Audience-Alienating Premise: Difference between revisions

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Other times, it's because the [[Premise]] is unique, but in a way that scares away audiences rather than grows them. For example, ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', about kids and young teens going on adventures to save a fantasy world, is a hit with both kids and adults, due to the generally light tone and the complexity of the story, and a theme that has broad appeal. On the other hand, Fox's ''[[Peter Pan and The Pirates|Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates]]'' was by comparison a failure and was cancelled in less than 2two years. It featured young children going on adventures in a fantasy world, had complex characterization for the time, and took itself seriously and got quite dark at times. But instead of growing its audience, it shrunk it. Older kids think ''Peter Pan'' is beneath them, while younger kids would find the cartoon scary or intimidating (and it did have its share of [[Nightmare Fuel]]).

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan]]''. Bear with us here: anAn angel comes back in time to repeatedly and brutally murder (and promptly reanimate) a junior high student, in order to stop him from creating a 'pedophile's world' where all females don't age past 12 years old. And it's a ''comedy!''

* ''[[Koi Kaze]]'' is about a man in his late 20s and a teenage girl 12 years younger who fall in love. What's the alienating part? ''[[Brother-Sister Incest|They're brother and sister and haven't seen each other in a long time]]''. Also depending on the person, the idea of [[May-December Romance|an adult and a high schooler falling in love]] can be [[Squick]] material. Actually, it's a quite thoughtful and realistic examination of such a situation, but the mere premise sounds like coming from an incest-themed hentai, and the series lack of any type of fanservice doesn't even get the people looking for prurient material a reason for reading.

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]''. Ais a [[Magical Girl]] series aimed specifically at [[Seinen|young adult males]]. While this unique approach may work in Japan, it's a different matter in the west. Most adult male anime fans in the U.S. would take one good look at [[Fundamentally Female Cast|the cutesy imagery on ''Nanoha''{{'}}s DVD and run for cover]]. As it stands, the licensors have passed on bringing any more of ''Nanoha'' to American shores... and it looks like it'll stay that way for the foreseeable future. Maybe if they used [[American Kirby Is Hardcore|a different type of cover]], it'd be more acceptable considering ''Nanoha'' is less "[[Magical Girl]] series" and more "Action packed, mecha series disguised as a cute [[Magical Girl]] series".

* ''[[Maria Holic]]''. The series is about a sadistic double-faced crossdresser who torments and abuses a perverted lesbian teenager at an all-girls school. It hasn't fared well with many people, [[Values Dissonance|especially in the U.S. and other countries]], due to the homophobic -sounding premise.

* ''[[Spice and Wolf]]''. It's about medieval economics, and stars a traveling merchant and his love interest who is a 500-year-old pagan wolf deity. ''You'' try getting people to watch it. The way they ''did'' try to sell it was by emphasizing the initial [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|nakedness]] of said love interest, which had the side effect of making it look (to anime fans) like a [[Magical Girlfriend]] series à la ''[[To LOVE-Ru]]'' for furries, which it isn't.

* ''[[Suicide Island]]'': The title itself will probably scare away a number of people. The premise goes like this: the Japanese government has lost big chunks of money due to hospitals being crowded with people attempting to commit suicide. In response to this, the government gives these people the choice of trying to live on or die. If these people choose to die, they will then sign papers, they will bepass rendered unconsciousout (nicely), and they will wake up to find themselves on the titular Suicide Island. They are declared [[Unperson|UnPersons]] and they can do ''whatever'' they want on the island, as long as they don't try to leave...but there are really no means (and likely not even desire) to leave anyway. The premise itself will probably scare a number of people off, because they might think it's just a story where they get to watch people commit suicide. While some of the characters do, it ends up scaring the other characters into trying to live on and make the best of their situation. The story could be compared to ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' on some levels. Also, the story examines the minds of these characters, to help the reader understand why they would want to die in the first place. The examination reveals some dark stuff about Japanese culture, like the [[Hikikomori]], pressures of society, [[There Are No Therapists]] (actually, there are in this story, but it doesn't seem to be working), the stigma of shame, and so on. Indeed, the story seems to be a critique of how Japanese society has something fundamentally wrong with it, and is causing people to not really ''live''. It's likely that this story did not sell well in Japan, and it's hard to say how well it would have sold in other countries, since there is no way to sugar-coat this story!

