APOLOGY TO ANAND RAJARAM
Hmm... in the past, whenever I've talked about YTV's
The Zone during the P.J. Fresh Phil Guerrero era (back in late 1995-early 1996 when I sent in a lot of hand-drawn
Sailor Moon postcards), I've pegged the voice of Snit, the talking purple monitor with the teeth, as being provided by Ron Oliver, a director, mainly of kids programmes (and now of some episodes of
Queer As Folk) and also the host of
YTV Hits/
The Ron Oliver Show in the really early years. This was based on on-air hints by Phil himself (and maybe the producer known as "Egghead" mentioned some hint to me in one of his e-mails)...
However, a bio page for the
Maya South Asian Theatre Company says that the voice of Snit was, in fact, this guy,
Anand Rajaram. I don't know if I was wrong or if the voice was provided by two different people at different times (the voice was electronically-adjusted, so it might have been), but I honestly thought it was Ron Oliver during all the years. I'm sorry I didn't give credit where credit is due. (Ooh, he had a small part in the 1998 Mira Nair TV movie,
My Own Country, and my friend Mayukh is a big fan of Nair's films...)
Oh, wait, looking at the bio again, it says Rajaram was the voice of Snit on
Snit Station, the Saturday morning block which didn't start until a couple of years after the Phil n' Snit (n', sometimes, Paul McGuire) era was over on
The Zone... it doesn't mention
The Zone at all. Maybe I'm not wrong about Ron Oliver. Meh, I just like getting YTV-related Google traffic, the YTV stuff being about the most popular things I write, believe it or not. (Now this is interesting... the
Snit Station block was produced by
Christine McGlade, the
main host kid, well, as close to a host as that show ever got, on
You Can't Do That On Television in the pre-Alasdair Gillis/Adam Reid/Vanessa Lindores/Doug Ptolemy years. )
MY PROBLEM WITH WHAT DON CHERRY SAID...
"Grapes" only told half the joke!
Q. Why do European and French hockey players wear visors?
A. Because, without visors, they'd surrender to the puck!
Oh, please! Not that I watch Don Cherry that much, not being a big fan of non-video game hockey, but, c'mon, that's his shtick! The character he plays on
Coach's Corner is a loudmouth whom doesn't care for Europeans or French Quebecer players that much. Everyone knows that. If that sort of humour offends you, don't watch
Coach's Corner. Don't send in the P.C. Thought Police because Don Cherry was being the character "Don Cherry". Are Newfies really the only minority left in Canada that aren't pussies and can take a joke? I'm half-Polish and I've never found Polish jokes offensive. And it's a mild ethnic joke at best, on the level with "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" on
The Simpsons. That's not offensive. The fact that there is a province that regulates the size English on signs to the point of near-invisibility is offensive. The fact that there is a province that won't give French-Canadian and many immigrant parents freedom of choice in terms of the dominant language of the public schools their children can attend is offensive. The fact that even many anglophones pretend language laws are a good thing to keep from rocking the boat too much is offensive. And the fact that there are politicians on one side whom would drag Montreal, one of the best cities in North America, and huge swaths of southwestern Quebec out of Federation against most Montrealers' and Townshippers' wishes on the flimsiest of referendum victories on the cloudiest of questions and the fact that very few politicans on "my" side of the separation debate have enough balls to openly discuss the question of borders in the event of separation is pretty fucking offensive to me, so you can pardon me if I fail to see why people should get up in arms over a mild off-colour content which sorta might be mildly offensive if one tries hard enough to be offended, but I know people are easily offended these days, or else there wouldn't be such a fuss about Janet Jackson showing the non-nipple part of her breasts.
Also, if the CBC is going to implement a
seven-second delay on
Coach's Corner to keep Cherry from offending the blushing violets in the future, can they also implement a seven-second delay on their news programming, so that, if a CBC News anchorman or reporter
refers to Palestinian terrorists as "extremists" or "militants", they can digitally re-insert the word "terrorist"?
