The Dub Reviewer: My Neighbor Totoro

September 7, 2010
my neighbor totoro japanese anime 1988 studio ghibli

There really is no argument that Hayao Miyazaki’s 1998 whimsical fantasy My Neighbor Totoro is one of the greatest Anime — correction, greatest films — of all time. Despite this, however, a major debate about this movie still continues to rage on: which English dub version is preferable?

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Cowboy Bebop – Review

September 1, 2010
cowboy bebop 1998 anime series

The year is 2071 AD. The future is now. Driven out of their terrestrial eden, humanity chose the stars as the final frontier. With the section-by-section collapse of the former nations, a mixed jumble of races and people came. They spread to the stars, taking with them the now confused concepts of freedom, violence, illegality and love, where new rules and a new generation of outlaws came into being. People referred to them as Cowboy Bebops. Spike Spiegel is bounty hunter looking for such people, and together with his partner Jet Black, traverse the known galaxy in search of the next bounty.

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Love on Sunday 2: Last Words – Review

August 31, 2010
love on sunday 2: last words 2007 japanese film

Nagisa is a high school girl who has been given three months to live. Without telling her widowed father where she is going, she sets out from the city to the small town of Chiba where she was born—as well as had her first love. She recalls her youthful memories as well as her rekindled love for childhood friend Satoshi. However, she is shocked to discover that Satoshi is having an affair with Eriko, a married woman. With the limited time Nagisa has left, she contemplates whether to tell Satoshi her true feelings concerning her longstanding love for him.

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Perfect Blue – Review

August 29, 2010
perfect blue 1998 anime film

Pop singer Mima Kirigoe looks forward to a bright new career when she quits her chart-topping trio to become an actress. When she lands a role in a sexually charged murder mystery television series titled Double Bind, Mima’s life begins to fall apart. Reality and hallucinations merge into a terrifying netherworld where innocence is lost and dreams become nightmares. Quickly descending into a dangerous state of paranoid delusions, Mima discover Internet sites describing every intimate detail of her life. Helpless and afraid, she watches as her associates are threatened and by a mysterious stalker.

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The Death of Satoshi Kon (1963 – 2010)

August 26, 2010
death of satoshi kon 1963 2010

As an avid fan of Satoshi Kon’s work, I’m deeply saddened by his recent passing. He was one of my favorite directors from the Japan and I truly enjoyed the creative attitude he always integrated within his works. To state that Kon was a great artist is quite an understatement–he embodied every facet of what I felt an animation director should be.

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The History of Anime: 1963

August 26, 2010
The History of Anime 1963

With the newfound creation of an animation industry firmly established within Japan, the further exploring of what Anime could offer was being steadily more realized. Many genres were being integrated into the realm of animation during this period—especially that of the science fiction.

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Bashing – Review

August 23, 2010
bashing 2005 japanese film

Yuko volunteered to be an aid worker in Iraq and was taken hostage there. When freed she returned to Japan, but after being home six months she is still the ongoing object of harassment from her own countrymen.

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The Dub Reviewer: Kiki’s Delivery Service

August 23, 2010
kikis delivery service japanese anime 1989 studio ghibli

When Disney announced that it would be bringing Hayao Miyazaki’s work to audiences outside of Japan, a mixture of anticipation and dread echoed from longtime fans. For some, this meant that Disney’s resources and marketing skills could pave wider exposure for this man’s works in the United States, while others simply stated that the Mouse House was setting out to destroy Studio Ghibli and sabotage its chances for success. Indeed, when the first release under the new deal, Kiki’s Delivery Service, premiered on VHS on September 1, 1998, there were mixed reactions.

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The Dub Reviewer: Castle in the Sky

August 17, 2010
castle in the sky japanese anime 1986 studio ghibli

This is the most underrated and hotly debated of the Disney-Ghibli dubs. Recorded in 1998 but delayed until 2003, reactions to Disney’s dub of Castle in the Sky (retitled from the original Japanese name, Laputa: The Castle in the Sky since “laputa”‘s an offensive phrase in Spanish) have been divided. Hardcore fans of the original Japanese were especially harsh, condemning it as a travesty to the original and that it is a dub to avoid. On the other hand, there have been just as many who actually enjoyed the dub as a fun and interesting reinterpretation of a classic masterpiece with clever casting choices and a fully spruced up (and extended from the original by the composer) musical score.

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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – Review

August 14, 2010
america film review scott pilgrim vs. the world

Scott Pilgrim’s life is so awesome. He’s 23 years old, in a rock band, “between jobs,” and dating a cute high school girl. Everything’s fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, roller blading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms. Flowers isn’t covered in rose petals. Ramona’s seven evil exes stand between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott defeat all seven of the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down, before the game is over?

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