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Cowboy Bebop Film's American Premiere Announced
From the Big Apple Anime Site "The Big Apple Anime Fest 2002 (BAAF 2002) is proud to announce that the festival will premiere the theatrical English dub version of "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" on August 30th, 8:00pm at Loews State Theater (Virgin Megastore) in New York City's Times Square. At the premiere, Cowboy Bebop director, Shinichiro Watanabe, score composer, Yoko Kanno and character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto will be on hand to meet their legions of fans." That's a show worth seeing.
The reason I prefer subtitled versus dubbed anime has as much to do with the changes in the interpretations of the characters that the American voice actors take than it does with the actual quality of their voice acting.
For example, I saw Cowboy Bebop subbed first, and then watched it when it started running on The Cartoon Network, and the subtle difference in the way the characters voice their lines as well as the slight diologue changes was enough to give the characters and plot a very different feel. Being used to the "Japanese versions" of the characters, I felt that some of Shinichiro Watanabe's vision was lost in the translation to English. Plus, I just found American Ed to be annoying. =)
Granted, I'll still be first in line to see Bebop on the big screen if it has a wider release.
Anime are cartoon dramas. In America you have a strict dichotomy between adult content (NYPD Blue, General Hospital) and child content (Spongebob Squarepants). In Japan, everyone watches anime--each show has elements that appeal to all age groups. Thay are cartoons and feature cartoon violence and expressions, which kids can relate to, on top of which is stacked teen angst and sexual innuendo (to capture the adolescent market), and if you're really lucky, you'll occasionally get a show with some kind of unrequieted love that appeals to a more mature audience.
To really enjoy it you have to allow yourself to indulge in slapstick humor and sexual comedy. Sure, we like to imagine that we are a cultured, civilized poeople who don't appreciate that sort of thing, but if you take the stick out of your ass and allow yourself to be entertained it's usually worth it.
Session #5, "Ballad of Fallen Angels"... just an amazing episode in terms of character establishment and development, cinematography, music... the segment where Spike is falling out of the church window is like nothing I've seen before in any real-life movie.
:)
For those of you who aren't into Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, this is a 3 hour block on Saturday nights where they play the "mature" anime, the stuff that doesn't quite fit into the afternoon kiddie stuff (like DBZ and Zoids and the like). This is where they run Bebop, at 11:30, like a previous poster said. (There's also a Swim on Sunday nights with "funny" adult cartoons, but Saturday's got the better stuff, IMHO)
It's worth noting, however, that last Saturday they had a Bebop-a-thon - the entire 3-hour block for Adult Swim was all Bebop cartoons, and unless I misunderstood the scheduling, they're doing it again this Saturday. Last Saturday's 'thon had Fallen Angels in it; I donn't know if they're repeating the same episodes this Saturday, but it's worth watching to find out
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
I am not a huge anime fan. In fact, I think most of it is crap (Sturgeon's Law?), but having said that, I really like Cowboy Bebop. Why? Well...
- The characters are distinct and have real personalities. Each one has a sad past that you gradually learn about through the series. By the end, I actually felt bad for Faye.
- The premise is a little different as the series isn't about 1) mecha, 2) big-eyed teenage girls or 3) tentacle pr0n.
- There are only 26 episodes, so it doesn't go on forever like some series I could mention *cough*DBZ*cough*.
- While there is an underlying plot to the series, each episode is more-or-less self-contained; so if you miss an episode, you're not completely lost.
- I don't speak Japanese and I don't really want to watch subtitles, so it's fortunate that the English dubbing really is quite good.
- The music is very good. 'Waltz for Zizi', for example, is a very pretty song.
- It is very artistic. The very first scene in the first episode and the very last scene of the last episode (to take two at random
:)) are well done. There are some episodes as a whole that were very well done. 'Pierrot Le Fou' comes to mind. And finally... - It had Ein.
:)
I could go on, but these are the biggest reasons I can think of right now.