Recently I did a Latin American Spanish fansub of Back to the Forest called "La Guerra del Bosque". This was inspired partially by my watching Sailor Moon and other cartoons in Spanish.
You may notice that there is no Spanish audio. This is because to the best of my knowledge, there was never an official Spanish dub of Back to the Forest. I even stated this explicitly: "They never did a Spanish dub, so I'm doing a Spanish sub."
However, I do wish they would make an official Spanish dub. I suggest that they release Back to the Forest on DVD, complete with language options in both audio and subtitles. Then, maybe, I can finally watch the film in Japanese.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Unlocking the Treasures of Old
A few years later, I watched a trailer for a film called Back to the Forest on one of my old Seabert VHS tapes.
I had never watched Back to the Forest in my entire life up to this point, so this gave me an idea. I bought a copy of the VHS from Amazon.
Afterwards, I watched the whole film. I noticed several things about it: First, the copyright year was 1989. Second, the film was animated by Nippon Animation, one of the leading animators in Japan. Third, some of the voice actors on Digimon also worked on this film: Robert Axelrod, Edie Mirman, and Eddie Frierson.
This amazing coincidence could not have hit me harder if I hadn't known any of the voice actors on Digimon beforehand. Fortunately, I did.
The answer was obvious: Back to the Forest was animé.
This connection between Digimon and Back to the Forest made my animé fandom even stronger.
I had never watched Back to the Forest in my entire life up to this point, so this gave me an idea. I bought a copy of the VHS from Amazon.
Afterwards, I watched the whole film. I noticed several things about it: First, the copyright year was 1989. Second, the film was animated by Nippon Animation, one of the leading animators in Japan. Third, some of the voice actors on Digimon also worked on this film: Robert Axelrod, Edie Mirman, and Eddie Frierson.
This amazing coincidence could not have hit me harder if I hadn't known any of the voice actors on Digimon beforehand. Fortunately, I did.
The answer was obvious: Back to the Forest was animé.
This connection between Digimon and Back to the Forest made my animé fandom even stronger.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
My Journey Through Animé: Episode 3
In 2007 or so, my interest in animé came back like the villains of Power Rangers. Speaking of that, it was Power Rangers that turned me on to animé again.
I learned that Power Rangers was a reproduction of a Japanese live-action series called Super Sentai. Power Rangers was made when American producers borrowed footage from Super Sentai and mixed it with American-made footage to conceal its Japanese origin. This trick was very successful, and so I, along with many other American kids, fell for it at the time the show was first aired.
My interest in Super Sentai and Power Rangers prompted me to do some research on Japan and the Japanese language. I have learned a lot since then, and the more I learned, the more enthusiastic I became about Japanese television shows and animé.
And now, finally, here I am, an official fan of Japanese cartoons, otherwise known as animé.
I learned that Power Rangers was a reproduction of a Japanese live-action series called Super Sentai. Power Rangers was made when American producers borrowed footage from Super Sentai and mixed it with American-made footage to conceal its Japanese origin. This trick was very successful, and so I, along with many other American kids, fell for it at the time the show was first aired.
My interest in Super Sentai and Power Rangers prompted me to do some research on Japan and the Japanese language. I have learned a lot since then, and the more I learned, the more enthusiastic I became about Japanese television shows and animé.
And now, finally, here I am, an official fan of Japanese cartoons, otherwise known as animé.
My Journey Through Animé: Episode 2
Almost a year after Pokémon came Digimon. Originally, I thought that Digimon, due to its ending in -mon, was a ripoff of Pokémon. Now I know that it wasn't true.
Digimon follows the adventures of seven children, Tai (Taichi in Japan), Matt (Yamato), Izzy (Koushirou), Sora, Mimi, Joe (Jou), and TK (Takeru), whose destiny is to save the Digital World from the evil Digimon who reigned there. They are later joined by Tai's sister Kari (Hikari in Japan) in episode 37.
Speaking of episodes, the show lasted for 54 episodes, none of which were cut from the original version, unlike Pokémon. Also, unlike Pokémon, every episode was required for a full plot, and therefore, there were no filler episodes. The original title of the show was Digimon Adventure, and it aired in Japan from 1999 to 2000. When the show aired in the US, it was called Digimon: Digital Monsters (hence the abbreviation Digimon).
