06-23-2004, 03:57 AM
Quote:Also it is not just the commercial factor that causes producers here in the U S to not option a program. They have to calculate how much grief this program will cause them. PC is wide spead in the entertainment industry. Don't take my word for it. Ask Mel Gibson. One owner of an anime company who shall remain nameless told several of us, he would never touch Magic Circle Guru Guru because Nike and Kukuri were traveling alone and sleeping in the same tent every night.
Mel Gibson's a special case. For one thing, his initial idea was to leave the subtitles out of the film, and considering that it's all in dead languages. For another thing, it's a film that's devoted almost entirely to the death of Christ. There's nothing to be seen of his birth, or his works, and very little time is given to his resurrection. It's been called the most violent film in history.
And plus, there was the fact that Mel Gibson's religious zeal made some distributers nervous. He openly admitted that his film would offend people. And star Jim Caviezel admitted that he was injured several times by some of the various tortures that Christ endured (BTW, that's not a stunt double of Caviezel hanging on the cross, nor is it an animatronic. With the exception of a few wide shots, during which a rubber stand-in was used, he's up there the whole time.) And Mel made a big mistake by not distancing himself from his openly anti-Semitic father.
Ultimately, though, Gibson ought to be thanking all the "PCs" who stood in his way. The controversey drove up ticket sales, and because he had to spend his own money to make the film, he didn't owe any money to any backers, and thus, his $30 million investment paid out over $360 million in the US alone, making it the 10th most successful film in history.
Quote:Another was petrified by Sana and Hayama from Kodomo no Omocha. We have cornered these guys at conventions to try getting them to consider our favorite kid shows that are being ignored. The idea of 10 year old boys waging war in mechas, and 10 year old girls falling in love is too much for them to handle. Far too much grief. Way too much risk. They will stick with the teen shows only.
Are you sure they weren't just concerned that they were being accosted by full-grown adults demanding to see cartoons meant for 9-12 year olds...?
At any rate, does it really matter if the distributers won't pay to bring the anime to the US? You could probably buy the videos of the original Japanese shows from online stores that specialize in anime. And should that fail, you could try the file-sharing networks, like Kazaa. And, as shown by Cardcaptor Sakura, the dub would probably suck anyway.
And, if you are really concerned about what messages kids are receiving, don't be. While TV is still the prevailing medium, there are these things called books, which the PC people have failed to censor. Let's see...
- Despite numerous attempts by both PCs and Conservatives, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is still widely available.
- Terry Pratchett's Equal Rights features an 11-year-old girl falling for an older boy, and I believe they do end up together. I don't believe that it has ever been on any banned book list.
- In Wee Free Men, also by Pratchett, a 9-year-old girl does battle against an evil Queen. Not only has it not been censored, but it has even won several awards.
- C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series features young kids fighting against armies on several occasions. Not only are the books considered classics, but they are some of the only fantasy books that haven't been condemned by the Religious Right.
- Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, from which Digimon has borrowed several ideas, features a boy and a girl traveling through several dimensions, including hell, on a quest to usurp God. They travel almost entirely without adult supervision, and indeed, throughout the series, adults are for the most part portrayed as evil and controlling beings who would go to incredible extremes to stop the children. There is a hell of a lot of violence, plus a lot of adult themes, and the kids do fall in love with each other. However, the book is usually marketed towards kids. It's also being adapted into a movie.