A thought struck me as I was watching the No-Laughing Hotel Men game. Do Hamada, Matsumoto, et. al. know about their growing fanbase within the English-speaking countries? Or, for that matter, within any of the countries outside Japan? I’m curious to know whether they’ve made any sort of acknowledgement.
That is a good question. If they were aware of this untapped market they might consider subbing out their DVDS but then again they might to have to do serious editing of any sexual footages for american viewers.
Do they know? Hmph…not like I care or anything.
[quote="BigSnoop515":1w8qscbu]That is a good question. If they were aware of this untapped market they might consider subbing out their DVDS but then again they might to have to do serious editing of any sexual footages for american viewers.[/quote:1w8qscbu]
It looks to me like they’re already pretty well censored, if the downloadable versions are any indication. Even then, it’s pretty trivial to re-censor things if their footage is digital.
Well I know on MTV (in the US that is) they have a Silent Library TV show (about not even a 1/10 as good as the original in my opinion). Before the show starts it says [b:28w1jvpb]very[/b:28w1jvpb] quickly "Silent Library was created by Matsumoto Hitoshi". Obviously he or one of the gaki producers let MTV create their own version. So they are probably some what aware.
[quote="bobolob":z7arez5l]Well I know on MTV (in the US that is) they have a Silent Library TV show (about not even a 1/10 as good as the original in my opinion). Before the show starts it says [b:z7arez5l]very[/b:z7arez5l] quickly "Silent Library was created by Matsumoto Hitoshi". Obviously he or one of the gaki producers let MTV create their own version. So they are probably some what aware.[/quote:z7arez5l]
man mtv version sucked a**, they shouldnt be doin it for money, its not in a REAL library, and you can so tell its script from all the fake laughing after and before they flipped the card
[quote="ninjaxkiwisbgf":3gm7xzg6][quote="bobolob":3gm7xzg6]Well I know on MTV (in the US that is) they have a Silent Library TV show (about not even a 1/10 as good as the original in my opinion). Before the show starts it says [b:3gm7xzg6]very[/b:3gm7xzg6] quickly "Silent Library was created by Matsumoto Hitoshi". Obviously he or one of the gaki producers let MTV create their own version. So they are probably some what aware.[/quote:3gm7xzg6]
man mtv version sucked a**, they shouldnt be doin it for money, its not in a REAL library, and you can so tell its script from all the fake laughing after and before they flipped the card[/quote:3gm7xzg6]
Yeah it’s not very funny. Though the original silent library isn’t in a real library either. I defiantly hate how they have to give out money at the end.
welll… lets askthem?? threw e-mail?? to their managers or to NTV?
I wonder if there was a way to contact someone from the show and ask if they would ever think about subbing their videos and distribute their seasons. It would be very cool if they did and this site could be were it all started from.
Yeah… perhaps they would like to know the ambassadors of this Foreign fanbase and then me, Erhan, Alex & the others in the team would be granted with an exclusive appearance and interview in the original show…
Sweet dreams!
[quote="Kanzaki":2wadz1fr]Yeah… perhaps they would like to know the ambassadors of this Foreign fanbase and then me, Erhan, Alex & the others in the team would be granted with an exclusive appearance and interview in the original show…
Sweet dreams![/quote:2wadz1fr]
that’s not much of a dream …they may use their foreign fanbase as an advertising when interviewing in other shows
I think they would be surprised by the number of people outside of Japan who like their show.
Guys they are aware of it…
But they simple just want it for the Japanese folk, its a really popular show there for years and it is that one "thing" which is pretty much "made by japan only for japan". Each country has something like that.
There they don’t have to worry about the show contain or anything else or have to prove or explain what they are and why doing it.
Sure us here, we like it all but how many we are even? Every time i talk to friends or new faces they have no idea what that show is. Even thought they are on the internet as often as i am. Ofc its a little bit about money too. if they sub it and sell it in some country… you really think they go over 5000 maybe even 10.000 sold units?
The regular show wouldn’t be never subbed. If someday they really would go for subs. I am pretty sure that would be just the Batsu Game… which is abit difficult too.
You have all those Japanese culture jokes, inside jokes between members and all those J-Stars having a act. Furthermore the punishment way etc.
Sure we like it to watch it but here again "how many we are?" if u go in a store and see the dvd u will never know by the cover what that is. You might buy one and watch and will like it or not.
I think what we might happen to see in the future is… That we get rip offs like the silent library (which is btw even on GNT not a real one as some peeps already said… if u watch all episodes u see its always the same entrance and that’s the entrance to the NTV building (or at else to their workplace) as far i am aware. Its even the same room/studio just different stuff put inside and angle always etc)
Give it few years and we really might see a usa version or uk version of it. Made with either normal peoples to win money or something like with local stars as example jungle camp? =P
Are they aware of it?
