Saturday, August 06, 2005
Kodocha DVD 1
Well, I just finished watching the first Kodocha DVD (it's got the first 4 episodes out of the ~102 total). I have to say, they did a remarkable job in dubbing Sana. I don't care for some of the other voices, and the translation is not as close to the original as I would have liked (there is one thing in particular that they did a poor job of translating, since the translation here actually matters quite a bit to the plot), but all in all they surpassed my expectations. They've done a fairly good job of Americanizing some of the things I thought they'd have trouble translating. Their version works well, fits the lips well, and still doesn't seem very forced. I'm impressed, and expect things to get better as they progress with the series. In a later episode they had the correct translation for the thing they messed up in the earlier episodes, but of course part of the significance of it is lost because they didn't have the correct translation the first time it came up. Also, like most anime they butcher the pronunciation of people's names.
If it weren't for one other thing, I'd be really tempted to buy the DVD. When Funimation got the rights to do this anime, they unfortunately didn't get the rights to the original opening song. This means that they've had to remove that song and all references to it and the band that sang it. To solve that problem they used the second opening song as the opening song on these episodes, but the song also plays during the next episode preview. Thus the next episode previews are *completely* silent if you're watching the Japanese language track. Furthermore, there's a scene where one of the band members makes an appearance in the anime and talks with Sana. During this scene the song also plays in the background, so this scene has also been replaced with *complete* silence.
I understand that they had contract restrictions, and that they decided to go this route in order to keep the series completely uncut, but it's still really disappointing.
I think the next DVD is supposed to be out around Aug. 22.
PS. In case I didn't get it across, I'm really impressed with how they dubbed Sana.
If it weren't for one other thing, I'd be really tempted to buy the DVD. When Funimation got the rights to do this anime, they unfortunately didn't get the rights to the original opening song. This means that they've had to remove that song and all references to it and the band that sang it. To solve that problem they used the second opening song as the opening song on these episodes, but the song also plays during the next episode preview. Thus the next episode previews are *completely* silent if you're watching the Japanese language track. Furthermore, there's a scene where one of the band members makes an appearance in the anime and talks with Sana. During this scene the song also plays in the background, so this scene has also been replaced with *complete* silence.
I understand that they had contract restrictions, and that they decided to go this route in order to keep the series completely uncut, but it's still really disappointing.
I think the next DVD is supposed to be out around Aug. 22.
PS. In case I didn't get it across, I'm really impressed with how they dubbed Sana.
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