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REVIEW: Toradora! DVD 1 Eps. 1-7 Preview

So far I've managed to avoid spoilers for this show, but it sounds like Toradora gets pretty dramatic in the second half. I'm just wondering if it gets super depressing like Clannad After Story.

shamisen the great wrote:

So far I've managed to avoid spoilers for this show, but it sounds like Toradora gets pretty dramatic in the second half. I'm just wondering if it gets super depressing like Clannad After Story.

Oh, God, no! There's nothing in Toradora! that saps all the color from the world like Clannad, nor anything PTSD-inducing like School Days, for that matter. The second half of the series just brings a lot of typical second act types of complications to the table. Tensions rise, conflicts come to a head, that sort of thing. AFAIC, it's just that the characters are sympathetic and the viewer actually cares what happens in their lives.

Key wrote:

Ariolander wrote: Rie Kugimiya is the Queen of Tsundere and every american VA who has tried to play one of her tsunderes has failed. With Rie Kugimiya at the lead it is fine as-is. I don't think anyone can replace her. To my knowledge only one of her true tsundere roles - Shana from Shakugan no Shana - has ever been dubbed, and I thought Tabitha St. Germain did a perfectly fine job in that role.

Meh, I consider Cristina Valenzuela to be the dub equivalent to Rie Kugimiya (who voiced Louise from The Familiar of Zero, another one of Kugimiya's tsundere roles). Her VA sounds very tsundere there.

Rinkwolf wrote:

See the difference about sub fans and dub fans is that dub fans whine about what they DON'T get and sub fans whine about they DO get...... who sounds more spoiled?

A lot of these fans also refuse to acknowledge that there has been a fundamental shift in the market in the past few years. The market is about half it's size of just a few years ago. DVD's have moved from higher profit singles to lower profit box sets. Prices have also significantly dropped on most of those box sets in an attempt to slow the sales decline, so overall revenues have also been hit. Dubs also aren't the only places where the R1 distributors are cutting cost. Packaging has gotten much cheaper, particularly from Funimation and Sentai. On disc extras are becoming rarer, and added things like plushies, t-shirts, etc are hardly seen anymore.

Just so I don't get accused of being a sub-only elitist, I would like to put out that I primarily prefer watching dubs, with very rare exceptions. I also get tired of the constant whining from some sub-only fans that all dubs suck, or the people who talk about a a dub they think is terrible and assume everybody agrees with them. There have been many dubs that I enjoyed, or was rather surprised by, like Clannad and Legend of The Dark King, where others haven't like them. There have also been ones that I can't stand like Ouran and FMA:B, where many other people like them. It's all a matter of personal taste and preference. There really isn't much point debating it.

As my final point, I would like to say that I do agree with you that there are definitely some quality dubs. There are several shows, particularly ADV and Bang Zoom dubs where I think the American version has much better performances than the Japanese version, and I think people should give a dub a chance and not entirely dismiss it offhand. Due to their quality of the past two years, I've been very cynical of the quality of several Funimation dubs, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to give them a try, should they get a show I want to watch.

Thus, don't Bury it before it's dead. What's more likely to happen then the dub "going wrong" (which is funny, since there is no right to go wrong from) is that he sub only fans whine and moan about the dub not being good enough just because it doesn't SOUND like the Japanese dub (whoever said it has too) like they did with Clannad (which as a seller dub).

Rinkwolf wrote:

Thus, don't Bury it before it's dead. What's more likely to happen then the dub "going wrong" (which is funny, since there is no right to go wrong from) is that he sub only fans whine and moan about the dub not being good enough just because it doesn't SOUND like the Japanese dub (whoever said it has too) like they did with Clannad (which as a seller dub).

Come to think it, you may be right about this issue. If you have the English VA try to sound like the Japanese seiyuu, it wouldn't be natural at all. If you have Wendee Lee try to sound like Aya Hirano for a Haruhi dub, it doesn't sound natural. This is because Japanese have a different vocal pitch than English. So a high-pitch voice for a cute character would sound natural in Japanese, but not natural in English. I praise the English voice acting of Lucky Star because they manage to make the characters sound natural while speaking in English instead of trying to match up with the Japanese pitch and at the same time, faithful to the original Japanese content. You may or may not agree with me in this statement. However, try to imagine what would it be like of someone is trying to speak English all the time with a Japanese accent. In turn when it comes to dubs, I prefer natural over sounding like the Japanese seiyuu as well as faithful to the original content or meaning.

Dark Paladin X wrote:

Rinkwolf wrote: Thus, don't Bury it before it's dead. What's more likely to happen then the dub "going wrong" (which is funny, since there is no right to go wrong from) is that he sub only fans whine and moan about the dub not being good enough just because it doesn't SOUND like the Japanese dub (whoever said it has too) like they did with Clannad (which as a seller dub). Come to think it, you may be right about this issue. If you have the English VA try to sound like the Japanese seiyuu, it wouldn't be natural at all. If you have Wendee Lee try to sound like Aya Hirano for a Haruhi dub, it doesn't sound natural. This is because Japanese have a different vocal pitch than English. So a high-pitch voice for a cute character would sound natural in Japanese, but not natural in English. I praise the English voice acting of Lucky Star because they manage to make the characters sound natural while speaking in English instead of trying to match up with the Japanese pitch and at the same time, faithful to the original Japanese content. You may or may not agree with me in this statement. However, try to imagine what would it be like of someone is trying to speak English all the time with a Japanese accent. In turn when it comes to dubs, I prefer natural over sounding like the Japanese seiyuu as well as faithful to the original content or meaning.

I agree with you 100%. A English dub should be looked at as a stand along product and not have to be compared to it's Japanese counterpart.

Can anyone recommend which site it is best to buy this set from if they live in the UK.

Seymour85 wrote:

Can anyone recommend which site it is best to buy this set from if they live in the UK.

For anyone in the UK I wholeheartedly recommend United Publications. Due to the terrible exchange rate they're not the cheapest at the moment, but they're reliable, have excellent customer service, and you won't have to worry about customs fees because they ship from within the UK and the VAT is paid.

And no, I'm not affilated with them in any way (other than as a customer of 10+ years)

ElectricDork wrote:

Seymour85 wrote: Can anyone recommend which site it is best to buy this set from if they live in the UK. For anyone in the UK I wholeheartedly recommend United Publications. Due to the terrible exchange rate they're not the cheapest at the moment, but they're reliable, have excellent customer service, and you won't have to worry about customs fees because they ship from within the UK and the VAT is paid. And no, I'm not affilated with them in any way (other than as a customer of 10+ years)

Yes they are a good source of product, but only if you have a multi-region player as all their stock is R1.