My Speculative Thoughts On International Toku Fans, Fansubs, And Toei Ltd.
It's no question that Toei Ltd. had created a lot of childhood. For Asia, they were responsible for the creation of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and some discontinued franchises like Metal Hero and the Super Robot Anime. For the West, they provided animation by their studios for Hasbro (such as for G.I.Joe and The Transformers), World Events Productions (localizing Golion and Dairugger XV into the Voltron franchise), or the rise of the Power Rangers franchise via Saban (which ironically, it's now held by Hasbro after Saban temporarily regained the rights from Disney). Though, it seems I'd like to say a lot of companies today are husks of their former selves. Disney really isn't the same Disney I grew up with or the Disney my parents grew up with. Nickelodeon just produces more garbage these days causing Butch Hartman to leave. Saban's return to Power Rangers made the franchise worse than Disney's. I wonder if Toei Ltd. is also responsible for the pullout of the Power Rangers franchise from Netflix? I doubt Hasbro could do that action without Toei Ltd. saying yes or no. I felt like writing this rant since TV-Nihon got of what might be legitimately a Cease and Desist Order from Toei.
How TV-Nihon (along with other fansubbers) bridged the language gap between non-Japanese speakers and Toei's Toku shows before Shout! Factory license
International fans of Toku (like myself but I'm a casual fan) are mostly people who can't understand Japanese. I was a huge fan of Japanese stuff. Back then, I knew Kamen Rider as Masked Rider and Kotaro Minami as Robert Akizuki (the Tagalog dub name) - hence the origin of my nom de plume! It was also with IBC-13's really HORRENDOUS scheduling such as how Kosoku Sentai Turboranger only aired up to 31 episodes or how I never saw the endings of their shows. Fortunately, ABC-5 was where I saw the ending of Chojin Sentai Jetman - the very first Super Sentai I watched from start to end! I also saw Tokosou Sentai Janperson's finale on ABC-5 too. Back then, I used Bandai as an escape route. Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and whatever came. I was already 15 years old when I heard of the term "Super Sentai" from a Questor magazine in the Philippines. The same magazine also explained the rise of Power Rangers in the West with Toei Ltd.'s permission. The Netflix show The Toys That Made Us also features an episode called "Power Rangers" - explaining its history. Did Toei really underestimate the digital age was coming soon and that people would find Super Sentai via the Internet? Did they even underestimate Google Translate? I can't really be certain but it seems like that!
If there was one reason why Super Sentai did get underappreciated - it's the language barrier. I mean, who would want to watch Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger (which is now licensed by Shout! Factory) if they can't understand a word? Sooner or later, some fans of the Power Rangers franchise would want to check out the Japanese source material. TV-Nihon became that bridge by making fansubs of several series. I think the first Super Sentai series they finished subbing was Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger. After that, they kept focusing on each and every Super Sentai that came after it. I confess that Dekaranger was really my first return to Super Sentai in the 2000s. They did try to sub older Super Sentai but focused on the Kamen Rider series of the Heisei era. Thankfully, I did get an external hard drive back then and it helped me watch more of them. Kamen Rider Den-O was my first exposure to the rather "draggy" way of doing things since we had two episode arcs most of the time. The Kamen Rider Decade subs also gave the Western fanbase the chance to see something way better than the Mashed Rider and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers crossover - it's the Decade crossover with Shinkenger.
If there was one reason why Super Sentai did get underappreciated - it's the language barrier. I mean, who would want to watch Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger (which is now licensed by Shout! Factory) if they can't understand a word? Sooner or later, some fans of the Power Rangers franchise would want to check out the Japanese source material. TV-Nihon became that bridge by making fansubs of several series. I think the first Super Sentai series they finished subbing was Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger. After that, they kept focusing on each and every Super Sentai that came after it. I confess that Dekaranger was really my first return to Super Sentai in the 2000s. They did try to sub older Super Sentai but focused on the Kamen Rider series of the Heisei era. Thankfully, I did get an external hard drive back then and it helped me watch more of them. Kamen Rider Den-O was my first exposure to the rather "draggy" way of doing things since we had two episode arcs most of the time. The Kamen Rider Decade subs also gave the Western fanbase the chance to see something way better than the Mashed Rider and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers crossover - it's the Decade crossover with Shinkenger.
Pretty much, I still supported Tagalog dubs back then and wondered why the Philippines aired Power Rangers instead of Super Sentai. I heard it's because of the royalty fees. If so, is Toei being a douche about that? I guess they were probably thinking of how to profiteer from Power Rangers and I believe they get a huge royalty fee every month from whoever has the rights to the name. I mean, Power Rangers, whether it hits or misses, must pay the royalty foes. Saban's adaptation decay which I call Mashed Rider still resulted in Saban Entertainment paying the royalties even under a loss. I mean, Saban pays Nintendo and Marvel the royalties for Super Mario Bros. Super Show and any cartoon adaptation of Marvel (such as the beloved X-Men: The Animated Series). Kamen Rider was airing in the Philippines though. Then I remembered fansubbing happened and there was CSCentrl which had fansubs of Jetman and Maskman. I confess, I only saw more Maskman episodes via fansubs than IBC-13's really BAD scheduling. The fansubs provided childhood memories while filling in the gaps at the same time. Over-Time and many more jumped into the project altogether. Soon, there were fansubs.
