Spike Lives! (Anime talk)

[#120 :]

i just started watching Blood+

seems to be a very interesting series and i'm only at episode 3 of 50...

[#121 :]

Saw a couple of episodes of Keroro. Amazingly, I was quite entertained.

[#122 :]

i just started watching Blood+

seems to be a very interesting series and i'm only at episode 3 of 50...

Great series.  Although going back and watching it again now is kind of weird for me; Saya's brother Kai has the same voice as Eddie Brock from The Spectacular Spider-Man, and his girlfriend Mao has the same voice as Ty Lee from Avatar.

[#123 :]

You guys watch it in English?

I like to watch mine in Japanese with fan-subs. Fan-subs are awesome!

[#124 :]

Honestly, I ususally don't bother with subs, but the Japanese language track for that one is much better. I really loathe English Diva's voice.

Blood + is a really good series, though I feel it would have got along just fine if it dropped a sub plot or two. It feels padded.

Also, poor Haji. By the end of the series he's basically one big red-shirt, who gets his ass kicked over and over again in order to demonstrate how bad-ass someone else is.

[#125 :]

Last Exile

I bought this knowing little about it, I just liked the look of the artwork and the price. When I started to watch the first disc I knew that I'd made a good purchase. One is immediately thrown into the action as we see the Silvana, a giant aerial battleship engaging a fleet of enemy ships. The next scene introduces the two main characters; young pilot Claus and his Navigator Lavie who are working on their aircraft. The planes in the world of Last Exile aren't like ours, they lack wings but gain lift from a chemical called claudia. Thankfully the series doesn't dwell on the technology the viewer just has to accept that this is how things are in this world.

Initially Claus and Lavie fly as couriers, this all changes when they see another vanship crash and agree to complete the dying pilot's mission. This is to deliver a young girl called Alvis to the Silvana. While on board the ship is engaged in battle and they end up staying on board. From then on they get into adventures with the Silvana and her crew as they confront various opponents and find out what makes Alvis so special and why the mysterious Guild is so keen to get their hands on her.

There are three main groups in this series; the nations of Anatoray (where our heroes come from) and Disith seem to be in perpetual battle using ships which use technology provided by the Guild. The ships themselves look more like early battleships than aircraft as they lumber through the sky engaging each other with cannons and soldiers armed with muskets.

While the series looks great its real strength lies in its large cast of interesting characters, not all of whom are quite what they seem at first and some of whom won't survive till the end. Everybody will have they own favourite characters, after Claus and Lavie my favourite was Lord Dio, a young Guild pilot who befriends our two heroes after being impressed by Claus's flying.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

10/10

[#126 :]

About time somebody listened to me!

The dub is of an excellent quality as well, and IMO tweek understates the visuals, which range from beautiful to absolutely breathtaking.

[#127 :]

Some of us had already seen it before you started plugging it, Goph.

Honestly, I ususally don't bother with subs, but the Japanese language track for that one is much better. I really loathe English Diva's voice.

Just Diva's, and not Saya's?  'Cause they're both voiced by Kari Wahlgren.

Blood + is a really good series, though I feel it would have got along just fine if it dropped a sub plot or two. It feels padded.

Also, poor Haji. By the end of the series he's basically one big red-shirt, who gets his ass kicked over and over again in order to demonstrate how bad-ass someone else is.

Yes, but...

Haji survives all of it.  He's still around at the end of the series.  Who's bad-ass now?

[#128 :]

DavidA: Really? I would swear the guy at the import shop told me that the series had never been seen before by anyone, and that he sold me the only copy known to exist. That's the only reason I bought it! Now I've got to go demand my money back...

[#129 :]

Simple logic should have told you that he was lying.  At the very least, the people who made it must have seen it before you.

I could buy it off of you, if you really don't want it anymore.  It's still a good series anyway.

[#130 :]

ok, but I already assembled the papercraft vanships, and you can't have them.

[#131 :]

I make my own out of cardboard.  They don't fly very well though. 

[#132 :]

Just Diva's, and not Saya's?  'Cause they're both voiced by Kari Wahlgren.

Then she should have chosen a better voice for Diva, 'cause Saya's just fine. Diva sounds like a standard Villianess, which is very hard to listen to after the Japanese version, where she sounds like a whimsical child. It's like if someone took Drusilla from Buffy, but then removed that whole 'non-linear nutter' speach patterns. It would kill half the fun.

And they also made some script changes which bug me.

[#133 :]

7 day poll, just for kicks!  This is a series of polls, m'thinks, or at least until I get bored of/forget about it.

I vote "yes" for the Bebop English dubs for one reason and one reason only: Melissa Fahn's Cowgirl Ed.  Especially jarring (in an awesome way) after having seen Invader Zim.

[#134 :]

the cowboy beebop dub was of a pretty high quality, so I'd say it's largely a matter of personal preference which you watch.  Which I translated into a vote of "yes," since you weren't entirely explicit in the question (could be "is the dub worth watching" or "is the dub better than the sub" or even "should the VAs be shot for this abortion?". I'm assuming the first.)

[#135 :]

Bebop's dub was fine, I can't think of anything to complain about regarding them.

[#136 :]

Cowboy Bebops dub will always be one of my favourites. It is amazing how more laid back Spike sounds in english than he does with his Japanese VA.

So uh, anime industry. You going to make a sequal to Outlaw Star? I needs my sci-fi anime fix.

[#137 :]

Hot dog bun!  Not too Young!

Oldy and moldy!  History!  Mystery!

