Would an Animated Soap work?

[Andrew]

I was just thinking would an animated Soap Opera work, like The Simpson but with more characters, and the usual plots, love, psychopaths, triangles, and on.... Would it work with animated characters, but with voice actors doing a really great job, would it work, would it become a success?....

[alwaysAMC]

No, not unless it was on primetime and it was really funny ala Family Guy.

The majority of cartoon watchers are kids/teens -- and they're in school during daytime. Most adults that watch cartoons only do it bc of the crazy immaturity and crudeness of the shows (Family Guy, Drawn Together, Simpsons, etc).

[YRBB]

Yes, I have thought of that! I think it would be fun, although I don't know if it would work. It'd definitely want to see it though lol

[RogerNewcomb]

I had a guy approach me once about writing an animated soap. He had designed the characters and had a lot of talent and just wanted someone to write the stories. I didn't have time, but I thought it was a very interesting idea.

[R Sinclair]

An animated soap would take too much time. It takes six months just to produce one 22 minute episode of a weekly animated series alone.

[stenbeck212]

I don't think you'd need more characters than The Simpsons has. Springfield is a well populated town. I'd like to see the concept work as a traditional soap or just a continuing story. Maybe we'd get to see cartoon characters age for a change.

[Matt P.]

I think it would work in rotoscope form. This was actually an idea that I've always wanted to do. Instead of having the usual cartoon drawings, why not make it into the same format that utilizes both real time and cartoon time. Check out the movie A Scanner Darkly starring Keanu Reeves or the new Charles Schwab commericals. It would be different yet innovative.

Also, a lot of animes out there have soap opera elements in them. Look at Salior Moon, minus the fantasy, there were love triangles/villains and such.

[brimike]

Robotech, as well. It was my first introduction to serialized storytelling at a young age. Serious love triangles going on out in space. Rick and Lisa, Kyle and Minmei, Roy Fokker's death (yes, that's really his name), Max and Miriya... it was SERIOUS soap. Animated. And sci-fi. It was on every day at 4:00, and it's what eventually led me to soaps once I outgrew it.

[Cheap21]

well there was Passions, literally

[EricMontreal22]

The big appeal of anime--and manga the comics most anime is derived from is the serial aspect. SHoujo and josei manga/anime (girls and women's) is particularly based around relationships and filled with soap gimmics like amnesia etc. The difference is they aren't open ended--the story wraps up by a certain episode.

I'm a HUGE fan of women's manga and anime partly for these reasons. (Sailor Moon is one of the few shoujo--girls--anime to be translated here even if it was dumbed down--gay characters made women (!) etc)

An amazing amazing currewnt hit in Japan is Nana by Ai Yazawa. The manga is josei--aimed primarily at college aged women but its appeal has been so massive that it's attractign a large older and younger audience as well as lots of men. The manga is out in English from Viz comics (each volume is 200 pages and so far 18 volumes are out in Japan and it's still running) and the first half was turned into a late night TV anime last year that broke all records (usually Josei/women's comics aren't animated because in Japan a LOT ofwomen read comics but anime is still more watched by men, but this is changing) It ran over 50 half hour episodes and part two is now in the works.

The story basically is about two very different Japanse college aged girls named Nana and how they meet, their friends, their lives. It's just amazing awesome storytelling with great characters. I believe the anime is coming out in English on DVD soon but it's already been "Fansubtitled" (fans subtitle and translate it themselves and release itonlline) on torrent sites or on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXUfR-L01SQ

Anolder example of another relationship based story aimed at young women being animated is Oniisama E (TO my Dear Brother) which is IMHO perhaps the finest example of gothic melodrama I know since the Brontes (i'm serious!). Over the top, and completely addictive it was based on a controversial manga from the early 70s that is now considered a literary classic--it was animated for NHK, the equivalent of PBS in Japan, in the early 90s. Riyoko Ikeda's story is a psychodrama set in an intense, rich girls high school. It's only available fan translated and is 39 episodes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkhk7XaFEdY

The Japanese realize that comics and animation are a medium that can tell ANY sort of storyline with as much, if not more emotional resonance than live action.

E

[Dan]

I think it's certainly possible that it would work. One of my favorite comic strips is Lynn Johnston's For Better of For Worse, which I feel has a great cast of characters and believeable storylines that everyone can relate to. Plus, the strip commences in real time (or has until Johnston's semi-retirement this past October). I would love to see that strip turned into a serialized animated show.

[Cat]

It could totally work -- hello, look at "Jem." And "Daria"! Those were soapy animations with huge female fanbases.

And graphic novels (the bible of any good animation feature) are incredibly soapy by nature. They are an extension of the soap genre IMO.

Given the work in producing the animation, though, it would be impossible to do a 5-days-a-week, 52-weeks-a-year show. It would have to be seasonal. Or a mini-series.

EricMontreal, thanks for those YouTube links. I am going to check these out. I love anime but I always assumed it was aimed at teenage boys only.

[EricMontreal22]

Hey Cat, No there's a lot of anime aimed at girls and young women, although there are still far more, often very soapy, serialized manga/comics--it's become a newer thing that older girls/young women watch animation as well--and often it's trendy, late night stuff like nana which has become so popular there're even Nana stores.

For comics/manga currently the female readership is surpassing male readership in Japan (and the top weekly serialized manga magazines there--the stories later collected into paperback books--sell close to a million issues a week--the popularity of serialized stories in comic and animation form in Japan can not be underestimated)

Dan I love For better or For Worse too, but they did a cartoon version (whichw asn't serialized but took different eras of the comic) and I sadly felt it was awful--for some reason. It came off as way less real and more cloying than the comic, even though Lynn Johnston was involved.

[Sylph]

Sure, it could work. If you had enough resources. Look at Gargoyles and where that could have ended or Dragon Ballz (I'm not sure this is the correct spelling...).

Again, yeah - look at anime or anything inspired by it.