|
|
Post by sackeshi on Sept 23, 2024 16:21:00 GMT -5
it had a natural evolution that the international shows lack. Why don't international versions feel the same? because they go off of the premise "Watch people take on the countries hardest obstacle course.
"The Ultimate Survival Attack SASUKE" the show was about surviving the course and the course evolving to strike back. It was popular because you watched the competitors which were average people take on the course and try to overcome the latest evolution.
The show has lost its way recently sadly.
|
|
|
|
Post by dakohosu on Sept 25, 2024 4:30:58 GMT -5
it had a natural evolution that the international shows lack. Why don't international versions feel the same? because they go off of the premise "Watch people take on the countries hardest obstacle course. "The Ultimate Survival Attack SASUKE" the show was about surviving the course and the course evolving to strike back. It was popular because you watched the competitors which were average people take on the course and try to overcome the latest evolution. The show has lost its way recently sadly. I wouldn't say the show has lost its way, at all. It's still fundamentally 100 competitors taking on 4 grueling stages; that's been the bread and butter of Sasuke since its inception and it's still present today. The changes made over time are more of a case of "adapt or die". Game shows are a bit of a dying breed and are nowhere near as popular as they were in the 90s/early 00s, and social media and celebrity culture is becoming ever more of a driving factor behind success, so the show was forced to adhere to that. The drawn out celebrity runs, lack of everyman rookies, and somewhat reality TV approach can be painful, you're preaching to the choir on that one, but they're a necessary evil to ensure that the show stays relevant and from a marketing standpoint it's working. Sasuke is out of the previous rut it was in during the late M9/early RISING era where popularity was at an all-time low. Not to mention that the YouTube channel focusses a lot on the key competitor stories which the older shows never had, I really enjoy diving deep into their everyday lives and their motivations etc. Let's also not forget that while Shin-Sasuke is often seen as "peak" Sasuke, it was catastrophic for ratings. Perennially bad results for half of the era, lack of celebrity presence, and poor marketing from Higuchi might not have been a bad thing for us fans, but they did go a long way in diving general interest in the show off a cliff. Re the international shows I definitely agree, and it's why I don't watch those shows. In their case the whole 100 competitors vs 4 stages format didn't have as long a heritage as Sasuke so there was more room to iterate and innovate on that formula without fan backlash, as well as the fact that a lot of western societies (especially America) favor the bigger, badder, and more grandiose approach. To me, as a Sasuke purist, it's just become way too complex and diluted, and honestly hard to follow with the number of qualifiers, side events, and regular changes in format, but to American fans, they WANT to see the high-stakes 1 v 1 races, the Power Towers, etc. because it makes for good TV over there. On that, I think relativity is key here. Because of the changes in trends and demands from TV these days, a Banzuke/early Sasuke-style approach would drive almost no interest. But factoring in the need to stay relevant in today's era of Instagram and YouTube etc. if you compare Sasuke to most international shows, it's still by far the purest and sticks most closely to the original formula it conceived. Inui himself knows this is a driving factor for the dedicated fanbase, because he tried to shift and shake up the formula for the early RISING era and backtracked on all of those decisions almost immediately. It's still the same format, albeit with some painful celebrity sections but as mentioned that's required for those all-so-important ratings numbers. I'd rather have this Sasuke than no Sasuke so we have to put up with it and be glad it's still thriving. |
|
|
|
Post by zoran on Sept 26, 2024 14:19:12 GMT -5
it had a natural evolution that the international shows lack. Why don't international versions feel the same? because they go off of the premise "Watch people take on the countries hardest obstacle course. "The Ultimate Survival Attack SASUKE" the show was about surviving the course and the course evolving to strike back. It was popular because you watched the competitors which were average people take on the course and try to overcome the latest evolution. The show has lost its way recently sadly. I wouldn't say the show has lost its way, at all. It's still fundamentally 100 competitors taking on 4 grueling stages; that's been the bread and butter of Sasuke since its inception and it's still present today. The changes made over time are more of a case of "adapt or die". Game shows are a bit of a dying breed and are nowhere near as popular as they were in the 90s/early 00s, and social media and celebrity culture is becoming ever more of a driving factor behind success, so the show was forced to adhere to that. The drawn out celebrity runs, lack of everyman rookies, and somewhat reality TV approach can be painful, you're preaching to the choir on that one, but they're a necessary evil to ensure that the show stays relevant and from a marketing standpoint it's working. Sasuke is out of the previous rut it was in during the late M9/early RISING era where popularity was at an all-time low. Not to mention that the YouTube channel focusses a lot on the key competitor stories which the older shows never had, I really enjoy diving deep into their everyday lives and their motivations etc. Let's also not forget that while Shin-Sasuke is often seen as "peak" Sasuke, it was catastrophic for ratings. Perennially bad results for half of the era, lack of celebrity presence, and poor marketing from Higuchi might not have been a bad thing for us fans, but they did go a long way in diving general interest in the show off a cliff. Re the international shows I definitely agree, and it's why I don't watch those shows. In their case the whole 100 competitors vs 4 stages format didn't have as long a heritage as Sasuke so there was more room to iterate and innovate on that formula without