The "Manga/Anime" Thread

[Paragon-Yoshi]

For fans of the japanese animated series and comic books.

While I personally don't watch/read as many of them as other people, there still are some of them that got me hooked.
When it comes to Anime series though, by now I ALWAYS watch them in their original japanese audio with english subtitles.
Because, when it comes to voice acting, JAPAN REIGNS SUPREME!

I know many people from the west can't bring themselves to like the unique, japanese style.
(Personally I can't understand that. But whatever floats your boat...)


Anyway, here are some of my favourites:
Dragonball
While I barely read the Manga, the Anime-series really shines.
In fact, I like the original MUCH more than Z (which got very tedious over time) and certainly more than that GT-trash.

The story is about a young, monkey-tailed boy named "Son Goku". Who was raised by his grandpa to be a martial artist.
But an unknown monster killed the old man one night and Son Goku was alone since then.
But he could easily take care of himself due his great strength and fighting abilities. (Though he is not the smartest, if you catch my drift.)
Eventually, he met a young girl named "Bulma" and together they embarked on a quest to collect seven mystical items, called "Dragonballs".
Which are said to grant any wish, if all seven are collected.
And later the story focuses on Son Goku and his ambition to train and win the Budokai Tournament.

The Anime of the original has 153 Episodes in total.
And it's first complete run in Japan was from 1986 til 1989.
(As you can probably tell from the video below)

Opening:



Yu-Gi-Oh
I really prefer the Manga. Since the Anime changed and left out a lot of things from the Manga.
And in return it added a lot of nonsensical stuff, just to stretch it.
So the Manga is better here.

But I don't like the adaptions I must say (aka, GX, 5D's etc.)
The original series (from the first volume until the end of Millenium World) is the best. The rest is not so great.
But oh well...

The story is about a boy named "Yuugi Mutou". A very shy boy, who also gets bullied a lot in school.
He is fascinated by games of any sort.
And one day a mystical artifact called the "Millenium Puzzle" is given to him by his grandfather, thinking of it as a game.
But as soon as he completed the puzzle, its mystical powers cause the boy to develop an adult alter-ego called "Dark Yuugi" (who in actuality is a person of his own, as revealed later).
Who then challenges anyone who dares to threaten or endanger Yuugi (or his friends) to so called "Shadow Games", turning harmless games into serious, supernatural ones.

While the manga features all sorts of games, it shifts toward a plot focusing solely on the "Duel Monsters Trading Card Game" from the eighth volume on.

Here is a Wikipedia-article about the Manga: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!


Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
WARNING:
This manga features A LOT of blood and gore. So nothing for the squeamish!!!

I only read the 3rd Season of it, called "Stardust Crusaders".
Which possibly is the most popular of all seasons of this manga. Thanks to Dio Brando (the origin of the "ZA WARUDO" meme!).
But I really like it. And I might check out the other seasons of it.


In Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, certain people develop some kind of ghostly bodyguards, called "Stands".
Each stand has unique, supernatural abilities and (normally) has no personality and solely exists to serve his master.
And stand and master share the pain and bodily damage (so if the stand's limb is cut off for example, the human master will also lose his limb).

In the 3rd season the protagonist is a strange, troublesome student named "Jotaro Kujo", who also developed his own stand.
Together with his grandfather "Joseph Joestar" he emerges on an adventure to stop their sworn enemy "Dio Brando", who vowed to destroy their bloodline.
They are initially accompanied by "Mohammed Abdul" and later several more protagonists join their party.
Those are "Noriaki Kakyoin", "Jean Pierre Polnareff" and "Iggy" (a dog who surprisingly can fight really well and even has his own stand).
On their travels they encounter several assassins, who were sent by Dio to kill them.
A tough journey begins...


Here is a Wikipedia-article about the Manga:
CLICK

It also has an Anime-OVA.
But it only has 13 Episodes and is heavily altered from its Manga-counterpart.



So those are all I wanna feature right now. Otherwise this'd get too long. ^^;


I really like the Anime/Manga-style overall. Even though I am not reading or watching a lot of em.
What do you think about it? And which are your favourites?

(BTW: I would so LOVE to see a SHANTAE Manga or Anime. But that's a different story... )

[.Luke]

Not all of us in the west are turned off by the general art style behind Japanese animation. (In fact, anime/manga's roots are actually influenced, in part, by Disney! Not just Japanese illuminated text.) Although I think the biggest problem would have to be first impressions. Unfortantely, the larger part of anime falls under the "this is for weird and creepy poofs" stereotype, which is what turns off a lot of americans to anime in general, I think. That alone makes me very selective about what I watch and read.

