It's the product of automated decision-making on TH-cam's end. The company intends to exploit its content creators by forcing them to pop out videos 24/7, so that they can benefit financially with ad placement. Te enforce this, they "punish" creators who take longer to upload. Unsurprisingly, those are the best creators on the site, with the highest quality, most elaborate content. So, TH-cam's business model, rewards creators who put out fast, low-effort content, and punishes those who actually make good, elaborate content for the platform. That's why Patreon support is important for people like her, Ask A Mortician, etc, etc.
@@ligeiasiren4290thank you for your insightful comment. It makes so much sense now why so many people are releasing so many news reaction videos, like Clownfish TV
The saddest thing is that when I showed all of my friends the Guardians pilot, they ALL said "I would've watched the hell out of this as a kid", which is exactly what I felt.
I felt the same way as well, and then I imagined a world where it was actually greenlit, about people talking about how nostalgic they were for the series. Who knows if it would have been a hit or not.
This video single handedly healed years of anger from my childhood. I used to think all those bad dubs from the 90s were just the localization teams being racist. They actually shifted the American perception of Japan and Japanese media so the anime industry can be what it is today 😮 Incredible video!! Thank you so much for all of your research
It's honestly so wild that 4kids taking a chance with Pokemon made network executives do a complete 180 in regards to anime. You go from resentment and mockery to trying to get as many anime as possible and even make American cartoons look more like anime.
And now Pokémon is literally one of, if not, the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Beating the likes of Mickey Mouse and Friends, Star Wars, MCU, Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, etc. in terms of revenue in just nearly 28 years of Pokémon’s existence.
I loudly gasped when he said he would give you his permission to get whatever you need from the library, if this was a marvel movie, that would be a post credit scene that gets the fan hyped for the next movie and multiple theories. I cant wait for the next video!
This low level of views is pure injustice in regard to the olympus goddess levels of effort put into this. Wish you absolutely the best, Mona, best detective of TH-cam
Thank you again for the uncovered footage of the 90s Sailor Moon show. That theme song is still catchy enough that i still think of it from time to time. lol
I honestly don't know why you don't have more views and more subscribers. This content is absolute gold and so well researched. You've done so much for us geeks and you're appreciated, Ray Mona. 🙏
So... what I've learned from this is... if you work in children's television, your TV show pitches are useless without an accompanying toyline for it to advertise. And if you work in toys, your pitches are useless without an accompanying TV show to advertise it.
as a big fan of Saint Seiya, I can't wait to see what you've found. Loved Guardians of the Cosmos and probably would have watched it as a little kid. Thanks for the effort!
I stayed up late until 1:30 am and I have to wake up tomorrow at 6:30 for work, but so glad I finished this documentary! Thank you for all your hard work Ray Mona! It's such a fascinating history, and really showed the nuance and reasons why Americanizing anime came to be. Now I really appreciate the work on Americanizing anime in the past.
I had no idea there was a lost live action spin-off Dragon Ball. This is so cool! Thank you so much for your continuous hard work finding all this lost/early history for when anime was new in the West, Ray Mona.
I started following your work with the videos on Saban Moon, and honestly I'm really excited that not only you finally got to discuss all of that with Frank Ward himself, but you also got the keys to such an incredible time capsule. How exhilarating it must have been to finally reach this point, and with such a huge new territory to explore! Your documentary work is a treasure and I just can't wait to see what you'll get out to the world with The Vault!
I'm fascinated by what will come next. Also glad to have a few explanations concerning why simply dubbing the original works wasn't everyone's go to course of action. I always forget that the people in charge back then would've been around during WW2 and would carry biases like that. Either way great work, and super buy thanks to Frank for not keeping everything locked up tight. I can confidently say my opinion of the things they were making with the extra context is completely different. Looking forward to "The Vault"!
Your dedication to lost media and these documentaries is honestly inspiring, keep it up! Listening to this interview was just fascinating and I really look forward to the Vault series and all the things you've uncovered.
This was incredible. Hearing Frank go over the history from his point of view was somehow really fun and very informative about the introduction of anime to the US.
It's amazing how back in the day, people had a thing against Japanese animation, yet Filmation was making Japanese animation look good in comparison, and the best-looking TV shows in the '80s had their animation outsourced to Japanese studios. Yes, even DuckTales, GI Joe, and The Real Ghostbusters. Of course, the past is a different world from today.
I think especially since back in the 1980s, Japan was having a huge asset bubble in their economy and overtime became the world’s 2nd largest economy. That all changed by 1991 when the bubble had popped and Japan’s economy went into a period of stagnation called “The Lost Decades”. Right now, it’s the world’s 4th largest economy in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) as Germany very recently took Japan’s spot as the 3rd largest economy.
Also, those western cartoon shows that you mentioned were not only outsourced to Japanese animation studios, most famous examples being TMS Entertainment, Toei Animation etc., they were also outsourced to places like South Korea, Taiwan, and China for example.
