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forever-animated · 3 years

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TDP Season 4 Preliminary Predictions, Part One (1-12)

So with S4 in production, no trailer in sight, and a TBA release date, it looks like there’s still a wait before we get any news on the upcoming season.

That being said, we do have some information to go on regarding what might be in store for our favorite characters. (Previous SDCC interviews, the recent Instagram Live and Reddit AMA with the creators, Callum’s Spellbook, and of course, Through the Moon.)

So I decided to put together some preliminary predictions based on the info we have so far. My desire is to create a TDP S4 bingo board just before the season airs, so that gives me 24 guesses/predictions to come up with (not including the free space). I’ll probably tweak most of these once we get our trailer, since I’m sure it’ll provide more insight as to the direction of the show.

So without further ado, here are my first 12 TDP S4 preliminary predictions...

1. Spring 2021 Release

During the Reddit AMA at the beginning of October, the creators gave the following update:

Since it’s been over a month, we can safely assume they’re in production now.

From what I understand, pre-production is mostly writing and storyboarding, possibly voice recording as well. If they’re in the production phase, that means animation has begun.

Let’s consider the turnaround time for past seasons. S1′s airdate was September 14, 2018; S2′s was February 15, 2019; and S3′s was November 22, 2019. This means that there was only a five month gap between S1 and S2, and a nine month gap between S2 & S3.

The gap between S3 & S4 has been longer than both of those. But considering that we’ve had a global pandemic and that we’ve been waiting on Netflix to greenlight more seasons, this is to be expected. We only heard about the renewal back in July. Assuming the team started work around that time, they’ve already been working for about four months.

If we estimate that it’ll be another five months before we see S4, (nine months in total, same as the wait between S2 and S3), that means it will air around April 2021. Of course, it could air before or after - depending on how long production takes. But I believe it’s safe to say that we could be seeing TDP S4 air in spring 2021.

2. Timeskip < 6 Months

We know from interviews that there will be a timeskip between S3 & S4. If you’ve read Through the Moon, you know that there’s a few weeks in between the end of S3 and the beginning of the graphic novel, and that the events of the story happen in the span of about two weeks. So we can estimate that it’s been about a month between the end of S3 and the end of TTM.

We also know there will be a bit of a timeskip between TTM and the start of S4, per the Reddit AMA, but we’re not sure how long that will be.

My guess? The timeskip between S3 & S4 will be six months or less.

I was initially going to play it safe and say “less than three years,” because anything more than that would require a recast to account for teenage Ezran. (And given how much the creators and fans LOVE Sasha, I doubt a recast will ever happen in the show.)

But realistically, I don’t think the timeskip will be more than a half a year. The events of TTM imply that the story is very much moving forward, and anything too far in the future would give the audience too much to be caught up on. So it’ll likely be only a few months of a gap between seasons, and definitely less than six.

3. New Clothing & Hair for Characters

Many of the characters in ATLA received either new hairstyles or clothing between the seasons. So following that logic, and given that Ehasz is behind both shows, it stand to reason the same will hold true for TDP.

The creators have confirmed that Callum will be going “sun’s out, gun’s out” for S4. (Their words, not mine.) This makes sense since he now knows how to cast mage wings, and he wants them to be readily accessible at a moment’s notice.

We also see that Rayla’s sporting a new cloak when she leaves at the end of TTM, so she’ll likely have this for S4 as well.

Ezran may get new garb as well, as he settles into his new role as king.

I also think it’s possible that their hair could change as well. Rayla’s on her own now, so her hair will probably just get longer. Maybe she’ll braid it or wrap it up in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. If Callum returns to Katolis, he might get a haircut in-between seasons. But if he goes straight out to search for Rayla, his hair might be even longer.

Either way, new hair and clothes seems like a given.

4. Older Zym

The creators have assured us in prior interviews that Zym is still very much a part of this story. It is called The Dragon Prince after all.

That being said, I think it’s possible we’ll see a slightly older Zym next season, especially due to the timeskip. I doubt he’ll get much bigger. He’ll probably go from being the size of a puppy to the size of a full-grown dog. And I don’t think he’ll talk yet. That seems like it won’t be for many years in the future.

