[update: the entire discussion of Monica Rial here was a msitake, I don't stand by it at all anymore, she's still great.]
So I started with Toji no Miko aka Katana Maidens. I found it’s first episode pretty fun. I don’t get people saying it “can’t figure out what kind of show it wants to be”. What I like about Anime is shows not fitting cleanly into a single genre. It’s pretty common to have a Cold Open that doesn’t involve our main character, and also common to take like three episodes to fully get what the plot is about. But mostly this episodes focuses on one main protagonist and her relationship with two potential love interests. So it seemed perfectly focused to me.
Popteamepic’s premier was funny.
I couldn’t finish the first episode of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card. I enjoyed that they made a Joke out of the continuity lockout at the beginning. Doesn’t change that it’s there, but I can handle Continuity lockout, I’m an on again off again reader of DC Comics. What I can't handle is a really bad casting decision.
Usually actors get better over time, as they gain more experience, like most jobs really. But sometimes one gets really successful in one particular role or two, and they wind up defaulting to doing that basic routine all the time. It may not be the actor’s fault, it may the director or studio saying “we didn’t hire you to do something knew, we hired you for what you’re famous for”. I’m not even really referring to the traditional definition of type casting, they still plays very different characters, just ones that talk and act in a similar way.
In the context of Live Action actors I’ve long associated this phenomenon with Jack Nicholson, because it used to come up on IMDB during the build up to The Dark Knight, when people like myself were explaining why Nicholson’s Joker was overrated. Maybe he could have been a great Joker in the 70s, but in 1989 he was only a good Joker. But at least Nicholson only gets cast in roles that his shtick works for, and so is always pretty entertaining in movies like The Departed.
Noir is my favorite Anime, and I like largely it for it’s Dub. For a long time I thought Mireille was only voice from Noir I was hearing pop up in other Anime. Though in Diabolik Lovers I kinda thought Evil Incest Mom sounded like Yuumura Kirika. That’s also a pretty old by now Dub, I think.
So recently I decided to finally start looking at the names of Noir’s Dub Voice Actors. I was taken aback by Hilary Haag being Chloe, but I could see it pretty quickly. But when I read that Yuumura Kirika was voiced by Monica Rail, I went, No.... that can’t be right, that can’t possibly be Monica Rial, that performance was way too Good to be Monica Rail.
A certain voice enters the head of modern Anime fans when they hear the name of Monica Rial. Kirika does not have that voice, not even close, (nor would I say did Evil Incest Mom). Now that I'm think about it I can kind of see how those two voices can come from the same vocal cords. But it's not the same voice.
The Voice we're used to heard from Monica Rail I enjoy in some roles, as Tanya The Evil she was perfect, no one could do that better. But whenever she voices someone who’s supposed to be more normal and/or cute, I don’t like it, and if she's doing that as the lead it becomes unwatchable like Watamote. Basically it’s a good voice for over the top performances, similar to Crispin Freeman, but Freeman also tones it down when he plays a more down to earth character like Kyon.
So that leads us to the new Cardcaptor Sakura, where Monical Rail plays Sakura, the lead. And I can’t stand it. They should have just brought Kari Wahlgren back, I may not have liked the old Sakura dubs much but it wasn’t the actors faults. Sakura sounding like Kagami or Saber would have been far less ear grating.
Last but not least I shall cover Citrus.
Citrus had a great first episode, I’m not disappointed. And the Dub cast is perfect. This remains the show I'm most excited for.
The OP song suspiciously reminded me of SAO’s at the beginning.
Apparently the word that it would be only 11 minutes episodes was mistaken. Or maybe it’s just the first episode, but it still only covered one Volume of the Manga. I hope it stays this way.
So I may stick to doing these on Thursday or Friday for the remainder of the Winter season. Or maybe not, a number of Simuldubs are taking a bit longer to start. So next week I’ll have more shows to talk about. So hopefully there will be no more long rants about comparing Voice Actors to Jack Nicholson.
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