Post
by Suupaa Gohan 2 » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:39 pm
Okay...I'm not here to form my own opinions about the movie, or anything like that, and in fact I haven't even read more than about 3 pages of this thread (starting with Greg's review), but I do have a question that popped into my head after I listened to the podcast. As it stands, I've been away from DaizEX for a few months now and honestly forgot DBE was even hitting its Japanese release now, and was only reminded when I saw the review posted on Anime News Network when I went to look up something unrelated - which lead me curiously to the podcast to see just what Julian had to say about it. So if this has come up already in this nearly 150 page thread, forgive me.
I admit, I've more been on the side of 'I don't give a shit, it's not Dragonball, it won't affect me one way or the other' all this time, and I've intentionally avoided most DBE threads. Of course I was on the side who just knew it would be terrible, and wasn't the least bit interested or optimistic, but largely I didn't really care either way. Now that it's out however, it's hit me as one of those things where...now that you've heard conclusively from a few people who have seen it (with Greg, Julian, and the ANN reviewer, I've heard 3 reviews all along similar lines), and it's more than just rumors and a bunch of fans speculating what it'll be like based on the little trickles of information that have come through...I admit I kinda do want to see it, in the way of 'I've heard it's bad, but I need to see for myself to know just how bad it really is'. I mean, no way am I going to waste money when it premieres in the US (I'm not exactly a movie goer as it is), or buy the DVD when the time comes for that to roll around, but you know it'll find its way online eventually. And I've changed my mind of wanting to just shun it and pretend it doesn't even exist, because Dragonball as I know it won't really be affected by it...I'm going to have to check this one out for myself.
But getting to the point. This movie was made in the US, FOR the US, even if it's 'based on' a Japanese property. Yet it has premiered in Japan before America. I know this technique has been used before (if I'm not mistaken, Transformers premiered in Japan before here), but...never with something as epic as Dragonball was in Japan. And here in the US, while fans have had mixed feelings about this since the news of DBE first began to surface, everyone pretty much had an idea of what to expect - because like the FUNi dub or not, EVERY American DB fan knows about the treatment the series has gotten in this country, and how widely it is criticized. Even those who are dub supporters have heard the things dub criti...criticizers...uh...critics... (word escaped me for a minute there...) have had to say about it since the Saban days. They can't deny that the series is remarkably different in the states than it is in Japan, both in how it is presented/marketed and in how it is received - which is why so many Japanese purists insist that the English dub is truly a different series. It brings a completely different experience to the world of Dragonball, for better or worse, and the phenomenon in the states has always been drastically different than it was in Japan. This movie, even with some apparent nods to Japanese culture and the original version's terminology (Japanese writing on buildings, Oozaru, I think Julian mentioned that 'Muten Roshi' was said at one point, technique names, etc), was undoubtedly based on the franchise as we know it in the United States. Even if you look past the fact that the movie was targeted to a very different audience, it wasn't just that the movie was tailored in that way as an adaptation, but that it was BASED on the way the series has been perceived in the US - more about action and fighting and SUPER SPECIAL AWSUM ENERGY BLASTS LIEK WAO!!1111ONE!1 than the more lighthearted (even in Z), adventurous story it was in Japan. This movie was based on a very different viewpoint of what Dragonball is and represents - it was based on a very different franchise than what the Japanese know Dragonball to be.
So I'm curious, how exactly was/will this film be received in Japan? Will they be as harsh as us, or harsher, because the movie is so incredibly different than the franchise they knew? Or will they go easier on it because they haven't experienced everything the US has in terms of the franchise's bastardization? I've got ideas about that which could go either way; on the one hand, here, fans knew what to expect, in terms of it being based on and adapting the version of the series people in this country are familiar with, resulting in such things as corny dialogue and Yamcha's apparent 'surfer dude' persona. Of the legions of American DBZ fans who have followed this whole DBE thing since the start, very few were truly optimistic about it, and even the optimists knew flat out that this wouldn't accurately represent the series we know and love. We just kinda accepted that, whether optimistic or nay-saying the whole way through. And I mean, I'm sure Japan isn't completely ignorant, but I can't imagine even the most hardcore Japanese DB fanboys truly understand what our country has experienced from this franchise; from their point of view, they're just the country of origin for a franchise that has had success the world over. They're not going to zero in on the treatment of the American version when from their viewpoint there are dozens upon dozens of foreign language versions of the series.
The average Japanese viewer of DBE, as I imagine them, is someone who grew up following Dragonball - the Anime or a Manga, whether they be an avid Anime fan or just your average person who enjoyed the series as a child and, as adults often do for their childhood loves, pushed it into the back of their head as a nostalgic memory. They're not going to be the same as the fans who see this when it hits the US...and I honestly believe the theatres are more likely to be packed with critical/optimistic long-time fans like the DaizEX goers who have been following up on this stuff for a long time, not your legions of casual 10-15 year old Anime fanboys (because at least where I come from, DB hasn't been very popular in several years, and Naruto is the hot property...most DB fans aren't among that age demographic, but are among the 17-22 late high school/college group who got into watching it during the Toonami days). They're going to be expecting something totally different...er, probably. This is why I'm asking though; I'm basing this on the things I know regarding how different DB was in Japan than the US, not in terms of content and censoring and all that old news but in how the series itself was projected upon the masses. I'm not sure if this factor would make them more or less critical of the film...my speculation is less, but I'm probably just generalizing in that Japanese fans usually seem more lenient than rabid American fanboys and girls. I'm just guessing they're going to go into this theatre, having experienced at least a few American Hollywood films, knowing that yeah, it's going to be different, and especially that it's going to feel 'American', but...well, just how different do they expect it to be, if at all? For anyone who has actually seen the flick in Japan, maybe they can provide a little info towards what they've personally seen in the theatres (I know Greg already mentioned the other moviegoers in his review). I'm just really curious now on how this film is going to be received in Japan - because I think we all know by now, at least on a majority scale, how most US fans are expecting this movie to be.
TL;DR Dragonball in Japan and Dragonball in the US are two very different entities, so how do you suspect the Japanese public will receive this adaptation of a classic series?
Now then... *vanishes for another several month long hiatus*
"I came to save you thanks to a magic bean. And if you think it was easy to find that bean, you're wrong."
--'Big Green' Yajirobe