MY IDEA OF A FAIR TRIAL FOR JOSEPH P. SMITH
Guilty Florida murder-man Joesph Smith is a former mechanic whom was previously jailed for attempting to kidnap and imprison a 20-year old woman in 1998 (DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB), though he claimed he was just trying to prevent her from jumping into traffic and he was acquitted (DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB).
Last Sunday,
Joseph Smith grabbed 11-year old Carlie Jane Brucia (DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB), whom was crossing the parking lot of Evie's Car Wash in Sarasota, Florida, on Sunday evening, and dragged her away (DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB). Joseph Smith failed to notice the car wash'es security camera (DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB), and the surveillance camera caught the fact that Joseph Smith was wearing his easily-identifiable mechanic's uniform (DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB) which left the tattoos on his arms bare (DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB). (You can see the
surveillance camera video here.)
Sorry, I know the DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMB-DUMBs are in poor taste, I just couldn't resist because his name is Joseph Smith, like the Mormon founder featured on the
South Park episode,
"All About Mormons?" I'll stop now.
Today, the body of
Carlie Brucia was found in bushes outside the Sarasota
Central Church of Christ. The police knew where to look because
Joseph Smith admitted that he had kidnapped and killed Carly Brucia to a "witness".
Considering we have him on videotape dragging Carlie away and that he confessed to the crime, giving details that only the muderer, which is to say Joseph P. Smith, could possibly know, I say the only fair trial for Joseph P. Smith should be that they shackle Joseph Smith's feet to the floor of the courtroom, put a plastic sheet on the wall of the courtroom, and give Carlie's father, Joey Brucia, a fully-loaded gun and let him splatter Joseph Smith's brains across the wall from point blank range. And give the judge a gun if Joey Brucia should show misguided feelings of mercy for the evil monster that murdered (and, probably, raped) his daughter.
Because, as
George Jonas wrote about last April when he put forth that the Americans should just shoot Saddam should he be found (Saddam still being at large at the time) rather than put him on trial, this is one of those extreme cases where the guilt is just too obvious beyond a reasonable doubt, and the system would be tainted by giving Smith "due process", not to mention a trial in this case being a total waste of time and taxpayer money.
Should I be judge, jury and executioner, though? I think... yes. Joseph P. Smith, I find you guilty. Jury, what doeth ye think? "Guilty." Well, then, Joseph P. Smith, it's time for you to die.
HOLLYWOOD MEW MEW UPDATE
Hmm... some
perspective (scroll down), from Mike Toole of
Anime Jump.
Also, I found this
JournalFen, a LiveJournal-clone, community called
Fandom Wank, and they also have
"perspective". I mean, assuming the letter-writing campaign to get an
alternate, subtitled release of Tokyo Mew Mew gets a large enough response that 4Kids would decide that it's profitable to put out or sublicense a subtitled version, great, but, if Al Kahn weighs the response and decides that there isn't a large enough market for it to be worthwhile, I wouldn't think it's the end of the world, there being absolutely no obligation for licensees to respect TEH ARTISTIC INTEGRITY of the original whatsoever (and the Japanese licensors aren't concerned about artistic integrity of their own products either; if they were, they wouldn't sell to 4Kids, it's that simple).
By the way, Fandom Wank people, send me an e-mail and I'll point out an amusing forum with one particularly fanboyish poster whom is long on outrage, hyperbole, and ridiculous ideas, and short on spelling proficiency, punctuation skills, perspective, and logic. It's a forum about which I had actually sent an e-mail to
Something Awful for inclusion in their regular "Weekend Web" feature, which is mostly about making fun of forum posters, but I guess SA gets thousands of e-mails a day and didn't think it was worthy enough for inclusion. I'd talk about it myself in this blog, but getting one petulant e-mail from the forum moderator was one too many for me.
