The Sphere
General Garbage => Tropical Paradise of Hard Shelled Fruits => Topic started by: B E C K on Jan 19, 2005, 01:03:02 AM
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I didn't even realize they had already made it. I liked it. Of course, zero familiarity with the comic might've been helpful in this regard.
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I saw the trailer and it looked like absolute shit to me. :huh:
Heh. ^_^;;
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Have you read the comic at all or is it just based on what you saw in the trailer?
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Trailer.
I mean, I just think the animation and voice acting suck. ^_^;;
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The animation was to be expected. I doubt they had much of a budget on it. I think they worked with what they had fairly well. One of the staff members mentioned briefly that he worked on some episodes of Batman and Gargoyles, and I like seeing something that actually has some blood and isn't anime or "disgusting looking" like Aeon Flux and Reign. The only place where the animation really bothered me was in the movement for the army (such as when they were marching).
The voices were so-so. A few tanked at some points but for the most part they held up enough to not be a detraction. I'm pretty picky on that point. Hope's voice sounds pretty bad, but at the same time it gives an excellent contrast to the person she later becomes.
It was a bit hokey at times ("Hope is dead. I am Lady Death"), but I was judging it on the basis of a Saturday morning cartoon gone horribly wrong and there it meets with success. I didn't find myself drifting out of it either like I did with Spawn. The story is pretty evenly paced. It ends up being good mindless fun.
Lady Death is hawt. That little jester guy Pagan was a great character. It was a little unnerving to keep having Satan appear on the screen though.... :lol:
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Is Steven Hughes credited as one of the creators of the Lady Death?
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"Based on the character Lady Death created by Brian Pulido". I don't remember the exact credits, that part's from the back of the box. Hughes was mentioned in one of the featurettes, I think.
I just noticed something funny tho'. "Sound Design by Bruce Faulconer". Thank god that didn't say "music".
Another interesting credit is "Screenplay by Carl Macek".
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I haven't seen it due to abject lack of interest. Nothing about the look or subject matter really grabbed me at any point. The fact that it's an original production by ADV doesn't help it, either, nor does the fact that they got the biggest hacks from DBZ and Robotech to put it together.
This is the first time anyone I actually know has said they liked it, so I may throw it on my Netflix queue at some point.
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never even heard of it, but so far I've heard Aeon Flux, Reign, ADV, DBZ, Robotech, so I'll make a far fetched guess and say it's a new Peter Chung flick.
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I like seeing something that actually has some blood and isn't anime or "disgusting looking" like Aeon Flux and Reign.
NOT PETER CHUNG. Thank goodness.
Reading some of the negative reviews for this over at IMDB, I think some people might've gone into it with their expectations a little too high. It's not gonna have "Ghost in the Shell" style action sequences or celebrity voice-overs or a Hans Zimmer-esque musical score. Unfortunately the production does use ADV-favoured voice artists, which I do think are a bit on Sabat end of the voice acting crop. If you just take it for what it is, low-budget brainless entertaiment, it's not a bad way to kill 80 minutes.
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The VAs are actually some of the upper-level ADV regulars, who can do great stuff. If their work here was lacking, I'd sooner accuse the director(s) than the actors.
Hell, they had Pedro from Excel Saga playing Cremator, who I assume is the bad guy...I have to hear that some day :D
Christine M. Auten as Lady Death
Andy McAvin as Pagan
Chris Patton as Niccolo
Dwight Clark as Father Orbec
Mike Kleinhenz as Lucifer
Mike MacRae as Asmodeus
Rob Mungle as Cremator
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The need to make a Sharknife movie!
http://www.ninjarage.com/sharknife/ (http://www.ninjarage.com/sharknife/)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/blanktoe/snwp1_800x600.jpg)
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I don't particularly like any of ADV's VAs. There's something about the sound of their voices that hurts me. Cremator is actually a good guy. Or at least here anyway.
It's funny, but before I came back to the board, I rewatched some of it with the audio commentary. The director constantly talks about the voice actors directing themselves. So I'd say blaming the director would be a right-on assessment....
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The need to make a Sharknife movie!
http://www.ninjarage.com/sharknife/ (http://www.ninjarage.com/sharknife/)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/blanktoe/snwp1_800x600.jpg)
What is there to make a movie about?
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His trip to the Better Bank and Trust.
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The need to make a Sharknife movie!
http://www.ninjarage.com/sharknife/ (http://www.ninjarage.com/sharknife/)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/blanktoe/snwp1_800x600.jpg)
What is there to make a movie about?
