Ms. Answerman
Plastic Surgery
by Rebecca Bundy,
Last Tuesday Zac and I watched the first episode of ‘Boy Meets
Boy’, followed by ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’, on Bravo.
With the recent rush to find the next big reality show, ‘Boy Meets Boy’
falls short of the goal. The show follows the old ‘pick the best hunk
of beef from the 15 cattle we've assembled for you’ premise that
other reality shows use, except the main guy doesn't know that there are
straight men mixed in with the gay. Not even the audience knows who's
gay or straight until after they're eliminated. The problem with this
show, aside from the obnoxious host, is that it tries to do too many things.
The main guy has his best girl friend along with him to help decide, so contestants
have to warm up to both of them. The straight contestants have to play along
with the bonding exercises, while they are left clueless as to who's gay
or not as well. There's too much going on in a show that's supposed
to prove that appearances can be deceiving (who knew?). In the end, this show
might be interesting to watch if you have nothing better to do. Otherwise, catch
the last 10 minutes of the show before watching ‘Queer Eye for the Straight
Guy’, the far superior show. I haven't enjoyed a show like this
in a long time. For this episode, they were giving a ‘traditional cowboy’
a makeover so that he could propose to his ‘classy’ girlfriend.
The episode is filled with hysterical (if not embarrassing for the cowboy) moments
as the five men take apart his entire apartment and redo everything to better
fit his lifestyle. The five men can be very critical of anything that doesn't
fit perfectly into what they see as tasteful, but this is balanced out by how
much they immerse themselves into their job and really care about the end results
(in this case, making everything perfect for the proposal). This is a great
show that everyone should watch at least once.
With that being said, it's time to get to the questions! Please stop writing in to "correct" the Battle Royale question. They are asking about American Region 1 license rights. Telling us that there are UK copies available is not a "correction" nor is it helpful information. Thank you for your suggestion, but please stop labelling such emails as "corrections". Our answer is not incorrect.
Hi Ms AnswerWoman,
In one of your past article you said the Digimon was edited for content.So I
was wondering are other kid shows like Pok'eMon edited for content and if so
could you name a few things that were cut.
A large majority of anime series are edited for US television. In the case of Pokemon, the names of characters (ie. Satoshi is changed to Ash) as well as pokemon (ie. Hitokage is known as Charmander in the US) were changed. I've found small cultural changes (references to Japanese food), lines edited (this is to be expected), and some violent scenes omitted. Even though Pokemon is considered a ‘kids show’ in Japan in its unedited form, Japanese broadcasting standards are more accepting of mild violence in children shows than their US counterparts.
Hey... I am sorry to bother but I would really like someone to set my mind
at ease about
the ending of Witch Hunter Robin. Are there only 26 episodes and none more to
be made?
And how did you interpret the ending of the "last" episode... because
I am very confused.
Spoiler warning! Highlight the line below to read.
Do you know if Amon and Robin survived ? :)
Sorry, but I really like this show [my fave anime with Trigun] and would like
a professional to
shed some light on the subject, if u maybe have some extra insight or news.
Thank you for reading,
Anita de Beer
Spoiler warning! Highlight the text to read.
Witch Hunter Robin is 26 episodes long and will probably remain that length unless someone decides to make an OVA (very unlikely) in the future. Robin does survive (she's standing outside of the building at the end), while Amon's fate remains a mystery. Personally, I believe he's alive. Robin is a caring character who would risk her life to save someone she cares for. I don't believe that she would've escaped without Amon alive and relatively well.
First off, I'd like to say how much I appreciate your column. I should also
apologize for asking what is probably such a stupid question. A few guys on
eBay are selling the entire series of Rurouni Kenshin at a very low price.
Trouble is, the sets they're selling contain all episodes on only 12 DVDs
while I know that to get the full series usually takes more than 20 discs.
I'm guessing what they're selling is a bootleg, but was the series ever
legitimately released on 12 discs (as an import, for example)?
Thanks for your time.
Steve Peterson
They're selling bootlegs, and as far as I know, Kenshin was never released in a 12-disk import. Legal, and I do stress the word legal, Japanese imports will easily cost twice as much as a domestic DVDs. A perfect example of this would be the Berserk imports versus the domestic costs. Two years ago, the imported Berserk DVD box set cost around $200. Today, you could buy the entire series at any major electronic store for around $120. This is also the case with imported CDs. If you're obtaining legal merchandise, expect to pay more since you're buying material years before it will ever reach America.
i hear a lot of Anime fans complain that English dubs are awful or not up to par with the original Japanese.
However, there are shows that get it right in terms of the actors they bring together. IN my opinion, these anime do it right:
Cowboy Bebop, Dragonball Z, Ninja Scroll, Inu Yasha and Big O.
What do you include in your top 5?
- Y V
I
tend to be extremely critical of dubs. Dubs as of late, however, have been improving
and rivaling the original Japanese track. I could write a long tirade on the
‘subs vs dubs’ argument (as countless people have done on numerous
message boards), but instead I'll make a simple statement to answer the
argument. There will be hits, there will be misses, and you'll never know
unless you try them all. As for my list, Hellsing is without a doubt the best
dub I've had the pleasure of viewing. Instead of imitating the original
Japanese voices, which a majority of dubs try to do, Hellsing approached the
series from a realistic perspective: many of the characters are British and
it makes sense that the voice actors should have British accents. Because of
this, viewers experience two slightly different versions of the same story depending
on which track they watch. This is, in my opinion, what all dubs should strive
to do.
