No Pizza Hut!? WHY?!

[kihayo.livejournal.com]

I thought I would share with the community the answer I received from Bandai. Since some people were wondering as well.

QUESTION:
I've been a really big fan of code geass since it aired in Japan. I just
recently watched the dub on the adult swim website, and no I haven't
e-mailed you to complain about it. I noticed that all the pizza hut ads
were censored out. Will it be like that on the dvds as well or will it
have the original imagery?

Thank you for taking you time in reading this, hope you hear from you
soon.

ANSWER:
Dear Kim,
Unfortunately, the Japanese rights holders did not clear the Pizza Hut logo for outside Japan, however we did try to get permission and Pizza Hut declined to give us permission.
So, unfortunately, we were unable to provide the Pizza Hut logo for broadcast and DVD releases.
Regards,
support@bandai-ent.com

Comments

[kamuro-ishigami.livejournal.com]

Oh my.. Pizza Hut Japan doesn't want their Western branches to benefit? INTRACOMPANY RIVALRY LOLz

[chiapetzukamori.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's that. It's most likely along the lines of Pizza Hut not wanting to be represented that way in a country other than Japan - because of cultural differences and such. Anime is much more mainstream in Japan - particularly the war/mecha type that CG is. So seeing the Pizza Hut logo is like any other ad....but in the US (especially if it's aired on tv) they might be afraid of people thinking that Pizza Hut endorses violent cartoons and such. They're afraid of the retarded people that live in this country basically...
A more extreme example is how Bandai didn't want the final season of Sailor Moon to be liscensed in the US because they didn't want the reputation of their company stained in the US by having nude scenes in such a popular series. It's not that they didn't condone the series (obviously they did or they wouldn't have done it) but they didn't think the general western audience would see it the same way.

ah, dear.

[wolfkat4.livejournal.com]

sorry to barge in on your convo... but...

I'm kinda really glad they didn't bring in the Starlight series to america considering what they did to the other series. the american company decided to have gender-changes not to mention since Haruka and Micharu were lesbians and no... we couldn't have that they made them cousins. yay, inscestual lesbianism now! --|

but I do agree with you about the Pizza hut reasoning. American audiences are still a bit tetchy and for some reason the terorism thing is still an issue no one wants to be associated with even in a "cartoon" such as this one where most people root for the "terrorist". It's kinda sad all that we miss because we (as a country) don't want to try to understand another culture and would rather vamp it up to fit our own. *sigh* thankfully most american anime comps have moved passed this...

Re: ah, dear.

[chiapetzukamori.livejournal.com]

ah but you're talking about the dub. I agree with you on that...although seeing what Cloverway would have had to do to Stars to make it "American-audience safe" would have been hysterical, I'm sure XD But Stars wasn't even brought over as a subtitled DVD release for the reasons I gave before (they probably thought that fans of the dub would buy dvds of the new series not realizing it wasn't edited to be like the tv show and be appalled).

So yeah, I'm sure Pizza Hut was thinking along those lines. That and the terrorist thing ^_^

Re: ah, dear.

[wolfkat4.livejournal.com]

Amusing as it would have been... I'm sure I would have had to cry Xo
hmmm... that's wierd, there's no actuall release for Starlight on dvd's???
I know of an apperant american sub version released in a boxset from Tioe-co (I think)or somthing like that for DVD... It contains no dubb or anything just sub, but it didn't seem like a china-sub. *shrug* that was a couple years back though.

ah, now I am woundering if they allowed the logos for only Japan or other countries besiedes America will have to edit them out. Curious curious.