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NEWS: Discotek Licenses Samurai Pizza Cats/Cats Toninden Teyande

I considered this to be one of the upmost impossible anime series to license, simply because it was so obscure. The only things I can think of that might have had less of a chance than SPC would be that one Dragon Warrior that had 13 episodes and (of course) Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon actually has a great chance of being licensed considering that it's been relicensed internationally, the new manga's out, and that it's the franchise's 20th anniversary.

PurpleWarrior13 wrote:

Sailor Moon actually has a great chance of being licensed considering that it's been relicensed internationally, the new manga's out, and that it's the franchise's 20th anniversary.

I thought Brian (in one of his Answerman Columns) explained that the possibility of getting Sailor Moon to America was lost in a kind of quagmire of red tape. Then again, SPC is coming to DVD; I believe in miracles (not that I want to get Sailor Moon, but I know A LOT of other people do).

PurpleWarrior13 wrote:

Sailor Moon actually has a great chance of being licensed considering that it's been relicensed internationally, the new manga's out, and that it's the franchise's 20th anniversary.

I thought Brian (in one of his Answerman Columns) explained that the possibility of getting Sailor Moon to America was lost in a kind of quagmire of red tape. Then again, SPC is coming to DVD; I believe in miracles (not that I want to get Sailor Moon, but I know A LOT of other people do).

What I think they should do is make a point of including the two dubless episodes with the dubbed set. If they did that, I think it would be fair to speculate that some percentage of those fans would grow to like the original Japanese audio enough to eventually buy the subbed set. This is all assuming that there's a good reason for the separate sets.

And that will be a damn shame.

While they're at bringing over old, uncut hackjob dub children's anime, can they please release some uncut Monster Farm or Space-Time Detective Genshi-kun?

EDIT: The article says, "that it will be releasing the entire Samurai Pizza Cats (Kyattou Ninden Teyandee) anime series on home video." It's being released on home video? Do they mean DVD?

Yeah, it pretty much seemed like the American writers of Pizza Cats wrote the dialog after the footage was edited down. Synching the dub up to the Japanese would just lead to a confusing mess.

It must've been a while ago, back when it WAS nearly impossible since the Japanese had the franchise in moratorium for some reason. The franchise has come out of moratorium, and according to the Mexican DVD distributor, it's more an issue of who can afford the huge licensing price tag, and who can meet with the approval of Naoko Takeuchi (the creator of the franchise) and Toei Animation. Apparently it took Capitol 1 TWO YEARS to release it to DVD in Mexico because they had to meet with the approval of Naoko and Toei for many elements of their release.

I do hope the subtitled version does sell alright, though I predict it probably won't sell as well as the dub, like other people seem to suspect. Still, I plan on picking up the subbed sets, as that has been my primary interest in the series, especially with the lack of fansubs of the show, making it harder to get a hold of it was a result.

I'm having a serious nostalgia induced meltdown here.

NJ_ wrote:

First Shout! Factory announces Power Rangers on DVD, then Discotek announces Casshan and now this?

Not to mention recent releases for Beast Wars and Reboot.

Quote:

While they're at bringing over old, uncut hackjob dub children's anime, can they please release some uncut Monster Farm or Space-Time Detective Genshi-kun?

I'd rather these got a shot too..
Belle & Sebastian
Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics
The Adventures of the Little Koala
Dragon Warrior (the first Dragon Quest anime)
Honey Honey
Maple Town

In the case of dubbing those two episodes, it would be a great little marketing ploy if they wanted to say they have "2 NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN-EPISODES" for the dub set. The only complaint I would have is the kind of money or time needed to round up the guys who had been involved with the show 20 years before and whether or not they may like to take a crack at doing it all over again for a second timer.

ChibiGoku wrote:

I do hope the subtitled version does sell alright, though I predict it probably won't sell as well as the dub, like other people seem to suspect. Still, I plan on picking up the subbed sets, as that has been my primary interest in the series, especially with the lack of fansubs of the show, making it harder to get a hold of it was a result.

That's because almost nobody cared about the show when it was airing (it was cancelled after 1 season even though there were plans for a 2nd) until they saw Samurai Pizza Cats.

I remember seeing most of the episodes but don't recall the ending! (Though I do recall the dub pretending to cover-up the Japanese writings in the show by calling it chicken scratches.) At least France already released the DVDs.

Anyways, probably its Wiki put it nicely:

Samurai Pizza Cats also known as The English dub of Kyattou Ninden Teyandee (キャッ党 忍伝 てやんでえ, Cat Ninja Legend, What Are You Talking About?!"), licensed by Saban, who didn't manage to get transcripts of the original anime dialog (or just horribly translated scripts, according to the writer). As such, the writers had to make up stories and dialog out of whole cloth. It seems to have worked fairly well, all things considered. The show pretty much got turned into a really well-written Gag Dub and the series is actually better known around the world as "Samurai Pizza Cats" than the original source.

While the plots can be a bit formulaic, most of the show's appeal comes from the humor and the lame puns (some main characters being Speedy Cerviche [Yattarou], Guido Anchovy [Sukashii], Polly Esther [Pururun] and "Big" Al Dente [Wanko-no-Kami]), and an astounding number of running gags. The show is notable for being perhaps the only heavily edited, rewritten and hacked-up anime dub which fans actually prefer to the original. Whereas the original show is merely a cute kids' action cartoon, the English Pizza Cats is chock full of sly references, shameless puns, rapid-fire sardonic humor, and a total refusal to so much as acknowledge the fourth wall.

Despite what you may have heard, it is not a lame Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip off, but a decent cartoon that can stand on its own merits. (It was, however, licensed as part of a TMNT Follow the Leader movement.) To quote the theme song, 'These 'Cats have more fur than any Turtle ever had!'


Oh, here's alt.tv.pizzacats old FAQ.

ikillchicken wrote:

I'm having a serious nostalgia induced meltdown here. NJ_ wrote: First Shout! Factory announces Power Rangers on DVD, then Discotek announces Casshan and now this? Not to mention recent releases for Beast Wars and Reboot.

Good ol' Mainframe animation.

StudioToledo wrote:

Quote: While they're at bringing over old, uncut hackjob dub children's anime, can they please release some uncut Monster Farm or Space-Time Detective Genshi-kun? I'd rather these got a shot too.. Belle & Sebastian Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics The Adventures of the Little Koala Dragon Warrior (the first Dragon Quest anime) Honey Honey Maple Town

OK, so while we're at it, how about The Littl' Bits too?