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zanarkand princess
Joined: 27 Oct 2007
Posts: 1484
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:31 pm
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I was talking about him as a character not his voice.
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BrothersElric
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Posts: 1996
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:16 pm
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Wow, this thread sure has grown, hasn't it? But yeah, took him about a week to finally get it to me, but I've got the episodes now.
JesuOtaku wrote: | Well, after a LOT of heckling from my dad, I got to watch this show.
It had some pretty awesome action, but I'm not sure I can afford to watch it anymore. I mean, it wasn't particularly deep or anything, so my dad, given the art style, thought it was a kid's cartoon. He was horribly offended when he heard one swear word.
And then Leeron showed up. Ooooooh noooooo...I got read the riot act. (My folks are REAL conservative, and don't like bawdy humor of any kind. Somehow I was lucky enough that he didn't see ANY Yoko fanservice moments. Miracle, huh?)
But Leeron was enough to get me yelled at. I may end up firmly in BE's camp and need to see DVR'd or taped copies somehow.
Still, what I saw was a lot of fun. One of those guilty pleasure shows I so desperately need to keep me from being an elitist anime fan. I mean, it's entertainment sugar, but it's really well-done sugar, right? No way I could explain that to my folks, who were morbidly offended by the content.
Some people have been comparing this to FLCL, which is fair. Plot and tone-wise, it reminded me a LOT more of Outlaw Star. Anyone else getting that vibe? The dub was a bit cartoony-redonkulous, but I thought it fit pretty well.
Oh, and I also caught Now and Then, Here and There. I've seen these first two episodes before, but after episode three will be new to me, and the dub grows on me pretty well, even if they are all Pokemon VAs. Shu took the most getting used too, but his character DOES fit the grating voice, so I can't complain.
Really enjoying both, but I may have to find some other way to watch Gurenn Lagann. If I can't, I'll just stick to Now and Then, which my folks had no issues with. (But they only saw up to the point where Shu is talking to Lala-Ru. They didn't see all the foreboding that follows.) |
Wow.... I mean, living in a wholesome little Utah mormon family and all I have it kinda strict myself, but my parents aren't NEARLY that strict with it...... They probably wouldn't have appreciated the Yoko fanservice at all, that's for sure (and neither did I.... ), but besides that I can't see them having a problem with anything else that was in these episodes. And even then the Yoko fanservice isn't nearly as bad as others that have either gotten me in trouble or came very close to doing so...... (although from the sounds of things I'm not liking the potential of this episode 6..... ). Plus that and they're fully aware of the fact that I don't watch anime for all that crap anyways, and that I'm every bit as annoyed by it as they are.
I'm gonna have a problem with buying the DVDs for this series though I think, given the Yoko fanservice on the covers..... Which pisses me off because I really would like to support this series for how much I'm liking it so far.
Anyways, that's probably the only minor problem I had with the series. Other than that, it was just a riot! I swear my gut is still aching after laughing at those "Who the heck do you think I am punch!" and "get away from my little bro kick!" sequences! Also not to mention Leeron's character, just simply that by itself was enough to make me laugh quite a bit as well. Made me wonder who in the heck played him..... and I come into this thread and find out it was Steve Blum!? Amazing. Totally would never have guessed. After both this and his voice for Orochimaru I'm convinced he can do anything.
But all the silliness aside, I actually think this looks like it could easily have a pretty fairly interesting storyline. I hear it kind of pulls a Trigun at some point where it all of a sudden just shifts from goofy antics to total dead seriousness, and I think I can see how that could be, though I'm not saying I can predict what's going to happen or anything. Basically, I just like the premise. I think because of how cliched it is in other areas (and even then I think it presents some of them in pretty fairly interesting and new ways, I mean "don't believe in yourself, believe in me who believes in you" I thought was a pretty interesting way of seeing it) it doesn't get enough originality points for it's sheer premise. I'd say in a lot of ways it kind of reminds me of One Piece; cartoony animation, insane amount of wackiness and very over the top, pretty fairly cliched, but at the same time can get serious at times with an interesting enough premise, and overall just highly imaginative. In fact I think I'm liking this series a whole lot right now for pretty much the same reasons as I loved One Piece. But we'll see since this is only 2 episodes in.
