http://animeondvd.com/news/news.php?news_view=739

have any of you seen this? this is an offical statement from TokyoPop...
(dated July 12, 2002) <-- note the year! also, there is additional commentary from the "Anime on DVD" staff which i did not post here.

for those of you with time, please read if you have the slightest inclination of wanting the original uncut version of the Initial D product on the market. if you took the time to contact TokyoPoP, there would be a compelling reason called "demand" in the marketplace to create an offical "premium, uncut, subtitled DVD release", as stated in their letter.

..........it can't happen without YOUR voice.

however, you can also just continue your apathy and sit in front of your computer screens and b!tch about how TokyoPop has screwed up your favorite anime OR get off your @$$ ( GOYA ) and let them know you want to see the "real deal".


so what will --> YOU <-- do ?


Tokyopop's Customer Service:

Allyson DeSimone
Voice: 323.692.6724
Fax: 323.692.6701
E-mail: customerservice@tokyopop.com
https://idforums.net/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=1665

The TokyoPop Letter as taken from "Anime on DVD" (without permission):
====================================================



July 12, 2002
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ANIME AND MANGA FAN COMMUNITY

TOKYOPOP & Initial D
During the past few days, there’s been a lot of discussion about TOKYOPOP’s plans for Initial D. We’ve taken notice, and thought we would chime in some insight from within the walls of TPOP headquarters…

First, we score Initial D, this kick-ass franchise property from Japan. We get the anime, the manga, the merchandising -- and we are thrilled! Then, we start making our plans. This is gonna be Speed Racer for the new millennium -- we’re thinking lunch pails, videogames, t-shirts… you name it!

We also know that we have a responsibility to be true to the spirit of the original Japanese version of Initial D. So, we start having lots of late night sessions about how to present Initial D to the widest possible audience and yet still retain its core essence. Some of us insist on calling the car the ‘Hachi-Roku,’ others call that insane and say that the only way to present the car to an American audience is as the ‘Eight-Six.’ We talk to bigwig network execs who want all the kanji removed from the logo and the car, who want to change tofu delivery to pizza delivery, who are utterly mystified at our insistence on retaining the original Japanese sound effects and printing the manga right-to-left, and who want us to refer to Takumi as Jeffrey “because it would be easier to pronounce”!

Most of the time, amidst this onslaught, we stick to our guns. Tofu stays tofu - place names like Mount Akina, Myogi, Akagi, the names of the racing teams, the name of the very prefecture wherein the story unfolds, the Fujiwara Tofu Shop kanji on the side of the Eight-Six -- we keep them all. But, bless our pointy little heads, we decide to create nicknames for some of the character names in the books because we know that they will have to be changed when the show gets on television, anyway – and at least we can keep the nicknames close.

So, Takumi becomes Tak, and Itsuki becomes Iggy, and Bunta & Kenji become Bunta & Kenji (wait, those aren’t good examples - gomen!), and Wataru Akiyama becomes Aki, and Keisuke Takahashi becomes K.T. It could’ve been worse – we could’ve been forced to go with Dirk, Patsy, Buffy, Andrea, Chelsea, Geoffrey, and Chandler … and, just FYI, the hot Sega Initial D arcade game due in a neighborhood near you soon will also feature the same names currently running in our manga.

So, why did we release the first volume of the manga with the original names? We simply screwed up – d’oh! – and went to press before our strategy was finalized. Those of you who bought the original print run of Volume 1 now find yourselves with a true collectible. Just so you know, our next printing of Volume 1 will have the altered names. Also, in the spirit of full disclosure: there are a few sex scenes in the manga that we’ll be altering -- one in the 1st volume, another later on in Vol. 8 or 9. These edits are necessary because we are positioning Initial D in the U.S. for a younger audience than it serves in Japan.

And thus, the saga has unfolded. We’re still wildly excited and overwhelmed by the initial fan and industry response to Initial D -- future plans for the property include all the things fans have asked for over the years -- and only occasionally received for such a mainstream property: premium, uncut, subtitled DVD releases, limited collector’s sets of the uncut manga themselves, exclusive ‘bundles’ comprising rare merchandise and obscure treasures… Rest assured, we are committed to making Initial D available in as many fan-friendly formats as possible.

So, if the broadcast TV version of Initial D is not to your liking, we completely understand. There’ll be an unedited, subtitled, Japanese language DVD release coming that we think you’ll enjoy. If the manga with the altered names isn’t your thing, that’s cool, and we certainly respect your right to disagree with us. (We’re thinking of shrink-wrapping the ‘nicknames’ version of the manga with a bottle of White-Out and a felt-tip pen so that fans can make their own name-changes as they see fit - whaddya think?)

We are passionate about anime and manga, and we believe in helping spread the word to as many people as we can. Many of us remember the joy of discovering Gigantor, or Robotech, or Yamato, or Dragonball, or Pokemon for the first time, and then rushing home from school every day so we would not miss a single episode. And we recall the further element of mystery when we learned that these shows came from Japan! At first, they were just great shows with weird, fascinating, complex story lines and an incredible approach to graphic design and camera work. Only later did we begin to obsess about where they came from, and then take the further step of comparing our initial innocent appreciations with the original Japanese source material – the birth of the otaku, ne?