Anyway, I'm in love with a few variants of the Anime/Manga style, like Shounen. Martin Mystery, Totally Spies, Teen Titans, and some Dragonball Z and Naruto, are mostly what I watch. As far as manga goes, it's hard for me to find any commercial manga to read because all the ones at the local bookstore have pink bindings, even on the Dragon Ball and Pheonix Wright books! (Which I want to read so badly!) Then there's the thought of being labeled as an otaku just for buying one in the first place. ;_; It bothersome how judgemental complete strangers ignorant on the subject can be, but at least there's Amazon.

[Agent Gold]

The term anime is Japanese for cartoon; it is short for "animeshon"

Discovery of the day. Right there.
That is just hilarious. XD

My brother is something of an expert on anime and manga, and I've heard of many discussions through him about what you can tell about each kind of different panel in terms of who's stronger than who and everything. Myself, I'm much more casual of a fan, but that doesn't mean I don't know some trivia because of him!

I've only ever seen English translations of anime series. No Japanese with subs to speak of (I'm not sure how well I'd do trying to watch this), and no manga I've read (sadly I lack the time and motivation I used to have for reading).

Dragonball/DBZ is the one he could tell you about forward and back, and I've always been a pretty good fan of it myself. My biggest wish is that the humans didn't get left behind as much as they did and that the Saiyans didn't steal the spotlight as much as they did--I don't mind if some characters are stronger than others, even a league stronger, but I'd prefer that everyone has something to offer rather than being cast by the wayside.

Yu-Gi-Oh! is one where I'm only familiar with a little bit of it. Out of what I've seen, the first saga of the show is my favorite (Pegasus's tournament on his island). I didn't get to see all of the original series, but from what I know, I don't believe any of the later sagas had quite the "charm" of the first one. GX became frustrating as they explained every detail of what they were doing every time they did it. I understand if they don't want to lose their viewers in the confusing plays, but if they have to explain that much, shouldn't it come across as a red flag as far as their writing...?

Now, my favorite anime series is Yu Yu Hakusho. I've never seen the complete series, but I've seen parts of it here and there and I know enough background info to at least piece together what's going on. There are a LOT of interesting characters in this series, and it's one of few anime series I've seen where the main character (Yusuke Urameshi) doesn't steal the spotlight from his comrades. This is a series where it's not always clear which character is going to make the final blow against the bad guy of the saga (or, if it becomes obvious that Yusuke's going to do it, he's completely "earned" the right to by the time it happens). The characters might be what you call a bit shady--the humans are street brawlers (and Yusuke smokes in the manga) and the others are demons--but at the same time they're really likeable in unique ways.

I've had just a smattering of other anime series in my past--usually just whatever was showing on Toonami back in its hey day. Examples that come to mind are Naruto, One Piece, Hamtaro (shush, it's fun to watch), and maybe some others I've forgotten. Oh, and a little bit of Pokémon, of course.

[Paragon-Yoshi]

Let me say this right now: You SHOULD watch the original japanese audio.
Okay, one reason, like I said, is that the japanese voice acting is superior.
The other reason, which I forgot, is that you can get to see the ORIGINAL, UNALTERED storyline.

Because in translated dubs, the dialogs are almost always completely changed. Like in DBZ.
But it gets even more extreme as some really dubious dubbers, like 4Kids, heavily censor, alter and rewrite the storyline into something that is completely different and utterly horrible.
This is what happened to Yu-Gi-Oh and many others as well.
And seriously, I get angry everytime I see those idiots do this. :x


As for the "otaku": Seriously, if you are interested then do it.
If other people dare to defame you for it, they are idiots who cannot accept activties other than what they like.
Undemocratic scum, I tell you.

Ah but sorry, I let myself go there for a second. ^^;


Yeah, I see what you mean by the stereotypes though. I don't like that either.
But that is japanese culture. And it always tends to do something that is crazy in the western eyes.

