Miyazaki's "Nausicaa" Dub Updates

srstoneb writes "Earlier this week the Disney dub of Miyazaki's "Porco Rosso" premiered at the Austin Film Festival. It will probably be the only theatrical showing of "Porco", sadly, but reviews of the dub have been quite favorable. Even more exciting, as reported at Nausicaa.net and elsewhere, is that the Hewitts -- who did the English scripts for "Spirited Away" and "Porco" -- said they're currently working on "Nausicaa"! The cast includes Patrick Stewart, as well as Uma Thurman and, tentatively, Natalie Portman. A post to the Nausicaa.net mailing list by fan Dan Vogler further states that Stewart's role is Lord Yupa. (Somebody already made the inevitable joke about Picard being stabbed by a Nausicaan, so don't bother.) Both movies are tentatively intended for DVD release in spring 2004." Porco Rosso is a great flick, check it out if you aren't to dead inside to enjoy a kids flick. Greatly looking forward to both DVDs.

Comments

Huh?

[EssJay]

Forgive my ignorance.. but what is this Nausicaa??

Re:Huh?

[RatBastard]

Sorry, but that is not forgivable. I can understand not knowing about something obscure, like The Matrix, but not something like Nausicaa.

Re:Huh?

[EssJay]

Well, I'm learning and it seems like "Porco Rosso" is something I would like to see. But this is surely not the Nausicaa in reference.. Give me a quick link to a synopsis of Nausicaa then... :)

Re:Huh?

[tgibbs]

Nausicaa is a wonderful early animated film by Miyazaki, more famous in the US for the Academy Award-winning "Spirited Away" and for "Princess Mononoke." Until now, it has only been legally available in the US as a mangled (missing about 20 minutes) dubbed version called "Warriors of the Wind," which still can be found on the shelves of some video rental shops.

Re:Huh?

[RatBastard]

Nausicaa was previously released in the US as Warriors Of The Wind", whic is one of the worst Amricanizations of a foreign film I have ever seen. Not only was the dialogue badly rewritten, but entire subplots were removed. Even so, it was still a pretty good movie and I didn't realize how badly they had mangled it until I saw a Chinese pirate copy of the original (in Japanese with English subtitles).

Re:Huh?

[critter_hunter]

Nausicaa is pretty much Princess Mononoke actually - the story and characters are somewhat similar, and some scenes are exactly the same (the critter charges, for one). While Mononoke has superior animation, Nausicaa has great animation for its time period and is overall superior (IMHO). The ending in particular is much better in Nausicaa

Re:Huh?

[the phantom]

Ignorance is forgiven. To add to the posts already made:

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was one of Hayo Miyazaki's (sp) earlier films. Miyazaki is one of Japan's most well known and (in my humble opion) most talented animators. In fact, his most recent film, Spirited Away, is the highest grossing film ever in Japan, even beating out some Hollywood films.

The story of Nausicaa is set in a distopean future, where a poisonous wasteland is slowly encroaching upon human habitation. Like many of Miyazaki's films, he is rather heavy with the Green Stick (the same one that Greenpeace and other environmentalists like to beat you over the head with). It is also one of the most amazingly animated films that I have ever seen, contains a universe of well rounded characters that can actually be identified with (rather than simply cardboard cut-outs, like, say, any Disney character), and has a beautiful musical score.

I could go into more detail, but others have already posted the IMDB link and I do not wish to provide spoilers. This is a great movie, and when it comes out, I highly recommend that you catch it in a theater (if it ever gets there)or, at the very least, rent it on DVD and watch it with subtitles.

Re:Huh?

[badasscat]

Nausicaa is pretty much Princess Mononoke actually - the story and characters are somewhat similar,

I honestly believe people who think this about these two films have utterly missed the point of Nausicaa. (You're not the only one - it seems a common view, especially among westerners I know who have seen both films.) Look at the time Nausicaa was made. Look at what was going on in the world at that time. Miyazaki has always made films that are allegories to issues he considers important now (though they also have timeless messages too - it's just that those timeless messages are always extremely apropos of the moment).

Nausicaa is an anti-war film - specifically, an anti-nuclear war film (Miyazaki himself has said the Cold War at that time deeply affected him, and he felt the Japanese public was not paying enough attention to it). Princess Mononoke is a film about man living in harmony with nature. They are two very different messages, though I suppose if you really stretch, you can connect them.

Re:Huh?

[ghost-hacked]

have you seen both of them? other then the style, how could you possible equate the two, its almost like equateing scooby doo with ghost in the shell- stand alone complex,(both kick ass, but completely unrelated)

Re:Huh?

[fenix down]

They've got different goals, but they were developed kinda parellel to eachother. Naussica is war-centric, Mononoke is evironment-centric, but he did come up with them (at least the main characters) at about the same time, so there's a bit of overlap. And really, in the Nausicaa manga, he spends a lot more time covering most of Mononoke's points. I think there's also something about how the Mononoke ending was mostly making up for the way they changed the Nausicaa anime to have that tacked happy ending.

Re:Huh?

[ameoba]

If you want the rest of the story, check out the manga. With over 1000 pages, there's a lot more depth and details. I'm not knocking the movie, it's great; putting everything in the would've result in an overwhelming epic film.

Re:Huh?

[critter_hunter]

Of course I have seen both. And I'm not saying they are the same thing - just that they are very similar. It is VERY obvious that they are both Miyazaki films - there's much more than a passing resemblance between the two.

Both are much more similar to one another than, say, Spirited Away and Laputa, Or Mononoke and My Neighbours the Yamadas, or any other two given Miyazaki movies. They are similar in ideologies, characters and pacing, which is alot more than you can say about Scooby Doo and Ghost In The Shell.

Re:Huh?

[S.Lemmon]

Well, truthfully the correct title is "Kaze no Tani no Nausicca" ^_^

Re:Huh?

[RickHunter]

Yeah, but doesn't Pom Poko have the same message too? And maybe Totoro, come to think of it. It seems to be a common theme in Studio Ghibli's work, though there are many others that they use. Though I wouldn't say I got the same message from Nausicaa and Mononoke. Mononoke seemed to be more about living in harmony with nature (though not necessarily surrendering to it - remember that Iron Town was rebuilt by Ashitaka) while Nausicaa seemed to be more about accepting the inherent balance between corruption and purty that is life and not striving for either extreme. (The manga, at least - I've never seen the movie)

Re:Huh?

[S.Lemmon]

Romanization is always a bit tricky. I think the reason is "Nausicaa" is an actual Russian(?) name and not Japanese or made up. Na.u.shi.ka is about as close as you get in katakana, but in cases where it's known foreign word, it usually ok to "convert" it back to it's original form.

Re:Huh?

[Colin Simmonds]

Actually, "Nausicaa" comes from classical Greek. I have the first volume of the manga, and it has a foreword that explains that Miyazaki was partially inspired by a Greek myth featuring a princess of that name. Here's the first page Google found for me about the original Nausicaa: http://www.loggia.com/myth/nausicaa.html.

Re:Huh?

[plenTpak]

I have to agree completely. I read the manga first, and when I saw the anime, I was severely disappointed (I thought it was crap). However, many people I talked to about the anime said it was really good, so I guess that's just how much better the manga really is (IMO, of course).

Re:Huh?

[AndyChrist]

This is not only because they were created by the same man, but also both were drawn from the same source material. "Shuna no Tabi," ("Shuna's Journey") a graphic novel created by Miyazaki several years before he started Nausicaa. It is almost like they made two different movies from the same book. Well, not almost like, that is what they did.

It's quite cheap, pretty short, but pretty hard to follow if you can't read japanese, though, I think. Still, if you're interested enough, you can see the similarities just looking at the (full-color, watercolor...with miyazaki's fingerprints visible in some panels :P) pictures, it's probably worthwhile.

The ultimate film-geek article

[raider_red]

What else can you call it when you get to mention Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman, and Patrick Stewart in the same posting.

Re:The ultimate film-geek article

[DarkBlackFox]

Not to mention Anime and DVD.

Re:The ultimate film-geek article

[notque]

What else can you call it when you get to mention Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman, and Patrick Stewart in the same posting.

Offtopic?

Re:The ultimate film-geek article

[Guppy06]

No no, it can't be the "ultimate" with no mention of Bruce Campbell.

Re:The ultimate film-geek article

[ifwm]

And how is it off topic when those people are doing the voices? Well? Or were you just being an asshole?

Re:The ultimate film-geek article

[Uma Thurman]

I posted a response to you earlier, but it's not showing up here, even though it was rated at +2. Why?

Re:The ultimate film-geek article

[raider_red]

I don't know, but if you're the real Uma Thurman, can we meet for dinner next week in Oklahoma City?

What exactly is this?

[The One KEA]

The Nausicaa web site doesn't explain very much, and I'm not about to wade through mailinglist archives either.

Re:What exactly is this?

[PhoenixFlare]

Be warned that this may have spoilers, but take a quick skim through here for a synopsis. It's linked to pretty clearly on the Nausicaa site in the post.

for those of you who don't know..

[joeldg]

Miyazaki is the guy who did the following very well known movies:
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Kiki's Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro

Re:for those of you who don't know..

[bhagwan]

There's no need to wait for Eisner of Borg to ruin Porco Rosso. You can by a great DVD copy of the movie right now online, with Japanese, English, and French language tracks. The French track is laid down by Jean Reno, re-affirming his claim to being the only frenchman in the world who can kick ass. Look it up.

Re:for those of you who don't know..

[dasmegabyte]

For those of you who don't know, Porco Russo is about a pilot during WWI who survived a big attack and was somehow turned into an anthropomorphic pig. It is very good. Probably my second favorite Ghibli film (best is Whispers of the Heart).

Re:for those of you who don't know..

[fenix down]

Hell, what's a geek if not a 9 year-old girl in the body of a fat-assed white guy. Obsessive desire to collect expensive products no one else wants, drawing of innane distinctions between productivity tools based on qualities irelevent to their function, rampantly over-idealized view of how the real world works, lack of a sex life...

