HaHA! Got it!
I took out the DVD containing my favorite episodes, Nemuro Memorial Hall and Terms of a Duelist, and found that their boxart...
Was an INCREDIBLY unflattering picture of Mikage and Mamiya.
Hair slicked back doesn't suit you, Souji.

EDIT: Read the part in the little pamphlet about the development of the show. Wow! I guess the 'Gouki Ohtori' thing is the cause of the confusion over Akio in the Enoki Films...thingy.

Last edited by Atropos (12-25-2011 05:51:19 PM)

Breakdown of my rewatch:
Episode 1
-INTRO REDONE-AWESOMELY!
-I think I'll use the JAPANESE track this time!
-Wait, I really like the dub's version of that prologue. Better rewind and reconfigure.
-Mmm, a lot of this sucks.
-I'll go back to Japanese.
-NO NO THERE'S SO MUCH I WANT TO HEAR AGAIN
-Okay, I'll watch most of it in Japanese and switch to the dub at the parts I want!
-Wait, too hard.
-OHMIGOD IT LOOKS SO GREAT
-Goddamnit Dub Anthy, I hate you so much.
Episode 2
-INTRO AGAIN!
-Wow, this dub really sucks. To the Japanese!
-NEW SOUND EFFECTS???
-I liked the way Dub-Saionji said that better.
-I feel the need...the need for FREEMAN!
-HimemAIa?
I then decided to stop going through the entire series and skip to the two episodes I mentioned before.
Episode 23(Nemuro Memorial Hall)
-Train scene!
-I didn't catch the repeated references to 'that man' the first time I watched it. In fact, I was so dumb I didn't even realize it was Akio.
-I love this scene! I love the music! This episode rocks!
Episode 24
(to be added)

Is it just me or do the actors who gave the worst performances get the show better than the others? Going by the dub interviews anyway. Anthy's dub actress seemed to understand how twisted her character was... but her performance was awful. The biggest surprise was one of the shadow girls' dub actress. She was very intelligent and knew exactly what her character was about, but the shadow girls usually give the weakest performances. From other interviews I've seen, if an actor/actress plays a small character in an anime they usually don't research or look into their character.

Jimmy Zoppi's interview was verrrrry annoying.

off-topic: The Akio/Utena scene (THAT scene) has a very different feel in English. Tomoko Kawakami's performance made Utena sound awkward and afraid (which is normal given the circumstances) while Rachael Lillis' performance was more on the super sexy side

And could the dub have made the bowling ball joke work at all in the Nanami's Egg episode?

Last edited by chrisb (12-27-2011 03:22:49 AM)

Just noticed my question was featured in the DVD booklet, but Ikuhara just said "no comment."

...

Ass

At least we got a reply huh? We can pose as cool kids

Wait... is the movie remastered? The picture just looks a lot better than from CPM release.

Man I forgot how sexy, beautiful and annoying this movie can be. I'm not one to call every pretty thing art, but the scene where Utena gets her ring and walks up to the garden is just amazing.

chrisb wrote:

Wait... is the movie remastered? The picture just looks a lot better than from CPM release.

Man I forgot how sexy, beautiful and annoying this movie can be. I'm not one to call every pretty thing art, but the scene where Utena gets her ring and walks up to the garden is just amazing.

Given how horrible the CPM release was, honestly, I don't think the movie was remastered, just re-encoded from the original.

I wonder if my question got answered. I think I asked something stupid about Akio breaking his projector.

I'm so behind on the times, but I now have all three boxsets (thanks to some certain WONDERFUL GODDAMN PEOPLE:saifap:) and my ring. And for the first goddamn time in my first goddamn life my stumpy short ugly little fingers have done me right and it actually fits my left ring finger.

I haven't had much of a chance to watch anything, but it likely doesn't bode well for my sanity that what little I've flicked through has ALREADY made me go at all the stuff I've missed the other three billion times I've watched this show. Dammit, Ikuni, gimme my brain back you bastard.

I'm going for a walk (read: rewatch). I May Be Some Time.

Clarice wrote:

I'm so behind on the times, but I now have all three boxsets (thanks to some certain WONDERFUL GODDAMN PEOPLE:saifap:) and my ring. And for the first goddamn time in my first goddamn life my stumpy short ugly little fingers have done me right and it actually fits my left ring finger.

I have a big DITTO to add to that. Thank you again satyr and Gio!

Damn these boxsets are awesome. Though now I'm so spoiled that I wish they'd reanimated the whole thing with 2010 prodcution values...Nah, the show's still awesome.

I ordered my 3 remasterd sets from Rightstuf and I wasn't sure if I was getting a signet ring or not but lo and behold, I did! I awed at how amazing quality the box sets were! Here's a picture of my new babies (they are replacing my other box sets that I bought at BestBuy, those are horrid):



I always watched the dub because that's how I watched it as a kid and well, nostalgia always wins. However, I bought the remaster soley for the purpose of watching it in Japanese since my old dvds were horrid with overlaying subtitles and the quality was VHS-worthy and crappy. But I noticed something odd... is it me, or are the English subtitles for the Japanese track nearly identical to the English dub script? There wasn't much that irritated me with the dub except for the mispronouncation of "tenjou" sounding like "ten jews" but... if the subtitle tracks are identical to the English dub script, what's to stop me from just watching the dub if there's no difference in the script and subtitles? If anyone can elaborate on that, I'd appreciate it! I always hear things that the Japanese version is way different, but so far I haven't seen any differences! I've rewatched this series at least 10 times but just in English. I'd like to conitnue watching in Japanese, but only if there is a huge difference in script. Maybe I am just not great at noticing differences... Help!?

I'll have to see. The trick will be in some of the small exchanges, like when Saionji interjects one of Utena's conversation with his diary, as Utena's dub response about Saionji having a "nice dress" is quite different in the subs.

Chrome nailed it: it's not what they say, it's how they say it.

Kawakami Tomoko, Utena's Japanese voice actor (R.I.P.), was practically a rookie in voice acting when she was cast.  The way Kawakami tells it, she got the role by accident.  All the other candidates read Utena as very tomboyish and "cool," since she acts aggressive and uses the male-ish pronoun boku.  Kawakami hadn't read the script as thoroughly, so she read Utena more like a cliche shoujo manga protagonist.  And it was that Utena -- naive, out of her depth, and shoujo, but still heroic -- that Be-Papas wanted for their deeply subversive shoujo anime.  The English dub's Rachel Lillis tries hard, but just doesn't seem to have the depth in her voice that Kawakami does, conveying all these things about the character at once.  She's more like the people Kawakami beat out for the role, who only saw one side of Utena's character.

And the other English VAs, mostly, are pretty similar.  They get a piece of it, but not all of it.  Utena's characters are incredibly subtle, even the ones who don't strike you that way at first.  I'm afraid the English VAs may have gotten poor direction, and didn't properly understand why their characters were saying what they were saying, and what emotional depths their lines came out of.