Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation,
Someone mentioned about a case closed game on the site...and I came across this. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/Caseclosedboxart.jpeg
So far the game had been released in Japan and Europe but no word on a release date for USA.
So far the game had been released in Japan and Europe but no word on a release date for USA.
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I had no idea there was a Wii game, although I had heard about the DS game. If it's like the anime it's probably marketed to kids. Which is a shame because I much prefer the manga, that's a bit more adult (still a shonen obviously but still).
I think the US is behind in parution. When I left France about a year ago I had at the very least 60 volumes I do believe. I think a lot less are out in North America, so if the game involves stuff that happens later on, it would make sense not to release it yet, right? That's just a hypothesis of course.
In the anime, the Detective boys are added to many cases to appeal to younger audiences, I remember discussing that with a fellow fan who lived in Japan. Also, the cases are often simplified, although I guess it makes sense since an episode is much shorter than 3-4 chapters of a manga.
I'm not saying adults can't enjoy the anime. However I know the DS game was for kids, it was a "learn by playing" kind of game. This being said the Wii game sounds like you're actually investigation, which would be more interesting.
This being said, that's entirely influenced by my friend in Japan who was complaining that the anime is marketed towards young kids and as a result much too simplified, and by what I saw of the one game I saw stuff about, the "Detective Trainer" (I found a video here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPahv0Ph_Yc&feature=related
I did dislike the anime (saw the first season or so), but I tend to dislike anime adaptation of manga (although I like some JDrama) so it doesn't mean it's necessarily terrible or anything.
If anyone has played the game I'd be interested to know what it's about.
In the anime adaptations, for some reason or another, they like to add kids in everything. I don't know why...
Really? I guess that makes sense, but I wouldn't say the manga isn't marketed towards kids then either. There are more violent manga in Japan marketed toward kids. Actually I'd more say that it's marketed toward teens.
The way I see it, the manga is directed at teens, but the anime is directed at an audience that's a bit younger. Of course, the manga itself isn't a seinen to begin with.
I don't have much trouble with something that's "for kids" to begin with but if an adaptation is more for kids than the original, since I'm not a kid I like it less :P
It was either at the commercial break, or at the end of the episode there was a hint for the next one. I can't remember clearly right now.
And yeah, I guess anime tend to be ore childish than their manga counterpart... Come to think of it, it's not that rare with cartoons either. I guess maybe they think this way they can also appear to the population that doesn't read much?
Actually, come to think for it, by definition anime and manga have slightly different audiences. Sure, if you like a manga you might want to watch the anime or the other way around, but I can see how they would adapt them to the average audience of the medium. Which might explain why I like TV anime less than I like manga or JDrama. I'm not part of the target audience.
(Movie animes are a different story though. And I like some anime, I really like Fruits Basket for instance, it's a bit different from the manga but I like both. I really love the voices. In Japanese. The French voices are absolutely horrible, not for lack of talent of the voice actors, but because they decided things like "this male that everyone thinks is a female should have a very deep voice").
The only case I can think of in mainstream anime where the anime and manga ties for me is Fullmetal Alchemist. I'll always prefer the Detective Conan manga anyway, because I like to read the story and I really appreciate the art a lot more on the page. This is coming from someone who used to hate Gosho Aoyama's art style. However with time, as an artist myself, I've come to understand his style and appreciate it. The man really is a master of the murder mystery.
Tell me about it. his knowledge in various stuff is pretty bluffind, and wow, does his now his mystery writers.
I like that his style is pretty unique. Although I have to say I feel it improved a lot since the first volume (in over 10 years, not a surprise).
I don't really like the other series by Aoyama, be it Yaiba or Kaito Kid. Which is weird because I really like Kid as a character in Conan, but I guess Aoyama improved a lot as a writer in the meantime.
What frustrates me is, as often with senquential art, the publisher. They made him drag it on, from the beginning when he wanted to introduce a new important character (Haibara) for the tenth volume (which is already a lot), they refused and he had to wait longer (although that resulted in his introducing Heiji instead which I can't complain too much about).
And now, 60+ volumes, well it's moved so slowly that you kinda lose track of the main story. So when it suddenly moves again, like it did around volume 45 I believe, you're just all "what the??" and you can't remember most of the details leading up to it. So you end up screening through 45 books to find the small cases that are relevant... It's a bit frustrating.
