PowerPuff Girls become PowerPuff Girls Z anime

Small Screen Specials, Series and Direct-To-Video
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GeorgeC

PowerPuff Girls become PowerPuff Girls Z anime

Post by GeorgeC » April 2nd, 2005, 7:31 pm

It's finally happened...

A co-production between a Japanese animation company and Cartoon Network has resulted in a new Japanese-localized version of PowerPuff Girls.

More info at AnimeNewsNetwork.com ...

The entry for this is dated 4/2/2005 at ANN so it's NOT an April Fools' joke.

The original PowerPuff Girls has aired and been dubbed for Japanese audiences, but the new show is a redesigned series with a distinct Japanese flavor.

The ANN link also has links to pictures that show posters of the new PPG designs. They actually look pretty darn good and not UPA-ish like the original PowerPuff Girls.

There IS a market for magical girl action shows in Japan and I'd say this series has a fair chance of succeeding if it can keep the spark of charm that made the original PowerPuff Girls series so good.

(The shine, however, has fallen off the original PPGs over the years -- especially post PowerPuff Girls: The Movie (2000).)

Make no mistake about it... While the new show IS a Japanese take on PPGs, it will NOT be the same show airing in the US right now.

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Post by Macaluso » April 3rd, 2005, 2:04 pm

*sigh*
I friggen hate this.

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » May 24th, 2005, 12:32 pm

I just went back and checked the PowerPuff Girls Z site again at http://ppgcom.gooside.com/ppgz/index.html

There are two downloadable QuickTimes on the site. The first is a Transformation scene (2.4 MB) and the second is a fight between the Girls and the redesigned Mojo Jojo (9.4 MB). The fight scene clip is on the second page of the website accessed by clicking on "Next" on the bottom of the first page. Most of the website is in Japanese (appears as a mess of "?" markes on your browser), but the important link words "Next" and "QuickTime" are there in English.

(The show is looking like yet another entry in the "magical girls" genre that's big in Japan but has never caught on much in the US apart from Sailor Moon. I think the fact that it looks to be more of a superhero spoof than a straight magical girls series will actually help the show's popularity in the States AND Japan.)

The quality of the drawing and animation is top-notch for a Japanese children's show. I'd daresay this LOOKS better than the original PowerPuff Girls show. The color's much more vibrant and thankfully the character designs are NOT stuck in the 1950s Golden Book style that every TV animation graduate of Cal Arts seems to love. Now whether the PPG revamp can maintain a Japanese flavor while still maintaining a link to the original series and REVIVING it remains to be seen. There's no question CN wouldn't be doing this show if they didn't feel a need for a more radical approach to revive what was their flagship original series. It wasn't all that long ago that PowerPuff Girls was the top-rated original production series on Cartoon Network.

I have no doubt this show WILL appear in the US. It's too cute-looking!


Note about QuickTime downloads: Before you can rip these to your hard drive, you have to let them download to the small window that shows up on your browser... Then, you can download the clips to your hard drive.

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