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#and for once I actually prefer her English dub actress over her Japanese one (though Kikuko Inoue did a great job too)
twistedtummies2 · 2 years
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Moriarty the Patriot - Second Season English Dub
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I just realized that, even though I shared my thoughts on the first season Dub of “Moriarty the  Patriot,” I never shared my thoughts on the second season! Time to correct that mistake. As far as the returning cast go in Season 2, most of the are, I feel, on about the same level as before. The ones who I thought were better than the originals (like Aaron Dismuke) I see no reason to go back on, and the ones who I thought were good but ultimately not AS good as the originals (like Caleb Yen) did not necessarily do much to make me change my mind. There was, however, one key exception: Theo Devaney as Sherlock Holmes. I’m not sure if it’s because I grew more used to Devaney’s voice, or if it’s because of what happens in Season 2 and how much more of Holmes we see in it, but Devaney is now tied with Makoto Furukawa (the original voice for Sherlock) for supremacy. Both of them bring very different elements to the table, but still play the character just right. The main thing that sets them apart for me isn’t so much the performances but more the writing itself. Holmes in the English Dub feels slightly more traditional than the Holmes in the Japanese original. In the Japanese version, Holmes’ lingo is littered with anachronisms, and he’s generally more casual and blunt. Devaney’s Holmes talks more like how you’d IMAGINE Sherlock Holmes to talk, so to speak, but he’s still playing basically the same character. In other words: the Japanese version is a more unique interpretation, on the whole, but Devaney’s Holmes is one I can almost imagine if I read the actual Conan Doyle stories. Like, his is a voice I can now say I would imagine when reading the original books, and it would not be unfitting. Being the big Holmes buff I am, it becomes more difficult to choose which I like more. Now, let’s move on to the newcomers. I’m going to be a right old git and start with two that I think are problematic. First up, Natalie Van Sistine as Irene Adler and James Bonde. The problem with Sistine is very simple: as Irene Adler, she’s absolutely perfect. That is exactly the voice I would imagine Irene having, and I actually prefer her to the Japanese version in that role. BUT, once Adler becomes James Bonde - or when she masquerades as a man a the masked ball - I simply cannot buy for a second that anyone would hear that voice and not at least raise questions about the gender. That voice is clearly the voice of a woman’s, and while I know what Bonde is meant to represent and act as in this universe…let’s face it people, the actual physical situation is basically a Mulan story, and I don’t buy that anyone else would buy the disguise. The voice actress in the Japanese version, in my opinion, did a much better job differentiating the two characters, and you could legitimately forgive and believe Bonde to be the man he is. In this one, she/he sounds exactly the same in both parts, and it’s really hard to swallow, at least in my opinion. Maybe others feel differently. A character of lesser note with a slightly similar problem is Harry, one of Milverton’s goons, voiced by Ciaran Strange. Harry…sounds like a girl. There is no other way to put it, he sounds like a girl. I have listened to his scenes over and over to try and convince myself otherwise, and it just doesn’t work. If I didn’t know the voice actor was a male, I would never guess it, and the same goes for the character. Evidently, Strange is actually a transgender, and his voice still has a great deal of femininity to it. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Harry in the Japanese dub has a much rougher, vicious sort of voice; he not only sounds male, he sounds like the psychopathic thug he is meant to be. Strange’s vocal work makes him sound, at best, like a twisted child, and I don’t think that works quite as well for this demented mercenary character. It’s not even that he does a bad job with the acting, per say, it’s just that the quality of the voice, in my opinion, does not match the character or the design. The same goes for Van Sistine as Adler/Bonde. In direct contrast to both of them, the best newcomer, in my opinion, is Kayleigh McKee as Charles Augustus Milverton. McKee is evidently also transgender, but their voice is much more fitting for Milverton’s character. It is masculine-sounding, yet it has a light, slithering quality, befitting this snakish fiend. I hate to say “Milverton is a delight,” because…well…it’s Milverton, and “delight” is hardly a suitable word for him, but that’s also the best word I can come up with. MTP’s take on the character is probably my favorite, partially because it’s the only time I’ve come anywhere close to liking the guy (in a “love to hate” way, mind you) in any rendition, and McKee’s wonderfully evil vocals and performance are definitely on par with the original, if not surpassing them. The only thing I’d say the original has over McKee is the original is funnier, for lack of a better way of putting it: when Milverton meets his defeat, there’s a bit of humor to the scene in the original version, courtesy of the scoundrel’s reactions. Much of that humor feels lost in the Dub. I’m not sure if that’s really the actor’s fault, however, so take that as you will. Jack Renfield, as played by Bruce DuBose, is generally on par with the original. I