What was the name of the last DBZ movie? "Broly". The will the name of the next DBZ movie be? "Bojack Unbound".... What will the name of the next DBZ movie after the next DBZ movie be? "Broly: The Second Coming". Funimation's other titles have been, "Lord Slug", "Cooler's Revenge", "The Return of Cooler" and "Super Android 13!" What these titles all have in common is this- they plop the name of the big bad guy right on top of the film and say, "Hey, new DBZ film! Here's the new big bad guy for Goku and his top dogs to fight! Can they handle it? Oh yeah!"
Now, I'm not saying they should use the Japanese titles instead which are indeed usually just pretty darn goofy and usually wouldn't work. ("Return my Gohan!!", "The World's Strongest Guy", "Super Deciding Battle for the Entire Planet Earth", "Super Saiyajin Son Goku", "The Extraordinary Mightiest vs. Mightiest" "Charge!! 10-Billion Power Warriors", "Extreme Battle!! The Three Great Super Saiyajins", "Hot Fight, Fierce Fight, Super Violent Fight!", "The Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy", "The Dangerous Duo! Super-Warriors Can't Rest") Although I'm sure fans will be quick to point out how silly most of these are, I'll have to agree. (with the exception of Movie 2 and 7's titles which I thought were pretty cool) However, there is one thing aside from goofiness these titles (and the rest of the DBZ movie titles) all have in common- NONE of them mention the main villain by name.
And here's another example- Pioneer. For DBZ Movie 1 they used the original Japanese cover art (while IMPROVING upon it and making it look better, as you can see at DaizenshuuEX's movie lists) and called the film "Deadzone." Deadzone... makes a guy wonder what it is and piques one's curiosity. Followed by that they released, "The World's Strongest." The World's Strongest... what? I guess you'll have to watch the movie to find out. Again, some really stellar cover art on their part, another improvement and a really interesting matchup against Goku. After that film came, "The Tree of Might." Named so due to the Tree in the film that saps the earth's powers and almost destroys it so that one of Freeza's gangs can leech off of it's powers. After that......... the license to DBZ fell back into the hands of FUNimation and, tragically, it has remained there since.
Now, the next DBZ movie wasn't so bad. According to VegettoEX, the cover art Funimation used wasn't the "official art" (as the tv specials never were given any) but rather, art from the Daizenshuu books designed in place while the tv specials were mentioned beside the movies. (since the movies had their posters above them too, the Daizenshuu book made up some- you can see this artwork in the Planet Namek archives at http://web.archive.org/web/20010210014047/www.planetnamek.com/dbzspecials.html) Funimation, surprisingly, adopted the cover art and improved upon it similarly to what had happened to DBZ Movie 1's art. (still retained, but the English version is an improvement on it) Quite impressive. The English names for the two tv specials were "Bardock: The Father of Goku", and "History of Trunks." The first title interests the viewer in Goku's genealogy as one thinks, "Goku had a father?" The other title makes the viewer aware that Trunks had a history that made him into he was before he came to the future, and makes the viewer want to watch and see it. Again, the Japanese names for the specials were really goofy and it's probably good they were avoided. ("A Final, Solitary Battle: The Z Warrior Son Goku's Father Challenges Freeza", "Defiance in the Face of Despair!! The Remaining Super Warriors - Gohan and Trunks")
But sadly, this was not to continue. After the tv specials, the interesting names vanished into thin air. "Lord Slug," "Cooler's Revenge," "Return of Cooler," Super Android 13!", "Broly," "Bojack Unbound," and then "Bojack: the second coming" are what graced us. What happened? Well, perhaps this "phenomenon" can best be described by what happens to the tv specials. Pretty much every name, whether good or bad, is ALWAYS ridiculously shortened. Season 6 averaged about 3 words per English title, with only one actually containing five. Like how "Bye bye Babidi! Majin Buu revolts!" became "Buu's Mutiny" (what the f**ck? Are we supposed to think that Babidi and Majin Buu are a bunch of pirates?) in the "English" title. Indeed, all the episode titles seem incredibly short and straight to the point. One has to wonder, why do they do it like this? Well, as Funimation has stated before, "It's because DBZ's target audience is of American male children who all have very short attention spans. Thus, we need something very short so they can easily remember it without too much stress."