This will all happen again with Initial D -- an entire generation of kids is gonna get hooked on anime and manga… without ever really thinking of it in those terms -- they’ll just really like the show, and will want to see more things like it. And some of those kids WILL go on to become true fans and go through all the evolutions of appreciation that we all know and love so well… eventually seeking out subtitled DVDs, collector’s editions of the manga, cosplaying Tak at AX, and learning to speak and read Japanese themselves so that they don’t even have to deal with our choices.

At TOKYOPOP we will always remain committed to both audiences: we will be there to ‘break’ new shows and to expose anime and manga to the widest possible audience, and we will also never renege on our commitment to serve the fan market, as well -- because that’s where we came from, and that’s where all the real fun lies, anyway, ne?

TOKYOPOP STAFF

====================================================

oh - and go vote too: https://idforums.net/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=1822

~~~ oh -- look at that.... i'm no longer a SCHMUCK...

jimbo

Good post, tons of good information. Thanx

yea they really doing it for fans my ass they grossed over 300 million dollars in japan with initial D . them money hungrey bastards
and i know mostly everyone on this site agrees with me .

i agree

"we’re thinking lunch pails, videogames, t-shirts… you name it!"

great..little kids running around with an 86 on their little lunch pail say 'yo, tak and k.t can drive good. i wanna do that when im older'

Why is it funny? A lot of anime aren't designed for kids.

Pinned for reference.

i got pinned cuz of my great point i made

Since most of you agreed with Kamui after reading that I can tell that most of you do not deal in the business world. Or you would know that what they are saying to you is true. The people that are putting up the money for this don't care at all what they do with Initial D as long as it makes money. Note that the people funding this are not the people in charge of bringing Initial D to the US audience. But if the funders have an Idea, or they want to make a change in the product, and the people in charge of bringing the product to the US audience don't want to listen to the funders. The funder usually just take their money somewhere else. This is the reason for the changes in Initial D if you could understand it as it is stated at the top of the page. They did not make it up, just to shut people up. This is how most things in the business world end up. Most products that you see out there are not in the original for their creators had for them. Someone with a lot of money decided to help the creator mass produce this product, and since that person is using their money they also want to have a say in what the final product ends up being, and since in most of these cases the creator does not have enough money to mass product this product themselves they have to compromise, and make some of the changes that the Funder wants made, as long as in the end the product is still able to do what it was intended to do. Since I do work in the business world, and I write contracts for a living, I do know what I am talking about. So I hope all of you read this and understand what tokyopop has said. And like they said before changes cannot be made without your input. Because like I said at the beginning the funders only want to make money, and if they know that a majority of their fan base wants something then they will give it to them, because in the long run they will make more money that way.

I heard that the backround music is diffirent. they took out the japanese songs like wings of fire, and some other songs. they only put the english ones.

ok you don't have a bad point but as for the president of tokyopop
i burn him

Clamp ownz toykopop ...MWAHHH

regarding the background song.. I think it will be something like what they've inside the Battle Stage (Super Eurobeat).. not bad at all... but lack of the original japanese Para Para feel...

but wait a minute.. Para Para is actually Super Eurobeat isnt? Anyway, i still wish that it'll stay near to the original music..

yea i agree can't go wrong with move or dave rodgers

got a copy of it from my friend ... I'll lists the goods and bads:

Good:
- untouched original Japanese episodes intact
- 5 channel surround and good quality video

Bad:
- in the 'original' episodes, subs are with US nicknames and edits.
- 'tricked out' episodes. WTF?! Need I say ANY MORE?!
- Eurobeat? gone. Replaced with generic garage band music.
- authentic car sounds covered with generic car sounds
- US voice acting sounds like a one man job
- generic video effects (dissolves and wipes) ADDED to the race scenes

As you can see the BAD totally outweighs the GOOD. Which is unfortunate.

IF this ever shows up on US TV, I hope that the networks choose the 'classic' version with REDONE US dubbing, because this is about a 4th rate job.


I got it off a site of some kid who watched one of the TP ID dvds

No its a post off a different board from some kid who watched the DVD
and was explaining how TP just ruined it by changing everything .

i see ...

... this is called unreferenced plagerism ...

thanks for clarifying

QUOTE

yea they really doing it for fans my ass they grossed over 300 million dollars in japan with initial D . them money hungrey bastards   and i know mostly everyone on this site agrees with me

thanks for the info Jimbo. stupid tokyopop

you deserve an S15 award. but im not S15, lol. hmm, ill just copy and paste it into PS and change S15 to "86" and then give it to you, lol. S15, is it alright if i do that? You went through the suffering of making the ribbon pixel by pixel so i would like to have your permission.

-edit- at first i thought he made this topic now i remembered jimbo did it. ok so this post is now directing to jimbo

ok jimbo, if S15-Guy says i can give you the new 86 award, ill find hosting for it but here it is for a "sneak preview"

-edit- ok i guess

S15 guy: thats cool dude, when did you make that?
x0xnolifex0x: i just changed the S15 to 86
x0xnolifex0x: i did it today
the S15 guy: cool

counts as a "go for it"? ill see if i can get it hosted



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When most anime come to North America they edit them to be aimed at kids. I dont why they do that.