Hanako & Stitch

[tikistitch]

Looks very cute!!!

Disney unveils anime 'made in Japan'

TOKYO (AFP) — US entertainment giant Walt Disney on Thursday unveiled pilot versions of television animation series it is producing in first-of-a-kind tie-ups with Japanese animation studios.

The move, first announced earlier this month, marks a change of strategy for Disney, which has traditionally distributed US-made characters Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck around the world.

A Japanese adaptation of the popular US "Lilo and Stitch" series will start in late 2008 as "the first Disney animation made in Japan and set in Japan," an official at the Japanese arm of Walt Disney said.

"It's important for Disney's business to produce contents that suit the taste of the country" where they are marketed, the official said at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008.

The original "Lilo and Stitch" series told of the bonding between the orphan girl Lilo and a little blue alien named Stitch on the lush Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The Japanese version, jointly produced by mid-sized studio Madhouse, will feature a Japanese girl skilled at karate and be set on a fictional island in Japan's subtropical southern chain of Okinawa.

In the three-minute pilot version, the girl, tentatively named Hanako, and other characters dance to the tunes of traditional Okinawan music while eating a bowl of rice with chopsticks.

Comments

[starshipangels.livejournal.com]

that looks really adorable~!! ^^

[sarahpolk.livejournal.com]

I'd be curious to know how they resolve the original storyline. Will Stitch be moving to Okinawa and leaving Lilo behind? Will we pretend that whole episode with Lilo never existed? Parallel universe? If Lilo exists, it would open up potential for various antics with Lilo and Hanako and Stitch.

Hmmmm....

[dustbunnies.livejournal.com]

This is interesting. Though i'm surprised to see stitch looks the same and not more kawai or whatever.

[loli-cat.livejournal.com]

Anime made in JAPAN?? What a novel idea! I'm pretty certain that most, if not all of the production studios in japan outsource to Korea now-a-days...

[jabberwockypie.livejournal.com]

Awww, she's very cute! She's not Lilo, but she's still cute.

(I like Lilo better, though.)

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Me too!

Someone on my Stitch email list says Hanako looks like Pucca with Garu's hair, and it's totally true.

[keeper1st.livejournal.com]

Heh! It's true! It's Pucca & Garu's funny-love child!

She even knows karate (OK, so it's not kung fu, but close!)...

AWSOME

[(Anonymous)]

THAT WHAT I CALLED AINME SERIES THERE JUST ONE PRABLUM THE VICE OF HANAKO
IN LILO AND STITCH THE SERES.

Re: AWSOME

[(Anonymous)]

HEY WHAT IF THEY CAN BRING THE LILO AND STITCH THE ANIME SERIES TO USA .IN USA ANIME IS VERY POPULER .^^

[keeper1st.livejournal.com]

Another picture visible on this Japanese site:
http://www.afpbb.com/article/entertainment/news-entertainment/2370549/2779659

You can see more clearly that Stitch is not playing an ukulele, but a more appropriate instrument for Okinawa. Hanako is not in this pic. But on the video screen, you can see a clear shot of Stitch, and definitely his appearance has not changed.

Supposedly, you can download a larger version of the picture, but when you click the link that says so, it takes you to a login screen, so it's members-only for the big stuff.

[keeper1st.livejournal.com]

And hey, Tiki, in my search to find someone with video from the anime fair presentation (yet to find one), I found a Japanese blog that, the description states, is dedicated to presenting Stitch goods!
http://okuramaiu.blog1.petitmall.jp/

Beneath all the dates on the left-side menu, the entries also are categorized. I'll translate for you for easy viewing. They're in this order:

Not Categorized Yet
Tiny Accessories
Mascots
Plushies
Stationery
Other
Décor
Keychains
Amusing Gifts
Disneyland Merchandise
Clatter (anything that jingle-jangles)
Foodstuffs
Fashion
Dime-store (100-Yen-shop) Stitchies

[keeper1st.livejournal.com]

... and the bottom of each page has a double-arrow for going to the next. Many individual entries have a double-arrow above the lines for adding comments. These are like LJ cuts; there's more images to be found beneath them.

The blog writer is quite enthusiastic. Much of the text is made up of Japanese emoticons and squee-like sound effects or laughing!

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's brilliant! I've already spotted a snow globe I hadn't seen before. I'll definitely add them to my links.

[keeper1st.livejournal.com]

I spotted lots of stuff I haven't seen before. And I only checked a couple categories...