#tokuma

Been working on new OCs to flesh out and expand the crew. We have the main crew in Hikaru, Ryujin, Parsec, Hasshack, Kotone, Ken, and Tokuma… But now we have 4 new faces and they are Jade, Amber, Devona, and Tariq!

"Out!" Maruten shooed the redhead. "Out out out!"

"I haven't done anything," his cousin said defensively, shifting from one foot to the other. "You were busy I didn't want to interrupt."

Maruten looked at the table, which was nicely set with lit candles. "Yes I was and I am and I need you to leave."

"Look, Maru-"

"I don't care if it's a mission, I don't care if the Hokage had dropped dead, I don't care if my mother has run out of rice flour I need you to go, Chouichi."

"He's not even here yet!" Chouichi said, though he let his cousin chase him to the front room.

"He will be soon now git."

Chouichi peered over his cousin's shoulder back at the dining nook in the kitchen.  "Are those your mom's heirloom chopsticks?"

Maruten colored, the red flush obscuring the spheres on his cheeks. "Yes, if you must know."

"So you're serious."

"As serious as it GETS now if you please-"

"Okay good," Chouichi made a quick hand seal. "you're gonna need this then."

He held out a hand to catch the wine bottle that poofed out of the seal on his sleeve. Maruten blinked at it.

"Consider it an apology for fucking up your last date," Chouichi said with a small smile.

"You didn't fuck it up," Maruten sighed. What could you do when your cousin showed up with vital intel on a potential breach of the outer wall? Chouichi hadn't even gone back to headquarters, his captain had told him, quote, 'get your ass home and sound the fucking alarm'.

Maruten was Akitaro's second in command. Of course he had to be informed of a potential breach of the Konoha defenses, especially when the intel held out and gave them one of Iwa's spies on a platter.

That Chouichi managed to roll in through his bedroom window when he was an inch and a half away from his boyfriend's dick, well.

Shit happens.

Maruten examined the bottle. Plum wine in white stoneware, bearing a distinctive maker's mark.

"…is this from Lord Chouza's private stock?" He asked.

"Why do you ask questions you don't wanna know the answers to?" Chouichi asked.

"Am I going to be impaled and hung in the great hall for this?"

"Hell no." Chouichi said. "But-"

He reached out and brushed the bottle. Maruten's fingers reflexively twitched as he felt the temperature drop.

"Best served cold." Chouichi said. "I wish you all the luck in the world, Cousin. He's a Main House Hyuuga. You're gonna be fighting uphill the whole way."

"I know," Maruten said, putting the bottle on a side table. "But what the hell, every day's a good day to die."

"So it is." Chouichi said. "Good luck, Maru." He winked and disappeared in a neat transport jutsu.

Maruten watched the spot his cousin had been in for a moment or two before sighing and conveying the bottle to the fridge.

Tonight. He would ask Tokuma to marry him tonight, come hell, high water, or Hyuuga Hiashi.  

While writing this post on Animation Force, I came across much information about how Disney became a partner with Studio Ghibli. Here is a brief recap of my research.

Disney’s home video and theatrical distribution rights to most Ghibli films were established in 1996, thanks to a deal made with Studio Ghibli’s financial partner, Tokuma Publishing. The Disney-Tokuma deal included “worldwide” rights for film and video distribution — including in Japan, but not in the rest of Asia.

The expectation was that Disney would dub films into English without removing even a frame of the animations or altering the story, a major issue faced for imports to the U.S. previously. Companies would buy films and alter music, scenes or even entire sequences of the purchased films while converting them to another language. Perhaps the worst offender was Warriors of the Wind, a 1985 butchering of Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind by New World Pictures, which cut more than 23 minutes out of the film and most sense out of the story.

It is possible that the expiration of New World Pictures’ rights to Nausicaä in 1995 directly led to Disney’s deal in 1996 (although you may also speculate that it was a deal by Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki to make money for Tokuma, since he was indebted to the company.) According to Nausicaa.net, Disney was the only company whose bid for film rights included the condition that nothing but the language would be altered in the film.

“With Disney's commitment to maintain the quality of the original titles, there will be no changes to music and sequences in foreign language versions.”

Disney’s limited world rights also extended to theatrical releases for Princess Mononoke, and the deal garnered additional rights to certain live action films also produced by Tokuma. Disney later negotiated DVD rights for the films, but they could never gain access to Grave of the Fireflies (1988), because the film was produced by a different publisher (Shinchosha, who published the film’s original novel).

Disney was not finished negotiating, however. In 2000, Disney agreed to pay 10 percent of the production costs for future Ghibli films, and Tokuma would offer Disney American distribution rights as the films were made. My Neighbors the Yamadas was the first film up for bid, but Disney passed to 2001’s Spirited Away instead, working with John Lasseter himself to dub the film to English in time for a 2003 Best Animated Feature Academy Award win.

Disney went on to dub Spirited Away, My Neighbors the Yamadas, Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, The Secret World of Arrietty and The Wind Rises before the end of their partnership. You can find more details on the Disney-Studio Ghibli timeline in this comprehensive article.