Still, I think we can reasonably look forward to seeing an older Zym.

5. Mid Season Rayllum Reunion

I already have a post highlighting the reasons why I think Callum and Rayla will definitely reunite in S4, as I know many fans are wondering if they’ll spend the whole season apart.

But I think this reunion may happen sooner rather than later. By that, I’m guessing it’ll happen at the midway point - either episodes 4 or 5.

This gives us the chance to have three or four whole episodes with them apart, which seems like a reasonable amount. Then we get their reunion, which’ll likely be it’s own episode. Then we get four or five whole episodes with them together again, dealing with the fallout of Rayla’s decision, working together, and hopefully reconciling by the season’s end. This seems like it could be a nice, tidy arc for them to have for the season, so that’s what I’m going to guess will happen.

Plus, it’ll have us feeling all the feels.

6. Janai’s Brother Wants the Throne

It’s been confirmed that Janai and Khessa have a younger, unnamed brother. We know nothing about him, and the creators decided not to comment when asked about him during the AMA. This means that he’ll likely be an important player for S4.

One of the writers (I believe it was Devon) also confirmed via Twitter that Janai is next in line for the throne after her sister’s death, calling her Queen Janai.

This raises a very interesting potential plotline for S4. What if Janai decides to ally with the humans that helped during the battle at the Storm Spire? What if her brother is not happy about this? Letting a human into Lux Area was the reason Khessa died, after all.

What if Janai’s brother decided to make a play for the throne - either by contesting Janai’s rule, threatening civil war, or by trying to usurp the thone?

The creator’s have mentioned that despite the Zym being returned to Xadia, there is still a long road to peace between the elves and humans. They alluded to an “event” that makes Ezran aware of this.

Unrest / war between the Sunfire elves could very easily be what they’re talking about. And Janai’s brother wanting the throne could very easily be the catalyst for that.

7. Aaravos in the Shadows

Many fans are speculating that our main characters may now finally become aware of Aaravos’s existence in the series. As for me? I’m not so sure.

Keep in mind, outside of Viren, Claudia, and perhaps a handful of Sunfire elves, no one else in the show knows of Aaravos’s existence. He’s been keeping to the shadows, pretty clearly using Viren as his puppet.

With the end of S3, he’s in the cocoon, leaving Viren and Claudia on their own. We don’t know how long it’ll take for him to emerge, or even what form he’ll take when that happens. But we do know that he’ll be back for S4, per Erik Todd Dellums. (And apparently, he’ll have an even sexier voice.)

I imagine he and the dark mage fam will have their own arc in S4, which may eventually intersect with whatever the main cast is up to, but not for awhile yet. As for Aaravos himself, I think he’s playing the long game. And I think part of that means staying in the shadows as much as he possible can, while he consolidates power. The goal it seems is to make his form stronger and stronger, and eventually finding a way to leave the mirror realm entirely. Why would he want to play his cards too early?

So with Viren and Aaravos out of the way for much of S4, who does this leave as the main antagonist?

8. Sol Regem, Main Antagonist

Enter Sol Regem. It’s been confirmed that we’ll see him again, after all. And we know just how much hatred he has for humans. He was hellbent on frying Callum to a crisp, even after he had agreed to return the human kingdoms.

It was revealed that Sol Regem was once revered by the Sunfire elves, before he became a symbol of rage and bitterness. Still, this reverence is an important part of Sunfire history.

This is something Janai’s brother could leverage if he’s looking to usurp the throne and pit the human-hating Sunfire elves against those that are loyal to Janai. With the literal Sun King on his side, he becomes a formidable foe.

This could be the event that leads Ezran to act. Will the humans who fought at the Storm Spire come to the aid of Janai and her people? Will the Dragon Queen weigh in on this matter? Will they need to gather the other elemental dragons together in hopes of defeating Sol Regem? (If so, this is a way we could bring Rex Igneous into the story.)

This might be a bit of a stretch, of course. But it does lead for an interesting direction for S4, and S5 as well, and would be a way to introduce more dragons and keep Zym and his mother in the story.