I dont know. The book hasnt even come out yet. I'll tell you after I read it.
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I thought as much. :lol:
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Shows how fast I skimmed your review....
Live action asian movie then?
Explain to me in one sentence why I should see this.
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I don't give a shit if you see it or not.
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
go Nuri go!
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I don't particularly like any of ADV's VAs. There's something about the sound of their voices that hurts me. Cremator is actually a good guy. Or at least here anyway.
It's funny, but before I came back to the board, I rewatched some of it with the audio commentary. The director constantly talks about the voice actors directing themselves. So I'd say blaming the director would be a right-on assessment....
Checking ANN's site again, it says a guy named Andrew Orjuela directed. Guess how many other shows he's directed? Zero. Then again, he may not have been the ADR director.
I'm rather fond of ADVs corps of VAs, myself.
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He kinda implied he was with the way he talked about the actors directing themselves, but then again I didn't look for a voice director or adr director in the credits. If you're fond of the actors in general, then maybe you should give it a see just for that.
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I read ANN's and AnimeOnDVD.com's review, and they seemed to think the actors were good, but the script and animation were pissy.
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The best word in hindsight is probably "amaturish".
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I think, up until the past three years or so, that was a good descriptor for ADV in general.
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I think in most cases it probably still is.
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I dunno...a quick gander at my anime library (http://forums.shwiggie.com/index.php?showtopic=889) (which needs updating, come to think of it) shows a pretty clear trend for me. Most of what's there is ADV, and I generally listen to the English tracks. I still hate them for their handling of Evangelion, but the majority of their voice work these days is not bad at all. But, then again, most anime that comes out these days in general is better than stuff from just a few years ago by leaps and bounds.
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Steel Angel Kurumi, R.O.D. (the one that aired on Adult Swim... don't know if that's the same as on your list), New Cutey Honey (could be argued as being an older work though), and Excel Saga are all ones I've seen some of in English and I was for the most part unimpressed with the English tracks. Lady Death had a preview of Chrono Crusade and the preview alone turned me off to the English track and wanting to even watch that show as did the one for Mezzo.
I've also seen an English preview for Sorceror Hunters which didn't peak my curiousity, though I think any English viewing of a full episode would be hopelessly biased seeing as I'm in love with Megumi and Yuko as Tira and Chocolate and am hard pressed to think of any actress who I feel would do them justice.
Not that I think ADV can't or won't eventually make a dub I can absolutely fall in love with, but from what I've heard so far... Unless the title really interests me I'll be very prone to stay away from the English track.
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And maybe I'm just being hopelessly anal, but the very fact they say ANN-ee-may and not AH-ni-meh in their previews and advertisements just irks me. :lol:
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A lot of "Annie May" ("Annie may, but Frieda DOES!" Always liked that joke) fans are like that. But I'm a dumb American, so it doesn't bother me so much. The fact that I listen primarily to dubs anyway should underscore this. Then again, the word is a variation of the English word "animation" anyway, so one could argue that it's the Japanese who are mispronoucing it....
I liked Steel Angel Kurumi and thought it was a decent show, but the acting on it was pretty uninspired...some girls squealing and shouting was about the extent of it. But it was by far not the worst. Read or Die wasn't an ADV production, despite using a number of ADV regulars, but a the voicing there was pretty flat for the most part. Then again, I put some of that on the fact that it was an OVA and didn't allow much time for growing into roles. From what I've read of the R.O.D. series from Geneon, the ADR is quite good, even if what I hear about the plot going downhill halfway through is true.
New Cutey Honey wasn't much, but, like you noted, it's a fairly old dub. Then again, the main reason for watching that is for the massive hooters that fly all over the place, not the dramatic acting. Sorcerer Hunters is the same way...a lot of "classic" ADV actors worked this show, but it seems like it was done back before they learned how to act or were being paid enough to make it worthwhile. Tira has the worst voice on the show, IMO, but the others are decent. The good thing about these two is that they're either out or about to be released with the Essential Anime label, which means that you can get them on the cheap ($20 a pop, NCH being a single release and SH being three).
Chrono Crusade is actually good in all respects except for the main character, but that's mainly because Hilary Haag's voice is gratingly annoying. They could have done better than that...the only thing I thought she was suitable for was Menchi, the pet dog/emergency food supply from Excel Saga. Speaking of Excel Saga, the English voices for that show did a great job...not much dramatic work there (except for episode 24, which the original author "gave his permission" to make into a dramatic episode :P), but they captured the rapid-fire dialog and overall energy very well. The only real mar on it was the actress for Excel blowing her vocal cords and having to be replaced starting with episode 14, but I didn't notice it until reading it online, so it's not that big a deal.
