Sonic Movie 2 Japanese Dub (August 19th)

[VO.SUPER]

19 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

It's a shame that the movie is starting out rough, but maybe because it's an American made film that the movie isn't doing well?  I mean the One Piece movie is made in Japan.

It's not necessarily that it being American makes it do badly. One of the highest grossing films in Japan this year is Top Gun, one of the MOST American films. And of the people that have seen Sonic 2, it's reviewing very well. 

The general problem is more likely unfamiliarity with the property that is hurting audience attention. We know Sonic is a fairly underground property in Japan and has struggled to rise above. This is something only continued word of mouth can really help, and with the strong reviews and continued Sonic Frontiers news, hopefully the film can rise. 

[Muglés]

American movies, especially ones that are more action-oriented, have never really had an issue performing well in Japan. This is simply because Sonic has just never been popular over in Japan.

The numbers are lower than I expected, but I'm not surprised.

[Rabbitearsblog]

2 hours ago, Muglés said:

American movies, especially ones that are more action-oriented, have never really had an issue performing well in Japan. This is simply because Sonic has just never been popular over in Japan.

The numbers are lower than I expected, but I'm not surprised.

Is Sonic not popular in Japan because most people don't know who Sonic is or is it because it's too westernized for them?

[VO.SUPER]

41 minutes ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Is Sonic not popular in Japan because most people don't know who Sonic is or is it because it's too westernized for them?

Sonic's lack of popularity is for a multitude of reasons, but the biggest one was that the Megadrive wasn't popular in Japan. A lot of Sonic's success was in conjunction with the success of the Genesis in America. 

Then SEGA squandered Sonic on Saturn, but nearly brought him back with Sonic Adventure, using a huge marketing campaign to bring him up. But then things just fell out from there. 

And I'd argue Sega never made another effort into Japan until pretty recently. 

[Rabbitearsblog]

2 hours ago, VO.SUPER said:

Sonic's lack of popularity is for a multitude of reasons, but the biggest one was that the Megadrive wasn't popular in Japan. A lot of Sonic's success was in conjunction with the success of the Genesis in America. 

Then SEGA squandered Sonic on Saturn, but nearly brought him back with Sonic Adventure, using a huge marketing campaign to bring him up. But then things just fell out from there. 

And I'd argue Sega never made another effort into Japan until pretty recently. 

I guess with the huge success of the movies, it made SEGA reconsider in trying to attract the Japanese audience again.

[Polkadi~☆]

1 hour ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

I guess with the huge success of the movies, it made SEGA reconsider in trying to attract the Japanese audience again.

I can definitely say this is true. SEGA tried with Sonic Forces, as that game catered way more to Japanese gamers than anyone else, but it wasn't as successful as SEGA hoped (still made a decent entry in Japan, but didn't stack up to the competition).

After the movie's release, I noticed Sonic's Japanese social media accounts picking up a lot of steam, they have been going all out since then to catch an audience. Collaborations with Japanese celebrities like Aoi Yuki and Inugami Korone, videos from the English side exclusively dubbed for Japan, videos that were only made for Japan, a lot more streams from Sonic Team, even a monthly vlog series, and all the art on Twitter. And that's not even scratching the surface, honestly.

They are REALLY trying to gain an audience again. I hope it works, because everyone can find something to love about Sonic!

[Rabbitearsblog]

2 hours ago, Polkadi~☆ said:

I can definitely say this is true. SEGA tried with Sonic Forces, as that game catered way more to Japanese gamers than anyone else, but it wasn't as successful as SEGA hoped (still made a decent entry in Japan, but didn't stack up to the competition).

After the movie's release, I noticed Sonic's Japanese social media accounts picking up a lot of steam, they have been going all out since then to catch an audience. Collaborations with Japanese celebrities like Aoi Yuki and Inugami Korone, videos from the English side exclusively dubbed for Japan, videos that were only made for Japan, a lot more streams from Sonic Team, even a monthly vlog series, and all the art on Twitter. And that's not even scratching the surface, honestly.

They are REALLY trying to gain an audience again. I hope it works, because everyone can find something to love about Sonic!

It's great that SEGA is really trying to attract the Japanese audience nowadays, but why didn't they try to attract the Japanese audience in the first place?

[FlameStream]

It's going to be hard to sell to the audience that watches One Piece and JJK, but maybe they can find some success in the more general or younger audience.

The second movie ended up being mostly a flop in the circle of people I know that liked the first one and that were not fans (too much randomness, etc.), so that didn't inspire too much confidence. That said, over-the-top comedy can be found succesful there, even if it's not the same kind.

[VO.SUPER]

5 hours ago, FlameStream said:

It's going to be hard to sell to the audience that watches One Piece and JJK, but maybe they can find some success in the more general or younger audience.

The second movie ended up being mostly a flop in the circle of people I know that liked the first one and that were not fans (too much randomness, etc.), so that didn't inspire too much confidence. That said, over-the-top comedy can be found succesful there, even if it's not the same kind.

I think SoJ would be very happy appealing to young kids. Considering most of their current JP audience are probably people from the DC era. 

They'd appreciate cultivating a new audience I'd suspect. 

[VO.SUPER]

On 8/24/2022 at 3:14 PM, The Great Egg Emperor said:

So now that the Japanese dub is out, I am curious:
Who is Korone voicing?

I think she is voting the female G.U.N agent near the end. 

 

On another note: Naoto Oshima is being wholesome.