And, as I stated in my Rayllum S4 reunion post, this gives Rayla incentive to stop hunting Viren and shift gears to focus on the more emergent threat. Which in turn could reunite Team Zym once again.

9. Rex Igneous Eats a Jelly Tart

It’s pretty much a given that we will meet Rex Igneous (the Earth dragon) in this season. You can see a sneak peak of him in Callum’s Sketchbook, which has the following caption:

It was also revealed by the creators that some “very important figures” would be eating jelly tarts in upcoming seasons.

Given this information, it doesn’t seem farfetched to imagine that Rex Igneous will be one of those figures.

10. Soren & Ezran Adventure / Bonding

Soren used to share his screen time with Claudia, but now that she’s out on her own with her dad, he’ll need a new buddy to share screen time with.

I nominate Ezran, mostly because S3 dealt a lot with their relationship, and it just makes sense to continue to develop this in S4. Plus, Ezran’s the king and Soren’s the guard. Where he goes, Soren follows.

So it makes sense that they’ll have an adventure together in S4.

11. Dramatic Claudia Reveal / Confrontation

I had this on my list for awhile, but Ehasz tweeted this and nearly confirmed it:

I think we’re going to get either a really dramatic reveal or confrontation between Claudia and another character. Either Viren, Soren, or possibly Callum. (I don’t think it’ll be Rayla, since she has no real connection to Claudia.) Or perhaps it’ll simply be a dramatic reveal for us, the audience.

Either way, stuff’s going down.

12. Callum Learns Moon Arcanum

The creators have mentioned that Callum will be learning more of the primal sources in future seasons. I think it stands to reason that moon will be next for him.

S3 already showed him starting to grasp a lot of the fundamentals of the source - both in their evasion of Sol Regem and in casting the spell to see Rayla’s parents. Through the Moon builds on this even more, with him using moon opals to cast more moon magic, and learning even more from Lujanne regarding the nature of the primal.

Being separated from Rayla might be the push he needs to finally unlock the arcanum once in for all. Perhaps it’ll be key to tracking her down, if he goes after her.

If not, perhaps understanding Rayla’s past and the decision that she made, and their reconciliation is what will trigger it.

Hard to say for sure, but I feel like this will relate to Rayla in some way. And it will definitely happen in S4.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll do a part 2 eventually and go through my last 12 predictions.

#tdp #the dragon prince #tdp season 4 #tdp speculation #tdp season 4 predictions #is it season 4 yet?#through the moon #through the moon spoilers #rayllum #ezran #rayla #callum #zym #soren #claudia #tdp fandom

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shadowsong26fic · 6 years

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Coming Attractions!

Because I skipped the last two months, lol...

I mean, this one is not necessarily “coming this month,” since I’ll be travelling for a couple weeks in the middle of the month! So I’ll have time to write, but possibly not brain, and I’m not 100% sure what my internet access will be like, so I’m tentatively saying there will be no posts between the 10th and the 24th/25th. If everything goes to plan, though, I’ll build up some backlog of stuff in the evenings and be able to post a bunch when I get back. But we shall see!

Okay, ever on we go...

Precipice:

So, I’m nowhere near where I wanted to be at this point in the year, lol. This arc has been...hm...not really flowing as much as some of the earlier ones did? I think at least in part because Fluff Is Hard, so that half is taking a long, long time for me to get out. And Saw can be difficult, so that half is also fairly slow-going, too. Arc Seven (which takes place three years later) should go faster. Leia has a Key Milestone to meet, Infernalis has things to do, and there’s a Spoiler that sets up a major plot thread for arcs 8-14.

Which, as a head’s up, will most likely be split off into a separate fic. Which I think I’ve mentioned before, but just to be clear. Partly for length, partly for timing--there’s going to be a fairly long timeskip of six years--partly for subject matter/format because there’s a key Moment that happens in Arc Eight (working title Escalation). Right now, the plan is to title this second chunk Protectors, but I might use Precipice II or something instead, haven’t decided.