Funimation was founded in by four friends: Gen Fukunaga, his wife Cindy Bennan-Fukunaga, Barry Watson, and Daniel Cocanougher. I recall the story being that Cocanougher got a lot of inheritance money from departed grandparents. Then Fukunaga convinced him to invest that money in something that would make him a profit. He said that licencing the insanely popular cartoon Dragon Ball Z would be a great idea, and that maybe his uncle could pull some strings for him. And so that happened, and they founded Funimation Productions in 1994. Tho they were forced to start with Dragon Ball. Which then aired way too early... (But i liked it enough to keep waking up early to watch it, I think). Watson handled the creative side of things, and often flew out to Vancouver, B.C. to work with writers and voice actors, often they were both. Fukunaga and his wife seemed to have had a lot to do with creative decisions as well. Also, they got a lot of stuff from Toei they used to make their dub. Stuff from Harmony Gold's canceled dub, and scripts from an Englosh translation made by Toei's Hong Kong branch...clearly by someone not fluent in either Japanese or English... FUNi didn't hire a translator till around 2000. And for DBZ, they didn't want to pay the shipping to have episodes flown in from Japan, so they got stuff from Toei's North American branch (Cloverfield?), meaning the only audio they had was in Spanish. To be fair, it's said to be a good dub, tho; the Mecixan one. And then in 1999, employee(?) Christopher Sabat suggested that they save even more money by replacing the voice actors with locals for cheap, and hire someone local for cheap music too. He said he could even do more of the voices himself, which he did. That must've saved them a fortune. But did not result in a quality product. That's what I remember from decades of interviews and forum posts, but sadly it's probably all lost to time. Most DB websites are gone now, so the interviews they did with Funimation staff as gone too. Maybe I'll go on a Way back Machine treasure hunt one day and find gold. I definitely wouldn't say Frank and Gen had the same goal, tho. Frank changed the show to get it on TV here, but Gen got it on TV here, and chose to change it just to change it. Changing and mispronunciating names, replacing the soundtrack, not hiring a translator and this making up nonsense to match the visuals... These things didn't help it get put on TV. Gen was just being cheap. Frank on the other hand spend quite a lot.
I find it ironic that he didn't seem to like Gen Fukunaga, but spoke highly of Al Kahm given that FUNimation managed to thrive, while 4kids went bankrupt.
Hey, haven’t you seen the fact that the super wicked Bobby Kotick was the boss of 4Kids for only a year? No wonder why his little known leave from 4Kids was yet another factor in the 90s North American anime invasion! Even Before famously running for Activision Blizzard King (he’ll thankfully be fired from that Microsoft acquired company in 2024), he must have been more terrifying than the already bad Al Kahn if he ran as a boss for longer.
@@SlapstickGenius23 On that note, services like Funimation don't give any royalties to authors in any capacity as they only pay licensing fees (which is probably very little and if Frank is right, it's possible that Gen didn't have to pay anything really). Frank was right in that anime in the 90's didn't receive a lot of circulation and that localizing it to a degree was probably the best for western markets. Ironically some Funimation productions are localizing anime to the degree of adding modern slang when the characters did not in the original language and apparently have censored some anime (though to what degree I'm not entirely sure on). Not as bad as 4kids censoring cigarettes or adding SFX every ten seconds, but I still find it funny that we've sort of come full circle.
Now that i am through, it is really nice to see the Perspective of Frank. Also, his Life seems to have been really exciting. I don't know many Person moving so much around and being so opportunistic. These little "CIA" Stories are great.
Wow, your documentaries keep getting better and better. I could also listen to your voice forever!!! 😎😍🔥 i have defo heard about this lost DB adaptation and a different one where they got sued or something?? 😅😅😅
Okay second rewatch time!!! This was an amazing video and the interview was done wonderfully! I’ll admit from past videos Frank Ward seemed like a looming, secretive figure but he is just a guy who invested so much effort and time working to try and introduce the North American toy market to Japanese IPs in whatever way he could manage. Unfortunately the people who made decisions back then seemingly weren’t open to Japanese… anything, and wanted to make toys and shows for one demographic only, and that’s a damn shame. Another amazing video, thanks for the early birthday gift lol!!!
Great work as always, I get that it was 30-40 years ago, but it is kinda sad how little he remembers. That said the Gundam project fascinates me. They wanted to make a live action Gundam adaptation on an 80-90s kids' tv budget. Literally how?
I know there’s been stuff going around about a movie since the 80’s (that’s also how Syd Mead first got involved with Gundam) but nothing about a TV show
Oh hell yeah, one last Halloween treat and it's gonna be a banger. I swear this channel should have 10x the subs it does. DB community better get in here and signal boost.
This has been sitting in my watch later list for so long, I can't believe I didn't get to these sooner. You did an amazing job and I loved hearing about the history of Anime in America during this time. Frank Ward seems like such an interesting man and I'm happy you finally got to talk to him.
Gen saved Dragon Ball & The New President of Fox Kids saved Sailor Moon. Despite how the interviewee might feel about either. I would gladly continue keeping what we have today than a masked version of either series. Power Rangers is okay. But for Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon Gen and The Fox News President made the right choice in saying no to an American Form of the ideas. Cultures are meant to expand if they can not take and change the original so much it is no longer as recognizable to the original source.
Late to the party on this one again, but it was so worth it. Bandai, WMAC Masters, corporate TV execs not understanding anime, what a wild story. You've really stepped up and can't believe you're still under 100k subs.
This entire series has made me realize many things, including about how important it is to record media and its contents and have them be accessible to the public so they don't become lost media in any sense of the term. This comment will probably not get any notice, but I just wanted to say thanks to Ray and the rest of the lost media community for helping me realize that I want to become an archivist to help catalogue and assist those looking for specific info about media and the histories behind them.
FUNimation definitely did NOT introduce anime to the US, but they did help make it mainstream. However they honestly had the biggest fall as they became utter garbage in their last couple years. Probably why Fukunaga dipped when he did. Staff talked trash about the fans, they no longer cared for the source material for the animes they dubbed, the voice actors became stuck up "celebs" and loads of other terrible things. This interview was so interesting and while Frank sounds like an odd one that wasn't as business knowledgeable as he thinks he is; I enjoyed listening to him. The Yes he gave about Ray getting the rest out of the Library gave me a huge smile! Very kind of him. Looking forward to what comes next!
So, my big question after all this was... Were the Fox exec completely oblivious to how much of Batman:TAS and Animaniacs was animated in Japan? (I am also curious about if this story is connected to the allegations that Fox got the rights to The Slayers and Escaflowne specifically because Toonami was seeking them out, only to let Slayers rot and hack up Escaflowne's dub once they realized the shows did not match their target demographics) Also, how much did commissioning an animated pilot cost? I can't fathom the idea that anyone could commission the TMNT company to produce an animation for them and then just... completely forget it existed.