fan backlash, as well as the fact that a lot of western societies (especially America) favor the bigger, badder, and more grandiose approach. To me, as a Sasuke purist, it's just become way too complex and diluted, and honestly hard to follow with the number of qualifiers, side events, and regular changes in format, but to American fans, they WANT to see the high-stakes 1 v 1 races, the Power Towers, etc. because it makes for good TV over there. On that, I think relativity is key here. Because of the changes in trends and demands from TV these days, a Banzuke/early Sasuke-style approach would drive almost no interest. But factoring in the need to stay relevant in today's era of Instagram and YouTube etc. if you compare Sasuke to most international shows, it's still by far the purest and sticks most closely to the original formula it conceived. Inui himself knows this is a driving factor for the dedicated fanbase, because he tried to shift and shake up the formula for the early RISING era and backtracked on all of those decisions almost immediately. It's still the same format, albeit with some painful celebrity sections but as mentioned that's required for those all-so-important ratings numbers. I'd rather have this Sasuke than no Sasuke so we have to put up with it and be glad it's still thriving. Shin Sasuke ratings weren't necessarily bad - 18 - 17.5% 19 - 15.2% 20 - 14.4% 21 - 12.2% 22 - 14.7% 23 - 14.1% 24 - 11.7% These are all broadly in line with how the ratings were post Banzuke cancellation, pretty stable. For 24 you have to remember it was aired on News Years Day when there was a lot more people watching TV. Raw numbers matter more than the percentage and raw number wise 24 probably ranks a lot higher. 21 is the only real big decline but that was due to people being a bit tired of the poor results from 20, Nagano and Takeda's success helped revive interest hence the big jump in 22. A 12.2% rating is still pretty good and higher than anything modern Sasuke has got. The Kanzen renewal is when the ratings just well off. For 25 they were screwed by the schedule as they clashed with the world figure skating championship which Japan's representatives won and more people wanted to watch that over Sasuke. It was aired way too soon after 24 and they did very little to market Yuuji's success. 26 was aired the day after new years so there probably was still a lot of people watching TV, marketing for it was probably drowned out by other entertainment over the December period. |
|
|
|
Post by dakohosu on Sept 26, 2024 14:40:20 GMT -5
Shin Sasuke ratings weren't necessarily bad - 18 - 17.5% 19 - 15.2% 20 - 14.4% 21 - 12.2% 22 - 14.7% 23 - 14.1% 24 - 11.7% These are all broadly in line with how the ratings were post Banzuke cancellation, pretty stable. For 24 you have to remember it was aired on News Years Day when there was a lot more people watching TV. Raw numbers matter more than the percentage and raw number wise 24 probably ranks a lot higher. 21 is the only real big decline but that was due to people being a bit tired of the poor results from 20, Nagano and Takeda's success helped revive interest hence the big jump in 22. A 12.2% rating is still pretty good and higher than anything modern Sasuke has got. The Kanzen renewal is when the ratings just well off. For 25 they were screwed by the schedule as they clashed with the world figure skating championship which Japan's representatives won and more people wanted to watch that over Sasuke. It was aired way too soon after 24 and they did very little to market Yuuji's success. 26 was aired the day after new years so there probably was still a lot of people watching TV, marketing for it was probably drowned out by other entertainment over the December period. By Shin-Sasuke I was referring to exactly what you mentioned, I probably accidentally generalised the entire era in my comment. But yeah, I basically meant the piss poor results of 19-20 and 23-25 airing in the space of 6 months and lack of marketing on Higuchi's part. Something I'd add was that 26 was announced about 2 weeks in advance of taping so they would've had considerably less time to market the show. Same story with 24 and 25 which had only 2 months between the prior tournament's and their respective air dates. I'd also add that the lack of a mascot group during this period would've definitely impacted fan interest. People love groups, this is why so many mascot cartoons encompass groups of characters, and fundamentally why they created the All-Stars and also market the Morimoto Sedai and Black Tigers in today's era. In the late Shin/early KR era, the All-Stars had pretty much all declined so they didn't have the impact that they did during the Golden Era, while the Shin Sedai were terribly marketed as it was more of a term used loosely. Most of the results were being driven by standalone competitors such as veterans like Okuyama and Kong, foreigners like the Americans and Lee, etc. that didn't fit into any one category and hence weren't able to be marketed effectively. As you mentioned they also did a rubbish job at marketing Yuuji's success; when Yuuji and Nagano went to the ANW2 qualifiers, apparently everyone wanted Nagano's autograph but most people didn't know who Yuuji was. Then there were the celebrities; there were quite a few, but because of Shin's brutal difficulty most didn't do particularly well, and as we've seen from modern Sasuke, Inui knows that Iwamoto etc. reaching the later stages is going to do wonders for ratings. I'd also say it was possibly a victim of the time period. The late 2000s/early 2010s were in this middle ground between game shows being on the decline with VIKING etc. already have been cancelled and Kunoichi put on hiatus, but social media hadn't fully erupted yet. I don't exactly know how the ratings are calculated, but if it's based on the total number of households, not just those that have their TVs turned on, then the later tournaments will probably have been negatively impacted by the fact that people don't really watch TV anymore. Which it wouldn't surprise me if this was the case, because Sasuke seems to be really popular these days; the YouTube channel regularly gets tens, if not hundreds of thousands of views per video, which is a s*** load, and the biggest hot shot celebrities know about and want to/do compete. |
|
