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Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - On Your Maruko
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mrsatan
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 915 |
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I used to watch this show in Japan. It must have been on its 10th year or so. I didn't quite get it at the time. I didn't know it was a period piece and I didn't know it was semi-autobiographical.
I kind of forgot about the show until Momoko Sakura's death. I found a bunch of the earliest, cel-animated episodes on the 'net and enjoyed these a lot. I was very surprised at how involved Sakura was in the anime. For several years, she was writing the screenplays for every episode. She wrote the lyrics to most of the theme songs. And she even did background art for at least one of the movies. I remember during the height of Simpsons mania in 1990 or so, one of those ubiquitous tabloid TV shows of the time (probably A Current Affair) did a segment on "The Simpsons of Japan, Maruko-chan". I think it was her spiky bangs and her sometimes bratty attitude that made people make the comparison. |
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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Someone on behalf of Crunchyroll sent some takedown notices for Chibi Maruko-chan episodes a few months ago, which got my hopes up...until I saw that they'd also sent them for episodes of The Muppet Show, The Flintstones, and even the infamous The Nutshack. Turns out whoever's "protecting" Crunchyroll's content isn't the brightest bulb in the bunch.
It'd be a monster to license though, even for streaming...and where to start would be another big question. |
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mrsatan
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 915 |
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I feel like bringing the manga over first would be a good way to start. There are only 15 volumes. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2827 Location: Toronto |
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Voicebox Productions in Vancouver listed a Chibi Maruko-chan project on their website for a number of years. They credited it to Pioneer (Geneon) and ... Studio B, a Canadian animation company. I don't know if that means there's a discarded western take on Chibi Maruko out there, or if that was just a typo.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021120091324/http://www.voiceboxproductions.com/ Teryl Rothery used to list a Chibi Maruko-chan project on her resume, but that's gone now. She credited the production to Ocean, though. |
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toonamimaniacolatino
Posts: 4 Location: Ecuador |
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As there is already a dub in English made in Southeast Asia, (that by the way, it's available on the official international channel of Maruko on YouTube) it would not be necessary to produce a dub in English made in North America just so that it happens the same as Doraemon, Pokémon, Crayon Shin-chan, Dragon Ball and many animes that have touched American soil.
At least I think that Crunchyroll should license the original version with subtitles of both anime series adaptations (1990 and 1995). I doubt that Nippon Animation refuses to that because they are on their side making efforts so that Maruko is known internationally from the internet. |
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Primus
Posts: 2827 Location: Toronto |
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There are already multiple English dubs of Maruko. In addition to the Indian production Mike mentioned that's streaming on YouTube, an earlier one was produced in Hong Kong for Animax. The Canadian production I mentioned was from the very early 2000s (possibly even late '90s given it was "Pioneer Entertainment"), predating both of those Asian dubs.
I'm not sure why you mentioned Pokemon. AFAIK, there's only ever been 1 dub of that in English. Doraemon, Shin-chan, Dragon Ball and Maruko-chan have multiple. |
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toonamimaniacolatino
Posts: 4 Location: Ecuador |
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The fact that Pokémon only has 1 dub in English for all English-speaking countries does not change that's it a dub produced in the United States, and everyone in the planet knows that "anime distributed in USA=/=Americanized anime" (skipped episodes, changed dialogues, changed names, digital painting, kanjis removed, Japanese references removed, censorship and cuts of scene, change of OP/ED, change of OST, etc, etc, etc). At least the Asian English dubs respects the original material (as Digimon, unlike the Saban versions).
Although Maruko is a very white and innocent series, the distributors and censors would not hesitate a second to modify the series with the excuse of "adapting" it to the American idiosyncrasy. That reminds me, I'm going to put a screenshot of two comments that I read months ago in Kotaku and is according to theme. 
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belvadeer
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It's likely not a very good dub. One made here would at least be better voice acted.
Did you make an account here just to post this and soapbox some kind of "North America sucks" stance? |
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toonamimaniacolatino
Posts: 4 Location: Ecuador |
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Keep in mind that English is not the mother language in those countries. But I even think that the voice cast of Cardcaptors Sakura from Animax Asia dub, it's better than the voice cast of FUNimation for Clear Card.
This account was created years ago but I only used it to add information in the encyclopedia. Is there anything wrong with using it to comment now? Do not get it wrong. It has its flaws like any country. However, the historical conflict (and contradictions) of NA (U.S and Canada) dubbing and anime due to cultural shock, speak for itself. There is no real guarantee that Maruko has a dub in American English that respects her as such. Very probably cut scenes like those of Hiroshi drinking alcohol, but "it is very good seen" that Homer drinks Duff in each episode. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2349 |
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It frequently gets more viewers than Detective Conan, One Piece, or Doraemon. It's not as consistent as it used to be, but often it ranks higher than anything but Sazae-san. |
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belvadeer
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I know it's not their mother language, but I think you'll find a lot of people will disagree with that statement. Animax dubs tend to be quite awkward and poorly done in comparison to Funi's work.
The tone in your other posts so far comes across as unnecessarily hostile and overly judgmental toward U.S. localization to me. Maybe if you dial back the attitude a little, it would seem less so. |
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Primus
Posts: 2827 Location: Toronto |
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Most people would prefer intelligible speech and appropriate line deliveries over slavish faithfulness and nothing else. Show a person the Hong Kong dub of Yo-Kai Watch vs. its L.A. dub and see how many people would choose to hear "Jinmenken" over "Manjimutt." It's impossible to know what that Maruko project Voicebox did was anyways. The fact that it was called "Chibi Maruko" suggests it wasn't a total hack job. Late '90s/early '00s kids TV dubs wouldn't have gone with a foreign name like that. With few exceptions, Pioneer also wasn't really in that business. Heck, Studio B is an animation studio. It could've been some weird Ultraman USA equivalent. Though, that might've just been a typo since Voicebox's worked on all of Studio B's earlier projects. Those Kotaku comments are hilarious. |
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toonamimaniacolatino
Posts: 4 Location: Ecuador |
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I think we could say the same of many series (Pokémon on TV Tokyo, Doraemon on TV Asahi, etc), but besides being the TV producer, Fuji TV (CX) it's just the head of all affiliated channels to FNS network that are scattered in each prefecture and hence they all broadcast the series. Added to that is one of the series with uninterrupted broadcast on Animax everyday. 
Actually it's a lot of disappointment and impotence.
It is a problem of bad habit that in NA has not been reversed until now and be tied to standards of TV industry that should not continue. Outside of NA, the opposite happens. Even without having internet to compare with the original version, the people realize how meaningless and ridiculous is the NA dubs (especially when local dubbing is based on the NA version and compared to other series faithfully dubbed from the Japanese version, for example the dubs of DBZ and DBZKAI in LATAM). This causes different negative effects for the series, and in the worst case, pass to complete oblivion. Does anyone remember "Zatch" Bell? Probably more than one in NA say "yes", but on LATAM or Europe where VIZ Media also distributed its English and censored version, "no". The series in its original version had the potential to be a great success outside Japan, but VIZ Media got the license worldwide and impose in the all international dubs the same censored version presented in NA, this had counterproductive effects. And so it has happened with many other series, only cases like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokémon have been exceptional, but they are counted on the fingers. |
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