Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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Good News, dub fans! There's a new fantastic out of on the market done by the criminally underused Joel McDonald. The cast is loaded with some of the top tier Funimation crew with Caitlin Glass and Josh Grelle taking the lead roles. Caitlin has never blown me away, but I always thought she was pretty good and this is definitely one of her better roles. Grelle, as usual, absolutely kills it as the male lead. I've been able to hear a lot more of Grelle over the last year or so and whether it be Yoshii in Baka and Test, Kuranosuke in Princess Jellyfish, Ichika in Infinite Stratos, or Monkey Wright (Abrams) from PSG, he is just fan-freaking-tastic in everything. I'm definitely moving the second season of Kenichi higher up in my queue since he also does the lead there.
Other great performances in this fantastic dub are Leah Clark who does a more seductive and sexual voice than what I'm used to hearing her do, but she does it so well. I've been a big fan or hers since I first heard her as Eri in School Rumble three years ago, and it was a treat hearing her do a role that couldn't be more different than my first exposure to her, and different for her in general. Then there's Luci and Monica, who turn in their standard solid performances. I think Britney Karbowski was a little miscast since I would imagine her character having a bit of a deep voice like Brina or Trina, but she performed well, and that's what matters in the end. Hell, even my arch nemesis Jamie Marchi turns in a good performance. Then again, her character isn't all that complex and already has a kind a of accent, but, to her credit, she was able to bring to life the portrayal the writers were going for. Speaking of writers, I think this script is as close to perfection as any English adaptation of show like this can be. There were several chances for this script to flub up because of the, well, Japanese-ness of it - mostly honorifics. Honorifics are usually the bane of all adaptations, but I feel everything was handled in stride and the potential awkwardness was avoided while still keeping the meaning of importance of names intact. This is definitely one of the better dubs I've heard in a while. While I believe there are better individual performances, like Maxey Whitehead's Tsukimi and Shannon Emerick's Charles Dubois from Infinite Stratos (I'm a big fan of it at least), this is probably the best group of performances. BAD NEWS, dub fans! This awesome dub belongs to none other than Freezing! You heard that right, folks: Freezing has a great dub. And no, not "Great for the Genre", or "Great for the shows quality", just "Great". It's disappointing, too, because the actors and crew did such a bang-up job, but the show is still bad. I'll admit that I did like the show more the second time through with the dub, but I still think it's a bad show. I'll also admit that with a combination of marathoning (as opposed to weekly like the first time I saw it) and a great dub, I was able to see that the non-fanservice parts were actually quite decent and, dare I say, good. However, the fanservice parts are just awful. Whether it be groping, humiliating Satellizer, clothes ripping off (even though they do regenerate...sometimes), or shy Satellizer, it's all just bad. I mean, if you're a fan of dubs, this is a hard decision. Do you muscle through a bad show just to hear the dub? Or do you just add it to the loss column? It's a tough call. I can taste Surrender Artists' tears from here. |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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Monica Rial... Luci Christian... Jamie Marchi*... great dub... Freezing?!? I... I think that I need a jug of cheap claret and a sad mime with a violin. *Contra The King of Last edited by Surrender Artist on Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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The King of Harts
Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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Harts, dammit! HARTS! Think more of the name Hart and less of the card.
I don't think I've ever explained my beef with Marchi, but it basically comes down to her incredibly thick accent, and I think I'm the only person that notices it since no one else ever talks about it. It always sounds like to me that while she's acting she's fighting her accent, making sure she doesn't go full-blown "yee-haw" mode. That, in-turn, takes a toll on her acting, which I think is good, but not good enough to overcome having to think too much. Because of this, I think she's really good at those Rowdy Girl roles like Panty and Rana, but the more emotional roles like Masane or Mimi are where she really struggles. Although, no matter the role, I think she sounds terrible when she has to raise her volume above a certain bar since that's when her accents comes waaaaaaay out. When that happens she has to yell, cover her accent, and act at the same time, and she can't do it, leaving the acting part to suffer the most. Also because of this, I think she always sounds a little restrained, like as if she can't just let it all out in the booth. So yea, that's my issue with Marchi that I've never explained even though I bring it up a lot. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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Finished Heroic Age sometime last week. I kinda like leaving some time for aspects of any series to sink in before reviewing it. But yeah, I've come to the conclusion that I like scifi. A lot. Meaning that I can enjoy even scifi that are a bit only above average that I wouldn't necessarily rec to others. So basically, yes I enjoyed Heroic Age, but it's sort of something I'd only rec to people who like the genre. At first, I enjoyed battles taking like 3 eps, but while it was definitely consistent on that point, by the end, it kinda annoyed me.
