[rhulad]

For a second, I confused Angel Beats with Beat Angel, don't do that they are two very different animes. I have watched a large number of series, some good some bad. I might compile a list and post it after I get home, if I don't get too side-tracked by Skyrim.

[JLV]

6 episodes left in Full Metal Alchemist. We'll probably finish them and watch the movie in the next 2 days.

This series is really just fantastic. There are a few plot holes and minor annoying things.

Like

Spoiler

What's the point of having the whole "seeing the truth" thing when everyone who's anyone can transmute without a circle or by simply having it tattooed on his glove/hand/whatever. Is brotherhood like that as well?

[Silencer]

Brotherhood kinda has the same thing, I guess, but it makes more sense:

Spoiler

Only Ed and eventually Al can Transmute without a circle (barring people using Philosopher's Stones, ofc), but the key difference is that someone like Mustang...he can ONLY use his fire with those circles. One is for precision strikes, the other for big explosions. The same goes for anyone with a tattoo'd or drawn circle. Ed, however, can do any transmutation he likes without the need for those specific circles. So it's quite an advantage, in the sense you don't require a pre-prepared circle at all. Of course, in the series this doesn't manifest so much as most Alchemists only rely on one or two transmutations anyway, and this seems enough to get them through.

So it's more a case of "this is special, but it just doesn't stand out/get explained enough to make it actually seem super-special".

Additionally, for example, near the end of Brotherhood (fairly massive spoiler, as I'm pretty sure the endings are where the two series' diverge, so don't read unless you don't care):

Spoiler

Mustang is forced to commit human Transmutation, so gains the ability to Transmute without a circle. We then see him using this power with his ignition gloves - it actually takes him longer, as he has to *clap*, *snap*, *boom* whereas before it was *snap* *boom*. BUT, on the other hand, he also raises a stone barrier to protect himself - something which probably wouldn't have happened in the past, yes? So it's pros and cons.

[Orlion]

Yep, huuuge spoiler there

It's a good thing you saw that Full Metal Alchemist first, JLV. In my opinion, Brotherhood blows it out of the water... there are very few things that I think were done better in FMA.

Could never finish the movie.

[JLV]

Well that actually makes sense, now. Thanks Silencer.

We'll probably take a break from FMA, and watch something else before Brotherhood.

[Silencer]

Animefreak.tv has it subbed and dubbed, not sure on the quality though. Youtube also has it up, it seems. Youtube is actually proving to be pretty good for anime series atm.

Awesome series is awesome, so however you can get your hands on it, WATCH IT.

Just...don't watch the second season dubbed. I'm not sure how it sounds if you haven't rewatched it ten or more times in sub, but my GOD does it sound terrible if you have. :S (I mean that entirely subjectively - the quality is great, it's just the choice of casting that lacks...)

[amphibian]

 Briar King, on 05 December 2011 - 05:12 AM, said:

Cool I ll have to check out youtube then. They didnt have it up a few months ago.

Also I dont know if it was Animefreak or Animecrazy that I use to watch before this new computer but which ever it was fucked our computer up bad with virus appearantly and led to us getting these 2 new computers last Thanksgiving.

You should get good virus protection systems up on your computer.

Spend the money to get a 12 pack of decent beer and lure a tech-savvy friend over to rig it all up for you.

[Silencer]

What 'phib said.

[JLV]

I remember getting a ton of viruses from Anime sites back in the day.

I'd recommend Netflix streaming, if you're thinking about getting it. A TON of movies, and a TON of anime, including Darker than Black. Some anime is in sub, though (Death Note), most is in dub.

[LinearPhilosopher]

 Briar King, on 05 December 2011 - 01:24 AM, said:

Im still interested in trying out Darker than Black but I cant find it on the Net to watch it. Any help with this that isnt a harmful site to watch?

for my needs i use anilinkz.com, popups yes but ive never gotten a virus that i know of
watchcartoonsonline.(.com i think has a decent amount of subbed anime and alot of dubbed anime)
those are my two main sites.
Animecrazy.net is another good clean one

I stay clear of animefreak though, i got a nasty virus a while back on a different computer.

If you're in the states try hulu it has a good selection. Theres also funimation's webstie that does streams and posts entire season on its youtube channel.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 05 December 2011 - 08:09 PM

[Silencer]

^and some of those Funimation streams are actually not region-restricted. Either that or they think I'm in the States, now.

@JLV - just curious, but...*dons flame-retardant suit* - subs or dubs? XD

[JLV]

Dubs. I know people on the internet hate them, but I think they're much easier to watch than subs. I don't watch TV to read I would pick up a book if I wanted to read, and probably be more entertained.

A big complaint is the voice actors, but I've never watched a show where the voice actors strike me oddly. So I guess I'm in the minority!

[Silencer]

Yeah, thought you might lean that way. 'S all good, I quite like dubs where I can find them - Haruhi, Darker than Black (first season ONLY, the second season is forever ruined by having listened to the subs first...what the hell did they do to Suou?!??!), Noir, Full Metal Panic...all of those I listened to and loved in dubs.
FMA: Brotherhood...watched the subs first, and that pretty much killed the dub for me when I heard Mustang's voice. Seriously, guys? SERIOUSLY?! Same thing happened with season two of DtB, and Toaru Majutsu No Index/Kagaku no Railgun are deffo subs for me (not even sure the dubs exist, tbh...haven't bothered listening).
It seems to a large extent to depend on whether I watch the dub first or the sub first, followed by casting choices. But...teehee...guess I swing both ways on the issue.
Reading doesn't bother me, if the timing is OK. Fast-action series, with dialogue over the top, or ones with serious detail in the art...they suffer in subs. Like the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya - I wanted to, but at the same time I *had* to watch that several times over in sub to get the full 'experience'. Felt like I was missing heaps otherwise. Now that I've seen the dub (which was good, and I didn't dislike anything about it, which is a first for dub-after-sub), I feel so much better about it. XD

[JLV]

Actually yeah, Mustang's voice is terrible. I forgot about that. I also struggle with high-pitched voices (ie the think-tanks in GitS/Al in FMA) but that would be true in subbed as well as dubbed.

