It’s episode 12 of CLANNAD, and we delve deeper into the Kotomi storyline. What exactly were her parents working on? And why does Kotomi seem to have a sad or worried expression when they come up in conversation? And who is the older man following Kotomi around?
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It’s episode 12 of Blue Drop and there is a hell of a lot that goes on in this episode. What or who really caused the incident on the Blue, and for what purpose? What will Sugawara do once she’s able to get Hagino alone, knowing that she’s an alien now? Will Mari and Hagino be able to finish their talk?
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It’s episode 10 of Shion no Ō, and it’s time for Shion’s second round match against the genius 5th grader. However, her opponent has a secret weapon up his sleeve which may drive Shion way from shogi altogether. Also, the murderer appears to finally be making whatever move he intends on making.
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It’s episode 11, and Renji and Chihiro finally go out on a date. Also, Chihiro finishes her story, but how did she finish it, and what does it have to do with what she has plans at the end of her and Renji’s date?
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While my DVD of Kanon sits at the post office waiting for my return home from Christmas, I peeked at the first episode over at Anime News Network.
Given that I’ve only been watching fansubs for a couple of years (and nothing on any large scale for less than a year), and the first fan subs that I watched which were released in the US were Rumbling Hearts, Kashimashi (which didn’t even come with a dub), and Haruhi Suzumiya (i.e., quite recent releases), most of the series I’ve seen have gone something like *watch in Japanese. watch in English soon after.* The point being that I haven’t grown attached to the Japanese voices for most of series that I’ve seen, and there are some series where I actually prefer the dubs or relate the English dubs to the characters more than the original Japanese voices.
When Rumbling Hearts, aka Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, came out on DVD, it was my first experience watching a dub when the sub had been pounded in my head over and over for the course of a year. I didn’t know whether I would like or dislike the dubs based on being thoroughly used to the Japanese voices.
I think at first, I dub sounded weird because of the fact that I wasn’t used to it. However, now that it’s been released here for a year and I’ve watched it a few times, the dubs seem pretty close to natural. Meanwhile, I was able to grow onto the Haruhi Suzumiya dubs pretty easily.
All that said, I’m kind of feeling the same thing with the Kanon dub as I did with the Rumbling Hearts dub - that is, on th first watching, it seemed like a suit that just didn’t fit. However, like Rumbling Hearts, I think this dub has the potential to grow on me.
First off, the voices seemed to feel less awkward as the episode went on, so that’s a sign that I may be getting used to them already. Second, I don’t necessarily find them to be bad dubs ala Ai Yori Aoshi (which I still think has about the worst dub ever recorded). If I hadn’t have seen the Japanese version of Kanon first, I probably wouldn’t have any issues with the Kanon dub at all.
Perhaps if someone was a “IT MUST SOUND EXACTLY LIKE THE JAPANESE VOICES” person, then they may not find Kanon’s dub to be all that great. But then again, some of the best dubs out there don’t necessarily sound like their Japanese counterparts, partly because if they did, then they would sound really weird.
Just consider Kanon, for example. I’m hardly an expert of what Japanese voices normally sound like, but many of the Japanese voices, I think especially Nayuki’s and Ayu’s, sound kind of cartoonish, so if you want the American voices to sound similar, they’ll sound cartoonish the same way (and then get hammered for sounding dumb instead of being different).
One of the things which I think make me think that Kanon’s dub is an overall success, at least after listening to one episode is this: can I find anything wrong with them other than being “different” from the Japanese voices, and can I think exactly how I would have expected the dub to sound like anyway? Basically the answer for me is “no” and “no,” so, at least after a single episode, I think the dub seems to pass my own personal test.
Added:
I was just reading ANN’s review of Kanon, and while they agree about the dub being good, I ran across this:
The English script is a bit loose but free-flowing, with its only significant flaw coming from actually being too literal at one point. (In one scene it has Sayuri using her own name instead of “I,” which is the way it’s done in Japanese but sounds unnatural and pretentious in English.)
Um yeah, there’s a reason for that as one will find out on probably the 3rd or 4th DVD…
It’s time to announce the results of the second two of the 8 groups in Round 5 - Groups C & D.
The songs which advanced to the Sixth/Sweet 16 Round are in bold. Also, see the full bracket.
“Presence” by The Indigo - Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ vs.
“Promise” by Tia - Yakitate!! Japan
“Tomorrow” by Mikuni Shimokawa - Full Metal Panic vs.
“Colors of the Heart” by UVERworld - Blood+
“Shizuku” by Miwako Okuda - Great Teacher Onizuka vs.
“Ameagari” by Moeko Matsushita - Angelic Layer
“Higurashi no Naku Koro ni” by Eiko Shimamiya - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni vs.
“Karenai Hana” by Mikuni Shimokawa - Full Metal Panic
More hard choices as usual, as to be expected by this point. I’m already dreading the next round.
Oh yeah, and I think starting with the next round I’ll start posting samples of the songs. It was kind of too much work when I still had so many songs in the bracket, but it’ll be easier when they get down to 16.
Group E/F match-ups for next week are listed after the jump…
