Would The Simpsons work as an anime?

[husyk]

The Simpsons, one of the best cartoons ever made, I think in my opinion would be horibble if it was made as an anime. What you think?

[husyk]

Not that I am bashing of course.

[Kyuven]

wouldn't work, The Simpsons is as firmly rooted as an american comedy as Doraemon is in america
maybe kj1980 or the other japanese users can confirm, but i think there's a dub of The Simpsons being broadcast in japan (i know Friends is/was)

[Slade xTekno]

Lol, Simpsons as anime. I can't imagine how the art would look.
I agree, Simpsons is a trademark American thing. I don't think it'd work in Japan due to the fact that it deals with stuff in the US.

[Wandering_Youth]

It's excellent as it is no need to remake it into an anime. I rather it not be made into an anime.

[Muir Woods]

Yes...I can see it now: Bart will be drawn bad boy bishounen style, and Lisa will be cutesified with huge eyes wearing glasses (so she looks cuter). Now I can't picture how Homer or Marge will be drawn anime style, due to their hair. Frankly I don't know how they'd draw Marge's hair do. It would be interesting to see how the Simpsons are drawn anime style. Hmm...maybe someone HAS drawn the Simpsons anime style...I think I'll google it or search on deviant arts. But I think the Simpsons is fine the way it is. It has its own style the everyone in North America can recognize. I can see the problem of Japan not understanding the humor in the Simpsons due to culture and subject difference. But what about Azumanga Diaoh? It was pretty funny, because there are jokes in there that everyone could understand.

Just a thought, maybe some people in Japan fansubs the Simpsons (or, in general, North American cartoons) in Japanese, just as we fansub animes here.

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by Muir Woods

Yes...I can see it now: Bart will be drawn bad boy bishounen style, and Lisa will be cutesified with huge eyes wearing glasses (so she looks cuter). Now I can't picture how Homer or Marge will be drawn anime style, due to their hair. Frankly I don't know how they'd draw Marge's hair do. It would be interesting to see how the Simpsons are drawn anime style. Hmm...maybe someone HAS drawn the Simpsons anime style...I think I'll google it or search on deviant arts. But I think the Simpsons is fine the way it is. It has its own style the everyone in North America can recognize. I can see the problem of Japan not understanding the humor in the Simpsons due to culture and subject difference. But what about Azumanga Diaoh? It was pretty funny, because there are jokes in there that everyone could understand.

Just a thought, maybe some people in Japan fansubs the Simpsons (or, in general, North American cartoons) in Japanese, just as we fansub animes here.

What is "The Simpsons?"

As for recent American cartoons, the most famous one that we know is "South Park."

[Slade xTekno]

LOL!!! What is the Simpsons? That's the funniest question I've heard...
Sorry, no offense. kj1981, you're one of the most knowledgable people I know. It amazes me that you do not know.
The Simpsons is an American cartoon that uses parodies and satire. It is the tales of the stereotypical American family...

You guys know about South Park? Is it fansubbed?

[Muir Woods]

It is an immensely sucessful, if not THE most popular cartoon in North America. It is safe to say 99.99% of the people in North America knows what it is. You can walk up to any random guy/girl on the streets and he/she would know what the Simpsons is. It's characters (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Mr. Burns, etc...) are so well known that people spoofed/imitated/talked about all the time in school, work, other shows, everywhere here. That's how well known it is. I'm actually quite suprised that you don't know what the Simpsons is (no offense). It began in 1989 and now it is still airing and going strong. Well over 300+ episodes. For more info here. Its creator Matt Groening is now a name for the history books. He also created another cartoon of the same style, but different setting; Futurama, and he also draws comic strips.

EDIT: You know what's weird? A female (Nancy Cartwright) does major male voices (Bart, Nelson, Ralph...etc). It boggles my mind how she can have such a masculine voice (specially for Nelson).

South Park is fairly popular, but some people don't like its offensive humor so it's no where near as popular as the Simpsons.

[Shinobu_Maehara]

Matt Groening is indeed a wonderful artist, and his style should never be altered.
It's always that way, never EVER redo something that is already good enough

If The Simpsons would become an Anime it loses every content and just looks like a cheap copy.

Same thing with dubbing Ever watched the English version of your favourite Anime..

example Hellsing? I have the dual voice DVD which is Japanese and English.
I always watched the jap version, and read subtitles.

