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Archive for December 2014
kanna here! Welcome to Anime Mondays #3!
It was really, really, REALLY hard for me to come up with a good kid-friendly anime. Why? Because there are so many out there. If you watched one as a kid, you felt some kind of connection to the characters that made you think, "He/she is awesome!" If you watched one as an adult that you'd seen growing up, you were given this INCREDIBLE sense of nostalgia. If you watched one as an adult that you hadn't seen before and did not have kids at the time, you probably felt a similar connection to the characters. Something that made you connect with the characters.
So, naturally, having watched anime for nearly eight years (G-d I'm getting old; it's not like I just turned 20 last week), you can imagine how hard this was to choose.
Even so, I put a few titles that I was thinking of on my Facebook. And then, I slapped myself, because I couldn't believe I was being so stupid. I went with all these not too common titles when I could have gone for THE GOLD. So, hold onto your hats and strap on your duel disks! Get ready for one of the ultimate kids' anime series, because...it's time to duel!
Joey, Yugi's best friend, also experiences a lot of development. He goes from being someone who really wasn't good at Duel Monsters to a great duelist, an even better friend, and even gains a lot of respect from the people around him. He's good at fist fighting, although this quality was EXTREMELY downplayed in the English dub. Yeah...I'll get to the whole "dub vs. sub" thing in a bit. Anyway, he's not just a source of comic relief, even though he can be more than a little rash at times, and is actually pretty funny. He's caring, selfless, and considerate. However, he has a bit of a lack of modesty.
Seto Kaiba is the character I think most people either really like or just love to hate. Personally...I don't really know how I feel about him. Yeah. 224 episodes, a movie, and a number of years later, and I'm STILL not sure how I feel about Seto Kaiba. Anyway, he's the resident anti-hero of the series. He also has a younger brother, Mokuba. He's selfish, arrogant, more than a little egotistic, and a very no-nonsense kind of guy. Despite all that, though, he does have some ethics. He tends to help Yugi and his friends when it's in his best interest, or when he and Yugi are faced with a common enemy. He believes in hard work and determination and hates people who steal or cheat.
Yugi has two other friends, Tristan and Tea, who are two of the most USELESS characters I have ever seen. Tristan doesn't really do much of anything. He's mainly there for comic relief and...yeah, that's about it. He basically just moves the plot along. Even so, he's not as annoying as Tea. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HER. Tea doesn't do much, either, except make friendship speeches. A lot. They're pretty long and more than a little annoying. Tristan moves the plot along a lot more than she does. Oh, and she's MAJORLY into the spirit of the puzzle. They imply that throughout the MAJORITY of the dub. It's actually sad and annoying.
And this part brings me to the whole "dub vs. sub" thing. This could go on for a bit, so brace yourselves.
Fans of Yu-Gi-Oh have argued for a long time over which was better: the original Japanese with English subtitles and nothing being toned down, or the English dub. The original Japanese had NO CUTS and NOTHING was toned down. At all. In fact, you'd never guess it was a kid's show if you saw the original Japanese. People are punching each other, killing each other, and lots of other things.
Remember what I said about how Joey enjoyed fighting? In the original Japanese, he could beat up people bigger than him. This was demonstrated in one episode when he fought against someone named Bandit Keith. In the English dub, this was MAJORLY downplayed, and Joey was the one who got beaten up by Bandit Keith.
Yeah. You'll NEVER GUESS who was in charge of the English dub for this series. I can tell you right now, it wasn't Viz or Funimation. It was...4KIDS!!! Everyone's favorite! To be fair, 4kids did give us a few good TV shows. They gave us Sonic X, One Piece (I think I'm part of a minority who didn't like One Piece, even when it got moved to Toonami), Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, and a few others. But there are a lot of people who hate 4kids for dubbing, and I can see where those people are coming from.
Aside from the changes that 4kids made to the actual episodes, there were changes in the script and names of cards and characters. The translations of the card names actually carried over pretty well. The original "Black Magician" was changed to "Dark Magician" and the original "Dark Magician Girl" was known as "Black Magician Girl," to name a couple. However, the script changes...weren't so great. The dub gave Tea a ton of friendship speeches (ugh) and toned down A LOT of the dialog.