literally have one - AND ONLY ONE - nitpicking complaint about his Jack the Ripper: the laugh. In the scene where Renfield masquerades as the serial killer that has stolen his name, he lets out this maniacal laugh that’s meant to send chills into the hearts of those below. In the original, the laugh is raw, visceral, wild, and truly unhinged; I always got the feeling, with that laugh and his overall demeanor during that sequence, we were getting a hint of what the Ripper was like on the battlefield years ago. It’s a laugh you can believe striking terror into one’s heart. In the dub…I swear he’s doing the old-fashioned “bua ha ha ha” laugh, almost MAKING FUN of the whole situation, which, to me, doesn’t read as well: it’s more humorous than legitimately terrifying. I suppose neither is an invalid way of doing it, but I prefer the original. But hey, if that’s the ONLY issue I have? He’s clearly doing a good job. XD The rest of the cast are about the same as ever. The child characters still usually don’t sound like children (except one), which at times is a bit odd, and the more minor players do a good job with what they are given, generally, but don’t necessarily go beyond the call of duty. My overall opinion of the English Dub for “Moriarty the Patriot” is what it was before: this is a good dub, but not a great one. Some voices surpass the original performers, others never come close to their level, and a few are about the same, it’s really just a matter of linguistics then. Generally speaking, I prefer the Subbed version: it’s just more consistent in its quality, where even the actors I don’t like AS much as the English versions are still pretty darn good, and there are no strange inconsistencies from character to character. You can believe everyone is the age and gender they are supposed to be, at all times. The Dub has its moments, but it also has more flaws. Still, if someone wanted to watch the Dub for any specific reason, I wouldn’t tell them no, and if they decided to watch it instead of the Sub, I suppose I wouldn’t be upset about that. Having finally seen the OVA episodes, I await to see that time - if ever - when those get dubbed. Once that is done (if it is done), I suppose that will mean the true end of the Moriarty anime. Thank goodness the manga is still ongoing…but that’s another story.
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ranma-rewatch · 3 years
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Episode 24: Cool Runnings! The Race of the Snowmen
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I cannot believe it’s here. Welcome back to the Ranma Rewatch, and it’s time to finish the Phoenix Pill story arc with this episode. I think. I’m pretty sure. I...do not remember this episode at all, really. Like I said last week, most of what I can recall is from the mockery of a YouTuber I used to follow. But I am unshackled from his opinion! I watch this episode with new eyes! Let us see what sights I shall witness!
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...
I should have listened.
I wasn’t prepared for this.
So, here’s the plot. They’re on a snowy mountain. Why? No clue, I guess they just wanted to go skiing. Ranma isn’t skiing, Cologne shows up, they start to fight a little, and she reveals that there’s some competition going on, and the winner gets a date with Shampoo and if Ranma wins he gets the Phoenix Pill.
Everyone gets made because of the date with Shampoo part, even though...like, it’s really obvious that he’s just doing it for the pill. There’s a lot of forced conflict over that, and it ends up being just Cologne vs Ranma. It looks like he’s winning, she offers to make this all about their duel. If he wins, he gets the pill, if she loses, he has to marry Shampoo.
When Ranma accepts those terms, she immediately starts wiping the floor with him, and nothing he does makes a difference. In the end, the only way to win is to get Shampoo’s help. She turns into her cat form, which terrifies Ranma until he starts using Cat-Fu. That is actually able to kick Cologne’s butt, and eventually she gives up and hands over the pill. Ranma turns back to his uncursed state, happy to be cured, but he did it in a women’s bath so he looks like a pervert. THE END.
I’m...going to start by talking about the few things I liked here. I think having Cat-Fu being the way to defeat Cologne is a pretty cool idea, especially since it was that story that began this arc. Little bit of a full-circle thing.
There was a decent smattering of cute Akane stuff, and I like that she once again is the one who can immediately calm down the raging Cat Ranma. Not only that, but the Shampoo stuff wasn’t bad. The episode showed off her more scheming side, as she was happy to use Cologne’s plan as a way to steal Ranma’s affections and get a date from him, but in the end she was also happy to work against that plan just to help Ranma out. Plus, Ranma purposefully playing on her love for him was a pretty classic Ranma thing to do.
That’s all my niceness.
This was, by my estimation, one of the biggest drops in animation quality I’ve ever seen. That episode of Gurren Lagann where everyone is super off model? That looks like that show at its best compared to this episode. There’s just...so little animation, and what we do have is frequently full of errors. It’s an action-heavy episode, too, and none of it looks good.
It was bad-funny at first, but after a while...it just became hard to watch. So much reused animation, so many errors, so much still shots. I am not an animation person! I normally don’t care about any of this! But is actively made watching this more difficult.
