The other day I was looking at my anime collection and was shocked to see that alot of the shows I think deserve a Blu-ray release have not yet gotten one. So I thought why not list the top 5 here for all to see. Before we go on let me clarify that some of these shows do indeed have a Blu-ray release in Japan and may eventually get a release here. However this list is based solely on the US releases of anime.
5) Code Geass and Code Geass R2. Now I know what you are thinking. Why is Code Geass so high on the list? Why isn't it number 1? Well the reason behind this is because of all the anime to be listed here Code Geass is the most likely to get the Blu-ray treatment in the US. Why? Well awhile back Bandai said they would do everything in their power to release any Blu-ray released in Japan here. Well Code Geass and R2 have both seen a full blown Blu-ray release in Japan and as per Bandai's promise will most likely get a release here in the near future.
So what is it that makes Code Geass worthy of a Blu-ray release. Well aside from being one of the best anime released in recent memory it's also stunningly beautiful to look at. CLAMP created some incredible characters for the show and the world was always very detailed. So it's obvious that the leap to Blu-ray would just bump up the visual fidelity that much more.
If the show does get a US Blu-ray release I would expect to see it some time near the end of 2010.
#4) Gurren Lagann. Gurren Lagann was a show that tried alot of new things in it's animation. Gainax created a ton of new filters to add immense amounts of detail to all aspects of the show. Be it dust and rock debris being thrown into the air after a giant Gunmen came crashing down or glowing green light of spiral energy shown throughout the show.
The show also had memorable character designs. From Yoko to Kamina to Simon all of the characters have a great unique look that most fans still remember to this day. Lets also not forget that Gurren Lagann has some of the most over the top intense battles and fight scenes even seen in a anime. Just when you think "This battle can not possibly get any bigger" it does and then some. So it's no surprise to see Gurren Lagann on the list.
3) xxxHolic. Yes yes we all know that the first xxxHolic TV anime didn't look nearly as good as it's movie counterpart A Midsummer Night's Dream. However that doesn't mean the show isn't nice to look at. In fact there are parts in the show that are a sight to behold. The Hydrangea episode comes to mind. Or perhaps the episode in which Watanuki and the pipe fox venture into the mountains in search of Zashiki-Warashi. Both incredible beautiful episodes that show off the incredible world CLAMP built for xxxHolic.
While the show was not able to completely capture CLAMP's original style and look from the manga(and honestly who could?) It still did a commendable job. The long slender style the manga had is on full display and some may argue that it was over done in the anime. The use of smoke as well is done rather well just as in the manga. While the spirits that plaugue Watanuke were more full form in the movie they are still represented rather well. While I personally would have liked to see the connection to Tsubasa left intact I still thoroughly enjoyed xxxHolic and would love to see what a Blu-ray release of the show would look like.
2) X/1999. Yes we have another CLAMP manga adaptation on the list and it is probably one of the best known. Known not only for it's more violent aspects(something CLAMP normally doesn't do) But also because the manga on which the anime was based has never actually ended. CLAMP simply "took a break" and to this day they have not returned to finish X.
That however did not stop the X from being a incredible show. Being the oldest show on this list one might wonder how it can possibly measure up to stuff like Gurren Lagann and Code Geass. But let me assure you this show is a visual feast. The amount of detail on display here is mind blowing. X is also home to what in my opinion are the best character designs CLAMP has ever produced.
The show has spectacular battles that at some points even become hard to watch thanks to the violence I mentioned earlier. As well as some motifs that are still used in anime today like the use of black and white feathers to relay good and evil to the viewer. To top that all off X also has a incredible soundtrack that would certainly benefit from the jump to 5.1 true HD surround sound.
X is probably the least likely show on this list to get a Blu-ray release. However not all hope is lost. Funimation recently rescued the X license and plans to re-release the show sometime this year and perhaps if it sells well we will see a Blu-ray release in the future.
So here we are at number 1. What show could possibly be worthy of number 1 on this list of stunningly beautiful shows?
