Forum - View topicREVIEW: Maria Holic Alive Sub.DVD
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The American Average
 Posts: 645 Location: Jehuty |
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thought it was pretty funny only wished it came dubbed as well
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Shippoyasha
Posts: 459 |
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I wish Funimation got the series so the dub fans can get their fix as well.
Plus, I don't get why Marioholic isn't in HD in Bluray? What the heck? Almost every Shaft shows out there gets a gorgeous Bluray transfer from Nippon Ichi Software or Funimation. They need to get on with the times. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2267 |
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Ehh? I remember really enjoying the first season, but stopped watching the second because it felt like it rambled on too much and didn't go anywhere. I think I remember feeling that it had gone from a comedy story to more of an sit-com and I didn't enjoy that change as much.
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TnKtRk
Posts: 183 |
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So it look like all three companies each have one Shaft series on BD. Good for them. Now let's see which of the three will bring us Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko. My money's on Sentai... As for Maria Holic Alive - enjoyed it as well, even though it went from a 'black comedy' of season one, to more of a 'meta/breaking the fourth wall sort of thing' in season two. |
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The Human Spider
Posts: 334 |
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MARIA HOLIC's style of comedy would have made it perfect for a Funi dub. Nice to see the show get a positive review; I remember the first season getting a lot of hate when it was reviewed here a while back. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6901 Location: Kazune City |
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But we do have Madoka and Bakemonogatari from Aniplex. As for why this show isn't on Blu-Ray... well, it fits with Sentai's release pattern of "dual-language on BD/DVD, sub-only only on DVD." I don't know, I made a rare exception to my usual habits and watching Maria Holic Alive in 720p, and the only parts that seemed really eye-popping were the openings and endings. For the rest, I remember a lot of typical Shaft slideshow montages and distance shots. Nonetheless, I can agree that the series in general deserves BD. In the end, it's Sentai's choice to keep up this release format and continue to be outgunned in the war between 480i legit DVD releases and 720p/1080p Blu-Ray rips. Though BD-rips don't currently exist for this series, so maybe there's a window of opportunity for Sentai's release after all. Let's hope Shaft didn't give them broadcast versions for some episodes again. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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If the first season had sold well enough, or if the simulcast for season two had pulled good enough numbers, then it would have been dubbed. Sadly, that did not happen.
Maria-holic is a very niche title and one that is extremely divisive as well. Virtually every discussion of the show quickly devolves into arguments over misogyny and homophobia. I'm extremely tolerant of content in anime and I was even off put by some of the depictions of Kanako as a girl hungry predator and the continual insults towards her (mainly calling her a pervert every five minutes.) I was able to get over my initial misgivings about the show and find the humor in it. I even ended up enjoying the show quite a bit, but I can't see something worth the added expense of a dub and bluray here, regardless of my personal feelings on the show. It's become quite obvious that no company in R1 is capable or willing to pick up every show, so the "I wish so and so had got this instead" that pop up in almost every thread are getting a bit old. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18461 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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This must mostly be going on in other forums because I've seen little evidence of it around here. Frankly, such accusations surprise me, as I thought the franchise made it pretty clear that Kanako just represents the characteristics of a hyper-lecherous male character (e.g., Ataru from Urusei Yatsura or Tomoki from Heaven's Lost Propert) transplanted into a lesbian character, and nothing more was implied; I certainly took it that way, anyway. Do such perversions seem more pronounced when embodied in a female rather than male character? Possibly, but the "aggressive lesbian" character is common enough in anime to practically be its own archetype. There are plenty of passive lesbian characters in anime, too, so it's not like Kanako is stereotyping lesbians. She's meant to be an aberration no matter how one looks at her. |
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fireaxe
 Posts: 503 Location: Trois-Rivieres, Canada |
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I know the original Maria Holic series wasn't so well received among most yuri circles around the internet, which might be what dragonrider_cody was referring to. I personally didn't mind Kanako's portrayal at all, I can see where some of the criticism was coming from, but I always felt lime mof of it was exaggerated (people over-analyzing a series that, at its core, is a blatant parody). |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4159 |
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Yeah. Like Guin Saga. Or Nightmare 1931. Uh, Night Raid {Yeah, that one that made me think "Oh, it's Zetta Karen Children {or Psychic Girl Squad or whatever they're calling it these days}, only it's kind of dumb" with episode zero and it only went down hill from there}. Or Kanon, I love Kanon. Oh right, Canaan was meh. X'med... X-med. X-amd? Xamped? The X title that looked like Miyazaki did meander a lot. It wasn't bad, it was a movie that overstayed its welcome. It would have been overlong at 13 episodes. Needless or just plain Unnecessary... See, Sentai does what Sentai wants, just look at No. 6. As I was looking at a recent Sentai BD/DVD sale, I wasn't surprised that a number of their dubbed choices don't seem to be selling {It's BD, it's on sale, it's .. being outsold by DVD releases...}. For what I have versus what I've seen from Sentai, I have the Ef: Memories BD and I'll probably get Melodies once I get over the fact I don't like the follow up series. On the other hand, I really don't like it. And Unlimited Blade Works, not that really counts. Ah, the Rozen Maiden, Clannad and After Story on DVD spindle packs. That's it. A dubbed Maria Holic/ MHA? I'd love it. Hell, I would also love it if they just bothered to add episode 12 of Maria Holic Alive to their VOD service. 11 was very good at least but it wasn't the ... last ... episode. See, their releases, their rules. Even worse, that wasn't the only series they didn't bother to finish on VOD and furthermore, have you seen some of the things they've done on Hulu? 10 episodes of 12 episode series, first two episodes of each season for multiseason shows, random release dates for weekly streaming shows. To paraphrase some ancient TV show.... They just don't care. But you can tell yourself it's because of the numbers if you want. |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2372 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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As much as I would love to see this show dubbed, having had ideas of how in the past if licensed by Funimation, in the grander scheme of things, nobody has the voice to match Yu Kobayashi. Period.