It’s also just...an underwhelming way to end the arc. They’re just randomly in the mountains, no reason why. Cologne bets everything on a fight against Ranma, he finds a way to win, here’s the pill. Some of the ideas could have worked, I think, if given proper backing. But there’s just nothing here.
Not only that, but wow the dub was bad here. Not only was this a case where, because I preferred Cologne’s Japanese actress and she was in it a lot it was better, but also because the translation for the dub was terrible. There’s one line change that is so baffling, it turns a kind of okay line into something incomprehensible. I was looking forward to my watch on the sub, if only so I could figure out what had just happened.
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Hey, why not, the arc is done, let’s talk about Cologne. Neither of her voice actresses are incredibly well known, but at least her Japanese voice actress, Miyoko Aso, has also been Pinako Rockbell in Fullmetal Alchemist and Shoga from Inuyasha. (She also passed away in 2018, after living quite a long life. Rest in peace.) The english voice actress, Elan Ross Gibson, is also fairly unknown, with her biggest work being as Baba in one of the Dragon Ball Z dubs.
As I mentioned before, they do play the character differently. They’re both going for “wizened old woman”, but Gibson’s Cologne is a lot more...toothless? She mostly sounds tired and bored. Aso gave the character a lot more life, more energy, and it’s that performance that’s working much better for me so far.
As a character, Cologne is...okay. She’s a very old Amazon warrior, the first character to appear who is, flat out, far stronger than Ranma. She serves as both an obstacle, what with the whole pressure point scenario, and a mentor, teaching him his signature move. There’s a sense that as much as she is trying to get one particular thing for him, namely marrying Shampoo, she’s also interested in seeing how he’ll develop, she’s impressed by his potential to grow stronger.
That said, she’s not even close to being among my favorite characters. She’s useful for dispensing exposition or teaching techniques, but her plots to get Ranma to marry Shampoo just...feel kind of boring to me. That’s genuinely all I have to say about her, at least for now. But who knows? Maybe one day my tune will change with this rewatch.
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Y’all, I think it’s obvious, but I didn’t like this episode. I have no hesitation saying it was worse that Dr. Tofu’s mom’s episode. But the real question is: is it worse than the clip show? One was basically nothing, the other the active presence of bad. How you weigh one versus the other is a matter of personal preference, but for me, I’m going to say this episode was worse. At the very least, the season 1 finale had the animation from good episodes to show us.
Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’  
Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!
Episode 15: Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands
Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!
Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around
Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race
Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know
Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!
Episode 23: Enter Mousse! The Fist of the White Swan
Episode 17: I Love You, Ranma! Please Don’t Say Goodbye
Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!
Episode 16: Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul
Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga
Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!
Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart
Episode 1: Here’s Ranma
Episode 22: Behold! The 'Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire' Technique
Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love
Episode 21: This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!
Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'
Episode 14: Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan
Episode 18: I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?
Episode 24: Cool Runnings! The Race of the Snowmen
But that’s it! The story arc is done, and next week...I can’t believe it. I’m so happy! With next week’s “The Abduction of P-Chan”, we’re starting a little arc I’ve been dying to revisit for ages! If you’re watching it on the Hulu order, then you’ve already seen it, but I’ll talk more about that next time! See you then!
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saranghanuuu · 4 years
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LOVE LASTS FOREVER JDRAMA REVIEW ♡
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Love Lasts Forever / An Incurable Case Of Love (Koi Wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomade mo) is a 2020 romance-comedy-medical Japanese drama based on Maki Enjōji’s 2016 manga series of the same name. It stars Takeru Satoh playing the role of Dr. Tendo Kairi and Kamishiraishi Mone as Sakura Nanase.
PLOT SUMMARY
Love Lasts Forever / An Incurable Case Of Love (Koi Wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomade mo) tells the story of Sakura Nanase who accidentally (or should I say, fatefully) encounters cardiologist Tendo Kairi after an old woman collapsed on the street due to vasospasm. Sakura is greatly impressed on how Dr. Tendo handled the matter at hand and falls in love with him at first sight. After Dr. Tendo complimented Sakura for playing a key role of screaming for help for the old woman, she then realized her desire to become a nurse for a chance to meet him again.
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Five years later, she was admitted as a nurse trainee at Hiura General Hospital where Dr. Tendo works. Sakura confessed to him on her first day of work, only to receive a blunt rejection. Unbeknownst to her, Dr. Tendo is dubbed as a “devil” at work for being a perfectionist and for criticizing other doctors and nurses. Sakura earned the title “hero” in the cardiology ward because of that daring confession, but Dr. Tendo sees her as nothing but a “boulder” hindering his job due to her clumsiness. However perhaps with love and patience, nothing is impossible. Sakura continued to pursue the seemingly cold-hearted Dr. Tendo, especially after she was placed under his team. She now aims to receive his validation both at work and in love. Will Sakura be able to succeed in this sweet ordeal?
