Nowadays, the epidemic has faded to create conditions for watching movies, Japanese animation has established a good reputation, and there is a blessing of classic IP, which can be described as the right time and place, and it is natural to become popular.
Author|Galaxy, Editor|Lone Dove
On April 20, the movie version of "Slam Dunk" was released, and the national competition that fans have been waiting for for 27 years finally appeared. On the day of the premiere, many post-80s dressed in jerseys and lined up to watch movies, and hot search terms such as "adult fairy tale" and "once in a lifetime" showed their feelings. As of press time, the box office of "Slam Dunk" has exceeded 400 million yuan, and the Douban score is as high as 9 points.
Not long ago, the "feelings" promoted by the film side aroused a warm response, and it was also a Japanese animated film. On March 24, "Journey to the Bell Buds" was released, director Makoto Shinkai called on the audience to go to a three-year contract, and now the film has achieved a box office of 770 million yuan.
In both films, youth and growth are common themes, and it is not only young people who are moved. In the theater hall in April, girls wearing high school skirts check in front of the promotional poster of "Journey to the Bell Buds", while middle-aged uncles wait in groups holding popcorn cups with the words "Five Tigers of Xiangbei". The barriers of the post-80s and post-00s were opened, which shows the far-reaching influence of Japanese animation.
Audience members team up to watch the movie from Weibo @-Falling Devil-
Also in April, Chinese theaters also introduced the old film "Detective Conan: The Undead of Baker Street", which is also a big IP of Japanese animation, filmed in 2002, and the re-screening still won more than 50 million yuan at the box office, breaking the single-day box office record of adventure films in the Qingming file in the past three years. And by June 1, "Sky City" directed by Hayao Miyazaki will also be re-screened.
It can be said that this spring, Japanese animation ignited the Chinese film market, leading both the box office and word of mouth, stimulating the audience's interest in entering the theater. In the transition stage from the Spring Festival to the May 1st file, Japanese animation played an important role in connecting and heating the field.
The complete bloom of this spring
The sudden rise of Japanese animation in this spring has the significance of making history.
Prior to this, in terms of the results of imported cartoons from the mainland, Hollywood's "west wind" overwhelmed the "east wind" of Japanese animation. According to Maoyan Professional Edition, the top 5 box office lists in this field are Hollywood animations, such as "Zootopia", "Coco", "Despicable Me 3", "Frozen 2" and so on.
Among Japanese anime, only 2015's "Doraemon: Walk with Me" and 2016's "Your Name." , squeezed into the top ten of the list. The best performer was Your Name. The box office broke 500 million yuan. And this time, not only "Journey to the Bell Buds" successfully entered the list, with the current hot momentum of "Slam Dunk", the box office is also expected to rush to the top of the list.
■ Mainland film history imported cartoon box office list
Japanese animation has also become a keyword on social media this spring. Even if a person does not go to the movies, as long as he goes online, he cannot escape the hot search of "hegemony", such as #Shinkai Makoto talks about Sino-Korean working meals# #Conan kisses everywhere# #Slam Dunk is a complete adult fairy tale#.
The controversy over the Sino-Korean working meal occurred on March 16, when director Makoto Shinkai came to Beijing to promote "Journey to the Bell Buds" and posted a dinner hosted by the Chinese side between 400 and 800 yuan per person, describing it as "too luxurious and shocking, and the round table will turn on its own." At the same time, he updated the news report, saying that the ramen photos sent by the Korean distribution company are "also delicious, so good."
Even though he also dried bibimbap, bread and ramen during Korean propaganda, some Korean netizens still broke their defenses, believing that Shinkai Makoto was "unfriendly to Korea" and "disliked ramen", which caused a momentary uproar.
■Makoto Shinkai also shared a working meal between China and Korea
The controversy caused by "Detective Conan: The Undead of Baker Street" is between "New Lan" and "Ke Wai" CP fans.
First, at the end of March, the original author Aoyama Takemasa and Uniqlo released a joint T-shirt, and both the author and Conan wore clothes printed with the "Ke Moe" pattern, "driving crazy" the New Lan Party. Some Uniqlo clerks who supported "Xinlan" spontaneously folded their clothes, so that Conan and Xiaolan, who were printed on their clothes, faced each other.
On April 4, "Detective Conan: The Undead of Baker Street" was officially re-screened, and soon after, a spoiler for Conan's latest theatrical version of "Black Iron Fish Shadow" "defeated everyone" equally.
It is rumored that there is a "love triangle" scene in the new theatrical version: Conan drowns, and Haibara mourns after doing artificial respiration for him and thinks, "Although Kudo doesn't know it, we just kissed"; After going ashore, she finally hugged Xiaolan and "returned the kiss" mouth-to-mouth.
This shocked both medical students and the "New Lan Party". The former believes that artificial respiration is not a kiss, and common sense is tarnished, while some "new lan parties" think that the new work is "junior on the top", and they who like Maori Lan will no longer rush sales for movies and peripherals.
