Japanese:
English:
Author: Penguin Truth
The 2nd Annual Otaku Revolution Awards
The 2nd Annual Otaku Revolution Awards
I probably should have been working on this for a while, but instead I’ve been furiously masturbating to Rule 34 of Avatar: The Last Airbender until I exhaust, and then crying myself to sleep with sharp, bitter sobs.
2011 is a year of promise. As in, the promise of remaining a twentysomething virgin who spends his time writing sappy poetry about female friends who have actual men in their lives and arguing the superiority of one cartoon voice over another while most people are having careers and lives. Having barely survived the robot apocalypse by beating them off (lol) with a sack full of magnets, I look forward to another 365 days of soul crushing disappointment punctuated by occasional moments of mild satisfaction, usually caused by the sweet release of my carb-filled bowel movements while I read the backs of DVD cases looking for spelling mistakes (note to reader: don’t touch any of my anime DVD cases).
Audio: English – Exploring the Gundam Dubs
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.
There isn’t a group of animated programs that dominate the world of entertainment for me quite as much as the Gundam franchise. What started as a passing interest in Gundam Wing‘s hamfisted philosophical debates and cool mecha evolved into an obsession, much as man is meant to evolve into the Newtype. (Or maybe not. Don’t even ask Yoshiyuki Tomino about that one. He doesn’t know.) What are essentially elaborate (some more than others) robot toy commercials have so my anime fandom that I’ve forgotten what life was like before Gundam. Did I dream? Did I breathe? Now I have several DVDs of Gundam material and a mind filled with useless trivia. And I’m not even the biggest Gundam geek. I’ll save that honor for the guys who can give you the exact specs of the engines of a Zaku II.
Maybe because I’m the breed who, perhaps foolishly, watch Gundam for the plot(s), for the characters and themes, the presentation of the English versions of these show are important to me. I want to be sure that the voice actors who portray these roles, many of them iconic anime characters, do at least some justice and show the proper respect for them. Whenever available, I’ve heard the English dub for every Gundam anime I’ve ever seen.
Some Thoughts On: Evangelion 2.22 English Dub Cast
Funimation has announced the English dub cast for Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22:
Spike Spencer (still) as Shinji Ikari
Brina Palencia (still) as Rei Ayanami
Allison Keith (still) as Misato Katsuragi
Tiffany Grant (reprises her role) as Asuka Lagely Shikinami
Trina Nishimura as Mari Makinami Illustrious
Colleen Clinkenbeard (still) as Ritsuko Agaki
J. Michael Tatum as Ryoji Kaiji
Great. Tiffany Grant is back as Asuka. Hoy boy, this is going to be rough.
While it’s true that Spike Spencer improved somewhat from his previous performance as an obscenely exaggerated, stereotypical cartoon coward Shinji Ikari for 1.0, it wasn’t such a huge change as to rival Megumi Ogata’s brilliance as Shinji. And Allison Keith seems to have improved as an actress, too, but she’s no Kotono Mitsuishi. Tiffany Grant’s Asuka may have been fine for its time, but when you look back today, it was so over-the-top and lacking in humanity, that Grant’s going to have to really do her best just to be tolerable in the role. The problem is, Tiffany Grant, from what I remember from her various roles, is incapable of subtlety, and while Asuka isn’t the most subtle character, she certainly does have moments where real acting chops help, and Tiffany Grant has very little of that.