MY TWO CENTS
I haven’t seen a Japanese drama in a while and it’s highly unlikely for me to watch one as my hands are full of Korean dramas these days (I am currently watching 3 ongoing and 4 finished series). But then I happen to see a fan-made video again circulating in Facebook about Love Lasts Forever. The FMV is so well-done that I was fascinated - covering all the meaty parts from start to finish. That’s when I decided I should gamble my time for this. It appears to be just an easy-going series, I thought, which will be a good catch since everything’s so complex recently. I started it with low expectations... And I unexpectedly loved it so much than I can handle!
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WARNING: I suggest you not watching this if you are tired of this kind of plot, OR you prefer complicated stories, OR you expect this to focus on the medical aspect than romance. I want to save this drama from your disappointment. On the other hand, this drama suits best for hopeless romantics who fairly need a breather from the intricacies of life.
Since I never once reckon Love Lasts Forever to be a perfect drama, I am setting aside my criticisms. Instead, I am listing the things that made me fall for this series:
Kamishiraishi Mone is sooo KAWAII! Yes, this is the first reason HAHAHA😁 The way she speaks is very cute that it made me an instant fan. Of course it followed that I researched about her and found far more interesting things! She is a singer and the voice actress behind Mitsuha Miyamizu of Japanese anime film Your Name at that! She even sang an OST of Your Name entitled Nandemonaiya. Whoa~ So impressive, this girl.
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Right on acting. I am well aware that Japanese series tend to be OA and loud. This one is no different, but more of on the entertaining side than cringeworthy.
Clichè theme, yes, but the kind you will never get tired of. Admit it or not, your heart still flutters on stories of a tsundere male lead falling head over heels with a clumsy but bright female lead
Similarity with Itazura Na Kiss - anyone who watched this drama will be able to tell, I suppose. Itazura Na Kiss is evidently one of my most loved stories that I made several posts about it here in my blog. But I guess Love Lasts Forever stood out in a way that it's more relaxed and less toxic (just like what a user commented on my previous post).
Love Lasts Forever showed justification behind Dr. Tendo's strict and aloof personality, which brought more excitement as Sakura slowly breaks down the walls on Dr. Tendo's heart. It is thrilling when they do this in a drama really. Dr. Tendo initially drew a line between him and Sakura, so him growing as an expressive character is one for the record! He gave so many reassurances to Sakura that he loves her, that it was never a mistake that he chose to be with her.
Kiss kiss kiss overload!
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In my standard at least, Takeru Satoh is not handsome (sorry hah~), but I must admit he's oozing with sex appeal. He's a good kisser too and I love it🙈 And since we're already talking about kissing, Kamishiraishi Mone's responses to kissing scenes are really good too. It's not awkward and will indeed make you feel the tension.
Feel-good OST! This is on repeat in my playlist nowadays and everytime I listen to it, it brings back all the heart-fluttering memories in the drama.
Every episode has a distinct story to tell.
Hilarious side characters! And second and third couples that are likewise lovable - Dr. Kisugi x Sakai and Nishi x Ryuko
My happily ever after ideal ending - a marriage.
FUN FACTS/TRIVIAS ABOUT THIS DRAMA (Compiled from Blitzfansub)
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Dr. Tendo is your stereotypical “Do-S” character (literally translated to “Super-S”) where normally the “S” stands for sadistic. Because they just say Do-S, the running joke is that he can be both super stoic and super sadistic at the same time.
It is part of Japanese politeness to describe *every* *single* *action* the nurse takes. And every time they touch the patient, or get too close to them, they literally say “pardon me”. It doesn’t sound natural in English, but not translating those lines will also be unnatural. The cultural difference is that in US, the nurses try to keep a conversation with you to distract you from the discomfort. In Japan, they tell you everything about it so you don’t get uncomfortable.
Team Tendo or Team Kisugi is of course, a double entendre. It means a doctor-nurse assignment as they described in the show, but they hint at it as also being “a fan of…” Tendo or Kisugi.
You may have noticed Dr. Tendo’s favorite phrase is “baka” and while it can translated to any one of stupid, idiot, retard, there is a distinction based on context. When he’s calling her “baka” at work, he’s insulting her lack of experience, and not necessarily her lack of intelligence. That’s why “retard” was used. In Episode 3 when Sakura mimicked Dr. Tendo in self-deprecating way, she said “idiot” and he defended himself saying he wasn’t that harsh. At the end of this episode, when she called him out, the baka he used was a very endearing kind, so the word “stupid” was used.