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Then again, the word is a variation of the English word "animation" anyway
Anime is a french word actually.
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NCH being a single release
Single? Is it two discs or something? I don't see them putting all eight episodes on one disc. One thing I remember reading about Cutey Honey was that Go Nagai liked Jessica Cavello's voice. Hmm, to each their own then.
On anime/animation, I don't really accept the "it's an American word anyway" arguement because from what I can tell, Americans didn't originate the definition of 'anime' as being towards animation. The word that's ours that's being mispronounced is however the Japanese pronounce "animation". I would see it differently had we created the word. From what I understood about "anime", it's the truncated version of that word and French similarity was just that, a similarity. Even if it was taken from the French, I still don't think it'd be ANN-ee-may. I do accept the "but we're in America and that's how Americans would say it" or "I'm American, not Japanese" or "I don't speak Japanese anyway" arguements though. It just personally irks me.
However it may be, I just call them all cartoons anyway.
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I wish to second the "fuck Peter Chung"
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Motion passed. Use no lubricant.
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NCH being a single release
Single? Is it two discs or something? I don't see them putting all eight episodes on one disc. One thing I remember reading about Cutey Honey was that Go Nagai liked Jessica Cavello's voice. Hmm, to each their own then.
The latest release version (under ADV's "Essential Anime" label, which is questionable...) includes both discs. That's how I got it. It really isn't worth the price of two discs, so the two-fer is a good deal. I like what I've heard of Cavello's work in general...she was good in Kare Kano, too. It's a shame she blew her vocals in Excel Saga, because I preferred her over Larissa Wolcott's version. But her's was still okay, because the whole point of Excel having a voice was so she'd be that much more annoying :)
On anime/animation, I don't really accept the "it's an American word anyway" arguement because from what I can tell, Americans didn't originate the definition of 'anime' as being towards animation. The word that's ours that's being mispronounced is however the Japanese pronounce "animation". I would see it differently had we created the word. From what I understood about "anime", it's the truncated version of that word and French similarity was just that, a similarity. Even if it was taken from the French, I still don't think it'd be ANN-ee-may. I do accept the "but we're in America and that's how Americans would say it" or "I'm American, not Japanese" or "I don't speak Japanese anyway" arguements though. It just personally irks me.
However it may be, I just call them all cartoons anyway.
As for Ah-ni-may vs. Ann-i-may, do you refer to Transformers as Trans-for-mers, or T'lan-sa-foh-mu?
BTW, who is Peter Chung? Or am I better off not knowing?
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Motion passed. Use no lubricant.
But then he'll get teh AIDS :(
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BTW, who is Peter Chung? Or am I better off not knowing?
Peter Chung (http://imdb.com/name/nm0161285/) is the animator/creator of the "Liquid Television"-spawned faux anime, "Aeon Flux". It's an either love it/hate it kind of show due to his awkward character designs (notable for NEVER having pants) and often wonky animation. His last projects were "Reign: The Conquer", which aired on Adult Swim a couple years back, a short he did for the Animatrix called "Matriculated" and the short animated film he did for the Chronicles of Riddick. He also sports a 'Flock of Seagulls' haircut to this day.
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Did anyone care for the New Fist of the North Star voices? (assuming anyone saw it) That was done by the Austin ADV bunch.
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Peter Chung (http://imdb.com/name/nm0161285/) is the animator/creator of the "Liquid Television"-spawned faux anime, "Aeon Flux". etc. etc. etc.
All you had to say was Aeon Flux, Reign, and Matriculated, and that'd have sufficed.
Did anyone care for the New Fist of the North Star voices? (assuming anyone saw it) That was done by the Austin ADV bunch.
I've heard that New FotNS was nothing to write home about. Haven't seen it yet, though.
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As for Ah-ni-may vs. Ann-i-may, do you refer to Transformers as Trans-for-mers, or T'lan-sa-foh-mu?
I would like to know why you would even ask something like that.
I didn't even know there was a new FotNS. Not that I've seen the old one or anything.