[.Luke]

Not all dubs are bad news; it's mostly 4kids and older stuff translated during the eighties that are outright-horrible misrepresentations of the original material. Besides, you wouldn't believe how many people are actually annoyed by things like whiny Japanese female voices, and the general speed of Japanese speech. (Street Fighter Alpha 2 was close to impossible for me to enjoy because of that. Chun Li sounded less like a battle-hardened women and more like a high-pitched, five year old girl; it made me want to vomit.) I know English dubs aren't 1:1 with the original dialog, but there's simply no way around rephrasing a lot of sentences, those darned Japs talk too fast! Even if what they said is the essentially same thing, just reworded, audiences who could care less for subtitles find it more comfortable to watch regardless.

tl;dr, fidelity to the original script is sometimes forgotten, I'll admit, but some translators do their best given that limitation, and cast voice actors who do the fictional characters proper justice. It's not really fair to say that all Japanese voice acting is superior; I'm thinking maybe you've seen one too many sub-par translations. For one, I've heard Funimation get consistent praise from a few fans for accuracy in their English dubs.

Now that's not to say I'm putting down subs for forcing people to read subtitles, it's just not for everyone. I mostly use subs to watch stuff whole months/years before it gets localized in English, watch shows that may never get dubbed, and avoid the poor voice-acting in those sub-par dubs, or even just to see if the jokes were better. (Which happens a lot in foreign comedy film dubs I watch; the subbed versions are much more hilarious.) Otherwise, I'll probably watch a show in English if the crew translating it knew what they were doing!

As for the "otaku": Seriously, if you are interested then do it.

Forgetting that fact for a second, there's still freakin' pink all over the covers! I am a dude and pretty darned proud of it; nothin' on my shelf is going to have a girly tint to it. Besides, have you seen how pervy creepy some Mangas like Black Butler is? There's a transvestite in there wearing cloths he took from a dead woman. It's dark, creepy **** like it that only solidifies the Anime stereotype here in the US of A. People see a demonic, interdimensional three-way alien sex scene in an Anime while flipping channels, and then there's no way of arguing otherwise after that point. It's hard to explain that all Japanese media isn't about perverted garbage, especially down here in The South where people spew off ignorant hate regardless of what you might say. It's not even the alien Japaneses culture in Anime that freaks people out, rather the mature content and sometimes furries too.

Bleh, let me just get to the point! =P Unlike a lot of people in this generation, I have shame, and even if most people still see Anime the wrong way, I don't want to make random people around me feel uncomfortable and shudder while I hold a copy of Naruto manga. Outside of mere convenience, it's much better to order it all online anyway, that's less money I have to waste paying the suggested retail price (Ouch!) at those brick-and-mortor bookstores! If I want to buy manga novels in person that badly, I could always visit Japan and have a geeky field day in Anime/Manga heaven. :)

Hamtaro (shush, it's fun to watch)

I've watched a few episodes myself when I was eleven; it was pretty cute and funny! The singing bothers me too much to watch it again now, but I won't bash Hamtaro for being what it is, a pretty good kids show. ^^

[Paragon-Yoshi]

Well, of course the voices are pretty unusual for the most part for western audiences.
People still complain about Goku being high-pitched in japanese.
But like I said, japanese have their own style. Some can cope well with it, other's can't.
And I am one of them who can.

Of course, there are also english voice actors who are really good. I never said otherwise.
But in my personal opinion, Japan still is better overall. Since nobody seems to live out their role as much the japanese do.
Seriously...

Also, I actually watched both the dub and the subbed version of DBZ.
And I saw that the dialogues were completely different. And IMO they made much more sense in the japanese version than in the english dub.
(Not to mention the soundtrack was lightyears better in the japanese version.)

I am sure there are some english dubs who actually translated properly. Kudos to them.
But more often than not, do english dubs tend to rewrite things instead of following the original script.

Also, what's the deal with the speed? I never had any problems with it so far. oO
Plus, don't they have a SCRIPT of some sorts they can try to translate.
I cannot imagine that they only listen to voices and translate from that.
A strange argument, if you ask me. :/


The real problem is that some dubbers still think that anything that has animated drawings is for kids only.
Thus they censor and rewrite everything to make it kid-friendly.
And that's something that just cannot be right.


I also am aware that there is a lot of fanservice and stuff. And I don't like it myself.
But hey, black sheeps are everywhere. And I can easily ignore and only focus on the good stuff.


And so what if you are a boy. If you like something, then get it and like it.
There is no problem with that.
I seriously dislike this cliche-thinking... y.y

[Agent Gold]

People still complain about Goku being high-pitched in japanese.

Oooooh, I remember this story. When they were originally making that anime and they got to the point where Goku became an adult, they were talking about whether or not they should give him an adult voice. The fans cried out loudly against the idea (they didn't want anything to change about that boy they loved so much), so they kept it the way it was. Good for them for listening to the fans, but... did the fans really want a 30 year old who sounds the same as he did when he was 13? I think it was a poor choice in the end.