1) Jigoku Shoujo/Hell Girl. Honestly what the hell is funimation thinking not having a Blu-ray release of Hell Girl? Hell Girl is one of those rare shows that not only totally shocks you with it's beauty but also retains the incredibly high level of animation prowess set by it's pilot episode. Something needless to say most shows are unable to do.
The show is also home to some of the most iconic images in anime today. Honestly who can forget the first time Ai ferries a soul across the river Styx straight into hell. Who can possibliy forget the first time they hear Ai's proclamation of "Perhaps It is time to die".
The show uses things to catch the user off guard many a time. One will be caught wondering after the first episode how a girl so frail and beautiful as Ai can possibly be someone who condemns people to hell.
So you may ask why exactly is Hell Girl number 1? Well as mentioned earlier the shows production quality remains top notch all the way through to the very end. Hell Girl has incredible art and if there was ever a show that would benefit from having a extremely crisp and clean picture it would be this one.
Lets also not forget the incredible soundtrack that adds to the feelings of terror the audience is experiencing which watching the show. Haunting vocals by who one can only assume is Ai Enma herself and beats that are literally meant to scare the shit out of you are the norm here. This is a soundtrack that actually helps the show scare you. Bringing a soundtrack like that to 5.1HD surround would just add to the tension the show inflicts upon the viewer. If you have yet to see Hell Girl I would highly recommend seeing it as it's a incredible beautiful show even on DVD. One can only hope that Funimation pulls their heads out of their bums and gets on getting a Blu-ray release of Hell Girl. Oh and while your at it Funimation why don't you go ahead and license seasons 2 and 3.
(Funi failed big time on this one. Shortly after this posting Sentai Filmworks licensed the 2nd season of Hell Girl meaning we will more likely never hear the incredible dub the first season had in season 2 and 3 of the show. It also makes a Blu-ray release unlikely as Funi would not release something on Blu-ray if they didn't sell enough on DVD.)
Well there you have it. My top 5 anime that really need a Blu-ray release. Feel free to add anything you would like to add to the list.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Dreaming of a ufotable Fate/Stay Night Project.
As many anime fans may know a Fate/Stay Night movie is just over the horizon(scheduled to be released in February) and the trailer for the movie has just been released. After taking a look at the trailer I have mixed feelings about it.
For those that don't know the movie is supposed to be based off of the Unlimited Blade Works story arc from the original visual novel. However it's quite clear from the trailer that the movie is also mixing in elements of the Fate path that was previously covered in the TV anime. The reason this is of interest is that the movie(clocking in at 90 minutes) Was never going to be long enough to cover all of the Unlimited Blade Works story and fans wondered how it would work. Now it seems as though the answer is that it won't faithfully follow the story and will again be a blending of multiple story lines just as the TV anime was a blending of Fate/Unlimited Blade Works and Heavens feel.
My gut feeling says that the movie will unfold with the more memorable scenes but aside from that the only thing keeping the movie a Unlimited Blade Works movie will be the out come I.E Shirou fighting Archer. Scenes such as Rider's attack on Rin are shown in the trailer. This scene(which is from the Fate path) is not a short scene in fact it took about 10-15 minutes in the anime. 10-15 minutes it quite awhile for a 90 minute movie that is supposed to be based on a entirely different story arc. However I digress. All that said the movie still looks great. Studio DEEN has obviously stepped things up abit.
This led me to fantasize about the possibility of a Fate/Stay Night project from ufotable. For those that don't know ufotable has been doing the Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners movies(another of Type-Moons property's) The format in which the movies where made was quite interesting. The story was split up into multiple chapters and released as several movies. The catch being that they were done as if they were a anime. What I mean by that is that at the end of each movie you would get the Next episode preview just as if you were watching a anime. On top of this the movies were never very long(with the exception of the 6th movie) normally clocking in at about 45-60 minutes.
