Forum - View topicNEWS: Yo-kai Watch Film Beats Out Disney's Big Hero 6 at Japanese Box Office
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Drac
Posts: 165 |
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As far as the two directors and John Lasseter are concerned it is although they said this while they were in Japan, on the behalf of Disney's marketing department before the films premiere. At least one Japanese publication has praised the film for being a sign that Hollywood finally understands Japan except it sounded like they were simply happy the film didn't have racist caricatures like something out of Breakfast At Tiffany's. Last edited by Drac on Tue Dec 23, 2014 3:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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doctordoom85
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Well, the hero (and his brother) is still half-Japanese and has a Japanese name. GoGo is Asian but IIRC she's Korean. Honey Lemon is Hispanic, Wasabi is black, and Fred is white. So really all they did was make the cast even more diverse. |
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Kutsu
Posts: 570 |
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With movie ticket prices' only increase in the last 20 years being due to the increase in the consumption tax last year from 5 to8%. |
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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What the hell is Yo-kai Watch and why should I care. It doesn't look like something that's aimed towards me, and if I recall correctly making a boat load of money doesn't equal high quality either. Kaguya was the best film I've seen in years and that bombed in Japan.
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Drac
Posts: 165 |
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I think you just answered your own question. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Particularly considering that Lasseter took all the Japanese pop-content (some of which was bordering on Godzilla-kitsch stereotype from a culture that didn't understand manga/anime quite yet) OUT of the Marvel comic to begin with: Turning the characters into a generic whitebread Revenge-of-the-Nerds Scooby Gang, rather than the "J-culture dream team" of Hiro being Johnny Sokko, Fredzilla being an actual giant lizard, Gogo being Priss of the Knightsabers, or Honey using her fourth-dimensional "magic purse" to become a combo of Minki Momo and Cutie Honey. The sad thing is, I could imagine Disney actually DOING a semi-satirical mainstream J-culture parody if they'd tried (imagine if there was a popular Sailor Moon-parody anime in San Fransokyo, and Disney's Honey kept trying to imitate the poses  ), but now I'm seriously starting to wonder whether Lasseter's ever really seen any anime beside his good buddy's...
Has he ever weighed in on the Lion King/Kimba debate? |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I get the feeling that Big Hero 6 was intended primarily for Americans with any overseas markets as a bonus. This is Stan Lee we're talking about here, whose background is in American comic books, a market that's been restricted nearly entirely to North America and has never made any attempt at international appeal. I've never read the comic books though, so I can't say how aware the writers are about Japanese pop culture. "Godzilla-kitsch" is still how Japan is largely treated in American comic books though, and if anime and manga are treated, it's in this affectionate "Haha, ain't they weird?" way like with Astro Boy's depiction in Kingdom Come. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15437 |
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Drac: They're still bitter about the whole Kimba/Simba thing there.
Gal: Uh, yes it was. Rooney looked like exactly like one of those horrible caricatures in those World War II cartoons. Just because the Japanese audience back then gave it a pass doesn't necessarily mean this generation would.
That's not really the point. They were protesting a negative portrayal of an Asian minority which is common in the industry, and which is also used to shut out actors of Asian descent from being hired. Eric:
Well, Pixar had nothing to do with BH 6. leafy:
No, they wanted the Japanese market. They just think that the Japanese still watch stuff from the 60s. 
Actually, Marvel does quite well internationally. It's just that it never conquered Japan, even though they've tried their damnedest to tailor Spider-Man to that audience. But, they seem to have finally shown interest in Marvel over there through Iron Man. So I'm surprised there's no official manga for it yet. That's a total missed opportunity. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Manga was just becoming the rage in comic-book stores, and while comic artists read it for the unique visual style, Marvel and DC were experimenting with "Manga-style" reimaginings of the core superheroes, to let the artists get the fan-geeks out of their system. With all the fan-cliche' Western interpretations of manga tropes intact, much in the old Teen Titans style, only not as pandering. And naturally, with fans who were just discovering Manga, there was a bit of CN-style cultural backhandedness from the non-fans, which explains why Japan was still the country of sushi, Godzilla, Astro Boy and Johnny Sokko.
But Lasseter did, since he's now in charge of WDFA as well. Which, as detailed above, makes it that much more anticlimactic that we DIDN'T get more J-love in the story and humor as Mr. I-Love-Ghibli could have delivered. Heck, the comic had more familiarity with J-culture than the movie did, and they were still doing sushi jokes! (Ie. Wasabi being an actual sushi chef, instead of just snacking on it during his breaks.) |
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Fedora-san
 Posts: 464 |
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If this was aiming to take on Japan, they did a poor job as mentioned considering all the changes made to it. If they prioritized black and Hispanic representation over Japanese representation, who just got a half Japanese and not even a full Japanese representation, then that's an odd way of appealing to Japanese audiences.
Whenever a creator says they're an anime fan, I find it more than likely means they either saw Spirited Away, or maybe Dragonball Z/Sailor Moon as a kid. I'm not sure how many creators are actual current, hardcore fans who follow dozens of new shows every season via fansubs or streaming. If I'm remembering correctly, even the guys behind Avatar made an offhand remark they've never seen Dragonball Z when asked a question about it, which was odd. I guess it's just safer to just take "anime fan" as meaning "I saw an anime once and liked it", like someone saying they're a huge fan of superheroes but they only watch the Marvel movies and never touched a comic book in their life. It depends what your definition of a fan is, and how specific you want to be. Lasseter could be a huge anime fan, so as long as that anime was made by Miyazaki. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Or, in Spielberg's case, the car chase (and just the car chase) from Castle of Cagliostro. Which...also turned out to be the first one Lasseter always mentions. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1841 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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I could name 3 anime series that I watched as young child (Kimba the white lion, Gigantor and Marine Boy, even though they were westernised to varying extents) and there were others whose name escapes me (I remember an anime about a very polite mouse in a kimono), but one does not need to watch several new series each year to be a fan. (One could ask back of the people who claim to be fans of anime, what recent anime they have watched / like). By that argument I could claim ANN can't claim to be a site for fans of music of anime (even though I welcome whatever musical interviews they publish). Perhaps a better gauge of interest is if it causes someone to look for other works in the genre? E.G. Studio Ghibli's movies (and not just the Miyazaki titles) lead me to look for other anime movies, finding a few anime singers/musicians/composers lead to me finding more. |
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Lycosyncer
Posts: 526 |
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Despite that I have never heard of Yokai Watch, that opening weekend number in Japan is amazing! Congrats to the film and to the fans who came to support it.
As for Big Hero 6, anyone who's expecting it to be the next Frozen in Japan is only kidding themselves because it's really hard to replicate something as huge as that with every film and because of how completely different these two films are but still, reviews for the film in Japan is pretty positive and the opening weekend numbers for this film is while not as high as Yokai Watch or even Frozen, it's still pretty good and shows signs that it will have some good legs. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14837 |
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There's a difference in marketing emphasis too:
(US poster on the left; Japanese poster on the right) 
Big Hero 6 ads in Japan leave out the action, moviegoers surprised to find awesome robot flick
Merry Xmas, everyone! |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Although that's a reminder that the movie was titled "Baymax" in Japan, which is certainly more accurate than suggesting there were other heroes in it... |
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