I know most of you here,
have only heard of SPC, and nothing at all about Japan's counterpart, Kyattou
Ninden Teyandee, or KNT for short.
First things
first. 'Pizza Cats', unlike most of today's TV anime, was not a direct
translation of the Japanese scripts. The reason to this is because the
Japanese original had too many cultural references and 'possible' offending
remarks and/or quotes. Thus, SPC's team of writers came up with all new
plots to go along with the animation.
To this day, SPC is
unique in its own right, because even among all the 'mon' anime and whatever
else these companies throw out onto TV, it still holds up as being the only
recent anime series on TV that is a complete re-write. Don't let anyone
tell you otherwise.
There are still, other
differences between SPC and KNT. Another noticeable one is the
opening title sequence, which in KNT, was all original and completely different from
the English version, which just used clips from various episodes. The
only thing used from the Japanese opening was the few seconds of animation
where Guido spins his umbrella and swings it up over his head, at which pont
the screen freezes and we see the English title of the episode appear.
The "Sam-ur-i Piz-za Cats" logo that flashes peice-by-peice on
screen was also added into the opening, thus it is new, and was not part of
KNTs opening.
The music is another big
difference. In KNT, the music set the moods for whatever scene was
happening (which is what true anime music is supposed to do). In the English version, Saban and Levy decided to compose
more 'pop' and 'cartoony' sounding music. The theme song goes from a
traditional Japanese melody in it's first 2 bars, then breaks out into a
typical Saban/Levy peice full of clichés and slogans. For example:
"They've got
more fur than any Turtle ever had...."
Obvious spoof on TMNT,
which was still very popular at the time SPC was in the translation
process. By 1996, TMNT was all but vanished from people's minds, so
hearing this line, turned away a LOT of possible veiwership to the series, denoting
it as a TMNT ripoff. (I see a connection here, SPC vs TMNT / Pokemon vs
Digimon......hmmmmmmm??)
Or how about this:
"They're
stronger than dirt!"
..A slogan from an old
Ajax (dishwashing detergent) commercial.
Other little bits of SPC/KNT
trivia:
--> Many of SPC's Episode
titles derive from titles of popular songs, or puns on popular sayings or
phrases.
--> Speedy's relationship
with Polly grew as KNT progressed, whereas in the English version, he was all
over Lucille until the final episodes, when he finally admitted he had deep
feelings for Polly. This is the fault of the writers.
--> In SPC, Big Cheese is
portrayed and referred to as a rat. However, in KNT, he is portrayed as
a fox. Why this is, I do not know. Maybe the script writers felt
that our favorite SPC villain looked more like a rat than a fox. Head
for the Image gallery, and make your own judgment.
--> The
citizens (including the Cats) in SPC are portrayed as living flesh and blood
beings, or if you wanna get technical....anthropomorphic creatures. In
KNT, however, they are portrayed as robots who are born instead of
built. This may explain why Big Cheese explodes.....obviously something
the writers couldn't get around.
--> KNT had its share of
promotional efforts in Japan. Toys, a fan-made manga series, and a few
soundtrack CDs were put out. In fact, one song from KNT's soundtrack,
"To Be Yourself", topped Japanese pop charts for a while back in 1990, and was released later on
as a single.
The USA and everyone
else, however, got nothing as far as SPC related stuff is concerned, except
for a 'movie' (which I'll get to in another page). This is partly why
SPC failed on TV.....poor promotional efforts by Saban, as they were more
concerned about their 'Power Rangers' series than their syndicated series. In
today's 'monster filled' world, they'd have almost NO problem in this
department.
As you go through the
SPC/KNT section, you're going to find other little bits of info that I've
picked up from KNT/SPC related webpages....some things you probably never knew,
and I never knew at the time I watched SPC.
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