Toho to be brought by Viacom

[Dusty Ayres]

Vie United Press International

In a surprising move that will upset the Japanese film industry, Tokyo-based Toho Company, Ltd. is to be acquired by Viacom Inc. for about $233 million (U.S.).

The move is seen by many as a way for Viacom to gain a foothold into the Asian market, and for Toho to gain wider access to the U.S. market, a move similar to what Kadokawa Pictures attempted to do years ago, but failed to accomplish beyond setting up a division to distribute anime and an anime channel on YouTube. Toho's attempt at coming to America was limited to setting up a theater in Los Angeles that showed Toho movies in Japanese to Japanese Americans in the 1950s.

Under the terms of the new deal, Toho movies will be shown widely in U.S. theaters; the high concept mainstream movies (like the Godzilla films) will be distributed under the Paramount banner, while more art-oriented fare will be distributed under the Paramount Vantage banner. Toho movies and TV shows will be distributed in North America, Europe, Central/South America by Paramount Home Video and CBS Video, but past movies distributed on home video by the Criterion Voyager company will still be distributed by that company under license from Paramount and Toho; the deal on Toho's part will be the same except reversed (Toho Home Video would distribute Paramount movies and TV shows in Japan and the rest of the Pacific Rim.)

The move is seen as helping to stabilize the 50-year-old company in the wake of the financial crisis and the recent disaster that has hit Japan, and also in light of the popularity of anime, which Paramount wants to capitalize on; buying Toho is seen as a way to get access to more anime, and by Toho staffers as a way to get Japanese movies a wider exposure in North America and elsewhere. The company will be headquartered in both Tokyo and Los Angeles as a result.

Toho to be brought by Viacom

 

[Nerys Myk]

Where are they bringing it?

 

[Dusty Ayres]

Where are they bringing it?

No place, did you click on the link?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Why would anyone click on a link on April 1st?

 

[Dusty Ayres]

It was meant to be an April Fool's joke, sorry. I'll never do it again.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Was the "brought" part of the joke?

Click the link? Come on Dusty, I figured you put the whole article in your post.

 

[Trekker4747]

I hate April Fool's Day on the internet.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Is there something inherently absurd about Viacom buying Toho? Isn't that the sort of thing that we expect to happen? The idea of an April Fool's Day joke is that the person should slap their forehead and say, "D'oh! Obviously that would never happen" and then feel silly about having been fooled. I don't see why Viacom would "never" buy Toho, which as far as I know, is a successful studio that is worth buying.

 

[Trekker4747]

Is there something inherently absurd about Viacom buying Toho? Isn't that the sort of thing that we expect to happen? The idea of an April Fool's Day joke is that the person should slap their forehead and say, "D'oh! Obviously that would never happen" and then feel silly about having been fooled. I don't see why Viacom would "never" buy Toho, which as far as I know, is a successful studio that is worth buying.

Toho is a company that has been in operation for something like 80 years, operates in Japan and is owner in one of the most profitable properties in popular culture. Usually when a company gets "bought out" it's because they are struggling or are looking to be bought in order to stay afloat and prevent their property from getting into the public domain. So that Toho would be struggling enough to need to be bought out by an American company by itself is a bit absurd, but just that it doesn't make any sense.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Was the "brought" part of the joke?

That's what I was wondering.

Seriously, I'm not one to pick on spelling mistakes (even ones repeated twice), but it actually confused me when I saw the thread title, which killed the "shock factor" for the joke.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

So that Toho would be struggling enough to need to be bought out by an American company by itself is a bit absurd

I guess it requires more in-depth knowledge of Japanese businesses than I have, to get this joke.

There are plenty of cases of companies that represent various aspects of national cultures that were destroyed by the bulldozer of globalized culture. And since Toho's animation output (Studio Ghibli) is very obviously influenced by American culture (Disney), they aren't the first I would think of as representing some kind of pure Japanese culture that would be threatened by that bulldozer. It's just the reverse: the familiar Disneyfied aspects of Toho animation give it an easy toehold into global culture. It's very striking to me how Miyazaki's movies often show characters and cities that aren't at all Japanese.