Forum - View topicNEWS: Discotek Streams 1st Episode of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Anime
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Apollo-kun
 Posts: 1213 Location: City 7, Macross 7 |
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I'm honestly very excited about this. About two or three years ago, I emailed Discotek about the potential of them licensing this, and it's a dream come true that they finally have.
I do wonder, though, what's keeping them from putting out a release with the Japanese vocal track and music and everything. I was thinking it was licensing issues, but considering they're willing to put the original versions on YouTube, I guess that's not the case. Regardless - I'm so happy this anime is finally able to be had easily. It's an underrated classic, imo, and if they end up doing two releases (Japanese and English,) I'll gladly buy them both. I'm a sucker for anything Oz. |
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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If I were to take a guess as to why the release is NOT bilingual, it's the timeframe it was aired in.
In the 1980s, it was just not viable to do a straight, unedited adaptation of anime for Western markets. There were mainly issues of broadcasting standards and practices. What is considered acceptable for kids entertainment is Japan is not necessarily the case elsewhere. It's not just violence -- any kind of panty shots or remotely sexual material would have been cut out. (That still happens today in countries where a lot of anime gets shown during the day on TV. It's hardly ever unedited outside of Japan! A lot of the international video releases are STILL edited.) That is something that can't be repeated enough to today's anime fans... They just don't understand that what they have today is NOT what it was even 15 years ago! The Oz series was probably edited for length AND content to fit for whatever stations broadcast it. If the music was too cutesy or had its own licensing issues, they probably didn't use it. They were still changing music in anime licenses in the West through at least the late 1990s... The original Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z English dubs had different music from the original Japanese versions of those shows.To be honest, though, this Oz series sounds like something that would have aired on HBO or maybe even Disney Channel at the time. I NEVER saw this show on local channels but I had heard of an Oz series aside from the animated show (spun off the MGM movie) that aired on ABC. At any rate, by the time they localized Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it would have been different enough from the Japanese version to make a bilingual release home video of the series untenable... If they had to cut footage, you can't just splice the English audio on top of the Japanese because you'll have audio gaps where they didn't record English redub audio. It simply won't sync up with the unedited Japanese footage as-is and most people watching home video don't want that! Funimation is doing separate releases of Speed Racer and the original Japanese version, Mach Go Go, for the reasons of editing on the American version and the fact the audio tracks will just not work together on the same video! Almost anything from the 1980s and before will NOT have the possibility of bilingual releases for the reasons of editing alone. That's why Robotech/Macross, Voltron/Go Lion, and all these other series and their original Japanese versions have had separate home video releases when fans requested it. The reality is that the version broadcast on TV in the States will generally outsell the original version by a factor of 4, 5 times at least. It's not just the English audio that will sell it... The broadcast version is what people are familiar with! Although it's not entirely out of the question that Discotek will release a Japanese-sub version of this series, the reality is that nostalgia collectors (fans who saw the English dub) would probably still far outnumber collectors who want the Japanese version. This is an older series and frankly it probably won't sell well enough to justify doing a separate Japanese release... |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3558 Location: Finland |
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I rarely purchase English releases, most I have are imported, but this I might consider just for its curiosity value. But if it's dub only they plan to release ever...no.
Hopefully they don't get caught up in a trademark/tradename fight. Yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds. But these days you may never know. It's for a reason there's a dearth of titles that have both wizard and oz in their titles out there.. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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Very nice... but if they're only offering the dub only version then why only upload the sub and on top of that, why only two episodes at best?
From TV tropes:
If it's just because of the titles, that's kind of weak. Regardless, what I saw was very good and I really want an adaptation of Marvelous Land of Oz that doesn't mix it up.
So close... Ok, one that doesn't mix it up as badly as Return to Oz. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15538 |
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FUNimation's probably, at the very least, doing separate releases for Speed Racer, because the rights were such a pain to negotiate, that they want to get as much of their money back as they can on it. But yeah, nostalgia for the dubbed versions of these anime has been a pain for people who wait on the subbed sets. As for Oz, DT's just cashing in on that last movie and other recent adaptations. The audience for that series isn't otherwise really there in general, outside of a certain 30's film.
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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There were some edits throughout the series, so doing a bilingual release would be almost impossible. They are likely doing like they have done for other shows and releasing the English language version and seeing if there is enough interest for a Japanese language release.
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catbot158
 Posts: 232 Location: United States |
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I have to admit, this is really cute and charming! And it doesn't seem like it would get offensive at all...I wonder if this could be a kid's introduction into english-subtitled anime?
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4778 |
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Oh wow...the more I think about this, the more I realize that I've probably seen the English version of it. I have the vaguest memories of watching some sort of animated Wizard of Oz series when I was 5 or 6 years old, and I always felt pretty sure that it had been on HBO (along with one or two other animated series that I legit cannot remember). Doing a bit of Wiki research, it doesn't seem like there were any other animated adaptations at that time that it could have been, so it really must have been this. Blows my mind that I may have seen my first anime series a good 25 years ago without having the slightest clue that it was from another country.
 Now I wonder if I ever saw any of those various series that wound up on Nick Jr. back in the late 80s and early 90s...
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Akaname
 Posts: 141 Location: MA |
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Sunday mornings HBO used to have cartoons for a couple of hours. They also aired the Little Women anime back then, which was, if I remember correctly, a fairly faithful adaptation. |
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AVHodgson
 Posts: 11 Location: Rhode Island |
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There's a pretty good reason we're not getting the original Japanese version on DVD. It's a meisaku anime. They've never been very popular with people who download fansubs; if they put it out on DVD, it'd be even less popular.
And for people who want the dubs, they want it presented the way they remember it; and I don't begrudge them on that. But, in any case, the dub actually has very little cut out of it - the first episode has been recut to include flash-forwards to later in the show, but otherwise most of the changes were already there in the Japanese original or have been done in the dialogue. So I'm fine with having the full dub on DVD, which we've never had before, and letting Discotek stream the original with subs. It's the best of both worlds.
Don't worry, the Marvelous Land arc is pretty faithful to the book, with some minor changes (the Woggle-Bug has been completely taken out, for example). The English dub also mostly removes all the parody of feminism in General Jinjur's revolt (it's all there in the original). |
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belvadeer
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Japanese voices just don't do it for me. I'll take the dub.
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Hitokiri Kenshin
Posts: 293 |
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Meisaku anime? What does that mean? |
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belvadeer
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めいさく (meisaku) means masterpiece. It was the term used when Japan animated fairy tale and novel adaptations. |
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CandisWhite
Posts: 282 |
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Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Yes! I am coming!
I throw my vote in for a physical release of the Japanese version: I will buy the 2 separate releases of the show!
Oh, totally. It's not like searching for a teen show that doesn't have too many adult elements; This is all the way a kid's show. And, best of all, it is a GOOD one: Well-animated, well paced, and engaging. It's kind without being saccharine and the action elements hit the perfect note of having real danger while not being overly violent. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13614 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Turner Entertainment does have TM on the title and several of the characters. However, I think that applies more to the 1939 classic movie. Copyright wise, while one can make a new movie with the title, the characters can't have the elements specific to the 1939 film. |
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