KUIBA: The “Chinese Naruto”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Nov 2, 2010 02:08 JST
- Tags: China, Made in China, Marketing, Naruto, Shonen, Translation, Video Gallery
An upcoming Chinese anime, KUIBA, is being touted as the “Chinese Naruto,” and will be the first Chinese anime ever to be distributed in Japan.
Several trailers show off an anime with modern production values and a distinctly familiar artistic style:
The anime is due to begin distribution in late 2011. International distribution deals in Japan, Europe and America have already been closed.
Publishers Vasoon are apparently intending it chiefly for overseas audiences as an export anime, something of a first for a Chinese studio, and apparently a necessity as low station fees and rampant piracy in China proper rule out the domestic market as a viable target for any animation of quality.
Additionally, the anime is intended as a modern Japanese style “ACG” franchise incorporating anime, manga and game titles, an ambitious objective for an as yet unproven title.
Reportedly the makers have analysed the elements of such shonen giants as Naruto and One Piece in order to establish which led to them becoming international hits, and then replicate them in KUIBA – top of their list is the quality of art and character designs:
“If we draw them nicely, people will surely think they are Japanese in style. So, instead of trying to avoid looking Japanese, we decided to tackle the issue of beauty directly [by adopting a Japanese style].”
Character designs are predictably enough based on the inescapable Chinese literary classic “Journey to the West,” hence the stave wielding monkey martial artist. The story is said to be unconnected however.
The other major element of shonen success is of course the inclusion of the usual hackneyed shonen themes of courage, teamwork, triumph over adversity and so on – these are promised in abundance.
Observers can be forgiven for noting that this seems a very Chinese approach, not that they can necessarily be blamed for wanting to design a hit rather than happen upon it by chance.
The creators claim originality all the same however:
“The feelings are those of Chinese, so they differ from those of Japanese or Americans. With these different values the work we create naturally differ a great deal as well, so from this persepctive it’s 100% Chinese originality.”
The noted propensity of China’s fledgling animation industry for plagiarism may be a cause for concern – distributing plagiarised works in nations where the rule of law is well established would likely only result in costly legal action and the withdrawal of the franchise from all but the most backwards markets, suggesting it will need to be avoided at all costs.
On the other hand, the imposition of unfamiliar ethics may be just what the Chinese industry needs to establish itself as an independent creative force rather than a mere parasite.
Just whether Japan and the west are ready for Chinese furries riding horsebirds is another matter however…
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Combining China and Naruto into one? My hate meter cant handle this..
your meter doesn't go up to 9000??
As for design, the main character does not appeal to me. I think it's an ugly nut.
So much for using good artists on a disagreeable project. :(
i am pretty sure at this point that they make this crap just to piss the Japanese off >.>
they are definitely rather blatant with their obvious and frequent rippoffs, all being horrible quality ^^;
Hmm?... Akiyama took Journey to the West and made Dragonball... Kishimoto got inspired by Dragonball and made Naruto... Now some Chinese took Naruto and reincorporated the Journey to the West.
Dunno what will it be but it doesn't seem original at all...
None of them seems original to begin with. I just don't understand how come such typical shounen to the max can be so popular.
Errm, orange = naruto? Thats super lame dude!
>>11:35
So full circle and everything returns to the original primordial slimy ooze?
I hope they get sued.
Very sad to see their most ambitious animation effort is the most derivative thing ever, not only from the Japanese animation but from their own cultural stories of Journey to the West, which is one of the most overtly used themes in 'retellings' in history... Way to go China... way to go.
And LOL at them trying to navigate through their own piracy biting at their ass.
Somehow watching that trailer made me want to cry.
-sigh-
I'm about ready to barf my diner out. I mean c'mon?! that's just wrong! hate meter is showing 9999999
Hm, in what regards is this manga similar to Naruto? I just see the standard storylines of all Shonen. And that orange jumpsuit which is somewhat similar to Naruto's is nothing more than a slight modification of the outfit SonWuKong wore in a popular show of the ninetees.
Certainly this is nothing as outragious as the similarity between ToLoveRu and Urusei Yatsura or the first chapter of Metaluca and the first chapter of DragonBall, no?
