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While I’m very satisfied with Geneon/Funimation’s recent Nanoha DVD release for all the elements I care about, an irrelevant bit highly assumes me. For the five minutes I checked out the dub, as I do typically for a new release out of slight curiosity, why are the previously English-speaking Intelligent Devices redubbed with new English voices?
Raging Heart goes from cheesy awesome Donna Burke to, well, possibly more bland and boring than a text-to-speech program. I love my “I CAN BE SHOT”. Doesn’t everyone? It is quite mind boggling and funny in a terrible missing-the-point sense, unless they couldn’t license the original acting. Otherwise, it was a very poor decision on their part.
This is what veteran talent does to a magical girl show!
Looks like I need to watch Pretty Cure, though I’ll just stick with slowly watching Yes! Precure 5 (complete with almost badass transformation scenes) and the new Fresh Precure in a few weeks. Maybe the movies. The franchise is too crazy Shonen Jump long to start with at the beginning.
Elsewhere on the magical girl continent comes news of a Cardcaptor Sakura BluRay release. CCS BRD is out in two sets on March 27th and June 26th, 2009 respectively for the low, low price of 131,250 yen (approximately $1400, so cheap) combined. Does this mean I have to take out a second mortgage to afford upscaled Sakura cuteness?
This week’s episode of Shugo Chara Doki has Minako. Minako is cute. She sparkles. So cuuuuuuute. I want to take her home. Sparkle.
Brown hair, side-ponytail, cutely placed front bangs, she’s pretty damn cute. Only downside is a large forehead. I can’t have everything, it seems. Maybe I’ll be seeing the near perfectly cute little girl in my Shugo Chara soon.
Episode 61 is the second cutest episode, so far, after 59. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that Doki is more kid-oriented and less magical girl fan (or otaku) friendly than last season. This episode was quite overblown and cheesy itself.
Not that Amu isn’t near perfect already, but I’d love some more variety in cute cute lolis here. Amu-chaaaaaan. :3
Children are precious. They are our future. We must love and respect them. We must guard their purity.
So clearly we must lust after them like the dirty perverts we are.
Man, this week’s episode really hit the spot. An adorable, pseudo-kiss scene between Amu and Ikuto, Metal Gear Ikuto, the first appearance of Amulet Angel in too long, cute Rima, Utau holding a concert with Heartful Song, pining after her brother in her typical obsessive way. Nifty new Utau concert outfit. What more do I need? This was the cutest, best directed episode of Shugo Chara in ages. Easily the best of Doki yet, though the art was somewhat off.
I hope Satelight goes back to more episodes in this vein and less meandering along a formulaic path, as they’ve been doing so far in Doki.
When are we getting the Mizuki Nana Heartful Song single already? She first sang it almost two months ago and the Black Diamond release wasn’t long after it appeared in the show…
Rima was merely the practice round. Amu is the real deal in Saimoe. This is why every single Shugo Chara fan must declare their support for the Cool and Spicy One. She needs to exceed everyone’s expectations and destroy her competition. Send a message that uber cute magical girls mean business.
If you’re still unfamiliar with Saimoe, take a quick hop over to Certifiably Insane, as I referenced earlier. All it takes is a slightly long wait for your vote code and a five minute vote submission. <<日奈森あむ（日奈森亜夢）＠しゅごキャラ! >> is what you’ll need to paste after your vote code.
For those that have no love for Amu (shame on you!), she is voiced by the up and coming Kanae Ito, who you can also hear in the currently airing Birdy the Mighty in another cute role.
Thanks to all voted for Rima worldwide. She beat out Konomi by 100 votes. I hope she joins her friend Amu to the end.
Today is Rima’s chance in Saimoe. Everyone go vote for the cute cute tsundere magical girl!
She’s even voiced by Sayuri Yahagi, a talented, young seiyuu, so more reason with double the moe.
If you don’t know on how to vote in Saimoe, Certifiably Insane has in-depth voting instructions. <<真城りま＠しゅごキャラ!>> is what you’ll need to paste, along with your vote code.
As I am sure many of you know, I happen to be eating up Shugo Chara like a delicious steak. A New York strip steak grilled to perfection. It seems that some people, such as ever polarizing fangirl Hinano, disagree for patently ridiculous reasons, mostly related to so-called “filler”.
Since when is filler a negative aspect of anime? Do we want every single series we watch to be six episodes and nothing except balls-to-the-wall pure plot? Some of the more enjoyable episodes (and certainly moments) and character development of Shugo Chara happen to be non-plot-based or centric. Where would we be without expanded Eru cuteness or Ami as god? Besides, if Shugo Chara TV were a carbon-copy of the manga, which happens to have some dirty filler, what fun would there be in that? Shugo Chara isn’t even about the story.
I have a sneaking suspicion these types have never seen past magical girl series, such as Cardcaptor Sakura, Hime-chan’s Ribbon, Fancy Lala, Corrector Yui, and enough other staples. Either this is true or they’re looking back at the past with very bright, rose-tinted glasses that obscure awful filler from eyesight. It has been years since I’ve seen CCS, yet I recall four or more times the number of cards in the anime versus the comic. And you know what? CCS happens to be one of my favorite TV series.
I’ll point to the magical shows of varying quality from the past few years, such as Mermaid Melody, Full Moon, Pretty Cure, Akazukin, Ultra Maniac, Futago Hime, etc, which all feature apparent quality-sapping “filler” more than Shugo Chara does. I enjoyed Full Moon, Ultra Maniac, and Futago Hime enough, thank you very much.
Filler happens to be a stong point of enough past and recent non-magical girl favorites of many, including Nadesico, Kodocha, Aquarion, Kamichu, Kure-nai, and a myriad of others.
As Hinano and others have harping on the evils of filler and how season two of Shugo Chara will be “trash”, I embrace it and look forward to my adorable Amu and her friends in the next year to come. I wish that everyone could look past their fan-driven narrow-mindedness and enjoy a high-quality magical girl series. This is the best pure magical franchise we’ve had since CCS. Fuck fangirls, and no, not in the positive sexual manner.
I’d invoke the Internet Fuckwad Theory to explain this all away, but my blog isn’t a tired clichefest.
A retelling of the first Nanoha series as a movie? Winter 2008? New barrier jackets for Fate and Nanoha? Female Bardiche seiyuu (!)? Oh yeah, I’m there. I’m painfully hard at the possibilities in this new magical befriending venture that, thankfully, has absolutely nothing to do with the godawful StrikerS. I happen to be painfully hard for more Fate love at the same time.
Now all I need is the announcement that Shinbo is in and confirmation of the rumor that Production IG is behind this. I haven’t cared for IG’s work in the past few years, but they’re much more consistent than Seven Arcs. I believe it’s time for the franchise to get a fresh start with a new studio.
Maybe the fact that the film’s named “Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st” is a sign that an A’s retelling comes next? I hope so.
