Movie Releases in Japan?

jpranevich · Post by **jpranevich** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 8:48 am

The "Movie Guide" on this site says that the premiers for all (?) of the Dragon Ball movies were at animation and manga festivals. After that point, where did they go? Did they all get released to Japanese theaters as feature films? Did they go direct to video, or whatever the Japanese equivilent is? Did they get a limited release, to just a limited number of Japanese cinemas? I just have trouble believing that so many films could have retained *public* interest enough to be continually profitable, but I can believe that a smaller release might have been justified because of the continued niche fanbase.

Also, does anyone know if a "video game guide" has ever been written listing all the (Japanese or US) video games which were based on the series? What information I can find is all US-centric, but that doesn't mean that you won't just point me at a link and I'll feel pretty silly.

Thanks for your help.

JP

Post by **VegettoEX** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 9:53 am

http://www.planetnintendo.com/superpope ... games.html

For one thing, I forgot his name, and I feel like a dumbass for it. Anyway, he kinda abandoned working on the DBZ game archive just after Final Bout (mostly because we all thought that would be the end of DB games... EVER).

Still an amazing resource. I'd like to tackle my own, eventually... ^^;;

SpaceKappa · Post by **SpaceKappa** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:13 am

Wasn't Superpope called Kai-Oh-Shin's Planet at one point?

Post by **VegettoEX** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:24 am

Mizugi wrote:Wasn't Superpope called Kai-Oh-Shin's Planet at one point?

The DBZ section of it (which was going to be episode guides and such) was, yes ^^. He moved away from that and more into the general video game aspect, turning it into the full-fledged SuperPope.

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:42 am

Here's another great line from the game, where Goku first goes to the town where in the original series the shape-shifting pig Oolong has been abducting the local girls. They begged Goku to defeat him and free the girls. Here's how it goes in Dragon Power...

Townsperson: Pudgy lives here he does mischief by changing shape. He doesn't like to share food with people. If you beat him I will give you ball.

Nora: It's a deal.

Oh no! He doesn't share his food!?! If there's ever been justification for beating somebody up, this has go to be it.

I wish he updated this site.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 2:26 pm

Dayspring wrote:
Here's another great line from the game, where Goku first goes to the town where in the original series the shape-shifting pig Oolong has been abducting the local girls. They begged Goku to defeat him and free the girls. Here's how it goes in Dragon Power...

Townsperson: Pudgy lives here he does mischief by changing shape. He doesn't like to share food with people. If you beat him I will give you ball.

Nora: It's a deal.

Oh no! He doesn't share his food!?! If there's ever been justification for beating somebody up, this has go to be it.

I wish he updated this site.

He actually updates his blog fairly frequently, if you are still interested to see what David is doing in his life.

jpranevich · Post by **jpranevich** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 7:13 pm

Thanks for the info on video games. That is a very helpful link.

Does anyone know anything about the movie releases? I'm just curious more than anything. Maybe the Japanese movie industry just works differently than the US.

JP

Milton · Post by **Milton** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 7:30 pm

Apparently, Toei does this double feature type of thing with their anime movies. They call it the Toei Anime Fair. Other than that, I don't know much else about them. I saw an ad for a Digimon 02/One Piece double feature for one year, to give an example.

SDHero · Post by **SDHero** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:22 pm

From what I understand, the movies were usually first screened at some event that Toei was participating in, shown on TV once (ostensibly running double in DBZ's timeslot or something), then released on home video. Since for years, Anime series were almost never released in full for purchase (if at all), the movies became the piece of the show you could watch at any time. In recent years, the advent of DVD technology, and the DVD based US market have forced companies like Toei to start releasing their series for purchase, simply to stem the tide of Japanese persons importing US DVDs of these series

Daimao · Post by **Daimao** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 12:20 am

Milton wrote:Apparently, Toei does this double feature type of thing with their anime movies. They call it the Toei Anime Fair. Other than that, I don't know much else about them. I saw an ad for a Digimon 02/One Piece double feature for one year, to give an example.

Somewhere, I have a handbill for one of Toei's anime fairs featuring DBZ movie 7 (if I remember) together with something like Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro or Dai no Boken and I don't remember what all. I should dig it out. But yeah, they were showing the whole fair for one matinee price at the local theater there in Ehime.

jpranevich · Post by **jpranevich** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:56 pm

So... it's not really a theatrical release, just a one time event and then straight to video? That's disappointing. Or are the "Anime Fairs" the billing for the double feature? What exactly are the "Toei Anime Fair" and the "Toei Manga Fair" from the movie guide?

JP

Daimao · Post by **Daimao** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 12:45 am

No, no, very much a theatrical release, which lasted for at least a week or two each time, until they started showing the next film that came along. Just like any other feature, I believe. I didn't actually buy a ticket and see them, though.

PsyLiam · Post by **PsyLiam** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 7:27 am

Would they have been cheaper to see than "regular" two hour films?

jpranevich · Post by **jpranevich** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 9:37 am

Here's another good explanation on the whole deal from USENET. Gee, those Japanese multi-million dollar media empires are funny. (I wonder if the format would work in the US...)

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&l ... sprint.net

JP