* ''[[Kodomo no Jikan]]'' is about a pre-pubescent girl who falls in love with her teacher, and [[Troubling Unchildlike Behavior|acts overtly sexual]] to get his attention, which you wouldn't expect to do well in the US. It didn't get a chance to — it was canceled when the licensing company learned how bookstores and distributors would react: by canceling orders. Outside of Japan, owningOwning something like this outside of Japan could theoretically get you ''thrown in jail''. The US release was also slated to have the audience-alienating ''title'' of "[[Lolita|Nymphet]]", which was requested by the author since [[Seven Seas]] couldn't use the original [translated] title of "A Child's Time". It launched a [[Kickstarter]] campaign that successfully got the amount needed to release a printing run of the manga, and then some.

* Basically the reason it took a decade to get ''[[Den-noh Coil]]'' released in America. It's a sci-fi series about transhumanism with cyberpunk themes (with a plot point about [[Augmented Reality]] used for ludicalthe purposes of gaming and play that predates ''[[Pokémon Go]] GO'' and similar games), but the story features (and is geared towards) preteens, and the narrative style is very much [[Slice of Life]].

* Similarly ''[[Heat Guy J]]'' suffered for it. It looks like a sci-fi action -filled cop series, it's actually a quite serious drama.

* ''[[Mysterious Girlfriend X]]'' is the story of a boy that falls in love with the [[New Transfer Student]] after becoming addictaddicted to her saliva. That he fistfirst tasted ''[[Squick|from the pool of drool she left in her desktop]]''. Are you interested in already?

* ''[[Kiss Players|Transformers Kiss Players]]''. Even before the sensationalist, gorn-filled way the story was shown, the silliness of "[[Transformers]] get powered by being kissed by teenagers" was making the story pretty tough to sell.

* The widespread opinion on why ''[[One Piece]]'' hasnhadn't gotten much acceptationacceptance in western markets (including the ones that were not marred by the way [[4Kids! Entertainment]] legendarily mismanaged the franchise) until the late 2010s, unlike theirits reputation as THE''the'' post-''[[Dragon Ball]]'' shounen phenomenon in Asia: it's a series about [[pirates]] (a genre that itself is very hit and miss in the West) which is drawn with western cartoon-like aesthetics and it's animated with [[Looney Tunes]] physics. Anime fans are, generally, more attracted by series with a more Japanese style, tropes and themes, like [[Ninja]]s or [[Samurai]]s. Its acceptation has gotten better once it became broadcast uncensored by Funimation and directed to the same kind of public that enjoys ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' and ''[[The Big O]]'', and had gotten a bigger public once [[Netflix]] began streaming it, but it may never get the popularity of ''[[Naruto]]'' or ''[[Bleach]]'' at their highest.

* Similarly to the above, ''[[Detective Conan]]/Case Closed'' cannotcouldn't find a market in America due to a mix of this and [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|the different cultural expectations for children entertainment]]. It has the same kind of bloody cases of, say, ''[[CSI]]'' or ''[[Law and Order]]'', but it's drawn and narrated in a way that makes those accessible and appealing to elementary school kids. Adults don't want their children exposed to such bloodshed; teenage and young adult anime fans will find either the art style or the narrative childish.

* ''[[Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga NaiOreimo]]'', the quintessential [[Brother-Sister Incest]] franchise. Not helped thatby the author {{spoiler|actually wentgoing there in the novels, unlike the anime that only leftleaving it in [[Incest Subtext|subtext]]}}.

** The same author went on to create the equally upsetting ''[[Eromanga Sensei]]''. On one side, the incest theme is less squeamish due to the protagonists being [[Not Blood Siblings]]. On the other side, the squick factor remains high due to the protagonists being a 15fifteen-year -old porn writer and his stepsister, the ''12twelve-year -old porn artist'', which- who has been in the business since she was ''ten''. Oh, and the [[Unwanted Harem]] the guy attracts is filled with girls where the oldest is 14fourteen at most.

