Ask John: Why Wasn’t Kanamemo More Popular?

Question:
Why is Kanamemo not popular? I know that there were a lot of other shows that grabbed attention last year (K-On!, Saki, and Haruhi S2) but I really enjoyed the show Kanamemo and yet unlike the other shows I listed above, there is no figures/statues from the series and apparently is was quite disliked on 2ch from what I heard. It had everything that otaku would like, so what gives?

Answer:
I’m going to address this question, despite not having a good answer, because I like the Kanamemo anime series and think that this question is intriguing. I don’t know if Japan’s anime fan community particularly disliked last year’s Kanamemo TV series so much as just overlooked it. The frequency of discussions about the show on the 2channel message board, widely considered one of Japan’s hubs of popular opinion, ranged from low to mid-range among 2009 titles being talked about. That means there wasn’t a lot of discussion about the show. I don’t know if the discussion that did occur was positive, negative, or neutral. I do have a theory about why Kanamemo wasn’t an especially big hit. My theory, though, is beset by one drastic conflict that’s difficult to reconcile. My shakey theory is that the Kanamemo TV series wasn’t disliked; it was simply a victim of circumstances and the capricious interests of the fan community at the time, in America and especially in Japan.

I think of Kanamemo as the Manabi Strait of 2009. In 2007 the Gakuen Utopia Manabi Strait TV series was a well drawn and especially well animated moé anime characterized by frequent moments of seriousness and drama. It’s an excellent show. Its fan following is small, but the fans that like it like it very much. I think Manabi Strait was simply overshadowed by the continuing popularity of shows from the previous season, including Code Geass and Kanon, and overshadowed by its contemporary competitor Hidamari Sketch. It’s furthermore relevant that Hidamari Sketch, which premiered the same week as Manabi Strait, is a much more lighthearted and frivolous show than Manabi Strait. (I don’t mean that as a condemnation. It’s just an objective observation.) The exact same situation seems to apply to Kanamemo. The 2009 Kanamemo TV series is a well drawn, well animated moé series marked by moments of drama and melancholy emotion. Not a lot of viewers seemed to tune in to Kanamemo, but many of those who did seem to praise the show highly. Kanamemo seems to have been largely overshadowed by the juggernaut of support attached to Saki and K-On from the season before. Saki, the new moé anime from popular studio Gonzo, and K-On, the new moé anime from red hot production studio Kyoto Animation were both lighthearted shows that seemed to magentize all of Japan’s moé otaku, to the extent that shows from the next season including Kanamemo, Fight Ippatsu! Juden-chan!!, Umi Monogatari, and GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class didn’t gain the sizable audience they may have otherwise earned.

In fact, reflection suggests that Saki and K-On from the spring 2009 broadcast season burnt out the Japanese audience for lighthearted, cute moé anime because it was darker shows with more adult proportioned characters including Bakemonogatari, Princess Lover, and Umineko no Naku Koro ni that monopolized the attention of the Japanese otaku community during the summer 2009 broadcast season, leaving few viewers to support Kanamemo. The fact that happy and light moé anime like Lucky Star, K-On, and Saki seem to be more popular among Japanese viewers than moé anime that includes a trace of melancholy, like Manabi Strait and Kanamemo would seem to be a reliable explanation were it not for the fact that Strike Witches was a tremendous hit. In terms of atmosphere, Strike Witches, with its moments of drama and emotional tension, is tonally closer to Manabi Strait and Kanamemo than Lucky Star or K-On. The reprieve may lie in the fact that there wasn’t a massive otaku hit series during the season before Strike Witches premiered, nor was there any other moé show more popular than Strike Witches during the season it aired.

Kanamemo may not have been one of the very best anime series of 2009, but it was one of my very favorite. There may be reasons why Japanese otaku didn’t take to the show which I’m unaware of. But I suspect that two reasons why the show didn’t secure a larger audience are because it’s not the sort of fluffy and concessionary moé anime that Japanese otaku like most, and it simply fell into the crack that formed during the tectonic shift of viewer interest from the lighthearted and cute K-On and Saki to the darker and more serious Bakemonogatari and Umineko.