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REVIEW: Shakugan no Shana DVD 2


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Raven Shinobi





PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:01 am Reply with quote
I really liked how the plot remains solid with enough surprises -I too thought that spoiler[Friagne was using Marriane], but I had a hunch from the start that Margery is going to be interesting, I think she's turning into my favorite character in the series Smile
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Malintex Terek
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:55 pm Reply with quote
Is there some sort of prejudice against Ocean Studios here on the internet? I've always considered it a premiere company when dubbing anime, and I was very pleased upon hearing Shakugan no Shana would be handled by them (though rather saddened at the news of VIZ Media aquiring the light novel and manga); my impression of Shana's dub is that Ocean did a snapping job, and reviews such as this support my conclusion.

In contrast, those same individuals who berate Shana are praising Bang Zoom! Entertainment, a lower-tier studio if I have ever heard one, and claim that Fate/stay night's priority as a product for Geneon superceded that of Shana because it was "farmed out" to a better processing studio.

Comparing the two dubs, FSN little more than amateurish, much like an officially sponsored fan-dub; as such, I am left in a confusing quandry. For people as familiar with both studios as I; what is the source of this rancor? Are these people angry because of Ocean's historical treatment of the Gundam properties?
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 10:30 pm Reply with quote
Malintex Terek: Those are points probably worthy of their own thread in the Anime forum.

Yes, there is a fair amount of dislike for Ocean Studios, although it's my understanding that it's more an authoring and encoding issue than a dub issue. (See this thread.) They don't have a problem here, though.
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Sango chan



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 178
Location: In the demon slayers Village
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:34 pm Reply with quote
I thought they did a really good job on the dub. though i wasn't too crazy about Margery's voice. Janyse Jaud uses her Kagura voice for Magery and that doesn't work at all for her. And shana's could've been a bit better, but it's still good though.

Also I would like to point out that the reviewer made a tiny bit of a mistake with the Names of the boys that are with Margery. It's suppose to be Sato and Tanaka. Not Ike. Ike is Yuji's friend with the glasses. lol.
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Ocean Deep



Joined: 03 Jan 2007
Posts: 17
Location: Vancouver, BC
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:32 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the kudos, everyone. It’s always great to read compliments about our dubs, since Ocean works very hard to produce them. And yes, we’ve noticed that there are people out there whose comments about our work can be labeled as less-than-constructive criticism. Those types of responses make it difficult for us to take them into consideration, but we will continue to try to work with everybody in order to make the best quality dubs.
We appreciate feedback where we have the power to make things better.

Of course, hearing from pleased fans makes us happy too, since we’re fans as well.

And yes, we did have some DVD authoring issues in the past. We have put measures in place to avoid it from happening again, so hopefully it has been resolved.

Looking forward to seeing Shana’s Vol. 3 release next week!

Thanks,
Dennis Hrehoriac
Associate Producer, Team Shana
Ocean Productions
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3dB



Joined: 25 Jun 2006
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Location: Rhode Island, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 10:20 pm Reply with quote
Well, usually when I watch anime, I prefer to watch it subtitled, but I always go back and watch certain bits over again with the dub track selected to see what kind of a job was done. When I switched over to the dub track for Shana, I was a bit surprised by the noticeable drop in sound quality compared to the original language track.

I don't know if the lack of quality is a compression issue or something along those lines, but overall the engineering of the dub track comes across as pretty bad. All of the voices sound devoid of life. They lack that certain spark that my ears know should be there. A lot of the higher frequencies were definitely filtered out, and probably some of the lower too. The entire track seems to be nothing more than mid-range sound. In contrast with the rest of the show, it makes it stand out, and not in a good way.

On the flipside, I don't have any problem with the voice actors or the voice acting itself. I like the choices made for most of the characters, dislike one or two, overall the selections aren't bad.

Oh, and I can't wait for Shana DVD3 to come out! I'll probably be visiting the little outlet I know that likes to violate street date tomorrow and hopefully use that knowledge to my advantage if they've received it Very Happy
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Cloe
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:10 pm Reply with quote
Review wrote:
− Character designs emphasize big eyes too much.

Outside the context of the text in the review, this is one of the funniest lines I've ever read, and nothing I ever would have expected to see in an anime review. Wink Thanks for the laughs, Key.
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frentymon
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Joined: 27 Nov 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:14 pm Reply with quote
Cloe wrote:
Review wrote:
− Character designs emphasize big eyes too much.

Outside the context of the text in the review, this is one of the funniest lines I've ever read, and nothing I ever would have expected to see in an anime review. Wink Thanks for the laughs, Key.


