You are welcome to look at the talkback but please consider that this article is over 9 years old before posting.
Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Does Anime Have "The Motion Picture" In The Title?
|
Goto page 1, 2 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
|
|||
|
I remember going to the Twin Cinema ( 2 whole screens, wow! ) to see "Star Trek : The Motion Picture", which being a theatrical adaptation of a television series makes sense. That's the only time I can recall actually going to see a picture titled that way.
I'd always wondered why titles like that were used so much in Japanese releases. Mark Gosdin |
||||
|
||||
Tenchi
 Posts: 4536 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
|
|||
|
Do anime distributors still do that? I thought that was more a 1990s thing, like re-releases on Blu-Ray or DVD might still get the "The Motion Picture" subtitle, but I can't say I've seen it affixed to any recent anime films made during the past decade and a half so far as I can remember.
|
||||
|
||||
vanfanel
 Posts: 1259 |
|
|||
|
Remember "Sakura Wars: The Movie"? That's one time "The Motion Picture" would've been better, since the original title, "Sakura Taisen: Katsudou Shashin," was using an outdated term to try and capture the flavor of the Taishou Period:
Katsudou shashin: (obs) moving picture (i.e. a movie; term esp. used during the silent movie period) (Source: Jim Breen's J-E Dictionary Server) |
||||
|
||||
|
samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2246 Location: San Antonio, USA |
|
|||
I think the original of the "gekijouban" postfix being so common in Japanese movies stems from their more stringent copyright laws. Almost always a movie version of a franchise that has had a manga or anime on which it is based is funded by a separate production committee than the original anime/manga. (There is usually 50-60% overlap but it's often quite different). If you look carefully in the credits you'll note that the production committees always have unique names for each show even if the companies involved are the same, that's because each work needs to be separate under Japanese copyright law if it's controlled by a different committee. That also means having unique names even within the same overall franchise. So in other words even if it's a movie of a tv show, there is strong pressure under the copyright law to make sure the official names are distinct from each other. And it can't just be a "on paper" thing either, the official name has to be used in all cases of PR, etc... Adding in the "gekijouban" is a simple way to do this and seems to be the standard in Japan. Sometimes there are other choices (for example, the Space Brothers movie added "#0" to the name instead), but that's why it's so prevalent in Japan. |
||||
|
||||
|
maximilianjenus
Posts: 2902 |
|
|||
|
I guess the latest even works for second seasons, to the point that even if the commite is teh same, they still add sufixes ?
|
||||
|
||||
EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
|
|||
|
In Japan, the series is well-known enough that it sometimes doesn't need a title (like Pokemon: the Movie or Yu-Gi-Oh: the Movie were over here), or simply with an "episode title" after (like our "X-Files: Fight the Future").
In the 90's, anime movies were often licensed in the US before series, as test-pilots, and sometimes by different companies. (Like Software Sculptors might have the Slayers series, but ADV had to release the OVA/theatrical features as "Slayers: the Movie") The company that was releasing only the movie or the movie first might find it too confusing to use the episode-subtitle yet, but wanted to clearly bill that this wasn't the series collection. Nowadays, we have companies that get the whole package, can release the series first, and save the movies for the fanbase later. |
||||
|
||||
Chiyosuke
 Posts: 394 |
|
|||
Dude the main reason why they do that is for budgetary reasons. Theatrical anime typically have a higher production budget that that of 2 TV episodes (considering a large percent of theatrical titles range for 45-60 mins long) or and OVA(s) of comparable length. The extra money is generally used for prettier, more fluid animation, more crisp CG, more epic soundtrack etc. You original PCs are usually intact. The extra companies that come into the fold have they're own special reasons for investing in the movies (The may be the official toy licensor (Bandai) or video game producer (Bandai Namco Ent., Sega) or music production company (Victor/Flying Dog, Lantis, Pony Canyon...), etc. |
||||
|
||||
Saffire
 Posts: 1256 Location: Iowa, USA |
|
|||
|
^
Are you seriously trying to lecture Sam Pinansky on how the anime industry works? |
||||
|
||||
nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5147 |
|
|||
|
^
It doesn't take much chutzpah to click on the "Submit" icon..... |
||||
|
||||
Wyvern
 Posts: 1597 |
|
|||
Ohh, that's pretty neat! Also a bit ironic: ADV had the rights to nearly every Sakura Wars anime during the franchise's peak, EXCEPT for the movie, which was put out by Pioneer/Geneon. It's likely that they used "The Movie" because the "Motion Picture" label was already on so many of their competitors' releases. (Plus if we're being honest, ADV's "motion pictures" didn't have the best reputation among a lot of fans, since as Justin points out, they used the label for a lot of cheaply made OVA's and TV specials as well as actual movies. Makes sense that Geneon would want to avoid it.) |
||||
|
||||
PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2034 |
|
|||
Actually ADV did brand Slayers Perfect as "Slayers: The Motion Picture," since in Japan, it's theatrical title was technically just "Slayers," before the fan community gave it it's own distinct title. ADV also changed Slayers Special to "Slayers: The Book of Spells" for some reason. The rest of the movies/OVAs kept their Japanese titles (Slayers Return, Slayers Great, Slayers Excellent, etc). But yeah "The Motion Picture" sounds a little pretentious, and I've never liked it too much. |
||||
|
||||
Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
|
|||
|
I, too, thought (and still do) that the term "The Motion Picture" wasn't the best choice in a lot of movies -- both anime, CG, and live-action. To me it clicks better with "The Movie," or alternatively just leave the title as-is.
|
||||
|
||||
Eigengrau
 Posts: 107 Location: Belgium |
|
|||
|
I for one still smile when I hear the Trailer Voice Guy say "The Motion Picture" in the most over the top way possible in the original Japanese trailer for Silent Möbius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GU8mhuU0I0
|
||||
|
||||
doubleO7
 Posts: 1072 |
|
|||
ADV/Sentai still does with pretty much ALL of their movies. The most recent I recall them putting it in the title was Loups=Garous (but I could be forgetting something). The Unlimited Blade Works movie and others since at least refer to the film as "a motion picture" on the back or spine or something, even if it's not part of the title. But just an FYI, nearly every title mentioned in this article was released in the US within the last decade and a half with the "motion picture" suffix slapped on (mostly by ADV), whether it was made in the 90's or not. |
||||
|
||||
|
Tenchi
Posts: 4536 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
|
|||
|
^ I did include re-releases in my original post.
Loup=Garous is definitely a recent example, but most of the other "The Motion Picture" examples are from the 1990s, and several of them were based on SNK Neo-Geo fighting games, which makes me suspect that SNK might have stipulated western releases of their anime films include "The Motion Picture" as a subtitle. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group