* Go ahead, try to explain the plot of ''[[Those Who Hunt Elves]]'' to someone not in the know. "There are these three people [[Trapped in Another World]] who hadhave to disrobe elf chicks to find the fragments of the spell that will return them to their worl— It's not a porno, I swear!" It's actually a good comedy, and it's also very light on the fanservice, but people who heard the phrase "disrobe women" will either dislike the premise or find themselves disappointed with the lack of exposed flesh.

** ''[[Princess Tutu]]'': It's an anime about a duck that transforms herself in a human ballerina that fightfights enemies with the power of interpretative dance. It's also an extremely meta series about the power of narratives. People who watch it endsend up loving it, but you have to physically restrain them to make them watch it in the first place.

** ''[[Wedding Peach]]'', due to their [[Wedding and Engagement Tropes|wedding motifs]]. It was successful in Japan due to western-style weddings having an upsurge of popularity at the time of its original publication, but in the West it was immediately flagged as a ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' ripoff and ignored.

* ''[[Oyasumi Punpun]]'', the most depressing slice orof life this side of ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' and ''[[AIR]]''. The [[Art Style Dissonance|art dissonance]] where the titular Punpun (and only him) is drawn as a crude bird caricature doesn't help either.

* ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' also havesuffers itfrom running onthis. The plot can be resumedsummarised inas "Two siblings became orphans in the [[Second World War|II World War]] -devastated Japan, and then [[It Gets Worse]]". Like ''[[Precious]]'' below and other adaptations of [[Misery Lit]], it can get extremely uncomfortable to watch, speciallyespecially since its [[Take That, Audience!]] tone and its infamous [[Downer Ending]] has entered [[It Was His Sled]] territory among anime fans and movie buffs. The highest irony is that it was premiered in a double feature with the ''much'' [[Lighter and Softer]] film ''[[My Neighbor Totoro]]''... as a way to help '''''Totoro''''' find an audience.<ref>It ''made'' sort of sense in context, as ''GotF'' was based inon a famous book while ''Totoro'' was a riskier film with no precedent at all, but it still feels jarring. It's like if [[Pixar]] made a faithful adaptation of ''[[Pedro Paramo]]'' to go in a double functionfeature with ''[[Coco]]''</ref>

* ''[[Love Hina]]'', for anyone who entered in fandom after 2003. To put it simplesimply, due to changing perceptions on abuse, [[Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male)|a bunch of girls constantly hitting and mistreating]] [[The Chew Toy]] of a main male character [[Running Gag|over and over]] doesn't read as funny today as it was at the late [[The Nineties|nineties]] and the early years of the [[Turn of the Millennium]]. Heck, even back then there were people who didn't find it that funny to begin with, due to the moments when the abuse went beyond [[Comedic Sociopathy]] and into [[Cringe Comedy|uncomfortable territory]].

* ''[[Kiss×Sis|kiss×sis]]'', an over -the -top harem series that pushed the limit on how much fanservice can you squeeze in a regular shonen magazine. How much, you ask? There is ''so'' much fanservice and pandering to the fetishes (including [[Toilet Humour]] played for sexiness) that the premise, about [[Brother-Sister Incest|two girls who lust over their]] [[Not Blood Siblings|stepbrother]] and do anything on their power to attract his attention, is probably the ''least'' alienating part.

* ''[[OtoyomegatariA Bride's Story]]'' (by [[Kaoru Mori]], the creator of ''[[Victorian Romance Emma]]'') is a seinen manga full of [[Scenery Porn]], following the lives of nomadic tribes of Middle Asia in the late XIX century. The main plot of the initial story arc, however, revolves around the [[Perfectly Arranged Marriage]] between a 20-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy, which is treated [[Values Dissonance|with historical accuracy]].