The scene where Dr. Tendo pretends to fall asleep after Sakura gets out of the shower may be seen as “cruel” in American culture but it’s a classic “gentleman move” in Japanese romance plots. He’s worried that she feels too pressured if he’s awake, so he pretends to be asleep and alleviate the pressure to have sex. I hope you can all appreciate his kindness!
A line from Episode 8 that literally says “It’s all your fault for making this weird kid be attracted to you” is such a hard line to sub. Like, who says that?! I mean, never mind that it sounds awkward. Nobody I know thinks like this (that it’s her fault he’s attracted to her). So translating isn’t just about replacing Japanese words with English words, but it’s also about placing it in the correct context. In this case, such a scenario would never happen in America because no guy says this in a lovable/jealous manner. Every guy that says this is a psychopath!! So what do you do in this case? The translator took a stab at the possible context and rephrased it to sound a bit more normal. If the context turns out to be different, the translator probably have to rephrase it significantly. Just a little “behind-the-scene” on how subtitling works!
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Difference from Manga: In episode 6, Miori is supposed to be the younger sister of Minori. Most people assume they are twins because that was the setting in the manga. However, the drama never explicitly mention them being twins. But if you check TBS’ website… it mistakenly shows Miori as 33 and Minori as 26 even though Minori is suppose to be older. And furthermore if you read the description for Miori, it says “Minori’s twin sister” so… in conclusion, the TBS website is a hot mess!
The amusement park Dr. Tendo and Sakura went to was filmed at Tokyo Dome City.
Takeru Satoh gave a “behind the scene” talk where he said that removing Sakura’s hair tie in the living room scene of Episode 8 was ad-libbed. He thought of it on the spot because the drama has used hair tie as a symbolism for “focused career-mode Sakura”, and untying her hair there showed that he’s treating her as a woman.
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Another behind the scene talk regarding last scene of Episode 8: The editors were going to start the I love… song at the point where Dr. Tendo shows up, but the editors said “it’s probably obvious that he’s going to show up, so might as well start the song early and match Dr. Tendo’s appearance with the crescendo.”
Bath culture is big in Japan. People don’t normally just take showers. That’s why when Sakura’s mom realized her house is not fit for a guest to take a bath, she sent the whole family to a public bath (called sento).
In a scene where Sakura’s trying to act cute in Episode 9, Dr. Tendo literally says “Did you eat something spoiled?” because there’s a reference that you act out of character when you eat something bad. This reference doesn’t work in English, so instead, “hitting yourself in the head” is used.
In the scene on Episode 10 where Nishi is introducing himself to Dr. Tendo, he actually calls Dr. Tendo “younger brother.” This is because even if he is younger than Dr. Tendo, if he marries his older sister, Nishi automatically becomes the “older brother-in-law” in turn making Dr. Tendo the “younger brother-in-law”.
In Japan, the “best man” of the wedding is usually the groom’s boss.
Apparently this series was so popular it crashed Paravi (TBS streaming site) few hours after EP10 release!
Not long ago, I was afflicted by an emotional disturbance that lasted for two months. It affected my everyday living so much that I had a hard time sleeping. After watching this drama, it faded away, to my surprise. I owe my happiness these days to this show. Maybe that's how I can sum up the fun of watching this. I hope the same goes to you!
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fizzingwizard · 5 years
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Years and years later, I finally watched the English dub of Digimon Tri!
I thought only the first movie got dubbed but looks like it’s all 6. Not that I plan to watch them because I’m definitely not digging the dub of Saikai X’D
I mean, to be fair, Saikai isn’t the best of the Tri movies. Althought I now like it a lot, I remember when it first came out how many of us were quite confused and disappointed by it - it moves quite slowly, the animation is okay but clearly low budget, it just lacks the usual showmanship and flair of a story opener meant to hook people in for 5 more movies. As a Digimon fan, and in particular as a Taichi fan, I appreciate the hell out it, but I hate that I can’t defend it to the death the way I’d like to. It gives absolutely essential Taichi scenes and reintroduces each of the characters in ways that, while maybe not Hollywood-worthy, at least felt familiar and true to each one. For me, Saikai gets good once Kuwagamon appears at the soccer game, and gets really good at Haneda. Just gotta make it through the slow beginning.
Anyway, back to the dub itself. What did I like? I liked JOSHUA SETH. I loved his voice as a kid. Even before I was a Taichi fan (because I was a Takeru fan as a child, and even found Taichi a bit annoying!), his voice was my favorite in the US dub cast. I was over the moon when I heard they got him for Tri and it was the sole reason I wanted to try watching the dub. Also super happy about Izzy’s voice actress too, who I also always loved. (side note, I was watching with a friend, and when Agumon spoke he immediately said “hey its mickey mouse”).
