(no subject)

[xparrot]

To all those watching the Yu-Gi-Oh dub, wondering what you're missing--I can assure you now, it's not just the dub. The show really is that bad. Do I keep watching it? But of course!

That being said, even in the bad little kid shows, in which most of the action is moving mouths and monsters duking it out in recycled footage, the Japanese seiyuu still act their little hearts out. They maybe can't compare to the talent of One Piece, but definitely worth listening to.

Jounouchi's voice (Morikawa Toshiyuki) bugs me a bit, he's a good actor but it's too deep for a 16 year old kid's. On the other hand, his "Shinuna, Yuugi!!" at the end of their Domino port duel is one hell of a scream.

Yugi's voice I didn't care for at first. He wasn't much for acting; as Yami he just sounded permanently pissed off. Some of that could be that Kazama Shunsuke apparently isn't a seiyuu at all, but a J-pop star? Though I can't complain about him not sounding his age, he was 17 at the start of the anime's run! (Ah, nothing like Japanese idols to make you feel like you've done nothing with your life. When Oda-sensei was my age, his single series was well on its way to becoming the most popular in Japan... >_>) Anyway, I don't know if Kazama grew into the role and improved his acting as the show went along, or if I've just gotten used to his voice, but I've gone from disliking it, to tolerating it, to, er, really liking it quite a lot. As Yami he drops his voice significantly to sound different from Yugi, into this sort of raspy forced growl that is really much more appealing than I make it sound. Some of his battles I don't fastforward through just so I can listen to him holler at his cards/opponents.

I don't know why Bakura's voice in the beginning sounded like an evil grandmother's. It's improved. Eh. Bakura bores me. Yami Bakura is marginally more interesting, but I'm watching this show for the cute friendshipping, not cheesy mad villains (...Okay, so I like Malik. Malik is hot. And wears a belly shirt. And is doing the 'mwahaha I know the best way to hurt you is to hurt your friends, so that's just what I'm gonna do!" psychopath routine, which is a personal fave of mine.)

And Kaiba's voice is just the sex. As expected. His is about the only voice that sounded pretty much exactly like I thought it would. (Mokuba's doesn't count, since I knew what to expect of Takeuchi Junko. She doesn't disappoint.) Except in the first ep Seto was using "boku" (maintaining his schoolboy identity, I guess), which was extremely wrong. But it's always "ore" now *phew*. Tsuda Kenjirou isn't a seiyuu I know, he's been in almost nothing - recent guy, or maybe he's got another gig? Don't know. His voice has a slightly stuffy quality that suits Seto's arrogance, and he's good enough at the boasting, though I prefer his more thoughtful internal tone when he's musing in his head. And he has a great mad laugh, which you hear a lot of in Battle City. I wonder if Mokuba is worried to realize his oniisama is clearly losing sanity points every time he plays Obelisk? But my favorite Seto-sound has to be the "hnn," which he makes whenever he's amused by someone foolishly challenging his might. That is to say, all the time. Mmm.

I also just picked up v.6 (or rather v.13. Confusing, much?) Definitely prefer the manga to the show. Not only are the wretched card battles shorter, but the characters have more edge. Yugi's resolution to become stronger than his 'other me' (and Jounouchi offering to beat up the other Yugi, if Yami let his pride get in the way of what Yugi needed to do!), Honda asking Yugi to save the Kaibas because he owes Mokuba - good stuff. It's a shame the anime didn't have Death-T, because it set up a lot of running threads, and the story is weaker without them.

Comments

[yhibiki.livejournal.com]

Um, just out of curiosity.... what do you mean when you say "v.6 (or rather v.13. Confusing, much?)"? Has Viz cut out entire volumes or something?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Not that bad! Viz just did an odd thing wuch as they did with DB/DBZ, that they called the first 7 volumes of the manga YuGiOh, and then started calling it "YuGiOh Duelist" with the original v.8 being v.1 of Duelist. It actually makes some sense, I realized when I started watching the show, because the anime begins with v.8, more or less (the first 7 volumes were adapted as a different anime, sometimes called "season 0" here, but it's by a different company, different seiyuu and all...)

[yhibiki.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. XD You've had me really worried there.

Btw, I totally agree on the anime being bad no matter what language you're watching. I love the manga too, but the anime just cut out all the good stuff I loved about the manga.

(Although the previous anime was even worse, since they had really messed up colorschemes on top of being cheesy and bad)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I don't dislike the anime, I just don't think it's very good. I've been known to enjoy bad things before. ^^ And it does deviate pretty drastically from the manga - I've gotten used to OP, which does its own thing in fillers but stays pretty faithful when adapting the manga, often does a fantastic job of it.

