Archive for the English Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Maria Watches Over Us Preview (English)

June 19th, 2008

Yesterday, I received a preview copy of Maria Watches Over Us, the Nozomi/Right Stuf US release of Maria-sama ga Miteru. Thank you Right Stuf for the preview! I was warned ahead of time that this preview only included the non-honorific subtitles track. :-)

Before I start to pick nits, let me sum up by saying that even with “Lady Sachiko,” I’d give the translation an 8 out of 10. One of the points lost was for a genuine error that made no sense. The other was for a few translation moments that were not wrong so much as just out of step with fan convention. No points were lost for the things that weren’t wrong, but just felt weird.  After the nit-picking, I’ll touch upon some of the good things, just to balance it all out. ^_^

The Bad:

Unforgivably, Sachiko is translated as telling Yumi that her “scarf” is crooked. That doesn’t even make sense. She says “tie” using the English word, and even if one was going to mistranslate that, “collar” seems the most reasonable mistake. It’s September – no one is wearing scarves, and they call those mufflers anyway. And no one is wearing a fashionable scarf with their uniform, either. Given the many millions of “crooked tie” gags that have beeen propagated across the intertubes, this seems a particularly egregious error. ^_^

The Indifferent:

Both Japanese and American fandoms tend to use and become familiar with certain terms. In several cases, the RS translation isn’t wrong, but it just isn’t the same as the ones we’ve become comfortable with.

“Forest of thorns,” as spoken by Tsutako is rendered “forest of briars.”

“Mother Maria” seemed an odd choice in every language, since one naturally assumes that the translator would choose either English or Japanese. Mother Mary/Maria-sama/Blessed Virgin, whatever. But “Mother Maria” seems like a strange juxtaposition chosen only for its ability to be not instantly identifiable by people looking for things to get outraged about.

I’m pretty used to “Yamayurikai” but here it is translated as “Yamayuri Council.” Not hideously awful, just again, a sort of weird halfway-translated term.

And again, in the song Maria-sama no Kokoro, “Yamayuri lily” is pretty redundant. “Wild lily” or “mountain lily” is surely sufficient.

And while we’re on the topic of “Mother Maria’s Heart” – I don’t care that the correct name for the bird is the bush warbler – I find that amusing in an totally infantile giggly kind of way. lol

The Good:

All the Rosa’s retain their titles. Rosa Chinensis, Foetida and Gigantea are unmarred by attempts at translation. And so are their en bouton. “Rosa Chinensis en bouton petite soeur” graces our TV screen accurately, if unwieldily. ^_^ I absolutely appreciated that. In fact, that was kind of my biggest concern.

The Excellent:

The story itself is something I have not actually watched, or read, in a long time (although I am reading the novels voraciously these days.) So once again I felt that it was very nostalgic to see Yumi dealing with the Rosas for the first time. It’s a very, very amusing story. Sure Sachiko’s a raging bitch, but I love her for it – especially the moment when, after visibly having no recollection of ever having met Yumi previously, she blatantly lies to Youko about how close she and Yumi are…. ^_^

To sum up – there may be some issues even with the inclusion of the honorifics (and I don’t know to what extent honorifics will be included. Will “oneesama-gata” stay “dear sisters” or not? I don’t know for sure. Or will Maria-sama get her honorific back? No idea.) But I think that even with “Lady Sachiko” and “older sisters,” the translation was not *so* heinous that it couldn’t be enjoyed. It would be lovely to be able to give it a 10 out of 10, but with a little more smoothing, a 9 out of 10 ought to be easily obtainable.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2
Marimite Fan – 100

Translation – 8

Overall – 8

Aside from the usual fannish grinning like a moron, I’m very prepared to fall in love with this series all over again for the fourth time. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Strawberry Panic, Volume 2 (English)

June 16th, 2008

I’m sitting on my beloved sofa, watching Strawberry Panic, Volume 2 and two things occur to me. One, it feels like this a very, very old series, one that I haven’t watched in a million years, and two, every time the story tries to be serious – or heaven forfend, menacing – it’s a total laugh riot.

Then a third thing occurred to me as I watched it, which needs a bit of a lead-in.

Sometime in the past few months, I was in discussion with the president of another manga company and we got on the topic of companies and their flexibility re: acknowledging mistakes and fan sentiment. The other President confidently told me that “fans don’t like it when you change things mid-series” to which I replied quickly that, speaking as a fan, if you did it wrong the first time, then yes, yes we do like it. It means you listened to what we had to say and responded. For instance, Right Stuf is making a very good effort to not only listen to fans’ concerns about the Yamayurikai members titles, but to be responsive and let people know that they have been heard. They clearly had a subtitle track all ready to go, but are creating a second one. They didn’t have to do that. We could have watched the first track, bitched that the anime companies *still* don’t get us, and moved on.

