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Remembering Anime Pioneer Fred Ladd

Fred Ladd may had been a pioneer in the anime industry in North America but his works were all about localization to the point that audiences were made to believe that the works were American made. It was common practice in the 20th century. To say that one became an anime fan at face value with what was presented to audiences at the time without doing further background research is absolute nonsense.

I don't mean any disrespect to the late Mr. Ladd but I'm just tired of the anime fandom ignoring these elephants in the room, especially when the sub-medium didn't seriously start taking off on a wide scale until the 90s.

Fred Ladd may had been a pioneer in the anime industry in North America but his works were all about localization to the point that audiences were made to believe that the works were American made.

There is literally no possible way that anime content could have aired on US TV in the 1960s without being heavily localized, and you can honestly extend that sentiment all the way through the mid-1990s or so. It just wasn't an option if you wanted to see it at all. The fact that Ladd was able to get an extremely limited-animation series from Japan on a broadcast network in 1963 is incredible in its own right.

And claiming that people needed to do "background research" in order to be considered "true anime fans" is the worst form of gatekeeping. People can only watch what they've discovered, and there's a clear through line from Ladd's earliest localization efforts, to his later work on Gatchaman (from everything I understand, "G-Force" was far less edited than the earlier "Battle of the Planets" localization attempt), to Robotech, to Sailor Moon and DBZ, to the explosion in anime's popularity in the US today. We don't get to where we are now without those earlier steps, and each one introduced a new wave of fans to this medium. You don't get to invalidate their fandom based on your own criteria.

I'm another who was introduced to anime (though the term hadn't been coined then) by Fred Ladd's "localization". Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Gigantor all had stints on national TV in Australia in the 1960s. I watched them avidly - Kimba was an especial favourite even though it was in black & white thanks to colour not coming to Oz TV until the mid 70s.

Even as a child I was aware they were Japanese productions: in Kimba the names were right there taking up the entire screen in the credits: Osamu Tezuka, Mushi Productions, Isao Tomita and Eiichi Yamamoto. I remember the family talking about its Japanese origins. Thanks to Fred Ladd and Kimba I was favourably disposed toward anime when I was exposed to it as an adult.

When I re-watched the series for the first time five years ago all I could remember were the theme song, the four main characters, a scene where Kimba convinces his fellow carnivores to become vegetarian and a creature called a flyger. Here's a funny thing: I became vegetarian just over 30 years ago and, although it wasn't part of my consideration at the time, I wonder how much Kimba (who makes a strong argument for it in the TV series) sowed the seeds of the idea in my mind.

Even if the average viewer didn't know what anime was at the time, the networks and companies knew and they knew Ladd was able to make these shows a success that would create the environment for other companies to take a risk. I doubt we would have had the 80s localized sci-fi anime boom without Astro Boy paving the way for shows like Robotech and Star Blazers which would then help pave the way for modern US/Canada anime fandom.

You doubt, Takato, but I don't. I believe if Ladd hadn't stepped up to the plate, someone else would. Ladd gets full credit because he was the first to the punch bowl.

Wonderful recollection! Those Fred Ladd dubs - Astro Boy, Gigantor, Kimba - were my intro to anime. A lifetime ago. They set me on a lifelong love of anime. Thanks very much for the background. And thank you, Fred Ladd, for everything you did!

It's a shame that there isn't any video or photos of Ladd (or anyone else for that matter) trying to colorize the original B&W productions.