The format worked great and the Kara No Kyoukai movies have been a hit. ufotable aside from their release strategy have proven they are incredibly talented as the Kara No Kyoukai movies are stunningly beautiful. Things like fight scenes look like entrancing dances and even horrifying things like blood soaked corpses are beautiful in their own twisted way. It makes me dream of what ufotable could do with the Fate/Stay Night world and cast. I can just imagine the incredible fight scenes they could think up to compliment Rider.
Out of all of the arcs from the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel Heaven's Feel seems to be the one that would work the best for ufotable. For those that don't know the basic breakdown of Heaven's Feel I will give you a bit of a run down. The story primarily focus's on Sakura and her relationship with Shirou. Over the course the story she falls for him(more like she final admits to herself that she loves him) all against the back drop of the Holy Grail War. It's not to long before she starts to change and fears that what she is turning into will harm the people she loves. The story details her decent into madness and Shirous willingness to sacrifice his very being to make sure she remains who she is despite how impossible it seems.
The story has TONS of twists and turns and it's a nearly impossible to predict what will happen next much less the ending(which threw me for a loop and I did in fact shed some tears). This story and theme in general falls greatly in line with the overall story of Kara No Kyoukai of a tragic love(although it's not as evident in Kara no Kyoukai). The whole look and feel that ufotable was able to create for the Kara No Kyoukai movies fits Heaven's Feel to a T, a dark and dour world where beauty still exists in the most unexpected(and sometimes horrifying) places. It would be incredible to see what set pieces they would be able to come up with. The scene of Sakura and Shirou embracing in the rain sends shivers down my spine when I imagine how ufotable would animate it(they did create the most beautiful rain I have ever seen in anime after all)
The great thing about this dream is that it may not been that unlikely. ufotable has just finished work on the final Kara No Kyoukai movie so they will be free to take up another large project not to long from now. Fans may ask why this matters? Well the simple reason is that we have seen a Fate adaptation in the Fate/Stay Night TV anime and we are now seeing a Unlimited Blade Works adaptation with the upcoming movie. That means there will most likely be some sort of Heavens Feel adaptation somewhere down the road.
There is the slight possibility that ufotable could adapt a Heaven's Feel project into a movie series as they did with Kara No Kyoukai or perhaps maybe even a OVA. Although one must take into account that Type-Moon may just stick with Studio DEEN out of loyalty if a Heaven's Feel project is green lit.
Perhaps it's just my wishful thinking but out of all the Fate/Stay Night story arcs Heaven's Feel fits the ufotable style the most. Which quite possibly is why I'm dreaming they would take on such a project. It could also just be that Heaven's Feel being my favorite of the original Fate/Stay Night story arcs that I would like it to be adapted in the best possible way. However only time will tell if this ever happens. The Unlimited Blade Works movie is just around the corner and you never know perhaps Type-Moon will tease us with something at the end.
For those that don't know the movie is supposed to be based off of the Unlimited Blade Works story arc from the original visual novel. However it's quite clear from the trailer that the movie is also mixing in elements of the Fate path that was previously covered in the TV anime. The reason this is of interest is that the movie(clocking in at 90 minutes) Was never going to be long enough to cover all of the Unlimited Blade Works story and fans wondered how it would work. Now it seems as though the answer is that it won't faithfully follow the story and will again be a blending of multiple story lines just as the TV anime was a blending of Fate/Unlimited Blade Works and Heavens feel.
My gut feeling says that the movie will unfold with the more memorable scenes but aside from that the only thing keeping the movie a Unlimited Blade Works movie will be the out come I.E Shirou fighting Archer. Scenes such as Rider's attack on Rin are shown in the trailer. This scene(which is from the Fate path) is not a short scene in fact it took about 10-15 minutes in the anime. 10-15 minutes it quite awhile for a 90 minute movie that is supposed to be based on a entirely different story arc. However I digress. All that said the movie still looks great. Studio DEEN has obviously stepped things up abit.
