Hell Girl was sweet.
Paranoid Agent was bichen.
Cowboy Bebop is GOD!!!
Of course it’s episodic, because guess what…that’s what works here in the west: episodic, not overly drenched in japanese mythology/folklore/storytelling, and a familiarity of the genres it uses.
Oh come on! Every episode of Cowboy Bebop is the same thing. Spike goes out to get a bounty, the crew is hungry, and they end up getting screwed out of their money by the end, either by Faye or the person dying or something. Oh the dog barks and Ed is annoying. Jet sits in the ship and complains a lot too. You tell me that’s not repetitive? I liked it, but come on now. Paranoia Agent had that relay race style storytelling, and that’s what this has. One character, another character, passes off to another character, with Hell Girl/lil’ slugger as the focus. That’s all I’m saying in regards to that 
. and you should know by now, my opinion is VERY different then everyone else’s. It’s those http://tinyurl.com/b7gk6w I’m telling you.
Yes Hell Girl is all about revenge… Uh…Duh? But I found each episode different enough as none of them had the same kind of story. It wasn’t always a good guy getting bullied and needing to kill that bully was it? no? One time it was this, another time that, and another time something else that’s very different. I’m getting worried that we may run out of original stories with 3 seasons of the thing, but the first season had each episode different enough. Plus it managed to be quite suspenseful at times. And disturbing as all hell. It’s quite smart, very emotional, loved the ideas behind all the stories, top notch artwork and animation, and music was great. Plus I liked the great contrast between modern day Japan and the place Hell Girl lives. Interesting… This is a winner in my book. It’s a thinkers anime too! 10/10. it does everything right IMO.
If you’re on crazy pills then I suggest you spread it around. Everyone should buy Hell Girl Season 2! 
Yes, buy Hell Girl season 2 and 3. Yes, I said 3 because I already know they will or already have it, ala YUA and HS. And maybe, just maybe they’ll rescue season 1 - maybe.
Spike goes out to get a bounty
Yeah…that’s what bounty hunters do, they work by going out to get bounties.
the crew is hungry
That’s what happens when you work for yourselves, i.e. freelance, like real life bounty hunters or private detectives. They do it fully knowing they might have to go hungry once in a while because they want to work on their own terms. Same goes for anyone else like that: actors, writers, artist, starting your own business, etc.
and they end up getting screwed out of their money
Again, it comes with the territory of freelancing.
Oh the dog barks and Ed is anoying
Yeah…animals and kids do that.
Jet sits in the ship and complains a lot too
Captains do that on their ships. They want everything to run smoothly.
So far everything you said is normal in western(U.S.A.) movies/tv. Again, that’s why this was a hit.
Yeah…but it’s still repetitive. All I’m saying. Opinion aside, if your going to call Hell Girl repetitive, Bebop has it beat by a long shot.
And that’s why I own both of them. Cause that’s the kind of fan I am, so
I own them both as well :S .
I have been waiting for this to come out for awhile. I secretly hoped Funimation had both seasons two & three and were dubbing them and just holding on to them when the dub was complete. Kinda upset that Sentai wouldn’t try to acquire the English dubs made by Animax for their English language broadcasts. But I can watch them sub only 
[quote=Tonka]
Yes, buy Hell Girl season 2 and 3. Yes, I said 3 because I already know they will or already have it, ala YUA and HS. And maybe, just maybe they’ll rescue season 1 - maybe.[/quote]
I doubt they can get Season 1 for a while, Funimation will probably hold on to the first season until they can recoup costs for the dub.
[quote=Prede]
Yeah…but it’s still repetitive. All I’m saying. Opinion aside, if your going to call Hell Girl repetitive, Bebop has it beat by a long shot.[/quote]
[quote=Prede]
I own them both as well :S .[/quote]
Me too and I love both
[quote=zidanetribal2000]
Kinda upset that Sentai wouldn’t try to acquire the English dubs made by Animax for their English language broadcasts. But I can watch them sub only :D[/quote]
If that was viable, other companies like RSI would have done that with their sub-only releases.