Probably.
Do they care?
Probably not.
From what I’ve seen, Japanese programs only care about the Japanese audience.
There have already been many rip-offs, but it does seem to become more popular in the west under the banner of "whacky Japanese gameshow".
You have the western clones like Fist of Zen(Silent Library) and Wipe Out(Takashi’s Castle) who are "adjusted" for a western audience, and they are only interesting for people who don’t know about the original show.
Maybe in 10 or 20 years we get to see the batsu games on western tv with western commentators completely oblivious about the show’s intent(like how they started showing the original Takashi’s Castle episodes from the 80’s/90’s on Dutch tv with two Dutch commentators).
[quote="sarutobi":3k4f61lk]Are they aware of it?
Probably.
Do they care?
Probably not.
From what I’ve seen, Japanese programs only care about the Japanese audience.
There have already been many rip-offs, but it does seem to become more popular in the west under the banner of "whacky Japanese gameshow".[/quote:3k4f61lk]
Bleeegh. It’s a shame, really. There’s a lot more to these "wacky Japanese shows" than that, after all.
I think they are aware, first reason they deleted all no laughing videos from YouTube so they must know.
Not to mention I think they dont really care. Its not really worth the thousand dollar each plane ticket just to sue someone in the US for distributing illegal copies of a Japanese TV show. I think they like the popularity, but have no intention to release gaki in the US with subtitles. Like one guy said "we wouldn’t be able to tell what each DVD has from the cover" which is completely true. I was thinking about buying a downtown DVD and all the DVD look identical, just the colors different. So I had to translate the page to figure out what the DVD actually had. Plus the DVD is probably region encoded also.
Though I think if we had a couple of people from this forum writing, producing, and editing a American version of downtown it would be successful and similar to the Japanese downtown. I would edit cause I absolutely would love that. But seriously, if we did it I’m sure even the downtown team would like it. We could find people with personalities similar to the downtown team. Not some gay boy bands like in MTV’s Silent Library.
I would like to agree with the idea that it’s one of those things that is made in Japan for Japan and really Japan only. Although, I’d like to add that if they did decide to market it in other countries a lot of things might damage Japan’s reputation as a whole. Like in the Onigoko batsu, I once saw a subbed version where the subber cut out the section where they had 3 year olds run in naked and rub their butts on Hamada’s face… That was probably the most epic part of that batsu, in my humble opinion, just because it really said that Japan is a little more capable of dealing with kids being naked on TV (I would say the Japanese audience is more "mature", but true westerns would argue with me to the death on that). I can just hear the screams of pedophilia coming from half a world away at me now, but since I’m in Japan at the moment all I have to say is: If you really have the time to be questioning my sexual preferences, please, your better off being used as a faulty bungee cord tester or crash test dummy…
So not only as a marketing strategy it might not be worth the $$, it might lessen the uniqueness of Japanese culture, and also it might strain Japanese economical ties with other countries. Probably the US considerably, since naked kids are so taboo in the US, It might become "So THAT is what Japan is about?.. I thought anime was rather whorish, but this is a new level" and not immediately but the American-Japan tie might be weakend to some extent (Although on a miltiary level I don’t think the US government would give up that strategic advantage even if some sort of rebellion occurred).
A lot of things could go wrong with them trying to market to an international audience, and on top of all that, I wouldn’t doubt CEO XYZ would make "Just a few changes" to the show to help it sell in which case just kinda would ruin the show’s epicness in all regards.
I think it would be better left as " by Japan - for Japan". I think that’s what makes it special and unique.
There will never be another Matsumoto or Hamada or coco rico, even if the West tried it, all we as fans of the original would do is compare. I’d rather watch the original and learn something new about Japanese culture, than a group of people that are just out for the money.
[quote="JordansOcarina":16r1emk0]
Though I think if we had a couple of people from this forum writing, producing, and editing a American version of downtown it would be successful and similar to the Japanese downtown. I would edit cause I absolutely would love that. But seriously, if we did it I’m sure even the downtown team would like it. We could find people with personalities similar to the downtown team. Not some gay boy bands like in MTV’s Silent Library.[/quote:16r1emk0]
they tried it in spain , to do for example the silent library …and it…was a complete and disasterous shit.
as the above poster said , i also prefeer the original , japanese ,traditional gaki no tsukai show.
and i really don’t think the japanese would like to see their show copied for another countries.
it can work for the wheel of fortune , big brother , etc… but not for something like GNT.
[quote="Kanzaki":13j5j5h7]Yeah… perhaps they would like to know the ambassadors of this Foreign fanbase and then me, Erhan, Alex & the others in the team would be granted with an exclusive appearance and interview in the original show…
Sweet dreams![/quote:13j5j5h7]
Ehehehe this would be a great honour for what you guys have done since this site was raised!