So, anyway, fun stuff in the pipeline here! I might do another bonus fic or two at some point. I’m guessing Arc Six will be about twelve chapters in total? Depends on how quickly I wrap up the Saw & Ahsoka & Rex storyline.

Oh! Before I switch topics--on the subject of the bonus fics, having read Thrawn: Alliances...there’s definitely one I want to write, with Padme and Thrawn. But, due to potential spoilers, it’ll be a while. Which...I guess I should remind y’all that I tend to work in a blended/tiered canon, drawing on both Legends and canon content as seems appropriate. Also, I locked my official canon before seeing Rebels, which is why Ahsoka and Rex have pretty significantly different backstories. I draw stuff in from later-released contact as it suits me/the story, if it does not completely contradict what I’ve established for the AU.

(Incidentally, as for drawing in Rebels content/characters, I’m still going back and forth on how much of that I wanna do. As I think I’ve mentioned before, the timeskip between Part 7 and Part 8 includes the entire run of the show, and I already had Thrawn worked into a later storyline, plus Rebels would pretty significantly diverge starting with the end of S1/beginning of S2 anyway, so...there it is. There is something I’m leaning towards using Kallus and Zeb for, in around part 13/14, but we shall see.)

AU Outlines:

Let’s Go Steal a Crossover will materialize at some point, I swear.

Also The Mask of Zorro/California Gold Rush AU Fusion No One One Person Asked For. Which is a very long title but pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. I should rewatch that movie at some point. Not just for this, but because I love it.

Also, having read Alliances, for somewhat spoilery reasons the Pellaeon AU is back in my head with a vengeance. (I mean. Not that it ever really left because it’s a fun and somewhat self-indulgent one I pick at pretty frequently.) Anyway, I probably will write that one up at some point, but holding off for a suitable spoiler moratorium ‘cause some of the stuff that came up in the novel will/should be referenced. (...this AU, for those of you who don’t know, is the one where Gilad Pellaeon impulsively kidnaps a fourteen-year-old, one thing leads to another, and now Thrawn is working with the Rebels.)

Also also, at some point I should update Ventress and Her Tiny Time-Travelling Conscience. Because Past!Obi-Wan, Padme, and Palpatine should probably all weigh in on what’s going down...

Other Existing Fic:

Fingers crossed for Distaff and/or Auxiliaries. Because I am very fond of them, I just haven’t had much juice flowing for them lately, sadly.

Also, eventually The Caladrius? I think/hope?

New Projects:

There are THREE of them! :D Because I clearly don’t have enough going on, lol.

First one is Our Faces Like a Mirror (working title); AKA the first big chunk of a potentially massive “shadowsong accidentally fell in love with Bo-Katan and now feels compelled to tell her story” project. This one covering from the backstory civil war until she leaves to join Death Watch. Don’t want to say too much more, since it might be my BB project for next year.

Second is Bail Unfucks the Timeline (which lacks a working title). It’s pretty much an expansion of the AU Outline version. There’s quite a bit of negative space/gaps to fill in, so we’ll see when this comes in. (It also might be a BB project, IDK.)

Third is Untitled ObiAniDala AU Extravaganza. Based on a prompt from @obianidalasuggestion.

Timeline/dummy summary because I are Clever.

In another galaxy, this would be the year the Clone Wars began.

In this one, it’s the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Republic.

I’m still poking around at worldbuilding for now. Figuring out where Obi-Wan has been for the past twenty-five years since Bail helped him escape the Temple (and making this suitably distinct from Kanan’s backstory); working out Padme’s timeline; having fun with tiny Anakin and Ahsoka; debating whether to adjust Palpatine’s age for credibility, or have the subplot of him overthrowing Plagueis in the background...

Now, courtship narratives aren’t really my strong suit so I have no idea on timing for this one, either, but I’m having fun building it and it will come eventually.