She pretty much does an excellent voice over work for her character, alternating between male and female practically on the fly. Especially in the Opening song she did in the later episodes. She's just wild! And matching an English voice to her would be near impossible. The range is just too far apart to match in English. In the least, Luci Christian could stand a chance, but it still wouldn't feel the same. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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You have Soundscan numbers? Impressive! Feel free to share them with everyone else cause we've been wanting them for ages. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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First of all, some of those series you listed were either extremely cheap or even free licenses, and nearly ALL of them were being sold in other markets. A dub is a lot cheaper to produce when you have Siren, Madman, Manga, or MVM sharing the costs or even sub-licensing the title from you (as in the case of Night Raid and Angel Beats.) Sentai even admitted that it only started dubbing titles after other English language companies in the UK and Australia became interested in the titles and licensed them there. Also, you completely ignore the fact that ALL of the simulcasts they have dubbed received very high stream numbers on CR and Anime Network. Several of the shows that underperformed were even run on TAN to see if their numbers improved prior to making a decision on a release method. Your personal feelings on the quality of a show don't necessarily equate into sales numbers. There are plenty of shows that get tons of critical praise, but never sell well. There are also many that get critically panned and pull huge numbers. There is sometimes no rhyme or reason as to why something like Hell Girl flops and something like High School of the Dead pulls massive numbers. It's also been stated time and time again that most series released on bluray are outsold by their DVD counterparts. Like it or not, the majority of the market still buys DVDs. Personally, I would love every show to get a dub and bluray (when HD masters are available), but that just isn't going to happen when many releases are only selling two or three thousand copies. I'd rather have the R1 companies be more selective and keep releasing the titles they are, then risk it all and almost certainly go out of business. You may feel otherwise, but that's really none of my concern. As to the arguments over Maria-holic, I remember one pretty vividly that occured when Sentai announced the title. There were at least two or three members, who mostly seemed offended by the manga it was based on, who complained that the series portrayed the belief that the "right man" can turn a lesbian straight. And as I said, some were also offended by the way Kanako was portrayed. Regardless of the reasoning, the portrayal of gays and lesbians as predators who can't control their sexual urges is often used by the religious right in their propaganda. I saw some similar arguments on AnimeNation, Mania, and even The Anime Network (which almost never sees heated arguments there.) Regardless, no one has proven that Maria-holic Alive had the sales potential to be dubbed. All we know is that they released both season, and simulcast season two. We also know that they have a history of going back and dubbing series that sold well, or had international interest. Maria-holic was never licensed internationally, so obviously the UK and Australian companies didn't think much of it's sales potential either. The stream and VOD numbers don't seem to have been very high either. The series never even made the top 5 on Anime Network's viewing lists, while even shows like Brighter than the Dawning Blue have at times. The show appears to have done just enough to be profitable and warrant a season two release. Sometimes, that is the best we can hope for. People need to except the fact that the days of dubbing everything are over, and the days of bluray everything aren't quite here (especially if Kadokowa continues to have it's way.) Last edited by dragonrider_cody on Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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True, it is a parody, but that doesn't stop it from being a divisive title. I've some people get very defensive when it comes up. Family Guy and The Simpsons are also parodies, but they too have caused their share of controversy. Also, if you just look at Maria-Holic as a yuri title, it's fairly uncommon for them to be dubbed. There have only been a few exceptions recently, and a couple of them were only dubbed after the initial sub-only release sold well. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6901 Location: Kazune City |
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Last edited by Zalis116 on Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:44 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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