The article on blackboard that I read talked about early Japanese animation in the United States as well as Tezuka and Astro Boy. Much of the animation was construed differently in the United Sates because of added narration and shifting of dialogue meaning. In the original Japanese Astro Boy his death was a result of an unknown factor, but in the English version released in the US the accident causing his death is implied to be caused by faulty future highways. Tezuka was outraged about the editing and censorship of the cartoon in America. I think it’s very interesting that the Japanese version is hard to even find on the anywhere anymore, many people only come across the japanese subtitled versions. It just doesn’t make much sense that the original version of something would be almost phased out.
I also was thinking about the re-popularization of Astro Boy with the release of the CGI film in 2009. This could explain why the Japanese versions of the show have become nearly extinct. Americans became interested in where Astro Boy originated and started to watch more of the old episodes. Tezuka, the creator of Astro boy is deemed as the “Godfather of Anime or Manga”. His style of animation really set the stage for all other anime artist because much of his work is reflected in the anime of the present. He is known for drawing large eyes and exaggerating other prominent features of the characters. I thought it was strange that the article said early Japanese animation used many different techniques from many different styles of animation around the world because anime and Japanese animation has such a distinct form about it with its exaggerated drawing style and its sometimes heavy subject matters.
Astro Boy was originally named Atom, which is a very unnerving coincidence considering the fact that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed with an atom bomb. His name was changed from ‘Atom’ to ‘Astro Boy’. ALthough the program was more violent that regular American TV shows it did well with audiences, so good in fact at one time, it had beaten out Superman and Lone Ranger.
When was it that voices became so important to Animated films...the early Astro Boy and other early animations dont have Mike Myers or Will Ferrell voicing them, but were still pure entertainment. What does it matter who does the voice...I think it's just for little children...or maybe it's all about the adults.
ReplyDeleteAstro Boy is a character that embodies a lot of what the Japanese country was going through at that time after the WWII. Tetsuan Atomu, as you have pointed out, comes from the social trauma after the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The fact that he is also a robot underlines the connection between human and technology that the Japanese society was strongly living at that time to come out of the post war crisis and recover its position worldwide.
ReplyDeleteOf course, all that is not in the narrative and it is not in the translation of the voice. And tons of details are going to be lost in translation when we import content from other countries. Astro Boy is just one example, but probably one of the best ones.
Good post!