Why wasn't the original Kinnikuman anime ever released in the U.S.?

[Master Moron]

Flashback to the 80s. I used to love M.U.S.C.L.E. toys as a kid. Or as I called them, musclemen. I thought the characters were really cool and I always stared at the figures wondering what their stories were. Like, who was this guy who has a steamroller in his chest? What's with this lizard guy? Who's this midget with a big head and a cape? What's with this giant hand? Someone at school told me you could tell which character was good and which one was bad by the letter on their back. But, I think he was mistaken, because they all seemed to have the same copyright symbol.

Flash forward to the present decade. When I found out that those musclemen I used to play with were actually based on an anime, I was a bit stunned. I just don't understand why they would release the toys over here and not release the anime? I mean, doesn't common sense tell you that if you want to sell toys you should make a show to tie in with them? And here they already had a show made, all they needed to do was dub it. So, why in the hell didn't they do that in the 80s? I would have eaten that up in the 80s. Even if the show sucked I would have watched it to finally give personalities to the toys I played with. They really missed the boat on that one.

[firecrouch]

It's possible that there was too much content in the show that wouldn't bypass executives' concerns on objectionable content, content that couldn't easily be edited out. I don't even know if this show was even up for sale in the American market, anybody have any info?

[Tash]

It was really talky compared to a lot of what existed at the time, which could have been a factor.

[DrTooth]

Several reasons.

Firstly, while we did have a couple shows like Robotech, there really wasn't much of a call for anime. I can remember it was the time of the 50 dollar rare tape trades and viewing societies that showed rare bootleg shows. But while all the American animation (I.E. Transformers, Muppet Babies, Ducktales) came from Japan (Toei and TMS mostly), there were no original shows at the time. It's not that Harmony Gold didn't try with Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball. At least the two DB movies (including one with Arale-chan having a cameo) aired as local syndication weekend films. France (hense why we call it "anime", a French term) and the rest of Europe got all the shows from the 80's.

Secondly, I just can't see anything that violent being able to premire on US television at the time. It would have had to be edited down to the nub, and it would be thorougly unwatchable. Say nothing of Broken and Broken Jr, the nazi father and son, which got them in trouble in Europe at one point.

Thirdly, while M.U.S.C.L.E was popular enough to spin off several knockoffs and a minifigure trend like Oddballs and Monster in my Pocket, it just wasn't as popular as other things. I could have seen American television making their own M.U.S.C.L.E. series. I wonder if Mattel actually wondered about bringing the show over, just to promote the toys.

And of course, currently? Well, the US hasn't embraced Doraemon yet. It seems that the only animes popular are more mainstream, uberviolent Akira/Cowboy Bebop wannabees... or bland shoujos. And all of them current. I severly doubt anyone wants to see something that was cel animated and over 10 years old. Which is a shame, since they're not opening their minds to shows that inspired popular Mangaka of today (The creators of One Piece, Bo-Bobo, and even Naruto grew up reading Kinnikuman). I do recall talking to Mike Pollack on the Kinnikuman message board if they (4kids)were considering dubbing some episodes, and they looked into it. They had problems with content and the overall old look to the series, so that never happened (which is a mixed blessing I suppose).

[Chris Wood]

Those things were just cheap toys some executives thought they could make a buck off of. I'm sure they weren't particularly concerned with their origin.

[macross1]

So, thats where those toys came from..Man I remember having a bucketful of those things:cool:

[Master Moron]

Secondly, I just can't see anything that violent being able to premire on US television at the time. It would have had to be edited down to the nub, and it would be thorougly unwatchable. Say nothing of Broken and Broken Jr, the nazi father and son, which got them in trouble in Europe at one point.


So, what did 4K!ds do with the nazi characters when they dubbed the new Kinnukuman series?



Thirdly, while M.U.S.C.L.E was popular enough to spin off several knockoffs and a minifigure trend like Oddballs and Monster in my Pocket, it just wasn't as popular as other things. I could have seen American television making their own M.U.S.C.L.E. series. I wonder if Mattel actually wondered about bringing the show over, just to promote the toys.


Well, they did release the videogame over here, so it must have been pretty popular. Actually, though, I think Monster in My Pocket had a videogame too.

[Zack]

But while all the American animation (I.E. Transformers, Muppet Babies, Ducktales) came from Japan (Toei and TMS mostly), there were no original shows at the time.

Huh? I'm not sure what you mean by that, but weren't those shows just had animation work done there?

[Tash]

So, what did 4K!ds do with the nazi characters when they dubbed the new Kinnukuman series?
Brocken was the main problem, and he was killed off very early. His son was a minor enough character in the new series that nothing had to be changed. Even the Japanese anime had to censor Brocken jr. special attack though. (in the manga, his hand glows red, then he swings it in a "hitler salute" to slash he opponent. In the anime, he just does an upward slap)

[Chris Wood]

But while all the American animation (I.E. Transformers, Muppet Babies, Ducktales) came from Japan (Toei and TMS mostly), there were no original shows at the time. It's not that Harmony Gold didn't try with Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball. At least the two DB movies (including one with Arale-chan having a cameo) aired as local syndication weekend films. France (hense why we call it "anime", a French term) and the rest of Europe got all the shows from the 80's.

I'm confused too. At least half a dozen anime series aired on US TV in the 80s.

[DrTooth]

So, what did 4K!ds do with the nazi characters when they dubbed the new Kinnukuman series?

Actually, here's the funny thing. The character was not referreed to as a Nazi once in Kinnikuman Nisei. Ironically, they made a refference to Jade giving a "Goosestep kick" in the American dub.

Only in the original series did his outfit have the swastika (or I think it was that buddist symbol that the nazi's stole the swastika from), and after a while, that got them in trouble with Europe. With out technology, we could clearly edit it out frame by frame today. I don;t know what they could have done then, but the show was pulled.


Well, they did release the videogame over here, so it must have been pretty popular. Actually, though, I think Monster in My Pocket had a videogame too.

They did, but they also released the Dragon Ball video game from Japan as well (with changed to the sprites and character names- it was called Dragon Power). So, other than changing a few sprites (and removing Brocken Jr. and replacing him with Geronimo) there wasn't anything they really had to do to sell it. MIMP they had to actually base a game off of it.


I'm confused too. At least half a dozen anime series aired on US TV in the 80s.

Well, yes. A few of them, but not to the extent Europe got. It seemed more like an underground movement than a full fledged boom, like we have today. Plus we had S&P problems with quite a few of them. But this is the era when a lot of cheap anime stories were released on VHS with cheap dubs to them (i.e. Peter Pan... and a couple random others I remember seeing in bargain stores). I even recall having an old Gumby FHE released VHS that had all these odd anime previews at the end (Captain Future, Candy Candy, Little Lulu and something else).

An oddity I pointed out, since all our animation for American cartoons was done there.

edit...

As for the toyline, well, if they dubbed the animated series (or made one up themselves) it would have been a great commercial for them. This was the toy-centric 80's cartoon period after all!