Now... this is just wrong. The image I keep getting from Funimation is that any American male aged anywhere from as low as 2 to as high as 16 (http://www.aztecsystems.com/_about/awards&press.asp?pressid=22&presstypeid=1) are all practically foaming at the mouth with rabies and are locked in padded rooms with strait jackets where they bounce off of walls and scream at the top of their lungs all day to their imaginary friends while doctors have to tackle them and inject them with Ritalin shots in order to calm them down enough to be able to go to school without killing somebody. And when they watch tv they simply fidget and their eyes tweak incontrollably, and whenever something remotely boring happens... "AGGGGH! Moment of silence! This boring, me need noise!" Click! And when they reach the age of 17, magically.... "LALALALALA, HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY, LALALALALA..." (clock strikes midnight) "Huh? What? What has happened to me? I feel this intense feeling... coming over me! Like intellect.... SURGING..... through... my... braiiiiin! Whew. Well, maybe NOW I can tolerate all those shows with (shudder)... SILENCE. I guess I could stomach them, after all, I now have the poise and mental sophistication necessary to grasp shows with such higher and mature elements about them."
And this... is not true. Americans are not all Hyper-ADD idiots. Men are not all Hyper-ADD idiots. Children, or anyone beneath the age of 17 years since birth, are not all Hyper-ADD idiots. And American males aged anywhere from 2-16 are certainly not all Hyper-ADD idiots. In fact, most of them by no means fit that description.
What I don't understand is, why do television exec's and psychologists and their lackeys who pay them money in order to follow them like obedient dogs always have to view everything as the lowest common denominator? This is absolutely not the case. Didn't Seinfeld have plenty of moments of silence and clever dialogue? And it attracted an average of 10,000,000 plus viewers (including many younger people) weekly, with it's finale episode getting over 60,000,000. In Japan, DBZ attracted a maximum of over 20,000,000 plus viewers, almost 1/6th of the entire country. And among those viewers, many of them were most definitely Japanese male children aged 2-16.
Of course, Funimation could then make the argument that "well GS777, the Japanese are just superior to us feeble Americans." Barry Watson once argued that to me saying the same thing about Germans and making fun of America's taste in music to defend DBZ's style of music. (And hey, since you did it in a message board where you thought I wouldn't notice you, and not privately to me, don't be all shocked that I'm saying this out loud when I usually don't for other people.) Okay, now let me tell you a brief story.
Ireland is a Catholic country. England is Protestant. England colonized and took over Ireland. In "Northern Ireland" in an area close to England, over 100's of years, the area became about 1/2 Protestant Irish and 1/2 Catholic Irish. (yes, ethnically they're about the same) But yet, the Protestants there are smarter. Ah, most be that English blood or that religion, right? No. The thing is, the English imposed themselves as the lords and masters of subjegated Ireland for centuries. (which was wrong of them to do in the first place, just like it was wrong for Turkey to enslave Greece. Since I have some ancestry from there I have to sympathize with them) There, they practically enslaved the populace and had their way with the country. Over the centuries, guess who wound up on top of the wealth pyramid? Those on the English side. They have more money and are thus able to lead a higher and less stessful level of life there.
Same in India. Old story, ye old English bring in the guns and take over the place. Those who follow them loyally- princes, royalty, different regions, certain ethnic groups- get placed on top of the food pyramid there, with the English foot right above them. After India kicks them out, guess who still have all the money and power? Those at the top of the pyramid. There's one group with a religion that's part Hindu part Islam that's only about 2% of the country that yields far more economic and political power than it's numbers, who almost always sided with the English on everything. And they're "smarter and better" (higher IQ's, better health, and more money) than the rest of India.
