Sunday watchlist number Sunday

It is Sunday, and I am taking a break from early morning Hearthstone to let you know what anime I will be running on my other screen while I make people look the fool in Arena. Spoiler alert: I can't think of many clever things to say right now. HEADACHE.

EL Hazard - the all of it
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=16
(see "related" at the top of the linked page for the others)
I have a strange relationship to alternate re-tellings and OVA's with sequels in series form; everything must be watched in chronological order and, when there are different tellings, the order they were made acts as a second filter. This means that I will be watching the 2 OVA's, then watching the first series as it retells the same story, and then on to the sequel action. This may sound totally ridiculous, but I find that you can get a lot out of a series this way, few re-tellings are made simply for funsies, and so there is usually a lot of depth vs pacing fun juxtaposition to be had in being able to compare a retelling to the original when watching them in order. What is nerdier than reviewing anime? Reviewing how to watch anime properly. This reminds me that I have never broached this issue, but dubs are for shit (see bottom of this post). OH SHIT I have not said anything about the show yet. It is of that excellent 90's large cast, alternate world, love triangle, whatInuyashawasthebadversionof, action adventure anime vein, which is almost as compelling to me as being of the 80's to early 90's campy sci fi vein.

City Hunter
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=384
(again, going to work through the full set over time)
Explaining why I want to watch City Hunter is the most difficult Sunday Watchlist task I have had thus far, as there really is not a good reason. First off, I do not really expect to like the show overall.

There were several people involved in the project that I respect, but the "total dog that is always trying to get laid, but is really in love with his partner" archetype, especially from this time period, is laborious at best, and really sexist at worst. At the same time, the animations looks, from the old trailers and screenshots I have seen thus far, to be absolutely gorgeous, just take a look at those 80's hard lines and shadowing to the right, so I know that the experience will probably be visually pleasing if nothing else. My other reason for watching is that several reviewers, some of whom I even respect, have given this series mixed positive overall ratings, and I feel that discarding it because of my pre-conceptions before viewing would be silly and, dare I say it, ...no, actually I do not. Anyway, we shall see if my fears are confirmed, denied, or temporarily placated with dog treats.


Jisatsutou
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=13715

GUYS THIS IS NOT AN ANIME OH GOSH. So, I do interact with media forms other than anime (sometimes) and since this is a watchlist to direct you towards ways to burn time, this manga is going to be included. because read it. yeah. Jisatsutou (suicide island) has an exceptionally appealing plot, and I cannot wait to dive in to this business. The incredibly minimal summary that has been circling through various manga sites is as follows "Treating non-successful suicidal patients requires a lot of money and resources. With low budget and a personal respect argumentation, a doctor will ask a non-successful suicidal patient if he/she still wants to live on or not. If not the government will respect his/her wish. However, the government doesn't just simply kill them. " No sauce because no one seems to know where it is originally from. Anyway, I have learned a bit more about the plot, but you will not hear any of it from me, because I have no desire to spoil any of what I believe will be a series of glorious plot twists.

DUB SACK
Let me begin by saying that I am not even remotely objective on the issues of dubbed anime/films. I hate dubs, I will not watch anything dubbed, netflix should not be allowed to have anime as it is all dubbed, studio dubs are rarely better than fan dubs, etcetera. Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I have two primary objections to dubbing in all its forms, from anime to french art shockers, spanish semi-pornographic films of Antonio Banderas' early career (seriously though, what?) to german soap operas. The more aesthetic of the two is centered on the relationship between audio and visual media that have been created in conjunction. Everything from the unique inflections of voice actors and cultural groups to the relationship between the sound effects and dialogue is planned by the creator of a media object. They are all intended to be parts of a component artistic whole. Dubs, in contrast, are created in the overwhelming majority by external parties contracted to dub a movie or series so that it can by more widely distributed for easy viewing (does not require reading things), and thus has an, at best, loose relationship with the artists original vision, even with artistic oversight. See the English dubs of  such seminal anime as Samurai Champloo for a good example. Secondly, the particulars of a specific language in regards to meaning and the corresponding difficulties in translation carry over with much less distortion in written translation instead of dubbing. Because of the variations in speech patterns and diction between languages, it is much easier to give a close approximation of meaning in translation when the translator is not also attempting to fit the translation into a speech pattern that will not sound awkward or forced when vocalized in place of being read. Our brains can handle some atypical diction and syntax much better when pairing text with audio we do not understand then when hearing translated passages in a language we speak. If you want sauce for linguistic analysis, read some books yo, it is easy.

P.S. If you would like to see anything in particular reviewed, comment on dis post, dat post, or any other post. Anonymous comments are enabled, it is really easy to comment, and I will cry less about my lack of fame if people write things to make me feel noticed.