Audience-Alienating Premise: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]''. 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 anymore 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.]].

* ''[[Madoka Magica]]'' exploited this trope by starting off disguised as a mostly normal-looking cutesy [[Magical Girl]] show, causing many people to [[Tastes Like Diabetes|stop watching it in disgust]] before the real, [[Cosmic Horror Story|much darker premise]] took shape. But, of course, [[Late Arrival Spoiler|once everyone learned what the show was actually about]], the trope got played straight, since some of the people who actually ''like'' cutesy magical-girl shows didn't have any interest in watching a brutally deconstructed version.

* ''[[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 be rendered unconscious (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!

== Tabletop Games ==

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[[Category:Audience Reactions]]