Author: Penguin Truth

Posted in

Audio: English: Tykes, Toys, Rude Little Boys: A Look At Shin Chan


With the Audio:English series, PenguinTruth takes a critical look at the English
dubs which grace some of anime’s most defining series in North America.

My last article was about my quality categories for anime English dubs. I set down general rules for what makes a dub "good", "tolerable", and terrible. Good dubs have accurate scripts and solid voice acting. Tolerable dubs are the ones that just sort of make it, but don’t impress. And terrible dubs are, well, pretty explanatory. Either they have terribly inaccurate scripts, or bad voice performances, or more usually, both. There are a fair number of dubs I could classify in any of those three categories. But one English dub I never know quite where to put is Funimation’s Shin Chan.  read more

Penguin Truthby Penguin Truth•
Posted in

Gundam AGE Episode 09 Review

 Episode 09, "The Secret Mobile Suit"

  *****SPOILERS*****   Synopsis: Woolf takes Flit, Emily, and Dique to a space station to meet the designer/engineer of the G-Exes, Madorna. They’re amazed at the mobile suit factory. Mardona shows the group a mobile suit that appears to be a UE one. Before he can tell them about the person who brought it to him, the mobile suit springs to life and starts firing. Flit and Woolf get in mobile suits to stop the UE suit. Flit ends up engaging it out in space. Woolf arrives to distract the UE MS while Flit retrieves the Gundam. Vargas launches the Titus and Flit transfers to it. The UE MS is extremely fast and neither Flit nor Woolf can get it. Suddenly the MS retreats, stunning everyone. Madorna tells the group that it was a man named Yark Dole (a masked man seen previously in ep 5), an arms dealer who brought him the UE MS. Later, back at the Diva, Grodek announces their next destination is Colony Minsry. He explains that his belief is that the UE are hiding out in a base there and that he’s not their captain. Emily speaks up in defense of Grodek. Flit pledges to fight alongside Grodek. Woolf agrees to stay, too, as well as others. Suddenly more UE suits are detected.    Comments:    Well, now, this was a decent episode.    I think the biggest thing that happened in this episode was Emily’s development. This is due in part to Madorna’s girlfriend, Laraparly giving her a little talking to. Emily was still fretting over Flit risking his life, but Laraparly tells her to risk her life with Flit. It’s clear that Flit is going to stay as a pilot, so her options are pretty much support him or leave him. With Emily choosing the former, I’m guessing she’s going to stay on the crew just to be around Flit. I’d like to see her get some kind of job on the ship, liking bringing food around or becoming a bridge bunny. Something other than piloting.   Also of note is Emily’s defense of Grodek’s actions. Grodek may be acting in part out of revenge (or even mostly), but what he’s doing is right. Emily, who had hated Grodek for keeping things to himself sticks up for him when he finally tells the truth to his crew. I think Laraparly’s words probably inspired her to do this as well, plus she was waiting for Grodek become more honest. Now the entire crew is as guilty as Grodek is of disobeying the Federation.   Another thing I noticed is that Madorna was astonished that Flit is a member of the Asuno family. Apparently the Asunos are a famous family, but other than his mother being dead, there’s nothing else we know about Flit’s family. I have a feeling we’ll find out more about it in the near future.    Why did Flit, Emily, and Dique freak out when Laraparly kissed Madorna? It wasn’t even on the lips and they were blushing.    We see a brief cameo of the little boy Desil from a few episodes back. Apparently he has control over the UE mobile suit that Madorna was souping up. The masked man Yark Dole is the same weapons dealer that gave the Zalam and Euba their mobile suits and if he’s connected to the UE, it seems like he’s manipulating everything for profit. But as a guy in a mask I think there is probably some ideological slant to his actions. I just wonder what Desil is in it for. Just to have fun, like Bud in Patlabor?    Next episode looks to be full of action.    Overall Score:

3.5 out of 5

   
Penguin Truthby Penguin Truth•
Posted in

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – Episode 51 ENGLISH DUB Review

 Episode 51, "Immortal Army"

*****SPOILERS*****   Synopsis: The officer who activates the homunculi dolls is eaten by them, and they turn o the scientist that was with him next. Edward, Scar, and the chimera arrive at the doorway near where Barry died. Ed tries to open it, to no avail. Suddenly it opens and the homunculi dolls pour in. Olivier takes a general hostage, but he orders his subordinates to shut the gates so that Mustang’s and the Briggs forces can’t get in. Sloth attacks, but Olivier moves out of the way and the general is crushed instead. Edward’s group tries to fight off the dolls, but they don’t have any luck. Edward suddenly realizes what they are. He shuts the exit to the room so they can prevent them from escaping. Back at the mound, Heinkel realizes that Pride has been sending out morse code signal, but it’s too late. Kimbley attacks, breaking the mound, which releases Pride. Underground, Mei runs from the dolls, balancing the jar with Envy on her head, but Envy is swallowed by one of the dolls and takes control of it. Devouring the other dolls, Envy returns to his original form. Olivier tries to fight Sloth, but isn’t damaging him. When she is about to be crushed, her brother Alex arrives to assist her. Alphonse tries to help Heinkel and escape from Pride and Kimbley, who shows him the Philosopher’s Stone he saved from the mine. Alphonse uses it to challenge Kimbley and Pride, to Kimbley’s amusement.    Comments:   Envy returns to form in this episode, meaning more of Wendy Powell’s grainy, pained sounding voice for him. Well, actually, Powell’s Envy wasn’t that bad in this episode. In fact, I quite enjoyed her delivery when Envy returned to his usual form and thanked May for it. The dialogue was well read and fit the mouth flaps perfectly. This is probably as positive as I’m ever going to be about Powell’s Envy, which I’ve never been fond of.    I still think it’s stupid that they brought Envy back into the mix. His defeat at the hands of Doctor Marcoh was a great way to have him meet his end, by the hands of one of the lowly humans he’d been taunting for so long.    Stephanie Young’s Olivier is still strong in this episode as she begins her fight against humungous Sloth. I guess Sloth sounds as he should, big, slow, and tired. Eric Vale’s Kimbley still seems a bit too scratchy for my liking. The delivery is decent enough, he sells the lines most of the time, but as for his voice, it’s iffy. Maxey Whitehead’sr Alphonse was solid, geniunely sounding concerned for Heinkel’s well being. The VA for Heinkel even did a decent job.      All in all, not a lot to say about the performances, because they seem to be good, overall.     Overall ENGLISH DUB Score:    4 out of 5  
Penguin Truthby Penguin Truth•
Posted in

Dragon Box DVDs vs Level Set BDs

 Here’s a few screenshots for your consideration (Dragon Box on left, Blu-Rays on right):

I still prefer the Dragon Boxes. The BDs look great, but the colors are a little too dark, in my opinion. 

However, since the DBoxes are now out of print, I reccommend picking up the "level" Blu-Rays if you can’t find the DBoxes.

Here’s one more:

Penguin Truthby Penguin Truth••0
Posted in

Gundam AGE Episode 08 Review

 Episode 08, "A Deadly United Front"

