Sunday, September 11, 2005

Naruto aired last night..........the verdict is in..........*cue dramatic music*
fumikomuze akuseru kake hiki wa naisa sou dayo
youru wo nukeru
nejikomu sa saigo ni sashihiki zero sa sou dayo
hibi wo kezuru

kokoro wo sotto hiraite gyutto hiki yosetara
todokuyo kitto tsutau yo motto sa aa

iki isoide shiboritotte
motsureru ashi dakedo mae yori zutto sou tokue

ubaitotte tsukandatte
kimi ja nai nara imi was naniosa

dakara motto motto motto haruka kanata

fumikomuze akuseru kake hiki wa naisa sou dayo
youru wo nukeru
nejikomu sa saigo ni sashihiki zero sa sou dayo
hibi wo kezuru

kokoro wo sotto hiraite gyutto hiki yosetara
todokuyo kitto tsutau yo motto sa aa

iki isoide shiboritotte
motsureru ashi dakedo mae yori zutto sou tokue

ubaitotte tsukandatte
kimi ja nai nara imi was naniosa

dakara haruka kanata

itsuwaru ko do ni nareta kimi no sekai wo
murizubusu no sa shiroku shirou

"Haruka Kanata" - Asian Kung-Fu Generation

Alright everyone, being the HUGE Naruto fan that I am, I'm sure you're all wondering what I thought of the English dub. Well, I'm going to tell you exactly what I thought. I've read a lot of opinions about this and it's time I voice mine. Please, take the time to read through this, I put a lot of time and thought into what I wanted to say:

People saying that the English dub is completely crappy and misses on all counts just gives me the impression that they were intent on hating the dub from the start, JUST because it's the American version. People don't seem to realize just how many things this dub does right. Have you not seen how other shounen series, such as One Piece, Zatch Bell, and Yu-Gi-Oh! get treated?

1. Insane amounts of edits to make them "kid friendly". The blood nose sprays that were cut out as well as a couple other spurts of blood are the only edits I've noticed. NO BIG DEAL. We actually SAW Iruka get stabbed full of kunai! Any other company putting up anime on Toonami (this is not adult swim remember) would have totally edited those out. They leave tons of graphic stuff in. I will admit, though, it'll be VERY interesting to see how the events with Haku and Zabuza turn out.

2. Name changes. 4kids and other companies that release kids' shows like Naruto almost always change the Japanese names to something English. Take Yu-Gi-Oh! for example: how the hell does Mazaki Anzu become "TEA GARDNER"?!?!?! Just be glad we got all the names, and on top of that, they kept things like "Hokage" in tact when they could have easily changed it to "head ninja" or something stupid like that. I will admit, though, I don't see why they went and decided upon ditching the name Konoha.....

3. Elimination of Japanese culture. Other series aimed at kids do their best to eliminate any kind of Japanese culture. This is where I was actually quite impressed. Actually leaving words like "jutsu" and "sensei" in was wonderful. I worried so much about how they would treat these. I rarely see any anime on TV, let alone a kid's show, leave in the "sensei" suffix after a character's name. And they left chakra and its explanation in tact. Since chakra originates from eastern religions and philosophies, this is a pretty touchy subject that many companies would have changed to just "energy". *coughcoughDBZcoughcough* And of course, they leave all the Japanese text in everywhere, which many series have edited out.

There is so much stuff that could have gone wrong in this series, but it turned out wonderful. The voices aren't AWESOME.....but they are far far better than anything 4kids or Funimation could have done, and some of them are great. *coughcoughEBISU!!!!!coughcough* The only real complaints I have are the opening/ending, which I admit suck, and the botching of some of the pronunciations. They are kind of random about that. But its not a big deal. And for the record, I am not generally a dub sympathizer. I hate dubs and never watch them when I have the chance, so normally I would be on the side of all the haters. But I honestly am very impressed with this dub. People saying that this is completely awful and has no merit are clearly biased against dubs. The dub is the best treatment of a shounen series that I have ever seen. Hell, I can't believe I have to wait a whole week just to see one more episode! It would be great if they showed 2 episodes every week...LOL And dammit!!! We gotta wait 2 WEEKS for Kakashi!!!! ^_^

Whew!!! Damn it felt good to get that out! ^_^

I'd also like to point out 3 more additional things:

1. Ebisu had the best voice out of all the characters. Wanna know why? HE WAS VOICED BY CRISPIN FREEMAN!!!!! What? You don't know who he is? DAMMIT PEOPLE!!! He is my GOD in the English dub market. His voice is absolutely amazing, his best work being that of ALUCARD from HELLSING!!!!!! Avid fans of Adult Swim will also recognize him as Tsume from Wolf's Rain, and Amon from Witch Hunter Robin.

2. I've discovered something Quinton Flynn, the JACKASS who voiced Iruka....he's the same guy who voiced RAIDEN from METAL GEAR SOLID 2!!!!!

3. And this one bugs me LOL Tom, the announcer for Toonami, is voiced by Steve Blum. Steve Blum, does some voice work for Naruto (he'll be Zabuza in the coming episodes). In the anime, everyone pronounces Naruto correctly. So tell me, WHY THE FUCK DOES TOM SAY NARUTO LIKE AN IDIOT?!?!?!?!

Alright, alright, enough of babble. Sorry everyone. Since I've already taken enough of your time, I'll cut my post here rather than go on about my day. I LOVE YOU ALL LIKE NARUTO LOVES RAMEN!!!! ADIOS!!!! - Triple J





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