Why wasn't Ryuki as popular as Madoka got?

[Eldar]

My point is, both have the same story, just with different trappings.

You must only watch Toku and Magic Girls if your frame of reference is so limited that you believe that Madoka and Ryuki have the "same story".

 

[Ivanhobe]

^That basically.

Maybe Madoka and Ryuki share a lot of similar ideas and concepts to the point that you could say that one show seems to be inspired by the other, but when you get down to it the actual stories and the way they were developed were quite different.

Case in point, in Madoka there isn´t a single Ouja.

 

[Bigdog]

Why wasn't Ryuki as popular? The internet and fansub community was too young.

Unlike today, there wasn't a massive scene towards Toku shows or even anime online. Then again, I never heard of fansubs until 2005 when I was searching for subtitles for my Godzilla DVDs and for the current Rider series. [or of recent shows]

I could say that for me toku fansubs were more when I caught them on Veoh or on YouTube back then around then as well, which were more into those series and up, but no Ryuki really. Many people probably got into fansubs around the same time as I did in 2007 , so that kind of made Ryuki past news in terms of effort.

Seeing the first five, it's ok, just different from other Rider shows I have seen in either era. It's not exactly impressive, but many newer shows aren't either, so that was never a problem.

If Ryuki came out in 2007 or 2009, we'd be hearing of it much more , but it came out too early.

 

[Ivanhobe]

Unlike today, there wasn't a massive scene towards Toku shows or even anime online. Then again, I never heard of fansubs until 2005 when I was searching for subtitles for my Godzilla DVDs and for the current Rider series. [or of recent shows]

That is something i feel people who are new to the fandom (i.e. since W aired) tend to underestimate: the internet Toku fansub scene is relatively new and way bigger than 5 years ago, the oldest toku fansub (TVN) group is 10 years old and a lot of their earlier stuff has a very bad video quality and need scrubs ASAP.

Before W, TVN was pretty much the place to go if you wanted steady Toku subs, and even then they can only sub so many shows. Some people seem to be unaware that subs for shows from before 2010 are not as available as modern shows are, shows like Kuuga and Agito took like 10 years to get decent fansubs and Ryuki only got full subs in 2009 i think.

So yeah, even if Ryuki came out in 2002, people in the western community didn´t really had access to it until a few years ago, and that remains true for a lot of shows from the pre-2008 days, the fact that there are people right now subbing Toku shows from before 1990 is kind of a miracle in itself.

In a nutshell, Madoka = Mainstream Anime, Ryuki = relatively obscure Toku show that a lot of people withint the fandon only know as that show with 13 Riders.

 

[Eldar]

^Very true.

People don't seem to remember the old days when we didn't have torrents, ddls, steaming, etc. Toku and Rider was much more niche than it was now. We didn't even have a message board, the closest thing was a newsgroup.

 

[Bigdog]

^Very true.

People don't seem to remember the old days when we didn't have torrents, ddls, steaming, etc. Toku and Rider was much more niche than it was now. We didn't even have a message board, the closest thing was a newsgroup.

Exactly yet again. :thumbs:

I wasn't involved with newsgroups and neither was I involved with anybody onlnie other than my classmates in grade school on AIM. Until high school, the only people who liked tokusatsu, anime, or much of anything in this field were my relatives.

 

[billySEEDDecade]

Kind of off-topic but I want to ask, does Precure have more popularity in Japan than Kamen Rider now? Like Smile to Fourze or Doki Doki to Wizard.

 

[Shynilyte]

According to this Bandai financial report, Kamen Rider is always makes more money than Pretty Cure.

I don't know about the TV ratings, though.

 

[NeonZ]

Kind of off-topic but I want to ask, does Precure have more popularity in Japan than Kamen Rider now? Like Smile to Fourze or Doki Doki to Wizard.

Pretty Cure is always lower than Rider. It's not a perfect comparison since the airing periods don't match up perfectly though.

7.9% Blade vs vs Futari Wa 7.29
8.2% Hibiki vs Max Heart 7.87
7.7% Kabuto vs Splash Star 6.38
6.9% Den-O vs 5 6.38
6.2% Kiva vs 5GoGo 5.60
8.0% Decade vs Fresh 6.49
8.0% W vs HeartCatch 6.50
6.9% OOO vs Suite 5.20
5.9% Fourze vs Smile 5.30
5.98% Wizard (up to episode 49) vs DokiDoki 5.01 (up to episode 28)

Curiously, DokiDoki has gotten some pretty bad numbers ever since Ace (a sixth-ranger like Cure) debuted and Regina (a villain character who was befriended by the Cures) was removed from the series (well, she'll eventually return, but she has been missing for episodes now while she was basically a main cast member for a while) - every number since then has just dropped the series' average rating. It's one of the most obvious cases I've seen of a single secondary character being so important to a show's audience.

Spoiler

It's good to know I wasn't the only one who dropped the show after was done to Regina though.

 

[Clocktower]

Pretty Cure is always lower than Rider. It's not a perfect comparison since the airing periods don't match up perfectly though.

7.9% Blade vs vs Futari Wa 7.29
8.2% Hibiki vs Max Heart 7.87
7.7% Kabuto vs Splash Star 6.38
6.9% Den-O vs 5 6.38
6.2% Kiva vs 5GoGo 5.60
8.0% Decade vs Fresh 6.49
8.0% W vs HeartCatch 6.50
6.9% OOO vs Suite 5.20
5.9% Fourze vs Smile 5.30
5.98% Wizard (up to episode 49) vs DokiDoki 5.01 (up to episode 28)

Curiously, DokiDoki has gotten some pretty bad numbers ever since Ace (a sixth-ranger like Cure) debuted and Regina (a villain character who was befriended by the Cures) was removed from the series (well, she'll eventually return, but she has been missing for episodes now while she was basically a main cast member for a while) - every number since then has just dropped the series' average rating. It's one of the most clear cases I've seen of a single secondary character being so important to a show's audience.

Spoiler

It's good to know I wasn't the only one who dropped the show after was done to Regina though.

From what I hear, she was incredibly popular, not just with the older fans for her lesbian relationship with Mana, but the kids seem to have been drawn to her in a similar way they were with Ankh in OOO. She's a lovable, selfish brat, who opens up and develops a very close bond with the main character in a really endearing way. I guess they didn't foresee her popularity, but writing her out of the show so soon seems to have massively backfired, especially since I think a lot of people really expected her to become Ace.

I wonder if her eventual return will have an impact on the ratings.