Otogi Zoshi

H

harkins

Adventurer
Can anyone clear up the situation with the Manga Ent. Otogi Zoshi DVD's? I really want to see this but I remember reading on here that the subtitles become dub-titles at some point.

So if this is the case, is it worth importing it from the US instead? Or is that dub-tittled too?

And is it worth watching anyway, regardless of any subbing problems?
 
I borrowed this off a friend and watched it and I quite enjoyed it and will probably pick it up some time.

I appologise here and now I am crap with names.

It is really like two seperate animes in one. The first season sets up the story in a feudal age Japan (or equivalent). IIRC the main character is the sister to the king of one part of the land. However he is very ill and she has taken to dressing as a man and running errands for him to keep the country from war. The rest of the first season is the sister and her band of friends searching for and returning some sacred stones so that a ritual can be cast to heal the land.

The second season is a modern day Japan with the reincarnations of the main characters from the first season. This is mainly concerned with odd happenings caused by the things their past selves did.
 
I've been interested in this for ages now, but never got around to delving further. Thanks for clearing up the story, it sounds unique. I may have to give it a watch. :)
 
I'm also interested in Harkins' question as I've got the first few volumes of this and don't want to spend any more money if it's going to get ruined later on. So far from what I've watched it's a quality series with some great animation, hopefully the rest is as good as the first three DVDs.
 
The first three volumes, the Heian arc is subtitled.

The final three volumes, the Tokyo arc is dubtitled.

Fortunately, the dub is a pretty close translation of the Japanese, so it doesn't drift at all. I didn't have any problem watching it with dubtitles, and I hate dubtitles as a rule.

There is a slight issue with onscreen text that isn't translated in the final volumes.

Bigger is the fact that Manga Entertainment dropped the extras completely for the Tokyo arc. And Otogi Zoshi is a series that is really complemented by its extras. The Heian arc was aided by some history lessons and insight into the era.

The Tokyo arc takes place in real life Tokyo locations, and the extras would have given some background into modern Tokyo.

If you just want the story, go with Region 2. If you want the extras, then Region 1 I guess. (I think Region 1 has single disc and 2 disc releases, so you'll have to be careful there as well).

I thought it was an enjoyable series, and I liked the way they did the story.

EDIT: DVD Pacific are selling the Region 1 two disc sets at about £9.50 a pop, while the twelve disc boxset is around £40, not including customs and P&P.
 
Just Passing Through said:
Bigger is the fact that Manga Entertainment dropped the extras completely for the Tokyo arc. And Otogi Zoshi is a series that is really complemented by its extras. The Heian arc was aided by some history lessons and insight into the era.
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I bought this at last (the R2 release - very cheap @ Amazon) and although I've only watched 5 episodes so far I'd say it's certainly not £17 wasted. In fact it's very very good so far.

However, the extras have so far provided the highlight for me.

There is a 'lecture' by a Tokyo University professor who is an expert on Japanese history. He was seemingly brought on board to help make a fictional story 'historically accurate' in respect to dress etc.

But as his talk progresses with the relevant clips of the show woven in he just about dismisses everything as inaccurate. Apparently they had either the wrong hats or were wrongly not wearing a hat, they were brandishing weapons that were not used at the time, they had the various characters social standings in the wrong order, they referred to burials that didn't exist then and finally, they used poison. The expert tells us that poisoning was all but unheard of at that time in Japan.

I was surprised and amused by the inclusion of an 'extra' featuring a member of staff nicely pointing out numerous errors that had been made and errors that he was apparently employed to help avoid. He just kept saying that if it had been accurate it wouldn't have been as entertaining.

Still, it was very informative, unlike most extras.
 
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