So shut up and watch your damn cartoons. Some Japanese marketing guys went through a lot of effort to figure out what your demographic likes, now enjoy, damnit.

Re:for those of you who don't know..

[BJH]

I know you're a troll, but just to put the record straight, both Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away marked some of the highest ratings ever when they were broadcast on TV in Japan.

Re:oh the irony

[RatBastard]

It's one thing to not bother readung the linked story, but not even bothering to read the post?

Re:Chalk up another wind for the childrapists

[inteller]

fuck you I hope Urotsukidoji happens to you in real life!

Only showing?

[Black_Logic]

I'm a little confused by that, It's a Disney dub right? I don't know how much effort or cost goes into dubbing a foreign film, buy why would Disney do it just to show it once? Will it come out on DVD or something?

Re:Only showing?

[Vaevictis666]

I can only imagine that it will eventually hit DVD. And yes, it is Disney doing the dub, they have all distribution rights for Studio Ghibli films in North America. Have a look on the Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke dvd cases, and I'd wager there's a Disney logo on there somewhere.

Re:Only showing?

[MagikSlinger]

Yes, it's all coming out on DVD. Disney got a distribution deal for Japan & North America (I don't know if they have it Worldwide) for all of Ghibli's back catalog. They released Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service earlier this year. Now we just need to know what the 3rd movie will be. They seem to like releasing them in groups of 3.

Re:Only showing?

[Neop2Lemus]

Someone didn't RTFA!

Re:Only showing?

[Snowdrake]

Actually, the original Mononoke Hime DVD only had the Miramax logo and "Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment," no Disney logo to be seen. On the other hand, Laputa bears the front-and-center inscription "Walt Disney Home Entertainment presents a Studio Ghibli film" and a nice little Disney logo on the spine. I think they realized at some point that it really does benefit them to have their name on Miyazaki's work.

Re:Only showing?

[tuffy]

Now we just need to know what the 3rd movie will be. They seem to like releasing them in groups of 3.

Whisper of the Heart is the third movie, but it's being held up while Disney negotiates the copyright of a "certain song".

Re:Only showing?

[Black Hitler]

Mononoke was going to be a Disney release until they released the whole severed limbs thing doesn't exactly match the image Disney wants for itself. So they handed it off to Miramax. Most Miyazaki films are more family-friendly, hence "Spirited Away," "Laputa" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" being released under the Disney label.

Re:Only showing?

[jandrese]

Plus, how the heck are they going to handle the song translations in the dub?

Re:Only showing?

[tuffy]

Plus, how the heck are they going to handle the song translations in the dub?

Good question. But the dub is already in the can. All that's left is the rights. It'll be interesting, to be sure.

Re:Only showing?

[Josh Booth]

Princess Mononoke's dub has one song that is translated into English, which is probably the biggest thing that bothered my about the dubbing. In Spirited Away they didn't dub the ending song and posted a translation instead. I think the Mononoke dubbing is pretty decent with minor details changed and a few vulgarities inserted (Jigo says "This tastes like donkey piss" instead of "This tastes like hot water" or something like that).

Re:Only showing?

[Black_Logic]

I was gonna tell you to shut the hell up, but I went back and read it again, and it does say at the bottom of the post: The Porco Rosso DVD will be out in April.

But,... even so, Shut the hell up.

Re:Only showing?

[ShadeEagle]

I thought Concrete Road was owned by Ghibli and thus part of the Disney deal ;-p

it could come to wider release

[jr87]

the demand for anime and the community has grown exponetionally lately. the success of Spirited away in getting a wider audience (btw everybody who I've shown it to loved it) I believe that it is only a matter of time before more and more anime makes it into American theatres.

Will it have the same music as the original??

[tmhsiao]

I can see them redubbing English voices, but if they get rid of the little-girl-singing-compelling-lyrics* songs, I'll refuse to see it.

*compelling lyrics: "La, la la-la la la la. La, la la-la la. / La, la la-la la la la. La-la la-la la la la."

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[the phantom]

Given the dubs and DVD releases of the rest of Miyazaki's films, I doubt very much that they will be changing much of anything. The music, which is oh so very important to the story, will remain the same (so says *I*).

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[macshune]

mod parent up. even though i'm probably the only other person that will get that joke.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[rgmoore]

You didn't hear their dub track for Castly in the Sky, then. They left the Japanese language track alone, but felt the need to spice things up in the English version. The most glaring example is when Pazu starts playing the trumpet in the morning. In the Japanese track, it's just a nice trumpet solo as though he's playing a song to wake up the neighborhood. In the English dub, Disney decided that wasn't good enough and turned the whole thing into an orchestral piece, albeit with a strong trumpet line. It's not a huge change, but it shows that Disney really does think that they know better than Miyazaki.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[ameoba]

No. You're not.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[Snowdrake]

No, actually you're not. Those had to be some of the best scenes in the movie; I've gotta say I like the manga better, but the movie's special to me and I hope to god they don't play games with the dialogue or pretend they know better than Hisaishi-sensei on the score like they did with Laputa. But we'll see...

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[tuffy]

In the English dub, Disney decided that wasn't good enough and turned the whole thing into an orchestral piece, albeit with a strong trumpet line.

It was actually Joe Hisaishi himself who re-did the entire score for "Castle in the Sky" - making it orchestral rather than synthesized for the dub. He wanted to make it more "american".

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[Rob Simpson]

Castle in the Sky, but yeah. Of course, I didn't spend much time listening to the dub track. (Even the subtitling could've been done a lot better.) Though the few seconds with that dumbass from Pixar (before I skipped) at the beginning was the most painful bit.

I guess Disney wasn't quite as bad as whoever made "Warriors of the Wind", but none of the anime distro companies I know of would have done such a lame job.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[tuffy]

I guess Disney wasn't quite as bad as whoever made "Warriors of the Wind", but none of the anime distro companies I know of would have done such a lame job.

Perhaps. Perhaps not. But neither Bandai, ADV or Pioneer/Geneon can afford to license Ghibli movies anymore. Disney is the only one big enough to bring these films stateside, so we'll just have to be grateful we're getting anamorphic, progressive R1 discs with subs and dubs - all at reasonable rates.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[Balorn]

Personally, I thought the most glaring example was when he's going through the storm, just before he gets to Laputa. They added music and sound effects. The original had silence (actually it's been a bit since I watched it - maybe they had some sound, but certainly not music), and the feeling of the scene is very different.

You don't get much more glaring than "silence" versus "full soundtrack and effects".

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[the phantom]

Ha! I did notice that, but just assumed that my memory was going. I'll have to pay more attention next time.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[the phantom]

Definitly not the only one.

"It has only been 5 seconds since you hit reply"
La-la-lalala-la, la-la-lalala, la-la-lalala-la, lalalalala-la-la

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[J. T. MacLeod]

Though it was done by Hisaishi, the changes were done at Disney's insistence.

They had very specific directions and concerns.

Hisaishi was, of course, upset, but Miyazaki told him to come at it with a fresh outlook and compose an entirely new track.

What you have is almost exactly the same overall except
a) in places where different instruments were chosen (the older piece sounding, well, very 80s)
and
b) the quiet, solemn parts that Disney had "concerns" about are now given loud, distracting music

In a few places, you can hear where the composition sounds a tad more mature, and the soundtrack is somewhat "cleaner" sounding due to different recording technology (some audiophiles would just say that the old one sounds "warmer" :>)

I suppose it was less of a slap in the face to have Hisaishi do the work, but it was, indeed, Disney who did the pushing, and almost every change was care of the mouse. Hisaishi did his best to make it sound acceptable to Americans, but, on the whole, I much prefer the older soundtrack, excepting a couple of pieces that sound, on the whole, highly similar to the old soundtrack.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[sasami]

that dumbass from Pixar

That, sir, would be John Lasseter. A personal friend of Hayao Miyazaki and an animation pioneer in his own right -- in both the technical and artistic aspects of the trade.

He is the creative direction beind Pixar's incredibly successful films, and so he pulls considerable weight at Disney. His influence is the only reason the Ghibli films have not been butchered far, far more than they already have been.

---
Dum de dum.

Re:Will it have the same music as the original??

[BigFire]

Laputa: The Castle in the Sky is probably the only synthesizer sounding soundtrack that Joe Hiasaishi did. He wasn't satisified about it. So when Disney want to pay for re-orchestration of the soundtrack, he's more than happy to oblige.

Fascination with dubbing?

[Lord_Dweomer]

I've never understood why all of the normal foreign films, like all the french ones, are sub-titled, and people here love it, yet for some reason they always insist on dubbing the anime. Now, the vast majority of SERIOUS anime fans (myself included) HATE dubs, and refuse to collect anything but sub-titled anime. I wonder why they refuse to sub-title the good stuff, especially Porco Rosso, which is quite an excellent movie. Just once I'd love for them to do a good sub-titling job, and release it in the states, and have it be wildly successful to show that people really do enjoy the subs. Oh well, least I still have my fansubs and I won't have to deal with all this dubbing nonsense.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[the phantom]

I agree, dubs are evil. However, they appeal to the audience that Disney (*not* Studio Ghibli) is targeting, i.e. younger people who cannot/do not want to read fast enought to enjoy the film. For purists like myself, all of the Ghibli DVDs yet released include the Japanese language tracks, along with subtitles.

If you are looking for a theatrical release of the subtitled movie, that is unlikely to happen. However, if you are looking for a legitimate replacement for your fan-subs, Disney/Mirimax/whoever-the-hell-is-actually-doing- this has actually done a good job of putting out the movies in the past.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[tgibbs]

The nice thing about the DVD versions is that you have your choice: a clearly subtitled version and an excellent dub. So you can watch it in Japanese with your snobbish fan friends, and still show it to your more "normal" friends who wouldn't sit still for a subtitled cartoon in a foreign languange. Personally, I enjoy both--it's nice to see how talented English speaking actors reinterpret a brilliant Japanese anime, like listening to a cover of an old favorite song by a great band.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Evangelion]

For purists like myself, all of the Ghibli DVDs yet released include the Japanese language tracks, along with subtitles.

