For the record, I’m quite disturbed by this. It’s old news now, but the wonderful Powerpuff Girls:
…have been horribly re-imagined for the Japanese market:
(Click, if you must, for larger.)
Ugh! And they’ve got silly weapons and things. Why? From a Wikipedia site:
Momoko, Miyako and Kaoru use a yo-yo, a bubble wand and a hammer as their weapons, respectively. In addition, they all have basic abilities such as enhanced strength, enhanced speed, flight, weapon materialization, and atmosphere resistance. Their costumes also have some special abilities, including the ability to fit anyone of any size and withstand strong physical impact. The girls’ battle cry is “The Lovely Fighting Science Legend: Powerpuff Girls Z!”
(Wikipedia article on the original Powerpuff Girls here.)
Well, for the thinking behind it, there’s more at NPR’s Talk of the Nation (from where I snipped these figures) about this “transcreation” process:
The three preteen, karate-kicking superheroes have grown up and gotten a serious makeover: The Powerpuff Girls have been altered — a process called “transcreation” — to appeal to viewers in Japan. They are among many other American characters being adapted for overseas audiences.
I know, I know… cultural adaptations, better marketing, etc. But these new figures just miss the point! Particularly because the original series was sort of a spoof of a lot of Japanese animation genre work in the first place. Grrrr….
…and an additional almost-horror:- They almost did not have the Professor! (Listen to the NPR show to learn more.)
-cvj
On this day on Asymptotia...
- Hollywood Halloween - 2008
- Many Mysteries Left - 2007
- Tales From The Industry, VIII - 2006
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This is truly horrible and disturbing.
Have the Japanese versions also done away with the wonderful plots ?
One of my favorites had Miss Keane lecturing on relativity and HIM saying
“… Don’t you know,
the faster you go,
time slows down ?
Your time stopped for 50 years
whilst you were out racing around. …”.
It reminds me of Brian May’s Year of 39.
Tony Smith
I heard this interview too…. but somehow did not realize the extent to which they had messed with TPG. I would not have recognized them as the same cartoon. Bloody awful.
I never really like the powerpuff girls. I’m more of a japanese animation person myself. I loveeedd Paprika!
I’ll bet they have fingers and everything. Gah. For the record, I like Sailor Moon - but that doesn’t mean I want the PPG made over like this!
I understand the changes, I don’t like them though.
And the powerpuff girls weren’t preteens to begin with, they were kindergarteners…
So the quote “The three preteen, karate-kicking superheroes have grown up and gotten a serious makeover” from the article is totally incorrect.
Paprika is one of the best films I have ever seen in my entire life.
Clifford, I have to admit confusion. Aside from the weapons being different (they sound silly), what’s wrong with the new renditions?
There are many things that seem to miss the point of the success of the original concept. I can’t really explain most of them. One that can sort of be put into words is the appeal of the humour of the only vaguely formed aspects of the characters (physically, I mean), with distortions that poke so much fun at the genre. (There are even plot lines that
notice the physical shortcomings of their bodies…) To reinvent them as rather unimaginatively thought out clichéd Japanese schoolgirl archetypes is disappointing, to say the least.
Imagine taking one of the slightly manic Takashi Murakami characters (see right, for example) and, for the US market, replacing it with… Mickey Mouse. Entirely missing the point, and ironically so.
Cheers,
-cvj
ah, that makes sense. i look forward to reading your report on the murakami show
(assuming you were going to write one …)
Not much to report except that it was of course excellent. Did not really take any pics…well, maybe one…. I’ll see.
Bit busy with writing a midterm and a host of other things.
-cvj
Usually it goes the other way and original and meaningful concepts from all over the world get “reimagined” in America/LA…
Globalization is a two way process now
i love powerpuff girls z