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Comic and Rant for Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Sketch Book Day 9 |
On to the groveling and whining! Sorry it’s been so long between updates, but I really have been busy (though laziness and procrastination aren’t entirely blameless). I’ve been helping my parents around their house quite a bit lately, especially since my Dad had a prostate cancer operation. He’s fine, but the operation has left him in a weakened state, and even if he wasn’t, he’s rather computer illiterate, so I’d still have had to help him with an online Sewage Enforcement Officer test. The other details are boring (except maybe visiting my sister for Easter - WARNING: Cute nephew pictures may follow), so I’m skipping to the more interesting activities that have kept me from updating. Shortly after Katsucon 2002, I promised World of Anime I’d do a Katsucon 2002 review episode for them. Then my external hard drive, whose space is vital for a half hour of digital video editing, broke. I still plan to make the episode, but the Katsucon content will just consist of a little footage and a running gag about how long I’ve taken (working title: “Katsucon 2002 Report - Not”). This is actually a good thing, because doing a report was an afterthought, and all I got was some footage of cosplayers, my friends MikeeGee and KatGee, and an ADV panel before the single tape I’d brought ran out. I’ve been working on this episode in small sections, though I doubt I’ll finish it until my hard drive is fixed, and I’ve also been working on a series of segments for WoA called “Credits Vs. Credits”, where the original (usually Japanese) credits of a show are followed by the dub (usually American) version. All I can say is: WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING WHEN THEY DID 8TH MAN?! Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, in order to compensate for my general lack of anime purchases in the past few months, I purchased far too much at once. Much of that expenditure was on the .hack//SIGN Box, which I haven’t gotten around to watching yet. All I can say so far is that it has some okay extras, and that if it seems a bit low priced it’s because it only has the first DVD. I also got the first two volumes of the second Lupin III TV series, and in their favor I’d like to say that with six episodes on the first volume and five on the second they seem likely to do the entire series (155 episodes), and definitely aren’t making the same mistake as other companies doing long series. They also include the original Japanese opening on the second volume, so I can’t complain about the all-English opening with the logo that is ... uh ... somewhat of a departure from the original (it’s open season on the all-English end credits, though ^_^). Also, each episode has five chapters (Opening, Part A, Part B, Preview and Ending), which, though increasingly common, is still worthy of a mention (and will be until everybody does it). The eps also seem to be in original broadcast order, but I’ll have to verify that. On the negative side, they changed the episode titles (episode 3, “I Can Hear Nessie’s Singing” [Nesshii no Uta ga Kikoeru], becomes “50 Ways to Leave Your 50-Foot Lover,” for example). Fortunately, the trailers mention both titles and show the J text for the original ones, and from volume 2 on the subs mention the original title (and include romaji) in the episodes proper, but it would still be nice to see the original titles typed out in the episodes proper - one click per character until the title is finished - as opposed to however many roman letters fit the clicks on the soundtrack. No biggie, but one wonders why the couldn’t do what Disney’s been doing, and how accurate the first episode’s title is (it’s a bit off - “Lupin the 3rd Makes a Gallant Appearance“ [Rupan san sei satsusou toujou] becomes the uncharacteristically sedate “The Return of Lupin the 3rd”). Incidentally, they do credit the voice actors in a text scroll after the last ep on each disc. It’s only the five regulars, but that’s all the original episodes credited. Besides, Pioneer deserves kudos for sticking their dub production credits here, and keeping them out of the actual episodes (unlike some companies I could mention, who even stick their DVD production credits there). One more minor quibble (yeah, these are all minor quibbles - what do you expect from someone who’s proud of the label “Fanboy?”): The first volume has an insert with bios of the characters. I assume they’re mostly accurate (although “Blood Type” is missing from the statistics, hinting that they’re speculation rather than from an official Japanese source), but Goemon’s sword is referred to as “Zantetsu-Ken (or ‘The Conspirator’),” when in fact the name translates as “Metal Cutting Sword.” As I said, it’s minor (and not even on the video itself), but since the main purpose of the insert seems to be to introduce newcomers to the characters, it might be a bad idea to put in a joke that could be mistaken for a fact (the other reason is that it smacks of “I’m a real writer, and I’ll prove it!” syndrome, which is a subject for another rant at another time). Now for my two, more major (though still fairly minor) complaints. First off, like far too many companies releasing TV series on video, Pioneer doesn’t number the volumes, preferring instead to go with cutesy titles (vol. 1 is “The World’s Most Wanted” and vol. 2 is “Love Heist”). The theory behind this is (or was - maybe they changed it to something even more smegheaded in the meantime) that high volume numbers tend to discourage first-time buyers. Perhaps, but it seems to me that not knowing where to begin would be an even greater obstacle, not to mention not knowing where to go next when you’re in the middle of a storyline (though the latter is unlikely in the case of Lupin III, since most, if not all, of the episodes are self-contained). They do, at least, list the episode titles on the packaging, but not the numbers, which means that if I wait until the next two volumes are out before buying them and I only have enough money for one I’ll have to remember that episode 12 is entitled “I Left My Mind in San Francisco” if I want to buy them in order. One could, of course, also go by serial numbers, but while the fi rst two volumes are 11945 and 11946, there’s no guarantee that subsequent DVD’s will follow suit. What if volume 6 is 11950 , and volume 7 - presumably 11951 - seems impossible to find because it’s actually 11952, while 11951 is actually volume 12 of Tenchi Muyou! series Luft 112b? And let’s not forget that if you’re mail ordering or special ordering they might not have the serial numbers (let alone the episode titles) on record. Yes, I’m exaggerating, but the fact is that while it’s not too hard for a semi-experienced otaku to find out what the next volume in an unnumbered series is, a newbie - the sort of person they’re supposedly doing this for - would have some difficulty - difficulty that need no be there, and indeed would not be there if they’d just number the volumes. Sorry about taking so long, but this has been a pet peeve (or as George would say, a major psychotic [Expletive Deleted]ing hatred) of mine for some time. The other more major (though still fairly minor) complaint concerns the “Line Art” section (basically excerpts from model sheets). The menus have dark backgrounds which look great and are very appropriate - for the menus. Unfortunately, these backgrounds are also used for the line art. Need I mention how hard it is to see, or how stupid it is that a white background wasn’t used? I realize that a lot of people aren’t interested in extras like this, but like them or not, if they’re going to do them, they should do them properly. 
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