Third Trailer for ‘Maiko Haaan!!!’, Written by Kankuro Kudo.

Psst!

I’m forever trying to figure out new ways of conveying information here at Twitch. You see, far from it being easy to sometimes just say to companies or individuals, ”This is the one, the only film this year I desparately want to see released with subs”, it’s unfortunate that circumstances mean that a film that can be important to anyone writing about it might only get little, slight coverage or comment. At least, the things that would give a broader picture and more opportunity to diversify and strengthen the market towards broader appeal are few and far between when you actually see what’s picked up and released - this would be one of the kinds of film that represents what there’s more of out there to be had, and we do talk about it, but it requires spotting from a company intent of picking from a more realistic range of material.

Something that generates scattered pieces of information, requiring someone to follow it closely and perhaps also leading them to be tempted to post about every aspect and potentially that stuff with more likely reactions to it (in the reader comments), might become more obvious to a company - though smaller films need more publicity (that’s what we’re here for, to talk about what we want, when we want) they’re more likely to not be so organised as to not require any assistance, as it were.

This does, of course, lead back to the issue of how companies make decisions, and at the moments I am tempted to say that on the event of my next ’Subtitle This‘ list (end of August ‘07 if I remember to do it then) I will intentionally remove anything that matches the rather narrow field of interest that some companies seem to be choosing to drag us towards more often than is being proven to be worthwhile in terms of maintaining a more complete picture of what’s being identified as interesting from what I am sensing of online activity.

Why? This current thought in my mind actually comes from this : It’s taken a whole new format (price, availability etc), a whole new generation of anime fans (as an example) to come around for their to have been any chance of reversing the narrow image of the “genre” (it’s not one, but you get what I mean) to even begin the long task of turning peoples minds towards it once again. For now, the genres that are being trodden regularly have had prime examples within them and can still turn up the goods, but a narrow view is an equivalent of painting yourself into a corner and wondering why you can’t move anywhere as a result. It can take years to happen, but it has happened before and it looks like it’s happening again.

And still, we do get some massively generic choices there, with more interesting stuff hidden - if at all licensed and released - because there’s both a lack of choice and a lack of bravery on both sides. Still, as to the reasons there’s a downturn in the success of smaller companies fortunes, it’s going to not be specifically down to any one sides fault. Fans of films are just as likely to narrow their viewing habits too, for a different set of reasons, and still, I feel bad spending less than £10 on a crap film (happens rarely - hence the daily research) let alone licensing a bad one for £100k, or whatever it costs.