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I hated the old one. The end title music gave me the creeps. :( Considering that the new one has Gackt songs for the open & close, my reaction is considerably different. ;)
I really liked some of the voices, esp. Robert Kraft (Kenjiro) & John Paul Shepherd (Sanga). Female VA was annoying as hell, though I was probably adversely influenced by her interview. One of those "Well, I just kind of got a tryout because of a friend (fuckbuddy), showed up, and got the job, tee hee, titter - how do you spell anime?" success stories. <_<
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As for Ah-ni-may vs. Ann-i-may, do you refer to Transformers as Trans-for-mers, or T'lan-sa-foh-mu?
I would like to know why you would even ask something like that.
I bring it up because you don't hear about Japanese people "mispronouncing" Transformers. It's like the "mawn-gha" vs. "main-gha" debate...or "toe-may-toe" vs. "toe-mah-toe"...or "hah-rass" vs. "hair-ass"...etc.
Incidentally, my favorite FotNS scene ever was Onizuka's impersonation of Ken in GTO. Otherwise, I never thought much of it, but I haven't seen it since seeing a dubbed copy sometime around my pre-teen years.
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As for Ah-ni-may vs. Ann-i-may, do you refer to Transformers as Trans-for-mers, or T'lan-sa-foh-mu?
I would like to know why you would even ask something like that.
I bring it up because you don't hear about Japanese people "mispronouncing" Transformers. It's like the "mawn-gha" vs. "main-gha" debate...or "toe-may-toe" vs. "toe-mah-toe"...or "hah-rass" vs. "hair-ass"...etc.
I don't see what Japanese people and the way they pronounce "Transformers" has to do with it. Transfomers = English word. Anime != English word. Am I not allowed to give preference to how the Japanese pronounce a word they either made up or possibly culled from the French but of which is certainly not an English word? And why does me doing so suddenly mean I would go as far as to render English words into foreign pronounciations? Because I won't defer towards a more domestic truncation of the English word "animation"? When did we ever truncate that word before Japan?
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peace in the middle east!
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We're being peaceful, it's Zero that's linking to Peter Chung. :x
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did that Peter Chung guy ever appeared on an x-files episode????? im not sure but its ringing the bell in my head somewhere, and im not hangover
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I don't see what Japanese people and the way they pronounce "Transformers" has to do with it. Transfomers = English word. Anime != English word.
The point I was making was that, yes, Transformers is an English word, but the Japanese pronounce it in their own peculiar ways, yet I don't hear of them or anybody else complaining about it. Anime is a Japanese word, yet there are gripes when it is said differently here, because it looks like another, very closely related word ("animation") whose pronunciation is unquestioned? I dunno, maybe the Japanese Transformer otaku get irritated at hearing "Tlansafoamu" and I just don't know about it.
Am I not allowed to give preference to how the Japanese pronounce a word they either made up or possibly culled from the French but of which is certainly not an English word? And why does me doing so suddenly mean I would go as far as to render English words into foreign pronounciations? Because I won't defer towards a more domestic truncation of the English word "animation"? When did we ever truncate that word before Japan?
I think you're over-reacting a tiny bit to what I was saying. I mean, far be it from me to dictate one's preference, but I just don't personally get hung-up on the proper pronunciation of a word everyone recognizes as soon as it escapes your lips. It makes as little difference to say "ah-ni-may" or "anni-may" (anime) as it does to say "hair-ass" or ha-rass" (harass), for example, although "hair-ass" is much funnier.
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You reminded me of a billboard I saw for a law firm, DS. It featured a furious-looking woman and the tag line was, "When 'harass' becomes two words at your workplace, call us!"
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And if her ass turned out hairy, it's time to fire the transvestites and hire real women to harass.
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I don't see how asking questions was overreacting. It's not like I resorted to name calling or the vicious CAPS. Yes, I was annoyed by that Transformers question. To me that held implication that I would intentionally maul an English word like some insane otaku purist.
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I used the term overreacting in the "I think you read more into what I said than I meant" sense, rather than the "calm the fuck down, woman!" sense. It looked like you thought I was coming down on you, which I wasn't in the least, hence my saying you overreacted. I wasn't accusing you of being off the deep end or anything by that.
The TF example was just saying, Japanese TF fans don't worry about saying "Tlansofoamu" rather than "Transformers", so I personally didn't see the difference between us saying "anniemay" or ahnimay" as long as we know what we're talking about. The question was meant rhetorically.
That's not to say that I don't glory in mangling English for fun and pleasure from time to time. Hey, Engrish is fun...I should post some of Strafe's TF2000 voice clips.