Pulling On That First String

Webtoon and Crunchyroll have announced the first string of anime's they will be releasing. I'm here to tug on that string and see what unravels.

In my last Nerdom article "Post-Con Thoughts" I announced that Crunchyroll had released their first string of anime's that would be included in their new line up of "Originals". I briefly mentioned in that article that two of those titles were from the new partnership with Webtoon: Tower of God and Noblesse. But since we have been following this nerdy adventure's progression together I thought I would take the time to really talk about what it is we are seeing with these announcements. Or at least, more so than just a paragraph like I did last week. Let's face it, this is a full coverage topic.

For my own self validation let's first review what I predicted would happen:

-There would be multiple roll outs

-The first roll out would, at the very least, be announced by April 2020

-The production team would be large

-The first roll out would consist of at least 3 Webtoon's

-The first three Webtoon's would most likely be: Tower of God, Noblesse, and Siren's Lament

I have to admit, I did pretty good. On February 25th, Crunchyroll announced their first line up of Originals, making it clear they were doing this in multiple roll outs, they're production team is large and working hard because this first string would be releasing in April 2020, and three of those Originals were indeed Webtoon's. Though, I have to be honest, I was not expecting the line up to be as large as eight. Which tells me their team working on this is larger than I might have even initially thought. But to be honest, that fact is a lot better for Crunchyroll since it gives them the ability to roll out more Originals on a faster timeline. Which they greatly needed.

In the graphic at the beginning of the article you will see the eight anime's Crunchyroll announced for the first line up of Originals. As I said before three of these eight are Webtoon: Tower of God [bottom row far left], Noblesse [bottom row second from the left], and The God of High School [top row second from the left]. Now we have talked in length here in Nerdom regarding ToG and Noblesse. In fact, they were two of the three webcomic's I predicted would be in the first string of Originals. [To read more on this please reference any of my articles on Webtoon's and/or Crunchyroll: "Caught In Their Web", "The Part Two You Never Asked For", "A Nerdy Dream Come True", and "Post-Con Thoughts".] The third I predicted was Siren's Lament, and if not SL than another big player from Webtoons' romance genre. I am very sad to say that, that is where my prediction fell short.

I still strongly believe that a romance title would have rounded out this line up beautifully. Not to mention it would pull in a lot of new viewers for Crunchyroll when Webtoon has such an immense following for their romance titles, romance readers being their largest demographic. Regardless, they chose these particular anime's for their first string for a reason. And with all of the speculation and criticism Crunchyroll was receiving on their announcement of doing Originals, I think they chose carefully. So, why? Why these?

ToG and Noblesse were always going to be in this string. I really do not see any other way about that. I shouldn't even get credit for that prediction because anyone could see it from a mile away. They are as OG as you get when it comes to webcomic's. They really paved the way for everything we have now in the realm of webcomic's. But how about this last one? The God of High School. If you have been following my coverage on this than you will have noticed that I have never spoke of this comic. That's because the only thing I knew about it was that it often came up on my "Recommended for You" list. But now let's look at the stats:

1.1 Million Subscribers

9.73 Rating

Status: Currently Active

Episodes: 454

Genre: Action

Not bad. All of the romance titles, however, beat this title in both subscribers, rating, and average read counts. So why? Well, I do see one thing that makes it consistent with ToG and Noblesse: the episode count. Which got me thinking? When did this title come out? Ding, ding, ding. We found our "why"! The God of High School was first published in 2011. Which is after both ToG and Noblesse, but not by much. Plus, it was one of the original 42 Webtoon's to be a part of the global launch in 2014. So, we are looking at another OG, even if they aren't as prominent as its two predecessors.

It is important to honor our beginnings and I think it is good of Webtoon to be doing just that. It is also still beneficial to Crunchyroll because these titles, since they are OG Webtoon, have long standing faithful fans that will follow it. Not to mention they will never be short of content because of those long episode lists, which might have posed as a problem for other titles that don't have as much content. With that being said, I am confident that Siren's Lament will still get their day in the sun since we are on the final stretch of episodes before the series says "fin". Haha, get it? Fin, cause they're mermaids but also fin cause it means "the end"? Nevermind. The point is, the romance tidal wave will come and I for one am ready for it. For now though, I will sit back and just enjoy being blasted with some Fantasy and Action.

But that doesn't answer another nagging question. Who are these other five titles? Where did they come from? Well, I did some digging. FreakAngels started as a webcomic series (not on Webtoon) and eventually was made into a graphic novel. Alright, that follows track with them adapting webcomic's from Webtoon. In/Spectre started as a novel with some illustrations, eventually became featured in manga magazines and then received an anime adaptation. Yup, that means that this one, is a reboot. Interesting. High Guardian Spice was a small web television series. That makes me think of how successful Rooster Teeth has been with their web television series' like RWBY and Red vs. Blue. If that is what they are shooting for, then that makes sense to me too, I guess. The last two, Onyx Equinox and Meiji Gekken: Sword and Gun, as far as I can tell are completely original content. And it is that final fact that made me realize what they are doing.

They are fishing. Webcomic's from two different sources, manga magazines, reboots, web television series, and brand spanking new original content. Those are a lot of different sources my friends. All with different demographic followings. They made a wide pool and they are using this first string as a fishing line to see what will make fans bite. What can they hook us with? What will reel us in? Which one will end up being responsible for the catch of the day? Catch of the day being large numbers. This is an interesting tactic because there is such a thing as having "too wide" of a pool, that is in any Business 101 class you can take. Whether this will be too wide or not we won't know until the numbers come out however. It is risky but I also think it is calculated. Crunchyroll knows they need to be able to keep up with this streaming service race and they already started out a little behind on that. Meaning they need to catch up as quickly and efficiently as possible. Whether this is either of those things, only time will tell but at least we can say they are giving it their all.

To be honest, I think Crunchyroll will end up being fine. I think they will figure this out. Maybe not with this first string but I think they will get there. I have a lot of fears about how this first string will turn out but I know, at least with the Webtoon titles, there is plenty of room for growth and my only hope is that they utilize that.

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Well, that is it for today my friends. Thank you so much for joining me for this discussion on the Crunchyroll "Originals" first string. I will be reviewing the originals as they roll out so stay tuned for updates to come. I will be back on Sunday with The Mess here on My Mess. I hope the rest of your week is productive or at the very least flies by so you can have a wonderful weekend. In the mean time, stay nerdy, and for all that is good, stay messy friends.