Is this the start of yet another new trend in the Japanese drama industry?
After the conclusion of FujiTV Spring 2023 drama "Kazama Kimichika - Kyoujou 0 -" on 19 Jun 2023, it was
announced that there would be a SP showing on 26 Jun to "depict what happens after the ending of the drama series, feature the miniature Lego block creations by Igami Yukiha (Hotta Mayu) and do a recap of all cases and episodes in the series".
Now, my first thoughts upon seeing this piece of news were - why is there a need for a SP after the finale? Why can't they finish the story properly within the finale? Is FujiTV trying to "cheat" viewers into watching this so-called SP when I strongly suspect that the bulk of the airtime will be hogged by the recaps rather than the "after-the-ending" events?
Just when I was already annoyed by this, "Anata ga shitekure nakutemo" - also from FujiTV (coincidentally??) - announced that there would be a SP on 29 Jun after its supposed "finale" was shown on 22 Jun 2023. According to what they
claimed, this SP will describe the events which happened in the months after the Niina couple (Iwata Takanori & Tanaka Minami) decided to get a divorce until the Yoshino couple (Nao & Nagayama Eita) supposedly reconciled at the end of the finale.
I have the same doubts here - why can't they fill in the gaps in the finale instead of doing yet another SP? And based on past experience, such SPs tend to dangle the bait of having new content to watch but the proportion of recaps will make you feel like you have been forced to re-watch the wrong drama again in 45 mins.
To put things in perspective, doing a SP after the finale of a drama series isn't a new thing. However, the more common trend to date has been putting the SPs on paid streaming portals affiliated with the TV stations (NTV & Hulu are especially notorious for starting the spin-offs and after-stories arrangement although other TV stations are following suit these days) but there is usually a time gap between the broadcast of the finale and the release of this SP. In these two examples though, the SPs are supposed to be shown just one week later after the broadcast of their finales. And it certainly doesn't look like a mere coincidence that both dramas are from the same TV station.
With regard to this new phenomenon, J-CAST News did an
interview with professor Kageyama Takahiko from Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts and a former producer of Mainichi Housou made the following observations:
* Although the trailer for the SP of "Anata ga shitekure nakutemo" suggested that the content was meant to "supplement" what was not described in the finale, this might not be an ideal format to conclude the series. And it will no doubt make people feel bewildered that the finale is actually not the end of the story. As such, it may be more appropriate to describe the SP as the "most/real final episode" especially since the SP should also be considered as part of the entire drama series.
* Usually, the first episode is the most watched episode in a drama series and ratings tend to go downwards for subsequent episodes until the finale. As such, by tagging an episode as the finale, it will no doubt attract viewers' attention again. By introducing a SP after the supposed finale and announcing it only after the finale has aired, it looks like a deliberate business decision by the TV stations to push ratings up again but this could backfire as viewers are left wondering which is the real finale.
* In recent years, most, if not all dramas do not last the entire season i.e. 13 weeks over a 3-month period. Especially with staggered start and end dates where some may start 3 or 4 weeks into the season, most dramas these days tend to range from 8 to 11 episodes except for comparatively shorter ones like those on WOWOW or streaming portals which can sometimes be as short as 4 to 6 episodes. Before the start of a new season, there are bound to be "free timeslots" vacated by the dramas which had ended and these are nicknamed as air pockets. Usually, TV stations would show once-off variety shows to fill up these slots but the ratings for such shows tend to be low. In comparison, by airing content from the same drama, there is a certain amount of viewership to tap. This yet again could be seen as a business decision which will bring more benefits than making another variety show just to fill in the gaps.
Personally, I do not like the emergence of this trend as a blatant attempt to make viewers tune in to one more episode of possibly 80-90% of recaps. Much as they may claim that it's meant to be an after-story or fill in the gaps of the finale, I simply do not fancy the prospect of wasting my time over another episode which may not add value to the original ending. Perhaps there would be new insights and information to make the ending more complete but the risk of wasting time for that small amount of new stuff vs. re-watching the entire drama makes me very reluctant to give these SPs a chance. Perhaps the sole consolation would be that FujiTV did not put these SPs on their streaming portal FOD so at least it's not a hard-sell tactic to make people become subscribers just for these SPs.
What do you think about this trend? Would you like to watch these post-finale SPs or prefer everything to be covered within the original finale?
