>ugh<
Yes, once again, the 2x4 of life has come flying at me and I have had to serpentine my way to safety. Wow, last post was in March?!
Anyway, I take this time to remind everyone that it is only 250 days left to AB '09!
Well, I must present some news that was passed to me via, Kiarrens who witnessed this at Otakon this past summer: Funimation cast Vic (Ed Elric, Generator Gawl) for the part of Tamaki in Ouran High School Host Club...I must say that I am less than thrilled. Now nothing against Vic, I think he is a good guy who loves his work, his co-workers and his fans, but at the same time, he only has a limited range of voices. What happened to the cast of Fruits Basket?!?! Why did Funimation allow those people to leave?!?! Such a brilliant job casting all those people. Well, rant aside, I must now review....
...and my review goes right back into my rant (amidst my inability to type as the dawn draws near).
xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream & Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom. (a two disc set for $19.99 at Best Buy)
The background on both of these series is that xxxHolic's main character Yuko is a cunning and yet childish sorceress who owns a shop that specializes in granting wishes. Any wish may be granted as long as suitable compensation is made. In Tsubasa, Sayoran and Sakura must travel to different worlds to collect the scattered feathers of Sakura's memories. They are accompanied by a Magician named Fai (laughable and fun) and a Ninja named Kurogane (dark and creepy, looking for a fight), as well as Mokona who transports them all to different worlds. They obtained Mokona from Yuko because it was their wish to travel to different worlds for different reasons. Periodically they check in with Yuko and Mokona acts as a transmitter so they can talk to her. It is a cute and lovable story-line, so traditionally Clamp though. xxxHolic is a little darker than Tsubasa.
Well, these two manga that I love had been (of course) made into anime which is just now being released over here. I was hesitant because I saw previews and I did not like Yuko's voice (not sultry enough), not was I appreciative of the animation. For those of you who have seen the manga of either one of those series, you would understand that the animation glossed over a lot of the detail. So, I promised myself when the series started coming out on DVD I would wait until there was a movie or a Convention where I could preview the series and determine whether I wanted to buy the whole series on DVD (need I remind everyone of my folly with the DN Angel series, ugh). Well, the movie came out and I found myself sweaaring that I made that promise to myself. I was at Best Buy and I saw it, so I ended up buying it.
I will review xxxHolic first because you need to watch this first to understand what is going on in the Tsubasa movie.
Pros:
1. The characters were kept true to what they were in the manga.
2. The artwork was reminiscent of the manga by displaying not only the serious side of the characters but the goofy images, too.
3. The music was wonderful!
4. The story was very good, definitely keeping with the story-line.
Cons:
1. Whoever was in charge of drawing Yuko's character missed that day in art class when they did the project of the human form. Her boobs were everywhere. It reminded me of Ezma from The Emperor's New Groove where her boobs were small but never went higher than her lower ribs (that's why they called her "scary beyond all reason").
2. The english voice cast was not that great. As mentioned above, I had a real problem with Yuko's voice, it was not sultry enough, I guess I was expecting it to sound more like Lust's from Full Metal Alchemist.
As for Tsubasa:
Pros:
1. The artwork was better than I thought it would be. It still had that cutesy feel from Cardcaptor Sakura, but they did a pretty good job with the detail, especially with Sayoran's eye, that was very good.
2. A lot of opportunity for cos-play with this series and the anime is always the best way to capture the colors.
Cons:
1. Vic was cast as Fai's voice...I was not happy. It was okay while Fai was in a calm situation, and Vic did a good job lightening up his voice, but I can still hear Ed and Gawl in there. It is not true to Fai's character which is light-hearted and always making jokes, but with a dark past. I would have preferred the voice of Shigure from Fruits Basket.
2. It was too fast. They billed it as a movie and it was about 35 minutes long...that's an episode...they said too much, too quickly and they could have expanded on a lot more, at least xxxHolic was about 55 minutes long.
3. While the travel to different worlds suddenly is a common thing in this series, you come into the "Movie" with no idea what is going on. I have no idea where they have just come from, obviously if you have not been following the series you will feel a little out of the loop. It is like hitting the ground running but you do not know what the terrain is like.
There you are, a brief synopsis of what I liked and disliked about these two movies. I have to say, I am probably not going to ever watch the dub versions again nor am I going to get the series (unless I absolutely have to for a cosplay). I will stick to the manga because I like sketches better than I like anime anyway. I also like the voices I picked for the characters in my head better than the ones Funimation picked out. If you get the chance to read either of these manga, I highly recommend them both.
Also, here is a very good cosplay of Yuko that I caught at AB '08 as she was leaving the Masqurade HQ.