Now, I love all the cases, but sometimes I wish they made an "abridged" version that would only contain the cases relevant to the main storyline. That would still be at least 20 volumes by this point, but more manageable. And that doesn't mean not reading the original one as well.
I had to leave all of my older books behind and rebuying that many volumes, I'm sure you can imagine isn't ideal. As a result I have another reason to want that to happen: it would be cheaper for me :P
Although I have to admit some of my favourite cases have nothing to do with the main storyline at all.
I do love the Kaito Kid, and I love how he parallels the Kid's life with Jimmy's own. Perhaps he just likes writing under those particular character types, but I always found it cool.
I only own around 24 volumes. I've read the rest online, but not because I'm cheap. I simply can't afford the volumes right now. I don't like taking money away from hard-working artists, though I'm sure Aoyama is probably pretty wealthy by now. And I'm not a patient person, and having to wait until I have the funds to continue the story isn't something I can get myself to do. Personally though, I wouldn't enjoy an abridged version as much. The wait the reader has to go through mirrors Jimmy's own, and only increases the excitement and anticipation when the overarching plot turns up new leads in the case.
... Oh no, they translated the names in the English version? I had no idea.
The main character is Shinichi Kudo (Kudo Shinichi), I'm guessing that's who they called Jimmy?
Doesn't it feel weird, American names when so many of the cases revolve around Japanese culture? (Not to mention people make fun of Conan because his name is American and weird, or those who don't make fun comment it's an unusual name, etc. In the middle of other American names, it has to be weird that it would be considered... well, weird).
Out of curiosity, what are the names in English?
Rachel Moore
Richard Moore
Amy Yoshida
Mitch Tsuburaya
George Kojima
Shiho Miyano
Booker Kudo
Vivian Kudo
Harley Hartwell
etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Case_Closed_characters
You can find all the English names versus their Japanese counterparts here.
But Genta > George while keeping his last name?
Anyway, I didn't know the English names were different so it was kind of a shock. When I was a kid they changed the names in anime and I've kept a very bad memory of that, I've been reading the original manga since (in the manga the names weren't generally translated) and I like it much better.
Although I've learned since then that it was due to anime being imported from the US rather than directly from Japan, while the manga was translated from the original. As a result we also got the censored version even for things that wouldn't have been censored for French audiences.
While I understand changing names when they have a meaning, usually in fantasy and/or humour, changing them for the sake of changing them... I don't like it as much. I can only imagine how horrible it would be for Harry Potter to become Henri Potier in French or something.
I understand Japanese names are unfamiliar but then a) why keep the last names? and b) isn't Japanese culture, which is the basis of many of the cases, just as unfamiliar?
You should have seen Crayon Shin Chan. They completely rewrote the episodes and jokes in order to fit American pop culture and customs even though it's a show based in Japan. Sure, it was funny, but it didn't make any sense when they started throwing around jokes about Lindsey Lohan. It's like, you're in Japan! You don't know who Lindsey Lohan is! Stop making jokes about her. You aren't Family Guy. In fact, that's exactly what it was. It's like if they took Family Guy to Japan, then completely rewrote the episodes in order to fit Japanese pop culture and customs.
(Peter and Brian watch Japanese wrestling)
Peter: Who's that guy?
Brian: Oh that's Hard Gay.
Peter: PFFT. HAHAHA. SNORT.
Brian: Peter, will you show some respect? He's the famous wrestling icon of our mother country, Japan.
Peter: AHAHAHAHA. HARD GAY. HAHAHAHAHA.
(Brian walks out and walks back in with a sword, which he raises above Peter's head)
Yeah, that's basically what it was like.
I'm just glad we didn't get Detective Conan, set in America, in New York City, starring Jimmy Kane/Conan Eversol, with popular guest appearances by Lady Gaga and bands like Metallica and Coldplay. Shudder.
Dubs and subs for me come down to personal tastes.
Well, then it's still using the original names, right?
I can understand translating name in a number of cases:
-Comedy: That's a big one, if everyone has silly names with a meaning and all puns/jokes would be lost, translating makes sense, because that allows the new audience to get the joke. Especially if the joke itself becomes some kind of plot point.
-Fantasy: Here the names are either completely invented and don't mean anything, or they mean anything in a language from Earth. If the pronunciation works in, say, English, but would be too hard in, say, French, they can be adapted. It's not like it makes sense for these people to have English names to begin with anyways.