I always thought that line should be reserved for Kanon. Or Air. Or any anime adapted from a Key game, for that matter (no pun intended).
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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:27 pm Reply with quote
I just love the work done by Ko Otani (A.K.A. Kou Ootani) on the soundtrack! For those of you so inclined, I urge you to check out the Assorted Shana Volume #3, track #10 (La Vie Reccomence). It is just lovely (in my opinion, at least). I must confess that there is one thing that I find irritating about the Assorted Shana volumes (as opposed to the Original Sound Track): There are twenty minutes worth of dialogue on each of these volumes, and for the life of me I just cannot figure out what the purpose of them is for (Unless it is to act as filler?).
Confused
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:35 pm Reply with quote
frentymon wrote:
Cloe wrote:
Review wrote:
− Character designs emphasize big eyes too much.

Outside the context of the text in the review, this is one of the funniest lines I've ever read, and nothing I ever would have expected to see in an anime review. Wink Thanks for the laughs, Key.


I always thought that line should be reserved for Kanon. Or Air. Or any anime adapted from a Key game, for that matter (no pun intended).


As much as I'm loving Kanon, I have to agree with this.
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gloworm



Joined: 08 Jan 2007
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:48 pm Reply with quote
3dB wrote:
I don't know if the lack of quality is a compression issue or something along those lines, but overall the engineering of the dub track comes across as pretty bad. All of the voices sound devoid of life. They lack that certain spark that my ears know should be there. A lot of the higher frequencies were definitely filtered out, and probably some of the lower too. The entire track seems to be nothing more than mid-range sound. In contrast with the rest of the show, it makes it stand out, and not in a good way.

Thank you so much for posting this, you put the finger on something I have been feeling but didn't know how to express.

I really like Ocean... I think they have a really good team of actors, directors and script adapters, but more and more I feel they're being let down by poor quality recording (or would that be mixing?). It's odd though, their older dubs like Ranma and Key the Metal Idol sound great, really clear, good voices... I think it started changing with Inuyasha, and now their dubs feel a bit "cheap" compared to the other big dubbing companies (Bang Zoom, Animaze, etc.).
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Ocean Deep



Joined: 03 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:01 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I don't know if the lack of quality is a compression issue or something along those lines...All of the voices sound devoid of life. They lack that certain spark that my ears know should be there.

Quote:
more and more I feel they're being let down by poor quality recording (or would that be mixing?)


Thank you very much for the feedback. I can assure you that my work for the day is now centered on this issue. Smile
I know for a fact that our mixer frequently went back and forth between the original and the dub, to make sure the levels were similar. So it is unusual to read that there are discrepencies. (considering we are using the latest technologies in recording and mixing)

Theron Martin reviewed the DVD for ANN and did not make any comment about this. animenewsnetwork.com/review/shakugan-no-shana/dvd-2
"The English dub also does a superb job of capturing the tone and feel of the original dub, with the key performances this time being Trevor Devall's dual turns in the dramatically different roles of the gleefully half-crazed Stupid Marco and lovingly fawning Friagne. Every performance hits close enough to the mark, and is similar enough to the original Japanese performances,"


Regardless, we hold ourselves to producing high quality entertainment, so be sure that we are on the case!
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forever_young



Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 52
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:22 pm Reply with quote
I think you need to check your equipment guys.

I didn’t hear any filtering. In all 4 eps the mix sounded solid. I’ll even say that English mix sounds way better than the Japanese vers of “The Beautiful Goblet.”
When you’re flipping back and forth between Japanese and English, you’re bound to be put off, because the 2 languages are totally different. English to Japanese is like honey to water; one goes slow and the other quick.
Don’t you think Geneon would have caught it if it were a poor mix or recording?

Anyways, I’m really anxious for the 3rd DVD!
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TranceLimit174



Joined: 21 Jul 2004
Posts: 962
PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:53 pm Reply with quote
Ok, I gotta check out this series now (it's definitley got a following). Shana sounds like a show that isn't ground breaking by any stretch but very well executed. Not only that but I can tell Margery Daw is that certain type of character that makes my inner fanboy go a little crazy. She sounds like the type that is a truly mature, full grown woman. Personally in the vast anime babe selection I think too many have a little too much cute in them. Sexy yes but a lot of the time that cuteness factor makes them more girlish than womanly which puts me of every now and again. Right now the only serious show I'm watching is Death Note, and given that right now the two other series on my list are comedies (Pani Poni and NDB), Shana seems like a good balance and a break from the wackiness. Plus I think it's always good to take a plunge into something completely different. Besides whenever I go into Best Buy I can't help but stare at the DVD boxes. The packaging is simply beautiful.
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3dB



Joined: 25 Jun 2006
Posts: 15
Location: Rhode Island, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:12 pm Reply with quote
forever_young wrote:
I didn’t hear any filtering. In all 4 eps the mix sounded solid. I’ll even say that English mix sounds way better than the Japanese vers of “The Beautiful Goblet.”
When you’re flipping back and forth between Japanese and English, you’re bound to be put off, because the 2 languages are totally different.


I don't flip back and forth during playback. I watch the dub completely seperately, usualy after I've gone through the entire DVD with the original langauge track.

As for my equipment, trust me, there isn't a single problem with it. If that were really the case anyway, don't you think I'd be having the same problem with the original track and other DVDs as well?
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