That is, all of the DVDs that Disney has released. Fox had the rights to Totoro for a while, and before they got passed onto Disney, they released a horribly under-featured DVD with no subtitles. Because of that release, Disney hasn't gotten around to putting Totoro out on DVD with a proper set of subtitles.

We ended up getting a region free player and ordering Totoro from CD Japan instead of buying the Fox version.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[bettiwettiwoo]

... yet for some reason they always insist on dubbing the anime.

I think the 'reasoning' goes: anime is animated films; animated films are watched by children; children can't read subtitles; ergo dubbing.

It's over-simplified, silly and very, very irritating. I have watched Princess Mononoke in (dubbed) English and in Japanese with subtitles (I don't understand a word of Japanese): the Japanese version is infinitely better: not only does it 'feel' better to have Japanese characters speak in Japanese, the English subtitles were also slightly different to the spoken, dubbed English and made more sense I thought, not dramatically different, but different enough to make a subtle difference.

In general, dubbed films, nay, dubbed anything just plain sucks: something is always lost in translation, but in dubbing too much goes awry.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[flink]

Are the Japanese releases region 0?

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[aardvarkjoe]

Just once I'd love for them to do a good sub-titling job, and release it in the states, and have it be wildly successful to show that people really do enjoy the subs.

You mean ... like they did with "Princess Mononoke," "Spirited Away," "Laputa," and "Kiki's Delivery Service?" If you're going to knock the quality of subtitled releases, the Studio Ghibli releases in the US are the wrong place to start complaining.

And in any case, the dubs of those movies have generally been of very high quality as well, for those who like to be able to have the chance to pay extra attention to the animation. I see no reason to doubt that the dubs of Nausicaa and Porco Rosso will be fantastic as well. (Well, almost -- I admit that the dubbing work on "Castle in the Sky" was below the standards of the others.)

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[the phantom]

Sorry, my bad, you are correct sir.

I had forgotton about Totoro. I managed to avoid the whole dubbing thing with a bootleg of some sort. I am hoping that someone someday comes out with a legitimate version -- your solution is beyond my meager student's capacity.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Jesrad]

Although I would generally agree with you on subs V.S. dubs, Porco Rosso is the one shining exception to this rule.

It was released in VHS and DVD here in France years ago before its distribution was halted for some insane and unfathomable copyright issues. It was a fantastic dub, with Jean Reno, no less, as Porco's voice. Its quality was actually higher than the original ! Dubbing was made by The Dubbing Brothers, who also made the dub for Laputa - Castle in the Sky, though that one was nowhere near as nicely made.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[rifter]

I've never understood why all of the normal foreign films, like all the french ones, are sub-titled, and people here love it, yet for some reason they always insist on dubbing the anime. Now, the vast majority of SERIOUS anime fans (myself included) HATE dubs, and refuse to collect anything but sub-titled anime. I wonder why they refuse to sub-title the good stuff, especially Porco Rosso, which is quite an excellent movie. Just once I'd love for them to do a good sub-titling job, and release it in the states, and have it be wildly successful to show that people really do enjoy the subs. Oh well, least I still have my fansubs and I won't have to deal with all this dubbing nonsense.

I hate dubbing as well, mainly because they pick terrible voice actors for the parts. Now Patrick Stewart is no slouch for voice acting, and all slashdotters love Natalie Portman, but for me there is no substitute for the real thing when it comes to foreign films, especially Japanese ones.

I wish that more Japanese video games retained the voicing as well. It is frustrating because usually if you want to hear the original Japanese, you have to get the Japanese version which is of course not subtitled and uses Japanese menus.

I was recently playing the US PS2 version of "Way of the Samurai" and I noticed that they had retained the grunts and cries of the original voice actors, but the speech was mute (there was text). I thought it was awfully tantalizing to have all those Japanese voice actors but only be able to hear the emphatics. It wuld have been nice to have them actually speaking.

Tenchu 2 (or was it 3) finally caught onto this and allowed the speech to be configured seperately from the subtitling. That is especially good because Tenchu's US speech was terrible, even featuring stereotypical broken english speaking characters for extra infamy! :P

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[NanoGator]

"I've never understood why all of the normal foreign films, like all the french ones, are sub-titled, and people here love it, yet for some reason they always insist on dubbing the anime."

There's a very simple reason: English and French are similar languages, at least in comparison to English and Japanese. Sentences are roughly the same length bewteen English and French, but in Japanese, the difference is pretty wild. Simply put, there are situations where subtitling a Japenese movie in English isn't ideal. You can't even really get the pacing of the sentence.

Don't assume it's about anime itself. It's a langauge barrier problem.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Lord_Dweomer]

My bad, I was very happy with the quality of the subs of the Ghibli releases. What I should have said instead of releases was theatrical releases. The DVD's all have them, but they never do in the theaters.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Lord_Dweomer]

"So you can watch it in Japanese with your snobbish fan friends, and still show it to your more "normal" friends who wouldn't sit still for a subtitled cartoon in a foreign languange."

Oh you little troll you. Your point would have been a good one if it had not been entirely invalidated by your trollish remark. There is nothing about preferring subbing that makes one snobbish, nor is someone "normal" because they don't have the patience to watch something in its original format as the creator intended for it to be viewed.

I'm glad you enjoy both, and on rare occasions I have enjoyed dubs, like Cowboy Bebop, but in terms of pure numbers, the vast majority of anime fans prefer subtitles. So if by "normal", you mean "tiny minority with a short attention span", you would be correct.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[charlito]

My take on it, is that americans are racist when it comes to translating asian films. I always found it funny, like you note, that they subtitle european films, but dub anime (or even like action). To me, it shows a lot of disrespect towards the cultures/languages (i think a lot is lost when you remove the emotional impact of the native language).

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Nakamiya]

No. If you find one that is, it is a bootleg from Hong Kong.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[iantri]

Simply put, there are situations where subtitling a Japenese movie in English isn't ideal. You can't even really get the pacing of the sentence.

Well, they've been doing fine so far..

But you aren't really making sense. If the difference in pacing is going to make it hard to subtitle it properly, isn't it going to be an even bigger issue when it comes to dubbing (matching mouth movements to a pacing in which 'the difference is pretty wild')?

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[TheLoneDanger]

Well, Millenium Actress was subbed, although it was only in limited release to promote the DVD release.

Would it have done better in wide release? Probably not by much.

I really can't think of too many anime movies that would do really well over here in wide release and subtitled. If you can name some, I would be very interested to hear it.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[MagikSlinger]

Dubs outsell subtitled versions on VHS like 10:1. There's a lot of people who like them.

What annoys me is the poor quality of the voice actors and sound mixing. Disney at least puts some effort into getting people who can act and makes a damned good effort at sound mixing.

Compare that to Pioneer Entertainment which

• hires the wrong voice actors
• makes little effort at emotionally matching the characters
• records the voices "hot" (recording levels right at the hot line so the level will actually peak out)
• barely adds any environmental effects
• and mixes it louder than the original Japanese voice tracks.

Their dubs float on top of the film as opposed to feeling a natural part of it. Kind of like someone using liquid paper(TM) to white out text on a computer screen then writing on top of it.

BTW, apologies to the recording geeks if I made a mistake in describing the audio terminology. Hopefully you still got what I meant. :-)

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[NanoGator]

In a case like that, you don't have to try as hard to figure out who's saying what and when.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[rgmoore]

There have been some subtitled releases, albeit not Miyazaki's. In the past couple of years I've seen Millenium Actress, Metropolis, and Patlabor: WXIII all in subs. I also caught the Cowboy Bebop movie subbed, although that was a one-time screening at American Cinematheque rather than the regular theatrical release. So there are some distributors who think that it's worthwhile releasing in Japanese.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[ghost-hacked]

its quite simple, in america, anything animated is generaly perceived as chidrens entertainment, thus dubbing is a must, since children cant read fast,well(or at all if your from arkansas), then dubbing is a must, and all to often, its done horridly.(thus the utter distane for dubbs by many american anime fans) But w/ the increasing poularity of Anime in america, getting good Dubbs is becomening more common, Cowboy Beepop for example, is an absolutly awsome english dub. i for one dont prefer subs vs dubs either way, unless one of them sucks more than the other.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Mattsson]

Well... In the case of Miyazakis movies it's actually motivated.
They are mostly movies that can be appreciated by the whole family, just like Disneys.
If you are going to watch a movie with your 10 year old brother/sister or your child, they would get very little enjoyment from it if it was subtitled.

That said, I always try to find a theatre that's showing the original dub when I'm going to the movies myself, and I choose the original dub when watching dvd...
I was really glad that when Spirited away went up here in Sweden, it was the original japanese dub with subtitles. I wish that they would have done at least a *few* showings with a Swedish dub so that my brothers children could have watched it too, though. And all my anime dvd's are English and Japanese only, so that's no use either.

Even though there are lots of anime that's not appropriate for a very young audience, most of what's produced is targeted towards people who would have a hard time understanding subtitled ones.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[tgibbs]

There is nothing about preferring subbing that makes one snobbish, nor is someone "normal" because they don't have the patience to watch something in its original format as the creator intended for it to be viewed

No, it is not snobbish to merely prefer to watch something in the original language. A snobbish attitude would be something along the lines of "I just can't bear to watch in in its dubbed format--it utterly ruins it for me. Anybody who would watch a dubbed version would have to somebody with a short attention span." Or who presumes to know for certain that its creator really intended it to be viewed in a subtitled format by non-Japanese speakers.

The reality, no matter how distasteful you may find it, is that a large fraction of the viewing public (as opposed to self-styled "anime fans") finds subtitles distracting, and a major obstacle to their enjoyment. And many of those people, no matter how much you may sneer at them, would enjoy a work like Nausicaa if they had a chance to view it in English.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[rgmoore]

There is nothing about preferring subbing that makes one snobbish, nor is someone "normal" because they don't have the patience to watch something in its original format as the creator intended for it to be viewed.