Now look at Saudi Arabia- higher wealth, higher health and average IQ rates than it's other neighbors. Of course, mainly the neighbors without the exorbitant wealth rate. Hmm... notice a pattern yet that seems to defy ethnicity and nationality? The same can be said of the poorer people of American and Japan and Brazil versus the "creamy" elite at the top- higher health, wealth and IQ rate than the others. The same can be said of Ghana, the 2nd wealthiest (by average per person) country in Africa. (South Africa's ahead, but those are mainly just the descendants of the European whites who conquered Africa long ago) Ghana's got a higher health/IQ rate than most of it's neighbors... and you know what? If they struck oil, and found more of it than Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined, then in 50 years they'd probably be the healthiest, wealthiest and smartest people on the planet.
What some people don't understand is that one's national or ethnic isn't what automatically determine's someone's backgrounds. From someone's parents one acquires one's racial/ethnic/physical appearance and skills and potential skills, and from the environment they live in (whether it's being forcibly pressed into slave labor for chocolate growers in Africa, or being adopted by Bill Gates) determine the cultural/regional/religious background they develop while guiding them into different interests.
By these facts, it's ridiculous to automatically look down on someone just because of where they're from, and even more ridiculous to automatically look down on Americans. We've got a very high per-capita wealth rate, a very high health rate- doesn't it stand to reason we're fairly smart and mature? Unfortunately, this isn't the case, or at least there are those who don't believe it is. Mass-media is the usual staple of many a background and it's determined by the mass-media. And unfortunately, our mass-media is full of greedy and selfish cowards who always try to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
For instance, Cartoon Network. ("best place for anime" my ass) While they love to brag that their censorship policies are "first-class and great for the fans" this is bullshit. Fans repeatedly compare them to Saban, the worst anime offender, but that's ridiculous. That's like trying a murderer and saying, "Well, he's not as evil as Hitler or Stalin. You gotta give him some points there." Rather than using the whole overtired "Saban" argument to death, fans should hold the Cartoon Network more responsible. (again, just like Funimation, trying to make all their shows appeal to the same age group. Which is fine, but NOT when they do it to animes and shows from abroad that were originally intended for their butchered format) Wanna know what Cartoon Network censors?
"Jason Demarco, Sr., writer/producer for Toonami, on what material Cartoon Network deems inappropriate: Eventually, our Standards and Practices Department became involved, and provided us with a list of objectionable actions, words and general guidelines for a TV-Y7 FV program (most of Toonami's programming receives this rating). Some of these guidelines are flexible, some are not. In general, Cartoon Network's guidelines are a bit less "uptight" than other networks (if you can believe that). The main thing to keep in mind is that we are trying to appeal to as broad an audience as possible - we need to attract advertisers and sponsors. If any group finds some of the content offensive, that needs to be taken under consideration.... I can tell you that we are not allowed to show: Alcohol consumption (directly), Gambling (directly), abuse of minors, blood from any major wound, language (obviously, this includes "kill" and references to God, as well as the whole spectrum of "swear" words), and- here's where it gets tricky- "situations considered too brutal or intense for younger viewers".
Jason Demarco, on how CN handles homosexual characters: There is not a specific editing policy on gay characters. Overt sexuality or implied sexuality of any kind are not allowed.
Jason Demarco, on how CN handles anything religious: Any direct references to religion, especially juxtaposed with violence, sexuality or hypocrisy, is not allowed.... As a network, CN cannot appear to have a comment on any particular religion or be seen to "endorse" or "degrade" any one style of worship. People in America generally don't want that kind of thing in their cartoons, however you and I may feel about it.
Jason Demarco, on Funimation's censorship of Season 3: When it comes to edits not performed by CN, it's basically out of our hands. At the beginning of DBZ we let them know that they could loosen up the standards just a bit from what Funimation had done with the first season, and it wouldn't be a problem.
