about the upcoming smartphone GBC game, a game of which nobody has seen a single frame yet... They want the IP owners to come clean about what's going on with ToteToge band members Mirei (Awa Subaru) and Natsu (Ebizuka Tomo), who have been on hiatus with total radio silence, for almost a fully year now.

The sky darkens again... If Studio Toei wants to avoid a crisis, they should take international markets seriously and produce an english dub now and not an ordinary one at that, but a high quality work! GBC anime has great potential but they need to make is more approachable worldwide. As for season 2, I think we forget about that for years to come.

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