Which do I think is better? I don't think I'm the best person to answer that. I grew up with the dub, so that's what I would probably say. I saw the original Japanese a few years ago, and I liked that as well, so I can't really give an unbiased opinion. I've heard the some of the voice actors from the dub do lots of other work outside of Yu-Gi-Oh, and they're great. Dan Green, the voice of Yugi and the spirit of the puzzle, is a legend among American voice actors. I'm not sure if he's doing anything now. Last I heard, he had retired after his wife passed away. There is a chance he's back at work, but I'm honestly not sure.
Overall, Yu-Gi-Oh is one of the best anime series that I grew up with, and if you haven't seen it (which is probably fairly unlikely), WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? CHECK IT OUT! And if you can find any episodes of season zero, let me know!
It was really, really, REALLY hard for me to come up with a good kid-friendly anime. Why? Because there are so many out there. If you watched one as a kid, you felt some kind of connection to the characters that made you think, "He/she is awesome!" If you watched one as an adult that you'd seen growing up, you were given this INCREDIBLE sense of nostalgia. If you watched one as an adult that you hadn't seen before and did not have kids at the time, you probably felt a similar connection to the characters. Something that made you connect with the characters.
So, naturally, having watched anime for nearly eight years (G-d I'm getting old; it's not like I just turned 20 last week), you can imagine how hard this was to choose.
Even so, I put a few titles that I was thinking of on my Facebook. And then, I slapped myself, because I couldn't believe I was being so stupid. I went with all these not too common titles when I could have gone for THE GOLD. So, hold onto your hats and strap on your duel disks! Get ready for one of the ultimate kids' anime series, because...it's time to duel!
Where the crap am I supposed to begin with this AMAZING anime that people are never too old for? Background? The characters? The plot? G-d, there are so many great places to start from! But...context needs to be provided. So, here's a bit of context.
Yu-Gi-Oh! (yes, that exclamation mark is really part of the title) started out as a manga series about gaming written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It became a series in the Weekly Shounen Jump magazine on September 30, 1996.
The manga was so popular that, naturally, an anime was going to be produced. However, this didn't just get one anime adaptation. IT GOT TWO. It also created a huge franchise that included a trading card game and video games. The idea behind the trading card game - which was heavily featured in the video games - is that players used cards to "duel" each other in a mock battle of fantasy "monsters."
One was produced by Toei Animation with the same name and aired from April 4, 1998 to October 10, 1998, and ran for 27 episodes. This anime was never aired outside of Japan, and even now, videos of it are incredibly hard to find. It has only been released on VHS in seven volumes and had no further rebroadcasts in Japanese anime stations. It's hard to find videos unless you want to watch bootlegs. This series, later to become known as "Yu-Gi-Oh Season Zero," was loosely based off of the first seven volumes of the manga. The series went for twenty-seven episodes and also got a short movie, which, like the series, was never aired outside Japan or rebroadcast. It was pretty dark, even with elements from the manga toned down.
Moving on.
The other anime adaptation was produced by Nihon Ad Systems and originally titled Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan. It was only known as Yu-Gi-Oh in other countries. It aired from April 18, 2000 to September 29, 2004 in Japan and from September 29, 2001 to June 10, 2006 in the United States, running for 224 episodes.
The
general gist of the whole story is that it revolves around a boy
named Yugi who is a freshman in high school (but he really doesn't look
like it). He receives a present from his grandfather, an archaeologist,
called the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi solves it after eight years, and
unknowingly awakened the spirit of the pharaoh inside of it. The spirit
inhabited
Yugi's body and Yugi's life was changed forever. The spirit solves
Yugi's conflicts using card games (and other...fairly dark methods if you've seen season zero).
Yugi, our protagonist, probably experiences the most character development out of all the characters. I'm not saying that because he was the protagonist. Okay, that's partially it. But I'm also saying it because Yugi experienced the most growth out of the characters. He went from being a scrawny, bullied kid who played games all by himself to a kid who had friends, saved the world a few times, and gained a rival or two along the way.
Joey, Yugi's best friend, also experiences a lot of development. He goes from being someone who really wasn't good at Duel Monsters to a great duelist, an even better friend, and even gains a lot of respect from the people around him. He's good at fist fighting, although this quality was EXTREMELY downplayed in the English dub. Yeah...I'll get to the whole "dub vs. sub" thing in a bit. Anyway, he's not just a source of comic relief, even though he can be more than a little rash at times, and is actually pretty funny. He's caring, selfless, and considerate. However, he has a bit of a lack of modesty.
