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REVIEW: Snow White with the Red Hair Season One BD+DVD




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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 3:36 pm Reply with quote
I just got the DVD, and it's a Christmas present! I plan on watching the dub and the second season's dub too, though I saw both subbed first.
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epicwizard



Joined: 03 Jul 2014
Posts: 420
Location: Ashburn, VA
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:28 pm Reply with quote
Don't mean to be picky, but if the English title is "Snow White with the Red Hair", then how come the protagonist's name is left as "Shirayuki" in the dub even though it translates to "Snow White"? And no, I haven't watched the series, so that's why I'm asking.
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ScruffyKiwi



Joined: 25 Oct 2010
Posts: 673
Location: New Zealand
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:00 pm Reply with quote
epicwizard wrote:
Don't mean to be picky, but if the English title is "Snow White with the Red Hair", then how come the protagonist's name is left as "Shirayuki" in the dub even though it translates to "Snow White"? And no, I haven't watched the series, so that's why I'm asking.


Because it would be lame to call her "Snow White". It may be the meaning of her name but her name is still Shirayuki. Changing it to Snow White would also cause major headaches with the lip flaps.
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epicwizard



Joined: 03 Jul 2014
Posts: 420
Location: Ashburn, VA
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:08 pm Reply with quote
ScruffyKiwi wrote:
Because it would be lame to call her "Snow White". It may be the meaning of her name but her name is still Shirayuki. Changing it to Snow White would also cause major headaches with the lip flaps.

Okay, makes sense. Thanks!
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Cain Highwind



Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 313
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:56 pm Reply with quote
My sister and I saw this on a whim (the title mostly caught our attention) on Funi's video service and was totally blown away. It's romance you really want to cheer for. Lots of likable characters. No ridiculous fanservice either. If I didn't spend so much on Christmas already I would've totally picked it up!
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:30 pm Reply with quote
Enjoyed Snow White, though I can't say it was more than an okay Disneyesque type of fantasy shoujo. I liked that Zen wasn't an arsehole &/or a (man)child & their relationship wasn't one of those "if I put up with it for long enough, he'll become the prince I dreamed of" stories. That said, I agree that it was pretty light on plot, not least because it never felt like there was really anything to get in the way of their relationship.

The class divide is meant to be an issue, which you'd expect to mean that the heroine & prince have to overcome their courtiers, subjects etc's hostility to their "friendship." But that never really happens, at least not in a way that isn't resolved inside an episode. Admittedly this is a bigger issue with the second season, but even before they've both declared I love you at the end of S1 it feels like the only thing stopping them from doing it sooner is the runtime.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:43 pm Reply with quote
If you like this show, I encourage you to track down Saiunkoku Monogatari. Though the heroine is an impoverished princess rather than a commoner, her personality has a lot in common with Shirayuki's. They're both set on following their own path even when faced with a romancing royal. Saiunoku stretches over two 39-episode seasons with a number of story arcs along the way.

The English translation has an issue with naming that can be annoying if you watch the now out-of-print R1 DVDs. Because the story is set in a fantasy version of T'ang China, the heroine whose name is Kou Shurrei in the Japanese track becomes Shurrei Hong in the English. Though both Kou and Hong refer to the same color, red, there is another clan in the story also named Kou with a slightly different Japanese intonation. The author of the novels thought this would confuse foreign viewers so she requested the use of Hong. (Whether she also wanted the name order to be reversed, I don't know.) It only becomes annoying if you watch with subtitles since you hear "Kou Shurrei" repeatedly in the audio only to see "Shurrei Hong" on-screen. I own the DVDs but watch the fansub for this reason.
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zztop



Joined: 28 Aug 2014
Posts: 645
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 9:20 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
A few pointed references to the classic fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs do pop up...Beyond these elements though, more overt allusions to the original fairy tale are virtually nonexistent.


Mangaka Akizuki Sorata said in her notes that she was inspired by the Snow White fairlytale when she wrote Chp 1 of the manga, which Ep 1 covered. However, she decided to make it a very loose adaptation, using only the basic elements like the apples and the mirror line. Everything else after that is her own creation.

Quote:
If the series has a weak point, it's the pacing. The presence of some ongoing developments is not enough to make this a plot-intensive story, so events tend to unfold languidly, with exacting attention to little details and character interactions.