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld]]'': A [[Magical Girl]] maxiseries created during the early 80's80s? It didn't stand a chance, so DC killed the series by making the main character evil and blowing up her homeworld. Of course, if they had the foresight to allow the property to live until [[Sailor Moon|the 90s]], they could have had a hot product on their hands...

** A [[Lighter and Softer]] incarnation that was actually "kid -friendly" appeared in the 2000s

* ''[[Chick Tracts]]'' are fundamentalist Protestant Christian cartoons that aim to convert others to Fundamentalist Protestantism. The problem? Their potential public are incredibly alienated by its content (which includes denouncing "evils" of the Catholic Church that don't align with the actual bad things done by said institution, [[Godwin's Law|comparing people who accept evolution theories to Nazis]], and promoting the most fundamentalist branch of ChristiantyChristianity, which is seen as the [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys]] among christianother Christian churches), and the people who would agree with them won't read them because they aren't meant tofor them.

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* ''[[The Conversion Bureau]]'' is about the ponies of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|the MLP:FiM ponies]]'' enacting a very forceful [[Assimilation Plot]] on the whole of humanity, [[Sadistic Choice|as the better option against the alternative of getting killed by lethal magic]]. This is depicted as a good thing within the fic verse. No wonder this fic and its spinoffs has become the most divisive fics within the fandom, not helped by other fanwriters writing in that same universe that use their fics as vehicles for misanthropy and misandry, and ramp the mischaracterization of the ''FIM'' cast up to eleven.

== [[Film – Animated]] ==

* At its time of release, ''[[Yellow Submarine]]''. An animated film for adults, released at the highest point of the [[Animation Age Ghetto]] in the 1960's1960s. It became later [[Vindicated by History]], as the film was eventually deemed to be appropriate for children [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|since it doesn't contain the usual type of objectionable content]], and then when it became acceptable for adults to watch animation.

* A mix of this trope and being [[Screwed By the Studio]] is what doomed ''[[Frankenweenie]]'' in 2012's Fall season. A child comedy about death and reanimation, filmed in black and white stop-motion, and topped by a violent climax is a tough sell with current families. Then it was sandwiched in the release calendar between ''[[Hotel Transylvania (film)|Hotel Transylvania]]'', which as the most accessible one got most of the public, and the similarly quirky but sightlyslightly less alienating ''[[ParaNorman]]'', who due to having released first (and being an actual original story and not a remake of an early short) got the main share of critical praise.

* ''[[Dick]]'', a comedy set in the 1970's1970s about two teenage girls who develop a crush on [[Richard Nixon]] and end up becoming one of the major figures in the Watergate scandal. Teens weren't interested in a comedy based around 1970's1970s nostalgia while adults weren't interested in the revisionist history concept (the film also depicts Woodward and Bernstein as a pair of morons) so the film died a quick death at the box office. However, it has become a cult film over the years.

* Martin ScorceseScorsese's ''[[Hugo (film)|Hugo]]'', the adaptation of the YA novel ''The Invention of Hugo Cabret''. It's a loving homage to the early era of cinema, but the main character and its intended public are children. No wonder a comedy site [https://web.archive.org/web/20180820052553/http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/if-2012s-oscar-nominated-movie-posters-told-the-truth.php made a doctored poster or it], retitling it "Marketing Nightmare".

* ''[[Freddy Got Fingered]]'', made by absurdist comedian Tom Green,. itIt's about the misadventures of an apparently retarded man and itshis intentionally offensive and extremely gross antics, that at some point tries to retaliate against his father by accusing him of sexually abusing his younger brother. All of those were obfuscated by [[Never Trust a Trailer|innocent enough trailers]] that toned down the film to mere [[Gross-Out Show]]. The only person that paid something approaching a compliment to this film was [[Roger Ebert]] (yes, the same who said that this film [[Insult to Rocks|shouldn't be mentioned in any phrase related with barrels]]), who compared it to the [[Surrealism|surrealist]] masterpiece ''[[Un Chien Andalou ]]''... a film that drove people out of theaters at the time and even today is extremely upsetting to watch.

* ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' title counts for a male audience. The fact is that it's a very accessible and funny adventure film that actually isn't that much focused in romance or targeted towards women isn't enough for certain people to overcameovercome its [[Romance Novel]]-sounding title.

* One of the reasons ''[[The Day the Clown Cried]]'' will never be released. Would you watch a film about a down ofon his luck clown who entertains doomed children atin concentrationsconcentration camps? Note that the film that comes close to this premise that actually got released, ''[[Life Is Beautiful]]'', despite it'sits comedy, it'sis a more personal drama about a funny man who tries to shield his child from the horrors of the camp.

* So imagine that you are a director who makes a film about being of mixed race and how it can affect personal identity. You are releasing the film in the 2010's2010s, an era where merely the mentions of still existent racism can make people twitch no matter where in the political spectrum they are. Why oh why do you think that titling it ''Dear White People'' is going to sit it well, especially with white viewers? [[What Do You Mean It's Not Political?|Claiming that you didn't intend to make it political]] and that the film it'sis intended as a satire doesn't fly when you give [[Intentionally Awkward Title|such a title]] to your movie and accompany it with a trailer that pushes the buttons of all your potential publicaudience.

* ''[[Sucker Punch]]'', mostly for its [[Indecisive Parody]] tone, unable to decide if it was a [[Deconstruction]] of [[fanservice]]-laden media or if it was unironically engaging in it. Predictably, no one likeliked it: the mainstream public (women especially) were turned off by its apparent sexism, while the geeky public took offense to the alleged [[Take That]] at them.

* The makers of ''[[Philadelphia (film)|Philadelphia]]'' realized that making a film about how AIDS patients are still people was going to alienate the public of 1993 who waswere still undermostly the prejudiceprejudiced, so they [[Dancing Bear|solved the problem]] by hiring A-list actor [[Tom Hanks]] to play the main character, a gay man with AIDS.

* Similarly, the makers of ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'' realized that a 3-hour film about three war prisoners being tortured and forced to play [[Russian Roulette]] by the Viet Cong, released less than three years after the end of the conflict, was going to be a tough sell, so they arranged a private screening for members of the Academy, in the hopes that an Oscar nomination would attract reluctant public. On the plus side, the gambit worked, as the film became profitable, won an Oscar for Best Film and became a classic. On the minus side, the event marked the beginning of the current breed of [[Oscar Bait]] movies and the disconnect between "filmsFilms that get nominated to the Academy Awards" and "Films that people actually watch and like".

* Sony Pictures has spent [[The New Tens|the last decade2010s]] releasing an unhealthy amount of these:

** Also by Sandler, the much-maligned 2015 film ''Pixels'' was a perfect storm of audience-alienating points: the plot being based in references to games from the 1980's1980s (which young people may not recognize, and older people may associate with the stereotype of [[Video Game Movies Suck]]ing), the characters being an assortment of obnoxious gamer stereotypes, and Sandler's brand of comedy being now extremely despised. This film is the reason why now all films by Sandler are [[Direct to Video|distributed by]] [[Netflix]].

** The 2018 film version of ''[[Venom (comic book)|Venom]]''. Sony decided to pull a ''[[Catwoman (film)|Catwoman]]'' and made a film about one of [[Spider-Man]]'s most emblematic enemies, in a way that completely removes Spider-Man's involvement onwith the character (for the ones not in the know, in the comics Spider-man is ''completely vital'' in the birth of Venom). In a subversion, the film managed to be somewhat successful, albeit mostly because the people ignored Sony marketing the film as a horror take on superheroism and took it as a dark comedy buddy film between [[A Boy and His X|a man and his killer alien symbiotic thing that combine into a killer antihero]].

* ''[[The Producers]]'' has it both in-universe and in Real Life. The plot is about greedy producers deliberately engineering a musical whowhich alienates the public so much so they can pocket their overshare, only to be thwarted by [[Springtime for Hitler|the public taking the show as a parody]]. In real life, the distributors were very hesitant on a film that dealt with both Nazis (even if [[Those Wacky Nazis|wacky ones]]) and [[greedy Jew]]ish [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|corrupt theater producers]] and underpromoted it. As a result the film only recovered costs, but gave Mel Brooks an [[Academy Award]] for Best Original Script that opened the doors to a long and successful career to him, and the story itself got a second, better chance for success when it was adapted into a Broadway musical (which was recursively adapted ininto a film).

