Betty Boop in Japan (1935)

Everyone knows that Japan loves Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Snoopy, but did you know that Betty Boop was popular in Japan before any of them? It's true.


I think it is because Betty Boop could speak Japanese... No. Really. I'm not making it up. Watch this cartoon and see for yourself. In it, she sings in Japanese and dances. Her Japanese is pretty darned good too!

In fact, Betty Boop is still popular in Japan today! I sometimes see her on girl's fashions and in stores on posters and handbags. 


Did you also know that Betty Boop flew to Japan in 1935 and did a stage show? Yep. 


Here is a 1935 Max Fleischer produced Betty Boop cartoon called "A Language All My Own." Max Fleischer was famous for Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Superman and Popeye.

Wikipedia says about this cartoon:


The studio produced this short after discovering that Betty was very popular in Japan. Animator Myron Waldman, worried that Betty's gestures might offend the conservative Japanese audience, asked a group of Japanese college students to review his work. Having Betty sing in Japanese also allowed her to slip a racy comment past the Hays Office: one of the lyrics in the Japanese song translates to "Come to bed with me and we'll boop-oop-a-doop!"


"Come to bed with me and we'll boop-oop-a-doop" Indeed!


Please enjoy this 5 minute cartoon from a simpler time from yesteryear! This is so charming. You don't get any more eclectic than this!

Betty Boop? You kidding me? I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating rice crackers!

Distrust of Romantica by Hitoshi Suenaga

It is called Electronic Theater and is a class of post-expressionism. This particular item is a very Avante-Garde black and white cartoon called, "Distrust of Romantica" by Hitoshi Suenaga in 2001. Don't watch it more than twice, you'll have nightmares.



--------
Keywords:
Distrust of Romantica, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Hitoshi Suenaga, anime, animation, cartoon, Marketing Japan, Mike Rogers

Very Weird Japanese Anime: One Piece

I love Japan. I love everything about Japan; the people, the history, the architecture, the culture, the girls, the anime... Er, well, no. As an "oldster" (someone over 50) I do have a problem with Japanese anime. In fact, I always have.

Since the very first time I saw Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion on TV when I was about 13-years-old, I've had a "problem" with Japanese anime; it was too wimpy and too cute for my liking.

Actually, I hated this cartoon

Forgive me, you have to remember that I grew up in 1960's America where is was OK to have violent kids cartoons with lots of killing and guys like Galactus coming to earth to suck its energies and lifeforms completely dry...  (It also is a strange sort of commentary about American society when our comic book heroes are all extremely muscular guys who wear skin-tight leotards!) It was this way until the early 1970's when the PC crowd got a hold of TV and made sure there were no more violent cartoons so kids got stuck with crap like the Archies and, well, Japanese anime.

Of course, today's Japanese anime seems to me to be much better than those old days. I first started thinking, "Wow! This is cool!" when I first saw the Japanese cartoon Dr. Slump. That was very bizarre...

Today, I'd like to share with you another Japanese anime that I've found that strikes me as quite bizarre. It's called One Piece and it is a very strange cartoon.

Monkey D. Luffy

One Piece is about a pirate kid named Monkey D. Luffy... There's even Wikipedia entries for this guy and One Piece.  I'd go into a big explanation for this but why bother? All you folks need to do is to read on and watch the Youtube video and you'll see real Halloween for yourself. This is one very off-the-wall cartoon....

Wikipedia says about Monkey D. Luffy:

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ Monkī D. Rufi), or "Straw Hat Luffy" as he is often referred to as, is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the anime and manga series One Piece created by Eiichiro Oda. 


Wikipedia also adds:


He is a boy whose body is made of rubber after he ate a devil's fruit and acquired the ability.


Catch that? Read that last sentence again. "He is a boy whose body is made of rubber after he ate a devil's fruit and acquired the ability"!? (emphasis mine)


Hey! I thought that Wikipedia had people checking these things. Is that sentence for real? Or have the Japanese anime lovers actually done that on purpose?


I suspect that this cartoon is so popular in the USA and Japan that this is on purpose. Don't believe me? Watch this 10 minute segment of One Piece for yourself and see. I think you'll agree with me that this is one extremely bizarre cartoon.... Er, I mean "anime".


Anyhow, watch this and check out these characters in this cartoon... I thought drugs were illegal in Japan... I wonder what the creators of this cartoon were smoking!



-------


Keywords: One Piece, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Speed Racer, Kimba the White Lion, anime, cartoon, Monkey D. Luffy, Mike Rogers

Superman Sabotages Imperial Japanese Navy Cartoon from 1942 in Color!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Once again, this weekend, digging through the treasure chest that is the Internet Archives, I find an interesting treat from a day long gone by. It's a 1942 Superman cartoon in color - and in great condition - that was made right smack dab in the middle of World War II when Germany and Japan were looking very powerful.

The byline description reads:

Superman is responsible for several acts of sabotage at the Yokohama Navy Yard in Japan. Lois Lane is held hostage but Superman saves the day. Animation by William Bowsky and William Henning. Music by Sammy Timberg. Produced in 1942.


Now, I am not a fan of Superman at all (when I was a kid, I only read Marvel comics!) and this comic is pure US military propaganda; but it is enjoyable to watch and consider how the world has changed.

DOUBLE CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZED IMAGE

DOUBLE CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZED IMAGE

Also, how the heck did Lois Lane get into Yokohama in 1942 is anyone's guess but it is a very enjoyable 4 minute cartoon. Superman: Eleventh Hour! Enjoy!

--------

Keywords:
Superman, World War II,  Cartoon, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, 1942, Mike Rogers, Internet Archives, Yokohama

Marketing Japan: Tokyo Government Spends Over 1/2 Million Dollars on 10-Minute Cartoon!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Those morons!

Well, heck, no wonder Japan is about to go bankrupt! Yesterday, it was announced that Japanese government debt was past 190% of GDP and that every man, woman and child in the country owed about $83,174 each! I blogged about that here.

But now it has been announced that the Tokyo metropolitan government spent ¥48,000,000 yen on a ten-minute cartoon for their website to attract foreigners. That's over 1/2 a million US dollars! For a cartoon!?

What complete idiots!

Now, I am as much of a fan of anime as the next guy (well, no, not really) but spending that sort of money when the government is so heavily in debt is sheer stupidity or, even worse, criminal.

Heads should roll. This sort of thing really irks me as you always hear these clowns saying that we have a financial problem, but their lame ideas are always increasing taxes... You never ever hear them suggesting that we cut out government waste or "services" (like making cartoons for tourists).

I have a good idea on how to cut the budget, immediately cut the salaries of public employees by half and fire 70% of all assistants to politicians... No more free airfare and Shinkansen train rides either.

Anyway, if you want to see the anime for yourself, it is here  (Click "English HQ" at the top left under the anime).

The cartoon is bad, so if you don't want to click around, here's a Japanese language version... It's about on par with Speed Racer from the early 1970's only no action at all!


--------


Keywords: Anime,  cartoon, Marketing Japan, Mike Rogers