It was all about the visuals and storytelling likely. Anime's youthful drawing style and dramatic-almost melo cinematography wasn't common in western animated shows. I can assume they were willing to be helped from the japanese studios as long as the style was kept "western" aka the characters being clearly adults/close to the action figures/dolls sold or golden age caricatures. (Random memory while writing this, the majority of Jem and the holograms was animated by Toei Animation)
I am sorry to all the South American people, but as I said in a previous video, everything started in France, yes. I don't know what is the starting point because it is even before Bandai. The starting poing is in the 70's. All I can say, is that after this initial wave, the second wave that hit France (in the 80's) has a lot to do with Itally and especially Silvio Berlusconi and its media empire (with the creation of La Cinq, the fifth television network in France, but the 1st one to be private). It's a long story, but a very interesting one... You will have to dive into it, soon or later...
Bioman was super popular in France. It was aired on July 1985 for the first time. It is the first "Power Ranger like" TV show to become a massive success in France but it is not the first Sentai to be popular in France, the first big success was X-Or (Space Sheriff Gavan) aired in October 1983 for the first time. So using "Bioman" on projects make sense, it was a Sentai that worked in at least one occidental country. BUT, you have to be very careful, there is an important trick: as it became very popular, under the same name Bioman, different Sentai were labelled as "Bioman" in France (sometimes as Bioman 2 and Bioman 3, because indeed the actors were clearly different // Example : Choujuu Sentai Liveman (超獣戦隊ライブマン Chōjū Sentai Raibuman, translated into English as Super Beast Squadron Liveman) was Bioman 3 in France).
I grew up in France, this is why I know a lot of things related to anime and those time, I lived them. I am a scientist so I am very careful with source and information. What I am going to say next is not a fact, it is the story we always have been told in Europe (which is not a proof it is the truth or a fact) - but it is at least, an interesting hypothesis: "we" have always been told that anime didn't work in the US at first because some toys companies, well implemented in the US, with a lot of connections, resisted the invasion to protect their own business. It makes sense but I would take this as an hypothesis.
Fantastic Job Ray! With this video i now at least have a more much better picture to things i never thought before. You did good. your research was very well made. Knowing that these people did everything to try and meet the demands of damn fools of America media TV Networks or to the world with their rose tinted glass from these executives makes me feel some what shameful i blamed them for the water down products we gotten. Great Job, looking forward to The Vault!
This is interesting. I'm glad those Americanized versions never got off the ground though, those could have possibly hendered anime becoming popular or even being imported to the US for a few years.
Fantastic work! It's interesting to hear how and why these project had to be so Americanized in Ward's own words. As always, this series does an excellent job shining light on the real people behind these lost projects.
How have I ONLY JUST NOW found this video of yours… I never knew you found this stuff Ray, a completely unknown attempt to localize Dragon Ball… lol this Goku is intriguing me
The level of work, love, and professionalism that you pour into all of your series, not to mention being the person that absolutely brought Saban Sailor Moon to the fanbase, is absolutely profound. Beyond what most TH-camrs will ever accomplish. I don't get how your channel is not one of the biggest and most reputable out there.
Oh man, that interview was FASCINATING. I’m so glad you’ve gone the lengths you have to shed light on this stuff!! Your videos are always such a treat to watch! Also love the illustrations that go with these interviews. Wonderful work on this!!
In regards to people praising the non-existence of Saban Moon, you have to wonder if they would have said the same thing about an original Power Ranger pilot? If you compare the two, aside from one having animation instead of using Japanese video for the fights, they're very similar. Saban Moon could have been for girls of the 90s what Power Rangers was for mainly boys. It's really unfortunate that it didn't get made.
What a great interview! An amazing account provided by Frank but also questions from Mona to really get this interview flowing as smooth as possible! Amazing journalist skills being put to work here ❤
I just finished watching, it was such a great interview. It's crazy to think about everything that could have been. We ended up in the best timeline for sure, but all these "failed projects" are so fascinating, and they certainly are an important piece of geek history. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE VAULT SERIES 🩷
This was such a fascinating video, I really enjoyed listening to the interview a lot! You put so much love and effort into your lost media searches and I am looking forward to see what is uncovered! Thank you so so so much for providing us with some of the best content out of all of TH-cam!!!
I love this documentary series. It really puts a lot of 90s dubs into a new perspective. When I was young I hated 4kids and such for their awful dubs, but hearing Frank talk has made me gain a new respect for them. I may still prefer this timeline, though, as I don't want to even think about what might've happened if 'Saban' Moon had been the norm.
Frank sounds younger than I first thought he would. He would be perfect as a radio personality. Also, I think that I should point out that anime actually started coming to America in the 60s. Starting with Kimba the White Lion and Astro Boy and Gigantor.
Anime was always being released in the USA but not to the same degree after hits like Robotech and Voltron and Americanized takes like Transformers led to large toy sales. I'm sure business people saw them as flukes, but Power Rangers and Pokemon lit a fire under them to grab even more.
Wow!! As always, your videos do not disappoint, each time you discover more and more interesting information and not only that, the narration and editing of the video. From the first second I am captured by the atmosphere that you manage to convey with the videos and that is something that few achieve. It is curious to know how anime came to the United States, especially when in Mexico several Japanese anime and series came directly to be translated and dubbed,Unlike others (like sailor moon) I suppose that the relationship between the countries helped in this. Still, seeing what could have been is always interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing the next chapter.
We learned a lot about how things went, and a large portion of it was because of elderly network and toy executives who simply didn't like anything Japanese, or were stuck in older, more traditionalist ways. If people like Gen Fukanaga weren't around, things would be VERY different for anime in the west, it would probably be a lot more niche in nature, if not outright unknown.