If you want to call 'similarities' a problem, then you should ask why are most of the chinese cartoons based on "The Journey Going West" and not as varied as the different takes on myths like the Japanese have done? The idea that they are calling it a "Chinese Naruto" shows that they are attempting to leech off the Naruto name rather than stand up on its own.
Surely we can agree art in all forms are intriguing. Even the stealing of Transformers and making a trash version in China is amusing. What, they couldn't make a totally different one but had to base it on Transformers? So... sad?
wtf naruto.....how is tat naruto u fuking noobs..
and as for this type of anime they are pretty much all the same...
the hero being a fuktard and never gives up
e.g. naruto, bleach and one piece
mine's at about a million and a half.
my eardrums exploded at the sound of the voice actors, and my eyes are bleeding T_T...this 'anime' gave my body cancer
That's good. You needed it.
maybe you can make a hate list, then put this at the top
Hahaha, are they serious ?
The animation looks like pure crap. What is this, 3-5 fps ?
Meh, chinese quality...reminds of the chairs that exploded and ripped a bunch of chinese a new ahole...hahaha
You don't watch much anime, do you? The fluidity is actually slightly above average for anime standards. Whether this will help it escaping mediocrity is a totally different question though. At least the female character designs are cute...
I'd love to join in on the bashing but I got so irritated by this article that my blood pressure rose and caused a severe stroke. I am now paralyzed from the neck down and communicating via electronic relay from my hospital bed.
wow, the treilers looked awesome
but it is china we're talking here, so i doubt the real show would be that good
moreover, WTF, he speaks exactly the way naruto does, except for the dattebayooo
and wearing an orange outfit?
verdict:
DO NOT WANT!
:puke: :puke: :puke:
:puuuuuuuuuuuke:
*vomits all over the place*
What is this?
Give us 1/2 Prince Anime instead!
was i the only one who found the chinese voices hilarious...
I would say its Avatar: The Last Airbener not Naruto. That runts facial expression is often the same, he uses staff and is suited in orange (well, so is Naruto). Art is quite similar too.
Anyway, it looks pretty nice as animation, dunno about plot, gonna see it in future.
China deserves to be hated, for more than 1 reason, but this thing may give them +1
That leaves tham at infinity -1 on the hatescale then?
If you can't beat them, join 'em!
The main hero is quite literally monkey-face-similar to the chinese - well done (^-^)b
The art/color looks good, I can't help but feel some frames are missing though, the animation looks a little "weird".
It's a chinese buttmonkey!
Yeah, the in-between frames of the animation is a bit choppy. Perhaps, a matter of cost-reduction? Any way, to me the style looks pretty much like those in Korean animated series, and while Journey to the West is Chinese, the boots of the Hero in this Chinese animation are clearly ripped off from the ones of Goku from DragonBall Z. Emm, what is ripped of from Naruto? I don't clearly see it. Anyway, not very inspiring, but maybe a good start for the Chinese animation industry. Just maybe.
at least they dont have the nerve to use the word ninja or shinobi every goddamn second. directed to the anime about orange ninjas. yes, orange,pink and blue ninjas
I see. The frame-skip thing reminds me of those earlier "anime" styled Touhou music videos. And other flash stuff.
The style is great, though.
This reminds me more about the tale about a monkey traveling with a pigman and a monk, rather than Naruto.
Ugghh.., and here I always hate and feel uncomfortable with Monkey-looking characters ranging from Hideyoshi Soya from Law of Ueki, Hideyoshi Sarutobi from Seto No Hanayome and Tadashi from 11Eyes...
Excluding Akagi Tawanori, of course..
Instead of Naruto, seems more like Dragonball if there's a floating cloud involved.
Speaking of copying stuff.
Compare the facial features of the purple haired twin tail girl with Sakura (when she's not beating her dimwitted boyfriend to a pulp).
The blond woman with Tsunade (smaller chest I'll give them that.)
And the facial features of the Demon Knight fellow in the second video at 0.46 seconds and compare that to Jiraiya's grin.
White haired guy with the red eyes (2nd vid, 0.50), is a bit more of a stretch, but I'm getting a kinda Gaara-Sasuke hybrid vibe from him. But that could just be my imagination.