I'm wanting to see the first anime anyway, even with different voices and green-haired Kaiba, because I love some of those earlier stories. (Jounouchi getting strung up by his old gang? eep!) And am watching the anime partly because that's the only way to get the later stories - Viz is putting the manga out so slooow! The utter lack of scanlations hurts. I'd buy the Japanese if there were text translations online...in truth I'm probably gonna do that anyway, but am trying to be good now. We'll see how long that lasts. ^^;

(in other news - icon! you're into Static too? ^__^)

[yhibiki.livejournal.com]

I don't think the first anime got all that far into the manga. I mean, I remember having downloaded a couple and one of them was _filler_. Of all things :X I tihnk so, anyway. I remember that Honda's love interest from volume one got more than just a passing role.

(And yeah, I'm into Static :P Mostly 'cus reading your Static fic reminded me how much I loved the series. This icon was hell to get though, mostly because nobody has any screenshots or scans or character art of Static online.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Check out the the_gas_station if you haven't, it's a Static Shock comm, folks have posted some nice icons there, and screenshots too on occasion.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

Tsuda Kenjirou's other gig is a major role in Prince of Tennis. And boy, yes, he does have a sexy voice. I love the way he says the names of both of the other boys he's slashy with in PoT.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, I saw he had a PoT role but wasn't sure how major it was.

...that almost makes me wanna see PoT. Because damn, yes, he's got a way of saying names that is faaaantastic. The way he drawls/breathes "Yuugi" is...nice. Verra nice.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

He's one of the other boys on the same team as the main character, so he's in most episodes at least a little bit. He's also one of my particular favorites. ^_^

The thing about PoT, by the way? Don't think of it as a sports series. Think of it as a fighting tournament series... in which all the battles happen to be fought with tennis. It actually makes more sense that way anyhow. XD

(And it's just full of wonderful rivalries and team spirit and fun friendships and... eeeee, boys being boys.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, which one is he in PoT?

And I know sports and fight shounen are pretty much two strands of the same thread, but I don't care for the fight tournaments nearly as much as the save-the-world scenarios anyway (which is what most tournies turn into in fight shounen ^^;;) In all honesty, one of the main reasons for my fight shounen love is that I am an incurable h/c junky. I like watching them get beaten to a pulp and putting their lives on the line and dying for friends and such. Not as interesting to me when it's just a game. The only reason I'm surviving the endless YGO duels is because a lot of them involve risking one's life/soul, often by extremely contrived if not totally bizarre ways...

On the other hand, Shaolin Soccer is the best movie ever. So I'm not totally immune to the joy of really wild sports. I have little doubt I could get into PoT if I were introduced in the right way at the right time. Except...you don't know how, er, impatient certain people are getting with me already, what with this new obsession. I, uh, need to fulfill other fannish commitments before I sell my soul to yet another batch of cute friendshipping boys? ^^;;

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

He's Inui, my favorite jock nerd. *points to icon*

I have found that my buttons are pushed just as well by things like one boy getting injured in a match and another boy proceding to embarrassingly defeat the culprit. (And yes, there are some surprisingly bloody for prime time TV injuries. I'm actually not much of a h/c fan, but PoT speaks to whatever latent tendencies I might have.) Oh, and there was the time that some of the Fudoumine boys were in a car accident on their way to a match and tried to conceal the fact from their captain so that they could play anyway...

On the other hand, I totally understand the whole 'I need a new fandom like a hole in the head' thing. XD

[immicolia.livejournal.com]

To all those watching the Yu-Gi-Oh dub, wondering what you're missing--I can assure you now, it's not just the dub. The show really is that bad.

Oh good. Now I don't have to wonder if I'm actually missing out on something and feel not so bad about watching it on the WB. Although Jonouchi Joey... whatev. His voice still makes me want to cry. Or alternately throw things at the TV.

And dammit. I want my copy of v.6 now. It shipped yesterday but its still going to take a week to get here since I have to order them out of the states. The Canadian Amazon site completely denies the fact that any of these have been released. It annoys me greatly. But that's beside the point. I feel the need to say that Death-T was, and probably will ever be, one of my favourite parts. You just cannot beat the general screwed-up-ness of that mini-arc. And some parts of it still remind me of Saw which makes me love it all the more.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

*squeeshes the confuzzled Pharaoh in your icon. ZOMG SOCUTE*

Hmm, the difference is that Jounouchi's Japanese voice doesn't want to make me spork my ears. Actually I quite like the seiyuu and have enjoyed him in other roles (Alex Row. mmmmmm). And he's got Jou's attitude down. It's just not a teen voice, so every time I hear it I go 'Wait, who's that speaking? Oh, yeah...'
I really oughta see the dub. For the shock value. I'm so easily traumatized!

The only trouble with Death-T is that both the Kaiba bros are ugly. No problems with them being obnoxiously evil, just makes their changes of heart later more interesting; I love me a good redemption story. But they're so hot/cute later that going back is jarring. --Yes, I really am that shallow.