I still find American Anime releases from the 1980's weird. A lot of it seems to come not from a lack of trying. Like there was new streams of media at the time, cable and home video, that was hungry for cheap to produce, high yield content. That's where I see any 80's anime releases. Outside of Voltron and Robotech, there wasn't a massive merchandising push. Just selling cheap videos and filling up HBO and the like. Which is to say, it existed, there were places for them, just not on mainstream television. That one comes from the US producing its own toy based shows, oddly enough animated in Japan a lot of the time. Transformers was a straight up co-production. That said, I wonder if anyone at whatever's left of Harmony Gold would be willing to interview to talk about their hand in 80's international anime. They're known for Robotech (and screwing with Macross rights), and the once lost Dragonball dub, but it seems they had a LOT of their fingers in various anime that never got off the ground. Some series were completely dubbed in English, but were only seen as the basis for other country dubs. Russian Lectern dubs being the only way you can sort of hear the English version.
Oh ouch!! Harmony Gold also has links with Italy’s own infamous Berlusconi family of Fininvest, which meant that it used to compete briefly with ZIV, Streamline, ADV, Saban and 4Kids all at the same time. Nowadays its only true competitors are Right Stuf, Media Blasters and Funimation, themselves long term winners of the USA and international anime dubbing scenes.
@@SlapstickGenius23 Harnmony Gold really didn't have much to be able to compete past the 80's. Other than hanging on frustratingly to the rights to the shows that made Robotech, they really didn't do much else. And the main difference today is that most anime series aren't even just legally streamable, Japan basically makes most of their anime for the international market. That's why we get so many reboots and sequel series lately. I just hope the new Kinnikuman series gets a massive international streaming/dubbing deal.
@@mightyfilm Kinnikuman yay! In the 2000s, Kinnikuman’s high school AU spinoff Ultimate Muscle must’ve aired in Australia! Classic Kinnikuman has two Toei animation adaptations, but neither one is dubbed into English. The 2010s Kinnikuman soft reboot’s anime adaptation is coming soon!
a new president at FOX screws things up and cancels stuff for no reason? that's unfortunately a trend as that was what led to the Brian Bosworth action show "Lawless" getting cancelled after just one episode, after the show was greenlit and around 6 episodes had shot for like a million dollars each FOX got a new president who didn't want to use anything the previous guy greenlit so he deliberately sabotaged the show's premiere by changing it from Friday to Saturday so last minute that the TV Guide wouldn't reflect the new time which resulted in people that were interested in it tuning it at the wrong time, resulting in really low ratings and FOX cancelling it after just one episode. Then in 2000 FOX was seeing success with the Who Wants To be a Millionaire inspired "Greed" and there was a summer game show "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" that was supposed to become a full series in the fall but the new FOX president hated game shows so he cancelled them both out of pure spite.
It is absolutely CRIMINAL that your work doesn’t get more views! Your projects are absolutely AMAZING, and I’m looking forward to everything you make in the future! Also, I know you mentioned that you had some interest from a few media companies over possibly having your own show - I really hope this happens, because your work is just incredible and you absolutely deserve to have a series of your own!!
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Man, the TH-cam algorithm is really dropping the ball on this series. More people should be watching this
It's the product of automated decision-making on TH-cam's end. The company intends to exploit its content creators by forcing them to pop out videos 24/7, so that they can benefit financially with ad placement.
Te enforce this, they "punish" creators who take longer to upload. Unsurprisingly, those are the best creators on the site, with the highest quality, most elaborate content. So, TH-cam's business model, rewards creators who put out fast, low-effort content, and punishes those who actually make good, elaborate content for the platform.
That's why Patreon support is important for people like her, Ask A Mortician, etc, etc.
Couldn't agree more!
@@ligeiasiren4290thank you for your insightful comment. It makes so much sense now why so many people are releasing so many news reaction videos, like Clownfish TV
The saddest thing is that when I showed all of my friends the Guardians pilot, they ALL said "I would've watched the hell out of this as a kid", which is exactly what I felt.
Same situation.
I felt the same way as well, and then I imagined a world where it was actually greenlit, about people talking about how nostalgic they were for the series. Who knows if it would have been a hit or not.
@@Masterge77 and then finding out about Saint Seiya and having our minds blown away
This video single handedly healed years of anger from my childhood. I used to think all those bad dubs from the 90s were just the localization teams being racist. They actually shifted the American perception of Japan and Japanese media so the anime industry can be what it is today 😮 Incredible video!!
Thank you so much for all of your research
Before when anime became one of Japan’s biggest cultural exports, it was seen as a big manufacturing hub for electronics and automobiles at the time.
It's honestly so wild that 4kids taking a chance with Pokemon made network executives do a complete 180 in regards to anime. You go from resentment and mockery to trying to get as many anime as possible and even make American cartoons look more like anime.
And now Pokémon is literally one of, if not, the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Beating the likes of Mickey Mouse and Friends, Star Wars, MCU, Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, etc. in terms of revenue in just nearly 28 years of Pokémon’s existence.
I loudly gasped when he said he would give you his permission to get whatever you need from the library, if this was a marvel movie, that would be a post credit scene that gets the fan hyped for the next movie and multiple theories. I cant wait for the next video!
This low level of views is pure injustice in regard to the olympus goddess levels of effort put into this. Wish you absolutely the best, Mona, best detective of TH-cam
Also, very excited for the Vault series.
Thank you again for the uncovered footage of the 90s Sailor Moon show. That theme song is still catchy enough that i still think of it from time to time. lol
I honestly don't know why you don't have more views and more subscribers. This content is absolute gold and so well researched. You've done so much for us geeks and you're appreciated, Ray Mona. 🙏
The algorithm is unkind when you dont post on a weekly basis i think, but thank you for the kind words💕❤💕❤ spreading the video around helps a ton!💕
So... what I've learned from this is... if you work in children's television, your TV show pitches are useless without an accompanying toyline for it to advertise. And if you work in toys, your pitches are useless without an accompanying TV show to advertise it.
