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Shakugan no Shana II episode 1-2

Two episodes in and I'm already saying something I never thought I would: I prefer Ocean's dub over FUNimation's. I think the only voice I prefer over Ocean's so far is Shana herself. Margery and Marchosias' are pretty good and actually sound like the actors tried to replicate the old Geneon actors which is a nice touch, although Colleen Clinkenbeard has a habit of sounding exactly the same in a lot of her roles. Greg Ayres shown again why he should never be cast as anything. His Keisaku was definitely the most jarring part of the first episode. I also despise Jason Douglas' Sydonay when compared to Eli Gabay's. Aside from Cherami Leigh's Shana, I'd say the acting in general is poor; a lot of it sounds like the actors were trying to get their lines out as fast as they could as opposed to trying to sound natural.

The writing is also dire - which becomes painfully obvious when flashbacks to scenes from season 1 are redubbed. I am glad that FUNimation fixed the pronunciation of Wilhelmina's name though (Geneon used "Wirhelmina", whereas FUNimation uses "Vil-hell-mee-na", which is the correct way considering the Germanic origins of the name). Research has always been their strong point.

At least they're using the same font in the OP/EDs as Geneon did too. Nice consistency.
 
A number of Fruits Basket episodes. I read the manga a while back and was just generally curious. I'm finding it a bit of a hit and miss at times.
That's interesting to hear about Shana, I've been wondering about the Funimation dub, considering I preordered the UK release for next year so it'll be a while until I hear it. Shana's something I hold quite dear so I want it to be done well. I was happy when I heard about Cherami and Colleen as I thought they'd fit their roles quite well. The one that concerned me the most was Yuji, because I'm not aware of much of the voice actor's work. I hope he does him justice.
 
Joshawott said:
Shakugan no Shana II episode 1-2

Two episodes in and I'm already saying something I never thought I would: I prefer Ocean's dub over FUNimation's. I think the only voice I prefer over Ocean's so far is Shana herself. Margery and Marchosias' are pretty good and actually sound like the actors tried to replicate the old Geneon actors which is a nice touch, although Colleen Clinkenbeard has a habit of sounding exactly the same in a lot of her roles. Greg Ayres shown again why he should never be cast as anything. His Keisaku was definitely the most jarring part of the first episode. I also despise Jason Douglas' Sydonay when compared to Eli Gabay's. Aside from Cherami Leigh's Shana, I'd say the acting in general is poor; a lot of it sounds like the actors were trying to get their lines out as fast as they could as opposed to trying to sound natural.

The writing is also dire - which becomes painfully obvious when flashbacks to scenes from season 1 are redubbed. I am glad that FUNimation fixed the pronunciation of Wilhelmina's name though (Geneon used "Wirhelmina", whereas FUNimation uses "Vil-hell-mee-na", which is the correct way considering the Germanic origins of the name). Research has always been their strong point.

At least they're using the same font in the OP/EDs as Geneon did too. Nice consistency.
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100% agree with the actors part, the Ocean dub just sounds so much better.
I wish that Funimation would use different VA's rather than the same cast for everything.
I found Alistor to be the most disappointing so far from the first two episodes though, which surprised me as I liked Kent Williams as Mao in Darker than Black, and thought he would be a good replacement.
I may just watch it subbed, although playing Persona 4 The Golden in Japanese has made me realise how annoying Rie Kugumiya's voice can be >_>
What are you watching out of interest? The DVD or Blur-ray?
 
Say, "I Love You" Ep.13

The series didn't quite manage to live up to the lofty expectations I thrust upon it after the first few episodes. It never really delved into exploring the characters in a relationship, it ended up being a lot of the same kind of tropes/issues only with the main couple together instead of just wanting to be together. I still liked it though.
 
Mangaranga said:
Joshawott said:
Shakugan no Shana II episode 1-2

Two episodes in and I'm already saying something I never thought I would: I prefer Ocean's dub over FUNimation's. I think the only voice I prefer over Ocean's so far is Shana herself. Margery and Marchosias' are pretty good and actually sound like the actors tried to replicate the old Geneon actors which is a nice touch, although Colleen Clinkenbeard has a habit of sounding exactly the same in a lot of her roles. Greg Ayres shown again why he should never be cast as anything. His Keisaku was definitely the most jarring part of the first episode. I also despise Jason Douglas' Sydonay when compared to Eli Gabay's. Aside from Cherami Leigh's Shana, I'd say the acting in general is poor; a lot of it sounds like the actors were trying to get their lines out as fast as they could as opposed to trying to sound natural.

The writing is also dire - which becomes painfully obvious when flashbacks to scenes from season 1 are redubbed. I am glad that FUNimation fixed the pronunciation of Wilhelmina's name though (Geneon used "Wirhelmina", whereas FUNimation uses "Vil-hell-mee-na", which is the correct way considering the Germanic origins of the name). Research has always been their strong point.