But mostly, I feel like I was left with answers at the end. The sort of things that could have been easily explained like: So there's clearly the bronze, silver, and iron tribes. But there are also clearly other species, were they like, discovered after the golden tribe left? So the number of rules for each Nodos was made up by the golden tribe, but how did they determine what exactly the rules were? But even with me still wondering that, I found myself enjoying the space opera stuff. Definitely had the sense of "they might actually get their ship destroyed" about it. So, if you just want to go for the best space opera, just go with Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but if you want a nice enough distraction that you can get on DVD/Bluray for cheap, that's what this is for. Ok, so as an aside, I know a lot of people aren't fans of Hiashi Hiari's character designs. He did this, Infinite Ryvius, Gundam SEED, Scryed, Fafner, Linebarrels of Iron, among other stuff. And obviously, they all look damn near identical. But honestly, I like them. It's like they're so textbook example of the most stereotypical way to make anime character designs that I simply love them for it! I can see why it annoys people, but for me, it's the same reason I like them. Just wanted to say that there is someone out there who likes the designs (and I like them because they're so stereotypical, it makes no sense to me either) |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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Canaan - Nice to see a show without high school characters for a change lol. I love type moon stuff so this was a definite watch for me. So far so good. Crista and I are watching it together. Liking the action and pacing and the characters are engaging themselves. I hope the pace stays consistent and maybe picks up towards the end for a nice crescendo.
Sekerei - Boobs, boobs, and more boobs lol. Unlike Queen's Blade or Ikki Tousen though the story does come first and despite the plethora of T&A the story itself is nice. Plus they actually work the T&A into the plot itself some. Such as the Minato chiding Musubi for being topless and not more modest or when Benesubasa has part of her shirt ripped in a fight and yells at Minato for looking at her boob. It is high on T&A but the plot is heart warming. Sometimes a bit too sweet but the show does have heart. It also has a nice balance where shows like QB and IT do not. Fate/Zero - My type moon love is showing again. Having seen Fate Stay Night and reading up on the rest of the FS....universe, I definitely wanted to check this out. So far so good. I think I'll be hitting up Unlimited Blade Works soon too. Kokoro Connect - The premise sounded interesting so I'm checking it out. Only on episode 2 so far so I'll save my opinion until I've at least gotten to episode 4. I will say from what I hear/have seen the whole phenomenon thing that is the main basis for the show does get explained relatively well. Which is nice. I have to admit my first though on reading the synopsis was to think of Haruhi Suzimiya for some reason. Anyone else get that vibe after reading the synopsis before starting it? |
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Dalvyn
 Posts: 86 |
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I can not help but read this in Professor Farnsworth voice. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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The Bronze, Silver, Heroic, and Iron Tribes were named as such by the Gold Tribe. The other tribes (most of them, anyway) were raised up (uplifted) by the Silver Tribe. As best as I can tell, only the 4 tribes named by the Golden Tribe were able to gain intersteller space flight on their own. The number of labors was, as you said, set by the Golden Tribe, but the contents of the labors for each Nodos appear to have been formulated by the Silver Tribe, except for the Iron Tribe's Nodos, which seems to have been formulated by the Iron Tribe. It would seem that at least some of the lesser tribes had to have been known to the Golden Tribe while it was still in the Universe, because how else would they have received a Nodos? Each Nodos is a member of a particular race that has had a member of the Heroic Tribe graphed to it. So the Golden Tribe would have to have known of each race which received a Nodos. It also indicates that the Nodos are effectively immortal once they become one (this includes Age). There are many things in this series that aren't explicitly explained, but are mentioned in various discussions that occur in the series, often in an oblique manner. |
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kaydub
 Posts: 318 Location: Cincinnati, OH |
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I finished watching Usagi Drop at the beginning of the week, it was a nice short feel-good show and I really liked it. Reminded me of the Yotsuba&! manga which is probably why I liked it so much, since Yotsuba is one of my favorites. I'm not much for children myself, but I think if every child were like Rin, I'd like them a helluva lot more.