The disappearance? I thought it was called The Melancholy. I quite liked that. The male with the weird powers is voiced in the dub by the same actor who voices the main character in Death Note, Code Geass, and tons of other stuff. That guy is fantastic.

I really need to learn character names better.. silly Japanese names.

Edit: forgot some stuff.

I've never watched an anime in sub first. So I'm not sure. Back in the day, when I watched bleach, I caught up with the english version. Being an impatient preteen, I went and watched the Japanese version which was pretty far ahead. The switch in voice actors didn't bother me at all, if I remember correctly.

That's Bleach, though. I can't imagine watching a subtitled Ghost in the Shell, or Ergo Proxy. That would be horrendous, in my oh so humble opinion.

All comes down to personal preference, really.

This post has been edited by JLV: 06 December 2011 - 01:24 AM

[Silencer]

*Disappearance being the movie of the fourth novel in the Melancholy series. Hence why I watched the sub until just recently. I watched all of Melancholy dubbed, though. And you mean Itsuki Koizumi.

I've actually found that the subs don't do "high pitched" quite the way the dubs do. Generally dubs slip at least to the level of Bart Simpson, if not worse, while subs tend to be...softer. They can do some very high pitched voices, too, ofc, but at least every character who's supposed to be under the age of 20 doesn't sound like they've just been kicked in the balls. <- exaggeration for effect? Check.

[LinearPhilosopher]

in animes where dialogue is heavy and key to understanding whats going on, dubs are a must. Ghost in the shell (the seasons) are much more easily understood in the dubs versus the subs. Watching it the first time i have to pause and re read certain lines of dialogue over and over which broke the immersion. Also certain animes just feel better with dubs (baccano, black lagoon). Subs are nice though since a good sub will put translation notes which come in handy for understanding certain subtleties in dialogue that are lost in translation.

@ JLV ever try going subs to dub? Its horrible i tell you. the bleach dub has soo many bad voice actors.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 06 December 2011 - 06:53 PM

[amphibian]

I read very, very quickly. This may be in part a result of me being deaf and dealing with closed captioned tv, but I've had some level of quick-reading since I learned how.

Thus, subs are no problem for me and I prefer hearing the original voices and inflections, combined with a faithful translation. I have generally been able to pick up what certain words in Japanese mean and discern when the English translation takes shortcuts or skips things in the name of brevity.

That's why I always prefer subs to dubs. Without the presence of the original dialogue, how do I know the dubs have it right?

[Silencer]

 amphibian, on 06 December 2011 - 08:34 PM, said:

I read very, very quickly. This may be in part a result of me being deaf and dealing with closed captioned tv, but I've had some level of quick-reading since I learned how.

Thus, subs are no problem for me and I prefer hearing the original voices and inflections, combined with a faithful translation. I have generally been able to pick up what certain words in Japanese mean and discern when the English translation takes shortcuts or skips things in the name of brevity.

That's why I always prefer subs to dubs. Without the presence of the original dialogue, how do I know the dubs have it right?

Colour me confused.

That aside, I know what you mean. *most* things I can get through without having to double-take; what normally gets me is those single-page 'let's flash some dialogue in print here' things they do some time. I'm thinking like with Yuki Nagato explaining things to Kyon in the Haruhi series. The sub is trying to caption the picture, but the picture is only up for half a second in the middle of dialogue. Hard to follow, even for me.

Definitely getting to the point now where I recognize several common phrases and plenty of words in Japanese though - particularly stand-out in cases like FMA: Brotherhood where often (in the sub I watched) the subs were left hanging rather than stacked. You start hearing the word and wondering where it is, then in the next line of the sub you see the translation ('cuz of the different syntax between the languages, obviously) and go 'ahhhh, there it is'. XD
That does make it interesting with cases where the phrase can be interpreted differently, or worse, where it HAS been interpreted differently, based on the translator's personal reading of the line. But I can live with that.

As for knowing whether the dubs got it right...yeah, that can be important. Again, though, it comes down to specific cases. A lot of the ad-libbed stuff in Haruhi, and some of the small changes the dubs make actually, imo, improve the scenes markedly, rather than doggedly sticking to the original just for purity's sake. On the flip side, some subs vs dubs cases I've seen the dub has pretty much bastardized the story, and it's significantly worse for it.
Then *again*, having watched Noir in sub and dub...the dub was definitely better. Having watched the first part of El Cazador de la Bruja in dub, and the second in progress in sub...some of the (official) choice of words in the subs were off. Though given both of those are by the same studio...perhaps it has something to do with the source, as well as the translator and dubbing studio. So I've found it goes several ways.

tl;dr generally though I prefer subs, especially if I watch them first. *Anything* with 'young' people as protagonists will be better in subs, period. XD

[Kanese S's]

For me it really depends on the series. There are actually a couple that I prefer the dub to the original to.

[JLV]

Plus I like when I manage to recognize an actor from one anime in another. I can't do that with Japanese voices.

Bato from GitS had a 1 episode character in Samurai Champloo, as did the Chief from GitS.

The main male character in Ergo Proxy is the crazy Earl who made the Lancelot in Code Geass.

I love catching that stuff.