Heck, it's not necessarily even an issue of artistic purity. I find that the original Japanese voice acting is usually higher quality than the dubs. I'm not sure exactly why, but I suspect that the way that the dubbing takes place has something to do with it. As I understand it, most American dubs have the cast come in and record their parts separately and then mix the whole thing together, while the Japanese actually have the whole cast together in the booth as a group. It's not at all clear to me why the dubbers do things that way, since that's not the way they do the voices when doing a cartoon that's originally in English.

There's also a clear advantage if you actually understand some Japanese. There are some shades of meaning that are very difficult to convey properly into English compactly that you can catch if you hear the Japanese. An example of this that I remember seeing recently is from RahXephon. When Ayato leaves Terra HQ to go back to Tokyo Jupiter, he tells Haruka "Ittekimasu". This is translated as "goodbye", but it's specifically the way of saying goodbye that you say when you're planning on coming back afterward. That's something that I would have missed had I been listening to the dub (or I'll admit if I had been watching the sub but hadn't been paying enough attention on other occasions to catch that particular distinction).

I have enjoyed dubs, like Cowboy Bebop, but in terms of pure numbers, the vast majority of anime fans prefer subtitles.

I don't think that the numbers support you on this point. The (admittedly unscientific) surveys that I've seen on Anime websites suggest that dubs have a substantial following. I'm not sure if it's a majority, but it's at least a large minority. It's enough that every Anime has a dub track unless there's some specific contractual or historical reason not to- and that's despite the fact that dubbing is clearly a lot more expensive than subtitling.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Lord_Dweomer]

"A snobbish attitude would be something along the lines of "I just can't bear to watch in in its dubbed format--it utterly ruins it for me. Anybody who would watch a dubbed version would have to somebody with a short attention span.""

Well, since I never said I can't bear to watch dubbed stuff, I don't really know how to respond to this. I wonder if when they release a dubbed version of anime in america their primary audience is the existing anime fans, or instead new potential fans. Note my use of the word primary. I'm sure they are targeting both audiences to some extent.

And in terms of numbers, I'm positive if you interviewed a large sample pool of anime fans, the vast majority would prefer subs. I'm sorry, thats just the general view of the community. I'm not putting down people who like dubs, I'm just stating the facts. So if they are in fact targeting existing anime fans, I feel they would be more successful to have it subbed, whereas if they are targeting the new fans/fringe fans, then perhaps yes, they should do dubbed.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[David_W]

Because of that release, Disney hasn't gotten around to putting Totoro out on DVD with a proper set of subtitles.

Actually, IIRC, Fox still has the distribution rights to Totoro for a couple more years... after that the rights revert to Disney. Many people are anticipating they will release a sub version sometime after that on par with the other Ghibli releases they've done.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[BJH]

What do you mean, "higher than the original"? The original voicetrack for Porco Rosso was brilliant - Moriyama Shuichiro did a great job as Porco Rosso, and Kato Tokiko (a singer rather than a voice actor) not only sung the title song, but also voiced one of the characters.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Lord_Dweomer]

"There's also a clear advantage if you actually understand some Japanese. There are some shades of meaning that are very difficult to convey properly into English compactly that you can catch if you hear the Japanese. "

Wow, I totally forgot about this point. Thanks for bringing it up. I understand a small amount of Japanese, and even with my paltry repetoire, there is an ENTIRELY different layer of meaning in the japanese as opposed to the english. Some things just don't translate.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[tuffy]

Actually, IIRC, Fox still has the distribution rights to Totoro for a couple more years... after that the rights revert to Disney.

Fox's Totoro rights expire at the end of this year. Disney has it scheduled for release in late 2004.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Josh Booth]

I've only seen Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, but I think the voicecasting has been pretty good. Chihiro's parents sound rather different, but they are minor characters anyway. The Japanese Kamaji has a much raspier voice than the English one. And Jigo in Princess Mononoke is not quite the same. But Billy Crudup as Ashitaka was a really good choice.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[Josh Booth]

I think that it is so unnatural to see 30 fps video where the voiceover doesn't match the mouths, while at 15 fps you can't really tell the difference. My brain always hurts when watching a dub of live action like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but I can't tell the difference for Anime.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[S.Lemmon]

I think a lot of this stems from early anime dubs. Stuff brought over in the 80's or early 90's was often done on the cheap and could be *very* painful to listen too. Sometime it sounded like they just pulled anyone off the street to read the lines.

Anymore, anime (and animation in general) is taken seriously enough to hire professional voice actors and the results are much much better. The only problem I have with Disney dubs is they love to use "famous" voices to promote the movie, but think it's a distraction. I'd prefer professional voice actors over movie stars.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[WiseWeasel]

Although it's a series rather than a movie, Furicuri (FLCL or Fooly Cooly) is unwatchable in the dubbed version (once you've seen the subbed one). Quirky movies with an older (and therefore more articulate) target audience fare much, much better in subbed translations, as the can convey the original meaning rather than try to condense the dialogue to fit mouth movements. The only time I will play one of my anime DVDs in subbed mode is when one of my ADD friends wants to watch, as they could care less if the translation is accurate; all they want is the pretty animation. There are many movies that do ok subbed, but most of the ones I'm interested in have much better translations in the subs than in the English dubbed soundtrack. When you watch these movies as a reflection of Japanese culture, dubbed soundtracks are out of the question. Subs always give much more insight into the characters' mentality and local expressions.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[ledestin]

Never had any problems with that. Subs I've seen are well-timed.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[May Kasahara]

Have you actually seen the Laputa sub? It's got one of the most botched subtitling jobs I've ever seen. On Animefu, all of the reviews for this release back this fact up.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[tgibbs]

So if they are in fact targeting existing anime fans, I feel they would be more successful to have it subbed, whereas if they are targeting the new fans/fringe fans, then perhaps yes, they should do dubbed.

Considering that every previous Disney DVD Miyazaki release has included both the Japanese version and a high-quality dubbed version, they are obviously interested in appealing to both audiences. Disney deserves a lot of credit for investing in the top-quality voice talent that is required if these titles are to reach a wider audience in English-speaking countries. Unfortunately, they will apparently have to do so on video, because while the guys developing these Miyazaki works for DVD clearly appreciate that they are dealing with classics on the level of Cinderalla or Sleeping Beauty, the guys making Disney's promotional decisions just as obviously don't "get it." Spirited Away received only a very limited "art house" release until it won the Academy Award, and only a tiny fraction of the promotional budget that was wasted on Treasure Planet, which tanked anyway.

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[AnyNoMouse]

And in terms of numbers, I'm positive if you interviewed a large sample pool of anime fans, the vast majority would prefer subs. I'm sorry, thats just the general view of the community. I'm not putting down people who like dubs, I'm just stating the facts.

Actually, I think you're wrong. Judging from the number of people that go absolutely crazy about meeting English voice actor/actresses, I'd say that the Anime fandom is either equally split sub/dub or tilted in the favor of dubs. I've seen this first hand at all of the conventions I've been to (and that's quite a few).

You have to remember that most anime fans are being introducted to Anime through Cartoon Network these days. Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon and Pokemon have induced more people into the culture that you might think.

Personally, though, there aren't many dubbed anime shows I like. I guess I'm just picky. I absolutely hated what Disney did to my favorite Miyaziki film (Laputa) by dubbing the main characters with teenage+ voices and horribly ruining the subtitles. They even went so far as to change dialog and music in the English version. Arg! Anyway, I won't begrudge others of their dubs, just don't expect me to like them :-P

Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[aardvarkjoe]

Yes. I own both the DVD and a fansub copy of Laputa. I noticed no substantial differences in meaning between the two translations. (I slightly preferred the Disney subtitles, but as I don't know Japanese I can't say which one is more literally accurate.) It looks like some people are complaining about the timing, but I didn't have any trouble watching it. More to the point, a poorly timed set of subtitles beats out a poorly translated one any day.

Porco Rosso Isn't Technically a Kid's Flick.....

[TomHandy]

Just to clarify something based on your comment.... although many Miyazaki movies are made for kids (although even those are generally complex enough to be enjoyable for adults).... Porco Rosso is actually one of them that probably isn't...... it was a movie that Miyazaki specifically made to be shown as in-flight entertainment on airplanes. Still a great flick though.

-Tom

intro summary

[Vaevictis666]

I've seen a subtitled version of this, and it strikes me as a much better film than Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away (which have higher name recognition in North America), all written by Miyazaki.

It's a shame that it hasn't made it over here yet legitimately, though you can buy a bootleg DVD set of this and a bunch of other Studio Ghibli films (that's the publisher) in a few places online.

Nausicaa.net seems to be succumbing to slashdotting, but here's the first bit of a plot synopsis - warning, the full summary does contain spoilers.

It has been a millennium since a global war known as the "Seven Days of Fire" destroyed human civilization. Only a tiny remnant of humanity survives, huddled in small enclaves across the continents. The Fukai, a thick jungle whose spores and plantlife are poisonous to humans, covers much of the Earth's surface.

Feeding on the pollutants of the former human civilization, the Fukai continues to expand, enveloping the outposts of mankind and consuming them. Giant mutated insects are now the dominant form of life, living both in and above the Fukai. Of these, the Ohmu reign supreme - seventy-meter long pillbug-shaped guardians of the Fukai.

One of these islands of humanity is known as the Valley of the Wind. Protected from the spores by strong winds from the sea, these winds also power a forest of windmills to perform work and pump water from underground wells. Nonetheless, the inhabitants of the Valley must still be vigilant to ensure that the fungi do not gain a foothold amongst their crops and water supply.

Re:intro summary

[RatBastard]

Actuially, it was released in the USA. As a travesty called "Warriors Of The Wind". And even though it was horribly hacked and mangled, it was still a good movie.