Gestures to My Little Pony and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
💯‼️
@@shoujokadyan5502 holy crap that’s accurate!!
as a big fan of Saint Seiya, I can't wait to see what you've found. Loved Guardians of the Cosmos and probably would have watched it as a little kid. Thanks for the effort!
Holy crap!! Cannot wait for The Vault!!! Specially to see if you find the pilot of the live action of Knights of the Zodiac!!
Simply fantastic, congratulations Ray Mona.
Wow. I did not know their was a lost Live Action Dragon Ball spin-off
Probably would have been better than Dragon Ball Evolution, too. Ooof
@@cabbusses and two unofficial films from Taiwan and South Korea.
I stayed up late until 1:30 am and I have to wake up tomorrow at 6:30 for work, but so glad I finished this documentary! Thank you for all your hard work Ray Mona! It's such a fascinating history, and really showed the nuance and reasons why Americanizing anime came to be. Now I really appreciate the work on Americanizing anime in the past.
GIRL YOU ATE THIS UP! Im also so so so happy for you that you got the access to everything. You deserve it
As somebody who loves anime, Tokusatsu, and all things 90s I say thank you. Your channel and videos are awesome. Please keep them coming.
Love the cartoony style sketch of the interview
I had no idea there was a lost live action spin-off Dragon Ball. This is so cool! Thank you so much for your continuous hard work finding all this lost/early history for when anime was new in the West, Ray Mona.
I started following your work with the videos on Saban Moon, and honestly I'm really excited that not only you finally got to discuss all of that with Frank Ward himself, but you also got the keys to such an incredible time capsule. How exhilarating it must have been to finally reach this point, and with such a huge new territory to explore! Your documentary work is a treasure and I just can't wait to see what you'll get out to the world with The Vault!
Dear Ramona, thank you for your great journalistic work! You never fail to amaze us with hidden treasures! You are our Jim Hawkins 😎
I'm fascinated by what will come next. Also glad to have a few explanations concerning why simply dubbing the original works wasn't everyone's go to course of action. I always forget that the people in charge back then would've been around during WW2 and would carry biases like that. Either way great work, and super buy thanks to Frank for not keeping everything locked up tight. I can confidently say my opinion of the things they were making with the extra context is completely different. Looking forward to "The Vault"!
Your dedication to lost media and these documentaries is honestly inspiring, keep it up! Listening to this interview was just fascinating and I really look forward to the Vault series and all the things you've uncovered.
This was incredible. Hearing Frank go over the history from his point of view was somehow really fun and very informative about the introduction of anime to the US.
Can’t wait to watch this and see what you’ve found!! Well done Ray!
It's amazing how back in the day, people had a thing against Japanese animation, yet Filmation was making Japanese animation look good in comparison, and the best-looking TV shows in the '80s had their animation outsourced to Japanese studios. Yes, even DuckTales, GI Joe, and The Real Ghostbusters.
Of course, the past is a different world from today.
I think especially since back in the 1980s, Japan was having a huge asset bubble in their economy and overtime became the world’s 2nd largest economy. That all changed by 1991 when the bubble had popped and Japan’s economy went into a period of stagnation called “The Lost Decades”. Right now, it’s the world’s 4th largest economy in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) as Germany very recently took Japan’s spot as the 3rd largest economy.
Also, those western cartoon shows that you mentioned were not only outsourced to Japanese animation studios, most famous examples being TMS Entertainment, Toei Animation etc., they were also outsourced to places like South Korea, Taiwan, and China for example.
Ray Mona, you did it!!! I'm so excited and looking forward to The Vault!
Thanks Ray and everyone interviewed. This is the kind of TH-cam content I truly appreciate.
I was just watching the first part when this notification popped, what an amazing timing. Amazing video as always.
This was such a good interview, it was lovely to hear his stories. Also the passion he has when he speaks against gen fukunaga is just the best haha.
I can’t wait for the vault! Hopefully we’ll get some more Sailor Moon info!
The fact that there was gonna be a live action Dragon Ball series is nothing but wild
Funimation was founded in by four friends: Gen Fukunaga, his wife Cindy Bennan-Fukunaga, Barry Watson, and Daniel Cocanougher. I recall the story being that Cocanougher got a lot of inheritance money from departed grandparents. Then Fukunaga convinced him to invest that money in something that would make him a profit. He said that licencing the insanely popular cartoon Dragon Ball Z would be a great idea, and that maybe his uncle could pull some strings for him. And so that happened, and they founded Funimation Productions in 1994. Tho they were forced to start with Dragon Ball. Which then aired way too early... (But i liked it enough to keep waking up early to watch it, I think). Watson handled the creative side of things, and often flew out to Vancouver, B.C. to work with writers and voice actors, often they were both. Fukunaga and his wife seemed to have had a lot to do with creative decisions as well. Also, they got a lot of stuff from Toei they used to make their dub. Stuff from Harmony Gold's canceled dub, and scripts from an Englosh translation made by Toei's Hong Kong branch...clearly by someone not fluent in either Japanese or English... FUNi didn't hire a translator till around 2000. And for DBZ, they didn't want to pay the shipping to have episodes flown in from Japan, so they got stuff from Toei's North American branch (Cloverfield?), meaning the only audio they had was in Spanish. To be fair, it's said to be a good dub, tho; the Mecixan one. And then in 1999, employee(?) Christopher Sabat suggested that they save even more money by replacing the voice actors with locals for cheap, and hire someone local for cheap music too. He said he could even do more of the voices himself, which he did. That must've saved them a fortune. But did not result in a quality product. That's what I remember from decades of interviews and forum posts, but sadly it's probably all lost to time. Most DB websites are gone now, so the interviews they did with Funimation staff as gone too. Maybe I'll go on a Way back Machine treasure hunt one day and find gold.
