So, I’ve decided to do another of these videos that highlights various voice actors for anime, three Japanese, three English-language ones. I do this because it seems like I can be a little negative in my reviews and I wanted to talk about something I do enjoy, the talents of several voice actors. Here I highlight Masako Nozawa, Koichi Yamadera, Junichi Suwabe, Michelle Ruff, Crispin Freeman, and Colleen Clinkenbeard. Next time, I’ll get back to reviewing in my usual style, and with some storyline stuff, too.
Otaku Evolution
Otaku Evolution Episode 207 – The Boy and the Beast
What is the appeal of the furry aesthetic? I watch this Mamoru Hosoda film, The Boy and the Beast, a light and fluffy, but emotionally resonant isekai adventure, and wonder. Is there something I’m missing here? I grew up watching anthropomorphic characters, but I never really got into some kind of hardcore fandom or sexual kink for them. Furries and fursonas, they’re not as taboo as they used to be, but I still don’t quite “get” it. Can I come to some kind of understanding? I hope so, or this video was pointless!
Otaku Evolution Episode 206 – Ruin Explorers
Ruin Explorers is not a great anime. There wasn’t a whole lot to say about it, either, so it’s not one of those “so bad it’s good” or “so bad it’s interestingly bad” kind of anime, it’s just a generic fantasy OVA that was thankfully, mercifully, short. The so-called main characters don’t even end up being that important in the long run, they’re just there to help the real hero get to where he needs to go. But these bland fantasy anime are a dime a dozen, anime is rife with this stuff, and I might as well cover at least one of them to represent titles like it.
Otaku Evolution Episode 205 – Tomorrow’s Joe (Movie)
I’ve been covering a lot of Osamu Dezaki this year, haven’t I? This is the third title. I swear it’s not intentional, it just shook out that way in scheduling. But out of all the Dezaki anime I’ve ever covered here, this is probably the best one. Even though it’s just a compilation movie, it’s very engrossing and fun, a nice underdog story, like Rocky. The English dub of Tomorrow’s Joe pretty terrible, but at least I didn’t have to put up with it more than a couple of hours. If only somebody would dub the second movie.
Otaku Evolution Episode 204 – Patlabor: The TV Series
I have to confess: I didn’t go back and rewatch all 47 episodes of Patlabor TV for this review. I’d already seen this series plenty of times and knew it well enough that I only had to rewatch maybe a quarter of it. It’s pretty episodic, so there’s not a lot of continuity to keep up with. I do plan on getting to The New Files at some point.
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Otaku Evolution Episode 203 – Grave of the Fireflies
This is a pretty serious video (I mean, it’s on Grave of the Fireflies), so there’s not a whole lot to say about the process except to say I tried my best not to belittle the subject matter. I did end up getting a copyright claim for my use of that Chopin piece in the beginning, but at least the video wasn’t blocked. It’s not like my videos are able to be monetized, so it’s not a big deal.
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Otaku Evolution Episode 202 – Tokyo ESP
It’s time to get back to Otaku Evolution with this review, after taking a short break. Tokyo ESP is one of those anime I watched streaming on Funimation’s site (what a bad video player, by the way), like Michiko & Hatchin, and found it interesting enough to purchase the boxset. Although it’s nowhere near as good as Michiko & Hatchin, it’s still a decent show worth a view or two. Plus, it features one of the best anime penguins, Peggy (who is a male, despite the name). He can turn a flipper into a shark, like Alucard changing his arm into Cerberus. It’s neat.
Otaku Evolution Episode 201 – Mid Year English Dub Review VII
This video premieres the new Penguin Council, which is almost all-new, excluding Peggy (from Tokyo ESP, an anime I’m reviewing soon). There’s Mike from Penguin’s Memory, Nick from Adventures of the Little Koala (Koala Boy Kockey), DJ Grooves from the A Hat in Time game, and Esmeralda from Penguindrum. The Penguin Council is the Penguin Union’s central government. At one point, the assassin Ravex murdered a couple of members of the original Council.
We also get me complaining about the adaptation of The Long Halloween, which I didn’t like. Apparently, like with the Evangelion dub, I’m in the minority opinion, because people seem to really like the Part One movie, but I despised how it only broadly captured the plotline of the comic, whereas adaptations of The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One rarely deviated and were very good. I’m a huge Batman guy, so The Long Halloween is an important storyline to me and needed to be handled just right, and wasn’t. I’m sorry, I just can’t abide by the differences. But perhaps, like Peggy suggested, I should just stick to the comic if I want the comic’s storyline faithfully.
Otaku Evolution Episode 200 – Neon Genesis Evangelion
So, I finally made it to 200 videos. Well, I had to split one video into two videos, but I still count that as one. Then, of course, there’s the Recommendation videos and the April Fool’s video where Pen Pen reviewed, so that’s more. Though you also have to subtract all the videos that were taken down, right? I mean, I still did them, so perhaps not, but they can’t be seen, so it’s like a tree falling in a forest when nobody’s around, isn’t it? But nevertheless, 200 OE videos, at least.
Otaku Evolution Episode 199 – Top 10 Otaku Evolution Videos
There’s not a whole lot of commentary I can provide for this one… mostly because it IS commentary on other commentaries. It’s turtles all the way down. And this won’t be the only favorites list this year, either. You can say I’ve gotten lazy, but I’ve been working nonstop on the 200th video (so far it’s over 40 minutes long).
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