Re:intro summary

[DeepDarkSky]

I have to say that I didn't enjoy Nausicaa as much as I'd like, though I do think it's more powerful than Princess Mononoke. The reason that I didn't enjoy it so much was because I had read the manga, which is a whole lot better. The story makes more sense and is more complete. It's really the same problem that Akira had - the anime movie came out in the middle of the manga story, and the manga story is so huge that they had to modify it for a feature length film, and the story suffers a great deal because of it.

Princess Mononoke, on the other hand, was probably created from the beginning to be set in a feature length film, so it doesn't suffer as much from the slightly disjointedness of Nausicaa from having the cram so much into so little time.

Read the manga - it's been translated into English and on sale for years. I highly recommend it. One of the rare Miyazaki manga too.

Re:intro summary

[BigFire]

New World's mangling of Nausicaa is the reason Ghibli is reluctant to license any more movie to North American market. It's only after they got an iron-clad contract that not one frame of film be removed without their approval that Miyazaki agreed to release the film here.

Re:intro summary

[ameoba]

The situation with the book being gutted to make a movie is very similar to something like Dune or Contact. I'm sure, with a little work, you could draw a few more parallels...

Re:intro summary

[rgmoore]

It's really the same problem that Akira had - the anime movie came out in the middle of the manga story, and the manga story is so huge that they had to modify it for a feature length film, and the story suffers a great deal because of it.

If you really want an example of a manga that was gutted in order to make the movie, the obvious example is what Madhouse (and CLAMP) did to X. It's so thoroughly butchered that it's not really even the same story anymore. It's a beautifully animated movie, but so much was ripped out to squeeze it under 100 minutes that there's nothing left but a bunch of images and fights.

Re:intro summary

[the phantom]

The manga of Nausicaa and the movie developed at about the same time. The movie only covers the first volume or so of the manga, as that is all that had been released when Miyazaki made the film.

Also, while I enjoyed the manga greatly, there are definite differences from one part or volume to the next, where Miyazaki's changing philosophy can be seen. The manga as a whole took something like ten years for him to complete, with long gaps between creative episodes.

The movie should not be seen as a reduction of the story (while many things are somewhat abridged, that is par), but rather a retelling of what had been written to date.

Also, the manga is quite easy to get in book form (took me three years to get the comic books, but the 'graphic novels' are easy to find). Try this or this.

More news on the BVHE UK site.

[Liquidkristal]

More news on all the Miyazaki releases can be found here: http://www.miyazakimovies.co.uk

Re:More news on the BVHE UK site.

[The Munger]

And just to add to that, Miyazaki's info page at IMDB.

Interesting but still not satisfactory...

[Asmodean451]

While I applaud the news of more of Miyazaki's work finding appreciation in the western world, the Nausicaa film is a pale shadow compared to the original manga.

The original manga was much longer, and investigated many more of the ecological and sociopolitical issues that Miyazaki setup in his wonderfully interesting post eco-disaster future. If you find the Nausicaa film interesting, by all means check out the manga, Viz comics publishes very high quality translated editions.(Note: I don't know Japanese so I can only speculate on the quality of the manga translation, but Viz generally does a good job)

Re:Interesting but still not satisfactory...

[Chad Page]

Part of why the manga is much more in depth was that it wasn't finished yet - Miyazaki worked on it on and off for several years after the movie was made. So the anime only roughly covers the first quarter of the manga story...

Re:Interesting but still not satisfactory...

[xyote]

A lot more in depth characterization in the manga. Nausicaa still comes across as a little bit unreal and two dimensional. Her motivation is a little opaque at times. The more interesting characters are Princess Kushana, daughter of the Emporer and therefore pretty much in the thick of court intrique and target of various plots and schemes by her brothers to get her killed in battle, and Kurotawa, sent by the imperial court as her next in command in order to keep an eye on her. Being sent from the court to the field isn't the jaded Kurotawa's idea of a good time but he does start to find her interesting and takes a more personal interest in his job, a first for him. And, yes, you won't get much of this from the anime.

Re:Interesting but still not satisfactory...

[dwhitman]

While I applaud the news of more of Miyazaki's work finding appreciation in the western world, the Nausicaa film is a pale shadow compared to the original manga.

I absolutely agree that the Nausicaa manga is at once longer, richer and more multilevel. However to be fair, one must note that the manga was written over something like a decade, and the anime was produced fairly early on, before the complete story had been fleshed out.

The color work in the anime brings some moodiness difficult to capture in the black and white manga, though. I'm thinking of the images of the golum-things wreaking havoc surrounded by blood red flames.

theatre release

[andih8u]

I hope disney does a wide theatre release for it a few days after it goes on sale to DVD like they did with Spirited Away. That was swell.

Re:oh the irony

[the phantom]

I believe that is was meant to be ironic in some way, hence the string of 'Ls' and 'Os'

Re:Patrick Stewart in Nausicaa?

[Uma Thurman]

Not only that, can you believe that I'm in it too? BTW, it was a thrill to rub Patrick's bald little head for good luck.

Re:Natalie Portman and Patrick Stewart

[DarkBlackFox]

Yeah, their children would either link Star Wars and Star Trek, or have hooves.

Re:Patrick Stewart in Nausicaa?

[rifter]

Did you somehow not even RTF summary and notice the bit where it says not to bother posting exactly what you said?

First off, slashdotters as a rule do not rtfa or even the whole submission. They don't click on links other than the headlines and reply, generally, an dthat includes article links.

Secondly, how dare they declare a tired old obscure nerdy joke vernoten on slashdot! What are they going to do? Seize our boxen?! I'll have you know that in Soviet Russia, all your first post penis bird natalie portman are belong to us, and they're worried about nausican stabbings?

???

Profit!

I did a translation

[DeadVulcan]

Based on a pre-existing fan-produced translation, I produced my own... if people are at all interested in reading it. I also talk about various translation issues I dealt with (or didn't deal with) in my "Notes and Reflections" page.

The hardest parts, for me, had less to do with cultural differences, but with linguistic differences where a Japanese expression was extremely compact and difficult to express in English, given the time constraint (one could argue that this is due to a cultural difference). One of my goals was to try and come up with something that could potentially be used for dubbing.

Of course, the opposite problem, where the Japanese phrase is longer, is not an issue, because it's always easy to make something more wordy.

Re:I did a translation

[BJH]

Looking at your "Notes and Reflections" page:

- The tripled-insect character is not "made up"; it's a genuine kanji.
- "Yanma" is just another word for dragonfly.
- "Hamushi" is often used as a general term for beetle.
- "Koyashi" means manure or fertilizer; in this case, 'feed' might be a better translation.
- Both the fox and the badger are cunning animals in Japanese folklore.

Re:Porco Rosso Isn't Technically a Kid's Flick....

[TomHandy]

Actually, just to clarify my above post...... it was specifically originally started out to be a 30-45 minute in-flight movie for Japan Airlines, but Miyazaki expanded it into a full length movie. He generally loves flight, etc..... so it was a good movie for him to make.

-Tom

Re:Chalk up another wind for the childrapists

[PhoenixFlare]

(Yes, I do actually love anime)

Here we see the strange lifeform known only as the Anime Troll, a fairly common sight in this area of Slashdot. A creature filling an odd niche in the world, they spend their time making rude comments, false accusations, and attempting to connect all anime to child pornography.

Now as you may have guessed, he can be a fiesty critter, but distract him for a moment with some old Sailor Moon tapes, and you can get close enough to observe his strange habits!

With a close inspection, we can see how this odd little creature interacts with the other trolls in the area, combining their "mad skillz" to annoy passerby much more effectively. Lurking in the backgrounds until a discussion begins, they can suddenly leap out and begin spouting rubbish en masse at any moment!

Sadly, though, such is the extent of their lives, otherwise being consigned to a pitful existence and...Wha? Give that back, you little bastard! One of them has stolen the keyboa.....^*&($^*&7HAhA fp!11 j00 all sux0rs!!!!!!!!!!111111 anim3 is for g33ks j00 stopid n3rds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nausicaa explained

[maliabu]

A picture worths a thousand words

i've been following Miyazaki's works, but in another language, so "Nausicaa" is totally new to me. however as soon as i see those images in google, all my memories are back on the "Valley of the Wind"

Re:Nausicaa explained

[Jaycatt]

From the Torrent version I saw, it reminded me a lot of "Valley of the Wind". Actually, I found "Valley of the Wind" to be a more diverse movie.

Someday they may even release "The Cat Returns" to Disney for dubbing (which is a pretty whimsical film, but fun to hear the word "neko" a lot)

Re:Miyazaki's lack of recognition in the US

[FrostedWheat]

Now, I only pray that they release the DVDs with the original Japanese soundtrack and subtitles.

I'm praying they release the DVDs at all in the UK. Spirited Away has been out for some time around the world, but there are no signs of a DVD release here for at least another year! Yea I could order the region 1 disk, but then I wouldn't be able to watch it on my big TV. Not to mention I'd probably be breaking a few obscure laws if I tried.

Re:Patrick Stewart in Nausicaa?

[IMarvinTPA]

I found it helpful because I couldn't remember when it was that Picard got stabbed by Nausicanns.

IMarv

Lord of the Ring - Anime

[maliabu]

or Miyazaki to do LOTR - Anime :)

My favorite Miyazaki film

[Jesrad]

Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa) is my favorite Miyazaki animated film. It is based off the identically-named comics, also done by Miyazaki.

It is probably Hayao's most "adult" work. It explores themes such as science without a conscience, the absurdity of war, and the relationships we have with our planet.

This film was released in the US and Europe in the 80s, but it was edited senseless by the licensee, which made Miyazaki mad. The title was changed to "Warriors of the wind" and every single meaningful scene was cut, turning the whole thing in a bad and violent action animated flick. Do NOT see it, for the sake of the original work.

The rights that the licensee has on the film are to expire next year, which is why Miyazaki will re-release it.