CITIBANK E-MAIL SCAMMERS CAN'T SPELL WORTH A DAMN!
Has anyone, anywhere fooled by this specific Citibank scam e-mail? Don't misunderstand me, I know that there are people out there whom have been fooled by
phony e-mails from scammers claiming they are "Citibank", asking you to go to a spoofed Citibank page (usually in a pop-up) account number and PIN number (and my brother got one once asking for things not even at Citibank, like his social security number and all his credit card numbers), but the fake Citibank e-mail that fool some people tend to be written by scammers that at least know to use "spellcheck". This one has so many typos, it is quite frankly a hoot. I'm almost tempted to say it was written by Nigerian scammers, but the "Caps Lock" key doesn't seem to be pressed.
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 07:33:03 -0500
From: "Citi_Bank" Add to Address Book
To: "XXXXXXXX"
Subject: Citibank E-MAIL Veerification - xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Dear_ Online-Citibank Cleints,
This _email_ was _sent by_the _citibank_ serevrs to
veerify your_ _email_ adderss.
You muust ctpemloe this prsceos by clicking on_the link
beloow and enttering in the smmall window_ your citibank_
ATM full card nummber and PiN that you use on local Atm Machine.
That is done - for_your poecrttion -X- becourse some_of_our
_members_ no lgeonr have acecss to their email adrdssees
and we must verify it.
scam URL removed
To veerify your_ _email adress and _access_ your_ Citbiank
account, clik on _the link below.
Ig3Ea0QqXlDFBdDz
|
Of course, being in Canada, I am not a Citibank "cleint", so I have no "citibank_ ATM full card nummber" to "entter".
By the way, I actually did click on the link which they provided me with, hoping to give an account number of "3825968" and a PIN number of "2774653" (which is telephone number code for "Fuck you, asshole!"), but I guess my Norton blocked the screen from coming up.
LIVE-ACTION ADAPTATIONS
Hmm... besides the live-action
Sailor Moon TV series**, over the past little while, I've been casting my thoughts to two very different live-action adaptations (both of which may or may not ever actually pan out).
First of all, while it's been known for a while that
Steven Spielberg hopes to produce (along with his producing partner Kathleen Kennedy) and/or direct a trilogy of films based on the Belgian comic book artist
Georges R�mi a.k.a. Herg�'s world-famous
Les Aventures de Tintin series, which Spielberg even cites as one of the primary influences on the
Indiana Jones series, in the past few weeks, this project seems to have reached the pre-production stage, and they're reportedly casting the roles.
Of course, this isn't the first live-action adaptation, as Tintin has appeared in live action in 1961's somewhat successful
Tintin et le myst�re de la toison d'or (
Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece) and 1964's much-less-successful
Tintin et les oranges bleues (
Tintin and the Blue Oranges), followed by several animated adaptations produced both in France and in Canada, but it shall be pretty kewl to see Tintin fully-realized with a Spielberg-sized budget.
IGN reports, based on
an article on the British Z Review website, that
Red Rackham's Treasure will be the first film in the series and that
Small Soldiers star, and Canadian,
Gregory Smith might play the lead. That kid is also in in the WB drama series
Everwood, which I've never really seen, but I presume that his "Ephram Brown" character is the one from the promos whom was wearing the t-shirt with Ryoga Hibiki from
Ranma � in his Jusenkyo-cursed form as the small black pig which Akane Tendo affectionately calls "P-chan". I thought
Haley Joel Osment would be ideal for the role myself, being more or less the right age (he's turning 16 on April 10th), but I don't have any negative thoughts on Gregory Smith (who's turning 21 on July 6th). Okay, I don't have any thoughts one way or the other about Gregory Smith...