After Digimon Adventure came a second series, Digimon Adventure 02, which aired as the second season of Digimon: Digital Monsters in the US. I never really cared much for this series, and so for about seven years, my interest in animé blew away "like golden dust floating in the wind", as Lord Zedd said in the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Digimon follows the adventures of seven children, Tai (Taichi in Japan), Matt (Yamato), Izzy (Koushirou), Sora, Mimi, Joe (Jou), and TK (Takeru), whose destiny is to save the Digital World from the evil Digimon who reigned there. They are later joined by Tai's sister Kari (Hikari in Japan) in episode 37.
Speaking of episodes, the show lasted for 54 episodes, none of which were cut from the original version, unlike Pokémon. Also, unlike Pokémon, every episode was required for a full plot, and therefore, there were no filler episodes. The original title of the show was Digimon Adventure, and it aired in Japan from 1999 to 2000. When the show aired in the US, it was called Digimon: Digital Monsters (hence the abbreviation Digimon).
After Digimon Adventure came a second series, Digimon Adventure 02, which aired as the second season of Digimon: Digital Monsters in the US. I never really cared much for this series, and so for about seven years, my interest in animé blew away "like golden dust floating in the wind", as Lord Zedd said in the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
My Journey Through Animé: Episode 1 (addendum)
Oh, and by the way, you must spell Pokémon with an accent (´) on the E, or else it's pronounced POKE-mon, not POH-kay-mon.
My Journey Through Animé: Episode 1
The first animé I ever watched was Pocket Monsters, better known in the Western world as Pokémon. I didn't know it at the time, but Pokémon is from Japan; that's why it's classified as animé.
For all you beginners out there, Pokémon follows the adventures of a 10-year-old boy named Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan), whose goal is to become a Pokémon master.
The show had 270 episodes (273 in Japan) and ran for almost five years (1998-2003 in the US, 1997-2002 in Japan). It first aired in Japan on 1 April 1997, and in the US on 8 September 1998.
Back when the show first aired, I was almost six years old, and I had virtually no knowledge of Japanese. My brother Ryan happened to collect some trading cards for the Pokémon trading card game, and I saw that some of them were from Japan, and therefore, had Japanese written on them.
It's obvious that Pokémon is an abbreviation of Pocket Monsters, but when I was around six years old, I couldn't for the life of me make out the Japanese characters. I was in elementary school, and so I had little exposure to foreign languages.
But now, I'm a master of foreign languages, including Japanese, although I still need some practice to read some of those symbols with lots of strokes (Kanji, as they are called in Japanese).
For all you beginners out there, Pokémon follows the adventures of a 10-year-old boy named Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan), whose goal is to become a Pokémon master.
The show had 270 episodes (273 in Japan) and ran for almost five years (1998-2003 in the US, 1997-2002 in Japan). It first aired in Japan on 1 April 1997, and in the US on 8 September 1998.
Back when the show first aired, I was almost six years old, and I had virtually no knowledge of Japanese. My brother Ryan happened to collect some trading cards for the Pokémon trading card game, and I saw that some of them were from Japan, and therefore, had Japanese written on them.
It's obvious that Pokémon is an abbreviation of Pocket Monsters, but when I was around six years old, I couldn't for the life of me make out the Japanese characters. I was in elementary school, and so I had little exposure to foreign languages.
But now, I'm a master of foreign languages, including Japanese, although I still need some practice to read some of those symbols with lots of strokes (Kanji, as they are called in Japanese).
Introduction
Heidi-ho, animé lovers out there! This is your host, Luke Elms, and you've just arrived at my new web log! Welcome! Come on in, everyone! Sit back, have some fun, and pay close attention to all my thoughts on Japanese animation, better known in the western world as animé.
Oh, and by the way, you must put an accent (´) over the E; otherwise, it would be pronounced uh-NIME, not A-ni-may.
Oh, and by the way, you must put an accent (´) over the E; otherwise, it would be pronounced uh-NIME, not A-ni-may.
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