Forum - View topicREVIEW: Le Chevalier D'Eon DVD 1
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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Wow, such a great review. I had a feeling that it would get a good review, but I never expected a review of that caliber. I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only raving about Chevalier. I fell in love with it after watching the free first episode online couple of times.
 I'll definitely be buying the DVD once it comes out.
One thing I really like about Chevalier is that there aren't really any easily recognizable voices in the dub. Nothing against them, but hearing a well-known voice is kinda distracting sometimes, especially if it's one of my favorite VAs. It's refreshing to hear more of an "ensemble" voice cast, if one can call it that. |
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Azmodeus
Posts: 185 Location: Sweden, ass end of nowhere |
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Great review key, as always. you struck most of the points about this show, Though i must say i was one of those who didn't get so much into it (don't ask me why, i just didn't get that "wow" feeling that ususally hooks me to a show
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A question: Am i the only one who don't get why they used a jpop song as an opener for an anime set in late-18th-century France. Just sounds off to me. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10426 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Nope. You aren't weird, and your comment is something I like to read. A reviewer's primary job is to help you decide what you will think of a show, he does this by telling you what the show is about, what he thought of it, and why. The "why" part is important, it helps you make a decision like "The reviewer loves thsi show, but from what he says, I don't think I'll like it." -t |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10426 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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The lat thing I want in a show about French people, is French accents. These people are supposed to be speaking their native tongue, therefore they shouldn't have a foreign accent. Only when the characters are speaking a language other than their own, should there be a noticeable accent. I do have a complaint about pronunciation of French words though. someones needs to teach the actors how to pronounce "Secret du Roi." Other than that tiny little nitpick (and it really is nothing more than a nitpick), Chevalier is one of my favorite shows for 2007, eclipsed only by Haruhi. -t |
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yellow-hairedwarrior
Posts: 10 Location: Norwalk, IA |
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Just reading this review kind of has me excited for the release. Yipee!
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yellow-hairedwarrior
Posts: 10 Location: Norwalk, IA |
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One thing I really like about Chevalier is that there aren't really any easily recognizable voices in the dub. Nothing against them, but hearing a well-known voice is kinda distracting sometimes, especially if it's one of my favorite VAs. It's refreshing to hear more of an "ensemble" voice cast, if one can call it that.[/quote]
That's exactly how I feel. I find that I can't concentrate on the storyline as well when there's a voice actor in there that I admire or hear alot about in anime. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I finally got around to watching the first DVD in this series and found it absolutely amazing. I easily place it right behind Noein and Ergo Proxy as my favorite current release and I'm actually biased towards SF series.
I agree that the packaging is gorgeous. The slipcover is both textured and gold reflective with a layout that is actually different from what is on the DVD case.. Although I'm that crazy guy who throws away his boxes/cases I'm actually going to keep this one. ADV has had a good reputation as far as on DVD extras (I love all the new Macross extras) so it is nice to see them put such effort in the packaging. I only wish they had as many good titles as in 2005, since the only series that I'm collecting from them are Utaware, Coyote, Nerima, and Chevalier. Fortunately the two companies that are releasing most of my new releases are Funimation who often have nice extras (Trinity, Grapher, and Basilisk digipaks are nice) and Geneon who have great encoding. The worst thing a reviewer can do is not be true to himself. Everyone has areas of interest and biases. The better you understand a reviewer and their tastes the more useful the review is to you. I also recall Theron's weakness for historical anime and took it into account when reading this review. I also happen to keep in mind that he leans towards the dubs over subs which means that if he says something sounds better in Japanese (Fantastic Children for example) you can be sure that the dub is awful. The opposite doesn't always work for me since I tried to watch the Speed Grapher English track, but it always seems weird when people are speaking English in a series set in Japan. This review has me curious about the Chevalier dub which I'll gladly give a chance later this week since Frenchman speaking Japanese makes even less sense than English.
I hate those old World War II films when there are a bunch of Germans (or Japanese) soldiers talking to each other in English with heavy accents. I agree that they should be either subbed or speak unaccented in the viewers language. |
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DKL
 Posts: 1956 Location: California, USA |
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I watched the first episode on On-Demand and I was pretty fond of the dub... not only was it populated with a lot of people I don't regularly hear (in an ADV dub, for that matter), but the readings were pretty damn solid... and D'eon's monologues were pretty frigggin' beast.