Re:My favorite Miyazaki film

[joeldg]

"It is probably Hayao's most "adult" work. It explores themes such as science without a conscience, the absurdity of war, and the relationships we have with our planet."

I think that perhaps "Princess Mononoke" covers this same ground...

Re:My favorite Miyazaki film

[Jesrad]

Both films show people dying, blood, explosions sending people and animals flying around, gigantic wild creatures charging madly at humans...

Since that's how the MPAA rates movies, yes, both are "adult". But I always considered Nausicaa to be more a mature work than Princess Mononoke because of its themes. YMMV

Dubbing can be appropriate

[DeepDarkSky]

Not only do many people have trouble reading fast enough, some people (a great number of them) have trouble because of dyslexia.

On the other hand, it's not so much that the dubs are bad as it is that often the Japanese voice actors use unnatural voices for the characters. Almost all young/teen girl voices are done this way. You look at some of these "the making of..." specials and you watch this little girl voice come out of a twenty something Japanese voice actress....it's weird.

English dubbing voice actors/actresses don't do this, of course. So those of use who are used to the unnatural voices of the anime characters get completely discombobulated by the difference in voice pitch.

Though it must be said, also, that Disney was one of the first ones to have done it - witness Snow White's voice - though I think the voice actress for Snow White didn't force it too much - her voice was already pretty high and girly.

Whether a dubbed anime will work depends also largely on the type of anime and how the characters are designed. With more serious or "adult" animes, dubbed voices actually work fine. I think that Cowboy Bebop dubbed was pretty good because of this. Of course, if you have "cute" looking girls in the anime, and then this deep western woman's voice come out, it's natural to think it's mismatched.

In Princess Mononoke, for example, Minnie Driver's rendition of Lady Eboshi's voice was a good match for the character.

Re:Miyazaki's lack of recognition in the US

[tgibbs]

Spirited Away won an Academy Award and is available in multiple copies in just about every video store in America. That's a pretty remarkable reception for something that is still somewhat alien, culturally speaking.

Re:Chalk up another wind for the childrapists

[joeldg]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..

hahahahahah..

dude.. I just blew coffee all over my monitor reading that..

hahaha..

dubs....

[MoFoQ]

ewww, ewww, ewwwwwwww!

MoFoQ stops poking SCO with his pitchfork and starts jabbing dubs.

Though the Natalie Portman portion is making it less heinous. Hell....I'd rather see Natalie fully clothed in a big bulky winter coat than watch dubs.

Re:dubs....

[tmhsiao]

Then you should rent Beautiful Girls.

Big bulky winter coat included...

Re:dubs....

[MoFoQ]

the one that'll make even the skinniest person look like the michelin guy?

Re:dubs....

[tmhsiao]

Not really. It's a bulky winter coat, but she still looks like major jailbait.

Re:dubs....

[MoFoQ]

I guess I have to watch it.

The last movie I actually watched that starred her was Leon (aka The Professional). She's beautiful, smart, and best of all, a brunette and not a blonde.

(And no...I didn't watch any of the new Star Wars...and I think I'm lucky).

Re:Patrick Stewart in Nausicaa?

[uberdave]

Probably, like most people I've seen read this topic (which, admittedly, is just me), he read as far as "Natalie Portman" and started reading the comments looking for the inevitable hot grits jokes, rather than reading the entire summary.

Here's how the summary looked to me:

[Blah Blah] Dub Updates

[blah blah]
[Blah blah] Disney [blah blah]premiered at the [blah blah] Film Festival. It will probably be the only theatrical showing
[Blah blah blah blah]
[blah blah blah]The cast includes Patrick Stewart, as well as Uma Thurman and, tentatively, Natalie Portman. [blah blah blah]
[blah blah blah]
[blah blah blah]

( Read More... | 59 of 62 comments )

Re:Miyazaki's lack of recognition in the US

[RatBastard]

I've shown a lot of people "Spirited Away", even my Americentric mother-in-law. Once you explain that ghosts and spirits are not automatically evil in Japanese story telling most people really get the movie.

Inevitable Dub vs Sub argument

[Txiasaeia]

I love anime. I've tried watching English-dubbed anime, and in my opinion it just doesn't work. One of the aspects that makes it anime is the JAPANESE, not Billy Bob Thornton speaking the lines of a Buddhist monk!

So, it's kinda annoying to me when I hafta wait ages for them to re-record English voices over awesome Japanese dialogue (Princess Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell, and Grave of the Fireflies, for example) when they could slap it on a Region 1 DVD and I could have it at the same time as everybody in the Far East. But I'm not bitter.

Re:Miyazaki's lack of recognition in the US

[Ztream]

Well, Spirited Away may be something for the future, but according to nausicaa.net, a few other Studio Ghibli films are scheduled for Region 2 PAL release next month, among them Laputa and Kiki. And if the problem isn't the region encoding but PAL, I believe you can get ahold of Australian Region 4 releases (though I'm not 100% sure they are PAL, but it seems likely).

Well, did you know...

[ledestin]

...that Shinji (Neon Genesis Evangelion) was err, voiced by a woman?
Can you really say she hasn't done a good job?

On the other hand, it's not so much that the dubs are bad as it is that often the Japanese voice actors use unnatural voices for the characters. Almost all young/teen girl voices are done this way.

Perhaps, but let me ask you, for how long have you lived in Japan to judge (I haven't)? How did you like Chihiro's voice acting?

Obviously I think dubs suck, just because they hide the original work.

Re:Well, did you know...

[DeepDarkSky]

Yes, there are quite a few young boy characters that are voiced by women. More than you might think. That's also because they usually don't use children, unlike in the U.S., where dubbing can often involve children.

So, again, unnatural voices in Japan - women doing the voice of little girls and young boys. Nothing wrong with it - though after a while, I think of it as natural. Anime voices seem to match their characters a lot better than the dub actors do - but I think that's also a casting issue.

I personally agree with you that I prefer the original work, because the character includes the original voice. I prefer it a lot more.

In Japan, women talk in their normal voices, which is very different from the anime characters. Western dub actors/actresses don't usually go through that kind of effort. Not only that, it would sound really strange too....kind of like operas in English (yes, I know some can be decent, but let's face it, opera is better in Italian, Spanish or French, perhaps even German)

I personally like the natural voice Japanes characters more - including the young girl actors. To that end, I liked most of Miyazaki's films' character voices. But for wacky and unbearably cute girl characters, you expect the really high-piched voices.

And it's not so much how long I've lived in Japan (only several months, over the course of years), but how much anime I've watched (a lot, but by no means am I the most fanatic of anime fans, who have watched far more than I have).

Re:Well, did you know...

[angst_ridden_hipster]

Well, even here, most voices are done by adults.

My girlfriend is a voiceover artist, and tells me stories about what certain voices really look like. You'd be amazed at how many little boys are actually women in their 50s. (in fact, it's almost the exact reverse of chatroom personas, where most young women are old men! Hm. Wonder what that's all about.)

Of course, if you want a more famous example, just listen to Bart Simpson. Nancy's only in her 40s, but it's the same idea...

Re:Well, did you know...

[rgmoore]

...that Shinji (Neon Genesis Evangelion) was err, voiced by a woman?

Why yes, I did know that; he was voiced by "the other" Megumi, who's also done roles such as Sailor Uranus, Yukito Tsukishiro, and Princess Emeraude. (And yes, I did know those other roles without looking them up.)

That said, I think that Spike Spencer absolutely nailed Shinji in the dub. I didn't like him as Mackie Stingray, I positively detested him as Akito Tenkawa, and I generally preferred the original Japanese to the dub in Evangelion. But I have to give the man his props. He played Shinji with the exact right degree of annoying self-pity and convinced me that dubs don't actually have to be horrible.

Perhaps, but let me ask you, for how long have you lived in Japan to judge (I haven't)?

Neither have I, but I can listen to the actresses interviews and compare their normal speaking voices to the ones they use in their roles. So I can say that, for instance, Aya Hisakawa uses something pretty close to her natural voice for most of her roles, while Megumi Hayashibara and Kotono Mitsuishi vary a bit more- fairly normal voices for their more serious roles but going more over the top when getting into heavy commedy. Try comparing Mitsuishi as Mireille Bouquet and Excel, for instance, and you know that it's just not possible for both of those to be her natural voice.

Re:Well, did you know...

[Wolfrider]

> Not only that, it would sound really strange too....kind of like operas in English (yes, I know some can be decent, but let's face it, opera is better in Italian, Spanish or French, perhaps even German)

--You have not seen opera unless you see it done in the original Klingon. :b

Re:Well, did you know...

[fenix down]

I think that Spike Spencer absolutely nailed Shinji in the dub.

I though he sounded drunk, but then again I only heard the 5 minutes before the 6 year old girl they had doing Misato came on and I quit listening.

Re:Well, did you know...

[ledestin]

That said, I think that Spike Spencer absolutely nailed Shinji in the dub. I didn't like him as Mackie Stingray, I positively detested him as Akito Tenkawa, and I generally preferred the original Japanese to the dub in Evangelion. But I have to give the man his props. He played Shinji with the exact right degree of annoying self-pity and convinced me that dubs don't actually have to be horrible.

Might be, but I try to keep away from blasphemy :)
I think that the US voice acting is unnatural (I saw Disney movies and I recently tried to play Monkey Island 3). By unnatural I mean that people around me (not even English-speaking country) don't talk in such a theatrical way (though people in ads do).

<rant>
The Hollywood stuff really has lots of ideology inside, it's alike to "the party line" in USSR. They pour the same crap out on everyone. What's with this "loser hero" stuff (think Monkey Island 3 or some similar crap, oh, yeah, Treasure Planet).
<rant/>

Neither have I, but I can listen to the actresses interviews and compare their normal speaking voices to the ones they use in their roles. So I can say that, for instance, Aya Hisakawa uses something pretty close to her natural voice for most of her roles, while Megumi Hayashibara and Kotono Mitsuishi vary a bit more- fairly normal voices for their more serious roles but going more over the top when getting into heavy commedy. Try comparing Mitsuishi as Mireille Bouquet and Excel, for instance, and you know that it's just not possible for both of those to be her natural voice.