As for the role of Captain Haddock, whom will appear in this film since
Red Rackham's Treasure was the first book in which he appeared, while nothing semi-official is known yet as far as I know, the overall consensus opinion of people in the RottenTomatoes.com forum seems to be in favour of actor (and
30 Odd Foot of Grunts singer)
Russell Crowe playing Captain Haddock. He certainly has the gruff, rough,
"making movies, making songs, and fighting 'round the world" sort of personality, but, unless he's a fan of the books himself, I doubt Russell Crowe would jump at the opportunity to play a supporting role in a movie based on a comic book. My own top pick would be none other than Scottish actor
Robbie Coltrane, whom doesn't look that much like Haddock as he usually appears, but, the very first time I saw him as Hagrid in the film adaptation of
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the proper title for you Americans whom think it's called
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone), I honestly did think he had a Captain Haddock-vibe going on, even if Hagrid's beard is wild, while Haddock's beard is neatly trimmed. I don't know how busy he'll be shooting
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this year to play another major supporting role, though, nor do I know if Spielberg has even considered him.
Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to this one, but it's not going to come out until at least the summer of 2006.
(Damn, it's late... I'll finish this one tomorrow.)
**I really want to write another live-action
Sailor Moon episode review, but I have to be in the mood where I'm feeling sarcastic-yet-reverential to write one, and I haven't been in that mood lately.
HOLLYWOOD MEW MEW UPDATE
This isn't exactly a full endorsement of the campaign, since I have no idea whether or not I'd buy a subtitled, intact version of
Tokyo Mew Mew myself, but I added a prominent link to the
Mew Mew Alliance campaign to get the children's television syndicator
4Kids Entertainment Inc. to produce or sublicense an alternate subtitled, intact version of
Tokyo Mew Mew, the Japanese kid's cartoon which 4Kids has just acquired the rights to and which they'll dub and localize for North American children as
Hollywood Mew Mew. The reason I linked to this campaign is it's pretty much the exact opposite of the sort of anime fanboy tantrums which annoy me, for the following reasons:
-It has a focused, reasonable goal. It's not a campaign against 4Kids in general, nor do they mention anything about "stopping" Hollywood Mew Mew, which is a feverish fanboy delusion since the audience to which 4Kids is aiming the kiddy TV dub is much larger than the purist niche whom would object to the changes they will be making. And putting 4Kids out of business would involve getting every kid in North America to stop buying products related to shows 4Kids syndicates and also to get them to stop watching 4Kids programming, so that no one would want to buy advertisements on a station in the timeslot in which the shows are shown. It's futile to expect kids to stop watching and wanting to buy things
-There is no hostile language. Nor are there any ten-thousand word fanboyish invective-filled rant tantrum tirades against 4Kids Chairman and CEO Al Jean or against whomever it is that does the music for Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. And they don't really give an opinion of what they think of the prospect of Hollywood Mew Mew (not that anything except the name change is really known at this point, and I wouldn't be absolutely certain that that title will remain "as is", since we're still at a very early stage in the game at which point most details haven't been finalized, just like how DiC was originally going to call "Usagi" on Sailor Moon "Victoria" before they settled on "Serena").
-They tell you to write letters, not sign useless petitions, nor write angry e-mails. Internet petitions are way too easy to rig. While I'm sure some people will print more than one copy of the form letter and sign it using different names, the fact you have to print it out, pay for a stamp, and walk to the mailbox (well, unless your postman picks up mail from your houses mailbox, which they don't do here in Canada) means you have to put a lot more effort into it than just the two dozen or so keystrokes it takes to write your name and real or fake e-mail address on a petition. A physical letter carries much more weight than anything electronic, especially if it's handwritten, since it means you went through extra trouble to write it and didn't just cut-and-paste it changing a word or two.
