Sad news last week, good news this week.
Last week, the body of Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui was found at the base of a cliff he had apparently fallen from while taking a picture.
While the version I of Shin-chan I adore so isn’t HIS version, it couldn’t have happened without him. Usui’s irritatingly perceptive five year old stood up as well as Bart Simpson has for so many over here in the US.
I think the Simpsons is actually a good point of reference to get an idea of the significance of Usui’s work. The Shin-Chan manga has been on-going since 1990 and was still going; the last couple chapters will still be published, in fact. It was turned into an anime starting in 1992 and is one of the few anime series that doesn’t fall into the “13-26-52” pattern. The series has been almost as long lasting and just as popular as the Simpsons and in fact has inspired 17 anime films.
When FUNimation started bringing it over to the US, they decided to do something a little different with it. Instead of just a straight dub, Japanese jokes in tact, they decided to actually rewrite the show. In, well, 99.9999% of shows, this would be an utter disaster, a total affront to the source material. In fact, my next post will go into a bit of that side of rewriting. However, the people working on this were aware of what they were doing. Instead of mindlessly rewriting it in hopes of making some cash, FUNimation gathered together a group of writers with some of the dirtiest, most random, acerbic senses of humor. The writing ended up being some of the funniest stuff I’ve heard, well, anywhere.
Booger butt poopy shit poop.
I’ve reviewed the first and second box sets over on AMN, and the show just keep getting better. Of course in America there’s plenty of source material if FUNimation wants to keep doing it—and the Japanese licensors are still interested—but it’s sad to think that the creator of something that’s brought me so much joy passed on so suddenly, and so early (Hey, 51 is NOT old, despite what I’ll be saying in about 24 years).
It’s hard to think of something meaningful to say about the creator of one of the dirtiest things I’ve ever watched. I know Shin would have something memorably inappropriate to add, but I’m out of words.
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