The First of Many
Dec. 6th, 2008 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddToday I splurged on strawberries, cream and wine, but my throat is still sore and I don't feel like eating right now. Looks like I'll be saving them for another day...
So, reviews. Yes! Motivation, I has it! Or so I keep telling myself... From now until the end of the year, or until I've reviewed all I have to review, there will be at least one review a day.
Feel free to discuss in the comments, because I'll probably do a rush job and only write the minimum for each book/movie/series. I'd love to hear what you thought!
Loveless (anime):
The second Ritsuka opened his mouth in the first episode, my brain started screaming in horror, "Oh my god, it's Echizen!" I mean, not only the voice, but the sullen snarkiness! Thankfully, that turned out to be a short-lived act.
I must admit I was prepared to be unimpressed by this series, and not just because I'd been warned that it was only a tiny bit of the manga storyline, and rather badly-told, at that. It was more the whole catgirl/catboy thing, the oniisan obsession, and also the whole shota aspect; neither of those things squick me out, but they don't really do anything for me either. And as if the promise of Soubi perving it up weren't enough -- oh wait, it's LOVE! -- you soon see that apparently everyone in the known universe has a thing for Ritsuka, including his shrink! (-_-);;;
Surprisingly, despite the fact that never is the reason for all the fighting explained, and the fact that Soubi is an obsessed stalker, and that Yuiko starts out being one of the most annoying characters ever (she improves somewhat upon further acquaintance, but only enough to be mildly irritating instead of "I want to punch her through a wall!" annoying), I found myself drawn in. For one thing, Ritsuka -- though ostensibly male -- does what I wish so many other female anime characters would do: he calls Soubi on his bullshit. And he's totally right to do so! Soubi promises to always be there when Ritsuka needs him, and to always answer his phone. So what does he do? He runs off to a far-flung, phone-reception-less island to photograph a wild cat that Ritsuka wants to see. *rolls eyes*
To get back to Yuiko for a second, the way she at first refers to herself by her own name is annoying, all right, and it no doubt would have made me completely hate her if I'd watched this a year ago. As it is, I work with kids now and I see them do this naturally in Japanese, because it's not a language that's big on the second person. So Hyo's mother will tell him, "Hyo-kun wa..." and Hyo will reply, "Demo Hyo-kun ga..." and that comes through in their English. I don't know how many times I've had to correct Hina for saying, "This is Hina's!" or Mai for saying things like, "Mai's mummy made it!"
One thing I found neat was how the fansubbers used French words to "translate" the names (such as Loveless) which were originally in English. They did a good job, except for "Breathless", which they translated as "Essoufflé". It's not incorrect per se, but "essoufflé" is really better rendered as "winded", as in out of breath after some exertion -- it doesn't have the connotations that "breathless" does. I would have chosen "Sans haleine" myself, especially since they chose "Sans ___" for several, if not all, the other names.
All in all, it was entertaining enough. At least I knew going in that nothing much would be explained, so I wasn't disappointed when the reason for all this fighting, or the mission statement of the mysterious organisation that Seimei and everyone else seems to belong to, was never revealed.
Wish me luck for the Japanese test tomorrow!
So, reviews. Yes! Motivation, I has it! Or so I keep telling myself... From now until the end of the year, or until I've reviewed all I have to review, there will be at least one review a day.
Feel free to discuss in the comments, because I'll probably do a rush job and only write the minimum for each book/movie/series. I'd love to hear what you thought!
Loveless (anime):
The second Ritsuka opened his mouth in the first episode, my brain started screaming in horror, "Oh my god, it's Echizen!" I mean, not only the voice, but the sullen snarkiness! Thankfully, that turned out to be a short-lived act.
I must admit I was prepared to be unimpressed by this series, and not just because I'd been warned that it was only a tiny bit of the manga storyline, and rather badly-told, at that. It was more the whole catgirl/catboy thing, the oniisan obsession, and also the whole shota aspect; neither of those things squick me out, but they don't really do anything for me either. And as if the promise of Soubi perving it up weren't enough -- oh wait, it's LOVE! -- you soon see that apparently everyone in the known universe has a thing for Ritsuka, including his shrink! (-_-);;;
Surprisingly, despite the fact that never is the reason for all the fighting explained, and the fact that Soubi is an obsessed stalker, and that Yuiko starts out being one of the most annoying characters ever (she improves somewhat upon further acquaintance, but only enough to be mildly irritating instead of "I want to punch her through a wall!" annoying), I found myself drawn in. For one thing, Ritsuka -- though ostensibly male -- does what I wish so many other female anime characters would do: he calls Soubi on his bullshit. And he's totally right to do so! Soubi promises to always be there when Ritsuka needs him, and to always answer his phone. So what does he do? He runs off to a far-flung, phone-reception-less island to photograph a wild cat that Ritsuka wants to see. *rolls eyes*
To get back to Yuiko for a second, the way she at first refers to herself by her own name is annoying, all right, and it no doubt would have made me completely hate her if I'd watched this a year ago. As it is, I work with kids now and I see them do this naturally in Japanese, because it's not a language that's big on the second person. So Hyo's mother will tell him, "Hyo-kun wa..." and Hyo will reply, "Demo Hyo-kun ga..." and that comes through in their English. I don't know how many times I've had to correct Hina for saying, "This is Hina's!" or Mai for saying things like, "Mai's mummy made it!"
One thing I found neat was how the fansubbers used French words to "translate" the names (such as Loveless) which were originally in English. They did a good job, except for "Breathless", which they translated as "Essoufflé". It's not incorrect per se, but "essoufflé" is really better rendered as "winded", as in out of breath after some exertion -- it doesn't have the connotations that "breathless" does. I would have chosen "Sans haleine" myself, especially since they chose "Sans ___" for several, if not all, the other names.
All in all, it was entertaining enough. At least I knew going in that nothing much would be explained, so I wasn't disappointed when the reason for all this fighting, or the mission statement of the mysterious organisation that Seimei and everyone else seems to belong to, was never revealed.
Wish me luck for the Japanese test tomorrow!
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Date: 2008-12-06 01:34 pm (UTC)But yeah, the creepy. It actually wasn't Soubi who creeped me out so much as the shrink! O_O