Keith

My views on this matter are 4 fold. 1.Artistic Integrity: I feel that in 100% of the time, it's an innevitability that in the course of "overdubbing" something into another language, it's impossible to replicate the production as it was originally intended by the creative staff. I've listened to more than my share of dubs, and compared them with the original audio tracks. In doing so I've found each and every time, the emotion put in by the actors puts an entirely different spin on what's going on. It happens to varrying degree's, on let's say a Robotech (worst end of the spectrum0 to Cowboy Bebop (a tolerable end of the spectrum), but no matter what, the differences are there. If you are watching something dubbed into another language, you are not watching the same thing as it was originally intended when it was created. On the same token, if you are watching something with translation subtitles, those subtitles "may" not give you 100% (or in HK subs, anything even remotely close) of a translation of what's going on, but regardless, you're hearing the inflection of those actors portraying those characters as the production staff intended them to be. The decided upon attitudes & personalities of those characters. A great recent example, Gurren Lagann. I don't care what anyone says, dub Kamina is NOT Kamina. Even with a bad translation, subtitles can say "mappy hith bey" for the entire run of the program, but the character saying whatever they're saying, in whatever language they're saying it, is a very specific integral part of what's going on. 2.Cultural Tolerance: To me, anyone who says something to the effect of "I can't enjoy/pay attention to/etc something that isnt't in "my" native language is a racist. They're intollerent of other cultures to some degree, and as such have no business even watching something foreign in the first place. If you're going to watch anime, accept it for what it is, good & bad. With big bouncing tits & giant mecha comes a whole wonderous language, 99% of which I can't even begin to understand, but love none the less, because it allows evrything else that comes with it to exist. And in my 20 some years of watching anime subtitled, I've picked up a few words here and there, and can catch when certain things aren't even remotely translated correctly in subtitles. Hell, a few years ago, a local cable (or perhaps a UHF?) station wuld have a weekly block of Japanese variety shows. Understanding the few words that I did, I could pick up occasional bits of sketch story, while my girlfriend understanding none of the language, still enjoyed it for the general comedy of what's going on (I think the show was called Wararu Inu, which roughly translated as Laughing Dog), and we caught that show every week until it sadly dissapeared. But back to the point, why should something be changed into something it's not (from a Japanese language production, to an English language production) just because someone can't handle that a language other than their own is being spoken. As I've said previously, if you want to watch something animated that's in English, watch Rubic The Amazing Cube. A sidenote of something that would be acceptable, if a company like HG decided they loved the Macross concept, but wanted to do an English language production version of it, they should pay to license the property for a new production. i.e. a show like Exosquad. Inferior to its inspired roots, yet clearly heavily influenced by, and a decent production in its own rights. It's the difference between remaking "The Day The Earth Stood Still" with the new changes to the story, hgih SFX budget, & whatnot, or just overdubbing the original with the voices of modern actors. Both are bad, but one is herressay. 3.Subtitles superior, dubs inferior: Emotions & inflection are universal. Happy is happy, sad is sad, mad is mad, etc. The fine details like puns or pop culture references can be drastically different & mean entirely different things in different cultures yes, but the delivery of those things is universal. I'm not saying there aren't bad actors in Japan, sure there are lots of them. But the ratio of bad actors in animatio iin the U.S. & Japan isn't even remotely propertionately close. U.S. dub actors are on the same acting scale with porn stars (in acting, not having sex, though possably both in individual cases I'm sure) most of the time. That's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of fact. It's a professional level of believability that goes into performances. More often than not, Japanes seiyuu are professional & serious about what they're doing, and it shows in their work. Most of the time dub actors are hacks who either through bad direction, or lack of talent, don't come close to making me believe that they care what they're doing, or are immersed into their character. There may be those who feel more comfortable with them because they're saying things in a language that they can understand, but as far as i go, I care more about the way they're saying it, than what they're saying. 4.Artistic Integrity-B-Or How Some Chump Can Pretend He's A Writer By Fudging With Someone Elses Work: Macek being a prime example, but rampant in the dub industry to some extent in all dubs, the practice of "localization" is little more than some guy re-writing another guys work, in a way that he thinks others will find it culturally relivent. Prime Example: Robotech. Secondary examples including all dub changes where some joke was changed into another joke because the subject matter was considered too 'foreign." And that's why I dont' like dubs!

HK subs translations are not in any way shape or form representative of a "literal" translation of anything, and as such should be kept out of this topic. Also, go watch your Street Sharks if you want to see animation with english dialogue!

I take it no one else saw Kare Kano wher Anno set fire to sticks with paper versions of the characters attached?

Played fine in my player, perhaps your players settings are overriding your choices? Try going into your players setup menu, and switching the default language to Japanese, and subtitles to English.

Subtitles with original Japanese language superior, english dubs inferior, end of story! If you want to watch somethign animated with english dialogue, go watch superfiends, or some other such garbage (Batman TAS excluded).

Picked up the new mini-keyboard attachment, and it's actually pretty cool. It has a feature that lets you brush your fingers over the keys to act like a touch mouse that can be turned on & off.

Nope, all dubs are that bad, if not significantly worse. Besides which, watching Gurren Lagann dubbed makes the anti-spirals win!

It's not 100% official yet, but it looks like Funimation has licensed 1.0

That was done a little too well, I'd actually pay money to see it if a real movie looked like that

Fruedian slp jinai! It's a colloquialism damnit!

Yo momma!

That's weak, reading the title I thought PSN'ers were going to get to go up against MSL'ers for a true epic first.

And she's got so many tentacles, she'll be compatible with just about any perhipheral.

Actually, between Gundam Wing & Turn A. X didn't really wow me at all though, it felt like ZZ mixed with Orguss.

Consider yourself corrected

If you're going to start up a Gainax collection proper, then you need to track down a copy of the Gunbuster box set before it dissapears of the planet, Wings of Honneamise is a little pricey but well worth it, Nadia is well worth it, and Prototype Eva. But before any of that, hop on over to youtube, and look up the Daicon III & IV clips.

I've watched it a couple more times than that, and have stood firm in mine

I actually think that's one of "The Young Ones."

Actually, it says that there's no time, so the episode is focusing on Shinji. As for who, it's the production staff.

A new Kikaider anime?

Because he's a transvestite of course!

Nadia does start off pretty light, but as it goes into Neo Atlantis territory, you'll see more similarities.

Eva Unit-02 didn't have an S2 Organ, so it wouldn't have worked. At that point in time, only adding the Adam embryo back into the Lilith body, or using Unit-01 would have worked. If Gendo had gotten his way, Instrumentality wouldn't havebeen able to start, since for it to work, humanity has to join with god. If he hijacked the original, and Yui left with as the new, that leaves no one for humanity to join with.

It shoudl be noted that the whole conversations of "the I who exists in" happened "before" Everyone was combined into one being. As I said before, those conversations were akin to the scenes in the movie where the many Rei's go out & lower everyones AT fields. It was getting rid of the perception of individuality in everyone before combining them into one being. Proof, Instrumentality didn't begin until the end of ep 25, after those conversations. Again, it's not that humanity was reduced into imaginary friends, it's that humanity was reduced into Shinji, with no one else "real" to interact with period. Mind you Seele didn't likely intend for him to become the dominant ego, it was Lilith/Kaworu/Rei that decided that, and left him with the ultimate decision in the matter. Rei/Lilith/Kowaru/God (whatever you choose to call it) deemed him worthy of choosing, Plus he was the Pilot of Unit-01.

Robotech with the SDF-2? lol