(Also, it occurred to me--and this isn’t the direction I’m going with it--but this prompt also lends itself to a Dark Trio OT3 fic. Where Obi-Wan the Sith apprentice and Padme the clever politician are plotting to overthrow their mutual Master and rule together, or have already done so, and then Anakin falls into their laps, so to speak...again, not going there because while I definitely enjoy reading Empress Amidala AUs (and occasionally Sith Obi-Wan AUs), I am not at all confident in my ability to write one, and besides I’m having way more fun worldbuilding the other one. Just...IDK sharing as an example of how my brain tends to go off on Tangents, which is why I have many AUs of my own AUs and sometimes updates are slow, lol...)

Original Fiction:

With the help of some challenges on the origfic community I post to, I actually got some stuff done this month! Hopefully will keep doing stuff because I’ve missed by origfic characters the past year or so...

Anyway, that’s what’s coming! What have y’all been up to lately?

#coming attractions #shadowsong26fic #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes original fic

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murasaki-murasame · 7 years

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Rambling about YoI’s sales data [and also LGBT representation in anime and how rare/unsuccessful it tends to be]

I know that there’s other people in the YoI fandom keeping up with and talking about the sales figures for the series, so I might just be repeating what other people are already saying, but according to someanithing.com [which is a really convenient blog for if you want some info on anime sales data in general], the sales average of the series stands at 62,666 [as of us getting info on volume five’s second week of sales]. Which is pretty astounding on multiple levels. Someanithing has a really convenient list of anime since 2000 that have gotten a 10k+ sales average [ignoring data from rereleases of series], and Yuri on Ice currently stands at sixth place, right above Nisemonogatari, and right below Osomatsu-san [which are at about 60.7k and 66.7k respectively].

Rest of my thoughts under the cut because holy shit this got REALLY long and only the first few paragraphs really specifically talk about sales data, but yeah the above paragraph is the gist of it, and the rest is just me rambling about really specific stuff, and wider anime fandom/industry stuff [emphasis on ‘rambling’, haha]. ALSO near the end I give my personal thoughts on how happy I am to see a show with a queer protagonist/central romance be so successful, and how notably against the norm it is, AND I shamelessly plug the manga Shimanami Tasogare, which I recommend to pretty much anyone looking for more LGBT representation in this general sphere.

Given that v6 has the whole Welcome to the Madness thing going for it, I expect it to get to at least 60k in sales lifetime, and I’m pretty sure that the Oricon half-yearly rankings at the start of July will give us a comprehensive idea of how every volume’s sold by then, which will effectively boost our data on the earlier volumes, so I can totally see the series maintaining a 62k+ average, maybe even a 63k average. Which would be kinda agonizingly close to Osomatsu-san’s number, but I don’t really think it has room to get quite that high, sadly. Oh well.

Also, in case anyone cares, there’s been some vague debates over the last few months about if Love Live Sunshine would be able to beat YoI, sales average-wise, but that seems increasingly unlikely. Since LLSS is currently at a 54.3k average, and would thus need to add, like, 40-50k copies to get close to YoI. I was curious to see if LLSS would have been able to do that, but we’re a good way into it’s second event ticket application period, and it hasn’t really gotten a noticeable boost at all. So yeah. With just a few weeks left until the event tickets become basically meaningless, I don’t exactly think it can add quite that amount in time to beat YoI. Of course this entire comparison is meaningless because they’re completely different series, and it’s kinda impossible to compare YoI’s fairly standard two event tickets to LLSS having five. This is mostly just something I’ve been looking at from afar as it’s panned out. I’m not trying to be weirdly snarky and hostile toward LLSS for “““losing”““ to YoI, and I don’t want anyone to use this data to be rude to that show and it’s fanbase, and gloat about YoI’s success.

But it IS still worth noting that the main reason I was intrigued by the comparison between these two shows is because they’ve been fighting for the spot of the number one best-selling show [by sales average, at least] of 2016 [I’m counting Osomatsu-san as a 2015 show]. So, with how it seems to be about to ‘beat’ LLSS, that also means that YoI will pretty much become the best-selling anime of 2016. Of course, there’s a looooot more to it than that because physical media like this is slowly declining in importance to a show’s financial success, and of course there’s aspects like how the animation studio might not be getting as much of a profit as this might imply because of their placement on the production committee [I forget where Mappa is on the committee but I think it’s near the bottom] but still. You all get what I’m trying to say. The bottom line is that YoI is incredibly, incredibly successful, and that’s wonderful. [Though it’s also worth noting that the merchandise and soundtrack and so on for this show are ALSO selling incredibly well, so bringing up the decline of physical media and whatnot is slightly less relevant here than if this was the sort of franchise where ONLY the BDs were selling well. And this is also obviously the most financially successful show Mappa has made, so even if they’re low on the committee you can probably say as a rule of thumb that they’ve gotten more from this show than their previous ones].