By "natural" I mean that it can be found in real life. And really, which voice an actress uses as a baseline is largely irrelevant, because there are many more women in Japan.

Re:Well, did you know...

[rgmoore]

By "natural" I mean that it can be found in real life.

Sure, but my point is that if the voice actress uses something close to her natural voice when speaking then it is, by definition a natural voice even if it's not what you expect her to sound like. My impression, though, is that using funny voices is a standard part of anime comedy. You can tell this because the same actress will use a different sounding voice for the same role depending on how serious the scene is. I find that Kotono Mitsuishi is particularly obvious in doing this- her normal character voice is very different from her voice when she goes on an insane punning spree, for instance- but they all do it to one extent or another. Nor is this particularly limited to Anime. Nobody thinks that voice actors should be restricted to natural voices in American cartoons, especially comedic ones; just try listening to Mel Blanc sometime.

Re:Well, did you know...

[ledestin]

I understand your point.

I have a live album by Iwao Junko, and she sings a mix of christmas songs. While her voice is unnaturally high pitched in that concert, the later part of the mix she starts sound like a westerner. So different a voice.

Re:Well, did you know...

[ShadeEagle]

(and for you DBZ fans) ...that Goku, Gohan and Goten are all voiced by a woman as well?

The same woman, I might add, that also voiced the 1960's Astroboy, Urashima Hina in Love Hina, and Tetsuro in Galaxy Express 999.

Miyazaki and Nausicaa explained

[Anonymous Coward]

Hayao Miyazaki it's one of the greatest animators in cinema history. His films are highly praised wherever they're shown/sold.

Why haven't those in the USA heard mcuh of him? Because his films had not legally been distributed in the US, due to the fact that, the first time an American company got the rights to distribute one of those films (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), it was totally mangled and destroyed to some piece of crap known as "Warriors of the Wind" (heck, even the poster for that was wrong, featuring characters straight out of Marketing's mind).

Some 8 years ago, Disney acquired the distribution rights to Miyazaki's (and all previous Studio Ghibli's) films. Which is why American audiences have gotten more exposure to them.

Commercially available titles in the US are:
- Princess Mononoke
- Kiki's Delivery Service
- Castle in the Sky
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Spirited Away

with the first and the last being shown in theaters, and "Spirited Away" obtaining the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Now, Disney being as it is, their marketing for these films has been TERRIBLE, which is why lots of people hasn't heard about them, not even now they're commercialy available.

These films are different to any "anime" clasification you may have seen... They don't fit in highschool girls categories, nor in giant robot anime, nor in *mon categories.... none of that. (Miyazaki has said that anime shouldn't be categorized, and that each work, be they TV series, direct to video o theatrical films, should create its own category).

Give these titles a chance. They're FANTASTIC.

Regarding "Porco Rosso". Yes, originally it was intended as an action-comedy film to be shown in Japan Airlines flights, but the perspective and the project grew, and it became the box-office sensation in Japan in 1992.

"Nausiaa of the Valley of the Wind" (1984) is, in my opinion, the best Miyazaki film.

Chibi-1 out-

Re:Miyazaki and Nausicaa explained

[F34nor]

Too true. If you want to watch DON'T support Disney. Go to Ebay and buy the complete works of Studio Gibili and watch it in Japanese with subtitles. Geeks don't watched dubbed movies unless they are mainland kung-fu from pre 1980.

Re:Miyazaki and Nausicaa explained

[S.Lemmon]

Hm, so supporting pirates is better than supporting Disney? That's actually a tough call, but I'd go looking for a BitTorrent of it first - at least that's non profit piracy.

Re:Miyazaki and Nausicaa explained

[sasami]

Yes. Without a doubt supporting pirates is far better than supporting Disney. Disney is guilty of undermining the constitution by extending copyright past any reasonable level.

Most of what you say about Disney is not in doubt.

Unfortunately, you seem to have this fuzzy, romantic notion of what "pirate" means in this context.

We're not talking about civil disobedience, claiming our rightful public domain. We're not even talking about small-time petty thieves hawking DVD-Rs on eBay.

No, when you buy a slick, nicely packaged Hong Kong bootleg, you are supporting organized crime. You are supporting everything from extortion to murder to slavery. Many a young student has paid their life savings to be smuggled out of China, only to discover a hell of "indentured" labor -- packaging pirated software and movies for $0.25 an hour until his debt is worked off. If he's lucky, that is. Let's not talk about what happens if you're... not male.

If one is going to be rude enough to steal an artist's work, don't compound the insult by paying some criminal for it.

---
Dum de dum.

Re:Miyazaki and Nausicaa explained

[F34nor]

Touche

Re:how many others....

[leoboiko]

Hint: See that cute cartoonish girl with big eyes? It's the icon for "Anime".

Re:oh the irony

[edrugtrader]

you. are. an. idiot.

Re:Porco Rosso Isn't Technically a Kid's Flick....

[Jagasian]

A movie made for business flights, as I remember. Which implies it was made for adults.

Tough Joke

[bluesnowmonkey]

(Somebody already made the inevitable joke about Picard being stabbed by a Nausicaan, so don't bother.)

Wow, how much of a nerd do you have to be to pull that one off?

Re:Tough Joke

[Burb]

Obviously much more of a nerd than me. I still have no idea what that's all about.

Re:First Post

[cfuse]

And I love Natalie Portman.

It's never too late to turn your life around.

Re:Natalie Portman and Patrick Stewart

[cfuse]

Oh, the possibilites!

I actually dry retched when I read this.

It's been awhile....

[radoni]

...hot grits!

fine, mod this down. i, for one welcome...

Re:Anime is crap...

[cfuse]

I'm a definite geek but I don't understand why intelligent people are interested in crap cartoons intended for little kids.

Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend - ages 3 & up. (For those who haven't seen it, it has all the good ingredients for Anime: violence, demons and various acts of sexual assault and/or perversity.)

On the live action front, if you can catch The Weather Woman I highly recommend it. Kung-fu, panties, huge amounts of female masturbation, and an over the top supernatural combat climax.

Pr0c0 R0550

[Z4rd0Z]

Porco Rosso is one heck of a great film. It's a love story with a little magic, a lot of adventure, some comedy, and one of the best fist fighting scenes of any movie, bar none. The colors and artwork are top notch.

I don't know how I would like the dub, though. I don't speak Japanese, but to me it sounds like they speak Japanese with a French accent in this film, and I find that combination really unusual and entertaining.

Re:Pr0c0 R0550

[BigFire]

The French dub did have Jean Reno as Porco Rosso (Marco). Lets hope Michael Keaton does a good job on the English dub.

Re:hong kong boot already available

[fenix down]

Yes! This is indeed quite preferable to downloading these films for free with quality subtitles. How will the Triad be able to provide slaves for shipping and drug-running without our $60?

Re:Fascination with subtitles?

[Phong]

I find it fascinating that the absolute budget way to import a foreign film--by slapping on some subtitles--is treated as a near-perfect way to watch a foreign film while dubbed films are derided as crap. I think that part of the equation is the standard human reaction to being a part of an "elite" crowd that enjoys something that the teeming masses does not. However, I think the majority of the reaction has to do with both the lack of quality that is often put into a dub combined with the perception that a subtitled version is somehow closer to the director's vision for a film--that subtitles preserve a film's essence while a dub destroys it and replaces it with something different.

My perception is somewhat different. I believe that both subtitles and dubbing distort a film from the original, each in its own way. I find that each distortion gives me a slightly different view into the essence of the original film, and that combining both is more satisfying that having to choose one or the other. If you don't agree that subtitles are a distortion of the original film, consider the following:

• First off, dialog in subtitles is always simplified when it gets too wordy. You can see examples of this in your native language if you watch a film with the subtitles set to the same language as the soundtrack--the basic essence of the phrases are the same, but the subtitles are not quite as good as the original dialog.
• Secondly, the timing of the subtitles and the words spoken is poorly synchronized, which leads to distortions of comedy and of dramatic tension. For example, when I was watching Crouching Tiger in the theater, there was a joke that appeared on screen several seconds before the female character even spoke it. Sadly, the audience's laughter had already come and gone by the time that the character delivered the humorous line, diminishing the effects of her good comic timing. In more dramatic scenes, the subtitles often show both sides of the conversation at the same moment, tipping you off on reactions to come to words that have not even been spoken yet.
• The only other distortion I'll mention is the one of transferring auditory information to the eyes, which distracts the eyes from simply drinking in the visuals. When I'm in the theater (without a rewind button) I find that I typically miss one line in a movie because my eyes were so immersed in some aspect of a scene that they don't get back to the subtitles in time to read it. But even more than just sometimes missing some dialog is the fundamental change in how the movie is perceived--for me it's a fairly subtle thing (since I still enjoy subtitled movies), but the movie can be less engrossing or feel less natural when having to read what the characters say.

Certainly none of these things are fatal flaws or anything, but I do hope that you agree that a subtitled movie is not quite the pristine original that some people make it out to be. Sure, the original actors' voices are there, and it's a joy to be able to hear them, but without being able to understand the original language as it flows from their lips, the result is somehow slightly diminished.

Which brings me to dubbing ("...and speaking of diminished..." :-) ). A dub is a very curious thing. It too has its own set of problems that can distort or even destroy a film. It also has its own set of strengths that can greatly improve a film for a non-native speaker, but only if done well (which is not easy). Let's start with just two distortions:

• Words need to be simplified in order to time them with the moving of the actor's lips. This often requires significant dialog changes.
• The loss of the original voices takes away a significant portion of the original actor's performance, changing the movie. I would argue that it's not quite as large of a loss as some hard-core subtitlers make out since a good chunk of the actor's spoken performance is already lost when you can't understand it. However, there i

Re:how many others....

[Balorn]

Nah, you should have kept them wondering and said "Hint: See the picture of Sasami?..."

