Any anime series that you've been enjoying?

[Patu]

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Originally Posted by Vertigo-1 Totally agree, there's just something to the Japanese language that really lends itself well to emotional outpouring. Switch over to English and more often than not the whole anime just falls flat on its face.

That's so true. Even though I don't understand Japanese almost at all (only couple of wors and some sentences) it's still so big a part of the atmosphere that if you change to any other language you lose the feeling.

With Japanese voices you really can hear their emotions and feelings from their voices. In anime voice acting has much bigger role than in some Disney cartoons. English is just so clumsy and bad in anime.

 

[J-Pak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vertigo-1 Totally agree, there's just something to the Japanese language that really lends itself well to emotional outpouring. Switch over to English and more often than not the whole anime just falls flat on its face. I think being that Japan is where anime all started, and just the way anime is geared towards older audiences, there's just more talented seiyuus in Japan. They know how to throw themselves into the moment. Some of the really great ones I've heard to date are the seiyuus behind Shinji and Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Kurumi from Steel Angel Kurumi, and Chidori from Full Metal Panic.

I'll agree with this. But for some reason the Miyazaki movies always have very good english voices (still Japanese is better)

 

[MikoLayer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vertigo-1 Totally agree, there's just something to the Japanese language that really lends itself well to emotional outpouring. Switch over to English and more often than not the whole anime just falls flat on its face. I think being that Japan is where anime all started, and just the way anime is geared towards older audiences, there's just more talented seiyuus in Japan. They know how to throw themselves into the moment. Some of the really great ones I've heard to date are the seiyuus behind Shinji and Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Kurumi from Steel Angel Kurumi, and Chidori from Full Metal Panic.

I third that

sometimes you grow a taste for a particular seiyuu and watch otherwise mediocre shows for voice acting performance alone; in my case, its Kawasumi Ayako, Nakahara Mai and Noto Mamiko to list a few. Lately I have been totally flooded with Kugimiya Rie's voicing as Nietono no Shana no Flamehaze

 

[YamiTenshi]

I agree with anyone and everyone who has said the Japanese voices are much better. Though some of the Miyazaki movies do have decent voice actors, but none I've heard that can match their Japanese counterparts.

Anyway, I started watching Gundam Seed yesterday and I'm up to ep. 19.

Minor Spoilers:

Not a bad series, though not great either. My God, that red headed girl (is it Frey?) needs to die, she use to be really annoying and whinny, now she's just an evil manipulative b*tch. But the pink hair girl is kinda cute.

I really dislike Kira. He use to be weak and indecisive, now he's just being an ass (I blame red hair girl). The only character that I find interesting is Asuran, and they don't show him much unless it's in battle.

On the up side the story is progressing at a nice rate. Every episode adds to the plot and it always leaves me wanting to know what's going on. But it feels like some of the battles go on too long.

 

[saint.panda]

Just finished Read or Die (OVA). Premises are pretty lame but the execution is excellent: top-notch animation, very nice orchestral and jazzy soundstrack and very cool action scenes. Plot is a bit lacking and most of the characters (not all) are rather shallow. In any case, I think just like Last Exile, this show mostly shines due to the eye candy and wonderful background music. Now, I'm going to try the Read or Die TV series.

Quote:

Originally Posted by YamiTenshi My God, that red headed girl (is it Frey?) needs to die, she use to be really annoying and whinny, now she's just an evil manipulative b*tch.

Told ya.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patu English is just so clumsy and bad in anime.

I totally agree with you. Many of the english voices sound annoying, unrepresentative of the character, or fake sounding. It's incredibly rare to find a well dubbed series. Evangelion and Ranma are the only series I can recall that were actually decent. Remember when you had to pay five extra bux to get the subs instead of the dubs?

 

[Jahn]

most of you know this already, but daft punk got the legendary leiji matsumoto to animate one of their albums - i just downloaded "one more time" off itunes to test the vid on my ipod and it looks great, other than the fact that the sound is a bit compressed and the blacks look a bit garbly/compressed too. anyhow, i'm a big fan of Space Battleship Yamato so that was a treat, i might go get the DVD with all the animated vids now.

 

[K2Grey]

Ew... Evangelion's dub makes Shinji sound dumb and the kind dubbers helpfully add in nonexistent sound effects and dialogues which completely clash with the situation at hand.

That might just be an EoE thing, though.

