For
years, Monday at seven p.m. was InuYasha time on Japanese television,
since that was the time that the animated series was shown on Yomiuri
Television. It was a "golden time" for the high-rated program because
of the number of viewers and the money the TV station could get in
advertising. Michihiko Suwa is the producer for the station's Monday
evening hour-long block of animated shows. He gave Animazement fans a
rare look into the presentation and handling of a hit show such as
InyYasha on Japanese television, where everything, from scripts to
commercial announcements, is designed to maximize ratings. Those
ratings, which appear to be as unyielding a measurement of success of
failure as anything Nielsen does in the U.S., are based on the metered
viewing patterns of 600 Japanese households out of a market of
millions. The audiences are measured every minute, and from what Suwa
said, producers set up their shows to hold their audiences for every
one of those minutes. In some cases, the mid-show commercial breaks -
and there's only one per half-hour in Japanese shows - are timed so
precisely as to affect as few of those minutes as possible.
InuYasha
came on after Yomiuri's evening newscast, so its programming position
can be compared to the syndicated shows that follow local newscasts in
the U.S. And as American television has started to inject more promos
into the preceding show, there is an InyYasha promo immediately after
the newscast ends. After a few commercials comes the show opening,
performed by a top music group ("Grip" by EveryLittleThing, an Avex
group). During the intro, the name of the show's sponsors are read by
the voice of the InuYasha character. "Normally it's not the principal
voice actor that reads out the sponsors' names," Suwa said. "Normally
it's done by the TV station's announcer, but we thought it would be
more appropriate for the principal voice actors to be the voices of
InuYasha and Conan (Detective Conan, broadcast right after InuYasha).
It gives more consistency to the show." The detail work extends to the
scripting that leads to the show's midway commercial break, typically
set up with a cliff-hanger involving the show's most popular
characters, in an attempt to keep viewers from switching channels. Even
the traditional "eyecatch" bumpers leading into and out of the break
are designed to keep viewers involved in the show.
The
episode shown by Suwa had a cross-promotional commercial for McDonald's
and Pokemon that had North Carolina fans oohing and ahhing, but Suwa
gave those fans some inside information on the commercial's real
meaning. The animated Pokemon TV series is shown by TV Tokyo, which
competes with Yomiuri, and usually it would be no more likely to see
one station promoting another's shows in Japan as in the U.S. However,
this rare cross-promotion was set up by Shogakukan, which owns the TV
rights to both InuYasha and Pokemon. Think of it as being like the
National Basketball Association deal where TNT, ABC and ESPN are
required to promote playoff games on each others' networks. As popular
as InuYasha has been on Japanese television, it was off the air as of
the time of Animazement. The show was out of production because they
had caught up to Rumiko Takahashi's manga series, Suwa said, although
they hoped to resume production. Replacing InuYasha in Yomuiri's Monday
evening block was a new version of Black Jack, the roaming physician
story based on Osamu Tezuka manga. Suwa also noted that Detective Conan
was renamed Case Closed in the U.S. because of a previous Conan the
Great movie based on the Howard characters.
For
years, Monday at seven p.m. was InuYasha time on Japanese television,
since that was the time that the animated series was shown on Yomiuri
Television. It was a "golden time" for the high-rated program because
of the number of viewers and the money the TV station could get in
advertising. Michihiko Suwa is the producer for the station's Monday
evening hour-long block of animated shows. He gave Animazement fans a
rare look into the presentation and handling of a hit show such as
InyYasha on Japanese television, where everything, from scripts to
commercial announcements, is designed to maximize ratings. Those
ratings, which appear to be as unyielding a measurement of success of
failure as anything Nielsen does in the U.S., are based on the metered
viewing patterns of 600 Japanese households out of a market of
millions. The audiences are measured every minute, and from what Suwa
said, producers set up their shows to hold their audiences for every
one of those minutes. In some cases, the mid-show commercial breaks -
and there's only one per half-hour in Japanese shows - are timed so
precisely as to affect as few of those minutes as possible.
InuYasha
came on after Yomiuri's evening newscast, so its programming position
can be compared to the syndicated shows that follow local newscasts in
the U.S. And as American television has started to inject more promos
into the preceding show, there is an InyYasha promo immediately after
the newscast ends. After a few commercials comes the show opening,
performed by a top music group ("Grip" by EveryLittleThing, an Avex
group). During the intro, the name of the show's sponsors are read by
the voice of the InuYasha character. "Normally it's not the principal
voice actor that reads out the sponsors' names," Suwa said. "Normally
it's done by the TV station's announcer, but we thought it would be
more appropriate for the principal voice actors to be the voices of
InuYasha and Conan (Detective Conan, broadcast right after InuYasha).
It gives more consistency to the show." The detail work extends to the
scripting that leads to the show's midway commercial break, typically
set up with a cliff-hanger involving the show's most popular
characters, in an attempt to keep viewers from switching channels. Even
the traditional "eyecatch" bumpers leading into and out of the break
are designed to keep viewers involved in the show.
The
episode shown by Suwa had a cross-promotional commercial for McDonald's
and Pokemon that had North Carolina fans oohing and ahhing, but Suwa
gave those fans some inside information on the commercial's real
meaning. The animated Pokemon TV series is shown by TV Tokyo, which
competes with Yomiuri, and usually it would be no more likely to see
one station promoting another's shows in Japan as in the U.S. However,
this rare cross-promotion was set up by Shogakukan, which owns the TV
rights to both InuYasha and Pokemon. Think of it as being like the
National Basketball Association deal where TNT, ABC and ESPN are
required to promote playoff games on each others' networks. As popular
as InuYasha has been on Japanese television, it was off the air as of
the time of Animazement. The show was out of production because they
had caught up to Rumiko Takahashi's manga series, Suwa said, although
they hoped to resume production. Replacing InuYasha in Yomuiri's Monday
evening block was a new version of Black Jack, the roaming physician
story based on Osamu Tezuka manga. Suwa also noted that Detective Conan
was renamed Case Closed in the U.S. because of a previous Conan the
Great movie based on the Howard characters.