Jason Demarco, on why guns were changed to "blasters" in an Outlaw Star episode: There is a sensitivity to the display of guns in a show viewed by children. The only other option was to cut the scene out completely. That happens to be my favorite episode, so I bent over backwards to keep it in. "Blasters" are considered to be more of a fantasy type of weapon, like in Star Wars. Guns are something that any child could watch our show and go and get. God forbid anything like that happened, it would be the end of Toonami. Again, not our decision, but I'm sure you can see why we had to change it. The meaning of the scene was not lessened, in my opinion, by changing the revolvers to "blasters." Blunted a bit, maybe, but them's the breaks.
Jason Demarco, on DBZ and Batman/Superman being allowed to use the word "kill": "Kill" is a word that is supposed to be forbidden entirely, though it shows up in DBZ and the Batman/Superman series. For whatever reason, they are allowed to use it and we aren't. Cut us some slack, man!
Jason Demarco, on how CN's editing policies have changed over the years: They have actually become more stringent. It seems that there has been a tightening of standards in the last two years (due largely to complaints from parents). "
These are the things Cartoon Network willingly chooses to censor out of every single one of it's anime programs, and they do so so craftily that you'd need an edit list or have to be aware of the original or uncut versions of the show in order to not fall for their deceptions. But do you know what Cartoon Network actually "has" to censor during it's so-called "Toonami" hours?
1. Cursing. Lighter words like "damn" and "hell" and "crap" are fine. Only later can words like "shit" and others be used and later enough (after 12 or so) even the f-word can be used,.
2. Any nudity in a sexual context. (which is why chibi Goku's or Bart's or Homer's asses aren't considered too offensive but Bulma's ass, sadly, is)
3. Any violence that's too excessive. (which can go pretty far. Fox has shown "Dale" from "King of the Hill" have his finger be cut off with a buzz saw, along with Homer's in a "Simpsons" episode, the latter of which bled pretty profusely)
And that's it! However, they choose not to. Why? Well, it's the old "soccer moms" complaint. But do you want to know the real reason?
It's because they and their advertisers are a pack of cowards.
Cartoon Network could actually get away with most of the stuff it chooses to censor. However, they do this so that skittish parents won't complain. Do these "legions of soccer moms" actually have any real power?
No they do not.
All they can do, is complain. Remember "Beavis and Butthead". ("huh huh, yeah yeah!") Back in it's heyday that show drew ENORMOUS complaints, and was the "hot thing" for those skittish of tv to complain about. But guess what? It showed on MTV and practically DOUBLED the ratings. Advertisers flocked to have their advertisements paid to be seen after Beavis and Butthead's often times humorous and always moronic misadventures of the dumb duo. (advertisers are the ones who basically "pay" for shows. Only pay-for channels w/out ad's like HBO "pay" for their actual shows, such as "The Sopranos") Because of this MTV said, "screw the complaints, we don't care." Advertisers didn't mind either as there was money to be made, and that's basically the mantra of all corporations.
It was the same with Southpark. All the foul language and lewd and rude and offensive misadventures... it became another focal target. But guess what? Top ratings, Comedy Central gets a lift, money coming from everywhere... Because of this, Cartoon Network said, "screw the complaints, we don't care." Advertisers didn't mind either as there was money to be made, and that's basically the mantra of all corporations. And you know what else?
These shows attracted a LOT of viewers, particularly young ones. I'm sure they easily beat out most of the shows on Cartoon Network for ratings for young viewers. And guess what? No big boycotts or anything! Just a bunch of groups and parents relying on tv as a tele-parent to teach kids stuff, whooping and hollering. Basically, it's the "whoop whoop" effect. Those who complain have little power, and can only yell "whoop whoop" to networks and then ultimately (sad to say) advertisers. This is best expemplified by what almost happend to "Family Guy." You know where the name "Peter Griffin" came from? An old teacher of the creator of the show, who apparently he didn't like too much. The teacher complained to the creator to stop... but he didn't. So what'd he do?
