"Made in China" Futago Hime?
Futago Hime is apparently being shown on Chinese TV during primetime as 神奇星球luan生公主 (luan is a Chinese character not in Japanese) and is causing quite a stir on the Chinese side of the interweb among Chinese otaku, according to 「日中文化交流」と書いてオタ活動と読む. Only Chinese-made shows are allowed to be shown during primetime, so how does Futago Hime get around that? Easy -- by saying that it was made in China.
Left: China, Right: Japan
As you can see, the credits for genga (along with everything else) have been changed from Japanese names to Chinese names. Apparently the show is being pretty much broadcast as-is (dubbed in Chinese, but no edits to the content) with a Chinese OP/ED.
The Chinese "production" company behind this is 大連東方龍動画発展有限公司, of which TYO, the parent company of HAL Film Maker, owns a 31% stake in. That could make it "Made in China" in a rather stretched definition, but claiming others' work as your own is certainly out of bounds. Why lie when it's obvious it's made in Japan, and why go so far as to change the credits?
When you say "broadcast as-is," are you saying that it's with Japanese dialog with Chinese subtitles? Or did they dub it?
I remember when I lived in Korea as child, I thought certain anime (such as Yokai Ningen Bem and Tetsuwan Atom (Astroy Boy)) were Korean made, but much later found out they were Japanese. By the same token, it's not unreasonable to think that Chinese kids would believe Futago Hime is Chinese made.
Holy shit... China stooped pretty low this time; I'm ashamed. =(
Clearly because this is the nation of pirates.
Pirates do what a pirate do.
Being a fan of anime "dubbed" by 4Kids I thought I had seen localization but this takes the cake.
Though, on the subject of dubbing. If Futago Hime does well in China and Korea, could it eventually make it to the west?
LOL I'll have to watch it while I'm in China.
China needs better shows anyways. They could use Taiwan as a note to back up the "Made in China" claim since Taiwan licensed the show.
"Clearly because this is the nation of pirates."
Have fansub watchers declared independence now or what country are you talking about? It's a pain in the brain how people jump to conclusions nowadays. If people recognize a cover version as such, they automagically assume it was being stolen from the original artist and use that to justify their use of file-sharing. Ridiculous! It is perfectly possible and likely that the animation studio agreed to whatever conditions the Chinese people requested, yes even the "Made in China" claim. If the money is right, who cares? This business. Nothing more, nothing less. China is *huge* and a growing market. Hell, business people from all over the world even help China with censorship and putting critics into jail.
It's pretty obvious that this was done to bypass the ban on foreign made cartoons. Likely in a backdoors deal between the broadcasters and the licensing company.
People too often think of China as a monolithic entity in which the central government is making all the decisions. Not so. Like most countries, China is a nation of interests - corporate, government, foreign, etc. It's thus not about what "China did" as I'm pretty sure the party leaders didn't wake up one day and say, "Gee let's claim that Futago Hime was made in China today and see how the Japanese like it hurhurhur"; rather, they made a law (no foreign made cartoons on prime time) to help the Chinese cartoon industry, but companies (likely with the help of desperate broadcasters) have found ways to exploit this law - ie by making false claims about product origin.
There's no telling who's getting the benefits out of this arrangement, but I've a feeling that it's the licensing company (which does pay royalties to the Japanese producers, I assume) + the broadcasting station. And so long as they're making profits and have key broadcasting officials in their pockets, the truth is unlikely to matter.
Such is the way of capitalism unchecked.
lololol:D
There is not a complaint if it has a good influence for the intellectual development of children in China either.
Isn't Chou Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru also shown on primetime though?
いいブログですね
Crazy comparison in quality there, didn't know there would be. I got a little anime/cartoon blog going myself, I would like to get to your level of design one day.
It's amazing.I want to watch it in China.
I'll wait it.