Back on the topic of YoI’s #6 spot on the ‘anime from 2000 to present with a 10k+ sales average’ lost, it’s pretty exciting that it’s so incredibly high, since it’ll probably maintain a top ten spot for, well, pretty much ever, considering how rare these sorts of successes are getting. LLSS is the only thing from last year that has any competition with it on that list, and that’s probably not going to surpass it. The only things, in terms of TV anime, I can see potentially surpassing YoI would be Granblue Fantasy, Osomatsu-san S2, and maaaybe LLSS S2 if that can have some kind of a notable sequel boost which I REALLY doubt, but you never know. Osomatsu-san S2 is also slightly doubtful but at least that wouldn’t need to surpass it’s respective first season to pass YoI. We’ll see how that turns out when that comes out, I guess. Granblue Fantasy is also a distinct possibility as a ‘challenger’ of sorts. It’s at least gonna be the best-seller of this current season, and will probably be in the running for best-selling TV anime of 2017. I have absolutely no idea how to predict anything with this anime though since it seems disproportionately successful at Amazon compared to other places and so estimates are out of whack for it, and also because each volume is bundled with a different sort of code, or some such, related to getting special items/characters/etc in the GBF mobile game. So it’s really hard to tell how that’ll affect things. Especially since I’ve heard some people in that fandom say that the rewards aren’t really equally interesting, so there might be some heavy fluctuation in sales between volumes. Possibly. Which would throw off estimates even more. So basically who the hell knows with that series. For reference, v1 has, as of two weeks of sales, sold a bit under 45k. But yeah that doesn’t really mean that much just yet. It’s still a bit lower than I expected given it’s kinda absurd popularity at Amazon, and it’s sorta amusing but meaningleses to compare it to YoI v1′s week one sales of 50k, but still. [[Again, I’m not trying to stir up any fandom wars of whatever here, and I don’t want anyone else doing such a thing either. There’s no reason to get mad at these shows or their fandoms if they sell well, or to be condescending and petty to them if they don’t]]

And since I’m on a roll of making interesting but mostly meaningless comparisons, it’s definitely noteworthy to compare YoI’s 62k average to Free S1′s 29.1k sales average. Like, wow. For reference, Free S1 is the current second best selling sports anime post-2000, unless we count Girls und Panzer as the second place at roughly 36.3k. But I don’t think most people count that as a sports anime sooo yeah. I’ll focus more on the Free comparison. It’s still REALLY surprising to me that we’re looking at around about a 110% increase in sales average between the two. That’s a pretty huge gap between first and second place on the sports anime genre list. It’s mostly surprising to me because Free always seemed like such an insurmountable juggernaut of a franchise. It still IS super successful and influential, of course, but still. For some reason it still surprises me to see YoI sell so much MORE than it. Of course Free also has it’s own second season plus two currently-airing compilation films and an upcoming sequel movie [I think] to even things out, but you get what I mean. It’s an interesting comparison to make. It really puts into perspective how big of a success YoI is. It’s sort of bonkers.