But definitely some Journey to the West/Dragonball/Naruto vibe overall.
I believe they'll loose a lot of fans simply for it being chineese voiced.
I mean, an incredibly large amount of us that watch anime want the voices to be japanese. English dubs sound funny or akward and many would rather buy japanese with english text than get english voice for free. I think many will feel the same by it being spoken chinese compared to the usual japanese we hear in anime.
Ghost In The Shell had awesome dub tho, so good that english dub was put as standard, even on japanese versions with englich dub available. Or something...
low budget animation its skipping their taking a short cut chinese style
this might be first chinese chi-nime , but it wont be their first epic fail-ime .
“The feelings are those of Chinese, so they differ from those of Chinese or Americans." Error here.
Also, the trailer looked widely uninteresting. And if you're making a show based off of your studies of other successes instead of trying to craft something more original, I doubt people will accept the gimmick for what they want it to be.
And I'm REALLY sick of monkey-like leads. Just stop it, ffs.
the fail is strong with this "chi-anime"
I dun't care for this sh*t. Looks like a booring retell of "Journey to the West".
i find it looks better with the sound tuned off. for some reason it just sounds wrong if the speech is not japanese
Your all used to watching in japanese thats why. If you start watching an anime in english for like several episodes (provided it the dub isnt crap) then switch to subs, you will notice the english dub sounds fine compared to the subs. If not, then it shows how much anime you watched.
Yeah, I agree on both accounts. After watching so much anime I can definitely see the difference. Regardless, and I know this is an unpopular opinion to have, I think it has potential.
same here
Kuiba = Kyubi?
I see what they did there...
So, you look also like a monkey? I mean, we as humans are primates after all, right?
the quality looks quite nice to say the least, cant say much about it being original tho
well guess it stays true to the term of china quality^^
This might be the first Chinese product that may rival the original.
Either way it looks good.
Even though it is journey to the west I mean when was the last time we have seen a story use that as a source. DB was the last one and they only took the main character...
I personally love journey to the west and it actually getting an anime adaptation is great in my books.
Chinese have proven they can learn from other countries with this animation. I will prove I can learn from the Chinese. I will pirate it...
:P
If it's not half panty shots, it'll be original by modern standards. :p
racist spotted
Chinese Naruto?
Didnt you mean chinese Dragon Ball?!
Anyway main character is fugly as hell, must be some crap anime!
Maybe the monkey hero in this one also got a nine-tailed fox/kyuubi in his body,just like Naruto. But Nine-tailed foxes have a very negative meaning in the Chinese and Korean culture, unlike in Japan.
Dude, he got a monkey sealed in his body... But instead of getting tails out of his ass when going angry, he looks like shit all the time.
good job anon. good job.
Lol, the last thing anime needs is a SECOND Naruto. god help us all.
What's up with retard claiming it's DBZ rip-off just because the leading role is a monkey?
DBZ was based on a chinese story, so it's weird to call it a rip-off. It reminds me of people calling the vehicles of Avatar a rip-off of Halo, while Halo ripped Aliens, a movie by James Cameron himself.
You guys are also really ignorant, since there are plenty of copies in the anime industry itself... The whole industry is about recycling stuff, but I hear no one complain. Think of stuff like Taiga, Shana, Louise, it's all about recycling. Remember Digimon jumping on the bandwagon after Pokémon? How about Sora no Woto copying the whole style of K-on? The industry is all about copying, so don't just ONLY blame China for it, even though it's scandalous for EVERYONE out there. Blame everyone or nobody, but don't be so goddamn selective.
Anyway, animation looks like shit, but they think they can get off with it, because the graphics look detailed. I don't expect much of it though. Give them 10 more years and maybe they'll be able to make something worthy.
moetard spotted
Can't really be a Chinese Dragon Ball, when Dragon Ball is a Japanese Journey to the West. :p
Well, it could, but it looks far from it...
the retooled monkey god story repeated ad nauseum?
yeah, very original. Even the Americans have been exposed to that story, like, 5 times.
If you can't join them, beat 'em. Thats the Chinese way.
More in-between frames please.