This led me to fantasize about the possibility of a Fate/Stay Night project from ufotable. For those that don't know ufotable has been doing the Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners movies(another of Type-Moons property's) The format in which the movies where made was quite interesting. The story was split up into multiple chapters and released as several movies. The catch being that they were done as if they were a anime. What I mean by that is that at the end of each movie you would get the Next episode preview just as if you were watching a anime. On top of this the movies were never very long(with the exception of the 6th movie) normally clocking in at about 45-60 minutes.
The format worked great and the Kara No Kyoukai movies have been a hit. ufotable aside from their release strategy have proven they are incredibly talented as the Kara No Kyoukai movies are stunningly beautiful. Things like fight scenes look like entrancing dances and even horrifying things like blood soaked corpses are beautiful in their own twisted way. It makes me dream of what ufotable could do with the Fate/Stay Night world and cast. I can just imagine the incredible fight scenes they could think up to compliment Rider.
Out of all of the arcs from the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel Heaven's Feel seems to be the one that would work the best for ufotable. For those that don't know the basic breakdown of Heaven's Feel I will give you a bit of a run down. The story primarily focus's on Sakura and her relationship with Shirou. Over the course the story she falls for him(more like she final admits to herself that she loves him) all against the back drop of the Holy Grail War. It's not to long before she starts to change and fears that what she is turning into will harm the people she loves. The story details her decent into madness and Shirous willingness to sacrifice his very being to make sure she remains who she is despite how impossible it seems.
The story has TONS of twists and turns and it's a nearly impossible to predict what will happen next much less the ending(which threw me for a loop and I did in fact shed some tears). This story and theme in general falls greatly in line with the overall story of Kara No Kyoukai of a tragic love(although it's not as evident in Kara no Kyoukai). The whole look and feel that ufotable was able to create for the Kara No Kyoukai movies fits Heaven's Feel to a T, a dark and dour world where beauty still exists in the most unexpected(and sometimes horrifying) places. It would be incredible to see what set pieces they would be able to come up with. The scene of Sakura and Shirou embracing in the rain sends shivers down my spine when I imagine how ufotable would animate it(they did create the most beautiful rain I have ever seen in anime after all)
The great thing about this dream is that it may not been that unlikely. ufotable has just finished work on the final Kara No Kyoukai movie so they will be free to take up another large project not to long from now. Fans may ask why this matters? Well the simple reason is that we have seen a Fate adaptation in the Fate/Stay Night TV anime and we are now seeing a Unlimited Blade Works adaptation with the upcoming movie. That means there will most likely be some sort of Heavens Feel adaptation somewhere down the road.
There is the slight possibility that ufotable could adapt a Heaven's Feel project into a movie series as they did with Kara No Kyoukai or perhaps maybe even a OVA. Although one must take into account that Type-Moon may just stick with Studio DEEN out of loyalty if a Heaven's Feel project is green lit.
Perhaps it's just my wishful thinking but out of all the Fate/Stay Night story arcs Heaven's Feel fits the ufotable style the most. Which quite possibly is why I'm dreaming they would take on such a project. It could also just be that Heaven's Feel being my favorite of the original Fate/Stay Night story arcs that I would like it to be adapted in the best possible way. However only time will tell if this ever happens. The Unlimited Blade Works movie is just around the corner and you never know perhaps Type-Moon will tease us with something at the end.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
1st Topic: Subs Vs Dubs.
So I have been a very big anime fan for most of my life. I've always loved the stories and the characters you find in anime. I mean lets face it, you just can't find anything like it anywhere else.
Now unlike most so called "Hardcore" anime fans I am an avid supporter of anime dubs. Why? Well there are quite a few reasons. All of which I will be talking about here. So set aside a little time and read a bit and maybe your opinion will change. And if not at least you will be better educated on the topic.
First if you are unaware what dubs and subs are let me give you a bit of background on it. Simply put Dubs are the process of adding voice over to anime. However in the West the term has come to mean English voice over instead of simply voice over. Subs are simply the original Japanese with subtitles.