Vic Migogna’s Matt wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. It’s just so weird to me that his voice gets *higher* as he grows older xP but actually Vic Mignogna seems to have reined it in a bit and it wasn’t as glaring a change as I was dreading. Still not my first pic for Matt, but whatever.
Joe’s voice is completely different, but it jives with Tri’s “Joe is hot” take, so I’m down. TK’s voice is also fine although almost indistinguishable from Matt’s.
Where it goes wonky is, as usual, the girls’ voices. I actually really liked Meiko’s. It’s been so many years that even though some of them are the same, they don’t sound the same at all. Sora has the same voice actress but she sounds completely different. Mimi, too, really sounds her age, and no surprise, given that she’s a woman in her 60s pretending to be 16 xD But she still sounds peppy and bubbly so that’s good. The big disappointment for me was Kari. On my list of favorite voices in the US dub, Kari probably came right after Taichi for me, so I was sad they had to get a new voice actress for her. Would have been okay if the voice had suited her, but it doesn’t. Her new voice actress, combined with the sarcastic vein the dub insists on giving her, turn her into a totally different character. I kept thinking she sounds like one of those loud yelly girl characters who push the boys around like what’s her face on Hey Arnold. So that was the one big casting issue for me.
Lastly, Nishijima and Himekawa. Himekawa’s voice is fine. Wouldn’t have minded something a little less standard for her but it’s ok. Nishijima’s voice is good, just WRONG. He’s a laid-back man with a lot of life regrets trying to just get by day by day and live a useful, semi-happy life. Yes, he works for a secret government agency, but he also wears crocs and big ugly T-shirts to his cover job as a calligraphy teacher. He shouldn’t sound like Nick Fury!!! What the friiiiick
and you know what else, as happy as I am that they got so much of the old cast back, I don’t know what it is, but all of the voices sound way too similar. I mistook TK for Matt and Joe for Taichi and Matt for Taichi and Mimi for Sora and Hikari, like, constantly. xP They’re all different voices but they sound just similar enough for it to be kind of lacking in contrast. At least Izzy’s voice is unmistakable.
Then there’s the dub itself, which is a true homage to the US dub of Adventure in that 1) it inserts bad jokes where none are needed, 2) it fills dramatic silences with useless/repetitive information, and 3) use way too many words (not much you can do what with the difficulties in transation but). I like the Adventure dub, I always thought it was funny, but it definitely ate up a fair bit of character stuff with its jokes and lack of harmony with the source material. Tri is like that only the jokes aren’t as funny and the disharmony is magnified by the strangeness of the characters’ voices coupled with their weird dialogue.
And a lot of that dialogue is just so pointed! Yamato’s so nasty to Taichi with less obvious reason! In the soccer match vs live concert scene, Sora’s not just panicked and annoyed, she’s mouthing off! Even Hikari’s poking fun (tho to be fair she does come across much more like a real little sis, ehehe).
Then there’s my favorite bit... when Omnimon’s about to shoot Alphamon, Taichi’s really into the battle now, but then he suddenly remembers how much damage they’re causing and loses his motivation, and the attack shrinks as a result. In the original, Taichi doesn’t say anything, just makes faces that show what he’s thinking. It’s a bit awkward but works. In the dub? While he’s excited, he shouts “YEAH!” and then, seconds later, “UH-OH!” That uh-oh!! killed me. It sounded like Scooby-Doo. Like “Oops, my mom will totally ground me for this!” Come on, dub X’D
It’s of course possible that the other dubbed movies that apparently exist are done much better, but I’m afraid I have no interest in watching them. Will only happen if my friend says he wants to. I’m more than happy with the subbed version.
And to be completely fair. I’ve lived in Japan for several years now and I don’t struggle to use or understand Japanese on a daily basis. But it’s still not my first language, and that creates a buffer when I watch things in Japanese with subs versus when I see them in English. It’s to be expected I’m going to be harder on my native language because the faults are naturally going to be more glaring, whereas they’re easier to forgive or go completely unnoticed with languages I’m not programmed with from birth. So I’ll end by saying, it’s not like Saikai the original was perfect in any way - it also has its points of stilted dialogue, and there were many a time over the 6 movies that we fans were confused by awkward transitions etc. I still find it infinitely preferable.
My biggest and final beef with this movie is just that it’s no good for casual or non-Digimon fans. That we always knew and it didn’t bother me before, but having watched the dub it now feels so much like shooting yourself in your own foot. Le sigh. I wasn’t looking to land oodles of new fans or anything, I just would have liked to be able to show it to friends and have them at least say “seems cool!” instead of “lol”
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terubakudan · 3 years
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I don’t even play Resident Evil...
