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REVIEW: Hakugei DVD 1

ADV’s English dub also fares much better, though some might quibble about how different some of the key performances are from the originals. Kira Vincent Davis’s rendition of Lucky gives the character a raspy child’s voice compared to the more effeminate voice offered by the seiyuu, but for various reasons this proves to be the right call as the volume wears on. John Swasey portrays Ahab in full-blown stereotypical pirate captain fashion compared to the deeper and more resonating voice of the seiyuu, but the English interpretation feels much more accurate given that the series has gone to great pains to draw and characterize Ahab as a classic Western pirate captain. (And, let’s face it, there’s really no way to do a classic Western pirate captain in Japanese.) Other roles and performance qualities match up reasonably well.

While Melville’s novel was a serious, very realistic, and often philosophical story replete with exceptional (and sometimes excessive) detail about the practice of whaling...