That may not even be possible or too complicated to get, even if they wanted to. Just posting a small image banner by R1 companies on their site about a JP anime sometimes entails a lot of requests, time, red-tape etc. So getting something like that could be way too much bother.
Ultimately though it’d be a bad idea since Sentai would open a can of worms. Investors would question Sentai’s “niche and dub” strategy and the point of Seraphim Digital.
Fans aren’t upset there isn’t a dub as much as they are upset there isn’t a dub with the original cast. So folks who aren’t informed and follow the news carefully will think Sentai dubbed it and changed the casts on purpose or they spent money for a cheap dub or spent money for a dub. It’s better to just call a spade for a spade (i.e… niche) rather than open the door to people criticizing Sentai more.
Now if the Animax dub was beloved by tens of thousands of R1 consumers that would buy it… that would change the dynamics more than a bit.
Besides, wouldn’t Sentai want to get their VA’s, people they’ve known and worked with before, thus know how to get the best performance out of them in least amount of time, since come on people we’re in the “modern anime age”, then get someone else they’ve never worked with before and thus would take a while to get used to those VA’s personal acting quirks and what not, even if those someone elses were the original VA’s on said dubbed anime.
ALRIGHT!!!:woohoo: I finished that sentence.:S
They wouldn’t have to work with anyone per se in this case since the Animax dub is likely done well before R1 licensing. Now if the work wasn’t done and they had to contract a studio for a new dub, yeah definitely a lot of issues that you discussed would be an issue.
Animax/Hong Kong dubs are usually considered poorly by most dub fans also, even though many of them prefer dubs, they prefer sub-only over low quality Asia dubs. This would create additional pressure by dub fans criticizing companies for bringing back even lower standards as there existed in the 90s - in contrast, now where dubs are treated as art and shouldn’t go below industry R1 standards.
Companies are caught between a rock and a hard place, on every turn, there is criticism… they are making what is the best move for them (lesser of two evils in some cases) in the big picture of things - sometimes we understand it, sometimes we don’t. But they have reasons for it. 
[quote=dragoon]
Animax/Hong Kong dubs are usually considered poorly by most dub fans also, even though many of them prefer dubs, they prefer sub-only over low quality Asia dubs. This would create additional pressure by dub fans criticizing companies for bringing back even lower standards as there existed in the 90s - in contrast, now where dubs are treated as art and shouldn’t go below industry R1 standards.[/quote]
You see this I don’t understand. Why would anyone prefer NOTHING, over “possible low quality” but still an OPTION. Because you would still have a dub track on the DVDs so you could still listen to the dub if you wanted to. And if you still don’t like it, then it’s like that’s your only choice, the sub is still there yah know? Just my 2 cents. Not that Animazx dubs are any good, but hey it’s worth a shot.
Because a lot of dub fans don’t want to repeat the past… the view of dubs to slide back into “low quality” era. The wars post-90s dubs was a long one in terms of giving dubs viability, presence and respect. Outsourcing to asia takes dubs back to the era of dubs being viewed as bad again. Once you’ve fought the war of trying to gain dubs the respectability it deserves… you don’t want to go through that era again and most dub fans certainly have done that. People want to move forward, even if it means without it. Their feelings are understandable.
Regardless, from a business standpoint it just hasn’t made sense, yet.
Again, if it did, there would be precedent for this. All these companies not hiring or picking up Animax dubs… there’s a reason for that.
If there was a way to make profit out of that model, companies would have done so. At one point anime companies have learned to cut their losses, Shawne brought this up some months back on ANN. At one point if companies keep doing the many little things to please everyone, or bigger things like these… there’s no point to licensing anymore when so many companies are taking a piece of the pie as it is that R1 companies are left with nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if acquiring dubs like these are even more complicated and expensive than licenses.
