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Years after his anime show Shin Chan exploded in India, director Masakazu Hashimoto has now brought the popular character to India with the film Shin chan: The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers in India. The show, an adaptation of Yoshito Usui’s manga series, was huge in India, but was also panned by certain quarters for being too graphic for a kids show.
“I wasn’t aware of the censorship issues in India, but Shin Chan has changed over the years. In Japan, it is not censorship, but there is regulation on what is fit for children. That is not bad because it is protecting them,” said Hashimoto. “For example, I am now blessed with children, and I ask them to not show their b*tts. Because Shin Chan is the children’s hero, everything he does is copied, mimicked by them. I feel these changes are for the good,” he added.
In the interview with Hindustan Times, Hashimoto also weighed in on why Indian animated films haven’t been able to achieve the same level of popularity and commerce as anime has in the country. “There are several reasons. For example, in Japanese animation, the producers are well aware that it is going to be shown to a global audience, so it’s very high quality. In India, it’s not just Japanese content, but also other international content available too, which Indian audiences are ready to accept,” he argued.
The highest-grossing homegrown animated film in India was VG Samant’s Hanuman, which earned around Rs 12 crore worldwide. This year, Ashwin Kumar’s mythological animated film Mahavatar Narsimha broke all records, emerging as the highest-grossing Indian animated film ever, with over Rs 250 crore garnered just in India.
As far as the popularity of anime in India is concerned, Haruo Sotozaki’s dark fantasy film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, based on the manga series by Gotoge Koyoharu, has earned over Rs 63 crore within 11 days at the India box office so far. It opened bigger even than several live-action Hindi films on September 12.
But Indian cinema has also been inspiring Japanese filmmakers like Hashimoto to turn their attention towards the country. “The first Indian film that I saw was Muthu: The Dancing Maharaja. Since then, I thought India would be a good fit for Shin Chan. I knew if I made him come to India, I would be able to come here for location hunting too,” said Hashimoto.
Also Read: Shin chan Goes Desi with The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers in India
Muthu, directed by KS Ravikumar, is a Tamil action comedy, which released back in 1995. Starring Rajinikanth and Meena, it’s a remake of Priyadarshan’s 1994 Malayalam romantic comedy Thenmavin Kombath. A Japanese dubbed version helped it become the highest-grossing Indian film in Japan for 24 years, right up till 2022, when SS Rajamouli’s Telugu period epic RRR took over.
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