My point here is that (in case there was any confusion) this choice was because the fans wanted it, not because typical Japanese adult men sound like kids. Can't say for sure if the women do or not, though.

But it gets even more extreme as some really dubious dubbers, like 4Kids, heavily censor, alter and rewrite the storyline into something that is completely different and utterly horrible.
This is what happened to Yu-Gi-Oh and many others as well.

I remember hearing a little bit about this too. Something like how the Shadow Realm never existed in the Japanese version--that was a cover up in the English dub so they didn't have to use killing. The biggest example in my mind is those "glowing" saws in Yugi's duel with Arkana that would "send you to the Shadow Realm if they touched you". As you can imagine... they were just killer saws in the Japanese version.

Spoiler:

Forgetting that fact for a second, there's still freakin' pink all over the covers! I am a dude and pretty darned proud of it; nothin' on my shelf is going to have a girly tint to it.

Hm... What shade of pink are we talking here? A deep shade that could possibly be mistaken for purple? Or... more like a pale flowery pink? Personally, I don't find pink to be that much of a taboo, but it's certainly easier to live with some shades than others... And if it's all over the covers as much as you're saying, I can kind of understand where you're coming from.

Curiously, do the ones you can order online suffer this problem too?

Also, I actually watched both the dub and the subbed version of DBZ.
And I saw that the dialogues were completely different. And IMO they made much more sense in the japanese version than in the english dub.
(Not to mention the soundtrack was lightyears better in the japanese version.)

I don't suppose you've seen DBZ Kai at all? Watching it side by side with my brother, he pointed out a lot of significant moments and compared them to translations he knew of the original manga. 99 times out of 100, the dialogue was very close, and the other 1% of the time it was still close to meaning the same thing. Plus almost all of the filler is cut out (little bits that don't contradict anything official are left in for the sake of pacing), so that's pretty nice.

[.Luke]

Of course, there are also english voice actors who are really good. I never said otherwise.
But in my personal opinion, Japan still is better overall. Since nobody seems to live out their role as much the japanese do.
Seriously...

With the way you said it, it almost came off as kinda "everything japanese is better" fanboyish. I had to be sure English translations were given a proper defense, but now I see that was never necessary. Sorry for misinterpreting your personal opinion as a factual statement!

(Not to mention the soundtrack was lightyears better in the japanese version.)

That's one trend I was never a fan of in certain dubs. 4kids completely cut Sonic X's epic Japanese soundtrack that was way more in character with the series, and replaced it all with obnoxious brass arrangements! ;_; Talk about a punch in the balls, but for your ears instead! Really annoying.

I am sure there are some english dubs who actually translated properly. Kudos to them.
But more often than not, do english dubs tend to rewrite things instead of following the original script.

Heh, that did happen to one show I would have liked to have recieved better attention. Kyoto Ninden Teyandee (a.k.a Samurai Pizza Cats) in English was painfully dumbed down to nothing more than a cheesy baby show. I couldn't even stand to watch the dubs because of exactly what you said, and they even cut out a lot of episodes out of nothing more than what I can see as a dwindling budget.

Hm... What shade of pink are we talking here? A deep shade that could possibly be mistaken for purple? Or... more like a pale flowery pink? Personally, I don't find pink to be that much of a taboo, but it's certainly easier to live with some shades than others... And if it's all over the covers as much as you're saying, I can kind of understand where you're coming from.

Curiously, do the ones you can order online suffer this problem too?

Pale flowery pink? Even better, hot pink! Thankfully, Books A Million has recently been stocking up on more paperbacks with masculine colors, so the pink stuff isn't as bad now. Although I don't know if other publishers online do this to their paperbacks. I haven't bothered to even look since I don't have the cash to burn on that stuff right now.

[Axol The Axolotl]

Favorite anime/manga right now is Berserk.

[Guest]

Wot my fiancee and I have viewed, recently:

- Sword Art Online
- Kashimashi
- IGPX
- The Pet Girl of Sakurasou
- Pokémon Origins
- Bagi: The Monster of Mighty Nature
- Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

[Axol The Axolotl]

Right now I'm reading The Astro Boy series.

[Maetch]

I am sure there are some english dubs who actually translated properly. Kudos to them.
But more often than not, do english dubs tend to rewrite things instead of following the original script.

