I need to get this thing soon.

The amazing thing about SPC/KNT is that the people involved, from the voice talent to the fans, just love this franchise; it doesn't matter how long it's been since it aired because, at the end of the day, the love (and passion) is still there.

This is true. That's what makes the series so special.

I actually saw this when you first posted it, but forgot to comment. Anyway, it's cool that they did this but still a little weird. It would have been more fitting for Pizza Hut than Arby's, but hey. *shrugs*

I merged this with the duplicate topic, just FYI. Sorry I don't have any painting advice for you either, but if you've figured it out by now (seeing as this thread is now two years old) it would be cool to see pics of the newly painted figures.

I still poke my head in here from time to time, just to make sure you kids are playing nice and that nothing's blown up. It seems EE is pretty much a ghost town these days, which is why it's nice to see a handful of you are still trying to keep things going.

This would be where I'd mention I'm going to try to post more often myself, but I've been saying that for years and it never quite happens, but who knows, I could surprise you some day. I think I might be one of the few staff members still around, as it looks like Purrcat disappeared again. (Say hi if you're lurking, Purr.)

Random fun fact: According to the site, I've only spent a little over a week total logged in to this site, despite all the years I've been here. (7 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes.)

Okay, so I'm double-posting here, shame on me, but I figure this situation warrants it.

I just spent a lot of time on your blog, though I've barely scratched the surface. Pretty great stuff in there, lots of new images and info I've never heard of before.

The thing that really caught my eye was this post and the accompanying screenshots. So Discotek is actually going back and improving their subs and doing away with some of their censorship? That's great news, even if it looks like it's still a fairly loose translation. Since I've no intention of getting a tumblr (I dislike modern social media sites, and things like endless scrolling/lack of a proper comment system really bug me) I thought I'd ask you here: Have you heard back from them on whether they intend to continue to improve the translations/de-censor things for all the episodes? Do you think they'd release this improved version on DVD/blu-ray? I would definitely buy another copy if that's the case. The biggest deterrent to me in watching KNT has been the poor sub job, even though it's still better than sitting there trying to listen to the raw Japanese and figure it out on my own.

I think it would also be great if they would fix the names, if that's possible. Although it irks me, I can live without the honorifics, since most translations don't include them, but things like "Skashee" and "Lord Korn" are just so cringe-worthy. But Tatsunoko may be to blame for that and have the final say in things. Since I don't believe I've posted this before, these are the exact responses I got from Discotek when I first e-mailed them about translation and name issues:

The names are decided by the japanese company

I then asked if they had no say in fixing the names and they responded:

We dont have any say they pick character names. Sorry.

When I asked for confirmation if this company was, in fact, Tatsunoko and if they could put me in touch with them, they didn't really answer and instead responded with:

Hi. The set is finished. Its been manufactured and won't be changed.

They then told me how the SPC release was being worked on and would be due in July, as it hadn't come out yet. These were all sent at the end of March 2013. I wonder if things have changed now to the point where they'd be given permission to have more control over the property, or if the names were the only real thing they couldn't change and have decided on their own to deal with the censorship. I'm also hoping they will (or have?) gone back to those two lines in the first episode where they insert "samurai" and "ninja-samurai" where literally no such thing existed in the original. This will be interesting to see.

Stickied for awesome, much like the SPC thread.

A question for Tigriss, felineki, or anyone else who might know: When Otama is revealed as "head of the Cat family," what's the significance? The Nyankee aren't related, so is she supposed to be like a mob boss, or something?

Hey, another veteran still alive and kicking.

Well, I'd go with felineki's take on it, although I thought it may have been a plot they would have used had the series continued. If I'm remembering right (someone chime in here if you know), it was used as a plot point in a doujin or two. Or even the preview we got for what the continuation of the series might have been? I need to go look for that.

As for being the head of the "family", this isn't the mafia, it's just a title referring to them as a group, although I'd say it isn't a stretch to imagine that the Nyanki are descendants of other ninja who have watched over the shogunate before. And if certain doujin stories, the designs of the New York and British Pizza Cats, and designs for the characters for that "Cat Police Beranmee" thing tell you anything, they like doing "clones" or "palette swapped" versions of the characters a lot. They may have had ancestors who looked a lot like our current group of heroes.

but I do remember seeing someone on the internet once say that a translator who worked with Streamline Pictures was on the SPC staff, and gave the writers a brief summary of each episode's plot. So even though the dialogue was entirety rewritten, they would have had a general idea of what the plot was abut. Take that with a grain of salt though, as I haven't confuirmed it.