 

[Kenny12]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K2Grey Ew... Evangelion's dub makes Shinji sound dumb and the kind dubbers helpfully add in nonexistent sound effects and dialogues which completely clash with the situation at hand. That might just be an EoE thing, though.

no all dubs are evil

 

[D-EJ915]

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Originally Posted by Kenny12 no all dubs are evil

I thought Ranma's dubs were pretty good...although that's the only version I've heard of it...actually I have heard japanese...I don't rememb er.,....

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenny12 no all dubs are evil

Actually, Star Blazers is amazingly dubbed- they used broadway actors as the voice actors, and it shows. even the latest Miyazaki dubs with famous actors dont put as much oomph into it as those guys did!

also, speed racer was actually dubbed quite well believe it or not.

all viz dubs are fairly weak. most other dubbing companies are unlistenable.

edit- but cowboy bebop's dubs were excellent. champloo's dubs were not.

 

[zoboomofo]

Star Blazers?! Now there's a blast from the past. I remember getting ready for elementary school in the morning with that show. Mmm, Star Blazers and oatmeal.

I'm a little hesitant to get into anime because the dialogue and plot are often too foreign to me. I've seen the Cowboy Beebop shows though, and they're pretty fun. The visuals are stellar, and the feel of being in urban America - (New York?) is convincing. One thing that is common to these cult anime is the passion put into making them that makes them total eye candy. It evokes a lot of emotion sometimes.

This doesn't really count as a series, but finally I've been bitten by the Miyazaki bug. I just ordered a bunch of Ghibli movies after um, acquiring a copy of Howl's Moving Castle. I just rented Spirited Away, and now I'm looking forward to Kiki and the rest of the archives.

Off topic: I didn't realize this until my Miyazakimania set in, but I am a fan of sort of childhood movies. This is because I hadn't really paid attention to movies or dvds. I think modern movies with big distribution tend to suck, but now I think I can take another step in my movie collecting. I've always had the movie, My Father's Glory in the back of my mind. I recommend it as a live action feature. Hmm, now it's clear why To Kill A Mockingbird is my favorite all-time film. Well, sorry for veering off course on the thread, but if you understand these last two films the same way I do, I think you'll love Miyazaki - anime fan or not.

More Ramble: Anime like Star Blazers, Robotech, and Astro Boy have been stuck in my memory because of grotesque or haunting imagery. It was provocative stuff that would get me all philosophical - even in my toddler years. But then I don't like the shows that try to get too deep, and then leave wildly loose endings. So I think I'll continue to tread carefully around anime.

 

[ooheadsoo]

They simply don't hire good voice actors and they don't spend the time to know what is going on in the plot. Voice acting in the US, that I have noticed, also places a huge amount of emphasis on lip synch, something which doesn't really exist in anime and many asian films in general. This forces the english voice actors/script writers into making up stupid sounding baloney in order to try to match the lips of the characters.

I think people often overlook the fact that it's hard for dialogue spoken in a foreign language to sound "wrong" or "bad" or "poorly acted." That's probably the biggest factor in making the original voices sound so "well suited." That said, when I watched "The Saint" in French when I was in that country, I didn't enjoy it at all

 

[D-EJ915]

OH!

I remember what it was, METROPOLIS, I was watching it Japanese and then when I loaded it up the next time (I hadn't finished) it defaults to English and I didn't notice for a while that it wasn't in japanese anymore. I thought the voices in that were fairly good.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by D-EJ915 I thought Ranma's dubs were pretty good...although that's the only version I've heard of it...actually I have heard japanese...I don't rememb er.,....

Actually Ranma 1/2 is probably one of the exceptions where I preferred the dubs over the original Japanese voice actors. The Japanese seiyuus certainly aren't bad, but having originally first watched Ranma with dubs back on VHS, I felt like the Japanese voice acted male Ranma just didn't sound nearly as masculine as the dubbed Ranma. Akane's dubbed voice also sounded more wholesome than the Japanese counterpart. Female Ranma on the other hand was much more hilarious with Megumi Hayashibara behind her...those crazy screeches she did everytime Ranma got dumped into cold water were a hoot.

Another one that I remember being very well done dubbed was the Fatal Fury series. And, by the way, I'd highly recommend this series for a good, solid fighting anime. It's based off the game, but certainly isn't cheaply done, unlike some game turned movie interpretations I've seen. The storyline was excellent and is overall quite emotionally moving, particularly the movie. Everybody I ever showed the series to was impressed by it, even those that never watched anime at all.