But what I can't understand translating is when it's an obvious setting that's on earth and the names don't mean anything. If it takes place in England and you have a Mr. Baker, you shouldn't call him Boulanger in the French version. It doesn't make sense. Even if people were to call attention to the fact his name is Baker and he is a baker, well you can explain that in the translation. People reading the book will know the character are speaking English (even if the book is written in another language to begin with) because it takes place in London and all the characters are English.
But yeah, commercial decisions are like that. Sometimes it becomes some kind of running gag, how things are localised. So you're eating ramen whith your table heating cover on your lap, and you say you're in your New York flat eating a hot dog? I don't think so.
I think with the Internet, people have started to open a bit more to other cultures. Not that everyone is a specialist, but it's more easily accepted that things are different from one place to another, so I think things are kept true to the original more often. And I think that's good, because you get to learn a lot. And ultimately it makes more sense than trying to pretend things re happening somewhere when it's obvious they're not.
Pfft. Cowboy Bebop wasn't a perfect dub. That Heavy Metal Queen episode is painful.
You get used to reading. Plus, you pick up a fair bit of japanese from doing it, so you don't have to read most of it after awhile.
Dubs suck. They always re-use actors. Every blonde character is voiced by the same guy who did Ed in FMA, Kurtz in FMP, Tamaki in Ouran, that blonde dude in Tsubasa, Mao in Disgaea for the PS3 etc etc. It gets really annoying.
How many character actors do we really have in America who are incredibly eager to dub anime who work for the companies that own the properties though? Each company uses certain voice actors. I think all the ones you mentioned except Disgaea Vic Mignogna does voice work for are owned by Funimation.
I didn't say CB was a perfect dub, but I can't even listen to the Japanese version after hearing the American dub. Steven Jay Blum just IS Spike for me. Definitely not for the millions of Japanese who watched the show, but for me, he is.
I'll say that I commonly care less when it's animated. I feel it's a dub anyways, know what I mean? It's not like the drawings are actually the ones talking. And often the voice acting happens after the episode has already been made, in which case the voice didn't inspire the drawing.
But as far as asian things go... I just can't watch dubs. I think it's something about the gap between cultures. You often have people shout in anime when it just won't sound natural if they're shouting in French (not quite sure about English, but English speaking countries and French speaking countries are usually close enough culturally).
Also, as far as voices are concerned, it just feels more natural to me when I hear a male character voiced by a female in Japanese than it would in French. It's just too much rarer in French-made stuff. And even male voices in Japanese sometimes sound dramatically different (I'm thinking Shigure from Fruits Basket for instance. I love his Japanese voice. You just couldn't get the same feel from any French voice I don't think.)
I think the feel is just totally different. I remember reading up on dubbing and the person was talking about adapting the voices. There was a young character for instance and they explained that when discussing his voice in the various languages, it varied a lot, because in some a higher voice made more sense since he was young (17 or so I think), in some other an adult male voice worked better. Apparently it was a cultural thing.
As a result the sound is just very different. As I was saying, in the French dub of Fruits Basket, all males have very deep voices, including those who everybody think is female. As a result, not only did I have a hard time following who's saying what (they all sounded the same to me) but some of the plot makes no sense ("Oh, I thought you were female, even though you obviously talk with a deep male voice! Silly me!")
I won't deny there are extremely good dubs, but I find them harder to enjoy, it just clashes with what's going on in the same way changed names do to me.
When it's live people it's even worse. Body language, actual lip movement, voice intonations, all of that gets lost. I just can't watch something dubbed if it's with real people. It's hard enough when they dub someone in the same language, if it's a dubbed translation I feel too much information is lost.
Oh, and there are not that many voice actors either. To give you an idea, the same guy voices:
Adult Simba in the Lion King
Matthew Perry in Friends and at least one movie
Clark Kent in Lois and Clark
Gary Hobson in Early edition
Dimitri from Anastasia
Jim Carey in any of his movies
Mike Myers in about ten movie
Ben Stiller in 3 movies
The voice on the phone in Scream
Kuzco in Kuzco
Goerge Stobbart in Broken Sword
Etc, etc. Here is a list if you want. The are lots more.