I started watching Binbougami ga! the other night and so far it's a riot. Not really sure what to compare it to, but in a way it's kind of like a less perverted Panty and Stocking in that it manages to be wacky and over the top without becoming overbearing and stupid (for now). I'm actually enjoying the show as a whole and not just the slapstick humor, which is something I was worried about when I initially started to watch. |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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May contain light spoilers of Heroic Age uncovered.
The Silver Tribe considered themselves disciples of the Golden Tribe, thus why they felt betrayed when the Golden left, and felt they had the right to be the new rulers. The Golden Tribe knew the tribes existed, as pointed out. I'd say it's safe to assume that they could see or calculate the future to an extend, and the Iron Tribe's advancement was an unexpected factor in their equations. The way I see it, the series propose that humans have an unpredictable rate of advancement, in a very indirect way. I don't remember much about the terms of the contract, but the Silver Tribe created some of them and enforced it by threatening the people of each Nodos, thus why the Nodos obeyed. I don't recall the Iron Tribe creating any. How would they enforce it anyway? It's not like Age would listen. I like to compare this series to Stargate. Silver = Asgard, Bronze = Goa'uld, Golden = Ancestors, and Iron = Earthlings. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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Just FYI, that was me you were quoting, egoist, not classicalzawa. 
Also, there are more light spoilers below. Anyway, the Iron Tribe Nodos had by far the largest number of labors in its contract (12). I think only one of the other Nodos had more than six. My guess is that the number of labors is inversely proportional to the power of the Nodos as determined by the Golden Tribe. I don't think that the Golden Tribe was aware of Humans until one of their ships (the one containing Age) crashed on their planet. But it's possible they knew of them before that. The wording and imagry used implies to me that the arrival of humans was unexpected. Also, there are aspects of the Iron Tribe which only the Golden Tribe echoed and the Silver Tribe lacked (a sense of history, for one). But for the ending to have gone the way it did, the Golden Tribe had to have either been able to preceive the future directly, or understand humans well enough to set up events the way they did. There are a couple of occasions where members of the Golden Tribe do appear, but only very tenuously were it could be a vision rather than their actual presence. Yes, I have a great fondness for this series, so I've probably over-analyzed it by now. I do think it has more depth to it than what is apparent at first glance (the starting monologue, for example, changes in each of the first 6 or 7 episodes, and provides more background into what is going on.) Oh, and the 12 labors of Iron Tribe Nodos were almost certainly created by the Iron Tribe. Their contents are shown in their entirety in the 2nd episode (when Age is introduced to the crew -- hillarity ensues). |
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egoist
Posts: 7762 |
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Not sure what you're talking about. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Watching - and loving - Akira right now. I saw this movie years ago in my pre-anime obsession phase and remember virtually nothing about it. Now I'm letting it caress my eyeballs with its visual lusciousness. The viewing is also driving home just how influential Akira was on things like Ghost in the Shell, NGE, Jin-roh and Elfen Lied just to name a few things that pop to mind.
Although, I am also watching with a sense of sadness. This movie is visual proof of just how freaking beautiful hand-drawn cel animation is. And that era is over and never coming back. *mondo sigh* |
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lovelymaid143
 Posts: 3 |
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Im watching Kimi to Boku Season 2 and after that im gonna try to finish Bakuman with my lil bro i didn't get to finish it
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kandysweet
 Posts: 19 |
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I'm watching Hyouka and season 2 of K-ON. I've been wanting to watch them for a while now, but I didn't have the time. Thankfully I have free time lately. I also saw a whole bunch of screencaps and gifs and they seemed pretty interesting.
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Are you watching the BD or the DVD? I definitely recommend tracking down the BD if you haven't already. It's absolutely gorgeous. |
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