After all, if they don't know Ghibli... ^_^

Re:Patrick Stewart in Nausicaa?

[Wolfrider]

At least it was a HELPFUL post. (Helped me anyway.)

[OT] Re:Fascination with dubbing?

[squarooticus]

Well, I'm an American, and I like subbed Japanese movies. However, even if I didn't, I don't understand how that would make me racist: perhaps some people simply prefer hearing the dialogue (however interpreted) rather than reading it.

FWIW, I don't read Plato in Greek or Virgil in Latin, so I perfectly understand the desire not to hear the dialogue in Japanese, even in the presence of subtitles.

NAUSICAA!!!!

[squarooticus]

Inevitably, they saved the best for last. I cannot wait to replace my Japansese-language with Chinese-subtitles VCD version with and English-subtitled DVD version.

Recommendations?

[SubtleNuance]

Ive recently become re-interested in Anime. Some time ago, i bought Akira and loved it... so much that i tried a few serials(series) that didnt do much for me. I tried a couple 'vampire-hunter' Animes that didnt do much.

I recently watched Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Cowboy Bebop. First Two EXCELLENT, latter very-good in a different way -- I know that i hadnt given Anime the interest/time it was due.

A question for slashdotters: What next?

I loved Akira (and apocolypse-scenario-stories), loved the drama/mythology/whimsy of S.A. && P.A., and liked the Adventure "pulp-fiction" elements of C.B. (though, C.B. was my least favorite of the bunch).

Help me out, what next?

Re:Recommendations?

[wonton_mein]

Anime list:

Ghost in the Shell
Wonderful Days (Korean)
Nausicaa
Metropolis
Armitage (3 films)

Re:Recommendations?

[LordLucless]

Well, seeing as though you loved Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke, you might want to watch some other Miyazaki/Ghibli titles. Whisper of the Heart and I Can Hear the Sea are two of my favorites, but these are much more introspective than the two you listed. Wings of Honneamise is also a great film, by Gainax.

Anime TV series aren't usually as well done as theatrical releases, just due to time constraints. That said, my favorite series are Saishuu Heiki Kanojo (Often abbreviated to Saikano), and Hikaru no Go.

Saishuu Heiki Kanojo translates to "She, the Ultimate Weapon", but despite that, the show is fairly good. It's an apocalyptic, anti-war, romantic tragedy.

Hikaru no Go ("Hikaru's Go") is the story of a kid (Hikaru) who discovers talent and aptitude in the ancient oriental game "Go". The series follows him , and a bunch of his friends and opponents. The description doesn't sound very exciting, I know, but I haven't heard of anyone whose seen Hikaru no Go and disliked it. It's been credited for somewhat of a Go renaissance among Japanese children.

Some other recommendations: Serial Experiments Lain for a bit of a think, Full Metal Panic for a nice romantic-comedy/action show, and Neon Genesis Evangelion for angst, giant robots, destruction and general wierdness.

Serial Experiments Lain, Full Metal Panic, and Neon Genesis Evangelion are all available on DVD in the US. Saishuu Heiki Kanojo has been licensed in Australia, but is around in fansub form. Hikaru no Go hasn't been licensed (the manga has, not the anime) and is likewise around in fansub form.

Porco Rosso not just a "kids flick"

[extrarice]

Miyazaki stated his inspiration for the story was to create a film that businessmen could relax to while on a flight - a film that wouldn't require too much thought to follow. It's a simple, enjoyable tale.
Nausicaa is another fantastic film. Though, if you have the chance, read the manga as well - there's a lot more in there than the film can deal with. In the manga edition I have, there are 6 books. The film only covers the first book.

Re:Porco Rosso not just a "kids flick"

[MagikSlinger]

In the manga edition I have, there are 6 books.

In North America, they are now released as 3 books (2 vol/book).

The Valley of the Wind

[wonton_mein]

After 20 years, this is still my favorite manga of all time. For any anime fan, reading the manga version of Nausicaa is highly recommended (amazon.com search: nausicaa). Many regard it as Miyazaki's best work, and it shows in explicit details in the manga.

As for the animated version, it is very good because the story adheres to original script (manga). It stood the test of time--consider it came out almost 20 years ago.

Highly recommended.

Some pictures.

Can't resist.

[Nathan Ramella]

And you may just learn a little something -- about yourself.

Ugg..

[Genjurosan]

I'm feeling Nausicaa.. Can someone show me to the bathroom?

You forgot some of the BEST!!

[Genjurosan]

Castle in the Sky and Castle of Cagliostro. These movies are both pre Ghibli and two of my favorites.

I would say that Miyazaki is the animation version of Akira Kurosawa.

Unmatched depth and message has always been part of the Miyazaki story. For those who wish to know more, start with Castle in the Sky.

BTW, Nausicaa is also known as "Valley of the Wind"

Re:how many others....

[Pope]

Yeah, clicking on a bunch of supplied links sure is hard.

Nausicaa manga etc.

[darkwhite]

For those of you from UC Berkeley and/or interested, I will be conducting a Nausicaa manga decal next semester. Also, Nausicaa is playing, among other things, at the PFA Anime showing, part of the IEAS East Asia at Berkeley program on 35mm film, which is likely the highest quality copy you'll ever see!

Re:Miyazaki's lack of recognition in the US

[shione]

yes we are PAL here. I have the dvd right next to me. It got released in 2 packages. One, the normal edition, in a standard amaray case with 1 dvd containing just the movie and the other comes in a cardboard slipcase and a bonus dvd of extras. (In the U.S it got released as a 2disc set standard I believe?). The 2disc set here is supposedly limited to just 10000 copies but it can still be found quite commonly.

They havent released CAstle in the sky here yet :(

YHBT. YHL. HAND.

[User 956]

TSIA.

Nausicaa Zone 2 DVD coming soon

[p-p-pom]

The DVD for Nausicaa is coming out in Japan on Nov. 19th; usually the Ghibli DVDs have at least (good quality) English subtitles. Although they are a bit pricy (~5000 yen, something like 45 USD) and zone 2, this is a good news for importers I guess. Also note that the Porco Rosso DVD has been out for a while and features not only English content, but also the *excellent* French dub (starring Jean Reno as Porco Rosso!) This is the movie that made Miyazaki famous in France and his other movies well distributed and correctly dubbed.

Oscar

[sbszine]

I think they did that to trade on the publicity from its Oscar win -- it probably won't happen for Nausicaa.

Some Ghibli films some might have missed. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

They're probably going to be pirate disks, and the subtitling was done poorly. (Pirates can't be expected to have 'good english', I suppose.)

There are a handful of other films, the titles of which I cannot pronunce.

One is about a woman in her late twenties who taks the summer off to work on an organic saffron flower farm, where she falls in love. Another is a forty minute movie about a highschool boy, also falling in love, (with one of those pretty girls who trouble seems to gravitate to.) Another is a long and quite brilliant series about a bunch of magical racoon-type creatures who are trying to save their woodland habitat from urban crawl. I don't know what Miyazaki's involvement on these projects was, and they have a somewhat more experimental feel to them, but they are all gems, and the animation in the animal one is miles ahead of most anime.

Also look for the half dozen 'Sherlock Hound' and the three 'Lupin IIIrd' episodes Miyazaki directed. All of them are thoroughly amazing.

Happy hunting!

-FL

Re:Some Ghibli films some might have missed. . .

[takshaka]

One is about a woman in her late twenties who taks the summer off to work on an organic saffron flower farm, where she falls in love.

Only Yesterday (Omohide Poro Poro). The literal translation is something like "memories falling like tears/raindrops/etc." This is directed by Isao Takahata, who made Grave of the Fireflies. I think Miyazaki served as producer. Only Yesterday is a bit of a nostalgia piece for older audiences. It's a quiet and beautiful film.

Another is a forty minute movie about a highschool boy, also falling in love, (with one of those pretty girls who trouble seems to gravitate to.)

Ocean Waves (Umi ga Kikoeru, aka I Can Hear the Sea). This is a made-for-TV work, the first Ghibli movie produced by a director other than Miyazaki or Takahata. Because of the lower budget, the animation quality suffers a bit, but it's still a decent movie.

Another is a long and quite brilliant series about a bunch of magical racoon-type creatures who are trying to save their woodland habitat from urban crawl.

Pom Poko (Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko). Another Takahata film. Number one reason why Disney will never, ever release this in American theaters: Inflatable Tanuki Testicles.

The british dub of Laputa

[Jammet]

There's been one that was actually only shown once, as far as I know, probably on BBC.

"Laputa" is yet another Myazaki movie that seems to have been massively undermarketed by Buena Vista.

Since Buena Vista bought the rights or license to distribute Myazaki's movies they have made a real effort of not actively marketing them, advertizing for them, and kept those great anime flicks mostly undercover for the most part. I bet it came to no surprise to even them that "Spirited Away" was a great hit, so that they were forced to react with more advertizement for the soon after that released DVD.

Actually, I've never seen them actually marketing one of these movies until Spirited Away was such a success despite of nobody having heard of it before in several countries where it was shown. I guess they have their reasons, but the most prominent of those must be the greed of other companies such as Disney.

Now, where can you find that absolutely perfect british dub of Laputa, today?

Some fans have recordings on video tapes I guess. But you can't buy it anywhere. Not that I'm a fan of dubs - especially the anime dubs made in Germany after the eighties suffered a lot from the "it's kids stuff so we don't need to put effort or money into it" approach of dub studios. What you can see on TV here today is quite the horrors when you have heard the orignal voices before.

They do do it all perfectly in Japan.

Re:Miyazaki's lack of recognition in the US

[FrostedWheat]

I believe you can get ahold of Australian Region 4 releases (though I'm not 100% sure they are PAL, but it seems likely).

Yep they are! Thanks mate! Your a genius!

Re:Patrick Stewart in Nausicaa?

[Uma Thurman]

The parent comment (also by me) isn't showing up on the website, but it's rated as a +2. Anybody know why?