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abynormal
Joined: 09 Apr 2008
Posts: 427
Location: Louisiana
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:09 pm
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I. Love. This. Dub. So many times do the actors make me howl with laughter at the lines. And the "that's all folks!" was right out of left field. I'm really glad they replaced the ubiquitous "that move" (which is my single most disliked line in fansubs) with "the you know what!"
Now that I've seen episode four again, I can safely say the animation is not bad, but the direction is weird. Numerous things happen offscreen that should be shown rather than just showing the character looking at it, and the characters' expressions often seem stiff. For a series that prides itself on expressive animation and direction, this episode really sticks out.
And oh yes, how could I forget about Viral? I really like his English voice. Can't wait to see more of him.
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Goodpenguin
Joined: 02 Jul 2007
Posts: 457
Location: Hunt Valley, MD
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:02 am
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abynormal wrote:
Quote: | Now that I've seen episode four again, I can safely say the animation is not bad, but the direction is weird. Numerous things happen offscreen that should be shown rather than just showing the character looking at it, and the characters' expressions often seem stiff. For a series that prides itself on expressive animation and direction, this episode really sticks out. |
I really enjoyed the animation/direction style of the episode, and thought it fit in very well with what the series essentially 'is'. Like some of my favorite anime such as 'The Daichis: Earth Defense Family' or 'All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku' (say that three times fast) the series emphasizes inventive visual composition/style and endearing characters rather than taking it's plot (relatively) seriously. For a show that puts such prominence on it's visual composition, episode 4 fits as an exercise in a type of 'frenetic' style you don't get to see often. I could understand not wanting the more eclectic style in every episode, but I was disappointed to read on here what a bad reaction in Japan/fansubs episode 4 received.
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zanarkand princess
Joined: 27 Oct 2007
Posts: 1484
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:08 am
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Despite it's bad reviews episode 4 wasn't the horror show everyone made it out to be but it did seem a little stiff. Poor yoko though tryimg to be alone with kamina for a while but it never happened As far as the fanservice goes yoko runs around in a bikini kamina runs around shirtless (or his signature cape now) I think it's as fair as gainax is ever gonna get. I can ignore fans ervice as long as it doesn't completely take over (I even managed through half the doa games) And that's really something for a girl so episode 6 doesn't bother me much I think it's just going to be more room for jokes.
As for getting serious at the end it's true it gets really heavy during the second part so be prepared.
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ConanSan
Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 1818
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:26 am
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I think episode 4 was best summed up at my anime club
"I don't care who but someone deserved to get fired for that episode"
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Alestal
Joined: 22 Apr 2005
Posts: 605
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:54 am
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That noise/call(LALALALALALALALA) the "black something something group" made in episode 4 when they were chasing after the beastmen, was hilarious.
I like the dub, but I think a lot of the lines have lost their edge. Still funny, but I just recently watched the series and the lines are still in my head.
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zanarkand princess
Joined: 27 Oct 2007
Posts: 1484
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:43 am
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It's been a long time since four girls could be going kind of heavy on the fanservice and it didn't make the series worse for me. The animation wasn't so great but the characters where funny.
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Ohoni
Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 3421
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:56 pm
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After watching some more of it I remember why ths is one of my favorite anime. Some label it a "parody" of the shonen mecha genre, it's not. It's the ULTIMATE shonen mecha anime. It takes all the elements that such a series might have, pumps them up on Redbull, and then inject that with methamphetamines. It's just such a wacked out roller coaster that you can't help but enjoy the ride. It's a "parody" of shonent mecha anime in the way that The Watchment is a "parody" of the superhero comic. It distills all the core elements and elevates them at the same time.
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Jedi General
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 2485
Location: Tucson, AZ
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:58 am
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Watching these episodes again, I'm beginning to remember how much I didn't like episodes 1-8 in comparison to episodes 9-27. It didn't really start to get good for me until episode 9 and beyond.
As far as the dub is concerned, I'm becoming less and less fond of Kamina, but fortunately the rest of the dub has been pretty good thus far. I must say, Sam Regal makes a great Viral. The series is certainly better in Japanese though. The dub actors are having a hard time not sounding overly cheesy, while the Japanese VAs didn't leave that impression on me when I watched the fansubs. Still, I'll be buying the hybrid DVDs once they're out. Steve Blum's Leeron totally makes this dub and I prefer to watch anime dubbed anyway. Not to mention I'm a Michelle Ruff fanboy.