Apart from a few of them (including George Stobbart for which he has an American accent), I can tell you you can tell it's the same person. I wrote the first 5 before I went to check his article, and that was off the top of my head.
Now, he's talented, and I do wish him to get as much work as possible, but I'm sure you can imagine how confusing that gets. Some of these people really should not have the same voice. I keep wondering what's going to happen if some of the actors appear in the same movie. I mean, right now he's the designated voice of Jim Carey, Mike Myers and Ben Stiller.
Oh, and apparently, from the article, he's Wally's voice from Curse. But I can assure you I wouldn't have known, so no problem there.
I have heard some really bad dubs, especially One Piece, Dragonball, FLCL, Macross, Bleach, Gundum....generally most shounen end up sounding like squealing tortured mice oozing from a squeaky tap to me in English.
In fact I'll make that list a bit easier to read.
Bad dubs:
Naruto
Bleach
One Piece
FLCL
Dragonball
Gundam
Macross
Ouran High School Host Club
Tokko
Neon Genesis Evangelion(Shut up its bad. Asuka's raspy lisp still haunts my nightmares)
Good dubs:
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Cowboy Bebop
Detective Conan
Samurai Champloo
Paranoia Agent
Paprika
Spirited Away
Castle of Cagliostro
Lupin 3rd(not perfect by any means, but classic and nostalgic)
Crayon Shin Chan (the voice work was okay, but I absolutely adored Shins voice, the changes were bad)
For some movies for me, the bad dubbing can be part of the fun. Like Godzilla or Jackie Chan movies. I grew up laughing at those bad dubs and I still laugh, and love them for it. Voices not syncing for me wasn't a problem, it was just funny.
Lately studios have been using more tricks that the Japanese use when it comes to voice work, like casting girls to play children. Maybe they've done that for a while now in America, I dunno, but they've always done it in Japan. However in America, that generally doesn't work. It's too easy to tell its a girl playing a little kid and it just creates a forced feeling. Yet its even WORSE when a grown man tries to play a child. It sounds like someone kicked them in the happy sack five times before every line.
However I don't count this as a problem in cultural differences, I think its a problem with the acting and vocal range of the person. A lot of Japanese voice actors are out of this world on their range, and the only voice actor I can think of right now who has the range of a Japanese VA is Steven Blum. The guy can hit highs perfectly as well as lows, and he can play everything from a badass to a lazy bum.
A huge polar opposite of his acting range would be Spike Spencer, who is best known for Shinji Ikari. The guy has played a wide variety of characters, but every time I hear his performances I just....feel like I'm watching Shinji Ikari again. It wasn't pleasant the first time I watched Shinji so I don't see why I would want to see him in another body on every other show! Spencer's emotional range ranges from <=) to <=( and as far as I am concerned beat out Johnny Young Bosch as the Keanu Reeves of anime voice acting.
Vic Mignogna is another actor who I think has a lot of range, though outside of a few rare instances later on in the FMA series when he had really gotten a lot of practice in, he debatably hasn't matched any of the Japanese's best. I mean sure his voice mostly sounds the same in his more famous roles as Edward Elric and Kurz Weber, but I have heard voice work from him, for instance on Bleach where I didn't know it was him until I read his name in the credits online. And even then I had to go back and listen to it again because I couldn't even tell it was him. I still can't tell it was him! I'm not sure that the casting credits didn't accidentally put his name in the wrong place.
Crispin Freeman is another good voice actor, up there with Blum in the cool voice department, although he's not perfect and doesn't seem to have a large range, and I could go on, but I don't want to write a book.
And like I said, the Japanese have bad dubs too, but I can't go into that enough in detail as I don't know Japanese. One instance I can think of though is Samurai Champloo. The Japanese dub just plain sucked. I don't know what it is with me, but whenever I hear Steven Blum play a character, then hear the Japanese version, I can't stand it.
Something to consider, here's in Latin America, dubbing it's not a job, is more like a hobby. For example, in Mexico, the whole Simpson Dub Cast were replaced because the original ones went to strike for an actual salary. And since they pay so little, if somebody do not want to continue, they can't too much about it (Except replace him with the most similar sounding guy they can find). Sometimes is different and, in the middle of the proyect they cast somebody better and just plain replace it (There's sometimes a character has a diferent voice the first chapters and a diferent one the rest of the season). Under that work conditions, you can't do too much about it.