At least they're using the same font in the OP/EDs as Geneon did too. Nice consistency.
Click to expand...
100% agree with the actors part, the Ocean dub just sounds so much better.
I wish that Funimation would use different VA's rather than the same cast for everything.
I found Alistor to be the most disappointing so far from the first two episodes though, which surprised me as I liked Kent Williams as Mao in Darker than Black, and thought he would be a good replacement.
I may just watch it subbed, although playing Persona 4 The Golden in Japanese has made me realise how annoying Rie Kugumiya's voice can be >_>
What are you watching out of interest? The DVD or Blur-ray?
Click to expand...
I'm watching the DVDs upscaled on my blu-ray player. I actually just now popped in the first blu-ray disc to compare the opening theme to the DVD and the DVD looks a lot nicer - less blurry. They also have nicer menus than the BD.

I've just watched episodes 3-7 and while most of the cast is growing on me, I still hate Greg Ayres' Keisaku (but I hate Greg Ayres' performances in general) and Carli Mosier's Wilhelmina still feels odd. They've also completely lost Tiamat's character with her dub dialogue; she sounds too natural.

I agree so much with Kent Williams as Alastor. Personally, my favourite actor for him will always be Masashi Ebara, but Paul Dobson played the character very well in Ocean's dub (he was the one actor I wanted to return the most!). I always knew Kent Williams would be my least favourite, but I had some hope considering how he really surprised me as Father in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

In regards to Rie Kugumiya...yeah, she's really a Marmite actor. In some roles I love her, but in others her voice drives me insane. It's been years since I watched season 2 so I can't remember, but I imagine she'll be super annoying as Shana this time around, because of how angsty she is this season. I liked her in Shakugan no Shana III -FINAL- though.

Like you, I also wish FUNimation would stop casting the same actors. I thought J Michael Tatum would have been an awesome replacement for Trevor Devall, but instead of using his exaggerated William voice from Romeo x Juliet (which would have been ideal), he uses his usual voice, which I think is too serious for Friagne. I was just thinking "I hope they at least got someone better to do Khamsin" as I despised Cathy Weseluck in season 1...then I see we have Todd Haberkorn playing him...urgh >>.

From what I've picked up on the audio commentary of episode 1, it seems like FUNimation used a different background team (directors etc) for the movie, the S OVAs and are expected to be doing the same for season 3. Hopefully that means the dub of those will be better (although the dub cast will be the same - and in fact, I think I remember hearing that most of them were decided by the person in charge of the movie).

Speaking of commentaries, I'm also getting bored of them. Most of the time it's just kissing each other's asses, like saying how it's so amazing to work with [X] or how [Y] is so much like their character. I did like how they (the actors for Shana and Yuji and the ADR director) did totally rip into Yuji being useless in the audio commentary though; joking at how he says everything is up to him and 2 seconds later he's saved by Shana xD. The Strike Witches commentaries were entertaining because of the subject matter of the show, but with something like Shana, they don't really have a lot to talk about.
 
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society

I watched this when it came out but never owned it so my son got it for me for Christmas. Still a great addition to the GitS: SAC universe and it looks and sounds great on Blu-ray, makes me hanker for a 3rd series of GitS: SAC again.


Muv Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse - Episode 24 [Final]

Total Eclipse has picked up in the last few episodes and it finally came to a decent conclusion but it has been far too inconsistent over its 24 episodes to be considered a good series.
 
@Orgun

well Ghost in the Shell is one of tho.......................???? wait you have a son, thats 4 people i know who has family of there own and watches anime.

anyways
Towanoquon disc 2

tomorrow
 
Shakugan no Shana II 8-12

Damn it Todd Haberkorn. He used his usual voice for Khamsin...which does not fit the character at all, especially considering how Khamsin is supposed to be the oldest Flame Haze. This set of episodes reminded me of just how much I missed Ogata in season 3. She was definitely my favourite female cast member in this series.

I also noticed some very visible fragments during episode 12. They were very brief; when the nominations of the costume contest were called and it was cutting to Shana standing on the school roof. It only lasted about a couple of seconds, but it was really noticeable.

I do appreciate how the release was delayed to include the "What? Why? Shana!" shorts...but my Arceus they are compressed and stretched like hell. Also, unlike with Geneon's release, they didn't bother dubbing them. I haven't seen video quality that bad outside of Youtube videos. The other extras aside from Shana-tan have similarly awful video quality. I'm guessing it could be due to FUNimation using the HD remasters even for the DVDs and obviously the extras like the trailers weren't remastered? But still..."What? Why? Shana!" just looks awful...even for Standard Definition. Shakugan no Shana-tan looks just as good as the main series though.

Also, the Shakugan no Shana-tan specials included on volume 1 include spoilers for part 2....so glad that I've personally seen this season before.
 
Joshawott said:
Shakugan no Shana II 8-12

Damn it Todd Haberkorn. He used his usual voice for Khamsin...which does not fit the character at all, especially considering how Khamsin is supposed to be the oldest Flame Haze. This set of episodes reminded me of just how much I missed Ogata in season 3. She was definitely my favourite female cast member in this series.

I also noticed some very visible fragments during episode 12. They were very brief; when the nominations of the costume contest were called and it was cutting to Shana standing on the school roof. It only lasted about a couple of seconds, but it was really noticeable.
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I think Junko Minagawa just makes such a great Khamsin, then again I'm a little biased in that regard. She is very much my favourite seiyuu, she was always going to be hard to match. Yet sometimes I think a little more thought should be put into casting about whose voice truly fits the character, like you say. Todd for instance, great as Watanuki from xxxHolic, but his voice just isn't suited for a character like Khamsin.
 
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