Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Finally caught a Tokyopop TV ad...
OK, so I was watching Icons on G4, a great show that gives the history of people, companies, and particular series. This one was all about Tetris and the crazy licensing battles that went on behind the scenes, and of course the creator Alexey Pajitnov, who seems like a really great guy. It really makes me want to check out some of his other work like Pandora's Box...
Anyway, before I get off-track, a Tokyopop ad ran during one of the commercial breaks. Everyone (including me) had trepidation that it could be a horribly cheesy affair. On the other hand, it could have awe-inspiring production values with extensive animation of scenes. I'd say it falls smack in the middle, which is by no means a bad thing.
The announcer was a young male voice (probably teen?) and the commercial profiled three different titles within 30 seconds. Basically he would give a brief description of the title while individual panels moved past the screen to punctuate what he was saying. This one profiled Sgt. Frog, Psychic Academy, and Saiyuki. I find it funny that considering all of the titles out there, we actually own the first volume of all three of these, and two of them were titles Mom decided to buy herself (the latter two).
For instance, for Sgt. Frog, it gave a couple of sentances about how Keroro came to take over the world, but first he's going to have to clean up around the house, panels would be flying around and overlaying each other and him in the sink would be there when they talked about cleaning. Pretty much started and ended with their "join the manga revolution" tagline. This is standard TV commercial fare that didn't seem at all out of place with anything else.
So, I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied. No full-on animation, but I suppose that isn't all that much of a surprise. That'd cost a lot and they probalby don't have the proper rights anyway. But the moving of the panels kept it from being boring. Gave decent descriptions for the amount of time, and I think it'd probably be enough to get someone interested who didn't know about a title before. Also got to see more interior artwork than most print ads (where they just show a cover), though it went by fast.
One thing I do wonder about is if they'll keep the same announcer throughout, or mix it up. This was all shonen titles. It'd make sense to me for a teen female voice for a shoujo lineup, but I guess we'll have to wait and see if that ends up being the case.
Anyway, I'm relieved that these seem to be professionally done and seem like they actually have a chance of being effective. :)
Anyway, before I get off-track, a Tokyopop ad ran during one of the commercial breaks. Everyone (including me) had trepidation that it could be a horribly cheesy affair. On the other hand, it could have awe-inspiring production values with extensive animation of scenes. I'd say it falls smack in the middle, which is by no means a bad thing.
The announcer was a young male voice (probably teen?) and the commercial profiled three different titles within 30 seconds. Basically he would give a brief description of the title while individual panels moved past the screen to punctuate what he was saying. This one profiled Sgt. Frog, Psychic Academy, and Saiyuki. I find it funny that considering all of the titles out there, we actually own the first volume of all three of these, and two of them were titles Mom decided to buy herself (the latter two).
For instance, for Sgt. Frog, it gave a couple of sentances about how Keroro came to take over the world, but first he's going to have to clean up around the house, panels would be flying around and overlaying each other and him in the sink would be there when they talked about cleaning. Pretty much started and ended with their "join the manga revolution" tagline. This is standard TV commercial fare that didn't seem at all out of place with anything else.
So, I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied. No full-on animation, but I suppose that isn't all that much of a surprise. That'd cost a lot and they probalby don't have the proper rights anyway. But the moving of the panels kept it from being boring. Gave decent descriptions for the amount of time, and I think it'd probably be enough to get someone interested who didn't know about a title before. Also got to see more interior artwork than most print ads (where they just show a cover), though it went by fast.
One thing I do wonder about is if they'll keep the same announcer throughout, or mix it up. This was all shonen titles. It'd make sense to me for a teen female voice for a shoujo lineup, but I guess we'll have to wait and see if that ends up being the case.
Anyway, I'm relieved that these seem to be professionally done and seem like they actually have a chance of being effective. :)
