Thanks, Okonomiyagi-san, for reminding of me
I read that article by J-Cast in Nov. but didn't care ;D sorry.
Let me comment in 3 points about whatfs happening as far as I know.
Before that, sorry that l havenft told anything about it to everyone here but huge quantilies of information have been flying and I was mixed up by tabloid (@_@) (sorry for my bizarre English as usual. Hope everyone can understand 80% or more)
(1) Unappetizing food? (by KOTAKU & J-Cast) No!! The original source came from Japanese 2 chan (channel 2) message board. It's a crap board, the lowest-class. (But sometimes I go there just to enjoy ridiculous & unique comments) When I found this comment @2ch, it seemed clearly from a young boy who watched TOO beautiful-shaped perfect dishes by advanced cheffs technique and also source or blood from fish/meat on the cutting board & pans on clear digital TV screen. (It's natural in cooking, right? I laughed and thought he'd never cooked nor even watched mother's cooking.) The pity ignorant young boy's comment was featured by J-Cast tabloid staff..."Wow. Hey, today's our feed!" I never find this kind of comment in any other source.
KOTAKU picked up this fishy article from J-Cast. J-Cast mainly picks up their article from BBS especially gch. 2h board (almost no direct interview by them), ch. 2's people have no purpose and just enjoy throwing critical comments against everything.
Socnow, our point is two. Low rating and cancellation!
(2) Low rating. As a matter of fact, Fujifs been suffering from low rating about each of their show.
Not worst. Among 5 commercial TV stations, Fuji is the 3rd. But they used to be the 1st (King of Japanese TV) before(until 2011). Finally they decided revival of their former grandeur; Ryori-no-Tetsujin as their final trump card.
Fridayfs 8-9pm has a couple of existing high ratings shows but Fuji was confident to break down on it. The result of rating was: 1st 10.7%, 2nd 6.9%, after that, kept around 5%. 1/18 episode got over 6%. For Fuji, it seemed not good at all than they expected. Because they invested a dozen million yen to new kitchen stadium. (Former IC's reatings was 20% at the peak, HK special or something) Ryo Ohta, the C.O.O. of the show seems in pinch now.
On 12/31 (TV stations rating confront day in Japan), Fuji was against not only gKohaku Uta Gassenh (national station, NHK) 30-40% but also another commercial TV stations.
The winner of 5 commercial TV stations was gGaki no Tsukai ya Arahende(Gaki-tsuka)h(Japan TV) 16-17%.
gIron Chef Dream Matchh(FujiTV) was pt1 5.4%, pt2 4.5%, pt3 4.2%. This is 2nd or 3rd (you know the rating changes time to time in small range)
(3) Cancell? Itfs not official information.
'cause, yup, Sanji-san, the press is going after something fishy.
Many of Japanese fans didnft care so much about low ratings though they knew it. They just put a lot of opinions to Fujifs official boards or Yahoo TV board. Official boards tend to display positive comments. On the other hand, Yahoofs are very severecmaybe sound like claims but I think everything comes from such a high concern and their love to the show ecause they think that Fuji should grow up the new show more and more just like the former show.
On 1/21(mon), I put my thread here to gather request & advice to Fuji. I was feeling like, gHey! Come on! Fuji! You used to be a king of TV, huh!?h
On 1/22 (tue) 4pm, a tabloid Daily Gendai published a sensational article: New IC cancellation in March decided.
gendai.net/articles/view/geino/140594Many of fans in Japan were equivalent to stirring up a hornetfs nest!! Of course me, too!! But I told myself, "OK, calm down. They are tabloid. Gendai is always irresponsible." At that moment, I honestly felt the credibility, true or not, was fifty-fifty. The point it might be credible is that end of March is the month of change for many things in Japan. The point it might be not is that Gendai strech a story always.
During 1/22-24, I found such a many people talking about this topic on the internet. There were a lot of "pro & con" comments. I surely found some maniac fans deleted their past critical comments to Fuji from Yahoo TV's message board.
On 1/25 (fri), Yahoo Japan picked up this topic and reprinted Gendai's article at their site. Unexpected for me! The credibility raised unfortunatelycI guess? though itfs not official yet.
Overall, so far, my impression is that Fuji is contraction-minded too much by ratings & internet critical comment. I want to let everyone know once I get something new, but...if true
... Fuji's official announce may be in the air a week just before the last epi.(><) .
Pls let me know if anyone doesn't understand my bad English. I'll correct. Also please feel free to put your comment to Fuji in another thread (my thread). I'm happy to commit representing friends.