I definitely wouldn't say Frank and Gen had the same goal, tho. Frank changed the show to get it on TV here, but Gen got it on TV here, and chose to change it just to change it. Changing and mispronunciating names, replacing the soundtrack, not hiring a translator and this making up nonsense to match the visuals... These things didn't help it get put on TV. Gen was just being cheap. Frank on the other hand spend quite a lot.
I find it ironic that he didn't seem to like Gen Fukunaga, but spoke highly of Al Kahm given that FUNimation managed to thrive, while 4kids went bankrupt.
Hey, haven’t you seen the fact that the super wicked Bobby Kotick was the boss of 4Kids for only a year? No wonder why his little known leave from 4Kids was yet another factor in the 90s North American anime invasion!
Even Before famously running for Activision Blizzard King (he’ll thankfully be fired from that Microsoft acquired company in 2024), he must have been more terrifying than the already bad Al Kahn if he ran as a boss for longer.
@@SlapstickGenius23 On that note, services like Funimation don't give any royalties to authors in any capacity as they only pay licensing fees (which is probably very little and if Frank is right, it's possible that Gen didn't have to pay anything really). Frank was right in that anime in the 90's didn't receive a lot of circulation and that localizing it to a degree was probably the best for western markets. Ironically some Funimation productions are localizing anime to the degree of adding modern slang when the characters did not in the original language and apparently have censored some anime (though to what degree I'm not entirely sure on). Not as bad as 4kids censoring cigarettes or adding SFX every ten seconds, but I still find it funny that we've sort of come full circle.
Seems like Fukunaga's personality and overall arrogance rubbed him the wrong way. First impressions matter most.
Now that i am through, it is really nice to see the Perspective of Frank.
Also, his Life seems to have been really exciting. I don't know many Person moving so much around and being so opportunistic.
These little "CIA" Stories are great.
Wow, your documentaries keep getting better and better. I could also listen to your voice forever!!! 😎😍🔥 i have defo heard about this lost DB adaptation and a different one where they got sued or something?? 😅😅😅
Gotta give Ray props for going out of her way to find stuff like this.
Okay second rewatch time!!! This was an amazing video and the interview was done wonderfully! I’ll admit from past videos Frank Ward seemed like a looming, secretive figure but he is just a guy who invested so much effort and time working to try and introduce the North American toy market to Japanese IPs in whatever way he could manage. Unfortunately the people who made decisions back then seemingly weren’t open to Japanese… anything, and wanted to make toys and shows for one demographic only, and that’s a damn shame. Another amazing video, thanks for the early birthday gift lol!!!
Great work as always, I get that it was 30-40 years ago, but it is kinda sad how little he remembers. That said the Gundam project fascinates me. They wanted to make a live action Gundam adaptation on an 80-90s kids' tv budget. Literally how?
I know there’s been stuff going around about a movie since the 80’s (that’s also how Syd Mead first got involved with Gundam) but nothing about a TV show
Oh hell yeah, one last Halloween treat and it's gonna be a banger. I swear this channel should have 10x the subs it does. DB community better get in here and signal boost.
Amazing video! This guy is such an important figure for anime in Western regions.
Estas en otro nivel, este tipo de videos son increíbles. En lo personal, me encanta el tipo de edición y narrativa, el tiempo vale 100% la pena.
This has been sitting in my watch later list for so long, I can't believe I didn't get to these sooner. You did an amazing job and I loved hearing about the history of Anime in America during this time. Frank Ward seems like such an interesting man and I'm happy you finally got to talk to him.
Same here. I finally had time to watch this with my full attention and it was super interesting
The art in this video is so cute TT I really love your channel, these are some of my favourite videos on youtube.
Gen saved Dragon Ball & The New President of Fox Kids saved Sailor Moon. Despite how the interviewee might feel about either. I would gladly continue keeping what we have today than a masked version of either series. Power Rangers is okay. But for Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon Gen and The Fox News President made the right choice in saying no to an American Form of the ideas. Cultures are meant to expand if they can not take and change the original so much it is no longer as recognizable to the original source.
Your videos are so wholesome... Please never stop doing what you do.
Late to the party on this one again, but it was so worth it. Bandai, WMAC Masters, corporate TV execs not understanding anime, what a wild story. You've really stepped up and can't believe you're still under 100k subs.
This was great. Seriously, a fantastic interview that brought a whole lot to light about animation in the 80s. Fantastic stuff Ray.
One lost media that I would like to see is the power ranger pilot, Bioman.
Another great video from Ray Mona! A Halloween treat.📼🍬💯
This entire series has made me realize many things, including about how important it is to record media and its contents and have them be accessible to the public so they don't become lost media in any sense of the term. This comment will probably not get any notice, but I just wanted to say thanks to Ray and the rest of the lost media community for helping me realize that I want to become an archivist to help catalogue and assist those looking for specific info about media and the histories behind them.
💗☺️
FUNimation definitely did NOT introduce anime to the US, but they did help make it mainstream. However they honestly had the biggest fall as they became utter garbage in their last couple years. Probably why Fukunaga dipped when he did. Staff talked trash about the fans, they no longer cared for the source material for the animes they dubbed, the voice actors became stuck up "celebs" and loads of other terrible things.
This interview was so interesting and while Frank sounds like an odd one that wasn't as business knowledgeable as he thinks he is; I enjoyed listening to him. The Yes he gave about Ray getting the rest out of the Library gave me a huge smile! Very kind of him. Looking forward to what comes next!
So, my big question after all this was... Were the Fox exec completely oblivious to how much of Batman:TAS and Animaniacs was animated in Japan?