I’ve been debating sub/dub way too much lately, so I’m not even touching it here…lol
But this reminds me that I still need to finish the last disc from season 1. The show could get overly repetitive a bit, but I really enjoyed it. However, there was an episode on disc 5 that was just too much for me. The episode with the puppies was just too much.
[quote=dragonrider_cody]
I’ve been debating sub/dub way too much lately, so I’m not even touching it here…lol[/quote]
I am drained and getting crankier myself. It’s just exhausting week after week of this for a year now in this heightened mode.
I don’t mind people expressing their hope for dubs, (I want a dub too, you all know how much of a dub enthusiast I am and a big fan of a lot of these VAs and follow the productions closely - while I like and can enjoy subs fine, dubs are is still my favorite method of watching anime, if that option is available… and I know a lot of people in the industry who would get jobs as a result, which is always a great thing!)
… but complaining… usually, it’s always attached by some reasoning that is a lot to ask for, is not viable or fans once again requesting things of R1 companies as they did in the past which could break them (I don’t want to see Sentai make the same mistakes ADV did), or attached by threats from pirates/or general fake buyers, I coined a term mirage customers/buyers in recent months.
Folks don’t realize the retail B&M situation is getting more complicated and I can’t get into details of it - I know you and others at AOD have discussed some of the more visible and detrimental aspects of it but it hasn’t really caught on yet as people don’t see the gravity of it.
With these factors at play, where exactly are companies gonna get the money to pay things as is if they’re barely adjusting now with more B&M access available now? That is one reason for the new repricing, as I see it, of titles in this solicitation batch. Any further additions or dubs that people are demanding, it’s going to be tough to meet the demands of people demanding cheaper while offering more while making money. There’s always going to be a price to be paid somewhere.
It’s very true that people don’t understand the true gravity of the B&M situation. It’s getting much, much hard to get product onto shelves, and in many cases impossible. Not to mention, we are looking at the strong possibility of a future where FYE is gone and Best Buy only carries things like DBZ (if even that.)
I’ve noticed there have been major correlations between changes at Best Buy in particular, and significant events in the R1 anime market. The huge sendbacks last year, which hit Bandai really hard, happened right before they started having a noted increase in issues (missing almost every street date, dropping dub plans, etc.) The scale back in stores offering anime also occured right before we noticed a significant increase in the number of titles being sold sub only.
A lot of fans have the attitude that it doesn’t matter to them, because they buy their anime online. But it does matter to them. It directly affects companies like Sentai and Media Blasters. Less shelf space means lower sales. Lower sales means less money to spend on things like dubs and packaging.
Also, I fully support the $10 price increase. Anime is to cheap to be sustainable as a niche market. I feel that devaluing of it is a major problem in the market, even though the constantly cheaper re-re-re releases from companies like ADV and Funimation are largely respnsible for it. Pirating and free streaming have also done their damage.
I have a question about this series. I just watched an episode on Hell Girl Season 1 on Funi’s video portal, my question is. Do I need to watch season 1 to get what is going on in season 2 of this series?
I am not sure if it would be needed to season 2 but I do think it’s good idea to pick season 1. I just found out while looking for info to help there there was third season too.
By the way I got e-mail yesterday saying that Season 2 premiers on VOD next week and online on 10.
[quote=techieq]
I have a question about this series. I just watched an episode on Hell Girl Season 1 on Funi’s video portal, my question is. Do I need to watch season 1 to get what is going on in season 2 of this series?[/quote]
Well, yes and no.
No because each episode has a self contained story, that is a beginning, middle, and an end. So no two episodes will have the same characters apart from the main stars of the show.
Yes, because throughout the season 2 there will be references and story plots to previous incidents that happened to the main characters in the previous season. You’ll still enjoy the show even if you’ve haven’t seen the previous season because of its episodic nature, but to get a more well rounded and fuller experience, I’d watch the first season first. And I’d also assume that what happens in season 2 will be referenced in season 3. But just my opinion.
Time to Netflix the first season then