Franchise Killer: Difference between revisions

* ''[[El Hazard]]: The Alternative World'' performed poorly to the point that it was [[Cut Short]] with the show's [[Kudzu Plot|way too many plots]] being wrapped up (very poorly) in only a single episode. It also killed the ''El Hazard'' franchise, with no further work of any kind being done in the decade since. And we never saw the [[Stable Time Loop]] established in the original ''[[El Hazard]]: The Magnificent World'' through to its completion.

** ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'', another AIC franchise of the same era, barely escaped this fate one year earlier with ''Tenchi in Tokyo''. Despite being in most regards worse than ''[[El Hazard]]: The Alternative World'', ''Tenchi in Tokyo'' managed to last for a full 26 episodes, and only set back the franchise by 5 years instead of killing it altogether.

** This probably has something to do with the fact that Tomino was planning on ending it with ''Counterattack'' (in fact, he'd never even wanted to do ''any'' sequels in the first place, as his original plan had been to kill off pretty much any future threat from Zeon), but his sponsors just kept trying to squeeze blood from the stone. It's very telling that when they finally wised up and let Tomino bow out of the franchise and hired directors who were actually enthusiastic about the material they produced some of the most highly regarded work not only in the ''Gundam'' franchise, but in all of '90s anime.

** ''[[After War Gundam X|Gundam X]]'' almost killed the franchise, where due to consumer fatigue, the series entered an ice age for 3 years (if you don't count ''Endless Waltz''). ''Gundam X'' is one of only two Gundam TV series to be cut short of a full two-season run. The first? The original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]''; it's easy to forget given what a massive franchise it's become that the original installment had poor ratings.

*** Its sequel ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny|Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' managed to kill Sunrise's official English-language Gundam message board (the centerpiece of the English language website), despite [[Beyond the Impossible|not even airing outside of Japan until years later]] (and even then it only aired in Canada). Numerous American fans were watching fansubs of the ''SEED Destiny'' episodes within days of their air dates (or even sooner in the case of American fans who speak Japanese, which in the Gundam fandom turns out to be a surprisingly large number) and thus it was the biggest topic of discussion the message board (without, of course, the fansub aspect being mentioned; it was the ''official'' message board after all). The [[Broken Base|extremely divided fan opinion]] about ''SEED Destiny'' is well known, but the disagreements were kept mostly civil. And then the final episode aired, and the opinions voice on the message board were almost universally (and often quite vehemently) negative, even among those who'd generally approved of the way the story had gone in the second half. Shortly afterward (and without advance notice), Sunrise pulled the plug on the message board entirely, leaving [[Gundam Official]].com little more than an empty shell that to this day no longer gets updated (when ''Gundam 00'' aired on [[Syfy]], it was given its own separate English-language website). In fact, given that the ''SEED Destiny'' finale aired in Japan less than six months after the ''SEED'' finale aired in North America (many Gundam fans, especially those newly-introduced to the franchise, went straight from watching ''SEED'' in English to watching fansubs of ''SEED Destiny''), this incident may have even played a role in Gundam's long disappearance from American TV broadcasts, with Sunrise drawing the (ridiculously false) conclusion that negative reaction to the ''SEED Destiny'' finale meant that Americans just didn't like Gundam.

** A movie meant to tie up the Cosmic Era timeline has been stuck in [[Development Hell]] for years (due to the declining health of one of the writers), and its fate is uncertain.

* The [[Animated Adaptation]] of CLAMP's ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' came to a screeching halt after a lackluster second season that had almost nothing but [[Filler]] episodes (when there was so much more material left to adapt). They tried to [[Retcon]] it in the ''Tokyo Revelations'' OVA (the adaptation of the Acid Tokyo arc in the manga), but the damage had already been done.

* ''[[Zoids]]: Fuzors'' is often accused of being one of these by the English-speaking Zoids fanbase, but it was in fact the fan favourite ''[[Zoids: Chaotic Century]]'' that killed the franchise, having gotten such low ratings during its run on [[Cartoon Network]] that it was cancelled, with the final four episodes only being shown after complaints from the fanbase. ''Fuzors'' was more of a last-ditch effort to salvage what was already a doomed franchise.