(I am also curious about if this story is connected to the allegations that Fox got the rights to The Slayers and Escaflowne specifically because Toonami was seeking them out, only to let Slayers rot and hack up Escaflowne's dub once they realized the shows did not match their target demographics)
Also, how much did commissioning an animated pilot cost? I can't fathom the idea that anyone could commission the TMNT company to produce an animation for them and then just... completely forget it existed.
It was all about the visuals and storytelling likely. Anime's youthful drawing style and dramatic-almost melo cinematography wasn't common in western animated shows.
I can assume they were willing to be helped from the japanese studios as long as the style was kept "western" aka the characters being clearly adults/close to the action figures/dolls sold or golden age caricatures.
(Random memory while writing this, the majority of Jem and the holograms was animated by Toei Animation)
Your Videos are Diamonds between all the Rocks on TH-cam.
How did I not get notified about this? I am subscribed with my bell turned on!
I am sorry to all the South American people, but as I said in a previous video, everything started in France, yes. I don't know what is the starting point because it is even before Bandai. The starting poing is in the 70's. All I can say, is that after this initial wave, the second wave that hit France (in the 80's) has a lot to do with Itally and especially Silvio Berlusconi and its media empire (with the creation of La Cinq, the fifth television network in France, but the 1st one to be private). It's a long story, but a very interesting one... You will have to dive into it, soon or later...
Bioman was super popular in France. It was aired on July 1985 for the first time. It is the first "Power Ranger like" TV show to become a massive success in France but it is not the first Sentai to be popular in France, the first big success was X-Or (Space Sheriff Gavan) aired in October 1983 for the first time. So using "Bioman" on projects make sense, it was a Sentai that worked in at least one occidental country. BUT, you have to be very careful, there is an important trick: as it became very popular, under the same name Bioman, different Sentai were labelled as "Bioman" in France (sometimes as Bioman 2 and Bioman 3, because indeed the actors were clearly different // Example : Choujuu Sentai Liveman (超獣戦隊ライブマン Chōjū Sentai Raibuman, translated into English as Super Beast Squadron Liveman) was Bioman 3 in France).
I grew up in France, this is why I know a lot of things related to anime and those time, I lived them. I am a scientist so I am very careful with source and information. What I am going to say next is not a fact, it is the story we always have been told in Europe (which is not a proof it is the truth or a fact) - but it is at least, an interesting hypothesis: "we" have always been told that anime didn't work in the US at first because some toys companies, well implemented in the US, with a lot of connections, resisted the invasion to protect their own business. It makes sense but I would take this as an hypothesis.
Fantastic Job Ray!
With this video i now at least have a more much better picture to things i never thought before. You did good. your research was very well made. Knowing that these people did everything to try and meet the demands of damn fools of America media TV Networks or to the world with their rose tinted glass from these executives makes me feel some what shameful i blamed them for the water down products we gotten. Great Job, looking forward to The Vault!
I appreciate the visuals of each of the ppl involved. I have issues following stories like these and whos who and this was helpful
This is interesting. I'm glad those Americanized versions never got off the ground though, those could have possibly hendered anime becoming popular or even being imported to the US for a few years.
I wonder how Saint Seiya handled Western fans...which were non-existent.
I love how much this series sheds light on a pretty shallow narrative about "saban moon" s creation. As well as Saint Seiya is great
Thank you for your research, I can't wait for the Vault.
I'm looking forward to The Vault. this is going to be a fun ride, Ray Mona.
Fantastic work! It's interesting to hear how and why these project had to be so Americanized in Ward's own words.
As always, this series does an excellent job shining light on the real people behind these lost projects.
How have I ONLY JUST NOW found this video of yours… I never knew you found this stuff Ray, a completely unknown attempt to localize Dragon Ball… lol this Goku is intriguing me
The level of work, love, and professionalism that you pour into all of your series, not to mention being the person that absolutely brought Saban Sailor Moon to the fanbase, is absolutely profound. Beyond what most TH-camrs will ever accomplish. I don't get how your channel is not one of the biggest and most reputable out there.
Oh man, that interview was FASCINATING. I’m so glad you’ve gone the lengths you have to shed light on this stuff!! Your videos are always such a treat to watch! Also love the illustrations that go with these interviews. Wonderful work on this!!
Fantastic job. I hope you can retrieve EVERYTHING from the LoC!
I am sooo looking forward to The Vault!!!
In regards to people praising the non-existence of Saban Moon, you have to wonder if they would have said the same thing about an original Power Ranger pilot? If you compare the two, aside from one having animation instead of using Japanese video for the fights, they're very similar. Saban Moon could have been for girls of the 90s what Power Rangers was for mainly boys. It's really unfortunate that it didn't get made.
A comment for the algorithm, because your work is amazing.
What a great interview! An amazing account provided by Frank but also questions from Mona to really get this interview flowing as smooth as possible! Amazing journalist skills being put to work here ❤
was finally able to watch this today- AMAZING as always i adore and look forward to ur content so much !!!
I just finished watching, it was such a great interview. It's crazy to think about everything that could have been.
We ended up in the best timeline for sure, but all these "failed projects" are so fascinating, and they certainly are an important piece of geek history. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE VAULT SERIES 🩷
WHERE IS THE PULITZER FOR THIS WOMAN 🗣
This was such a fascinating video, I really enjoyed listening to the interview a lot! You put so much love and effort into your lost media searches and I am looking forward to see what is uncovered! Thank you so so so much for providing us with some of the best content out of all of TH-cam!!!
Ha, I see that "title drop" for the third chapter name.
I loved WMAC Masters. I always thought some of the ideas from it came from Mortal Kombat.