Shockingly enough the vast majority of anime fans(I would posit somewhere in around the 75% range) watch nothing but subtitled anime. I have always been left wondering why. There are plenty of reasons I have been told in defense of subs and most of them are either wrong, weak excuses and just plain ignorant.
The most common reason I hear is "I want to watch the show the way it was intended". Well I'm sorry to say that you can not watch the show the way it was intended unless you speak fluent Japanese. Why? Well think about it. Do you honestly think the Directors of these incredible shows want the viewers to be reading text at the bottom of the screen? No they don't. They want the viewers to be immersed in the story and be free to look at the incredible looking artwork that anime is so well known for. Sorry to say you can't do this while reading subtitles. All to often you will miss key visual details while reading subs. Maybe a piece of information key to the plot line or maybe even a visual gag. You are much more likely to miss things like this if your eyes are glued to the bottom of the screen.
Up next we have the "The Japanese performances are always better". Um... Wow.... well that's more often then not completely wrong. The truth is that most anime performances are simply average. So why do people think the Japanese is always better? Simple they don't understand what they are hearing. If you can't fluently speak Japanese you can't possibly know if the performance is any good or not. With this being the case you incur the illusion that the acting is better when it is indeed average. If you want a amusing story about this head over to ANN. There is quite a funny story about a guy who had always said his favorite anime ever Dirty Pair was better in Japanese. Until that is he learned to speak Japanese and was horrified to find that it had horrible acting in it. This is not to say that there is not good acting in the Japanese. In fact quite the opposite. I would say that the amount of good performances out weigh the bad.
It seems as if dubs have incurred a negative stigma that all English dubs are horribly acted. After all most who are watching the English dubs speak English and everyone is a critic. It's obvious why dubs got a bad rap though. Back during the 80's and into the mid 90's nearly every dub was HORRIBLE(with a few great exceptions). However those times have passed and now more often then not English dubs are incredibly well acted. There are even cases in which the English dub is vastly superior to the original Japanese. How is that possible you might ask. Well let me give you a prime example.
The anime Black Lagoon was vastly better in English then it was in Japanese. The reasons are many. Firstly the English script corrected numerous factual errors the Japanese script contained. For example the names of numerous places and guns. In addition to that the Characters are far more genuine. In Japanese a character will always sound Japanese and that's something that cannot be fixed with a deeper voice. Dutch is a prime example of this. He is your classic bad ass big black guy. In English he sounds as such. In Japanese he sounds like a deep voiced Japanese guy. Needless to say he sounds better in English. The same can be said for nearly every character in Black Lagoon be it Benny and his obvious white boy from Florida look and feel or Revy and her harsh words and sometimes psychotic attitude.
The simple fact is that English has accents that Japanese doesn't have and being able to authentically use these accents makes characters closer to the way they should actually be.(and in all honesty what the original creators envisioned them to be) Another good example is the anime BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad. In this anime the character Maho grew up in America and speaks fluent English and sings in fluent English as well. However in the Japanese she has a heavy accent when singing in English. Obviously a character who grew up speaking English would not have this problem. In the English dub Brina Palencia sings the same songs with the same lyrics and the result is vastly better then the Japanese simply because she does not have the heavy Japanese accent the original did. On top of the fact that Brina is a incredible singer with a stunningly beautiful voice. She isn't the only one either. The character Koyuki also has a English performance and again in the Japanese he has a heavy accent. However in the English dub Greg Ayres performs the piece beautifully. Keep in mind that these songs were in English in BOTH versions of BECK. However they sound more authentic in the English. So much so that many rallied to have Funimation release a English version of the BECK soundtrack. Which sadly didn't happen due to licensing reasons(believe me though. Greg himself told me they did everything in their power to get it to happen but it was just not meant to be)
The fact is that most dubs being produced these days(which in all honesty isn't very many thanks to the hard times the industry has found itself in) Are very well acted by all those involved. The days of every dub being laughably bad are behind us. Now don't take all this to mean I hate subs. That's not the case at all. In fact there are shows I simply cannot watch in English for various reasons. For example recently I watched the Fate/Stay Night anime. No matter how hard I tried I could not watch the English because I had played more then 150 hours of the original game. I got so used to the original Japanese(which in this case was indeed better acted and cast) That I could not stand the way the characters sounded in English. This would be the case for alot of other shows I have seen like K-ON! and Kara No Kyoukai. If these were to be released in English I would more then likely still watch them in Japanese. That's not to say that I would not give the English dub a chance however as I have been surprised before.
