Sunday January 4, 2009
Tinseltown remakes
By ROLAND KELTS
Hollywood has a new respect for anime sources, and is planning on turning many into potential blockbusters.
IN March last year, I had dinner in Los Angeles with two producers from US animation studios making American versions of anime originals. One, a Chinese-American, was from Imagi, the company working on next year’s computer-graphic Astro Boy. The other, a Filipino-American, was with Gonzo Digimation Holdings, the company that produces Afro Samurai, an original manga turned international anime series featuring Samuel L. Jackson’s voice.
Both producers were jovial, if anxious about the ongoing decline in US anime DVD sales. But they were also quite keen to share their experiences of working with their counterparts in Japan. “We showed a preview to some focus groups in Tokyo,” said the Imagi producer of Astro Boy, “and the results were disastrous. Our Astro Boy was too snarky, too mature. They wanted to reclaim the original character’s innocence.”
Justin Chatwin is Goku, the hero of the anime-inspired Hollywood movie, Dragonball Evolution. The staffer on Afro Samurai said this: “We originally thought the collaboration would be, you know, 50-50, between Japan and the US. But, to be honest, the final product is more 80-20, favouring the Japanese. They knew what they were doing, and we didn’t want to screw it up.”
In both cases, smart young Asian-Americans were conceding that they needed the Japanese input to make their projects succeed.
This was news to me. In my book, Japanamerica, I cite several cases of Japanese artists or producers mishandling their intellectual properties once they left the archipelago. Even the original Pokemon franchise first funnelled its millions in profit into the bank accounts of its US distributor, a company called 4Kids.
The story was painfully simple: Japanese producers would receive a phone book-sized US contract, couldn’t read all the legalese in English, but recognised a minimal up-front payment in the millions – and would sign away all of their subsidiary rights. I wrote about the absurdity of Japan’s losses, wincing as I did so. (Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US, ISBN: 978-1403984760.)
A week before the US Presidential elections in November last year, Japanese TV channel NHK aired a programme about recent encounters between anime companies and Hollywood studios called, fittingly, Anime vs Hollywood. Included in the show were scenes from the forthcoming Astro Boy movie and Afro Samurai, promoting both projects in the relatively sombre tones of a documentary.
And guess what? There was David Bowers, director of the Hollywood Astro Boy film, travelling to Tokyo to seek the approval of Yoshihiro Shimizu, executive producer of Tezuka Productions, for Imagi’s latest version of Tezuka’s creation.
There, too, was Gonzo’s Shinichiro Ishikawa, palling around in Los Angeles with Samuel L. Jackson, laughing and working hard on the newest version of Afro Samurai.
In other words: Japanese producers were shown flying to the United States to control their products, and Americans were seen in Tokyo, seeking the approval of the original artists.
The scenes of mutual engagement and respect between anime and Hollywood felt ground breaking, especially given the history of wilful ignorance on both sides. Combined with the comments made by the two Asian-American producers in Los Angeles, they produce a portrait of soft power finally working its mojo: motivating people to work together across national borders largely because they want to.
When Barack Hussein Obama, another hybrid American, was elected president of the United States on Nov 5, I and a lot of my friends were deeply moved, regardless of party affiliation, political slant, or even passport designation.
President-elect Obama has a lot to live up to, and an awful lot of hard work to do. But we were stirred by the mere suggestion of a 21st-century America that might reach out to others in a spirit of collaboration, as he has promised to do, seeking advice and counsel and offering strength and support rather than unilateral force and coercion – especially since the threat of declining fortunes long facing the anime industry is now being shared by the rest of us. – The Daily Yomiuri / Asia News Network
Roland Kelts is a Tokyo University lecturer who divides his time between Tokyo and New York.
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