■ The plot of the new theatrical version of "Conan" is rumored on the Internet
Among the many hilarious events, "Slam Dunk" may be more pure. The film takes the national competition between Xiangbei High School and Yamano Industry in the original manga as the main plot, focusing on the story of the "behind-the-scenes hero" and only 168 cm tall Miyagi Ryota.
Because Miyagi Ryota is not the protagonist in the original fan, and the movie is based on him, abandoning the two "flow" characters of Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede, which has caused widespread discussion. But such a sound is around the creation of the film itself, and the feedback is positive.
Miyagi is a point guard and is more responsible for organizing tandems, so the personal experiences and hearts of other players also unfold with the passing moment. The story of Ryota Miyagi, which has never been expected, is consistent with the purpose of the entire movie, that is, a complete adult fairy tale.
Due to the content or the director's own public opinion, repeated hot searches, Japanese anime is indeed this spring's "Internet celebrity".
Daily manga that has influenced generations
Although Japanese animated films have only exploded in the Chinese market this year, the impact of Japanese animation on Chinese audiences and even the main creators of national comics is long-term and far-reaching.
Just from the viewing groups of "Slam Dunk" and "Journey to the Bell Bud", you can see that the audience of Japanese comics has several generations.
According to Maoyan Professional Edition, "Slam Dunk" wants to see user portraits, 30-34 years old people account for 25.6%, 35-39 years old people account for 23.5%, and even people over 40 years old account for 13.1%. That is to say, more than half of the moviegoers over 30 years old, most of these people are post-80s, who grew up watching the "Slam Dunk" animation and have strong feelings.
In the user portraits of "Journey to the Bell Buds", the gender ratio of men and women is equal, with 36.1% of people under the age of 20 and 31.9% of the audience aged 20-24, that is, nearly seventy percent of the audience is people born in 1999 and post-00s.
The two cartoons, which not only have the same theme of youth and growth, but also face different audiences respectively, and both have achieved box office success, which shows that the core of Japanese animation's "all-take-all" for Chinese audiences is still excellent content.
■ "Slam Dunk" wants to see user portraits
When did Japanese manga and animation introduce to China and cause a sensation? According to the book "Research on the Spread of Japanese Animation in China" written by Peking University professor Li Changqing, the beginning of the spread of Japanese comics in China was "Astro Boy" introduced by CCTV at the end of 1980.
At that time, China's reform and opening up process accelerated, home television sets were popularized, and at the time of the conclusion of the "Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship", Japanese animation entered China, becoming a childhood memory of the post-80s generation, which became an inevitable phenomenon.
Subsequently, TV stations successively introduced "Robot Cat", "Yixiu", "Flower Fairy" and other animations, but because "Smurfs" and "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck" in the United States were also introduced into the mainland after 1986, in the 80s of last century, on the whole, daily comics did not cause a star-chasing boom.
■ Astro Boy stills
In the 90s of last century, Japanese officials put the development of animation industry into the track of cultural revitalization, "Saint Seiya", "Dragon Ball", "Nile" and other comics swept China, in 1994, genuine and pirated Japanese comic books covered almost 90% of China's comic market, about hundreds of millions of copies.
In 1998, Chinese mainland introduced the Japanese anime "Slam Dunk" with Chinese subtitles and dubbing, which quickly became a hit, broadcast on almost all TV stations, and promoted the birth of a large number of anime magazines.
In 2006, in order to give domestic cartoons more living space, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television ordered to reduce the broadcast time of Japanese cartoons and relax the requirements for approval of domestic animation production, after which the mainland animation market gradually changed from "Japan's largest" to "domestic production is king".
However, according to a 2012 Chase China&Asia survey of more than 10,000 people in the city of Kitakami and Guangzhou, the most popular anime of the Chinese people, except for "Joy and Big Big Wolf" from the mainland, "Cat and Mouse" from the United States, and the rest are all Japanese anime.
■ 2012 Chase China & Asia survey. Source: Li Changqing's monograph
People who watched Japanese anime grow up were naturally deeply affected when they entered the field of animation creation. For example, Tian Xiaopeng, director of "The Return of the Great Saint" and "Deep Sea", once said that he liked Japanese animation the most, and loved shōnen hot blood manga and Miyazaki movies. "Nezha no Demon Child Descends" director Gyozo also said that he was influenced by Japanese manga artists Osamu Tezuka, Hayao Miyazaki and others.
Although Japanese manga works are hot, before 2015, Japanese animated films and even Japanese films as a whole did not receive much attention in China, and the box office was mediocre. Compared with Hollywood films and domestic blockbusters with a box office of more than 100 million, Japanese films belong to a niche category, and domestic theaters lack the motivation to market and promote Japanese animation.
Until 2015, the Japanese animated film "Doraemon: Walk with Me" was introduced to the mainland and received a box office of 529 million yuan, and the extraordinary market performance changed the industry's perception of Japanese films as "unprofitable". As a result, in 2016, 9 Japanese animated films were introduced into major domestic theaters, a surge in number, more than any previous year.