They explicitly tell you NOT to participate in the letter-writing campaign unless you'd put your money where your mouth/pen/keyboard is. It's fine-and-dandy if you're of the opinion that every anime released in North America should be available subtitled and intact in principle, but, unless you're intending on actually purchasing a subtitled, intact version of Tokyo Mew Mew, your opinion isn't worth shit to 4Kids because you still wouldn't be a customer. And, they echo my point the other day, reposted in many places (including by people besides myself without any prompting), that writing a letter saying you want subtitled, intact Tokyo Mew Mew but then not actually buying it, just because you want 4Kids to release something else subtitled, is counter-productive since, if they do decide to put a subtitled version out (and I'm not guaranteeing it) but not nearly as many people as they expected actually buy it, they're not likely to want to do such a thing again, either for their older titles or for their future acquisitions. Really, if you want Yu-Gi-Oh subtitled, write them a letter saying that, not a letter saying you want Tokyo Mew Mew because you want the subtitled precedent. It costs money to put out a subtitled release, especially if it's seperate from the TV dub (which I'm guessing it will have to be, since they'll edit at least for commercial time), and, if there's not enough of a market for the first volume of a hypothetical release to make a profit, volume two won't ever appear.
The only thing I disagree with on the site is the statement "All anime deserves to be released bilingual & subtitled"... only if there's enough of a market for a subtitled version for it to be profitable. I think there probably is for
Hollywood Mew Mew because of the core
mahou shoujo fanbase, but I doubt there's enough for subtitled, intact
Pokemon, and I'm skeptical there's even enough for subtitled, intact
Yu-Gi-Oh.
In related news, on a message board on a popular anime website, I noticed some people were trying to start a letter-writing campaign of a different sort: they want to send letters to
Tokyo Mew Mew manga creator Reiko Yoshida, manga artist Mia Ikumi, and
Tokyo Mew Mew anime series director Noriyuki Abe in order to convince them that what 4Kids is doing is wrong (in their opinion; I stay neutral on these sorts of business decisions). Well, fine, if you want them to express disapproval against 4Kids' actions because you want to score some sort of "moral victory", fine, but they can't stop it. It's out of their power entirely. With a rare handful of exceptions, although the creator of the original manga gets some share of the profits (if they didn't accept a lump sum right off the bat) from an anime, they gave up any control over what happens to the licensor when they agreed to have the anime made, and the anime director (or producer, or cel painter) was signed to do a specific job for the animation studio, they also have no control over how the licensor markets it. The guys in the suits at Kodansha (I think they're the licensor in this case) are the ones whom make all the decisions as to whom to sell to, and they know they'll make the most profits with 4Kids and not AnimEigo, and they're fully aware of the localizations and other edits 4Kids needs to make to get this thing on Kids WB, so, ultimately, they're the only ones whom can stop
Hollywood Mew Mew. And, trust me, if they didn't approve of what 4Kids is going to do with the show, they wouldn't have sold them the rights... they aren't nearly as concerned with the artistic integrity of their own properties as the 4Kids bashers are. So, in short, writing the original creators in order to stop this thing is futile. If you don't like it, you don't have to watch it, or you can watch it and mock it or write long lists of the edits made... fine. But, really, you're just registering your disapproval; the only thing that will "stop"
Hollywood Mew Mew now is if it's on the air and not enough kids (the intended viewing audience) watch it for advertisers to be interested, which may well happen but not because of any actions the purist niche took.
As someone whom, for this sort of thing, believes that it is pointless taking actions you know would be futile, I say write and ask for a subtitled version because it's about the only thing you can do in this instance that might have a chance of succeeding.