He formed a "National Alliance" of something something (I don't remember the name, but it was very big and official) and sent a big "official" letter to all of Fox's advertisers complaining about the crude content of the show. The advertisers shit their pants then Fox shit their pants and tried to flush "Family Guy" down the toilet. It was later revealed that this "National Alliance" had only one member... after that, Fox and the advertisers changed their underwear, wiped their asses, then stopped "Family Guy" from being flushed away along with their crap. (it's a great show and it's not crap, but that's how it was being treated at the time)
Same with Lego's. One set had a big bad guy who uses "hypnotism" to take over the country. After 9/11... one parent wrote one single letter complaining about the "offensiveness" of a character using hypnotism to take over the country. Lego's crapped their pants, and the character wound up being flushed down the toilet. (http://www.fark.com/archives/index.2001-09-30.shtml)
You see? The so-called "soccer moms" really don't have any power at all. They're like the Wizard of Oz who looks scary as hell, and has a very loud and booming voice, and will scream and make horrible threats. But as long as you don't buy the Wizard's gimmick, he can't actually get you. Same with soccer moms. They can't force someone to censor something that the FCC rules don't require them to automatically censor. They closest they can come is lobbying politicians on a national level, but that virtually never succeeds.
And thus, Cartoon Network. They feel the need to censor everything, and many parents and "religious" people feel they should do the same to "shelter" children from the evils of the world, and keep them from "re-enacting" Columbine or going on "killing sprees". But yet, every day on the news you see/hear about soldiers and Iraq and people around the world dying, sometimes with footage of said events. If kids really imitated everything they said and saw, our country would be quite dangerous, but that's not true. Kids see parents/adults smoke and drink very, very often in real life but that doesn't make them want to do it. Nor do cartoons. Bug Bunny lighting up a cigar doesn't make kids want to light stoogies any more than watching Muten Roshi down a beer make them want to become underage drunkards. We need to give kids more credit, they DON'T automatically imitate everything they see. If that was the case then every one of them who watched Trigun would now be armed to the teeth with guns.
Unfortunately, Cartoon Network's censorship standards are pretty much designed for the lowest standards of offending absolutely nobody while also still having a "slick" appearance of being highly "edgy". (which they are not) The ratings speak for themselves. Parent groups can complain and puff up their chests and complain, but they can't do anything really. All they can, and should do, is try to teach their kids to grow and develop and seperate fact from fiction and reality from unreality instead of patting their televisions on the heads and expecting them to be "good nannies."
Cartoon Network doesn't have to censor stuff either. Suppose they did show the shows pretty much uncensored minus nudity, some curse words and the heftier bits of violence. (pretty much the only big three complaints that are really are reasonable) Ratings WOULD increase. It's not that kids or fans are "bloodthirsty ghoulish sickos" (like good ol Funi-insider "Underfaker" accused complainers of being) but they just like being spoken to on a more mature level. Many kids get treated and ignored like idiots by teachers and schools, so when they come home they don't automatically want to be treated that way in other aspects as well. It goes without saying that more people would be more fascinated to see Roger Smith be told that, "In the Name of God, ye be not guilty" than for him to be told that, "In the Name of Good, ye be not guilty." (the later of which sounds like a corny "Superfriends" password)
Cartoon Network's ratings would skyrocket and interest would increase dramatically as well, if only they'd stop cowing to the lowest common denominator of the most acclaimedly "self-righteous" and the most eager to fuss. With higher ratings some advertisers might leave but hey, Advertisers didn't mind either as long as there's money to be made, and that's basically the mantra of all corporations. Some would leave but others would come to fill their slots. And since kids gobbled up "Beavis and Butthead" and "Southpark" merchandise in such huge quantities, advertisers who stuck with the uncut shows would inevitably see that there's nothing to really be worried about as parents don't really stop kids from buying stuff as much as advertisers may fear they actually do. Left to their own, the parents would need to take their own responsibility and talk to their own kids. So I really don't see what the big huff is about having to censor animes on television.
*******
Anyway, now to part 2 of the editorial. This really should be considered a seperate editorial but since the two tie into each other, I'll let it remain in this admitedly unusual format. Now that we've established mass-media fears and general unwillingness to "break the grain"- let's again go back to Funimation. That same "following the herd" mentality is the same thing which propels Funimation to look down on the intelligence of their audience.