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Lolita]]'' is a prime example of this, to the extent that it's mostly known by the general public as "that novel about pedophilia". Fortunately, its status as a modern classic prevents it from becoming too neglected, but most people unaware of why it's considered so great are likely to pass it up due to the premise. There are also the ones to go to read it [[Dancing Bear|for the prurient content]], all thanks to [[The Film of the Book|the films of the book]] that [[Age Lift|age up]] Dolores and play up her [[Fille Fatale]] tendencies while playing down Humbert's predatory ones (as well as his status as an [[Unreliable Narrator]]).

* The article's opening quote refers to one of the books by [[wikipedia:Willa Cather|Willa Cather]], a prominent female writer for the first half of the XX20th century. She wrote a lot about Nebraska, one of the least densely-populated and featured of the United States, due to living in and loving the place. Given that even then Nebraska has the image of being a rural shit hole, you can bet there was not a particularly widespread interest on her novels taking place in her beloved home state. It also informs on how her most famous book, ''The Professor's House'', evidently written to respond to this trope, takes place mostly in the Great Lakes area.

* There was a line of novels for the ''[[Monster High]]'' line of toys, written by the same author of ''[[The Clique]]'', that flopped after a few volumes. It's not difficult to see why: the novels tackled themes way too heavy and indulged in too much fanservice for being acceptable for the younger kids, older readers that could have liked them were aghast reading anything associated with a toylinetoy line directed towards little girls, and the fans of the franchise were appalled that the novels didn't follow the official lore and were a [[In Name Only]] effort.

* ''[[Alfie's Home]]''. is [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|Aa children book]] about how a little kid [[Rape and Switch|becomes gay because of being sexually abused]] by a relative, and then [[Cure Your Gays|returns to straightness]] due to [[Easy Evangelism|the power of Christ]]. Ah, and the rapist relative [[Karma Houdini|goes scot-free]]. [[Insane Troll Logic]], [[Unfortunate Implications]], and rampant homophobia makes the book unsuitable for everyone, even for the kind of Christian homes that believe in [[Cure Your Gays|curing gayness]].

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', via a combination of [[Continuity Lock Out|a very dense plot]] which touches subjects on finances and stock markets that most ordinary people knows nothing about; said plot being driven by a [[Big Screwed-Up Family]] filled with egotistical yuppies where the only person close to decency is the [[Butt Monkey]] [[Only Sane Man]] protagonist, the rest of the clan being conformed by [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s, eccentric weirdos, self-centered jerkasses, lazy assholes, and ordinary people driven mad by the chaos; and a good amount of the jokes revolving around [[Incest Subtext]]. [[Acclaimed Flop|While it was a critical darling while it aired]], it didn't translate into ratings and was canceled after its third season. It became [[Vindicated by History]] and [[Un CancelledUncanceled|revived]] by [[Netflix]], when it turned out that the series was better enjoyed in binge watching.

* ''[[Birds of Prey (TV series)|Birds of Prey]]'' tried to aim toat both the comic geeks and the ''[[Dawson's Creek]]'' fans. Predicatively, it failed: the geeks were flabbergasted by the pointless drama, and the teenyboopersteenyboppers were very confused by the constant barrage of obscure and not-so-obscure referencereferences to comics. They also had bad timing of release (early 2000's2000s, just when the Superhero boom was barely beginning) and being relatively unknown characters byto the general public. Nearly a decade later, ''[[Arrow]]'', a series based inon the ''[[Green Arrow]]'' comics that has the same premise and objective public thanas ''Birds of Prey'', actually found success, mostly because it benefited offrom comic superheroes now being mainstream and the character having been introduced in the very popular ''[[Smallville]]''.