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braves
Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 2309
Location: Puerto Rico (but living in Texas)
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 12:24 pm
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Jedi General wrote: | The dub actors are having a hard time not sounding overly cheesy... |
Well, doing that is kinda hard. I mean, aren't lines like "Combining is all about manly spirit" cheesy?
So far, I'm getting kinda tired of Kamina's punch-line of "Who the hell do you think I am?". I can draw a similarity with Luffy's "I'm gonna be King of the Pirates" or Naruto's "I'm gonna be Hokage." It's effective the first few times it's said, but it gets really annoying with repetition.
After 4 episodes, I say that this is a fun show, but not the masterpiece that everyone seems to hail it has. And as it was mentioned in Key's review of the sub DVD, the soundtrack is the weakest part of the whole production.
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Jedi General
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 2485
Location: Tucson, AZ
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 12:52 pm
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braves wrote: |
Jedi General wrote: | The dub actors are having a hard time not sounding overly cheesy... |
Well, doing that is kinda hard. I mean, aren't lines like "Combining is all about manly spirit" cheesy? |
Yes, it certainly is, but for some reason it didn't seem so cheesy to me in Japanese. Sure the lines were cheesy, but the acting wasn't (most of the time).
braves wrote: | And as it was mentioned in Key's review of the sub DVD, the soundtrack is the weakest part of the whole production. |
I have to disagree there, but I'm biased since I just love Taku Iwasaki's style. As for it being a masterpiece, these first episodes are nothing. What made it a masterpiece for me was episodes 9-27, when things got a heckuva lot more serious and engaging. It made me cry more then a few times. If an anime gets me to cry--let alone multiple times--it's quite an achievement as I don't cry very easily.
EDIT: Fixed a typo
Last edited by Jedi General on Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
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BrothersElric
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Posts: 1996
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:35 pm
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Well, I guess while I'm waiting for Richard to mail me these next episodes I'll touch up on a few things I forgot to in my last post.
The dub seems excellent enough to me, although granted I don't have a Japanese track to compare it to since I never heard it. I think I understand what you all mean by not liking Kamina's voice though. From what I can tell, it's the exact opposite of "it's not that he's not doing a good job, it's just that his voice doesn't fit at all." I think his voice fits just fine, he's just not doing a very good acting job is all. However, despite that fact, I can easily see how Kamina's very much one of my 2 favorite kinds of characters (guess which one ), so even if his lines are more invigorating with the Japanese dub I still love 'em, no matter how cheezy they sound. Doesn't seem to be any hicups in the rest of the cast though, especially with Steve Blum's gem of a performance as Leeron!
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kaizen-dono
Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 383
Location: NE England
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:33 pm
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braves wrote: | And as it was mentioned in Key's review of the sub DVD, the soundtrack is the weakest part of the whole production. |
Jedi General wrote: | I have to disagree there, but I'm biased since I just love Taku Iwasaki's style. As for it being a masterpiece, these first episodes are nothing. What made it a masterpiece for me was episodes 9-27, when things got a heckuva lot more serious and engaging. It made me cry more then a few times. If an anime gets me to cry--let alone multiple times--it's quite an achievement as I don't cry very easily. |
I think its really hard for anyone not to be biased when it comes to their opinions on music I mean everyone has their own unique tastes and cant really help being influenced by them.
TTGL made you cry Jedi Bowsh! Id hate to have been around you at the end of Metropolis or Fireflies you must have been close to suicide
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Keonyn
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Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Coon Rapids, MN
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:38 pm
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Jedi General wrote: | Yes, it certainly is, but for some reason it didn't seem so cheesy to me in Japanese. Sure the lines were cheesy, but the acting wasn't (most of the time). |
Well yeah. Unless you're fluent in Japanese and the language is completely natural to you, then it's going to be a lot harder for the actors to sound cheesy to you even if they are just as cheesy as the R1 voice actors. So many people seem to forget that there are many subtleties and elements of a language that a person who isn't fully fluent in that language, or even speak it as their first language, aren't going to pick up on. English speakers are in no way immune to this.
The US actors are also not what you're accustomed too, so they're automatically going to be at a disadvantage.
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