Toon Zone Talkback - "Case Closed: The Fourteenth Target" Doesn't Prevail

[Classic Speedy]

This is the talkback thread for "Case Closed: The Fourteenth Target" Doesn't Prevail (http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=22589).
http://news.toonzone.net/images/2008-02/caseclosed/splash_ccmovie2lg.jpg

Watch out! A kid with a gun!

[Kuroba]

This is probably one of the weakest Case Closed films. The next one is much better.

[MagicBox]

Good review. I agree that movie 2 isn't the most exciting of the Conan movies, but I still like it quite a lot, especially the climax and the clever card-number trick the Japanese version uses for the victims.

I noticed that some of your complaints included the annoying grey boxes, the name/plot changes in the dub, and that the opening wasn't as exciting as the last one. I can shed some light on those if you want.

You see, when TMS Entertainment, the original Japanese license holder for Case Closed, sends its shows and movies to international licensors, they like to make their own "international edits" to their shows and movies before shipping them out, like removing Japanese text and replacing it with English text and stuff like that. Basically, they do it so that English companies won't have to waste the time to translate the credits themselves.

This is why when you watch the Japanese version of the Case Closed episodes on FUNimation's DVDs, the original credits in the ending sequences are replaced by translated English ones.

Okay, now let's move onto the edits that TMS made to this movie itself before giving it to FUNimation. This gets a little confusing, so read carefully. First of all, TMS completely butchered the opening sequence. The sequence I'm referring to is the opening of the movie where Conan/Jimmy/Shinichi narrates about how he was turned into a child, who the major characters are, and what his gadgets do. If you've seen it, you probably noticed that the opening on FUNi's DVD is composed mostly of still frames, with no animation at all. Well, believe it or not, the opening sequence is actually supposed to be fully animated, but TMS took the animation and froze certain shots of it so that all we would see is freezeframes from the opening.

I've been trying to figure out why TMS would do this, and I've come to one logical conclusion: the Japanese credits. For those of you who have seen the first movie, you'll remember that during the opening introduction, the Japanese credits were shown on top of the animation while Conan was narrating. Apparently, TMS didn't want the Japanese credits to be seen in this film, so they carefully took freezeframes of the opening and edited them together to make a creditless opening sequence. Unfortunately, this also results in us losing about half of the opening animation, which is a shame because it's so good.

I've also noticed another thing that TMS did to the opening: they zoomed-in on certain shots. A lot. There are some scenes in the opening that I guess TMS wanted us to see in motion, so they zoomed the video in so that we could see the animation in motion, but not the credits. Here's an example: in the opening, there's a scene of Gin feeding Shinichi/Jimmy the pill that reduces him to Conan. There's a set of Japanese credits that are played over this. In the scene, we're supposed to see Shinichi's/Jimmy's head, shoulders, the grass he's laying on, and the Japanese credits, but because TMS zoomed-in the shot so much, we only see his head. This happens many times in the opening.

I realize that this is a little confusing, but I'm trying my best to explain it well. If you're still confused, then I'm sorry.

Anyway, the end result of all this is a very bad-looking opening sequence. What was originally a fully animated opening has been reduced to a compilation of freezeframes and zoomed-in scenes, all because TMS didn't want audiences to see the Japanese credits. I just don't get it: we got a completely unedited, full-of-Japanese-credits version of movie 1, and nobody complained, so why did TMS feel the need to go out of their way to edit the opening of movie 2? It makes no sense.

Okay, that takes care of the opening. Here's another edit they made: y'know how in movie 1's English dub, the end credits played over the final shot of the film? Well, if you switched over to the Japanese version, you got to see the original Japanese ending credits, which were placed over footage of live-action buildings with clips from the film placed to the side. It looked quite nice. With this movie, however, TMS replaced the original Japanese credits sequence with the same thing that FUNi had for the ending of movie 1: English credits pasted over the final shot of the film. So, in both language versions, the ending of movie 2 features translated credits pasted over the final shot of the film. The only difference is that the credits for the Japanese version only credit the Japanese staff, while the dub credits credit both FUNi's staff and the original staff. It sucks that we don't get the option to see the original Japanese ending animation, but that's not as bad as losing about 50% of the opening animation.

Anyway, now I'll explain the annoying grey character profile boxes. This was another international edit by TMS. Now, as I'm sure you all know by now, TMS is the reason that FUNimation changed all of the character's names. Apparently, they wanted Case Closed to be as big a hit over here as it was in Japan, so they told FUNi to change the Japanese names to American ones so that American people could relate to the characters more. I guess the changed the Japanese profile boxes to the ugly English grey ones so that English fans would be able to understand them. The funny thing is that they use the Japanese names, so dub fans are going to be extremely confused when they read the Japanese names but hear entirely different English names. Apparently, TMS forgot that FUNi was changing the names for them, so now they just made the movie more confusing for dub-only fans. I feel sorry for dubbies. Also, these grey boxes appear in both versions, regardless of the language you choose. The same applies for the chopped up opening sequence.

Of course, because FUNi had to change the names, the clues revolving around the Japanese character names had to be changed. Given the circumstances, I think FUNi handled it quite well. After all, we didn't lose any information, and the movie still makes perfect sense with the changes, so I think the English adaption writers did great considering the changes.

So you see, some of those complaints in the review are to blame on TMS' incredibly annoying edits, not FUNi or the movie's quality itself. Hopefully if we get movies 3 and onward, they won't go so edit crazy and remove all of the animation just for the sake of removing Japanese text. Fortunately, with the exception of the opening credits, the ending credits, and the character info boxes, everything else is unedited.

I hope this helped to shed some light on the movie for you, and if it confused anybody, I'm sorry.

[Menos Grande]

That reminds me, I've had this since Christmas and still have not seen this. Hopefully FUNi will release more CC in the future.

[Duke]

Of course, because FUNi had to change the names, the clues revolving around the Japanese character names had to be changed. Given the circumstances, I think FUNi handled it quite well. After all, we didn't lose any information, and the movie still makes perfect sense with the changes, so I think the English adaption writers did great considering the changes.
Yea, I figured the grey boxes were TMS edits since FUNi's were blue in the series and they were on both versions (whereas with the new CC DVDs, FUNi leaves the name boxes alone). And while I agree that FUNi handled the numbers thing the best they could, it still feels a bit obscure overall.