Onward, to Better Things...

I crossed the Loop in a bus to the train station. Awesome to see all the giant buildings there erected by and designed to service this concentration of humanity. It’s glorious! I miss it so. It is very empowering – one feels anything is possible in the midst of such vibrant endeavor. Riding the train home now – that’s always fun. The ride is so different now than I remember from my youth, or even 10 years ago here. It is a very smooth ride now and relatively quiet. All the lines here have upgraded their track to welded rail – so now each rail is a continuous band of steel for hundreds or thousands of feet between physical joints. Hence the traditional clickity-clack as the trucks passed over the joints is no more to be heard. The only time you hear something like that is when we pass through a turnout or hammer the diamonds. Makes for an even more pleasant ride!

Just downloaded a fansub of a popular anime call ef – a tale of memories. It is based on a Japanese visual novel (so-called, it might more be called a role-playing game with a definite plot pattern based on choices the player makes). The anime is just beautiful! The animation is some of the prettiest I’ve seen with lush backgrounds, stunning lighting effects, and vibrant characters. The music rivals any I’ve heard as well. I’m just getting into it so I’ll provide a more detailed evaluation later. Basically, though, it’s a shoujo romance series with three or four high-school-age couples learning to get along, make friends and enemies, and find their true love. Yeah, I’m a pushover for this crap. Deal. Reminds me of my H.S. days I guess, only with cute uniforms!

If you want a couple of recommendations for kids in high school series that are top drawer humor, I give you Azumanga Daioh, and School Rumble. Azumanga Daioh was born as a manga and focuses on the three years of high school for a half-dozen very different girls and their teacher. It’s pretty much slice-of-life style episodes that also veers off into the surreal from time to time for hilarious effect!

School Rumble is just a high-school sit-com with really great characters and situations. Each of these series offer a close look at what I assume is typical Japanese high school life (at least it is according to my research on Wikipedia) with all its festivals, sports days, culture days, etc, etc. They are primarily fun to watch and will amuse and delight you. Check ‘em out.

Found quite a few new job postings on Career Builder this morning – so local to where I live so I will jump on them and make the big score!! Hahahaha!

To Dub or Not to Dub? ... Dub!!

So, I saw Clannad has been released on DVD here in the states. It’s a wonderful anime series that I watched last year as a fansub. I was disappointed to learn that the US release has not been dubbed in English, just subtitled. I’m seeing this more and more lately as the US distributors are trying to get the discs to market as quickly as possible and so they forego the dubbing process, which I agree is very expensive and bit of a gamble if the DVD doesn’t sell well. I think the idea is, if they make a good profit with subtitles they’ll come back and dub it later for a second release.
Now, this doesn’t make a lot of sense for a series like Clannad, which is wildly popular and regarded as one of the best anime series ever – which appraisal I agree with. It’s gone through two seasons and a movie and I think they’re planning a live-action film and more anime series or OVAs. This is a series that should have been dubbed for its US release! On a more personal note, it is now almost impossible for MLM to follow a subtitled presentation. Now, your purist anime fans say they always want to watch their anime with the original Japanese soundtrack and follow along with the subtitles. MLM and I used to do that too, up until a couple years ago. Also, a lot of the English dubbing is pretty hit or miss; with some excellent work and some crappy. Usually you could count on really good voice-acting in the original Japanese, and even though you may not understand it, the emotion definitely comes through. Again our problem now is that MLM just cannot see and concentrate well enough to make a subtitled anime enjoyable anymore. So, come on people; Dub ‘em!!