Heh, that did happen to one show I would have liked to have recieved better attention. Kyoto Ninden Teyandee (a.k.a Samurai Pizza Cats) in English was painfully dumbed down to nothing more than a cheesy baby show. I couldn't even stand to watch the dubs because of exactly what you said, and they even cut out a lot of episodes out of nothing more than what I can see as a dwindling budget.

Samurai Pizza Cats was never a serious show to begin with, as Tatsunoko Pro. made it as a parody of all the sentai-styled anime that were popular at the time. Saban, however, literally had no scripts for the show (Tatsunoko apparently never gave them any) and thus ad-libbed everything.

Plus, the only episodes cut from the dub were two clip-show episodes that had zero impact on anthing.

[Guest]

Teekyuu is an animated embodiment of hyper-kinetic offbeat Japanese humor. I cannot see how it is possible to simplistically 'tolerate' or 'kinda like' it. It appears to be a show one must either embrace and enjoy fully or despise and detest utterly. I've fallen on the '100%-love-it' side, which I admit is likely unpardonable.

Upotte was thoroughly ugh after only one episode.

Ebiten was passable in its first ep, but I dunno if it'll retain my interest. =S

Chi's Sweet Home captures and depicts the mind of le kitty cat, and for that it is a cute marvel. ;w; Hopin' for the premise to remain watchable throughout the bulk of its output.

[Axol The Axolotl]

I'm reading Hellsing right now.

[Guest]

Tek and Frosty are watching K-On! and Strike Witches. Since they're 60+ combined episodes total, we'll be at it for a while.  

[.Luke]

I feel bad for neglecting this top for so long, I missed a few good replies.

Samurai Pizza Cats was never a serious show to begin with, as Tatsunoko Pro. made it as a parody of all the sentai-styled anime that were popular at the time. Saban, however, literally had no scripts for the show (Tatsunoko apparently never gave them any) and thus ad-libbed everything.

Plus, the only episodes cut from the dub were two clip-show episodes that had zero impact on anthing.

Ah, I had always wonder what exactly the show was parodying, and that's not too bad. I don't guess a lot of people were that interested in Polly Ester and Speedy's love story anyway, and you'd have the original episodes for that if you're curios.

I recently tried watching the English dub again on YouTube, and I can't believe some of the clever, humorous things I had missed out on rewatching it as a teen; the fourth wall moments were nice. Some jokes you can only get when you're an adult, it seems.

So I guess I'm going to be watching whatever episodes of Samurai Pizza Cats that are still up on YouTube.  

[Guest]

Samurai = good. Pizza = good. Cats = good.

Ergo, Samurai Pizza Cats = good cubed. I'm down with that. Wouldn't mind watchin' a couple episodes of it, again.

Now that RL work has slowed slightly, my GF and I have launched into the second seasons of K-On and Strike Witches. Dubs for both. K-On's dub tends to be superb, and SW's is mostly workable. Next up on our list: two sub-only anime. X3 We're entirely willing to watch either subs or dubs, dependent on the quality of either. This has earned us....scorn....from several angles. -sigh- So be it.

[Guest]

Puella Magi Madoka Magica was superb. Watched the dub, which was solid and relatable. Also watched the sub-only Idolm@ster, a totally -different- sort of anime. That was precious. ;w; So now what? -reclines in chair- Anime break. RL beckons (and writes the plot). x.x

Topic over. Everybody go home~

[.Luke]

That's the first I've heard of that Anime. I might have to look that up on YouTube later, if anybody's got nibbles of it online to check out.

Also, I'm just now getting to watching more of those Samurai Pizza Cat episodes, since I found myself playing the Famicom game of the series again recently. I'm terrible like that. (Seriously cute game. I can't name a single NES release that lets you play several different characters, four of which at will.) Should be ripe for lots of silliness.

[Guest]

Madoka's entirely available to watch online, yes. It's quite an intelligent and meaty series, underneath (or beside?) the cutesy magical-girl facade. More like a deconstruction, methinks....

Now we (my GF and I) are knee-deep in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Kill la Kill - something old, something new; something zany, something....uh, zany. XD

Are you watching Samurai Pizza Cats or the original? The wild differences between the two always amuse me, especially now in 2015, where anime's an accepted (if meager) cultural subset & no localization studio would dare reconstitute an entire series from scratch to become an entirely different beast.

...well, except when the Shantae anime debuts as a neo-noir tragicomedic country music documentary. Scriptwriter: ->

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