It would be very cool if you could confirm this! I've always heard two versions of the story, the first one being the most common explanation, that the scripts were deliberately withheld so the writers would be forced to be creative instead of just doing a punchclock translation. The second version says the scripts they got were bad, so they essentially chucked them out and just took the basic plot outline, then filled out the rest on their own. It'd be nice to hear something a little more "official" from someone in the know.

I'd always heard it was less ambiguous than SPC that there was a love triangle going on with Yattarou/Omitsu/Pururun, but as I haven't watched all of KNT yet, and taking the finale into consideration, it seems like they left it up to the fans to decide. I personally like Yattarou/Pururun (Speedy/Polly), but whatever floats your boat.

What episode is that?

I'll be sure to watch these episodes during my semester break.

Did you ever get around to this? Can't remember the number, but the episode was "Pinch! The Masamasa is Stolen" (KNT) or "Gone with the Ginzu" (SPC).

Pretty sure that wiki needs to enforce [citation needed] standards more often. I keep meaning to go through it myself when I have the time, but you more active members could always pitch in too. I think it's safe to remove unsourced info like that, especially if fans who have more knowledge of KNT, like felineki, have never heard of it.

I have got to get my hands on one of these babies.

The Dynamite Evolution Nyagoking has just been released. Yattarou's voice actor Kappei Yamaguchi has received his. Kind of funny, him buying a figure of the mecha his character always missed the chance to pilot in the show.

That's hilarious. If the giant mech won't accept you because you didn't make it on time, just buy your way in. Seems to work for everything else these days.

Tenko mentions that a few years back he met with the company making the ES Goukin figures and provided them with model sheets. The company was very pleased with this, as they had very few references to work from, even Tatsunoko themselves having few materials left from the show's production. He also mentions that he tried to convince them to make a Karamaru with Komusoutector, but in the end they wouldn't agree.

Dishonor. Dishonor on their artists, dishonor on their entire company!

A friend told me about this three days after it happened and I recognized her as being the voice of Omitsu right away, so I was crushed. Another talented voice gone. At least now, after all these years, we'll be able to preserve one of the great works they were in to honor their memory.

Does anyone know when this comes out, or if it has already? Because once it does, it's getting my money. I haven't even finished looking through the original yet, but a translated copy might motivate me to finish, since I'll finally be able to actually read it without struggling on one page forever.

Side note, not to be bossy, but could some of you maybe trim the multi-quotes in your posts? It's a bit cumbersome when you have like five quotes in your post per one new original sentence.

This is great, felineki! I'm going to have a lot of catching up to do, but it'll be worth it.

A-Log, can I just say how awesome you are for doing all this research for us? Thank you.

Also, here's what Arthur Grosser (voice of Bad Max) has been up to:

http://vintageversesvoiced.com/

He's doing some online poetry reading. In some of these, you can hear a bit of Bad Max in them. Check them out!

This makes me laugh. I need to go listen to some of this soon. I would be great if any lurking artists out there would do a take on Bad Max reading poetry.

Old thread, but as I never saw this nor have any intention of doing so, could someone tell me what it was?

Honestly, I doubt there is anything really "bad" about this show that would make you not want to let kids watch it. Most of us here, excluding newcomers, probably saw it as kids or young teens ourselves. And if parents or guardians find anything objectionable, they can use it as an opportunity to talk to their kids about their values. Should be common sense for anything kids watch, really. But SPC itself already removed most of what you might call "objectionable" content, and when it got to the US, it was watered down even further, although with these DVDs, now the episodes are restored and uncensored (beyond what was done to the original KNT version).

I guess maybe for younger kids you could explain why women shouldn't be objectified, or gay/crossdressing/etc people shouldn't be made fun of, or how it's not cool to bully others, (or that you can't solve all your problems with a magic sword or giant robot ), but other than that, I'm hard-pressed to think of anything kids can't handle beyond not getting some of the older jokes.

Stickying this sucker because this is awesome news.

Shaking my head at some of the ignorant (if still enthusiastic) comments on that thread. Gag dub, people, it's called a "gag dub"! There's nothing "awful" about it, they just didn't do a "proper" translation, but that still doesn't stop it from being amazing.

I will admit that I've become a "purist" with almost every other anime series I watch, but people really need to learn the difference between dubbed shows that got butchered and hacked, and dubs that maybe played it loose with the translation, but were humorous and had honest creativity and effort put into them, like our beloved SPC.

Also moved to "SPC Episode Reviews".

Moved to "SPC Episode Reviews".

Moved to the "fan works" section, since fanfics go here.

(Side note, it seems I'm still getting that "database error" even when moving a thread.)