Fansubs across the Internet happened just like wildfire. These fansubs weren't made for profit at all but to share what Toei made with the world. They were not for sale. They were meant to help interested people understand what was being said. Just imagine that a Power Rangers fan wants to watch Super Sentai. In my case, a non-Power Rangers fan who's not happy with Power Rangers on TV looks for other ways to watch Super Sentai. Probably, some longtime Power Rangers fans were getting fed up with the franchise's decline up to now. I decided to download Super Sentai fansubs because I was (in denial) getting tired of Power Rangers getting the spotlight over Super Sentai on Philippine TV. Though, I grew tired of bad dubs that I eventually decided to watch Kamen Rider fansubs too. The fansubs were bridging the gap for some time with non-Japanese speakers. Just think of how the international group of Toku fans got expanded because of Toku fansubs!
The Japanese copyright law of 2021 came in eventually which could be an attempt to make more Japanese stuff, just for Japan
I was thinking about the Japanese Copyright Law of 2021. I don't mind of Toei Ltd. decides to finally license their shows with Shout! Factory for legitimate, legal ways to watch it. I guess some people want the real deal to cherish already. However, I feel the royalty for the Super Sentai franchise might be unjustifiably high. I think having legitimate DVD subs is a good thing for expansion since diehard fans may want the real deal over a fansub. However, I feel like the Japanese Copyright Law of 2021 might just be uncalled for or could end up encouraging piracy instead. If the letter that TV-Nihon got was indeed from Toei Ltd. then it might be putting the law into effect.
I remembered trying to find out why Korean entertainment became more popular than Japanese entertainment. The reason? Checking out an article on the K-Pop vs. J-Pop culture wars will tell you a lot. Personally, I'm no fan of K-Pop and I watch K-Drama usually IGNORING the music. However, this really makes me wonder WTF is Japan thinking:
Reason 1: These days, Japan makes stuff mostly for Japan.
Japanese pop culture, like the Japanese archipelago itself, is too isolated from the rest of the world to have remained a sustainable global influence. This is evidenced by the neologism “Japan Galapagos Syndrome,” which compares Japan to the South American island that has its own species and ecology. In 2010, Japanese electronics company Sharp launched a tablet in Japan that was initially sold nowhere else in the world, appropriately called the Galapagos tablet. Similarly, many of Japan’s videogames are for the Japanese market only.
Some say the problem is Japan’s reluctance to learn English and its negative population growth. Others point out that Japan, whose population is 127.8 million, is a huge enough consumer market as it is, and Japanese retailers don’t feel the need to take the huge risk of launching an overseas marketing campaign. (South Korea’s population is less than half that, at 49.8 million).
This just reminds me of a lot of stuff I wanted from Japan but NEVER got the chance to understand. I remembered playing Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden on the first PlayStation and guess what - it was in JAPANESE. The same went for a lot of other games such as the Kamen Rider games such as The First Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider V3, and Kamen Rider Kuuga. It took a LONG TIME to have a Super Robot Wars game that international fans could finally play! By then, my gaming vibes have seriously dropped! Maybe, some people have never heard of Konami's Japanese-exclusive puzzle game Moai-Kun during the NES days. A lot of games for the Super Famicom back then NEVER made it to its U.S. Counterpart the Super NES.
If that's the case then there's a really long war that might happen between Toei Ltd. and the international fans. I guess it can also be fueled by how Power Rangers isn't getting better along with its STUPID SUMMER BREAK - something Super Sentai isn't doing! I'd also want to say there are also opportunity losses. Toei Ltd. should really go beyond its official Youtube channel. I admit, I checked out Toei's Youtube channel and some shows only have a FEW EPISODES. I wanted to finish watching Exceeedraft but there were NO ENGLISH SUBS for the other episodes. I'd really say that fans are probably clamoring for more but Toei Ltd.'s probably just covering its ears and singing an annoying tune of "I'm not listening! I'm not listening!" How can they expect fansubs not to happen IF people can't understand Japanese? Study Japanese? Not everyone is willing to learn another language and/or has the time for it. If so, then Toei probably deserves to be pirated even more. I mean, Two Kaiser is already in Kikou Sentai Zenkaiger - a series I'm slow-watching now due to many stuff on Netflix and the like.
Though, the digital age also provides plenty of u-turns eventually. Subscribing to Netflix as well as fan sites like KissAsian can provide several new alternatives. For example, Netflix can provide me with a good deal of Chinese (both from Taiwan and China) and Korean action drama worth watching. Right now, I'm watching Goodbye My Princess and the ongoing Korean series Law School (which explains why I'm slow-watching Zenkaiger). In my case, there's really an escape route if ever newer Super Sentai wouldn't click as much as other newer shows. =P
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What are your thoughts?
We wrote a long post on our own blog in three languages, Polish, English and Japanese trying to answer with more details were we watch toku shows. If anybody would ask us this question, our typical reply is "where everybody else does". More detailed one is "we do have a nice weather today, isn’t we?".
ReplyDeleteI can speak Japanase - frankly, I watch new episodes without subtitles and from time to time I catch errors... lets say oddity in how clouds are moving on sky on particular day but even with that (i.e. no language barrier) the legal avaibility is... close to nothing. TOEI does shoots his own feet with that. We know how "typical Japanese person" thinks but this is beyond our comprehension.
P.S. We wont post a link unless you ask - We consider such as rude behaviour.