Seto Kaiba is the character I think most people either really like or just love to hate. Personally...I don't really know how I feel about him. Yeah. 224 episodes, a movie, and a number of years later, and I'm STILL not sure how I feel about Seto Kaiba. Anyway, he's the resident anti-hero of the series. He also has a younger brother, Mokuba. He's selfish, arrogant, more than a little egotistic, and a very no-nonsense kind of guy. Despite all that, though, he does have some ethics. He tends to help Yugi and his friends when it's in his best interest, or when he and Yugi are faced with a common enemy. He believes in hard work and determination and hates people who steal or cheat.
Yugi has two other friends, Tristan and Tea, who are two of the most USELESS characters I have ever seen. Tristan doesn't really do much of anything. He's mainly there for comic relief and...yeah, that's about it. He basically just moves the plot along. Even so, he's not as annoying as Tea. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HER. Tea doesn't do much, either, except make friendship speeches. A lot. They're pretty long and more than a little annoying. Tristan moves the plot along a lot more than she does. Oh, and she's MAJORLY into the spirit of the puzzle. They imply that throughout the MAJORITY of the dub. It's actually sad and annoying.
And this part brings me to the whole "dub vs. sub" thing. This could go on for a bit, so brace yourselves.
Fans of Yu-Gi-Oh have argued for a long time over which was better: the original Japanese with English subtitles and nothing being toned down, or the English dub. The original Japanese had NO CUTS and NOTHING was toned down. At all. In fact, you'd never guess it was a kid's show if you saw the original Japanese. People are punching each other, killing each other, and lots of other things.
Remember what I said about how Joey enjoyed fighting? In the original Japanese, he could beat up people bigger than him. This was demonstrated in one episode when he fought against someone named Bandit Keith. In the English dub, this was MAJORLY downplayed, and Joey was the one who got beaten up by Bandit Keith.
Yeah. You'll NEVER GUESS who was in charge of the English dub for this series. I can tell you right now, it wasn't Viz or Funimation. It was...4KIDS!!! Everyone's favorite! To be fair, 4kids did give us a few good TV shows. They gave us Sonic X, One Piece (I think I'm part of a minority who didn't like One Piece, even when it got moved to Toonami), Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, and a few others. But there are a lot of people who hate 4kids for dubbing, and I can see where those people are coming from.
Aside from the changes that 4kids made to the actual episodes, there were changes in the script and names of cards and characters. The translations of the card names actually carried over pretty well. The original "Black Magician" was changed to "Dark Magician" and the original "Dark Magician Girl" was known as "Black Magician Girl," to name a couple. However, the script changes...weren't so great. The dub gave Tea a ton of friendship speeches (ugh) and toned down A LOT of the dialog.
Which do I think is better? I don't think I'm the best person to answer that. I grew up with the dub, so that's what I would probably say. I saw the original Japanese a few years ago, and I liked that as well, so I can't really give an unbiased opinion. I've heard the some of the voice actors from the dub do lots of other work outside of Yu-Gi-Oh, and they're great. Dan Green, the voice of Yugi and the spirit of the puzzle, is a legend among American voice actors. I'm not sure if he's doing anything now. Last I heard, he had retired after his wife passed away. There is a chance he's back at work, but I'm honestly not sure.
Overall, Yu-Gi-Oh is one of the best anime series that I grew up with, and if you haven't seen it (which is probably fairly unlikely), WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? CHECK IT OUT! And if you can find any episodes of season zero, let me know!
Hey guys! Kanna here!
It's time for another new word today. The word of the day is otome game. This literally means "girl game," and is targeted towards a female market. A typical otome game has two goals; one of which is to develop a relationship between the female protagonist and one of several male (or occasionally female) characters. It's a pretty common genre in Japan and is primarily made up of visual novels and simulation games (dating sims in particular). Numerous English translations of these games have made their way into the English-speaking market and can be found on the iOS App Store, the Google Play Store, and different gaming platforms like the PSP, PS Vita, and the Nintendo 3DS.
