badgenome said:
johnlucas said:
Without Nintendo introducing the world to the Japanese legend of the Tanuki in Super Mario Bros. 3, does anybody think that we would have the anime & manga explosion that happened in America & the rest of the world in the 1990s?
Would we have the American version of Super Sentai known as the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers?
Would we know of Dragon Ball Z? And Sailor Moon? And Gundam Wing? And Ronin Warriors? And Fist of the North Star? And Naruto? And Bleach? And Full Metal Alchemist? And Cowboy Bebop? And Afro Samurai? |
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Funny gif.
But what I said is true.
Nintendo, a VERY Japanese company, brought Japanese culture through the gateway known as the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Sure there was Speed Racer & Godzilla but most American kids didn't have that connection with Japanese culture before Nintendo came along.
Your current age on here, badgenome, says 31. That means you were born in 1982. Probably didn't get strong memories until 1985 when you were 3.
Incidentally the time when Nintendo took over everything in the videogame world.
I'm 37. I remember the time BEFORE Nintendo.
I remember when this videogame business was American based.
Early 1980s. We got Japanese made games showing up in the arcades alongside the American ones but most people not recognizing these games as 'Japanese' per se.
People thought Midway made the Pac-Man game since it said Bally/Midway on the cabinet.
They were just the American publishers. Nobody knew who Namco, the Nakamura Manufacturing Company, was at that time.
The Japanese brought their colorful vivid imaginations to these games but the games weren't loaded with Japanese symbology & legend.
Even Donkey Kong with the name Nintendo on the title screen & cabinet didn't scream 'Japanese game'.
People might have thought it was an American company with a strange name reminiscent of Presto or Exacto or Bingo.
But when Nintendo broke through with the NES & brought all these Japanese 3rd party developers with them like Hudson, Capcom, Konami, Square, Enix, bit by bit that 'Japanese-ness' started to shine through.
Super Mario Bros. was full of imagination & there was some Japanese cultural influences in it but all of it could be chalked up to Imaginationland, Fantasy World imagery.
Super Mario Bros. 3, however, put it RIGHT IN YOUR FACE.
What THE HELL is a Tanooki??? Why does this Tanooki Suit make Mario turn into a statue like that? What does that mean?
Why does a Leaf make Mario grow a raccoon tail? That Tanooki has the same tail. Is there a connection?
With game magazines increasingly showing the Japanese influence of Nintendo & its Japanese competitors in features & ads, gamers started getting curious about all this Japanese stuff.
I think even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles owe some of their popularity to the rise of the NES.
What's a Katana? What's a Bo? What's a Sai? We sort of know what a Nunchuck is but what are the rest?
Americans making a comic full of Japanese cultural influences.
I know the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was started in 1984 before the NES hit, but I think the popularity of this Japanese console opened the door for these Japan-ified turtle warriors to hit it big when that cartoon came out in 1987.
By the 1990s you got a whole generation of kids Japan-ified & learning more & more about elements of Japanese culture.
One of those Japanese 3rd parties Nintendo introduced, Capcom, was instrumental in delivering the Astro Boy-inspired Mega Man (Rockman) & the Japanese characters of Street Fighter. Ha-Dou-Ken? Sho-Ryu-Ken?? Tatsu-Maki-Sen-Pu-Kyaku???
After the Turtles faded, the young public was ready for a stronger dose of the Japanese stuff.
Now we get Super Sentai footage capsulized in this Americanized show Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in 1994.
That takes off just as big if not bigger than the Ninja Turtles so now you gotta wonder if the public was ready for an even stronger dose.
How do we localize this popular anime & manga called Dragon Ball?
Take the cartoon & don't even try to "Americanize" the names this time.
Yeah Goku. Gohan. Goten. Gotenks. Yamcha. Chiaotzu. Ginyu Force. Shenron.
That Toonami block on Cartoon Network with DBZ opened the door for ALL the anime & manga that was introduced afterwards.
No longer was it seen by just importers & those in the know. Now EVERYBODY could see it in the mainstream.
It was so strong that the American comic book Teen Titans got an anime overhaul when it became a cartoon in 2003.
Even a J-Pop band did the theme song.
Nintendo opened the door for all this.
The cultural exchange had come full circle.
John Lucas