EDIT: Of course, I don't think it would be breaking my neutral stance to say I would certainly be curious as to how 4Kids will make "Tokyo" into "Hollywood" for their kiddy TV dub. Assuming the title doesn't mean something else entirely. If they dub it in an absolutely not meant to be taken seriously way like Saban dubbed
Cats Toninden Teyande into
Samurai Pizza Cats (which, incidentally, was dubbed right here in Montreal and which included Montreal radio personality Dean Hagopian amongst the cast), while the "no edits" people would call it a hackjob, I think it would be funny enough for me to actually watch it, since I also enjoyed
Samurai Pizza Cats back in the days when very few anime fans took the quality of TV dubs so personally.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
Yep, so this afternoon, around 5:30 p.m., I hooked up my 28-inch Sony Trinitron television (well, 10 years ago, it would have been considered pretty big) to our big-ass aerial. God, I hate messing around with the wires behind my TV, especially as how I have to move around small pieces of furniture to do it, but it's something I needed to do if I wanted to watch the American commercials on the
Super Bowl, the commercials being the best part of the evening's entertainment**. Why? Because of
stupid CRTC regulations that certify that, if an American broadcast is simulcast in Canada, cable and satellite TV providers have to run a Canadian signal in the American channel slots, and we're not allowed subscribing to American satellite TV providers, even if we're paying for it, and Global shows mostly promos for their shows. (This should be legal, preferably with no government interference whatsoever, but, if I wanted to compromise, perhaps with a 10-15% surcharge to support the Canadian film and television industry.) Needless to say, this is the exact same
CRTC which won't let Canadians watch Cartoon Network (or FOX News). However, I see so many Canadians complaining that they can't watch the American Super Bowl commercials at all... am I the only one whom still has an old-fashioned TV aerial besides having Bell ExpressVu? Most of us within 50 miles or so of the American border should be able to watch the American border stations right off the air. This year, the Super Bowl was on WCAX-3, the CBS affiliate in Burlington VT, whose signal isn't quite as strong as that of WVNY-22, the ABC affiliate in Burlington, but, still, my father was able to position the antenna so that we got a minimum of "snow" on the picture.
Anyhow, as to what I thought of the commercials this year, I gave
my thoughts at RottenTomatoes.com:
I loved the cinematography of the Ford GT commercial that they had just before the kickoff, with lots of helicopter shots and quick cuts. I thought it looked better then any automobile commercial I've seen in a long time. But people won't be talking about it because it wasn't a humourous commercial, nor did it have any celebrities.
Second was the Pizza Hut one with the Muppets.
The Simpsons MasterCard commercial wasn't remotely as good as the Simpsons and C.C. Lemon ads or the ad with Bart naked from Vizir Futur.
I forgot to mention that I also liked the FedEx ad with the alien from
Alien (at least that's what it looked like) posing as an ordinary employee at a typical office, where the other office workers could tell "he" was an alien (it was wearing an cut-out human face mask) but the boss doesn't notice or doesn't care because this worker gives good advice about sending stuff by FedEx.
I didn't care much for the Pepsi ad with a young Jimmy Hendrix in 1950s Seattle deciding to pick up the guitar because he prefers Pepsi and the vintage Pepsi machine was next to a guitar shop whilst the vintage Coca-Cola machine was next to an accordion shop. If Pepsi Cola is responsible for Jimmy's decisions, couldn't one also surmise that, a decade and a half int he future, the pharmacy which sold him
vesperax was next to a Pepsi machine, while the happy fluffy puppy and lollipop store was next to a Coke machine?
As for the game itself, the first half was very boring until the Patriots scored 14 points and the Panthers scored 6 points in the final three minutes of the second quarter. I caught a bit of the half-time show with Nelly, Justin Timberlake, Kid Rock, and Janet Jackson, whom wisely opted to use one of her hummable classic hits from my high school years, "Rhythm Nation" and not one of her more recent "tunes", but I missed the
completely staged non-event wherein Justin ripped her top off to reveal one of Janet's breasts. C'mon, she was wearing a
metal "solar" nipple medallion; this was obviously planned. I had to go upstairs for supper, and I also missed, at the beginning of the second half, a
"streaker" named Mark Francis Roberts, wearing nothing but a g-string and shoes, ran onto the field and got tackled by New England Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham and carried off the field into police custody. Damnit, what a waste! If you're going to streak anyways, at least show some penis! (Not that it would have made much difference, since the cameras weren't looking at the time.
