ULTRAMAN TIGA: The method behind the madness explained!
Ryuusei Productions
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Tsuburaya Productions was honored when Uchusen, one of Japan's most
prestigious science fiction magazines, published a feature story on
our overseas business in their March 2003 edition (vol. 105). With
their kind permission we are pleased to offer you a translation of
that article.
ULTRAMAN TO THE WORLD!
Last year, America's Fox TV network began running the Ultraman Tiga
television series. Along with Stargaze Infinity, Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, Kirby, Fighting Foodons and Ultimate Muscle, Ultraman Tiga
has arrived in America.
TSUBURAYA PRODUCTIONS' OVERSEAS BUSINESS STRATEGY
We spoke to Atsushi Saito, Tsuburaya Productions' head of
international sales and to Brad Warner who handles approvals for
overseas products and foreign language versions for the company.
UCHUSEN: Ultraman Tiga's first overseas broadcast was in Hong Kong in
1998, I believe.
SAITO: We began exporting the show first to Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. In Indonesia and Singapore, Tiga
was extremely popular becoming the number two rated children's
television show. After the show had played throughout most of Asia, we
began to set our sites on selling it to America.
UCHUSEN: But you were already working on selling the Heisei Ultraman
Series to America, weren't you? (NOTE: "Heisei" refers to the Japanese
system for numbering years according to the reigning Emperor. The
current era, called "Heisei," began in 1989.)
SAITO: We talked to a lot of different companies. We were speaking
with Saban who did the Power Rangers series. As you're probably aware,
our show Gridman was bought by the DIC company in the US and, like
Power Rangers, only the special effects portions were used and the
show was broadcast with new non-special effects portions shot in
America. But in the case of Ultraman we did not want to do that. We
wanted it to be shown in a format as close as possible to the
original. 4Kids, the people who'd had so much success in America with
Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, were willing to do that. So we ended up signing
a deal with them. 4Kids had leased a block of time from the Fox
network on Saturday mornings which, in America is the prime time for
children's shows. They're showing Tiga in that block which they call
the Fox Box.
UCHUSEN: What are the differences between the Japanese original and
the version being shown in America?
WARNER: It's pretty much the same as the Japanese version. The music,
though, has been entirely redone. And they've redone the scene where
Daigo transforms into Ultraman Tiga. In America there's no tradition
of superheroes who actually transform from one thing to another.
Batman and Spiderman put on a costume, Superman just takes off his
glasses. A lot of the American kids in 4Kids' early test audiences
didn't seem to get the idea that Daigo and Ultraman Tiga were one and
the same. Also, the English version has more humor. If you watch
American superhero shows you'll see that they're never played
completely straight. So the American version is more like an American
superhero show in that way. They've done a little bit of editing due
to the fact that the commercial breaks come in different spots on
American TV.
UCHUSEN: I noticed that the setting of the show was moved from 2006 in
the Japanese version to 2046 in the American one and that the ages of
the characters have been raised. Why did they make these kinds of
changes?
WARNER: When the original was shown in Japan in 1996, the year 2006
was ten years in the future. Now the year 2006 is just too close to
make the setting believable. As for the character's ages, I think that
just reflects a difference in taste between the two cultures.
UCHUSEN: They've also changed some of the names of the vehicles and
things for the US.
WARNER: That's right. Some of the names used in Japan just weren't
acceptable in the US. The underground vehicle is called the Weevil
over there because the name used in Japan, the Peeper, has a negative
meaning in America. The guns were called GUTS Hyper in Japan and that
wouldn't work since it tends to be associated with "hyperactive" in
the US, so they're called GUTS Blasters there. However, the GUTS Hyper
Rifle remained the same for the US.
SAITO: Whenever you export a show to another country there are certain
details that have to be changed because of the differences in culture.
UCHUSEN: What about changes for the amount of violence in the show?
Aren't American networks very strict about that?
WARNER: At first I thought this was going to be a problem. For
example, the scene in which the monster Sukunaoni's head is cut off. I
was certain that would be cut. But they left it in. In fact, since
we've given 4Kids access to some of the special effects footage that
was cut from the Japanese show, there may actually be more action
scenes in the American version.
UCHUSEN: How have the ratings been in America so far?
SAITO: The ratings have been good, but they haven't really taken off
in a big way yet. When they first tested the show on focus groups of
second and third graders the results were tremendous. Some of the
changes made to the US version were made because 4Kids thought
American kids might not be able to sit through all the dramatic scenes
to get to the special effects at the end. So those scenes were trimmed
and the action scenes were lengthened. In one case, two Japanese
episodes were edited into a single American one to make the action
speedier. Of course, Tsuburaya Productions has the final say on
approving or disapproving anything the American side changes. And we
have said "no" to some of the things they wanted to do. But we
generally listen to their reasoning and trust their judgment about how
the show should be presented to American audiences.