But Alucard sounds VERY VERY gay in English O.o...

[kj1980]

Ah, that show. I remember way back when it was being compared on a Japanese TV show about its popularity with our "Chibi Maruko-chan" as a national animated show. That was about I know about it. I think it may have been shown over here on a minor local station - but seeing how no one mentions it, it must've been cancelled.

"South Park" was shown on WOWOW from 1999-2000. It was cancelled and no new episodes has been shown since it got poor ratings. However, due to it's weird art style made out of cut pieces of paper and vulgar language, it went around here in Japan that "Americans have a weird sense of humor and animation style."

Much as American cartoons do not do so well here with the exception of Disney animated motion pictures (which even then do not get the audience raves that I see on English language news sources), nor do otakus could care less about American cartoons, I don't think there is any "fansub" nor would they even try to do it since it got low ratings anyway. There is not a large fan base to even go to such lengths to do something that infringes on copyrighted material.

Hey! That WOWOW's South Park site still exists!! If you are interested, here is the Japanese "South Park" site which hasn't been updated since 2000: http://www.southpark.co.jp/

[kj1980]

Ah, my mistake. It looks like "The Simpsons" does still show on Japan....on CS satellite SkyPerfectTV's FOX channel.

From the looks of it, it is currently showing two versions, the bi-lingual broadcast on Mondays at 21:00-21:30 and the subtitled version on Friday 24:00-24:30.

I doubt that this show is getting any ratings...probably is shown for American military personnel on our military bases and American/English speaking people who work here in Japan. The most popular show on Monday at such a prime time is very popular variety shows like "Takeshi's TV Tackle" on TV Asahi. More less since that show is being shown on CS satellite as compared to VHF.

The Simpsons Japanese HP: http://www.foxjapan.com/tv/bangumi/t...index_swf.html

[Wilcon]

Lousy idea, it would never, ever work . It's good as it is, and regarding the japanese dub, that would probably sound ("#!¤"#).

[Secca]

You can actually rent the Simpson's Dvd on Blockbuster, they have the japanese dub language. Marge sounds like a high school student. And Homer voice is so weird.

Just check it out for fun. ^^

[a_nevels666]

Originally Posted by Secca

You can actually rent the Simpson's Dvd on Blockbuster, they have the japanese dub language. Marge sounds like a high school student. And Homer voice is so weird.

Just check it out for fun. ^^

I think the japanese equivalent of The Simpsons would be something like Azumanga Daiou. (Content-wise anyway, not in how well-known or popular it is.)

That's also a comedy show about a group of wacky characters in their daily lives, that's mostly episodic in nature.

Anyway, it's true The Simpsons is like a cultural phenomenon. The whole thing is so rooted in American culture it's impossible to dub into Japanese. (Without ruining it) I'm not suprised it's not succesful in Japan.

There are several episodes of The Simpsons with anime-references in them by the way. (The episode where they go to Japan, for example.)

[Secca]

Originally Posted by a_nevels666

I think the japanese equivalent of The Simpsons would be something like Azumanga Daiou. (Content-wise anyway, not in how well-known or popular it is.)

That's also a comedy show about a group of wacky characters in their daily lives, that's mostly episodic in nature.

Anyway, it's true The Simpsons is like a cultural phenomenon. The whole thing is so rooted in American culture it's impossible to dub into Japanese. (Without ruining it) I'm not suprised it's not succesful in Japan.

There are several episodes of The Simpsons with anime-references in them by the way. (The episode where they go to Japan, for example.)

How well do you know American culture, that's how much you can enjoy The Simpson. It goes vice versa with Japanese comedy, how well do you know japanese culture.

Haha yup I remember the Simpson episode where they go to Japan and they ended up on one of those family torture show. ^^

[boneyjellyfish]

How would the Simpsons work as an anime? Didn't ANYONE see the Mr. Sparkle episode?

[a_nevels666]

Originally Posted by boneyjellyfish

How would the Simpsons work as an anime? Didn't ANYONE see the Mr. Sparkle episode?

Yeah, it turned out to be just a fishbulb.

[Dragon Flame]

Mista Spahkel Ahhhh

[Hisoka44]

i have seen simpsons, downloaded it after some european friends said it was good and i liked it alot