Tag Archives: DNA2

Anime Credits - DNA2 and Video Girl Ai OP

Friday, April 18, 2008 – 3:12 pm

Some oooooooooooooold Masakazu Katsura ones this time.

By Josh | Posted in Anime Credits | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #5

Saturday, December 30, 2006 – 10:13 pm

Episode 5 of the podcast is up.

You can download it directly from the following address (12.7 MB):
Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #5

You can download the rss file for the podcast here:
http://www.joshsanimeblog.com/podcast/podcast.rss

Also, I have re-reviewed the anime DNA2, actually bumping down it’s overall score from a 91% to 89%

Also, my podcast is up on itunes. If you search for anime under podcasts, you should find it as Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast.

Enjoy!

By Josh | Posted in Podcasts | Tagged | Comments (0)

One Year

Sunday, August 6, 2006 – 6:30 pm

On August 6, 2005, I popped Volume 1 of DNA2 into my DVD player. That disk was the first one I watched after starting renting from Blockbuster online, and is the first time that I voluntarily chose to watch an anime series while realizing that it was an anime series. It was, by most accounts, the start of my anime viewing.

So, how far have I gotten in 1 year? I’ve rated 17 anime series or movies (of course, this site has only been up for the last 6 of those 12 months). I’ve completed 14 others, and I’m currently watching 9 more.

If my counting is correct, in the past year I have watched 503 anime episodes or movies for a total of something around 200 to 215 hours of shows (or between 8 and 9 days).

I own 9 anime series and part of another as well as 2 movies:

- Ah! My Goddess: The Movie
- Ai Yori Aoshi / Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi
- Angelic Layer
- Cardcaptor Sakura - Clow Book (Season 1)
- Chobits
- DNA2
- Fruits Basket
- Koi Kaze
- The Place Promised in our Early Days
- Please! Twins
- Last Exile
- The World of Narue

There are also several shows on my to-get list:

Not finished, but I know I’ll buy it
Cardcaptor Sakura - Sakura Book
I”s Pure

It’s either still too expensive or I just haven’t gotten around to buying it
Howl’s Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away

Licenced but not released
Rumbling Hearts (Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien)

Not licenced yet
I”s Pure
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

By Josh | Posted in General Blather, Various | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Not a Review, just general blather

Thursday, April 13, 2006 – 5:12 pm

I’m starting to wonder if the entire cast of The World of Narue was bummed off of His and Her Circumstances (and whether HHC was influence at all by DNA2).

First, all three lead English voice actors from DNA2 are in His and Her Circumstances:

Liam O’Brien (Junta in DNA2): Asaba in HHC
Jessica Calvello (Karin in DNA2): Tsukino (one of Yukino’s younger sisters) in HHC
Rachael Lillis (Ami in DNA2); Miyako (Yukino’s mother) & Aya Sawada

[UPDATE]:
I found another DNA2 to HHC voice actor:
Michael Alston Baley a.k.a. David Brimmer, who did the voice of Mori in DNA2, does the voice of the Narrator on HHC.
[/UPDATE]

On the other hand, there is a plethora of people who were in HHC who showed up in Narue:

Rachael Lillis (Miyako and Aya in HHC): Kanaka in Narue
Jessica Calvello (Tsukino in HHC): Narumi and Rin in Narue
Veronica Taylor (Yukino in HHC): Narue in Narue
Carol Jacobanis (Maho in HHC): Bathyscaphe in Narue
Lisa Ortiz (Tsubasa in HHC): Magical Girl #4 in Narue
Debora Rabbai (Sena Rika in HHC): Haruna in Narue

I just find it interesting how two anime series can share large numbers of cast members.

By Josh | Posted in Various | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

My tastes in anime: 2003 and 2004 US releases

Thursday, March 16, 2006 – 1:39 pm

I went back and looked at when the anime that I have purchased, or in the process of buying, were first released in the US to see if they were relatively spread out or bunched together.

Well, it appears they are bunched together. The anime I purchased, at least in their original releases, totaled 45 DVDs, here is the list:

Ai Yori Aoshi (8)
Angelic Layer (7) [I bought the 5-disc re-release]
Chobits (6) [I bought the 8-disc thinpack release]
DNA2 (5)
Fruits Basket (4)
Koi Kaze (3)
Last Exile (7)
Please Twins (4)
World of Narue (1 - they dont sell the 4 DVDs individually)

= 45 discs

So, how many of those were released, by year?

2002 - 1
2003 - 21
2004 - 17
2005 - 6

Also, as many as 4 series were being released at the same time, with Fruits Basket, DNA2, Ai Yori Aoshi, and Chobits all being released at the same time between March 2003 and May 2003; as well as on October 14, 2003, when 2 series ended and one series began, thus having DNA2, Ai Yori Aoshi, Chobits, and Angelic Layer briefly being released at the same time.

The biggest individual day? October 14, 2003, which saw the release of DNA2 #5 (and the box set), Ai Yori Aoshi #5 (also ending the release of the first season), and Angelic Layer #1.

The only other month which saw 3 releases was November 2003, with Chobits #5 (11th), Last Exile #1 (18th), and Angelic Layer #2 (25th).

I suppose the most “modern” anime I’ve been watching are Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, which is scheduled to begin it’s US release in October 2006, and I”s Pure, which isn’t even licensed yet.

By Josh | Posted in Various | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Finally got package 1 of 3 from ebay

Saturday, March 11, 2006 – 1:35 pm

Since I really don’t have very much to talk about dealing with anime today, I’d just like to say that, after my initial experience buying anime from ebay, which was excellent, recently it seems to have gotten worse. I don’t know if the mail is slow or what, but I’ve purchased 3 anime things off of ebay, all shipping either Monday or Tuesday. I (finally) got the first one today (via media mail, which I guess the other ones may be being sent too).

