Palm Town Discussion

[mwest1980]

Palm Town, the sequel series to Maple Town, fascinated me.  It ran in Japan from 1987 to 1988 in the same timeslot that Maple Town was shown; during 1988, the show was exported to many countries but not to the USA or Canada (more on that in a minute).  

Many Canadians and fellow Americans didn't even know this series existed since it didn't run over here in North America.  I didn't learn of its existence until years later.  Once the Internet came along and I looked up Maple Town, I found information about Palm Town along with screenshots and merchandise.  I thought "there was another series with Patty Rabbit?" and investigated.

Palm Town did run in the Middle East, in Italy (I possess the Italian dubs), France and (maybe) Poland.  It didn't run in the Netherlands; I know because there was this Dutch guy - his name was Zeldaplayer or something like that - who posted the Dutch dubs of Maple Town on his YouTube channel (they've been long since taken down) who said his country didn't get Palm Town.

After watching the last episodes of Maple Town and the Palm Town movie (which was just the first episode of Palm Town with the last episode of Maple Town edited in), I understood why Patty was in Palm Town.  In this sequel series, Patty Rabbit moves to the seaside resort town, Palm Town, to live with her aunt Jane and uncle George, a pair of doctors.  She meets new friends, new foes (the Cat brothers) and has all kinds of adventures.  In contrast to the more old-fashioned Maple Town, Palm Town is contemporary being based on the West Coast United States of the 1980s.  From what I understand, Palm Town was not as popular as Maple Town.  It only ran 44 episodes and apparently there was no third series with Patty Rabbit (I would have liked to have seen that).

Personally speaking, I did like Palm Town.  While Maple Town is the better of the two series, Palm Town is still worth watching.  The new characters did make the series interesting like the Sheep family, those two silver fox girl twins and Lorry's family (Lorry was the Italian dub name of Rolly/Lolly).  

The thing that confuses me most about Palm Town - why did the series NOT get exported to the USA/Canada?  It was shown in many but not all countries got Maple Town.  That does go back to my earlier post about whether or not some of the episodes were going to be dubbed for the planned 65-episode run of Maple Town but this is speculation.  It is an honest shame that we Americans and Canadians never got Palm Town.  It is just as good as any other anime or cartoon of the 1980s.

Anyone here with thoughts on Palm Town?  What did you think of it?  Did you like it better than Maple Town?

[Philip]

Even though Palm Town sometimes has an 1980s vibe, I don't think it's meant to take place during this time period. Television doesn't exist in this world (they listen to radio instead), and photographs are always in black and white. It's likely meant to resemble the America of the 1930s-50s, which is also somewhat reflected in the clothing characters wear.

Tonka worked hard to establish Maple Town as a brand in the US in 1987. After having spent all that money marketing it, they probably didn't think it was a smart move to completely rebrand the line after only one year. In Japan, Bandai probably had a different perspective. Maple Town was meant to compete with Sylvanian Families, but likely wasn't as successful as Bandai had hoped. That's why they chose to take the brand in a completely different direction the following year. Palm Town was more pink and girly compared to the more gender neutral Maple Town.

I like Palm Town a lot. It's generelly not as well made as Maple Town, but it also has some strong episodes. The character designs are great and the environments are gorgeous. Being a bigger town than Maple Town, it feels like there's more potential for different stories and characters. I really dislike the series finale though, it felt like an incredibly lazy and unsatisfying way to end Patty's story.

[mwest1980]

Tonka would not necessarily have to have re-branded Maple Town in the USA - they could have called Palm Town merchandise something like "Maple Town Series 2" or Maple Town: Palm Town Adventures".

I am planning to eventually do write-ups of the Palm Town episodes; it'll take me until next year to do the commentaries for Maple Town episodes. When I do, I hope I can count on you, Phillip, and the other board users for help in filling in the blanks.

[Philip]

Jul 25, 2018 18:31:31 GMT -5 mwest1980 said:

Tonka would not necessarily have to have re-branded Maple Town in the USA - they could have called Palm Town merchandise something like "Maple Town Series 2" or Maple Town: Palm Town Adventures".

Well yeah, there were a few Palm Town figures released in Europe. They came in the same style of packaging as any other MT figures, and there was no indication who they were or that they lived anywhere else than Maple Town. The only way you could know was if the Palm Town cartoon aired in your country.

However, if you're going to go all out and advertise the toys along with the cartoon, I feel like some type of rebranding is unavoidable. Not only does Palm Town take place in a different place with a whole new cast of characters, the style of both the cartoon and the toyline is so different compared to Maple Town. The PT toyline in Japan also only had 9 characters released as figures compared to MT which had 53. There wasn't a lot for Tonka to work with.

I think the Maple Town toys did pretty well in the US, being a cheaper alternative to Sylvanian Families. It was around for two years, and there were plans for a third year (shown in full at toy fair 1989) until Tonka decided to cancel it. Of course they could have incorporated Palm Town into it, and I wish they had, but I can also see the reasons why they decided not to. The toy market was pretty intense in the 80s and Tonka wasn't one of the biggest companies. It's unlikely they wanted to take any big risks. Palm Town also may not have stood out much against the many other girl-focused brands at the time.

Just ask if there's anything about Palm Town you're wondering about.