* ''[[Carnivale|Carnivàle]]''. It's probably the most original series of the Oughties, but the premise is "the ultimate supernatural showdown happened within an itinerant carnival troupe while touring athe dust[[w:Dust bowlBowl|Dust Bowl]] during the Depression", and the plot is filled with such of amount of internal and external references to mythology, most of them laid in the most obscure way possible, made many people unable to get caught in. There ''is'' a reason this series is called "''[[Twin Peaks]]'', but ''less'' accesibleaccessible".

* The musical merits of [[U2]]'s album ''Songs of Innocence'' are [[Your Mileage May Vary|debatibledebatable]], but the utterly reprehensible way Apple automatically added the album to millions of people libraries (which in many cases meant automatic and unwilling download of it) definitely is not up to discussion, and actually poisoned people against listening to it. Apple had to create a dedicated page on their website to allow users to delete the album from their iTunes accounts to deal with the ensuing controversy.

** ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'', one of the first games for the [[New World of Darkness]]. The aim of the game is playing [[Frankenstein's Monster]]-like Golems who want to [[Become a Real Boy]], but because the lore is prone to invoke [[Wangst]] due to the counterintuitivitycounter-intuitivity of the end goal and the status of the player characters as [[Walking Wasteland]]s, the system is very punishing and prone to [[railroading]], and the whole game needs a particular combination of well-communicating player and storyteller due to the psychological depts the plots can get.

== Videogames[[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Daily Life with Monster Girl|Monster Girl Quest]]: [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Lose and the Girls Rape You]]''. It'sSome consider it a deep and engaging story [[Deconstructor Fleet|deconstructing half the tropes in existence and parodying the rest]], involving a race war that goes back to the dawn of the world... but that doesn't change the fact that the battle mechanic is the hero fighting off the monster girls who are trying to rape him., with implications that often remain horrific regardless of the context.

* ''[[Rance]]'': It's a text -heavy [[Eastern RPG]] series where the protagonist is a [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]] serial rapist. It averts [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil]] '''hard''' while playing with all other [[Rape Tropes]]. That being said, it is one of the [[Video Game Long Runners]] for a ''reason.''

* ''Custer's Revenge''. You know, that pornographic [[Atari 2600]] game about the General Custer raping a tied up Native American woman? Leaving besides that fact that the blocky graphics are not particularly arousing, the very repetitive and oudatedoutdated mechanics (even for its era) and the horrifically racist and misogynist premise made it unsuitable for anything with normal sensibilities. Whatever numbers it sold, it was more due to [[Bile Fascination]] than anything else.

* ''[[Kantai Collection]]'' ended up being a subversion. The game, whose premise initially revolves around [[Moe Anthropomorphism|Anthropomorphized]] versions of [[World War II]] Axis warships fighting thinly-veiled versions of the Allies' ships and being cutesy waifus in general, does not sit well with Western and Korean audiences, but ended being a surprise hit in China of all places, which if you know how China fared during that historical period makes the place the last country where such a game could have success. The game ended up inspiring a lot of Chinese programmers, who released an array of games very clearly inspired by ''KanColle'', from blatant ripoffsrip-offs to rehashes of the concept with other anthromorphizations, such as ''[[Girls Frontline]]'' that stars anthropomorphized guns. The game is also popular in Southeast Asia despite their also suffering Japanese conquest and atrocity back then.

=== [[Visual Novels]] ===

* ''[[Doki Doki Literature Club!]]'', for being the ''[[Madoka Magica]]'' of the genre. At first glance is a cute, lighthearted game, with only a vague disclaimer presaging that things are not what it seems and that the game [[Genre Busting|switches genres to horror]] mid game. After several in-game episodes of romantic shannenigansshenanigans, there is a shocking scene that changes perceptions on the characters and its 'verse; after that point, the game becomes a psychological horror-flavored deconstructive take on dating sims. Needless to say, neither VN fans nor horror fans are willing to commit to the gaming incarnation of [[Bait and Switch]].