...but yespleasesteponme
Also a really cool breakdown of her iconic look here
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ranma-rewatch · 3 years
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Episode 6-Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know
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Hey ho person reading this blog. I am continuing my journey through Ranma 1/2, this week on the sixth episode. This one looks to be the end of this little two-part story arc, something I knew without having to look at the episode guide because I’ve never forgotten what happens in episode seven. I...legitimately don’t know what’s going to happen with this one, aside from Ranma learning about Tofu’s thing for Kasumi, and getting to see the two interact. Next paragraph, I’ll have rewatched the episodes and will be ready to regale you with what occurred.
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As expected, this episode starts right where the last one ended. Though unlike I was expecting, Akane just flat out tells Ranma it’s Kasumi that Dr. Tofu likes rather than drawing it out further. Ranma isn’t sure how she knows that, but then the doctor himself shows up and starts helping Ranma with the baseball injury that sent him there. Dr. Tofu jokes about the injury clearly being from Akane, only for her to say something to confirm the idea. She’s clearly bothered by the implication of it, that she isn’t a very feminine person, but Dr. Tofu clearly doesn’t mind that she’s more of a tomboy.
Then Kasumi shows up, and the old lady waiting her turn in the lobby books it. As she leaves, she runs into an old man who was going to see Dr. Tofu, and tells him that Kasumi is there. It’s clear that Kasumi’s effects on Dr. Tofu are common knowledge to his patients. What are those effects? Well, she enters the room with him, Ranma, and Akane to give him back that book mentioned last episode and to give him a present.
In a millisecond, Dr. Tofu goes from being a kind, seemingly wise doctor to an utter buffoon. Any iota of good sense in him vanishes when Kasumi is in his presence, causing him to do things like addressing his panda assistant as Ranma or mistaking a present’s wrapping for being a mask. Akane leaves right away, and Ranma ends up following, but not until the silly version of Dr. Tofu has bent Ranma’s neck in a weird direction.
Akane is out on the edge of the water of a...river? Stream? Reservoir? I never know what to call those things. Anyway, she’s tossing rocks when Ranma shows up, and he’s clearly trying to cheer her up, following her around to try and help. It’s then that Akane perks up, asking Ranma if he actually likes her. He denies it, but she seems to be in better spirits, tricking Ranma into activating his curse by abusing the fact he tends to leap without looking where he’ll land. There’s a moment when he sees her laughing that the show focuses on, something Ranma really takes notice of.
Instead of heading home, Akane asks Ranma to lend her money for food, and they get some fast food together. Not long after sitting in a park to eat it, Akane’s mood sours again. She can’t help comparing herself negatively to Kasumi, and tells Ranma more details about how badly Dr. Tofu loves her, how it makes him act. This is when Ranma says the wrong thing, making an idle remark about her heart being broken, and that is it for Akane. They start arguing, Akane clearly hurt by Ranma’s cavalier words, but after Akane shuts down his attempts to offer comfort, Ranma bluntly tells Akane she’s going to have to get over it. She tells him that he has no clue what she’s going through, which seems to strike a nerve for Ranma, who asks how she knows that’s the case. Akane leaves, telling Ranma not to follow her.
Ranma goes to see his dad for hot water, and he uncurses himself with it as well, asking what’s gone on between Ranma and Akane. Genma makes it clear that the problem at hand is that sometimes one of them says something that hurts the other without them realizing it, and that he knows that pain. For an example, he tells a story about some girl who he was dating when he was young, who he broke up with. In the process, younger Genma talked on and on about how much better his new girlfriend was, getting him conked in the head in the past and the present.
Still, with that idea in mind, Ranma heads home. Akane is training, trying to settle her mood, when Ranma starts lightly sparring with her. When she gets annoyed he isn’t taking it seriously, and defending the fact that she likes to be angry sometimes, Ranma tells her she’s actually really cute when she smiles. This stuns her enough for him to poke her, and we cut from her getting annoyed in the moment to her ruminating on it all afterwards, in the bath. Akane seems surprised at the idea that anyone would find her attractive, or that smiling helps, even smiling in a mirror afterwards in her room. Ranma appears in the window, makes a snarky comment, Akane punches his lights out, end of episode.
This episode was a lot better than I expected going into it. I hadn’t forgotten any of the Dr. Tofu stuff, which I’ll just say right now I’m not a huge fan of, but the Ranma/Akane aspects of the episode were very strong, at least for me. I feel like there’s definitely a lot of Ship Teasing, though considering the rest of Ranma’s harem hasn’t been introduced yet, that’s to be expected.
