Salem Wikkat ([info]salem_wikkat) wrote in [info]snarkoleptics,
@ 2008-03-02 08:37:00
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American Distributors
Why do American Distributors have to dick with everything they bring over from Japan? I can understand dubbing the series; I can also see, all be it begrudgingly, recasting and reshooting the series with an cast for the "area" if you see it needed, but what I can't understand is. Why buy the rights to reproduce a series for American viewers only to totally manhandle the series and dumb it down for another cast?

Is it not enough this series has been running for thirty-six years in Japan without your tweaks? Why do you have to then dumb it down for a younger age-group, as well as rape and fill the series with PC bullshit so that when people, like myself, mention that they watch the original series everyone laughs and thinks of "That dumb kid's show."

Of course, I refer to Saban's, and currently Buena Vista's Mighty Morphing Power Rangers franchise. they're taking a series aimed at a Teen-young adult age market and dumbing it down to drivel that most eight year olds wouldn't buy on a good day, and now, now I find out, they're considering doing the same thing to the Kamen Rider Franchise (Again.).

So, honestly, why in the hell do American Distributors have to dick with a series? It's like 4kids' raping of One Piece, or even Yugioh. I've never understood the need to turn a series into something it wasn't.



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[info]elfstar18
2008-03-02 02:04 pm UTC (link)
Because money is the most important thing ever.

(I've not seen the original MMPR. I used to watch the 1st season of the American version with my kid brother when I was a high school senior obsessed with anything even vaguely Japanese. I appreciate it because it gave me a chance to bond with my ten-years-my-junior brother, and I *did* enjoy it at the time. So count me as one who actually does like "That dumb kid's show".)

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[info]salem_wikkat
2008-03-02 02:17 pm UTC (link)
See, I've been watching it since it came out. After Saban dropped it and it was taken up by another group, which was marked by the ending of one cast with minor changes as the years moved on to being like the Sentai Series and having a new cast every season, the series got really great. Time Force was actually word for word, give or take some minor changes, for the Timeranger series. However, after SPD they began making more and more changes. The most hotly argued was going from the classic "rock" themed openings to hip hop.

However, after SPD the series has went into a rut as more and more details are changed to make it more PC, or more "Disney" related. With the latest series they brought back the rock style opening, but had choose to basically rape the rest of the series. For example, Gekiranger had one of the more unique morphers. The best I could describe it would be as gauntlets. I caught Jungle Fury on so I watched it and... they replaced the gauntlets with sun glasses. Sun. fucking. glasses.

It's no wonder Kid's are getting dumber, and are filled with ADHD problems anymore. The quality of programming is so retarded, and dumbed down that it's a wonder these kids aren't practically catatonic. They're not being challenged, and treated as if they're idiots with the level of programming their given. They don't see the Hero's Sacrifice, or the wages of evil and what it can do. It's all about selling the toys. Whatever bullshit they have in overstock that they want to push out.

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[info]snowspinner
2008-03-02 02:21 pm UTC (link)
Your argument that it is only now about selling the toys seems to me a bit unfair.

At least Power Rangers was a series before it was toys - a lofty height that Transformers, G.I. Joe, and He-Man never aspired to.

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[info]salem_wikkat
2008-03-02 02:23 pm UTC (link)
Yes, but G1 was still an epic series, wasn't it? MMPR has become crap. Total and complete, crap. I have stoner friends who made the comment they couldn't get high while watching it anymore because of how dumbed down the series is.

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[info]snowspinner
2008-03-02 02:55 pm UTC (link)
Oh, I'm not trying to defend MMPR. I'm just disputing that its flaws are in any way related to the decline and fall of Western Civilization. :)

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[info]salem_wikkat
2008-03-02 03:02 pm UTC (link)
Never said it was, but I am saying that children's programming isn't helping matters any.

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[info]dagbrown
2008-03-02 08:54 pm UTC (link)
Eh. In Japan, it's all about the toys.

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[info]frustratedpilot
2008-03-02 05:39 pm UTC (link)
Censorship rules have gotten much more stringent too. Things that you could get away with just fifteen years ago will get you in trouble now. I find this particularly deplorable. Some of the best foreign programs will never see an American release because of fear of the content offending one interest group or another in the peripheral audience (as opposed to the target audience, which is seen as no more than a market paid through parental "guilt money"!).

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[info]salem_wikkat
2008-03-02 08:14 pm UTC (link)
Isn't that the truth. I mean, Jean Gray's outfit from the X-men cartoon series was sneaky spank fodder for most young boys. However, when it came to the American and Asian counterparts of "Mele", I kinda think it went overboard.

Gekiranger Mele

Jungle Fury "Mele" (Camille) Should be noted that under the outfit she's wearing baggy leather pants.

I honestly don't see what would be offensive about the original outfit, but if it can't be used now, I'd hate to see how they'd sanitize it. If it was censoring like they did to make Witchblade playable on TV there, I'd understand, but that outfit is pretty adorable, I can't see how it'd rot the minds of youth.

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[info]plaidphantom
2008-03-02 08:13 pm UTC (link)
And here I thought this was going to be about One Piece or something. ;)

I'd be more concerned about the dumbing down of imported shows if domestic shows weren't just as bad. I was doing some thinking a while back, and I can count the *good* American-made animated shows currently in production on one hand.

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[info]missychacha
2008-03-03 03:38 am UTC (link)
one of my friends finally showed me one of the latest sentai shows. the men were hot, the fight scenes were violent and amazing and there was a compelling storyline.

I watched the american version and felt my IQ drop.

so I agree... american kids are dumbed down to an amazing degree. they are insulated from everything that might be controversial. XP

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[info]salem_wikkat
2008-03-03 03:45 am UTC (link)
yay. Here I was thinking I finally fell off the deep-end. ;~;

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