So, why do I bring up a new word? Because today's anime was based on an otome game. Now, as most of you have probably guessed, I don't watch a ton of girly anime. I've seen a few girly series, but a good amount of them weren't very good. There was one series that managed to stick out for me, and that series is...Uta no Prince-sama.
OK, I may have forgotten to mention a couple of things. The first being that the title is in Japanese (if you didn't already figure that out) and literally translates out to "Princes of Song" in English. The second thing I forgot to mention is the rest of the title. The anime has two seasons, with a third premiering in April of next year. The first season is called Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%, and the second season was called Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 2000%. The third season has been confirmed as Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love Revolutions.
The genre of anime that this would fall under would be known as reverse harem. Why. Because the shortest possible definition I can give you is this: a reverse harem anime has a female lead and lots of guys.
Lots. Of. Really. Good. Looking. Guys.
In Uta no Prince-sama, or UtaPri for short, we go from six leads to seven in two seasons. Not to Mention the other cute guys in Quartet Night and HEAVENS and...
I'm getting ahead of myself. I thought for sure that I'd be able to get through this anime without gushing over how unbelievably HOT some of the guys in it are. I'm going to do my best to do just that.
-deep breath-
OK. Let's talk about the plot.
The female lead of this series is Haruka Nanami, a girl who wants to attend Saotome Academy so she can become a composer. Saotome Academy is a music school where students can choose to take courses on becoming idols or composers. She manages to get in so she can take the entrance exam after meeting the first two of our male leads, Otoya Ittoki and Ren Jinguji. Throughout the series, she meets Masato Hijirikawa, Natsuki Shinomiya, Syo Kurusu, and Tokiya Ichinose, who will later go on to form the boy band, STARISH. Oh, and there's one catch about the school: NO ROMANCE ALLOWED.
And that's only the first season!
The second season sees the six members of STARISH and Haruka now full-fledged idols and composers. They are now members of Shining Agency's Master Course and are striving to win the UtaPri (teehee, the pun...because the series is called UtaPri for short) award, but a new person enters their midst. Enter Cecil Aijima, prince of Agnapolis, a far off country to the west. He tells Haruka right off the bat that he loves her, which is a big no-no in the world of idols. However, Cecil has no interest in being an idol, and only wishes to sing songs composed by Haruka. This season is where we meet the boys of Quartet Night and the relationships between Haruka and the members of STARISH begin to intensify.
This series is driven mainly by the guys. It's not that Haruka isn't important, but in an otome game, the person typically plays as the girl (or guy in some cases), so everything is up to the person who is playing as the girl (or guy in some cases).
The interesting thing here is that not only do the idols all play different instruments, but they all have their own distinctive musical styles for their character songs.
Anyway, let's talk about our INCREDIBLY awesome guys!
NOTE 1: Because I don't generally categorize my music by genre, some of these descriptions may be a little off. I know what genres like rock n' roll and country sound like, but that doesn't mean that what I think of as country music necessarily is country music.
NOTE 2: Some of the titles of the songs are in English, while others are in Japanese. To make this easier for my readers, I'm using the English translations of the Japanese. So the songs with English titles will be in ALL CAPS (like that) while the English translations of the Japanese song titles will be in normal font.
NOTE 3: THESE ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER WHATSOEVER. Also, I'm only doing the members of STARISH. No Quartet Night or HEAVENS.
Ittoki Otoya: He's probably the nicest out of the guys and very down-to-earth. He's energetic, but also gentle. His songs give other people strength and is nice to pretty much everyone, regardless of who they may be, and loves music more than anything. He plays the guitar. His musical style would have to be described as some kind of rock. I can't quite pinpoint it. His character song in Maji Love 1000% is "BRAND NEW MELODY," and in Maji Love 2000%, it's "SMILE MAGIC."
Ren Jinguji: He's a player. Need I say more? That pretty much sums up his character. He has a pretty laid back personality. His songs light up people's hearts, and he plays the saxophone. As for his musical style...I'd say it's something you'd hear at a jazz club. So...that would probably fall under smooth jazz, right? His character song in Maji Love 1000% is "BELIEVE HEART to the End of the World" and in Maji Love 2000%, it's "ORANGE RHAPSODY."
Masato Hijirikawa: The calm, cool, and collected one of the group. He's super serious and a master at calligraphy. He plays the piano and his musical style would probably be power ballads. Although, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I'd use the word "power" to describe his character song in Maji Love 1000%, "KNOCKING ON THE MIND." The word would definitely be used to describe his character song in Maji Love 2000%, "Cherry Blossoms of Love," though.