*****SPOILERS*****   Synopsis: The Gundam is fitted with new parts, becoming Gundam Titus. It arrives on the battlefield to save Largan. The Titus easily dispatches a UE mobile suit. The Zalam and Euba mobile suits both attack another UE MS, with no effect. The Titus arrives and helps. Flit tells the two sides to join forces to fight the UE. The Titus destroys two other UE MS, with the help of Don Boyage (Zalam) and Ract Elfamel (Euba). UE mobile suits attack the city and the three team up again. When they’re pinned down another mobile sit arrives that attacks the UE. It’s Woolf in his new MS, the G-Exes.Together they team up and take down all the UE MS that attacked. Don Boyage and Ract Elfamel call a temporary truce.    Comments:    I can’t help thinking that this three-part arc with Zalam and Euba could easily have been two episodes, or even one if they left out the parts with the children. It just wasted a lot of time on characters I just don’t give a damn about. Zalam and Euba’s conflict just came across as silly. It was sure treated that way by the dialogue. It felt like a rivalry you’d see in an episode of Pokémon that by the end gets resolved by teaming up to save the new Pokémon of the day from Team Rocket. It was drawn out way too long. This show can’t leave Fardain soon enough.    A good chunk of this episode was merely recapping the end of the previous episode. We get to see the Titus parts being produced, Flit arriving to take the parts, the parts being fitted, etc. It’s a lot of a waste of time since we already saw Titus in action at the end of the episode. Adding these scenes at the beginning of this episode is just pointless padding to an already drawn out arc.     The only real highlight of this episode are some of the features of the Titus and the arrival of Woolf and his new mobile suit. The G-Exes is a pretty awesome MS and Woolf was kicking some major ass in it. They could dedicate an entire episode just to that and it wouldn’t be a waste of time, the way this story arc was. Woolf and Grodek are the only reasons I continue to watch this show.    The badassery of Woolf raised the score of this episode.      Overall Score:

3.5 out of 5

 
Penguin Truthby Penguin Truth•
Posted in

New Lupin III anime CM

I like the classic look they’re going for. New VAs for Zenigata, Fujiko, and Goemon. The voice of Jigen is the only one left of the original cast. I hope this special doesn’t suck as much as the past few have.

Penguin Truthby Penguin Truth•
Posted in

Gundam AGE Episode 07 Review

Episode 07, "Evolving Gundam"

  *****SPOILERS*****   Synopsis: Captured by Zalam mobile suits, Flit is brought before Don Boyage. He questions the actions of the Zalam and Euba, since the UE could attack at any time. Don Boyage expresses his desire to use the Gundam to fight Euba. Grodek explains that the Federation isn’t strong enough to fight the UE, thus his request for warships. When Euba mobile suits show up, Grodek and Flit escape among the chaos. Don goes out in his own mobile suit.  Flit in the Gundam gets in the middle of the fighting factions and tries to reason with them. Suddenly, the UE attacks. Largan arrives in a mobile suit to hold the UE off while Flit takes the Gundam to the AGE system. The Gundam is fitted with new parts and arrives to help.  Comments:    I can’t imagine me giving less of a shit about this show.    The introduction of the two warring factions is fine. It wouldn’t surprise me if people kept fighting with each other even with a common enemy. Zeta Gundam had that. The Zalam and Euba factions have neat insignia and I’m digging their mobile suits, too. However, there’s nothing about what these two groups are fighting over, and the Zalam side especially seem more like comedy relief rather than a serious threat. I’m waiting around for them to all just go away so we can get back to the real story, because this shit is about as good and integrating as the silly crap in Double Zeta.    Even Grodek was boring in this episode. We did get a nice scene with him and Flit where he puts out his hand, but past that, it feels like he’s just going through the motions. Flit seemed pretty mechanical, too. In fact, all of the characters were robotic, except for the aforementioned comedy relief. At least the guy with the fro, Largan, finally took part in a battle. Though after all that waiting he easily gets his ass handed to them. I guess they’re going to need Woolf again.    The Gundam AGE gets a new add-on armor that makes it look like Gundam Maxter. I hope it tackles like a football player, so at least it’s over-the-top enough to come back around to entertaining.    I’ve gone from not caring much about this show, to liking it slightly, and now I can barely stand it. I almost hate it. The art is inconsistent, the animation is awful at times, the story is boring, and the characters are uncharismatic. Right now the show is just a waste of time. If it doesn’t pick up soon, I’m dropping it. As flawed as it was, Gundam 00 was better than this.     

Overall Score:

2.5 out of 5

   
Penguin Truthby Penguin Truth•