This one is the Fruits Basket set, being the 5th complete anime series I have in hand (DNA2, Chobits, Angelic Layer, Onegai Twins - in that order). The next shipment includes the Murata boxset of Last Exile, which are in thinpack packages, and the World of Narue collection. The final shipment has volumes 2 and 3 of Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi.

I blew my chance to buy the Ai Yori Aoshi first season set. There were two items on ebay, one with a starting bid of $15 and one with a starting bid of $30. The two other times I’ve seen them on ebay, they went for something like $70, so I put an opening bid on the $15 one for $50 thinking “no way either will go for less than that.”

Well, at first I thought I was going to get a break. Going into the last day, the one I was bidding on was at $26 and the $30 had one bid. The $30 (which ended first) ended up going for that, so I was like “yeah!” Nope. Bidding on mine started going up dramatically. I was sitting there like “why didn’t you bid on the other one like that?”

Mine ended up going for like, $64, which was a little more than I was in the mood to pay, considering the same thing sold for less than half that just a couple hours earlier. So i learned my lesson: even if I think something will go for a lot, unless its the only thing there, don’t bid a lot on the first bid (and even if it is alone, there is a chance a new one may pop up). Unfortunately I haven’t seen the set (other thank cheap HK knockoffs) on there since.

One item I just bought yesterday was Koi Kaze volume 1. Again, it is rare to see the whole set on there, but one will occasionally see someone selling a particular volume for cheap, and I got this one for $7.99 including shipping, which, considering my thought was about $10 to $12 per DVD in that set, isn’t a bad deal.

By Josh | Posted in General Blather, Various | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Anime Review: DNA2 (Squared) - Score: 89%

Wednesday, March 1, 2006 – 12:32 am

DNA SquaredThe Essentials

Name: DNA2, Dokokade Nakushita Aitsuno Aitsu
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Science Fiction
Episodes: 15 (12 TV, 3 OVA)
Released: TV: Oct. 7, 1994 - Dec. 23, 1994; OVA: 1995
Based On: DNA2 manga series by Masakazu Katsura
Director: Jun’ichi Sakata
Produced By: Bandai, Nippon TV

Major Japanese Cast

Junta Momonari: Keiichi Nanba
Karin Aoi: Miina Tominaga
Ami Kurimoto: Hiroko Kasahara
Ryuji Sugashita: Takehito Koyasu
Tomoko Saeki: Megumi Hayashibara
Kotomi Takanashi: Hekiru Shiina
Oharu: Eiko Yamada
Yokomori: Ryunosuke Ohbayashi
Lulara Kawasaki: Sakiko Tamagawa
Mori: Jun Hazumi

Major English Cast

Junta Momonari: Liam O’Brien
Karin Aoi: Jessica Calvello
Ami Kurimoto: Rachael Lillis
Ryuji Sugashita: Tom Wilson
Tomoko Saeki: Veronica Lake
Kotomi Takanashi: Lotus
Oharu: Barry Banner
Yokomori: Tristan Goddard
Lulara Kawasaki: Rebecca Miriam
Mori: Michael Alston Baley

Scores

Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: 10/10 (x 2 = 20 pts)
English Dubs: 8/10 (x 1 = 8 pts)
Gut Score: 10/10 (x 5 = 50 pts)

Total: 178/200 (89%)

Review

DNA2 is about the typical high school loser, Junta, who runs into Karin, who has come from the 100 years in the future. Her mission is to find the so-called “Mega-Playboy” who is destined to father 100 children, passing his Mega-Playboy jeans on to them, causing each of them to have 100 children, and so forth. This obviously creates a massive population boom and it is Karin’s job to shoot the original Mega-Playboy with a bullet filled with DNA Control Medicine to re-write the Mega-Playboy’s DNA so that he becomes a normal person before he even has the chance to father any children.

Unfortunately for Junta, Karin identifies him as the future Mega-Playboy and shoots him with her bullet. The only problem is that Karin took the wrong bullet back with her - a bullet which, instead of wiping the Mega-Playboy DNA from Junta, turns him into the Mega-Playboy. Luckily for Karin, Junta’s DNA isn’t stable immediately after shooting him, and she spends the rest of the series trying to fend of Junta’s Mega-Playboy side while at the same time trying to hook him up with his childhood friend Ami, hoping that her influence will but the Mega-Playboy DNA within Junta into submission.

Dna2 was the first full anime series I ever watched, and to me it left a good impression as can be best evidenced by the fact that I’m still watching anime.

I thought this show was pretty funny, with comedy being the primary base of the series, at least through the first 8 or 9 episodes or so. However, the series takes a much darker turn in the final 6 episodes or so. One might think that switching from primarily a comedy to primarily a drama in the middle of the series would be an issue, but I actually think it works pretty well as the series switches over from the hilarity that ensues with Junta fighting his Mega-Playboy side and transitions into a pair of story arcs which deals with the danger of DNA manipulation and a conspiracy in the future to use the Mega-Playboy’s powers for their own purposes.

This is definitely an older series, running in 1994, so some parts may not be as high a quality as more recent series, but the story is still pretty solid overall. Given when it was released, I don’t think the music was about average, and I think the animation is actually pretty good. The english dubs I think were also done fairly well.

Overall, I think this is a series that quite a few people might enjoy. The switch in genre in the middle may turn off those who would watch the series for one genre or the other, but I think all-in-all quite a few people would enjoy this series.

First Watched: August, 2005
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)