I’m currently making my way through Slayers: Evolution-R, which is basically is the second half of the story started in
Slayers: Revolution. I like the updated, higher quality animation found in the show, and I’m impressed they got most of the original cast back to dub at NYAV Post. I’m furthermore pleased this classic anime has been license rescued by FUNimation
and all its seasons are available on their streaming service as well as having been re-issued on physical media under the FUNimation imprint. My wish going forward is that the spin-off movies of the
Slayers franchise also get license rescued and dubbed where needed. I seem to recall that only the first few got an English dub courtesy of ADV Films. Since both ADV Films and CPM are no more, the
Slayers movies are kind of in limbo, in search of a license rescue from an interested US distributor. In the ADV dub of the original
Slayers movie, Lina Inverse was voiced by Cynthia Martinez (as opposed to Lisa Ortiz, who voices Lina for the television series), and this was her first major role at ADV Films back in the day, according to the commentary track on the original
DVD. Having seen the first movie after watching most of the first three seasons of the television series, I can say that Cynthia Martinez gives a believable, engaging performance as Lina and the ADR director was respectful of the groundwork laid by Lisa Ortiz’s
work on the tv show.
Anyway, I’m bearing down on the last six or so episodes of
Slayers: Evolution-R and look forward to concluding this series. In the meantime, I also had a peek at what is up on Neon Alley these days and discovered that VIZ is now hosting the first 5 dubbed episodes of
Sailor Moon Crystal. Having only recently finished Season 1 of the original
Sailor Moon (which I subsequently gifted to my first cousin once removed on my mom’s side for Christmas when I saw her at Thanksgiving…I’m an only child so I lack nieces and nephews, so first cousins once removed are the next best thing for me),
I decided to give the first 2 episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal a try. I appreciate the updated look of the show, especially the revamped transformation sequences, which are even more dramatic and elaborate than in the original. It also seems
the story is proceeding at a more condensed pace, which makes sense as this is basically a reboot of the original. I look forward to episode 3, which will be introducing Sailor Mars, after Sailor Mercury was introduced in the 2nd episode. The
one thing I do miss is the original music. The new music is fine, it just suffers by not being the old theme song, or at least a remix. I was hoping to find some of the dubbed episodes of
Sailor Moon R but I’ll take what I can of Sailor Moon Crystal. Perhaps I missed a window of opportunity, because right now there are a few dubbed episodes of
Sailor Moon S on Neon Alley’s dub lineup. I’m tempted to pick up at least part one of
Sailor Moon R (season 2 of the original series, redubbed) at the local Best Buy if they have it in stock this season. We’ll see.
This past Friday I had two good local friends over and we had dinner at Whataburger then came back to my pad to binge-watch Episodes 1-10 of
Akame Ga Kill! (dubbed) from my DVR’d recordings of the Toonami broadcasts so far. We watched them back to back to back until midnight, when we finally called it a night and bid our farewells for the evening. It was partly a re-watch for me,
and for one of my friends, but completely new to the other friend. We did at least reach some new episodes I hadn’t seen yet, so I feel less far behind than I was. I still need to get caught up on
Parasyte, too.
Still have about 2 more discs to go to finish Godannar. At least I figured out where I’d left off and watched a few episodes beyond, to get to the end of that particular disk. I also recently picked up the series
Needless on DVD for my permanent collection, a total guilty pleasure. I also bought the DVDs to the acclaimed series
Nana, also for my permanent collection.
I spent a lot of last week listening to episodes of The Anime Nostalgia podcast and old episodes of Anime World Order. I can tell that I’m a more experienced anime fan now because I actually get more of the offhand references made by the
AWO crew, because these are now shows have either seen myself or at least know by reputation. The Anime Nostalgia podcast made me aware of a recently re-released anthology film called
Robot Carnival that I snapped up on DVD. I also grabbed the DVD release of Season 1 of
Slam Dunk! out of pure curiosity. I sampled a few episodes of the dub on Crunchyroll and enjoyed it, though it is terribly goofy. I also found a used copy of
Wolf’s Rain for a reasonable price and snapped it up, also. I only saw a random episode here and there, but considering the high praise that ANNCast’s Zac Bertschy consistently heaps on this show, I’m taking his word for it that it’s worth my
investment of time & money.
I’ve also been exploring more of the sub-only side of things; as stated previously, I recently finished
Antique Bakery, and am well on my way to finishing Ristorante Paradiso. I recently sampled episode one of both
Kuroko No Basuke and Bakemonogatari via Crunchyroll. I was sufficiently interested that I may well return to watching these series sporadically on down the line. I’m also working my way through
Aria: The Animation, which is ostensibly sci-fi but really just a slice of life featuring cute girls doing cute things. And there’s 3 honking seasons of it on Hoopla digital. I enjoy it as a palate cleanser, say, but binging on it is like binging
on breath mints…there’s only so many episodes you can stand back to back to back before the sweetness makes you ill. After I conclude
Ristorante Paradiso, I will probably focus next on Emma: A Victorian Romance. Then there’s also
Sound of the Sky on the Manga Entertainment website that I’ve been sampling as well. I still prefer dubs, but I’m more willing than in the past to sample sub-only shows. I even own a few titles that are sub-only, namely
Aku No Hana (“Flowers of Evil”) and Detroit Metal City. So I can’t say that I never buy sub-only shows, only that it’s the exception rather than the rule. That said, I’m a little mystified that the
Slam Dunk! series on DVD is a DUB-ONLY disc. This is perplexing since it can only hurt U.S. sales by not making it a bilingual release. My only guess is that the original licensor back in Japan is terrified of reverse importation and so would
not authorize the release of a bilingual edition. They would rather give up a few sales on the U.S. side than lose out on high end sales in Japan, I guess.
I feel blessed to be awash in so many good anime choices and am genuinely perplexed by young people on Facebook feeling starved for new anime to watch. It’s only a problem if you’re unwilling to visit older shows put out before your time,
I guess. Both Robot Carnival and Slam Dunk! are old and “before my time”, i.e. before
Cowboy Bebop on US television, and I very much look forward to watching both shows. I also have a backlog of shows on physical media that I still have on my to-watch list, as well as other shows I dropped mid-season but would like to revisit
eventually.
Anyway, that’s all a quick snapshot of what I’ve been up to anime-wise. With the headlines today, I find comfort in listening to anime podcasts at work and watching anime at home. It’s a perfect escape from the soul-crushing headlines
and leading news stories on TV these days.
