Forum - View topicREVIEW: Zipang DVD 2
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11293 Location: Frisco, TX |
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One big mistake in the review. Lt. Commander "Kusuna" is suppose to be Kusaka.
As for my own opinions:
"Vaguely militaristic?" This is the same guy who composed the scores for all of the Full Metal Panic! and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED anime. I've seen a lot of the other anime Toshihiko Sahashi as done music for as well, and I feel he's quite adept at using drums, brass, piano, and strings; pretty much all you could ask for in a dramatic soundtrack. And of course the score is melodramatic, this is WWII we're talking about. I'm sure if Hans Zimmer did the soundtrack, it would have the same, if not tripple the effect (just give the Blood+ soundtrack a listen if you don't believe me). And about the dub. I don't understand how you can give this a B, raising it a step from the last volume, while at the same time dropping the Japanese track down a notch in contrast. How did the Japanese cast get worse? Just listening to the dub makes me laugh at how undisciplined and amateur every aspect is. The casting is terrible from top to bottom. Would you cast that redneck voice for any character played by Yuuji Ueda? Sanosuke from Kenshin, Akito from Nadesico, Keitaro from Love Hina, Tatsunosuke from Peace Maker Kurogane? Or even Morita from Honey & Clover? Both he, and Hiroki Touchi are among my favorite seiyuu for the sounds of their voices alone, and I expect nothing less than top of the crop voice actors to dub over them, not a bunch of John VoiceActors in Singapore. I find it insulting that the dub producers would stereotype the entire cast and create these "gimmicky" army-guy voices. The English script is hammy, pronunciations are butchered, and many of the actors fail miserabley in capturing even the slightest bit of inflection to dramatize the series. About the only thing good is that the Americans sound.. American. EDIT: Added a word. Last edited by Tony K. on Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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d.yaro
Posts: 528 |
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I checked the chart of the series on the official website. The episodes covering the refueling and resupply story arc are set in Malaysia and Singapore, not Indonesia. It's been a couple of months since I watched the DVD and I distinctly remember that those episodes didn't take place in Indonesia. Actually, checked the case and the blurb on it mentions Singapore.
An aside: I was advised by Amazon.ca that their shipping date for volume 3 has been pushed out 4-6 weeks. One other thought: I guess no one thought of adding an audio track with the Americans speaking English and Japanese speaking Japanese (like in "Tora Tora Tora"). |
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WesW
 Posts: 144 |
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I think you mistakenly added the word "nothing" in this paragraph, since the Japanese have historically glossed over all the atrocities they committed in the areas they conquered. Quoting from page 300 of James Bradley's Flyboys, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in knowing the true horrors of WWII, the Japanese killed: app. 30 million Chinese, 4 million Indonesians, 1.8 million Indians, 1 million Vietnamese, and hundreds of thousands of Koreans, Filipinos and Malaysians. IIRC from other sources, the Japanese slaughtered about 100,000 Singaporans during their occupation as well. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Concerning various points:
About Kusaka vs. Kusuna: Ick. Have corrected that one. About Malaysia and Singapore vs. Indonesia: I don't currently have my copy available to confirm or deny this. (Taking my own advice and lending it out to my brother-in-law, who's not an anime fan but is a serious military history buff.) Can someone who's actually seen the volume verify this?
No, I said what I intended there. Based on my readings of history, many Japanese at the time believed that they were "liberating" the Asian lands from Western powers (although it was, of course, actually a grab for resources), but in actuality they just took over as the new masters and ran things more or less the same way. That viewpoint is the part I was addressing; I was not trying to ignore or gloss over the more deeply negative side of the occupation, but that simply hasn't come up in the series (at least so far). Concerning the dub grades: The musical score impressed me a lot less in the second volume (in fact, I now think I overgraded the first volume by at least one step), and the artistry seemed a bit less sharp, which were the main reason the Overall (sub) grade came down. (Remember, those grades are overall figures including the sub or dub, not just grades specifically for the sub or dub.) As for why there's less separation betweent the sub and dub grades? While it's still not a good dub, it sounded to me like it improved a bit since the first volume, or at least didn't annoy me as much as it did in the first volume. (And they corrected the biggest problem, which was not crediting anyone for the dub. That definitely figured into my vol. 1 grade.) As someone who generally favors dubs, I found it to be at least watchable, and I generally won't mark a dub down more than one step if it's at least tolerable to dub fans. If I'm marking a dub down two or more steps then either there's a big technical problem with it (the case in vol. 1) or it would be intolerable even to dub fans. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I love how the plot for this series is unfolding. I have no guesses on how the story will be resolved as of this volume.
The 3D integration is fantastic. That little VTOL craft from the Mirai is really neat. The video transfer is very clear as well. The series feels very Japanese, and I can't imagine hearing the characters speaking in English. I'm probably going to watch the third volume of Zipang and Solty Rei after work tonight along with Black Cat and Trinity Blood which arrived early! |
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d.yaro
Posts: 528 |
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While I didn't sound too convincing when I pointed out the error I can offer these pieces of corroborating information: The title of the 7th episode, as per the ANN encyclopedia release list, is "Malay Railway". The chart I was referring to is available through this link: Zipang official site - Story page with record of movement chart. I checked The RighStuff's web page for the DVD and the synopsis posted there is a verbatim copy of what is on the DVD case. |
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