The second half was much more exciting, with the Carolina Panthers catching up and overtaking the Patriots briefly a couple of times, and it was tied with only four seconds left on the clock when
Adam Vinatieri kicked a 41-yeard field goal to win it 32-39 for the Patriots.
As someone whom watches the Boston network affiliates on Bell ExpressVu, and, as such, gets spoonfed pro-New England Patriots propaganda, I was happy to see the Pats win. And, it's a good thing too, because WVCB-5, the ABC affiliate in Boston, was threatening to show an episode of
America's Funniest Home Videos if the Pats lost.
Instead, thankfully, we got footage of Bostonians celebrating, though a
few of those celebrations got rather rowdy, and one car backed into a group of celebrants, injuring several.
Now I can go back to not caring about commercials. At least until Old Navy starts running more Fran Drescher "Old Navy Holiday Hotline" commercials about nine months from now (please don't!).
(That's about it for tonight... I'll finish that thing about
Super Size Me which I was writing when I get my train of thought back, though, on second thought, I think I will only add another paragraph or two as what I wrote so far is actually quite concise, at least by my standards.)
**And, yes, to whom this may concern, I did mainly watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. I didn't do it to because I thought that I was being "subversive" or "different"; I think the opposite is true... a lot of people watch it mainly for the commercials so, if anything, I'm really just following the pack. I just enjoy watching the commercials because they're different from the commercials you see anywhere else... I don't think that makes me a "tool".
TOKYO MEW MEW LICENSED BY 4KIDS: FANBOYS, START YOUR WHINING!
Yes, the children's television syndicator
4Kids Entertainment Inc., which translated and localized the Japanese KID'S cartoon**
Pok?mon and the Japnese KID'S cartoon
Yu-Gi-Oh among other KID'S series, has
acquired the rights to the Japanese KID'S cartoon Tokyo Mew Mew, which they shall dub and localize as
Hollywood Mew Mew, so the usual gaggle of anime fanboys whom know jack squat about the kiddy TV syndication business and the specific reasons why most kid's anime shows need to be edited and "localized" for North American children's television*** shall whine to no end about 4Kids "butchering" the shows, especially when you know that 90% of the whining fanboys wouldn't otherwise even care about
Tokyo Mew Mew; they're just whining about 4Kids for the sake of whining about 4Kids.
Since
Tokyo Mew Mew is a magical girl anime, like
Sailor Moon or
Cardcaptor Sakura (though, I get the idea that it's a lot less serious than those two, not that those two are exactly the most gravitas and angst-filled shows either), I think the market for a subtitled, intact version would be a fair bit larger than that for either
Pok�mon or
Yu-Gi-Oh. (I'm sure my
mahou shoujo-loving friend Mayukh will be pleased to hear me say that.), and, if anime fans agitate, in the politest of ways, they may be able to get 4Kids to sublicense an alternate, subtitled version, probably through
FUNimation****. An alternate, subtitled release is the best you can hope for. You can start a petition to "Stop
Hollywood Mew Mew" if you like, I won't stop you, but I think it's better to be pragmatic about such things and don't do things which have no chance of succeeding.
I wrote the following
piece of advice on the AnimeNewsNetwork.com board, where I'm
Tenchi, for people whom want 4Kids to sell an alternate, subtitled release of
Tokyo Mew Mew (a different fansite from the one I linked to before).
Anyhow, if you want a subtitled version, now would be the time to send a friendly letter (preferable to e-mail, a letter carries more weight, both literally and figuratively) to 4Kids showing, in a very polite way, your interest in buying a subtitled version on DVD.
DON'T give 'em your thoughts on what you think of their version of Yu-Gi-Oh or Pok�mon, which are irrelevant to your specific goal here.
DO definetely mention how Nelvana sublicensed a subtitled, intact version of Cardcaptor Sakura and how it sold well, but DON'T mention how well the subtitled version sold compared to the dubbed version, as it's an apples-and-oranges comparison since the dub was made to sell Cardcaptors***** products and commercial time, with the DVD sales really being only "gravy".