Which brings me to Strawberry Panic. When I reviewed Volume 1, I expressed some major misgivings about both the quality control and the translation of the series. I forwarded my review to Media Blasters. (As I have said many times, I think the folks at MB are wonderful. I’m not *trying* to be a nag. I’m trying to help…but I kind of wondered if they appreciated it or not. You know, like, “thanks for constantly pointing out our inadequacies Erica, you dumb so-and-so!” ^_^) I also wondered if the reason that MB’s work was sometimes so sloppy was because no one really ever cared about them. Like the kid in class whose parents don’t really care if he’s got clean clothes or not. Well *I* care about MB’s work, especially when it applies to my beloved Yuri, so I feel like I’m making sure MB combs their hair and puts on clean underwear before they send out a DVD. lol

All of this a roundabout way to say that Strawberry Panic Volume 2 is the BEST work I’ve ever seen from Media Blasters. The translation is nearly seamless, there are no typos and best of all, they listened to my complaints and are no longer translating “oneesama” as “Big Sister.” NOW it sounds okay. “Shizuma-oneesama” “Chiyo-chan” “Hikari-san” etc, etc.

Thank you to everyone at Media Blasters for listening. And thank you for sending me this disk for review! Now…can I ask you for *one* more thing? LOL Can we also have the opening and ending themes in romaji too? It can be at the same time as in English, or alternated, one English, one Japanese. Either way is fine. Thanks. ^_^

Now, on to the series. This volume basically covers three main issues, with some side stories thrown in. One – Hikari and Amane like each other. Two, Shizuma and Nagisa realize that they have actual feelings for one another. And third – and most important – Kaname and Momomi are barking mad.

This third point was really the best part of the anime. Kaname’s plan to thwart Amane from pursuing the Etoile title (which she has repeatedly said that she doesn’t want) is nothing short of brilliant – she’ll force Hikari to love her instead, so she doesn’t think about Amane. Which might actually work, if she wasn’t such a ham-handed creep. Well, you know what they say – if subtlety and charm takes too long, just rape her. That’ll work.

…

What’s worse, Kaname is totally tedious about it. There she is, holding Hikari down and instead of actually doing anything, she’s going on and on about how, after Hikari has her as a lover she’ll never look at Amane again. Yes, she continues, she an amazing lover. Yup, really and truly. No one’s better… Have I mentioned how good she is? She did – like five times. Without so much as even vaguely attempting to do anything. Kaname, Kaname, you’re a crappy rapist.

Also amusing was the episode that blatantly ripped off Marimite’s “Rainy Blue,” cleverly titled “Hydrangea.” If you take the ane/imouto argument tension out of Rainy Blue, and turn the focus on the lost umbrella, so that it no longer represents the loss of everything important in Yumi’s life, but instead is merely a lost umbrella, that sort of is what “Hydrangea” was about. With alot of “shared umbrella of love” fantasies thrown in. (The wife says, “For all you umbrella fetishists out htere – this is the episode you’ve been waiting for!”) My favorite moment is where Shizuma thinks that her umbrella is too big for two people, because she and Nagisa don’t have to huddle underneath it.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Yuri – 7
Service- 7
Umbrellas – 10

Technically, this volume was a pleasure to watch. A good translation can’t make a bad series better, but it can keep a mediocre series mediocre. Content-wise, this series is still a bowl of derivative anime crack; a cheap shot that makes for a few moments of fun.





Kaleido Star Anime, Volume 2 (English)

June 2nd, 2008

For anime fans in general, but more specifically for fans romantic pairings, there’s a delicious moment when one of the couple starts getting very irritated at his/her reaction to the other one. Often that irritated reaction is the sum and total of their personality, spawning any number of tsun-xyz combinations. Sometimes, they move beyond that phase…but not too often.

In Volume 2 of Kaleido Star, Layla Hamilton – for a brief moment – becomes pointlessly and hopelessly irritated at Sora. It’s kind of cute, but mostly because I know it’s temporary. ^_^

In any case, there are all sorts of Yuri-esque situations floating around Volume 2, but the main plot is Carlos giving Sora all sorts of amazing opportunities, but doing it in the most assholish way possible. Of course, because Sora is our heroine, she overcomes every obstacle, and starts to create her own unique presence on the Kaleido Stage. It works. It really does. I gotta hand it to the writers, the whole “Little Mermaid” arc just – worked.

So, for Yuri, we have Rosetta gleefully piling on the Yuri-service for the Kaleido Stage audience by both hugging and kissing Sora in front of them (the latter of which prompts a juicy “whoooo!” from them.) There’s the aforemetioned tsuning by Layla, and we get to enjoy Mia’s kvelling over her princely Anna.

Speaking of Mia and Anna, one of my favorite things about Kaleido Star is how Mia, Sora and Anna all start off as a performers, but as the series progresses and Sora transforms into a Kaleido Star, Anna focuses more and more on comedy, and Mia shifts her focus to trick choreography. The tricks still remain the best thing about this series. I’d genuinely love to see a swing Diablo fight, like the one Rosetta and Sora did. Don’t you think that would be totally cool?

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4

Overall – 8

Once again, thanks go out to Ted the Awesome for sponsoring today’s review!

