Uni Blogpost #Practice 2: 27 - Pre-Production 17 (17/04/2026)
Yo! Within this blogpost, I'll talk some more about my target audience research. Previously, my researched focused around the general ideas of my projects, trying to identify good audience's for them, while, within this blog post, I'll talk about my research, conducted throughout this project as a whole, into my target audience themselves, works of interest for them, and what elements I should take forward and inspiration from into my own work.
1: Identifying my target audience
Based on my previous research into fantasy and 2d animation, I noticed a lot of works seemed to be aimed towards older audience, and, more generally, we could notice a growing trend in critically and commercial acclaimed, adult animation.
As such, I believe my work should also aim towards an older audience. I decided this as, given I plan for my story to be action focused, I thought it would be more fitting for an older audience who could handle more intense/blood action scenes, I similarly thought it would be good to make the action more bloody, as it would help strengthen the main crux of the story, that being how Ogre, thought initially appearing dangerous, is actually rather antagonistic, making the action more bloody would help add to the sense of danger within the character, by making their actions more violent to the bad guys.
More specifically, I plan to aim my work towards young adults, aged around 20-25, who are fans of action and fantasy animation. I wanted to aim for this demographic since, as mentioned before, it would allow me to push a more gritty and bloody tone, which I thought would fit well with the story I plan to tell. Furthermore, I thought it would be good as, again mentioned before, their seems to be a growing trend in adult focus animation, both within and outside fantasy genre, as seen in works like Samurai Jack (2017), Castlevania (2017), Invincible (2021), Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022), Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (Yoshihara, 2025), Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019), The Legend of Vox Machina (2022) and Blue Eye Samurai (2023). This suggests their is a large market of animation fans, specifically older ones, looking for more serious/action focused works targeted towards them, and, given I think it's good that these works are not only pushing the bounds of the idea of animation only being for children, but also doing so with heavy success, that it would be good to try and aim towards this market to try and further this perception.
I have identified, then, my target audience towards 20-25 year old animation fans, who like adult focused, fantasy and action works. I wasn't able to find much research documenting the genders of such a group, to identify any particular one as my main focus however.
(Castlevania (2017) trailer, taken from Netflix. 2021)
As such, I looked at various works, including those previously mentioned, alongside more general fantasy and action works, like Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020), The Boy and the Heron (Miyazaki, 2023), Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) and Arcane (2021).
2: Research into target audience
As mentioned, I looked at a number of works which seem to appeal towards my target audience.
From this researched, I noticed a trend between the works, specifically the ones aimed towards adults, as having a heavy focus on action.
More specifically, while the action between the works varied, with some having more grounded styles which took inspiration from live action choreography and filming techniques, such as Blue Eye Samurai (2023), and others had a more exaggerated style, focus on quick movements, strong posing and dynamic choreography, such as Samurai Jack (2017), they all seemed to focus heavily on their action scenes, as a core part of their appeal and identity.
(Blue Eye Samurai (2023) episode, taken from Netflix, 2023)
Further more, many of the shows seemed to try and add a sense of tension to their action scenes, and adult edge, by making them more bloody and gory, either in a more subtle way, such as, again, within Blue Eye Samurai (2023), wherein there is a distinct, but minimal use of blood, or in more exaggerated, explosive ways, such as within the huge explosions of gore within Invincible (2021).
This greater use of blood seems to be a defining element to many adult, action focused animation, likely as both a way to help further add stakes, tension and dynamism to the action, with the appearance of blood quickly signing to the audience that a hit was impactful and deadly, and thus adding a feeling of weight and readability to the fight scenes, as well as clearly denoting the work as for adults, given how the use of blood is often avoided in kids work, as it is seen as potentially harmful, and thus works that use blood get marked and identified as being adult.
The action also seems to aim for a more dynamic and captivating feel, often through more natural and minimal use of cutting, letting scenes flow together naturally between actions, or otherwise holding on shots for longer periods of time to let the spacing of the fight scenes be made clear to the audience, using techniques like camera turns and pans to move the action through the space in way that adds a sense of reality to the world, by mimicking the movement of a camera through real, 3d space, rather than using cuts to make scenes feel more separated and abstract.
As such, Making my fight scene clear, dynamic and bloody will need to be a major focus of my story and project, as that seems to be a core appeal, of many adults, in terms of animation.
(Invincible (2021) trailer, taken from Prime Video. 2021)
Another major pattern between the works I looked at was their seeming attempts to tackle more adult topics and themes, such as the need for pacifism and violence in Samurai Jack (2017) or grief within Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023). This likely appeals to older audiences, even if the work itself may be aimed at more general audiences, as these more nuanced themes and messages help offer the work a sense of depth a which helps give it a more adult feel.
While I don’t plan for my work to be very long, and as such, with it’s action focus, think it would be hard to delve deeply into any overly complex themes or subjects, I do think the main crux of the work is the idea of not judging others based on ill-conceived notions, given how the main twist is how Ogre is far more antagonistic than she originally appears, so, even if not a particularly deep or nuanced idea, I hope such an idea can appeal, if at least not turn away, my target audience.
While, if given more time, I likely would have looked for a more complex subject to discuss, as of now I feel my plans, alongside what time I have left, means I’ll be unable to come up with a greater theme, at least in a way which will feel natural and be sincere, and I fear trying to shoe horn in a theme without planning nor appropriate integration would be an insult to the work and audience.
As for artstyle, it seems to me that their isn’t any one, particular style that stands out as a pattern within these works, with some taking on a more simple and geometric or sketchy look, like Samurai Jack (2017) or Wolfwalkers (Moore & Stewart. 2020), while some try to appear like comic books, such as Invincible (2021), or use a standard, anime style, like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023). As such, it seems the quality of the artwork and animation is more important to this audience, rather than the style itself, and as such, again, I’ll need to make sure my artwork, action and animation is appealing.
For OGRELORD, my target audience is young adults, 20 - 25 year olds, who enjoy adult, action-fantasy works. To appeal to this audience, my work will focus on dynamic, interesting and bloody action.
Going forward, then, into my final, story production, I will try to make sure the story fits around this focus on action, as to best appeal to my target audience.
Netflix (2021) Castlevania Season 4 | Official Trailer | Netflix. 29th of April. Available at: https://youtu.be/L7iWXfZzEMc?si=DRbnadRBjzVnw8KY (Accessed: 17/04/2026).
Netflix (2023) Blue Eye Samurai | Hammerscale | Full Episode | Netflix. 1st of November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm73ma6Ibcs (Accessed: 17/04/2026).
Prime Video (2021) Invincible – Official Trailer | Prime Video. 19th of february. Available at: https://youtu.be/-bfAVpuko5o?si=s7oGX1KkTfWAamGW (Accessed: 17/04/2026).
Samurai Jack Season 5 (2017) Adult Swim, 11th, March
Castlevania (2017) Available At: Netflix
Invincible (2021) Available At: Amazon Prime..
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) Season 1, Trigger. Available at: Netflix
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (2025) Directed by Yoshihara, T [Feature film]. Toho
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019) Tokyo MX. 6, April
The Legend of Vox Machina (2022) Available At: Amazon Prime.
Blue Eye Samurai (2023) Available At: Netflix
Wolfwalkers (2020) Directed by Moore, T & Stewart, R. [Feature film]. Wildcard
The Boy and the Heron (2023) Directed by Miyazaki, H [Feature film]. Studio Ghibli.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) Nippon TV, 29th of September
Arcane (2021) Available At: Netflix