Forum - View topicNEWS: Ultraman Franchise Expands Licensing Program, Releases Series' English Dubs Online, Reveals Ne
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MFrontier
Posts: 14258 |
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Nothing really new here, but I'm curious about the simuldub for Ultraman Blazar and whether they'll dub Trigger next after Z.
I hope the Netflix movie turns out well. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2499 Location: United States |
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I admit, I only just started getting into Ultraman myself with the English dub for Ultraman Z coming out. But I really hope this endeavor works out for Tsuburaya. It's clear that they want the series to be successful overseas. Seriously, Toei should really take a page or two from Tsuburaya's book in terms of how they market and promote their products overseas.
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mdo7
 Posts: 6500 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Well this is a interesting approach and I have no objection over their expansion. But here's the problem that always plague tokusatsu's international fandom/communities outside of Asia, and before I asked that let me quote the user above me:
I would love to see Toei taking lessons from Tsuburaya's playbook on how to make Super Sentai, Kamen Rider more accessible to international audiences outside of Japan/Asia region. But both Toei and Tsuburaya still faced one big problem that prevent Ultraman, Kamen Rider, & Super Sentai from getting a wider audiences. How are you going to get people that watched K-dramas (that includes people that watch foreign dramas like Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, & non-English language European TV dramas) to branch out to tokusatsu shows like Ultraman, Kamen Rider, & Super Sentai? As you know, for the last few years K-dramas (and probably other non-English foreign TV dramas) have gained mainstream popularity in the US: Not just K-pop: Korean TV shows gaining US popularity K Dramas Can’t Be Denied: Global Streaming Spurs Demand for Asian Content Platforms The Rise of K-Dramas: How K-Dramas Took The World By Storm | ‘Squid Game’, ‘Crash Landing on You’ & More Axios: Americans are consuming more foreign content than ever When it comes to foreign language TV dramas/shows, tokusatsu is like so niche and not given the mainstream love that K-dramas and other foreign TV dramas are getting in the US and outside of Asia. I mean there's no overlap between tokusatsu audiences and audiences demographic that watch K-dramas & foreign TV dramas that you watched on Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, etc.... I mean sure, anime is more mainstream now in the US then it was decade ago, but it's not helping tokusatsu shows gaining audiences in the US. I mean look at J-pop, despite both anime and K-pop's mainstream popularity, it didn't help J-pop get the same level of mainstream awareness in the US like their Korean counterpart are getting. I talked to tokusatsu fans on a forum and many of these toku fans don't seem to watch K-dramas or any form of non-toku dramas. Even K-dramas/K-pop fans that I talked to don't even know or aware of tokusatsu shows like we're talking about here. So how are tokusatsu shows like Ultraman, Super Sentai, or Kamen Rider get to a wider audiences that watched K-dramas and non-English TV dramas outside of Asia like the one I mentioned above? Unless Ultraman, or Super Sentai had a famous K-pop idol member from BTS, Twice, or Blackpink as a main role (that's what happened to HBO's The Idol when Jennie of Blackpink was featured in it). I welcome the expansion like Tsuburaya stated here, but unless the audience gap has been addressed or it feature a famous K-pop idol in it, it's not going to get a wider mainstream audiences outside of Asia. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2317 Location: Online Terminal |
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Toei was only part of the problem. The other part of the problem is why we're now getting this big Ultraman push instead of other tokusatsu heroes. |
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Gurren Rodan
 Posts: 266 |
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^The reason we're specifically getting a major Ultraman push right now is because Tsuburaya Pro. finally has the flexibility to do so. Up until just a few years ago, TsuPro still didn't have full rights to their own character overseas.
animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2016-08-01/.104886 animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-11-26/tsuburaya-productions-wins-case-for-ultraman-international-licensing-rights/.124333 Now that this major thorn in the side has finally been removed, TsuPro has been making up for lost time. Ultraman is THE IP of TsuPro, and they clearly want to get their international money's worth out of it. As for Toei and other studios/companies with tokusatsu IPs - I have no idea. I suppose my first assumption would be that those companies have underestimated overseas interest? Ultraman might be changing that a little. ...And, for the record, I don't watch K-dramas or J-dramas; I haven't been interested in getting into that. I watch Ultraman for the kaiju and special effects (hopefully backed by good writing), and I assume the same is true for much of the audience. It's a sci-fi/action crowd, not a character drama crowd, methinks. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4633 Location: New York |
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Tsuburaya is the definition of “slow and steady wins the race.” A gradual feed of material, easy to get to, but not overwhelmingly so to the point where it becomes annoying. The comic has been running for years now (I want a street level hero to bond with an Ultra in that crossover) with solid sales, the Netflix feed has wrapped up their anime and now moving onto that movie project, and we’re getting simuldubs of weekly shows on YouTube. It’s a solid strategy that hopefully prevents burnout.
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mdo7
Posts: 6500 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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I'm not sure if you're aware, but several K-dramas have gotten into tokusatsu-style territory (several Korean sci-fi TV dramas and films have came to my mind), and yet has that caused a crossover of K-drama fans discovering tokusatsu shows? Nope, and before you tell me it's apple and oranges, let me show you something: Should Fans of Also Consider Wuxia Series and Sci-Fi Series as Tokusatsu? Mind Hurts: Why Do I Even Call Certain Fantasy-Based K-Drama And C-Drama As Toku?! These blog entries were written in 2014, & 2018 and I agreed with this!!! Several K-dramas have started to pull off tokusatsu-style special effect that I don't Japan could even put on the same level. And yet, we're not seeing any crossover from the K-drama fandom to tokusatsu fandom. So back to the issue: if K-dramas (and other non-English foreign TV dramas) that are Sci-Fi or used innovative special effect found in tokusatsu are able to get a big and wide audiences in the west, how do we get these same audiences that are watching these sci-fi K-dramas/K-films & wuxia TV shows from Mainland China to branch out to Japanese tokusatsu? How do we appeal Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Ultraman to the same audiences that are watching Sweet Home, The School Nurse Files, The Silent Sea, & Sisyphus? How do we get people that are watching Word of Honor (a Mainland Chinese wuxia drama) to watch tokusatsu shows? |
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