And for the person who asked me once why I watched this anime when I don’t like circuses, here’s my answer: For the same reason I watch Vampire Princess Miyu, when I don’t like vampires, or Devil Lady, when I don’t like horror, or Simoun, when I don’t like war stories. ^_^





Vampire Princess Miyu TV Anime, Volumes 1 and 2 (English)

May 29th, 2008

It’s not hard to understand why Vampires are considered sexy by so many people. Power, as they say, is an aphrodisiac. And Vampires have power over us puny mortals. (My brain is sighing “Oh, gawd…” as I type that. I just want you to know. lol) Vampires were originally seen as very traditional European royalty, but somehow in the last couple of decades have morphed into poser Gothlings. A sad fate for Vampires, I say. But today we come not to eulogize Dracula, but to completely, totally ignore him, and speak instead of Miyu, a young girl with a mission that makes her a “Vampire” only in the broadest possible sense.

Miyu is completely inhuman, which of course makes her instantly attractive to those puny mortals that even notice she exists. As we discussed in regards to the Miyu OAV, to know her is to obsess about her. :-) Her powers include sucking the memories out of people along with their blood, hence the vampire thing.

In Volume 1 of Vampire Princess Miyu, we are introduced to this iteration of Miyu, and her position as guardian and hunter, fated to walk through our human world to snare random escapee spirits, cage ’em and send them home – kind of like the Animal Cops, only with inhuman spirity things instead of stray dogs.

The general tone of Volume 1 is, well, creepy. Depressing and creepy. With extra creepy on top. That alone makes this a great volume – but you might find that the double helping of irony at the end of the first three episodes has a bitter taste.

Miyu, in between stoping Shinma and sending them back to their dimension, pretends to be a schoolgirl so she can…wear a uniform? Pass as a human, although why that’s important now, isn’t really delved in to. We meet Miyu’s faithful bishie in Volume 1, Lava, so the straight girls have something to watch, too. (For the record – I totally approve of lavender hair on bishies.)

In Volume 2, we get the addition of Reiha, a snow spirit with a tragic backstory, an obsessive grudge against Miyu, and a doll with a rude mouth. Both Reiha and her doll Matsukaze are voiced by my beloved Ogata Megumi. It’s a little-known fact that the characters were specifically written for her and that she recorded them in real-time, switching back and forth between Reiha’s Keigo-speaking girly voice and Matsukaze’s boyish crude tone without pause. Listening to them talk makes me adore MO even more than usual.

Yuri in these early episodes is implication only. Reiha, like Himiko in the OVA, seems to have trouble thinking about things that are not Miyu. And while nothing explicit has yet begun to occur, there’s a vibe with Miyu’s classmates that reads Yuri to those of us who are motivated to read it that way. Again, like the OAV, these volumes are totally Nioi-ke. Sure, we’re making it up, mostly, but it works for us, so who cares? :-) Be patient – there is more to come. Promise.

A meal of Miyu makes a nice change of pace in my school-girl heavy diet, and it’s always good to interject a little creepy into one’s life from time to time, so one does not begin to take happy for granted. Above all – how nice to see girls who look like girls, women who look like women, boys who looks like boys and supernatural lavender-haired bishies who look like…ah, you get my point.

Ratings for Volume 1 and 2:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Irony – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Personally, I totally favor the arrogantly sexy, tuxedo-clad silver-haired gentleman Vampire to the leather and velvet-clad pouty-faced twenty-something set.





Red Garden Anime, Volume 3 (English)

May 27th, 2008

Thanks to Ziggr for sponsering today’s review of Red Garden, Volume 3!

In this third volume of Red Garden, the four girls struggle not with life in general, but with specific relationships – with the men in their lives.

Rachel is having serious issues with her boyfriend Luke, who is trying to break through the wall she’s built between them. She’d like to confide, but instead watches helplessly as he drifts away from her.

Claire carries the bonus share, by having not one, but three men with whom she needs to address things – Ewan (called Yuan in this release, but that seems less likely to me,) her brother and her father. We learn that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Claire is not actually dirt poor. Her pride goeth so she need not fall, this time.

Rose and her friend decide to track down Rose’s father, whose absence comprises half of the burden on her family. We learn that he is not *gone,* per se – he is simply absent. Rose decides that his presence is more important than the money he sends to support the family.

And Kate gets to be the target for the schemings of Herve’, who is angry that his sisters are dying and being ignored for Lise. Herve’ decides to scout the enemy by pretending to go out with Kate. Unfortunately for him, Kate is a genuinely nice girl and he’s bound to be disappointed in his attempts to hate her. (Well, not, but you know what I mean.)

Yuri in this episode is once again expressed in Paula’s quiet caring and obsession about Kate. Nothing is stated explicitly, but it is not hard to read the text, sub or not.

This volume was captivating. Nothing *happened,* but what was going on on the screen captured my total attention. I forgot to write a single note as I watched – but I recall each episode clearly. An excellent volume of an excellent drama.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters- 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Kate, to her sister: “I’m all about lemons these days.” LOL

And the cover copy – “Buffy the Vampire Slayer with more visual flair.” Whah? Do these reviewers even watch this stuff before writing words down? Guess they have to say something, but huh??