Gong Xi Fa Cai...
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Masakazu Kubo, Executive Producer of Pocket Monsters, praises fansubbers
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Masakazu Kubo is well known to Pocket Monsters fans as the Executive producer of the series and movies. He is also the director of Shogakukan's Character Business Center.
Anime is currently a large market worldwide, but according to recent statistics, Anime sales are in decline. Recently Masakazu Kubo posted his proposal to help the currently floundering animation industry. In his proposal, he praises fansubbers and suggests that ways should devised to officially make use of their abilities.
Pokemon doesn't seem to be one of the 'affected' shows though. Pocket Monsters Movie 10 was the 'Top Grossing Anime Movie of 2007' in the Japanese box office, while the Pocket Monsters Movie 9 DVD places 18th in total sales in Japan. The English dubbed version of Movie 10 was announced earlier this week and will air on Cartoon Network on February 24th. The movie is expected to do quite well in North America.
Pocket Monsters Diamond and Pearl's Japanese ratings have been fairly consistent, while Pokemon Diamond and Pearl in the United States is one of the highest rated shows in the 'boys 6-11 and boys 2-11' demographic.
Shogakukan has been very vigilant in removing episodes of their animated series off video websites like YouTube. Many users posting copyrighted episodes have had their accounts suspended and their uploaded content deleted at the request of Shogakukan. Many fans are disappointed that Pokemon related AMV's are also removed.
There are many reasons why Pokemon fans in particular are drawn to fansubbed episodes of the series. Many of the episodes have a lot of edits, especially earlier in the series when 4Kids was responsible for the English Dubbing. The recent voice actor change in the English dub has also disappointed long time fans of the show who had grown accustom to the original voice actors. With the availability of the Japanese episodes online, it gives fans an alternative to the dub that they didn't have in the past.
Pokemon producer's advisory group suggests dealing with pro-level fansubbers
The Japanese government's Task Force on Media Content Business and Japanese Brands published the fourth series of proposals from its content-planning working group on February 1. The proposals discussed "a comprehensive policy for promoting content in the digital age" particularly, how to eventually legalize the content on Nico Nico Douga, YouTube, and other video-sharing sites. The working group suggested that it may be necessary to approach the illegal uploaders directly, so that Japan can formally approve these sites.One of the committee members, Tokyo Anime Center executive producer Masakazu Kubo, submitted a document that dealt with three specific issues, including fansubbers. Kubo is the executive producer of the Pokemon anime and the director of Shogakukan's Character Business Center. He is also involved with the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Tokyo International Anime Fair, and China's Beijing Film Academy. The business news website Bloomberg.com recently quoted Kubo in an article about the manga industry. The second of three sections in Kubo's document is translated below:
2) Dealing with Fansubs (Fun-Subtitle) and Other "P to P" Pirated Copies (*1)
Because "Fansubs" are works, such as television animation, on which fans have added subtitles, they are usually made without authorization. Currently, 6 million copies of illegal, English-subtitled Japanese animated videos are said to be downloaded from BitTorrent each week (http://animeanime.jp/biz/archives/2007/12/bittorrent600.html). This has affected the DVD sales of Japanese animation in North America, which have dropped dramatically. As a result, the overseas prices for animation programs have fallen considerably. After the April 2008 television program schedules [in Japan] are laid out (*2), the drop in the number of animated programs will be clearly seen. In short, the Japanese animation business has fallen into a great crisis.About 10 fans (whose translation abilities are high compared to professionals!) (*3) are said to put animated videos with foreign-language subtitles on YouTube, BitTorrent, and other file-sharing sites. If our country is to formally deal with YouTube and other services, it will be necessary to have some sort of approach to dealing with these individuals. Personally, I hope to resolve this by officially making use of their abilities.
*1 The "Fun-Subtitle" spelling is in the original document. "P to P" refers to peer-to-peer file-sharing.
*2 April is the beginning of the financial and academic year in Japan, so usually, more television series premiere in this month than in any other month.
*3 The exclamation point is in the original document.
Shogakukan seems to understand that there is a growing fansubbing community on the Internet and unlike the American motion picture companies, they are looking at alternatives to suing their fanbase. It will be interesting to see what they do in the future and how they decide to adapt to online distribution of their shows.
Sources: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ & Mainichi Communications' MyCom Journal & pocketmonsters.net Read More...
The Rise of Darkrai will NOT Be Shown in Theaters
With all the controversy created from the 'announcement' that Movie 10 would be coming to theaters in the United States, Pokemon.com's mailbag section has set the record straight.
Q: Will Pokemon: The Rise of Darkrai be shown in theaters?
A: This may be a disappointment, but despite what you may have heard, Pokemon: The Rise of Darkrai will not have a theatrical release - it will premiere on Cartoon Network and then be released on DVD
It seems that Cartoon Network accidentally said theater instead of DVD. For the past few years, the movies have aired on TV first and then released on DVD a few weeks later. Once again Movie 10 seems to fit this release pattern.
Sources: http://www.pokemon.com/ & http://www.pocketmonsters.net/ Read More...
The Rise of Darkrai TV Premiere - February 24, 2008 at 7 p.m
Monday, February 4, 2008
It was also reported that Cartoon Network will air the movie BEFORE the theatrical premiere. "And be sure to catch the U.S. premiere of 'The Rise of Darkrai', months before it plays in theaters!". It seems obvious now that Darkrai will most likely be distributed at theatres similar to how it was released in Japan. It's extremely odd to have a television premiere before a theatrical release. The only logical conclusion is that Pokemon USA is hoping people will go to the theatre to get Darkrai.
Many have been discussing this issue and it seems very clear that most people would not go to the theatre to see a movie that can be seen on television before the theatrical release.
Source : pocketmonsters.net
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red / Blue [Info]
You are a person who randomly got turned into a Pokémon. Your task, to complete the dungeons and find a way to return back to human form. You immediately get to choose a partner who will constantly travel with you until you beat the game. What you have to do is help out Pokémon who have asked for your help. They get lost in dungeons or lose items in dungeons...and you need to rescue them with your rescue force
All 386 Pokémon are obtainable in this game to join your rescue force and are seen by battling them in one of the almost 50 dungeons, some of them with massive Legendary Bosses at the end of them such as Rayquaza, Deoxys or Mewtwo.
The battling is a mixture of real-time battling & the turn based battles classic to Pokémon. When in dungeons you may see Wild Pokémon, you can just attack them and the battle starts without changing the scene. While in dungeons your Pokémon can also get hungry which lowers it's HP adding a whole new game mechanic
These Pokémon versions of the classic Mystery Dungeon games are both connectable with eachother and Blue is connectable with Pokémon Torouze. You cannot however transfer any Pokémon from this game to the main GBA games
Source : Serebii.net