I was kinda surprised to see that Foster directed the thing, to be honest (since he's usually in comedy)... but, you know... these people have probably done stage-work and it really shows here since Foster was able to bring it out, I thought. ... yeah... talking about credits... it was kinda hard to make that out the weird-ass text they used in the ED credits (I seriously couldn't read anything without having to squint... don't know if it's like this on the DVD). Anyway, I really liked the dub and will probably get the DVD (mainly because I wanna hear more of the dub)... show itself seemed pretty cool (and I was fond of the disorienting pacing in the first episode, but it's good to know that it mellows out later on). Animation really caught my eye too... the elaborate dresses and such look neato. Oh, and the recent Speed Grapher volume had the best line:
I totally laughed my ass over that one. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Got the first volume in the mail last week. Have to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with ADV's handling of Le Chevalier D'Eon. Wonderful packaging (love the fancy "slip cover") and it has a nice summary on the back. The booklet inside is informative and would bring anyone up to speed on who belongs with what faction considering that there are a lot of characters and groups introduced early on, which would certainly alienate some audience.
Oh, and for the first time since RahXephon, I've enjoyed an ADV dub, and it's the only one by the that I favor over the Japanese dub other than Golden Boy. I greatly prefer D'Eon and Anna in English (their Japanese seiyuu sound generic to me), and the various old man are captured wonderfully. Robin does sound too old for the age of his character, but it's fitting enough, though Durand is going to take some time to get used to for me. Yeah, it's easily the best anime being released right now over here in the United States and will be until ADV comes out with Kurau: Phantom Memory and FUNimation with Mushishi.
I'm just glad that ADV has done something different than the typical bottomt to top ending credit scroll that they've tacked on to just about every other anime that they have.
I liked the first episode a bit more the second time around, and it was good to see these episodes a second time since you take notice more of the planning that went into the set up of the series. |
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Jedi General
Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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Yup, that's really the main thing I don't like about anime dubs these days. Granted, dubs have been getting better, but it gets tiring hearing somebody like a Crispin Freeman or a Michelle Ruff all the time. Nothing against two of my favorite VAs as they usually do a great job in their roles, but they get enough work as it is. I just feel that the studios should at least give lesser known VAs more of a chance to shine. This seems to be the case with Chevalier, which is great. Anyway, I purcahsed and downloaded episodes 2-4 from www.advuniverse.com and I watched them before the DVD was released yesterday. Those who are eager to watch episodes 2-4 after watching the preview episode on IGN (or possibly the free episode 1 you can get from ADV Universe) won't be disappointed. Now I wish that Volume 2 would come out sooner!
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indrik
 Posts: 365 Location: yonder |
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This drove me more than a little bit nuts. I wish they would have gotten together and decided on a vaguely unified pronunciation for the French terms, whether a "correct" one or not. They didn't even agree on "chevalier", let alone d'Eon or de Beaumont, before even getting to secret du Roi. Not asking for perfection, just that everybody sounds like they're more or less from the same place. If they're supposed to be. Rather than sounding like people with varying amounts of time in French Diction classes. Singers, bah. I also thought the animation was a bit disappointing- looked like Witch Hunter Robin to me. But the story was interesting enough to make me overlook all that. And now I know why the dude on the cover looked like a chick... makes sense. |
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Otaku0013
 Posts: 19 Location: SC |
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I downloaded the first episode off of ADV's website. Its available for free for a limited time.
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DKL
Posts: 1956 Location: California, USA |
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Actually, I was pretty impressed by the visuals of this one (and I'm a tough sell... supposedly... no, maybe not); you can see the intricacies in the costumes and stuff, and there's a lot of really good key animation work here and there... also, the sense of style is pretty competent and I can actually tell this show apart visually from everything else I might happen to be watching (though, I sort of liked the style in Robin too... but on a technical level, that show doesn't really touch this, if you ask me). It's pretty proficient in terms of artistry, whereas I found Witch Hunter Robin more or less kinda hum-ho after the first episode (and not to mention the huge differtence in quality between the in-show production values and the OP sequence)... like, the character movement would look clunky and stuff. (it's all about the keys... totally) This is assuming that D'Eon stays consistent though... it could drop off the deep-end, but I don't see that to be likely considering that it's Production IG. Or maybe I should watch Robin again, I dunno... |
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lady_youko
 Posts: 16 Location: Purdue University BOILER UP! |
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The animation does have some major quality control issues, but I feel the story more than makes up for it. There is rarely a dull moment and the characters tell the story so well. Chevalier is a great anime, definately refreshing from the moe attack we've been getting recently in the line of new anime and such.
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