UCHUSEN: I've noticed that the voice actors they chose for the dubbed
version really sound a lot like the actual Japanese actors.
WARNER: 4Kids sent us the audition tapes. We made recommendations, but
in the end we left the final decision up to them. I was really
impressed at the way the voice actors actually sound like the Japanese
ones.
UCHUSEN: After Tiga, will there be any more Ultraman TV shows shown in
America?
SAITO: There's a very strong possibility. We're also discussing
releasing some of the theatrical features to American theaters.
UCHUSEN: What about a domestic Japanese release of the American
version?
SAITO: We don't have any plans for that right now. But we have talked
about it.
SEND QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS TO:
tpc...@tsuburaya-prod.co.jp
----------------------------
-John Cassidy
Richmond, VA
"The monster a child knows best and is most concerned with is the
monster he feels or fears himself to be." -Bruno Bettelheim
Bruce Sussman
>of superheroes who actually transform from one thing to another.
>Batman and Spiderman put on a costume, Superman just takes off his
>glasses.
"With One Magic Word...
SHAZAM!
The World's Mightest Mortal!"
BRUCE SUSSMAN
Wolf
The Hulk?
Captain Marvel, too, right?
Ghostrider?
--
|\-/|
<0 0>
=(o)=
-Wolf
August Ragone
course, there were the odd birds like Captain Marvel -- but, the
traditional heroes just wore costumes. Of course, there were
variations in the 1960s, with Thor, The Hulk, Ben Grimm and others --
but traditionally, the Japanese superheroes are known for changing
from one shape into another.
Bill Steele
ryuus...@attbi.com (Ryuusei Productions) wrote:
> In America there's no tradition
> of superheroes who actually transform from one thing to another.
Shazam!
Hulk
the TV Wonder Woman, sorta
And I wonder if he ever heard of the Power Rangers...
Drakkhen
"Bill Steele" <ws...@cornell.edu> wrote in message
news:ws21-08040...@128.253.187.23...
Power Rangers doesn't count
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.467 / Virus Database: 266 - Release Date: 4/1/2003
Ryuusei Productions
Who's "he?"
And I have to agree with Drakkhen. You have to remember that POWER
RANGERS has never fitted the American superhero mold to begin with.
August already discussed the rare cases of American superheroes that
transform (as opposed to the traditional changing-into-costume routine
most associate with American superheroes).
Just Plain Insane
14:27:41 -0400, when they blathered:
You forgot Changeling (Titans), She-Hulk, TRANSFORMERS (although most
of the bots were from various Japanese shows, Hasbro did create the
Transformers as an Icon), Raven (Titans), Phoenix, Iceman, Chameleon
(Legion) and so many more.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Webmaster of http://www.justplaininsane.net
-
"God, please save me from your followers"-unknown
-
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and
cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started
doing the same thing to them at funerals.
-
Scott Dentice aka y6g11 <y6...@aol.comnospam> is a confessed spammer
and liar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drakkhen
"Just Plain Insane" <q@q> wrote in message
news:qkh69vk2rcncitq90...@4ax.com...
> We had to listen to ws...@cornell.edu (Bill Steele) on Tue, 08 Apr 2003
> 14:27:41 -0400, when they blathered:
>
> >In article <c94e4198.03040...@posting.google.com>,
> >ryuus...@attbi.com (Ryuusei Productions) wrote:
> >
> >> In America there's no tradition
> >> of superheroes who actually transform from one thing to another.
> >
> >Shazam!
> >Hulk
> >the TV Wonder Woman, sorta
> >And I wonder if he ever heard of the Power Rangers...
>
> of the bots were from various Japanese shows, Hasbro did create the
> Transformers as an Icon),
For a mini history lesson
Takara created the diaclone line around 81-82. Then Hasbro used that line to
create transformers in the US.
Just Plain Insane
23:27:17 GMT, when they blathered:
>
>"Just Plain Insane" <q@q> wrote in message
>news:qkh69vk2rcncitq90...@4ax.com...
>> We had to listen to ws...@cornell.edu (Bill Steele) on Tue, 08 Apr 2003
>> 14:27:41 -0400, when they blathered:
>>
>> >In article <c94e4198.03040...@posting.google.com>,
>> >ryuus...@attbi.com (Ryuusei Productions) wrote:
>> >
>> >> In America there's no tradition
>> >> of superheroes who actually transform from one thing to another.
>> >
>> >Shazam!
>> >Hulk
>> >the TV Wonder Woman, sorta
>> >And I wonder if he ever heard of the Power Rangers...
>>
> TRANSFORMERS (although most
>> of the bots were from various Japanese shows, Hasbro did create the
>> Transformers as an Icon),
>
>For a mini history lesson
>
>Takara created the diaclone line around 81-82. Then Hasbro used that line to
>create transformers in the US.
Transformers was made up of more than the diaclone line, but Diaclones
were the first to be marketed as Transformers