In Funky Fantasy 4, the word “gorp” is used. We thought the machine translator was making up words again, but it turns out that gorp is another word for trail mix. Lo and behold, I was able to find some actual gorp, so I bought a bag for photos. But I failed to notice that this particular gorp has an unconventional ingredient…
Yeah… there are grasshoppers in there.
Well, sort of an LoL book. It’s a localization of a Japanese children’s book! It was written by the producer and narrator of Game Center CX (Producer Kan!), and illustrated and translated by the multi-talented Nina Matsumoto.
Not only that, the Legends of Localization team added tons of bonus content. We interviewed the author, the illustrator/translator, and the designer of the English book. AND! The original Japanese edition of the book is also there in the back, so you can check out the changes that were made.
Also free stickers B-)
Here’s the commercial that was a huge group effort and tons of fun to make!
Buy the book heeeeeeere! And if you happen to find yourself at Tokyo Game Show this week, the book will also be available there! Producer Kan himself will be selling it 😀
Here’s some more weirdly named candy sent to us by a friend in Japan. It tastes like … soap brownies 🙁
Here’s the final clump of box art from Japanese versions of American movies. More comedies!
There’s nothing particularly weird about this one, I just like how the screenshots are at silly angles and Thing is pointing at stuff. It looks like something I’d design myself.
This one hits all the right marks. You get to see Kevin goofing around on his own (I love the popcorn shot), his cunning expression when he’s setting traps, and there’s even some slapstick of Harry getting his head set on fire.
The layout and design of this one brings back feelings of the early 90s big time. I love the translated exclamations all around the box, hehe. And dang, they even show the Terminator 2 reference!
Okay this one isn’t a comedy, but I didn’t have enough “coming of age” movies to make a separate post for it. I just thought it was fascinating that they prominently show a kid holding a gun on the back cover, especially since handguns are outlawed in Japan. I guess guns make things seem more American? ;_;
We continue our look at Japanese box art with a group of horror movies. Asia as a whole knows how to scare the heck out of me with their horror stories, so I wonder how Japan dressed up the boxes of some of my favorite American horror movies.
Warning: there are disturbing images on some of these.
Ah jeez, they went straight for the gross-out stuff – bugs in your mouth, tongues in your phone, and a guy on fire. Looks like they were going for shock value with this cover.
This VHS was released in 1979. I saw more recent Japanese releases of The Exorcist with much creepier things on the covers, specifically a big red image of Regan staring menacingly at the camera. It’s interesting how this back cover is so tame. All that text is apparently explaining the history of how the movie came to be made.
The LaserDisc edition of this one goes right for the jugular. I’m shocked that they decided to feature some of the more gruesome scenes in the movie here. And that huge red photo of the death’s head moth over Hannibal’s mouth is something I haven’t seen on English releases of the movie. It’s really evocative.
Let’s take a look at the box art used for subtitled versions of American comedy movies over in Japan.
As noted before, Army of Darkness was released as Captain Supermarket in Japan. Mato guesses it’s because while it looks like a horror movie on the surface, it’s definitely a comedy at its core. To release it in Japan as “Army of Darkness” would make it seem like a generic horror movie that nobody would pay attention to.
You can see by the artwork that they really ran with the “comedy” theme. The front cover kind of looks a little like a comic book setup.
I was surprised and extremely happy to learn that Ernest Goes to Camp, one of Poemato’s favorite movies, was released in Japan. It’s an 80s camp movie where an accident-prone janitor-turned-camp-counselor is put in charge of reforming a group of delinquents, while also trying to save the camp from being taken over by an evil mining company.
This box is simply covered with screenshots from the movie, which is an interesting approach. I like how the biggest image on the front is of the two cooks shoving a disgusting dish into Ernest’s mouth. And on the back cover I spot… a scene that never happened in the movie?! Or at least it wasn’t in the version I grew up with. I don’t remember anyone wearing a big ol’ fuzzy moose head.
Ehhhhh, this movie. Had to get it.
The cover art looks really good, but what the hell is up with that giant disintegrating Koopa head on the back? Wouldn’t that scare kids rather than make them want to watch it? Oh, hmm… Maybe that was the plan all along!
My coworker and I did some filming for a commercial yesterday! It’s for the I’m Stuck in a Video Game book written by Game Center CX’s producer & narrator, and illustrated & translated by Nina Matsumoto. The LoL team also added a substantial amount of extra content – interviews, behind-the-scenes sketches and photos, and more.
We filmed it at bossman reidman’s house with the help of his family. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos I took during production:
Now comes editing, adding in special effects, getting music composed, and narration! The book will release once we have this commercial in the bag (hopefully next week?)~
The Funky Fantasy IV book is deep in crunch mode and there’s still so much to do before our early October deadline. In fact, we figured out a final page count only yesterday: 240 pages. In actuality it’s a little less, since some of those pages will get used by the legal info page and other stuff. Here’s where it all ends though:
I think that’s even longer than the first Zelda LoL book!
Well holy crap, LoL is in possession of tons of Japanese-subtitled movies!
These are research for a project we’re slowly working on. A lot of the back covers are pretty interesting – it’s neat to see the types of screenshots they used to market these movies to a Japanese audience. I’ll do a few more updates highlighting the best back covers.