Natsuki Shinomiya: The one with an excessive fondness for things that are small and cute. Haruka reminded him of his dog in the first season, and a cherry blossom fairy in the second season (just go with it, because I don't get it, either). He can be fairly light-headed and naive at times. He also has a split personality problem called "Gemini Syndrome," and that personality is known as Satsuki. Satsuki is basically the dark side of Natsuki. Natsuki plays the viola, and his musical style is...well, I can't really describe it. It's interesting, because the writers gave Natsuki two musical styles; one for each of his personalities. In Maji Love 1000%, his character song is "Shout Out to ORION," and in Maji Love 2000%, it's "Promise to SIRIUS."
Syo Kurusu: Before you correct me, YES, that is really how he spells his name. It's spelled Syo, but pronounced "Shou." I don't know who came up with that, how they came up with it, or why. Anyway, Syo is the energetic and upbeat member of the group. He can be hotheaded at times, but he's fairly defensive when he's teased about his height. Yeah, he's also the shortest member of the group. He hates the word "cute." He plays the violin, and his musical style would probably be described as hard rock. Not necessarily metal. Again, a little hard to describe, but I'm going with my best guess. His character song in Maji Love 1000% is "Full Throttle Chivalrous Spirit! LET'S GO! FIGHT!". In Maji Love 2000%, his character song is "TRUE WING."
Tokiya Ichinose: The brooding loner of the group. Of course, he starts out that way, but he does warm up to the others after about...well, the majority of the first season, actually. He's a bit of a perfectionist and gets annoyed fairly easily. But when he does warm up to the others...well...he really isn't that different from before. He's nicer and willing to work with others, and his personality has gotten a bit warmer, too. He still has a bit of that harsh demeanor from time to time, though. He sings and his musical style is...I'd have to say it's a mix of pop and ballads. So...that would probably be pop ballads, right? His character song in Maji Love 1000% is "Seven-Colored COMPASS," and in Maji Love 2000%, it's "CRYSTAL TIME."
Cecil Aijima: He used to be a cat. But he got better. Anyway, he's the cheeky one who later pulls himself together in the end. He's also the newest to being an idol, so because he didn't know love was forbidden, he kinda-sorta-actually confessed his love for Haruka right off the bat. He's also the prince of Agnapolis, a fictional country that actually has its own language. I kid you not. The writers actually made up a bunch of words and stuck them together into coherent-ish phrases. If you listen to the insert song he gets in the second episode of Maji Love 2000%, "REINCARNATION of Love," the beginning part isn't in English or Japanese. It sounds like a combination of German and Spanish, and I have to give his voice actor TONS of credit for using this non-existent language. Anyway, Cecil plays the flute, and his musical style is...well, I can't really describe it. Love songs, maybe? Yeah, let's just go with that. Anyway, his character song in Maji Love 1000% is "Eternity Love," and in Maji Love 2000%, it's "FANTASIA of the Stars."
And those are the lead guys! So, rating? I give this...3000%!
OK, they didn't call the third season Maji Love 3000%, and I can understand why. It would have been Maji Love san-sen (3000) Percent in Japanese and that doesn't sound quite right. Therefore, I take full liberty of using 3000%. What I'm trying to say is...I give this 10/10! The characters are great, and the fact that the female lead is so naive about these SEVEN GUYS being into her is actually kind of adorable. What's just as adorable is that the guys get so close to confessing their feelings to her, but they either end up saying how much they like her songs, or something/someone gets in the way. The music is great and the character development is done amazingly well.
Girls: WATCH THIS. Seriously. It's beyond cheesy, but that's part of what makes it so great. Not to mention there are guys. Lots of them. About fourteen of them so far, and that's only from TWO SEASONS. Oh, and have I mentioned that these guys can SING? I mean, their voices are just...wow. AMAZING.
Guys: Check it out, and if you like it, keep watching. Male fans of UtaPri are pretty rare If you hate it, at least give the music a chance. It's pretty awesome.
Well, that's it for now! Stay tuned for the kid-friendly anime! I won't say what it is, but I will tell you it's sure to send you down a fairly nostalgic road!
