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I was a bit surprised when I learned that He-Man was a franchise that apparently never reached nor was dubbed in Japan with the exception of the '87 movie and recent stuff like Dreamworks She-Ra and Revelation. I mean you look at the franchise and Tv popular there at the time and you'd think they'd love it. I know Super7 in 2019 released special He-Man and Skeletor in '80s Japanese-esqe packaging complete with awesome art, but still. I mean you look at Skeletor, Mer man and Beast Man and be like "Yeah those look like they would be Tokusatsu villains in cheap costumes".
If they never planned to dub the Filmation toon because let's face it, it animation quality wise was DEFINITELY NOT up to their anime standards at the time, they probably would've done what they did with infamously with Spider-Man and make it a live-action tokusatsu with MAJOR creative liberties but maybe at least kept more of the source material. Again, Skelly and his gang straight up look like these types of villains. Also I'm guessing the '87 film was dubbed because when you think about it, it kinda resembles basically an unintentional American take on the genre.
Found this image online (reddit) implying maybe at some point they planned to bring the toyline over there, but I dunno if it's legit.
Wanna know. Why do you think Masters of the Universe never came to Japan in the 80s when it seemed right up their alley?
I think that I read an article on Toyark that stated Mattel did, in fact, intend to distribute MOTU in Pacific Asian markets. The Super 7 packaging is based on the unused concepts by the Mattel design team back in the early 80s.
That print ad could be a leftover remnant of what could have been included with each figure or back of box cross sell images.
>>>The Power of the Good and the Way of the Magic!<<<
@ornclown Is there any info on why it didn't go through? My speculation is that Japan thought Filmation looked too cheap for their standards especially when companies like Marvel productions were collaborating with Toei for G1 Transformers and GI Joe for not the best (animation errors galore in G1 Season 3) but better quality animation. From what I heard, Lou Schiemer didn't believe in importing animation out to other countries at the time when everyone else but them at Filmation was doing it. Literally watched Secret of the Sword for the first time the other day and it was good, but I kept imagining "Darn wouldn't this have looked amazing and more theatrical worthy if it had three or four times more the animation budget like TF '86?"
Then again Japan made "Chargeman Ken". If you dunno what it is I recommend a YT video by Kenny Lauderdale on it.
@slycooperastroboy51 Have you seen the commercial that Filmation did for He-Man? It is amazing what they could do when they had the money.
I wish Filmation would have made The Secret of the Sword movie in the style of this full length 1979 Flash Gorfon movie.
@longtooth Yeah that looks impressive
Y'know in the early 70s some guy wanted to make a Live-action Flash Gordon movie but was turned down for the rights so he decided to make his own.
That NEVER amounted to ANYTHING I assure you.
yes, it's odd and i agree @SlyCooperAstroBoy51 i think masters could have been monster popular in japan.
I mean, muscular heroes were all the rage in 80's japanese pop culture (just like at the shonen jump protagonists of that era; kenshiro, jonathan and joseph joestar, jotaro, kinikuman etc) or the pretty much ANYTHING made by capcom (final fight, Street fighter, bionic commando)
not to mention how much japan loves LOVES the fantasy genre and fantasy tropes, just as much as us westerners.
so i think the main reason it never took off there is down to distribution. mattel/filmation simply didn't really do enough to export or localize MoTU.
i know some other filmation projects were released in japan, such as the various archie cartoons for example (they even got the album translated into japanese and everything.)
i guess it was probably costs? or maybe filmation couldn't find a good distributor/network they were happy with for the show.
i understand that MoTU was really popular in india. so some of asia didn't get missed out on, at least.
@adoralovely Again. Japanese Spider-Man
He-Man in Japan could've just been a tokusatsu that's barely like the source material, but they wouldn't know that and years later when us Westerners find it on the internet we just laugh and make jokes at it.
- Adam could've just not been a Prince but just some guy with a normal job who has super strength and also sometimes packs serious heat
- Teela is a submissive damsel in distress
- Instead of Orko there's just a young boy who always needs saving and some moments with him and his hero are.......uncomfortable
- No Battle Cat but instead a giant transforming green and yellow striped tiger themed mecha Adam calls whenever
- Skeletor and his crew are basically the same because I mean just look at them
OG She-Ra in Japan would've been a WAY different story. I know 2018 She-Ra got a Japanese dub but I dunno if it had any success there. I'm betting not because they already have enough magical girl anime that the show itself was inspired by.
@slycooperastroboy51 That's true ❤️
i actually love, love, LOVE the idea of a MoTU tokusatsu. it could have been amazing...or well, at the very least, a treat to watch. whilst i can REALLY get behind the idea of battle cat as big green mecha (and trust me, i do.) in my mind, i was imagining something more along the lines of a "medieval fantasy" inspired tokusatsu series. just think golden axe meets xena : warrior princess or beast master, only with a lower budget and with japanese actors. somebody NEEDS to mid journey this, ASAP.
also, the point u raised on she-ra is excellent, i have to say. 😊 yes, i can see the shojo influence on dreamworks she-ra but 80's she-ra predates sailor moon, cardcaptors et al by a decade, at least. so i wonder if filmation's she-ra influenced the aesthetics and tropes of shows like sailor moon. kinda like a reverse "kimba"-situation. who's to say naoko takeuchi didn't vacation in america once or twice in the 80's and happen upon she-ra and took inspo from it. she could have had a friend who was a fan of american animation, now there's a thought. lol