(L) Alfred J Kwak (Ahiru no Quack)

[ChibiGoku]

Well, here's a rather particular series to ask a question about, considering it's origins.

Anywho, while I can't seem to find a DVD or VHS release, I'm wondering if the series has reaired in any shape or form recently in english? Recently, I thought of maybe atleast doing a one shot of the first episode in Japanese (as I finally got ahold of a raw), but I just want to know if the show has had any recent airings in English before hand. I can't seem to find any information on this at all.

Anywho, thanks.

[xris]

To give some idea of what this series is, there is the description from AniDB and ANN.

Ahiru no Quack
Alfred J Kwak (Dutch, it takes place in Holland) lost his parents, brothers and sisters when he was young. He was raised by a mole. The series covers the life of Alfred from the day he is born. In his life Alfred tries to help all sorts of animals all over the world. The series are meant to entertain children and teach children about life, covering historical aspects like WW II.

Based on the dutch comic Alfred Jodocus Kwak, after an idea of the dutch Herman van Veen.
This comic fell into the hands of japanese people and an anime was produced in Japan, which aired in many countries but getting most fame in the Benelux.

As a note, ANN doesn't indicate any English license. It would therefore imply the thread belongs in the Unaired forum since there are no fansubs at this point in time it seems.

[Kensuke]

I saw this in early 90's dubbed in Finnish (it will re-air this fall here, by popular demand), and it is still one of my all time favorite series. Even if it is "childish" with its animal characters, but it is a lot mature than the most series out there and I recommend this series to anyone, no matter what age.

[cry]

i saw this show when i was a kid, and loved it. That's true that it had a lot of maturity!

i'm french and i want it to be aired again too....

alfred, winnie and the others animals were insanely cute....

[Mandrake]

I used to watch that show, years ago. It was awesome.....this is one of the shows you'de like to show your own kids when they grow up. Saw it in my native dutch language XD. I've compared several dubbings, but I like the dutch one the best. Just subtitle it :P

[Mandrake]

well it's subbed now

[Jossy]

yes it's being subbed now by hari-no-ito.com

[Blaat]

I have the first four episodes on VHS tape Dutch dub though. Loved this show as a kid.

[outcast_within]

hated this show when i was a kid.
I wanted to be entertained
they bring me a crow who looks and acts like hitler
racial questions with a brown girlfriend duck
and a blind mole
It was a bit too depressing for me to watch

[Archuka]

I remember this series from my childhood. I really liked it, though besides the characters I can't remember much from it.

I had no idea it was from Japan...

[xris]

Since an English language DVD set of Alfred J. Kwak is available from Amazon, the title is obviously licensed. Moved thread and removed torrents from AnimeSuki.

[Spirit Chicken!]

Hmm....anybody able to find a less "sparse" listing as to the particulars of this DVD set? Even for Amazon, that is insanely lacking on most information fronts.

Gotta figure it weird odds for an older show to happen to have a dvd release like this within such a short span of time...heh.

[ChibiGoku]

Originally Posted by xris

Since an English language DVD set of Alfred J. Kwak is available from Amazon, the title is obviously licensed. Moved thread and removed torrents from AnimeSuki.

This had to be the quickest Anime removal since Tokko.

Still... I'm wondering about that DVD release. While it lists "Telescreen Japan Inc. / Teleimage Inc." for the studio, it doesn't list a distrobuter... Anyone got any information on this?

[Mandrake]

According to this, it's not licensed


So...back to the sub board!

[xris]

Originally Posted by Mandrake

According to this, it's not licensed

So you are going to ignore the fact that the English language DVDs can be purchased. Sorry but we prefer to side on the side of a well known online site (i.e. Amazon) that is actually selling the DVDs to that of a site that links to licensed anime.

As far as AnimeSuki os concerned, there is no question. It is licensed.

[GHDpro]

For those who need convincing, here's the UK opening:

Based on the information I was able to gather, the companies that own the rights to this series seem to be putting out the whole series on DVD in The Netherlands and Germany at the least. So it's licensed in those regions for sure.

Arguably the Amazon listing is a bit fishy. First, it's touted as a "collectors set" which suggests it's probably the complete series, but you can't fit 52 episodes on 4 DVDs without major quality loss. I don't think that would be acceptible even for an old childrens series. Second, it's listed as "all regions" which again raises a flag... in a bad way. Third, it's listed on Amazon US, not UK, while as far as I know it never aired in the US. Last it seems Amazon.com is the only retailer online to list this set anywhere. There is no mention of it on any other site.

Still, there is not enough evidence to believe this set isn't an official product at this time, so our decision hasn't changed, unless someone is able to find out more information.

[Spirit Chicken!]

If I read the horribly lacking amazon description right, I THINK it is saying this is only the first 12 episodes....which would make much more sense given the disc count.

[Mandrake]

alfred series had a few released dvd's of some story arcs, however not in chronological order.

[-KarumA-]

Originally Posted by GHDpro

For those who need convincing, here's the UK opening:

ooh my, that was very interesting to see
i used to watch this series when i was a child on Dutch TV, its still on television here so yes it is licensed, but to be honest i like the dutch version more than the english, its so more fitting

also i noticed that through out the series they even make stereo type charatcers to show people whos evil and show them some history

i saw this one episode about a month ago when i was eating lunch (heck i though it was hilarious to see it again after 12 years) but i noticed that the crow character (we call him Dolf but im guessing he's named different in England etc. and hes not really a crow :P ) was going for the elections for the major or preident of a country ro city, i think it was of a city.. but the way he was dressed got all the Hitler vibes.. even the mustache ROFL i never noticed those things as a kid

[GHDpro]

Well as international versions of Alfred J. Kwak go, Ahiro no Quack is definitely the most interesting one for me:

The OP and ED songs as well the voice of Alfred are performed by Megumi Hayashibara (Rei Ayanami, Lina Inverse, female Ranma, etc) which is totally cool. Hank is voiced by Kenichi Ogata (Myoga [the flea] from Inu Yasha, etc) and the ANN entry also lists Kikuko Inoue (who has done a ton of voices including most recently Nagisa's mom in Clannad) but doesn't say who she voices.

It does seem that the OP has totally different lyrics compared to the other versions I've seen so far (Dutch and the Youtube clip of the UK version) although it still retains the melody somewhat.

PS. the official Alfred J. Kwak page on the Herman van Veen* Studios website has even more versions:
http://www.hermanvanveenstudios.com/...nationaal.aspx

*) Herman van Veen is the creator of Alfred J. Kwak

Edit:
Actually after watching the Dutch version again my comment above about lyrics is pretty much nonsense, as the Dutch version hardly has any lyrics to speak of:

(This version is sung by Herman van Veen himself)

Edit 2:
There appears to be no Japanese DVD release of Alfred J. Kwak despite some lobbying by 2ch. It's to bad, as I would have loved to own at least one volume of the Japanese version just for kicks.