[immicolia.livejournal.com]

You should. You really, really should. Its not the absolute worst as far as awful dub voices I've heard go (what they did to poor Sanji wins that honor. God, I caught a random One Piece episode one Saturday morning, and he only had one line in the whole thing. And just that one line had my jaw on the floor and me screaming "what the hell?" in a mixture of shock, horror and rage. because, man, I may have a high dub tollerance but that was just wrong. and I don't even know what he originally sounded like) But I digress. Dub!Jou probably holds second place. And then there's Yami's utterly overdramatic sounding voice that makes me laugh my ass off every time I hear it. (which is also why I can't play the YGO PC games with the sound up. The voice clips. Oh god...)

And the weirdest thing about Death-T is that in the last chapter of it, Mokuba is totally cute. And actually looks pretty much the same as he does through the rest of it. It's like, "oh, he's going to start being marginally nicer now. lets have him not be such a mugly little bugger anymore." And Seto just looked like he needed about five years worth of sleep. (actually, I've noticed the evil = overtired looking thing in there before)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Aaaaahhhh, do not mention the One Piece dub! It is an abomination on the face of this earth! --not that I've actually seen more than the first couple eps. I couldn't survive more; OP is pretty much my favorite series and the voice 'acting' takes second stage to the story censorship mutilation. But I've heard audio clips of the dub Sanji. And. Good gods. I have no words. Not to mention in the original Sanji is played by Hirata Hiroaki, who is pretty high in the running for 'sexiest voice in anime'

Yah, the final pages of Death-T Mokuba's face unscrunches and he becomes completely squishable. And seems to stay thus for the rest of the manga. Seto--well, he still looks like he needs sleep, but, yeah, point. The total wardrobe overhaul didn't hurt, either. Hmm, maybe Mokuba bought him new threads when he was in the coma? 'Ah, niisama won't be needing this weird white outfit anymore. Let's just buy a bunch of trenchcoats. And buckles. He'll need lots of buckles to really compete with that Yugi guy."

[silverr.livejournal.com]

(popped over from fanficrants to comment)

Heh, Tsuda Kenjirou - the reason that I'm writing fanfic at all. I had been taping YGO for my son in 2002. New to anime, I went on-line to research the series to get the episodes in order, got hooked on Duelist Kindgom, ordered (what I found out later) were HK bootlegs with wackysubs - to help the kid with his reading. Nothng more motivating than Jounouchi saying "dickhead" every once in a while. and I agree - his voice is Pure sex. Panty soup, I think is the phrase. Listen to his voice talking to Pegs in the corridor outside Mokuba's cell - he growls. Sorry, but Eric Stuart never sounds anything but petulant to me. Kenjirou has .. a sort of lazy, offhand arrogance.

There are some "non-romantic" Kaiba stories at oishii_tokoro ... KP Duty, Coming Clean, SnowBlind, Room 512. The latter three are varing degrees of JouKai or KaiJou. Coming Clean has Mokuba, but he's neither dead, invisible, Nor pimping for his bro.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I am an obnoxious sub-snob anyway, with just about zero tolerance even for good dubs, but the single ep of the YGO dub I saw was...*brrr*. I would much rather watch the HK bootlegs, as...interesting...as their English proves to be (hey, it's good practice for my Japanese!) And I've long had a habit of falling in love/lust with seiyuu, but Tsuda didn't take long to become one of my favorites. Mmmm. I'll watch the "in the previous episode" segments when he's narrating them ^^; "lazy arrogance", that's just it perfectly. Though I also love how gentle his voice can get when Kaiba's talking to Mokuba. The bit in the Noa filler arc, when he's trying to talk Mokuba back from the brainwashing, and his voice is almost cracking like he's about to break down in tears...*melts*

I'd like to check out your fic! could you friend me? (I have this weird love-hate relationship with KaiJou. On the one hand, I have this problem that Jounouchi simply seems straight to me, moreso than most bishies. On the other, I love his and Kaiba's snarly snarking. What I'd really like to read is gen friendshipping with them (...using the broadest possible definition of "friendship"...), but I haven't had any luck finding such. ah well, guess I'll haveta write it myself! ...yes, I am an extraordinarily picky fan ^^;)

[silverr.livejournal.com]

The bit in the Noa filler arc, when he's trying to talk Mokuba back from the brainwashing, and his voice is almost cracking like he's about to break down in tears...*melts*

* nod nod nod *

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who cannot resist certain seiyuu - actually most of my anime viewing has (much to the amusement of some friends) had me follow the titles that Kaneto Shiozawa voiced - the orginal Vampire Hunter D, the Miyu OVA (Larva), St Seiya (Mu), Ai no Kusabi (Iason), Arislan (Narsus), Basara (Ageha), Dragon Half (Rosario) (g) ... I have Banner of the Stars and Legend of Galactic Heroes in my queue. I think the only title he's done I was "meh" about was Sailor Moon (he was Prince Diamond)

You're friended at Oishii. I'd suggest reading the oldest stories first. I'm not sure you'll like them - now that I look back they seem overly-melodramatic to me, and some of the things I did that were somewhat "fresh" or uncommon three years ago seem to have become stupefyingly frequent in fanon since - but they were well-received at the time.