ALSO I want to just let myself gloat a little bit about how meaningful it is to me to have a show with a queer protagonist [a male one, in particular] AND a queer romance as the sixth best-selling TV anime since the year 2000 because HOO BOY. Sweet vindication. It’s always good to get shows like this that help prove that queer protagonists/romances aren’t always a death sentence to something’s success/popularity/mainstream appeal, even if these sorts of things, particularly in anime, still feel a little too few and far between for my liking. It’s sort of depressing looking at that big sales average list and seeing the huge lack of queer characters, especially in the protagonist sense. It’s not like there aren’t ANY, they’re just . . . pretty damn rare. Especially with male characters, where other than YoI it looks like we basically just have, uh . . . Tiger and Bunny and then Hetalia? Which I think are both way more vague about their queer representation, protagonist-wise, but I haven’t watched them so I won’t touch upon them. And obviously there’s a lot of other shows on the list that I haven’t seen, but most of them are popular enough that I have enough of an awareness of them to know that their protagonists are straight. For completeness’ sake, in terms of queer female protagonists we at least have Madoka. I think Lucky Star counts as well [and I THINK that the first MariMite season is just barely on the list???]. I’m less familiar with shows with queer female protagonists, though, so if anyone else knows more on the topic than I do, I’d love to get your input. It’s also worth noting that Revolutionary Girl Utena isn’t on this list at all because it came out before 2000, so it MIGHT have sold at least 10k but I don’t think we have any data on that at all.

I just think it’s sorta interesting, and depressing, to look at this sorta thing. It definitely makes me appreciate YoI even more. Especially since the queerness of it’s lead characters was obviously a noteworthy element of it’s success. But it’s worth noting that that’s by far not the ONLY reason for it’s success. At all. I mentioned the mentality that “““gay stuff”““ can’t sell well, but there’s definitely also a widespread mentality of ‘YoI just sold well because it’s about hot gay guys!’ [also throw in a generous heaping of misogynistic uses of words like fujoshi, and an almost complete passive erasure of the queer male portion of the fanbase for good measure!], which bugs me a lot, and looking at this list shows exactly why. Focusing specifically on stuff about male characters [since, again, that’s what I’m more familiar with], YoI is, as said, one of probably less than five shows to have sold more than 10k on average in the last 16+ years that have queer male protagonists, and the other ones seem even LESS focused on romance elements than even YoI. I don’t think that there’s a single BL/yaoi genre anime on that entire list. Which is odd because I thought that Junjou Romantica hit around 10k but I can’t find it on the list so I guess it didn’t. But that’s by far the most successful BL/yaoi TV anime out there, so . . . yeah. Really puts into perspective this weird idea people have that a show having gay characters in it is some sort of a ticket for immediate success. I mean, I sure WISH it was, but the world isn’t so kind, sadly :V [[also anyone who wants to act like that’s how things work should really look at how bad/forgettable the sales of shows like Shin Sekai Yori, No.6, Samurai Flamenco, HaruChika, etc etc, were]]

But yeah my point is that you really can’t brush aside YoI’s success as just ‘well of COURSE it sold well because FUJOS amirite???’ because, uh, no. I mean, there’s definitely stuff to be said about how female otaku in general seem to be more and more willing to actually buy anime they like rather than male otaku, and there are definitely shows that do “““pander to fujos”““ or however the hell you want to phrase it, but YoI’s success isn’t somehow commonplace. As both a sports show AND as a show with a queer male romance in it, it’s in a class of it’s own, and it really is a mix of so many different aspects that lead it to being so successful. It’s not just one single thing.

Even though the queer romance is obviously just a single facet of YoI as a show, I still hope it can serve as an inspiration for other creators, and for the anime industry as a whole. I hope it can help give support to the idea that you really can have this sort of story without it being dead in the water. You can take risks, and they can pay off, even if there’s no guarantees. So if this can, down the track, inspire more shows like this in general, especially in the specific sense of ‘non-BL/yaoi anime with queer protagonists’, then that’d be wonderful.

Basically I’m just desperately hoping that Shimanami Tasogare gets an anime adaptation at some point, haha. If you want a manga with some astounding LGBT representation, READ IT, SERIOUSLY. It’s one of only a tiny handful of manga I’ve read that actually specifically addresses how homophobia ‘works’ and how integrated into society it is, and how it affects LGBT people. But I won’t gush about it too much here because this is more of a YoI post.

#murasaki rambles #yuri on ice #yoi #really hope this isn't appearing on everyones dashes multiple times or anything #i had to redo this a few times #I apologize if I messed up

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