I'm pretty much a Megumi Hayashibara fanboy, and I still say the English dubs for Bebop worked better.  Beau Billingslea as Jet rocked the world with how suited he was for that role.  Steve Blum...forget about it.  I know Wendee Lee is in fucking everything, but she's good, dammit, and the voice and the attitude works.  Of course I will mention Melissa Fahn who just brought Ed right to life.  She was just as on target with Ninamori in FLCL.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Japanese version, but most of the actors cast there were part of a hits parade it seemed.  You know big names, plus a newcomer to get that debutante feel.  The American dub really did kick some ass.

For other Dubs that at the very least lived up to the original voice work I say Outlaw Star, Full Metal Alchemist, Lain, Ranma 1/2, Paranoia Agent and, yes, Neon Genesis Evangelion (Despite some hits and misses).

[#138 :]

Trigun?

[#139 :]

You guys watch it in English?

I like to watch mine in Japanese with fan-subs. Fan-subs are awesome!

NEVER dubbed, always orgininal (and that goes for all movies not just animes)

[#140 :]

So you admit to being unqualified to compare them, then?

[#141 :]

i have seen a few (mostly unwillingly) and always thought they sucked... so i stick with the original

[#142 :]

It's true most do suck, but a precious few (like cowboy beebop, or samurai champloo) are excellent. And when the english dub is of a high quality, being freed from reading subtitles lets you take in the visuals more completely. At least that's my experience.

[#143 :]

well, you can always watch the original without subs too

[#144 :]

Ah, this is true. Given the prerequisite of understanding japanese, it's not an option for a TYPICAL anime fan outside of japan.

[#145 :]

well, if you watch a movie often enough you know what it's about and all...

and it's good to enjoy the drawings too

[#146 :]

clearly you've gone into more-hard-core-than-thou mode, so I'll just concede rather than drag this on indefinately.

[#147 :]

no i gone into "why bother watching dubs" mode

[#148 :]

I skip the show altogether and read the script.

[#149 :]

Is the poll question about the quality of the dub in general, or about the dub versus the original Japanese?  I've never watched Bebop in Japanese, so if it's the latter I'm not qualified to answer.

Just Diva's, and not Saya's?  'Cause they're both voiced by Kari Wahlgren.

Then she should have chosen a better voice for Diva, 'cause Saya's just fine. Diva sounds like a standard Villianess, which is very hard to listen to after the Japanese version, where she sounds like a whimsical child.

Ah, so your complaint is about the actual voice acting, not about the voice actress.  That makes more sense then.

So uh, anime industry. You going to make a sequal to Outlaw Star? I needs my sci-fi anime fix.

How long have we been waiting for that?  Don't hold your breath; it'll make you blue.

And when the english dub is of a high quality, being freed from reading subtitles lets you take in the visuals more completely.

This is one of the main reasons that I prefer watching dubs.  I don't really mind reading subtitles while watching live-action films, but with animation I just find it too distracting.  I feel like I'm missing too much.

[#150 :]

Great Teacher Onizuka was one of the only anime I have watched (bar the Studio Ghibli films) in English, and I found it was far superior to the Japanese.

I really want to watch Shibawanko No Wa No Kokoro. Can I find it? Can I hell.

[#151 :]

I seem to remember a similar conversation over fan subs and offical subs a while back (main problem of the offical subs being that they are sometimes subs of the dub and not the original Japanese)

Now I feel the opposite way about Onizuka than Hookerbot. I watched the whole thing in Japanese and then tried the dub, which I thought did not sound right. I would also say the same for Fullmetal Alchemist, after watching the subs the dubbed voices did not sound right. I guess it is a case of when you watch a series you get used to how they sound and how the voice actor characterises them like the japanese verion sounding slightly more wacky than it's american counterpart or visa versa.

All I can say is thank god for DVD's. Back when it was all about vHS you rarely had the choice between sub and dub and most of the time the dubs were pretty damn bad.

Speaking of Fullmetal Alcehmist. It looks like there may only be one more issue before it is over and it has certainly been a fun ride and nice to of had a good sotry over 100 issues rather than dragging it out over 400 (I'm looking at you Naruto)

[#152 :]

Maybe hoping for an Outlaw Star sequal is a foolish dumb dumb headed mans dream, but I dare to dream. Anyone notice that non giant robot sci-fi is kind of rare these days? the last good one I watched was Planetes.

Speaking of manga based anime, since the Excel Saga Manga is now much bigger than a single volume do you think we'll get a much more subtle remake of the thing?

[#153 :]

Maybe hoping for an Outlaw Star sequal is a foolish dumb dumb headed mans dream, but I dare to dream.

And I share that dream, believe me I do.  But it's been so long now, that I just don't think there's much chance of that dream becoming a reality.

Anyone notice that non giant robot sci-fi is kind of rare these days?

I don't think that non giant robot sci-fi anime was ever all that common.  Which is a shame, because all of the ones I've seen that I can think of were pretty good.

[#154 :]

If you want more Outlaw Star, Nurdy, just watch Angel Links.  When you're done tell me how it is, so I can know to waste my time.

[#155 :]

I've only seen one episode that was dubbed and dear god I almost poked my ear drums. Find me some subbed ones and I'll give it a go.

God, I missed hearing this music .

[#156 :]

'Kaaay

[#157 :]

Man, that looks shit.

 But anyhow...

[#158 :]

How do you know they're Nazi's, I don't see any swasticas.

[#159 :]

Know any other organisation that uses the Nazi arm salute Books?

Anyways, you know what'd be an awesome anime? something based on some Mercs during Chinas 20th century Warlord era. I'd watch that.