This was the second time so far, that I can remember, where Ranma jumped without looking, only to realize he’d be landing in water. It’s a gag, sure, but it reinforces the character trait of Ranma’s that he’s a literally ‘leap before he looks’ kind of guy. It’s easy to then tie that in to his behavior that makes their argument worse, the same thing he often does to set Akane off: he leaps without looking. Ranma has a tendency to just say things without thinking through how the other person might feel about it first, and that often leads to him touching other people’s vulnerable spots without realizing it.
There’s also a bit of symmetry between the two of them: Ranma taking in that moment of the happy, smiling Akane, and Akane thinking back to Ranma telling her she looked really pretty when she smiled. Even as it becomes clear they have a lot to get past, there are more hints that each is starting to grow to like the other.
More fodder in that department can be seen when Ranma gets annoyed that Akane assumes he has no clue how she’s feeling. While one can read it as general indignation, it can also be seen as him getting annoyed that she has noticed he is feeling the same kind of thing. Namely, that Akane is so in love with Dr. Tofu that she isn’t really noticing him. I could be pulling that interpretation out of my shipping ass, but it’s just something I saw this time around. Sorry that most of my content for this one was about Ranma/Akane stuff, I can’t really control my inner shipper.
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For this week’s character spotlight, I decided I might as well get Dr. Tofu out of the way now. I feel like I’ve kind of made it clear already, but I don’t really care about Dr. Tofu that much. He’s a fairly bland character, especially for this show, and the fact that, as far as I can recall, he basically slowly fades from the anime over time makes sense to me. I get what they were going for, and he does elicit some interesting development from Akane, but as a guy in his own right, he doesn’t do anything for me.
Still, this is his spotlight, so let me look into his voice actors. In the English Dub, his voiced by Ian James Corlett, who...did a lot of 90’s stuff? Honestly, not a lot there that peaks my interest. Oh, wait, what? His daughter Claire Corlett, who is a voice actress, is Sweetie Belle? ...that is pretty cool. Technically speaking, he was only the voice of Dr. Tofu for the first six and a half seasons, after that someone else took over, but I genuinely don’t recall that happening so we can discuss that when we get to it. In the original Japanese, he’s played by Yūji Mitsuya. In contrast to his American counterpart, Yūji has been in a billion things, including once again Japanese dubs of American media. In Yūji’s case, he was Marty in Back to the Future, Jack in Will & Grace, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from Amadeus.
What are they like as this character? Well, to compare and contrast, Ian plays Dr. Tofu as more warm and kind, but otherwise normal sounding, even when he’s in Kasumi-induced silliness. Yūji instead gives him a higher voice, and when he’s being ridiculous, that adds a lot to the idea that he’s now just a blundering buffoon. Their performances actually do feel rather distinct, and trend that character towards slightly different readings. I’d say I mostly prefer Ian’s, but that’s just because I don’t get a lot out of the humor of Dr. Tofu anyway, so the more silly Yūji performance doesn’t do a lot for me.
I should also say here that, to my amazement, Tofu is not his last name. His name is apparently Tofu Ono. This kind of baffles me. When people, at least here in America, talk about a doctor, they use the last name after the Dr. prefix. And in the Japanese version, I thought they were calling him ‘Tofu’ a lot, but as his personal name rather than his family name, wouldn’t they be more likely to call him ‘Ono’, since that’s generally what people do in Japan? Am I missing something? I’m probably missing something.
Name issues aside, the thing I will say I appreciate about Dr. Tofu is that, well, I get why Akane likes him. Aside from being a marital artist (though that quality of his remains mostly told and not shown), he helps people, and he doesn’t try to tell Akane she’s wrong for being who she is. As much as Akane is down on the fact that she has more masculine hobbies and doesn’t always act ladylike, Dr. Tofu calls her ‘spirited’ and compliments those aspects of her personality. The very fact Akane’s oldest sister is the ultimate picture of traditional femininity probably hasn’t helped her, and Dr. Tofu’s overt affection for Kasumi probably just makes that worse. Nonetheless, the doctor appreciates Akane for who she is, rather than who she could be.
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Going into this episode, I was expecting to set it down at the bottom of the pack, but I’m such a sucker for the chemistry between Ranma and Akane that I have to put it higher. How high? Well, I’d say it’s the second best episode so far, only topped by the second episode because that one was just so dang delightful. That puts the current rankings as:
Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around
Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know
Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart
Episode 1: Here’s Ranma
Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love
The odd numbered episodes haven’t been faring as well, that’s for sure. I don’t think that streak will continue though, because next week is episode seven, “Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’”, and oh boy I cannot wait for that! See you all then!
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