This is pure gold! Loved that "The Vault" cliffhanger
THE VAULT... can't wait! :D :D :D
I love this documentary series. It really puts a lot of 90s dubs into a new perspective. When I was young I hated 4kids and such for their awful dubs, but hearing Frank talk has made me gain a new respect for them.
I may still prefer this timeline, though, as I don't want to even think about what might've happened if 'Saban' Moon had been the norm.
I just finished. I like Frank, he has a real nice way of talking. I hope he is doing well. I am grateful for him :)
Frank sounds younger than I first thought he would. He would be perfect as a radio personality. Also, I think that I should point out that anime actually started coming to America in the 60s. Starting with Kimba the White Lion and Astro Boy and Gigantor.
That's because Quinton Reviews is voicing him.
Anime was always being released in the USA but not to the same degree after hits like Robotech and Voltron and Americanized takes like Transformers led to large toy sales. I'm sure business people saw them as flukes, but Power Rangers and Pokemon lit a fire under them to grab even more.
i loved the segment about WMAC masters, I LOVED that show back then and continue to do so. Great video overall. :)
Amazing documentary, loved the interview and you can hear the joy of someone's works being appreciated
Woah, another Ray Mona video! This is gonna be fire, I can tell
WMAC Masters, a sucess in Brazil too (1997-98).
How come this has been out for two weeks and I only found it after searching for it? I even have the "all notifications" turned on for the channel :(.
Algorithim issues, something has been up with TH-cam lately :(
I do too and I'm just now seeing it!
@@Anza that algorithm is fiendish
okay you are like a dcom main character in real life lol your videos are so good~~! ^_^
Your so talented in investigating and your hard work shows as well. I can’t wait to see what you pull out of the library of congress.
I loved this episode and I'm so excited for The Vault. Great job Ray!
Wow!! As always, your videos do not disappoint, each time you discover more and more interesting information and not only that, the narration and editing of the video.
From the first second I am captured by the atmosphere that you manage to convey with the videos and that is something that few achieve.
It is curious to know how anime came to the United States, especially when in Mexico several Japanese anime and series came directly to be translated and dubbed,Unlike others (like sailor moon) I suppose that the relationship between the countries helped in this.
Still, seeing what could have been is always interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing the next chapter.
Ray, you are doing such amazing work. Thank you for this series!
Ray Mona will get the Batgirl movie one day... I just know it...
We learned a lot about how things went, and a large portion of it was because of elderly network and toy executives who simply didn't like anything Japanese, or were stuck in older, more traditionalist ways. If people like Gen Fukanaga weren't around, things would be VERY different for anime in the west, it would probably be a lot more niche in nature, if not outright unknown.
I still find American Anime releases from the 1980's weird. A lot of it seems to come not from a lack of trying. Like there was new streams of media at the time, cable and home video, that was hungry for cheap to produce, high yield content. That's where I see any 80's anime releases. Outside of Voltron and Robotech, there wasn't a massive merchandising push. Just selling cheap videos and filling up HBO and the like. Which is to say, it existed, there were places for them, just not on mainstream television. That one comes from the US producing its own toy based shows, oddly enough animated in Japan a lot of the time. Transformers was a straight up co-production. That said, I wonder if anyone at whatever's left of Harmony Gold would be willing to interview to talk about their hand in 80's international anime. They're known for Robotech (and screwing with Macross rights), and the once lost Dragonball dub, but it seems they had a LOT of their fingers in various anime that never got off the ground. Some series were completely dubbed in English, but were only seen as the basis for other country dubs. Russian Lectern dubs being the only way you can sort of hear the English version.
Oh ouch!! Harmony Gold also has links with Italy’s own infamous Berlusconi family of Fininvest, which meant that it used to compete briefly with ZIV, Streamline, ADV, Saban and 4Kids all at the same time.
Nowadays its only true competitors are Right Stuf, Media Blasters and Funimation, themselves long term winners of the USA and international anime dubbing scenes.
@@SlapstickGenius23 Harnmony Gold really didn't have much to be able to compete past the 80's. Other than hanging on frustratingly to the rights to the shows that made Robotech, they really didn't do much else. And the main difference today is that most anime series aren't even just legally streamable, Japan basically makes most of their anime for the international market. That's why we get so many reboots and sequel series lately.
I just hope the new Kinnikuman series gets a massive international streaming/dubbing deal.
@@mightyfilm Kinnikuman yay! In the 2000s, Kinnikuman’s high school AU spinoff Ultimate Muscle must’ve aired in Australia! Classic Kinnikuman has two Toei animation adaptations, but neither one is dubbed into English.
The 2010s Kinnikuman soft reboot’s anime adaptation is coming soon!
a new president at FOX screws things up and cancels stuff for no reason? that's unfortunately a trend as that was what led to the Brian Bosworth action show "Lawless" getting cancelled after just one episode, after the show was greenlit and around 6 episodes had shot for like a million dollars each FOX got a new president who didn't want to use anything the previous guy greenlit so he deliberately sabotaged the show's premiere by changing it from Friday to Saturday so last minute that the TV Guide wouldn't reflect the new time which resulted in people that were interested in it tuning it at the wrong time, resulting in really low ratings and FOX cancelling it after just one episode.
Then in 2000 FOX was seeing success with the Who Wants To be a Millionaire inspired "Greed" and there was a summer game show "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" that was supposed to become a full series in the fall but the new FOX president hated game shows so he cancelled them both out of pure spite.
I love this series and congratulations on all your success! 🎉
I can't wait for your next videos! 👍😎
This video production is amazing
It is absolutely CRIMINAL that your work doesn’t get more views! Your projects are absolutely AMAZING, and I’m looking forward to everything you make in the future! Also, I know you mentioned that you had some interest from a few media companies over possibly having your own show - I really hope this happens, because your work is just incredible and you absolutely deserve to have a series of your own!!
sooo excited for this next instalment!!
That intro music hits so hard for us 30 year olds.