Marvel’s Deadpool has surpassed box-office expectations, leaving fans wanting more — except in Japan where we’re still waiting for the movie to open!

▼ The Japanese trailer with a nicely ambiguous “2016” release date

https://twitter.com/sotweeteth/status/688815939156983808

As you can see, people were more or less expecting a delayed release of Deadpool from the get-go. After all, the land of the rising sun is notorious for not releasing movies in a timely fashion for some mysterious reason. But that’s okay, we’re patient folk and can wait a few weeks or so.

Say, when does that film open here anyway?

https://twitter.com/ShiryoAoi/status/687874299240124416

Aside from the fact that Shiryo should charge her battery before going anywhere, you’ve probably noticed that one of these dates is not like the others. While a majority of countries are getting to see Deadpool on or around 12 February, Japan wasn’t to get it until 12 August, 2016.

Some people tried to reach out to Deadpool himself but to no avail as he’s a fictional character. One person did the next best thing and tweeted Ryan Reynolds to inquire on the international logistics of a film he acted in.

https://twitter.com/EMG_3/status/688580836929605634

Reynolds did not respond to Max Guy, presumably because he was busy in bed with lots and lots of beautiful women at the time…sigh.

Anyway, the question still lingers as to why Japan got such a long and hard shaft on this movie’s release. You could claim localization difficulties given the pop-culture humor mixed into Deadpool, but that didn’t stop South Korea, Vietnam, or Thailand from getting it in a timely fashion.

Perhaps the studios thought that Deadpool wasn’t a popular enough character in Japan and not worth the expense of a simultaneous release. They may have seen this video from Comiket 89 last December in which the woman interviewing a Deadpool cosplayer doesn’t know who she’s talking to.

But the guy certainly has a presence and a fan-base here:

https://twitter.com/HnkntK/status/694240021725859840

More recently, thanks to the outpouring of complaint it appears the distributors’ hearts grew three sizes and they decided to release it earlier than they previously announced! In June!

It’s doubtful that even all the Whos in Whoville would get those grinches to budge the release any more than they already have. So, we’ll just have to spend the next four months hearing all of the details of the movie second hand so it’ll be nice and well-spoiled by the time it gets here. Thanks a lot, whack-ass Japan.

Source: Twitter, All About Japan, IMDB
Video: YouTube/maidigitv, YouTube/CinemaToday