Now of all the arguments I've presented to Funimation their single LEAST favorite that they have yet to give me a good or remotely satisfactory response to is the fact that DBZ was a bigger hit percantige-wise of the population in places like Mexico and Poland than it has been here. In fact, it already made over $3,000,000,000 (3 bellion dollars) at some point in 2000 prior to the American craze, showcasing that it indeed does have a "magical" (as DBZ voice director Chris Sabat phrased it) and has a very broad-reaching appeal level to various people... Since this is Funimation's least favorite argument to listen to or try to respond to, I assume I'm on the right track so I'll go with it from here.
Now Mexico has a lower wealth rate than America. And DBZ has been a huge hit there cutting across many age groups in the country. Male children in particular, of course, liked it there as well- long goofy titles and gapping silence gaps included. But it doesn't really matter how wealthy a country is or isn't, DBZ's popularity has managed to cut across many corners and appeal to many people.
Now back to the original purpose of the editorial- the ridiculous titles. Unlike Pioneer's titles, and what they evoke and suggest to audiences, Funimation's DBZ ones (except for the tv specials) all have the same underlying message- "Here is the big bad guy Lord Slug/Cooler/Metal Cooler/13/Brolly/Bojack/Brolly again here to lay da smackdown on the earth! Gonna be a real big fight, oh yeah! Who will WIN?!" Come on. Give us a break- do the fans have to be treated like braindead zombies? There's more to the show than just fighting. Take DB. It's not mainly fighting, yet, you EMPHASIZE fighting nonstop and pretend that it is in advertisements and such. The result is, you betray the expectations of fans and that perhaps contributes to some resentment among viewers not getting what they're expecting to watch.
It's like with the Movie DB 4s advertisement. Instead of emphasizing the movie's strong humor, or the fact that it has the BEST animation in all of the DB anime history, or what a great story it is- you just play the scariest/most violent sounding song in the flim and go on and on about Goku having to fight evil villains. Now come on! That ad made the movie almost makes it sound like the Red Ribbon pillaged a few villages, raped/slaughtered a bunch of people and Goku then had a bloody fight with them. The exact opposite of Toei's advertisement, which used the beatiful "Dan Dan Kokuro Hikareteku" song and emphasized the powerful/upbeatness of the story, showcased Goku going through key elements of his old sagas, showcased the beatiful animation and told you what a great and wonderful story you were going to watch and experience.
You did a great job dubbing that film and should be commended for it- however, the advertisement was very lazy, poor and unoriginal. It just... lacked any imagination. There's no real "big bad villain" like Brolly to showcase and turn into an action figure and it's mainly chibi Goku fighting, and chibi Goku isn't as "cool" as grown-up Goku. Still, you treat it like any of the other advertisements. It seems very sad, and almost ridiculous. It's almost as bad as playing scary music during an ad for "Pretty Woman" while showcasing Jason Alexander and Richard Gere fighting in the movie, while talking about their action figures and the hot "Jason vs. Richard" video game to hit the PS2.
Funimation, there's more to enjoying animes than just watching and then turning one's brain off, entering a vegetative state and watching like a zombie waiting to see people attack one another. There's more to other entertainment as well, which is why there are comedies, dramas, romances, musicals, documentaries and other stories in addition to action flicks and horror movies. The simple-minded approach of, "Slap bad guy on cover, put bad guy's name in tiny title so toddlers easily remember, hype people up about big bad guy and Goku putting da smackdown on each other" is pretty sad. As great a dub as Movie 4 is, it really hasn't gotten the attention it deserved. Perhaps if you'd advertised it in a different manner to attract interest rather than in your usual old "DBZ formula" way things may have turned out a little bit different.
So I ask you guys this Funimation- with this much universal popularity proven beyond any reasonable doubt abroad for the DB series as whole, why can't you guys just be more imaginative with DBZ? And why do you feel it is always necessary to have to understimate and assume the absolute worst about the intelligence of American fans?
- GreatSaiyaman777
