Toon Zone Talkback - "Wall Street Journal" on Internationalizing Cartoon Characters

I remember reading somewhere that the original Powerpuff Girls were quite popular in Japan. Hmm. Interesting article, nonetheless.
 
Uh, the original actually did BETTER in Japan than american shows usually do there (prime-time slot on one of the top rated broadcast networks, and the entire series released in boxsets).



Actually, the show alternates every other episode from two 11-minute segments to a full 22 minute episode.
 
Actually, PowerPuff Girls Z was animated as a 24 episode minute series as a whole, rather than individual "11-minute segments". It's just divided as two parts, as a tribute to the original PowerPuff Girls series. If both segments had different Storyboarders and animators, I'd agree. Crayon Shin-Chan would be a perfect example of this. The episodes are just divided into two parts. It's not unheard of. Look at Keroro Gunsou.

Regardless though, the artical most certainly got the popularity of the PPG wrong in Japan. The reason the series was continued in the fashion it was, was because the series was popular enough in Japan to warrent it. To be quite honest, I would have to say the show is more popular in Japan than it is here, honestly. Japan has also had a couple "exclusive" things animated specifically for Japan. The 2006-07 Newyears PPG marathon, a segment on a comedy show that aired on Asahi TV. Maybe others, I honestly don't know.

Also, we have information that may as go back as far as 2004 that PowerPuff Girls Z was going to happen. (A domain was registered back in April 2004. SOMEONE found it here, but I cannot for the life of me remember who. Two other domains were also registered by Turner, but that was earlier this year or last year, if I recall correctly.) That, and the general PowerPuff Girls fanbase in Japan is actually quite huge.

Also... Maybe PowerPuff Girls Z was popular in Japan. The general ratings for the timeslot the show aired in really didn't indicate as such, but the ratings appeared ot be normal for the timeslot. The series hit the 3.0%+ once or twice around the final set of episodes or so. However, the DVDs, more specifically the Limited Editions in Japan, seem to be selling rather well. They keep popping up in CdJapan/Neowing's Top 5 DVDs of the Day list (not sure what catagory, but I'd assume it'd be "Animation".).

Well, there's my useless information.
 
Yeah, that's what I thought too. I guess the writer is wrong.




Thanks for that. I'm guessing the author was right about Spongebob being popular in Japan?
 
A lot of American shows are popular and have boxsets in Japan, it's not really a rare thing, to be honest. 24 is another example

But the two segments have different plots and story, provided it's not one of the "Part 1 + 2" episodes. The Mojo dentist and disco clown segments, for example.
 
We know that. However, the original PPG did much better than most American shows do there. That's what we're saying.
 
I swear... I once saw an advertisement for a Japanese 24 box set on one of my bootleg Korean Grocer videos and I was stunned. They have that there? Why didn't I know that already?

Anyway, did PPG do better than PPGZ over there? I could see how PPG would fair, they are cute, and it has a lot of anime influence. I remember seeing very bizzare Japanese PPG merchandise at a long gone Japanese toy store. I think they were plush that you just blew balloons into the heads of. I forget. it was very weird.

But Spongebob is popular over there? That's odd. I didn't think it would be their kind of style. But then again, Spumco was pretty big over there. I don't know where to find it, but they did have a commercial for a pizza parlor featuring Jimmy the Idiot boy and Sody Pop. And Spumco even designed a game for the Japanese market (which sadly was never Americanised).

BTW- Indian Spiderman? Does he break out into song every five minutes? I know Japanese Spiderman was a sentai show.
 
American live-action shows, yes. As for American animation, however, not much outside of the universal classics seems to hit big in Japan. PPG did it, South Park did it, Beast Wars did it, and I think Batman Beyond and X-Men: Evolution did OK there, but generally they're more focused on their homegrown stuff as far as animation in concerned.
 
Simpsons, Happy Feet, Leroy and Stitch, Shrek, and a lot of theatrical animated movies tend to do pretty well other there. They really seem to like CG animation a lot judging by how well the movies do over there.

I think internationalizing characters, while it can help, isn't quite necessary. It's already been shown characters can penetrate foreign markets despite being the same as their American counterparts. Not every franchise will, but that's to be expected.
 
Those sure were eye rolling paragraphs. Also THIS paragraph



A Toei official actually saying out loud how "skimpier outfits" broadened their show's appeal? Dude! :eek:
 
I don't see why the WSJ would be wrong about that, but then again I don't see why they'd be wrong about the original PPGs in Japan, either. In any event, SpongeBob seems to be popular wherever he goes. He launched quite successfully in China, from what I understand, and was responsible for one of the odder broadcast laws they passed regarding human/toon hybrid shows.

Maybe SpongeBob appeals to that unique sense of the bizarre that the Japanese show every now and then in stranger anime series.

No, but I think that big Bollywood production numbers would have made the comic a whole lot more interesting. In the end, it was a contrived and pale imitation of the American Spider-Man comic with a lot less of what made Spider-Man interesting and appealing.

-- Ed
 
I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this. I really don't mean that. But this gag comes to my head when I hear about the Indian version of Spider-Man.: So then this is "Outsourced-Spider-Man"? :evil:
 
I'm not surprised at all that Spongebob has been successful in Japan. The character designs are colorful, cute and distinctive (if unconventional) and look great on merchandise, there's lots of those wacky eccentricities that anime loves, it takes place in the ocean (which Japan is obsessed with), adults can enjoy it with their children, and Spongebob himself is a very endearing character.

The only thing I would wonder about is the songs, which are quite American and unusual in anime.
 
If it's anything like other Japanese-dubs-of-American-shows I've seen, the songs are left in English while the show is in Japanese.
 
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