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The webcomicsweb comics of Jennifer Diane Reitz, and not only [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|because of the notoriety of its author and her vocal opinions]]. The main reason is its [[Art Style Dissonance]], being extremely cutesy-drawn comics with dense and downright ''weird'' plotlines:

** ''[[Pastel Defender Heliotrope]]'': The initial plot it'sis about a sex doll that suddenly gets animated and becomes a superheroine. Add a extremely confusing plot that doesn't make good use of that idea, a lot of reference to ''Unicorn Jelly'', turn the [[Anvilicious]]ness up to eleven, and you get a disaster of a comic that most of her former fans couldn't enjoy nor defend, and is extremely difficult to enjoy by new readers.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'': It's a musical about a wannabe [[Mad Scientist]] who aspires to join an Villain association. And the thing is mostly narrated via the main character video blogs. Note that at the time of release the term "blog" have a particular set of connotations that left many people even more wary of the concept. Also, it's a [[Joss Whedon]] work, which at the original release date served as a selling point but after his fall of grace among geeks became another alienating point.

* ''[[Brows Held High]]''. A review show dedicated to artsy films (you know, the ones that are usually lumped into [[Le Film Artistique]] stereotype) in the vein of humoristic reviewers like [[The Nostalgia Critic]]. And created with the intention to ''encourage'' Gen Z and millenials into looking at those movies.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''Fox's ''[[Peter Pan and The Pirates]]'' was a cartoon with some great writing and storytelling, that was surprisingly gothic at times (with its share of [[Nightmare Fuel]]!). Why didn't it do well? Well, it's about [[Peter Pan]], and yet it takes itself dead seriously and has more mature storytelling than you'd expect given the source material. Hence, little kids who might be drawn in by [[Peter Pan]] got scared away, and older kids who'd enjoy the story took one look at who it's about and [[Animation Age Ghetto|decided it was kiddy]]. Note that the original novel was very dark in its way, as well (at the end, Tinkerbell is dead, and Peter is too childlike to remember, or care, who she was, for example). But, thanks to [[Disneyfication]], anything that returns to the spirit of the original alienates ''everyone''.

* ''[[Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain]]'', it's what happens when you decide to retool a [[Pinky and The Brain|popular series]] by injecting the least liked character of ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''. All the staff and even the producers knew it was a bad idea but, as expressed by the theme song, ""It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?". 13 episodes were ordered and produced, with a reception so abysmal it marked the death of the series - at least, until its revival in the [[Animaniacs (2020 TV series)|''Animaniacs'' reboot]].

* Every ''[[My Little Pony]]'' series that came after the 1980's1980s original (not that a franchise about cutesy colorful magical ponies have a lot of mainstream appeal in the first place):

* ''[[Pelswick]]'' hashad too much going on to actually have a chance of attract public. It's starred bystars a paraplegic kid, written in such a way to not [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged|not have it define his entire character]], that receives advice from a [[Guardian Angel]] that only he can see. Any of those things could have sustained a show by itself; together, they were too much. The humor of the show was also filled with quite adult references and jabs towards political correctness, while also having an "[[An Aesop|Aesop of the Day]]" structure that many older fans could find trite. The art style was quite unusual and a bit off-putting. The series lasted only 26 episodes.

* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' was very successful, but many people waswere weirded by the series having a wacky premise that takes itself seriously. Remember, this is a series about a secret association of children fighting against a cabal of [[Child-Hater|child-hating adults]], where the classical things children hate (discipline, homework, veggies, etc.) are actual weapons against kids. The weird art style and the [[Continuity Lock Out]] didn't help much either.

* ''Teen Titans Go!'', for fans of the original ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''. Instead of a super-hero action show, is a [[Denser and Wackier]] comedy reimagination where the Titans are both [[Flanderization|flanderized]] and turned into [[Jerk Asses]]. Even people who aren't fans of the original series or even comic fans can become predisposed aganstagainst the series due to its high reliance on non-sequitur humor and constant mean-spiritedness. The creators also have extremely thin skins, as proven by the unusually high number episodes dedicated exclusively to be [[Take That, Critics!]]. It fares somewhat well with its stated public of small children that doesndon't know about the original, but even they can tire of the series easily due to Cartoon Network constant marathoning of it.