Setsuna F. Seiei: Brad Swaile (Gundam's Amuro Ray, Death Note's Light, and and Gundam Wing's Quatre) Lockon Stratos: Alex Zahara (Newbie) Allelujah Haptism: Richard Ian Cox (Inuyasha) Tieria Erde: Sam Vincent (Gundam SEED’s Athrun Zala, and Hikaru no Go’s Hikaru)
The English-speaking Gundam Meisters are here and ready to make out prevent war and all that fun stuff, but first they made a shiny new trailer for our entertainment. Ocean Studios is producing the English dub for Gundam 00, and we've got a couple good veterans for the cast, but a newbie for Lockon; Alex Zahara, who is relatively new to anime voice acting.
This trailer was first shown at Anime Expo last weekend, but unfortunately the entire world was not invited to attend the Bandai industry panel. However, I hereby invite the entire world to now watch this awesome trailer and dream about watching it on the Sci Fi Channel on the 17th of November. Man, is that far away; can’t you move that up a couple of months for us, Bandai? I’ll give you a cookie!
Animation certainly looks pretty, not sure if I liked the dubbing that I heard there.
@b00017065
I know quite a few people who prefer the dub, or at least demand the option. If you even look at the article on Japanator for this weeks releases, most of the commenters said that they are going to wait for the dub release.
I like how in both the Japanese and English dubs, the people who play Light Yagami also play Setsuna. I wonder if they did that on purpose in the English dub.
But at least this will appease the people who can't be bothered to read subtitles.
I can understand people would love to listen to a show in their own language and not read text on a screen. However, anyone who says these dubs sound good has too much earwax. But hey, its better than no dubs. (no, I'm not being sarcastic)
@Zeouterlimits: "If you even look at the article on Japanator for this weeks releases, most of the commenters said that they are going to wait for the dub release."
Who the fuck honestly held off on watching the fansubs so they can watch the english dub version? There are people who do that? Well there are people who fuck animals and dead bodies, so I guess those people can exist. I just don't see the majority of fansub watchers actively deciding not to watch a show because they want the dubs. The people who didn't watch the show because they want dubs are those who generally don't watch fansubs so its a moot point. If you haven't watch the show by now you're probably never heard of the show, had no interest, or aren't the the type who watches fansubs.
Putting aside the dubbing, this is pretty quick work by Bandai releasing Gundam 00 so quickly. I applaud them.
My only gripe aside from the dubbing (although crappy, not ear destroying), the show won't be shown in High Definition like the Japanese version. Also the DVD releases will be crappy 480p Unconverted to whatever you HD tv is compatible with.
I've heard people who use the video quality argument of choosing dvd releases over anime fansubs. Although they were right about 4 years ago, most anime fansubs nowadays (at least popular ones) are generally released in 1024x576 or 1280x720 (576p and 720p), which are fucking way much better than the crappy 640x480 (480P) you get on dvds.
After watching Gundam 00 at 720p on my 37" hdtv, I don't think I can justify the purchase of the dvds when all i get is a modified widescreen format at 480p. This is coming from a guy who actually buys every fucking Gundam DVD out there. I might buy it for collection sakes. Just to let you guys know, I bought every collecter boxset for Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. Heck I even paid $185 for Gundam Zeta Boxset.
@byrc: I know exactly what you mean about buying all Gundam DVDs anyway, lol, and for once I find myself completely agreeing with you on this matter concerning HD quality fansub versus standard def DVDs.
It is kinda ironic that now we pay more for lower quality...
I think on a more realistic legal move they could at least have a download service that gives them to you in 720p HD, seeing as Bandai probably isn't going to release anything on Bluray yet (Bandai Visual might, but they fail at life so who cares). If they did have a Bluray option at a decent price (say $30? sounds like a fair price compared to the rest of the market seeing as anime has always been usually around $5 more expensive than normal new releases)
Well this is the thing. I understand that releasing the content in high definition is going to be tough. Heck the japanese dvd release are all in 480p anyway. It's still too early for blu-ray due to pricing. However, just like you proposed a download service for HD quality episodes would be the cheapest way to do it.
This is why i'm such a big fansub fan. Although I buy tons of dvd boxsets (I dislike buying individual volumes),they're mostly for older shows; stuff from the 90s and early 2000s, and in general those dvd releases trump anything released by the fansubbers.
I know people out there are going to find a single example in which a recent (2006-2008) fansub video quality is terrible,but in general fansubbers are very anal about video encoding, large flamewars and internal strife occurs because of such things.
The thing is I buy anime shows because I want to own a physical piece of them, its just unfortunate that I have resort to buying an inferior release, just so I can have a physical representation of that media. This happen with Cheavlier and Ergo Proxy. After buying volume 1 of each I felt ripped off because the fansub version were of so much higher quality. I couldn't justify buying the rest of the volumes.
Brad Swaile as Setsuna- sure the guy knows how to act at least, and he's definitely done a fine job portraying characters (personally I hated what he did as Light in Death Note though...I don't think it fit him at all), but in this case I can't picture his voice fitting that well.
Alex Zahara as Lockon - Ummm...usually new guys as of late have been good. I hope this guy is since he's doing the only character out of this show that I think is somewhat cool.
Richard Ian Cox as Allelujah - Oh boy... personally I think he would've been MUCH better suited for the blue haired Trinity pilot...he has the snobbish kinda voice for it. I guess it's not that bad though...
Sam Vincent as Tieria - I feel sorry for Sam. I hate to admit it but I think his voice would fit pretty well for this character. Even though I don't like Gundam Seed I think he did an excellent job as Athrun, so I feel kinda bad for him that he's stuck in this role...
And although it won't be on till November, wouldn't that be right as Gurren Lagann is finishing up?
@byrc: And once I again I find myself agreeing with everything you said! Dang...I find it kinda freaky...though I never got into Le Chevalier Deon or Ergo Proxy (not my taste is all).
In regards to your third paragraph, I just want to say regardless of whatever anyone uses to compare DVDs to fansubs (be it by companies or arguing fans), the fact of the matter is fansubs are much more common to find in HD than legal content right now, so I agree it is kinda a waste to bother with most of those particular shows right now. I suggest just waiting till an inevitable bluray or HD download shows up for a few, try supporting those so more come out, and then with shows like this (especially this one, being a gundam show) I can almost guarantee that they'd eventually re-release it and probably in HD then. All I'm going to say is for anyone using the quality as their argument, it's fine, just wait and get it later once it's at least at the same level (though if it's bluray it may even have 1080p; overkill but hey, :D).
In terms of releasing on Bluray, it definitely won't be this year, but seeing as how the anime crowd has almost always been more willing to try out new formats and technologies, I wouldn't be surprised to see it out before bluray really starts to replace DVD. Plus Bandai's annoying little brother of a company and even Funimation have released a handful of titles on Bluray, so at least they've got their foot in the door.
SIDENOTE: Actually, does anyone know or have a source saying they're releasing this ONLY on DVD for now? I know it's a small chance but might they be doing a dual release like some other companies have tried?
@byrc If you looked it at it, it's not that I said they weren't watching it {or dling it} it's that they wanted to wait to buy a version that had the dub on it.
These are people who have watched the fansubs, but still want to have the dub on the dvd as an option.
27 comments