A clear second would have to be Spirited Away. This movie is fairly long, so every thirty minutes I would flip between watching the dub and watching the original track. Honestly, I cannot tell you which one I preferred. Cowboy Bebop and Pokemon would have to be two more series that belong on this list. Cowboy Bebop has an incredible Japanese track to live up to and I believe that the English cast did a great job in keeping the spirit of the series. Pokemon, though it was edited, pulled together a wide range of unique voices that brought the show to life and made it fun. People complain about this series a lot but the more I watched, the more I grew to love it. The final spot I leave open for Zac, since he speaks highly of the RahXephon dub.
Dear Answerman,
I have been hunting around on the internet to find out what company, if any,
has the rights to the movie Battle Royale. After e-mailing many different anime
companies, only one responded to me with the information I needed, but it wasn't
what I had in mind. John from AN Entertainment told me that an unconfirmed rumor
states that a big Hollywood company has the rights to Battle Royale, but does
not plan on releasing the movie stateside. After further investigations, I decided
that the company in question must be Warner Bros., who may be announcing a U.S.
remake of Battle Royale after the Akira movie is well into production (a deal
similar to the announcment of said Akira movie well after the production of
the US Ring remake). So, I was wondering, what are the chances that my theory
is correct?
Unconfirmed rumors are still rumors. Considering this movie is controversial in Japan, I seriously doubt anyone would remake it for US audiences. A group of junior high school kids sent off to an island and forced to kill each other... I can already see the protests forming from parent groups across the nation. If someone does obtain the rights to the movie, they'd probably release the original movie straight to DVD and not bother with a remake.
hi there,
in the promos for kikaider on adult swim the announcer says:
"...a classic anime re-imagined..."
so, what was re-imagined to make this? was it better? the character design does
remind me of some ancient anime. Also, do you keep these questions for later
answering or throw them out after the week?
The anime was based off of the original Kikaider manga, written by
Ishinomori Shotaro (student of Osama Tezuka). Also based off of the manga was
the live action Kikaider TV show (think Power Rangers but from the 70's).
Recently there has been an interest in redoing classic shows, like Astro Boy,
and Kikaider was one of these that was given a face lift for the 21st century.
To answer your second question, yes we keep the usable questions for the next
week. If you're wondering what types of questions we answer, simply look
at the questions answered every week. Oh, and avoid asking questions that have
recently been answered in previous Answerman columns.
Ms. Anwserman,
One of my favorite series of all time is His and Her Circustances. I've
seen the series before, and I've been buying the R1 DVD releases as soon
as they've been coming out. I was thrilled when volume 4 was finally
released, but something about one of the episodes confuses me. Is there
an edit in episode 18 during Yukino and Arima's love scene? I thought I
remembered a couple of shots from that episode when I saw it before that's
not on the DVD, but it may just be my imagination.
Thank you!
Sara
Thanks to the 8 bazillion people who wrote in and corrected us on this: The scenes in question in episode 18 are edited, if you look at it a certain way. The version on the US DVD is the broadcast version that was shown on TV in Japan, there was a different sequence on the actual DVD/LD/whatever. There was a big huge thread on this on the Anime On DVD forums, but I'm not sure where it went to... Anyways, the version on the US DVD is the "edited-for-broadcast" version, and that's what Gainax gave to RightStuf in the first place. Who knows why. Hope that helped! Again, thanks.
Hello
Answerman,
I just finished the last 2 episodes of FLCL and i've honestly never CRIED so
hard in my life. Very few things can move me, but Naota's honesty and pain;
it felt like Haruko playing with my heart strings! I'm tearing up just thinking
about it so here's my question before I ball all over the keyboard.........
Are there any plans at all for FLCL 2, whether or not the manga is still running?
THANX A MILLION,
Daniel
There are no plans for a second OVA or series for FLCL and the manga has ended. FLCL is a few years old so there probably won't be anything new to satiate your cravings. Cartoon Network will be airing the six OVA episodes, so you have that to look forward to.
First off: I have the End of Evangelion movie on DVD, and I actually
really like the infamous "Really Cheerful Song With Depressing Lyrics
That Plays During The End-of-The World Sequence"... but what on earth is
it called, and just what ARE the lyrics (or at least, where can I find
the lyrics)? (Not to mention, is there a Japanese soundtrack for End of
Eva that includes both that and the ending theme for it? I assume there
is, anyway, right?) I realize they're in English, and that there's
something in there about "if I could turn back time", but other than
that, I have no clue - no more than I do as to what the name of the
(absolutely beautiful) song is that plays during the Utena movie during
Anthy and Utena's dance in the flooded rose garden.
The first song is called “Komm, susser todd” (Come Sweet
Death) and was written by the director, Anno Hideaki.
Just for fun, here are the complete lyrics! Come on, you all know the words!
I know, I know I've let you down
I've been a fool to myself
I thought that I could live for no one else
But now, through all the hurt and pain
It's time for me to respect
The ones you love mean more than anything.
So with sadness in my heart
(I) feel the best that I can do 
Is end it all and leave forever
What's done is done, it feels so bad
What once was happy now is sad
I'll never love again My world is ending...
I wish that I could turn back time
Cos now the guilt is all mine
Can't live without the trust from those you love
I know we can't forget the past
You can't forget love and pride
Because of that it's killin' me inside
It all returns to nothing
It all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down
It all returns to nothing
It just keeps letting me down, letting me down, letting me down
In my heart of hearts I know that I could never love again
I've lost everything Everything
Everything that matters to me matters in this world
I wish that I could turn back time
Cos now the guilt is all mine
Can't live without the trust from those you love
I know we can't forget the past
You can't forget love and pride
Because of that it's killin' me inside
It all returns to nothing
It all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down
It all returns to nothing
It just keeps letting me down, letting me down, letting me down [instrumental]
That felt good, didn't it?
The Utena song is called “Toki ni ai wa”. It's on the soundtrack to the film.
That's it for this week's Answerman. Keep the questions
coming!