To me anime should be experienced in whichever way is better. If the English performances are just as good or even better then the Japanese who cares if you are not watching the original. If it's better you are going to get more from the experience. It's still the same story be it in English or Japanese. On the flip side it's nice to be able to have a back up option in the form of subs. I watch anime about half subbed half dubbed. That's the great thing about being open minded. You don't have to be held back in anyway. I have friends who didn't like the subs for a show and stopped watching the show entirely despite the fact that they liked the story. If they were more open minded they could have switched to the dub and continued on and seen the ending.
Something also needs to be said for Fansubs. A disturbingly large amount of "fans" get into anime via this method and as such get stuck up to a degree and think they should only be watching something subbed. Never once do they stop to think that the fan subs they are watching are probably way off the real meaning.(look at the countless posts on Japanator about fansubs laughable failures). But I digress this is another topic entirely.
So at the end of the day it's simple. If you are a anime fan start trying to give the dubs a shot. You may like what you hear. As I said nearly every anime dub being released these days are very good. You may end up liking what you hear and will not have to be constantly looking at the bottom of the screen.
Now unlike most so called "Hardcore" anime fans I am an avid supporter of anime dubs. Why? Well there are quite a few reasons. All of which I will be talking about here. So set aside a little time and read a bit and maybe your opinion will change. And if not at least you will be better educated on the topic.
First if you are unaware what dubs and subs are let me give you a bit of background on it. Simply put Dubs are the process of adding voice over to anime. However in the West the term has come to mean English voice over instead of simply voice over. Subs are simply the original Japanese with subtitles.
Shockingly enough the vast majority of anime fans(I would posit somewhere in around the 75% range) watch nothing but subtitled anime. I have always been left wondering why. There are plenty of reasons I have been told in defense of subs and most of them are either wrong, weak excuses and just plain ignorant.
The most common reason I hear is "I want to watch the show the way it was intended". Well I'm sorry to say that you can not watch the show the way it was intended unless you speak fluent Japanese. Why? Well think about it. Do you honestly think the Directors of these incredible shows want the viewers to be reading text at the bottom of the screen? No they don't. They want the viewers to be immersed in the story and be free to look at the incredible looking artwork that anime is so well known for. Sorry to say you can't do this while reading subtitles. All to often you will miss key visual details while reading subs. Maybe a piece of information key to the plot line or maybe even a visual gag. You are much more likely to miss things like this if your eyes are glued to the bottom of the screen.
Up next we have the "The Japanese performances are always better". Um... Wow.... well that's more often then not completely wrong. The truth is that most anime performances are simply average. So why do people think the Japanese is always better? Simple they don't understand what they are hearing. If you can't fluently speak Japanese you can't possibly know if the performance is any good or not. With this being the case you incur the illusion that the acting is better when it is indeed average. If you want a amusing story about this head over to ANN. There is quite a funny story about a guy who had always said his favorite anime ever Dirty Pair was better in Japanese. Until that is he learned to speak Japanese and was horrified to find that it had horrible acting in it. This is not to say that there is not good acting in the Japanese. In fact quite the opposite. I would say that the amount of good performances out weigh the bad.
