Tsuburaya Pro Unveils New

Tsuburaya Pro Unveils New "Visual Translation System"

ULTRA GALAXY: MEGA MONSTER BATTLE is First Series Offered Author: Keith Aiken Source: Tsuburaya Productions

Last month, Tsuburaya Productions introduced a surprising new filming system that they hope will make their long-running Ultraman franchise more sellable to overseas markets. Dubbed the "Visual Translation System", this new arrangement would allow foreign distributors to customize TPC shows to suit the country of export. The Visual Translation System was unveiled at MIPCOM, an annual entertainment industry market and trade event held in Cannes, France. The 2008 MIPCOM took place from October 13-17 and featured 13,588 industry professionals from more than 100 countries. Tsuburuya Pro has routinely attended both MIPCOM and its sister event MIP-TV to help promote and export programs and films like ULTRAMAN MAX (Urutoraman Makkusu, 2005) and MIRROR MAN: REFLEX (Miraaman Rifurekkusu, 2006). But these shows have not received much interest from European and American buyers, and TPC believes the Visual Translation System may help in that regard. Back in 1968, the original ULTRAMAN (Urutoraman, 1966) was dubbed in English and first syndicated in the United States. It would go on to play in various markets across the country for the next fifteen years and is still remembered fondly today. Unfortunately, TPC has been unable to duplicate ULTRAMAN`s success in the States, as shows like ULTRA SEVEN (Urutorasebun, 1967), ULTRAMAN: TOWARDS THE FUTURE (Urutoraman Gureto, 1990), ULTRAMAN TIGA (Urutoraman Tiga, 1996), and the Hanna-Barbera animated film ULTRAMAN: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS (Urutoraman USA, 1987) struggled to find an audience. Making matters worse, the American-produced series ULTRAMAN: THE ULTIMATE HERO (Urutoraman Pawado, 1993) failed to find any distribution in the United States. In 1993, the Japanese studio Toei Co., Ltd. licensed their popular Super Sentai series to the independent American television production company Saban Entertainment. Rather than simply dub the shows, Saban kept the FX footage, rewrote the stories, and replaced all the shots of the Japanese cast with new scenes starring English-speaking actors. The end result, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, was a blockbuster hit and merchandising bonanza in the United States that continues to this day with the current season POWER RANGERS: JUNGLE FURY (based on Toei`s BEAST-FIST SQUADRON GEKIRANGER, 2007) now wrapping up its run on ABC and the cable channel Toon Disney. In the wake of MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, Tsuburaya Productions was approached by American distributors hoping to cash in on Saban`s success by giving the Ultraman shows the "Power Ranger treatment". But TPC declined having their most popular franchise rewritten and reshot in such an extreme manner. While the Ultra series were spared, Tsuburaya did allow DIC Entertainment to Americanize their superhero series GRIDMAN (Denkou Choujin Gridman, 1993) into SUPERHUMAN SAMURAI SYBER-SQUAD (1994).

For the past decade TPC has been somewhat restrained from pushing Ultraman into the international marketplace by their legal battles with the Thai company Chaiyo Productions, but recent major court rulings in their favor have appeared to put an end to that problem. This year Tsuburaya has seen growing success in Asian territories with ULTRAMAN MAX airing in Malaysia and Hong Kong, and MAX, ULTRAMAN TIGA, ULTRAMAN COSMOS (Urutoraman Kosumosu, 2001), and ULTRAMAN NEXUS (Urutoraman Nekusasu, 2004) all being broadcast in the Phillipines. Now the company wants to widen its audience by working on a middle ground between the straight translation of the original ULTRAMAN and the major changes done to GRIDMAN. In a recent statement, the company explained their plan: "Our shows attract fans from all over the world, but we feel we can do more. For many of the superhero programs dubbed in a foreign language and exported abroad, the impact of the original piece is diminished. This is often due to the main character being a foreigner. We realize that audiences overseas may not be familiar with the Japanese actors and actresses in our shows. We want our audience to have a stronger connection with the actors. In order to solve this issue, we`ve created the Visual Translation System."

"With VT, it is now possible to repackage the latest of the popular Ultraman series as a high quality country-specific production. We take the same base script of the program produced in Japan, and using the same set and backdrop, we refilm the scenes employing actors native to the country in which the program will be shown. Using this new system, overseas customers can modify our shows to be localized using actors from their own countries. Our internationally known characters like Ultraman and his monstrous enemies can now be viewed all over the world along with locally known celebrities." The first show Tsuburaya Productions is presenting with Visual Translation is the most recent Ultra series, ULTRA GALAXY: MEGA MONSTER BATTLE (Urutora Gyarakushii Daikaiju Batoru, 2007). The series` second season, ULTRA GALAXY: MEGA MONSTER BATTLE NEO, is now in production and will premiere on the Japanese HD channel Nippon BS Broadcasting on December 20, 2008. The ULTRA GALAXY shows would seem a natural for the VT process since the series features extensive use of actors performing in front of green screens and digital backgrounds, with only minimal filming on practical sets. TPC also notes that "This show contains many exciting monster battle scenes and is tied in with a highly successful card game by Bandai as well as a game software for the Nintendo Wii system. The collaboration has made it one of the hottest shows in Japan right now!" For many international fans of Ultraman and other tokusatsu series like the Godzilla and Gamera films, much of the appeal is that these productions are Japanese and therefore have a different look and tone from domestic products. On the other hand, the phenomenal success of Saban`s MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS may prove that general audiences are looking for something more homogenized. Only time will tell if the Visual Translation System will appeal to foreign buyers and be the hook to reintroduce Ultraman to a larger worldwide audience.