[Current Mood: Disappointed...]
[Currently Listening To: Misfit Love - Queens of the Stone Age]

I don't claim to be completely anti-dub. Sure, I prefer subtitles when watching my anime, but I don't stick by the rule that all dubs automatically suck.

The biggest issue anyone who watches good old-fashioned subs has is, of course, the voices of the dubs. Corporations have a knack to kill a whole character with just a voice. Take Ion of Trinity Blood. Or Akito of Fruit's Basket. Both had less then stellar voices. But I lived.

However, every so often, a dub comes along that completely baffles me. A dub with voices so...bad that it leaves me in stitches. This time it was Angel Sanctuary.

Being a fan of Kaori Yuki (and Godchild) I decided to finally look into her first series. I was going to finish the manga (I got through a few chapters a while ago) but instead I opted to watch the three episode OVA because, well, it's only three episodes. So I did a quick search of Youtube for episode 1 and settled in to watch it. To my surprise, it was in english but "whatever" I figured, "how bad can it be?"
And how I wish that my question went along unanswered. The voices were bad. So bad that the actual concept of the series escaped me because I was too busy laughing at it. So bad that it sounded like Casey & Friends and I wondered if I was actually watching a parody of a 4Kids production. Yeah, Seriously.
But alas, I was not. And that, dear reader, is a sad, sad truth.

I don't mean to be dub bashing, God knows I get enough of the with certain friends of mine, but I really couldn't contain myself after watching a full episode of Setsuna running around narrating his internal conflicts. For the next two episodes, I think I'll stick to the Japanese voices, just so I can get the actual serious nature of the story, as opposed to being too busy laughing my ass off at everyone's voices.

In OTHER fandoms: I finished watching Code Geass a while ago...and I will admit that I enjoyed it. And yes, I noticed the Death Note similarities (or rather, the Light/Lelouch similarities.) [To provide a short checklist with only three main character traits:
Evil Facial Contortions? Check.
Psycho Laughter? Check.
Determination to Take Over the World With a Strong Sense of Justice? CHECK.
...and that's only three.]
But I didn't see CG as just an attempted rip-off. Why? Where Death Note relied solely on Light's gradual moral corruption and his Battle-of-the-Wits with L/Near/Melo, Code Geass throws in mecha action a la Gundam or Neon Genesis Evangelion (sans the whiny protagonist), which adds a nice flare to the story. Plus, the only equivalent to a female protagonist in DN is Misa, who I've declared as a disgrace to her wardrobe and interesting decor. At least CG gives us C.C., Kallen, Cornelia and even Euphemia.
Actually, the only female I can't stand is Shirley, but she's kind of a non-issue after the whole Mao arc. Right? Oh my God she's not going to show up in every episode in R2 is she? The thought is terrifying. 

And getting off anime entirely for a minute (this is old news but bear with me): It figures that when I finally get into watching Las Vegas every friday night after work, NBC goes off and cancels it. And when I actually sit through an hour a week of a CBC show, they decide to cancel that too (but it's the CBC, so that's not too surprising...)
I hope networks aren't just cutting high action/drama shows in favour of ridiculous reality TV that's cheaper to produce and generates the same magnitude of audience. Oh wait, that's already happening. What the hell has our society come to? Is this the dawn of the end of Western civilization? Or am I simply overreacting?
x

PS: Yes, I have added something new to the side. It is (in case you're the type that's too lazy to read,) about the gods and goddesses that span through mythology. Why add such a seemingly pointless box? Simply because I like mythology.

PSS: I finally bought Volume 8 of Godchild (but not from my usual book store because they still don't have it in stock)...so I'll probably be doing a whole entry dedicated to that sometime soon.

Recently Played & Purchased [And One of the First Video Games I've Bought In Years]:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
By Nintendo