Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast episode 622, The Great Peace, Part 1.

How many times in your life have you heard someone complain about the derivative,

sequel-driven nature of modern media?

It feels, at least to me, like this has become a constant drumbeat in our modern media

landscape.

For almost a decade, it's been practically an article of faith among people who talk about movies

that Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have essentially destroyed cinema by driving it in the

direction of these never-ending franchise movies that build and build and build on each other,

and don't allow for any creativity or unique approaches.

No, what the audience needs these days is actually 10 more Star Wars movies and a new Avengers

movie featuring a man literally named Victor von Doom.

That'll do it.

In the world of video games, the endless rehashes of Call of Duty and Madden and Assassin's

Creed, and I'd say this as someone

who genuinely enjoys those franchises, can make it feel like nothing new has actually been

made by anyone since the 2000s. In the realm of TV, new shows based on old properties are

constantly getting started and then canceled when the streaming numbers dip slightly,

in favor of some other old

property getting a rehash. And of course in the world of fiction, it's very hard, so I'm told

to sell any book to a publisher if you don't have some sort of plan in place for how that book,

should it succeed, could spawn a few more sequels to cash in.

Just once, I would like to read something without feeling like I am committing to a whole trilogy.

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