■ "Doraemon: Walk with Me" stills
With the market potential being tapped, even Japanese anime films without a manga IP foundation can achieve good box office. The masterpiece is "Your Name" directed by Makoto Shinkai. , released in 2016, it won 575 million yuan at the box office, setting a record for Japanese cartoons in the Chinese market. After that, "Weather Child", released in 2019, also received nearly 300 million yuan at the box office.
Therefore, when Makoto Shinkai's new work "Journey to the Bell Bud" was released, China became one of its most important markets, and the director personally came to promote it, and also brought the props from the film - a three-legged wooden bench. The effect was also immediate, and the box office reached a new high.
And "Slam Dunk" has a fan base accumulated for more than 20 years, and as early as 2021, when the director announced the shooting, he accumulated great expectations. Nowadays, the epidemic has faded to create conditions for watching movies, Japanese animation has established a good reputation, and there is a blessing of classic IP, which can be described as the right time and place, and it is natural to become popular.
It can be expected that in the next few years, the number of Japanese cartoons entering China will increase, and there will be competition between domestic cartoons, Hollywood cartoons and Japanese cartoons "Immortal Fight" in Chinese theaters, which is obviously a good thing for the audience.
No matter how big the feelings, they also need marketing
It cannot be ignored that in addition to the audience's trust in the film director's previous work or the comic IP itself, the box office success of "Lingbud Journey" and "Slam Dunk" lies in the precision marketing of the audience.
The two cartoons were introduced to China and promoted by the same company, Road Painting Film and Television. For "Journey to the Bell Buds", on March 17, the Chinese side invited director Shinkai Makoto to hold the Chinese premiere of "Rushing to the Spring Covenant" at the Centennial Lecture Hall of Peking University, and singer Zhou Shen also appeared on the scene and sang the theme song of the Chinese of the same name of the movie.
During the three-year epidemic, there were few large-scale offline premieres, and no foreign creators came to China to promote the film, "Journey to the Ringbuds" not only continued the life before the epidemic, but also gave the movie-watching a sense of ceremony and ignited the passion of the audience.
The series of tweets released by Shinkai Makoto on Twitter encountered the controversy of "Sino-Korean working meals", which invisibly added heat to "Journey to Lingya". This film, which has a young audience, uses the push of the Internet to get out of the circle and enter the field of vision of more audiences.
■The premiere of "Journey to the Bell Buds" at Peking University
And the movie "Slam Dunk" encountered greater publicity difficulties. Director Yuhiko Inoue did not come to China, the material requirements are also very strict, and there are no classic songs in the movie. In order to create momentum, in view of the fact that most of the audience is the post-80s and post-90s, and more than 60% are the characteristics of male audiences, the publicity party chose to hold a basketball game-style premiere in the Qiu Depu Gymnasium of Peking University.
With the shirts of Xiangbei players hanging high on the scene, and also restoring the venue in the 1993 TV animation 1:1, CINITY spent 2 months customizing a 27-meter giant screen and a surround sound system suitable for the stadium, spending nearly 1 million yuan.
Before watching the movie, the audience can take photos and check in with the character's humanoid standing card at will, and some people will randomly get hand widths, fans and other support items. Subsequently, everyone was divided into two camps, Xiangbei and Shanwang, and put up huge posters to watch the movie premiere with the momentum of watching the competition and concert.
After the screening, the voice actors Yu Zhengsheng and Guan Zhihong of the 1993 TV animated version of Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede returned, and the emotion of "Ye Qing Hui" was filled in an instant. Sure enough, the box office of "Slam Dunk" was about 20 million yuan, becoming the runner-up in the past three years.
■ The premiere of "Slam Dunk" Peking University
In the theater, whether it is "Bell Bud Journey" or "Slam Dunk", human-shaped standing signs and posters are set up to facilitate the audience to check in and take photos, and it will help fans cosplay into the heroine of "Ling Bud Journey" or the appearance of the characters in "Slam Dunk". These photos and videos were uploaded to the Internet, with their own moving and traffic attributes, and the movie was promoted "silently".
Even in the face of this year's ultra-crowded May 1st gear, with the reputation of "Slam Dunk" and the trend of continuing to rise, it is not timid. Instead, it is a few domestic films that should be worried, which will be dangerous if the quality is insufficient.
This spring, these two Japanese cartoons and the road painting film and television behind them can be described as a win. Next, "Sky Castle", which will be re-screened on Children's Day, is expected to further consolidate the market of Japanese anime in China.
Looking back at the history of the spread of Japanese anime in China, it has nourished the youth of generations and influenced the aesthetics of a group of creators, but in the final analysis, we learn the advantages of foreign culture to improve our own creative ability.
In recent years, domestic cartoons have actually made great progress, and the "rise of national comics" has also been recognized, but only by continuously launching excellent works can the brand be maintained. I hope that in this year's theater, we can see national comic works comparable to "Journey to the Bell Bud" and "Slam Dunk".