DO just concentrate on asking for a subtitled version, DON'T give advice on how they should handle the dub as, trust me, you'll come across as just some stupid kid with no real knowledge of how the kiddy TV syndication business works and they'll disregard your request for the sub completely.
Most of all,
DO only write them if you intend on purchasing a subtitled, intact version of Tokyo Mew Mew; DON'T write them claiming you want a sub if what you really want is a precedent****** for subtitling one of their other series, or, worse, series that they don't currently have but which they are rumoured to want, like Naruto. If too many people ask them for a TMM sub and it flops because the people that asked weren't sincere about buying it, they'll never do anything like that again.
Also, remember that online petitions aren't worth squat anymore.
I'm mainly writing this because I just have a feeling that 90% of the people whom will be whining about this would otherwise have zero interest in watching Tokyo Mew Mew in subtitled, intact form, they just like whining about 4Kids in general and look for any little excuse.
I''ll give the address of 4Kids in New York:
Corporate Offices
4Kids Entertainment, Inc.
1414 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019
I wouldn't suggest getting in touch with them in any other ways, especially using e-mail addresses you might find on more fanboyish anti-4Kids crusade websites. Writing a physical letter is the most effective way of getting to them, as it takes longer to do than typing an e-mail or filling out a useless petition.
I haven't decided if I'm going to take my own advice and write 4Kids. I have several
mahou shoujo series on DVD myself including
Sailor Moon,
Cardcaptor Sakura,
Magic Knight Rayearth,
Magical Project S (which is more a spoof, I know), as well as some of
Revolutionary Girl Utena and
Fushigi Yuugi, if you count those two as
mahou shoujo, but, really, I don't have much at all in the way of money at the moment, and I'm already collecting
Super GALS! and
Haibane Renmei, so, as cute as the series looks, I don't know if I can commit myself to buying
Tokyo Mew Mew as well, and I don't want to ask for a sub if I'm not sincere.
**By the way, there's nothing wrong with calling a kid's cartoon a kid's cartoon. I'm a 29 year old man and there are plenty of kid's cartoons, Canadian, American, and Japanese, which I discovered as an adult and which I adore pretty much as much as the more mature anime series or
King of the Hill and
South Park. I just emphasize the KID'S aspect because I hate it when older anime fans whom also happen to like certain kid's shows either deceive themselves into thinking (or know but outright lie) that
Sailor Moon or
Yu-Gi-Oh weren't aimed at children in Japan to justify their own liking of the show. There is no need to justify liking kid's shows (though I keep quiet about it myself in certain social situations).
***And don't take into account that the licensor, at least the guys in the suits, fully approve of the changes made in order to get a slice of the pie in the world's most lucrative children's television market.
****Another popular target of fanboy rage because of what "they" did to
Dragonball,
Dragonball Z, and
Dragonball GT, even if 90% of the stuff they license is sold on DVD completely intact (down to kanji openings and credits) and subtitled, and even if most of
Dragonball is either available now on DVD subtitled soon or shall be subtitled eventually. I like to complain about FUNi too, but only because I can't seem to find any of their releases besides
Dragonball and
Yuu Yuu Hakusho on store shelves in Montreal, not because I like whining about kiddy TV dubs.
*****By the way,
Cardcaptors flopped because it failed to find all that much of an audience, not because of anything any
Cardcaptor Sakura purists said or did, because the purist market is much smaller than the market Nelvana was aiming
Cardcaptor Sakura at. Since we got the subtitled DVDs, I chose to just buy them and ignore
Cardcaptors altogether, rather than whine about the dub on anime message boards everywhere.
******I was unaware at the time that FUNimation did subtitled versions of both
Ultimate Muscle and
Ultraman Tiga for 4Kids.