This is something from the manga, which follows a relaxed and slow pace with focus on interactions and characterizations, similar to Akatsuki no Yona. However, the presence of a plot-intensive story in Yona means the plot tends to stall while its mangaka fleshes out and explores her characters.

Quote:
Prince Izana, Zen's older brother, gives the air of a schemer and seems intent on giving both Zen and Shirayuki a hard time.

spoiler[He's a schemer, but not a bad guy. But he does believe in tough love.]
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kinghumanity



Joined: 03 Nov 2014
Posts: 365
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 11:16 pm Reply with quote
I have to admit, the shojo tag was not a big attraction for me, and when I watched the show, I could tell that the artwork and the character design were definitely tailored towards girls. But as a 20 something year old man, I really liked this show. I think shows in this styles are Japan's answer to Disney princess fairy tales, but with a slightly older target audience. Teenagers and young adults should definitely be able to relate to the struggles of making your own career, relationships with asymmetrical social status, and maintaining a balance between your career and your relationship.

Definitely recommended.
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manapear



Joined: 02 May 2014
Posts: 1525
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:53 am Reply with quote
I'm going to second the recommendation of Saiunkoku Monogatari. It's not a Western, period fantasy, but I do enjoy the characters and overall quality better.

As for Shirayuki; it's fun. I enjoy it, but I honestly have a hard time sitting through it. I started the manga and dropped it really fast, and started the anime at the same time as AkaYona on Hulu. I'm addicted to AkaYona and have watched it at least two times already, but I have a hard time actually sitting through Shirayuki. I think the animation and music are astounding, and I enjoy the characters, but the general writing and some of the dialogue tend to come off awkward to me. It's a very high quality show and that's apparent, but I feel like some of the writing can still be a weird turn-off.

Shirayuki feels very much like a shojo version of the Atelier series to me, from the atmosphere, tone and lead character. It's very nice in that regard; though I think the pace is both a selling point but a detractor. I can't say I know how well they adapt it from the manga though, as I follow in HtY rather loosely.

I definitely think there are better, fantasy-oriented shojo out there though, even for lately. I do hope that the presence and consistency of Shirayuki means that we may see more anime in a similar vein. (Shojo, fantasy, a nice atmosphere.)
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Blackiris_



Joined: 06 Sep 2013
Posts: 535
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 4:24 am Reply with quote
I think Shirayukihime is much better than Yona. It's slower and less story-focused, but what bothered me about Yona the most – the typical formulaic reverse-harem stereotypes who all fell for Yona, the absence of a even second female character that's at least a bit important and the lack of development – works well in Shirayukihime. Here we have a classic romance story, but a genuine one with proper development in a reasonable period of time (without all the angsty teenage stuff and exaggerated obliviousness that makes most anime romance stories drag); one that actually revolves around the characters and isn't just fan service for the viewer. We have several important male and female characters, several (potential) pairings and the characters feel more natural in general.
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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:43 pm Reply with quote
Blackiris_ wrote:

I think Shirayukihime is much better than Yona. It's slower and less story-focused, but what bothered me about Yona the most – the typical formulaic reverse-harem stereotypes who all fell for Yona, the absence of a even second female character that's at least a bit important and the lack of development – works well in Shirayukihime. Here we have a classic romance story, but a genuine one with proper development in a reasonable period of time (without all the angsty teenage stuff and exaggerated obliviousness that makes most anime romance stories drag); one that actually revolves around the characters and isn't just fan service for the viewer. We have several important male and female characters, several (potential) pairings and the characters feel more natural in general.

To be fair to Yona. In the later part of the manga appears a second female character with whom Yona becomes friends. However, you are right that Shirayukihime is much better than Yona when it comes to romance. There are well-done interactions in Yona, but they are between Su-won/Yona and Hak/Su-won, so if anyone is interested in a series about broken friendship then Yona is a good place to go, but if you look for romance then yeah, watch Shirayukihime. It handles the romance much better and doesn’t resort to clichés for no reason like in Yona’s case.
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2389
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:48 am Reply with quote
Old topic, but I recently watched my DVD set and discovered a pretty big error in the English dub for episode 11. At the time code 7:36, Mitsuhide's line is accidentally dubbed over with one of Zen's lines, which is noticeable because the line in question is longer than Mitsuhide's mouth movements and it's a line from later in the scene. I think the dubbers accidentally spliced in Zen's dialogue onto Mitsuhide by mistake and missed it.
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