It seems as if dubs have incurred a negative stigma that all English dubs are horribly acted. After all most who are watching the English dubs speak English and everyone is a critic. It's obvious why dubs got a bad rap though. Back during the 80's and into the mid 90's nearly every dub was HORRIBLE(with a few great exceptions). However those times have passed and now more often then not English dubs are incredibly well acted. There are even cases in which the English dub is vastly superior to the original Japanese. How is that possible you might ask. Well let me give you a prime example.
The anime Black Lagoon was vastly better in English then it was in Japanese. The reasons are many. Firstly the English script corrected numerous factual errors the Japanese script contained. For example the names of numerous places and guns. In addition to that the Characters are far more genuine. In Japanese a character will always sound Japanese and that's something that cannot be fixed with a deeper voice. Dutch is a prime example of this. He is your classic bad ass big black guy. In English he sounds as such. In Japanese he sounds like a deep voiced Japanese guy. Needless to say he sounds better in English. The same can be said for nearly every character in Black Lagoon be it Benny and his obvious white boy from Florida look and feel or Revy and her harsh words and sometimes psychotic attitude.
The simple fact is that English has accents that Japanese doesn't have and being able to authentically use these accents makes characters closer to the way they should actually be.(and in all honesty what the original creators envisioned them to be) Another good example is the anime BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad. In this anime the character Maho grew up in America and speaks fluent English and sings in fluent English as well. However in the Japanese she has a heavy accent when singing in English. Obviously a character who grew up speaking English would not have this problem. In the English dub Brina Palencia sings the same songs with the same lyrics and the result is vastly better then the Japanese simply because she does not have the heavy Japanese accent the original did. On top of the fact that Brina is a incredible singer with a stunningly beautiful voice. She isn't the only one either. The character Koyuki also has a English performance and again in the Japanese he has a heavy accent. However in the English dub Greg Ayres performs the piece beautifully. Keep in mind that these songs were in English in BOTH versions of BECK. However they sound more authentic in the English. So much so that many rallied to have Funimation release a English version of the BECK soundtrack. Which sadly didn't happen due to licensing reasons(believe me though. Greg himself told me they did everything in their power to get it to happen but it was just not meant to be)
The fact is that most dubs being produced these days(which in all honesty isn't very many thanks to the hard times the industry has found itself in) Are very well acted by all those involved. The days of every dub being laughably bad are behind us. Now don't take all this to mean I hate subs. That's not the case at all. In fact there are shows I simply cannot watch in English for various reasons. For example recently I watched the Fate/Stay Night anime. No matter how hard I tried I could not watch the English because I had played more then 150 hours of the original game. I got so used to the original Japanese(which in this case was indeed better acted and cast) That I could not stand the way the characters sounded in English. This would be the case for alot of other shows I have seen like K-ON! and Kara No Kyoukai. If these were to be released in English I would more then likely still watch them in Japanese. That's not to say that I would not give the English dub a chance however as I have been surprised before.
To me anime should be experienced in whichever way is better. If the English performances are just as good or even better then the Japanese who cares if you are not watching the original. If it's better you are going to get more from the experience. It's still the same story be it in English or Japanese. On the flip side it's nice to be able to have a back up option in the form of subs. I watch anime about half subbed half dubbed. That's the great thing about being open minded. You don't have to be held back in anyway. I have friends who didn't like the subs for a show and stopped watching the show entirely despite the fact that they liked the story. If they were more open minded they could have switched to the dub and continued on and seen the ending.
Something also needs to be said for Fansubs. A disturbingly large amount of "fans" get into anime via this method and as such get stuck up to a degree and think they should only be watching something subbed. Never once do they stop to think that the fan subs they are watching are probably way off the real meaning.(look at the countless posts on Japanator about fansubs laughable failures). But I digress this is another topic entirely.
So at the end of the day it's simple. If you are a anime fan start trying to give the dubs a shot. You may like what you hear. As I said nearly every anime dub being released these days are very good. You may end up liking what you hear and will not have to be constantly looking at the bottom of the screen.
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