Does anyone else have a review?
Anyway, I take this time to remind everyone that it is only 250 days left to AB '09!
Well, I must present some news that was passed to me via, Kiarrens who witnessed this at Otakon this past summer: Funimation cast Vic (Ed Elric, Generator Gawl) for the part of Tamaki in Ouran High School Host Club...I must say that I am less than thrilled. Now nothing against Vic, I think he is a good guy who loves his work, his co-workers and his fans, but at the same time, he only has a limited range of voices. What happened to the cast of Fruits Basket?!?! Why did Funimation allow those people to leave?!?! Such a brilliant job casting all those people. Well, rant aside, I must now review....
...and my review goes right back into my rant (amidst my inability to type as the dawn draws near).
xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream & Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom. (a two disc set for $19.99 at Best Buy)
The background on both of these series is that xxxHolic's main character Yuko is a cunning and yet childish sorceress who owns a shop that specializes in granting wishes. Any wish may be granted as long as suitable compensation is made. In Tsubasa, Sayoran and Sakura must travel to different worlds to collect the scattered feathers of Sakura's memories. They are accompanied by a Magician named Fai (laughable and fun) and a Ninja named Kurogane (dark and creepy, looking for a fight), as well as Mokona who transports them all to different worlds. They obtained Mokona from Yuko because it was their wish to travel to different worlds for different reasons. Periodically they check in with Yuko and Mokona acts as a transmitter so they can talk to her. It is a cute and lovable story-line, so traditionally Clamp though. xxxHolic is a little darker than Tsubasa.
Well, these two manga that I love had been (of course) made into anime which is just now being released over here. I was hesitant because I saw previews and I did not like Yuko's voice (not sultry enough), not was I appreciative of the animation. For those of you who have seen the manga of either one of those series, you would understand that the animation glossed over a lot of the detail. So, I promised myself when the series started coming out on DVD I would wait until there was a movie or a Convention where I could preview the series and determine whether I wanted to buy the whole series on DVD (need I remind everyone of my folly with the DN Angel series, ugh). Well, the movie came out and I found myself sweaaring that I made that promise to myself. I was at Best Buy and I saw it, so I ended up buying it.
I will review xxxHolic first because you need to watch this first to understand what is going on in the Tsubasa movie.
Pros:
1. The characters were kept true to what they were in the manga.
2. The artwork was reminiscent of the manga by displaying not only the serious side of the characters but the goofy images, too.
3. The music was wonderful!
4. The story was very good, definitely keeping with the story-line.
Cons:
1. Whoever was in charge of drawing Yuko's character missed that day in art class when they did the project of the human form. Her boobs were everywhere. It reminded me of Ezma from The Emperor's New Groove where her boobs were small but never went higher than her lower ribs (that's why they called her "scary beyond all reason").
2. The english voice cast was not that great. As mentioned above, I had a real problem with Yuko's voice, it was not sultry enough, I guess I was expecting it to sound more like Lust's from Full Metal Alchemist.
As for Tsubasa:
Pros:
1. The artwork was better than I thought it would be. It still had that cutesy feel from Cardcaptor Sakura, but they did a pretty good job with the detail, especially with Sayoran's eye, that was very good.
2. A lot of opportunity for cos-play with this series and the anime is always the best way to capture the colors.
Cons:
1. Vic was cast as Fai's voice...I was not happy. It was okay while Fai was in a calm situation, and Vic did a good job lightening up his voice, but I can still hear Ed and Gawl in there. It is not true to Fai's character which is light-hearted and always making jokes, but with a dark past. I would have preferred the voice of Shigure from Fruits Basket.
2. It was too fast. They billed it as a movie and it was about 35 minutes long...that's an episode...they said too much, too quickly and they could have expanded on a lot more, at least xxxHolic was about 55 minutes long.
3. While the travel to different worlds suddenly is a common thing in this series, you come into the "Movie" with no idea what is going on. I have no idea where they have just come from, obviously if you have not been following the series you will feel a little out of the loop. It is like hitting the ground running but you do not know what the terrain is like.
There you are, a brief synopsis of what I liked and disliked about these two movies. I have to say, I am probably not going to ever watch the dub versions again nor am I going to get the series (unless I absolutely have to for a cosplay). I will stick to the manga because I like sketches better than I like anime anyway. I also like the voices I picked for the characters in my head better than the ones Funimation picked out. If you get the chance to read either of these manga, I highly recommend them both.
Also, here is a very good cosplay of Yuko that I caught at AB '08 as she was leaving the Masqurade HQ.Does anyone else have a review?
posted by mustangannie666 at 11:51 PM
3 comments
