Otaku Consumerism & Dubs

So a few days ago I found out there's a watch with an Evangelion license, called the Daykeeper (Relax Plus Plugsuits Edition). Not only is it Evangelion, but it's also made to look like the watch they used in the movies (or an existing watch that they use for the movies). There are three colours with the same design, but they are labeled according to the characters. Red is Asuka's, blue is Shinji's and white is Rei's...

Pictures of the watch are from Hobby Search and Rakuten.



REI'S??? Of course with that label and the prospect of having the same watch as Rei, I was all hyper and was dying to have it! I know some of you have heard me on Twitter just hyping it up. The only concern I had at first was how it would look on me... A white wrist watch on a guy? The people I talked to said it wasn't a big deal though no one liked the design ^^;

Ok, so with that concern gone, I took a closer look to see what kind of features this watch has. Alarm clock, stopwatch, water resistant... And then I look at the above picture. Uh oh... no calendar. One thing I look at my watch is the date. So if I get this I'll have to know what date it is... Unless of course someone who has this kind of watch can tell me if there is a feature for a calendar on this watch.


The above picture shows how it's strapped on. Very interesting strap. I've been trying to research more about this brand called RELAX PLUS, but not much about the calendar or other features. Plus most of the sites I go to is in Japanese and there's only so much Google Translate can do.

The other thing I found is that they also make different colours of straps! So if white doesn't work for me then I can buy an extra one with the colour I like... BUT that defeats the whole purpose of having an Evangelion watch!!! GUNDAMMIT!

To get this watch or not get this watch,
that is the question.

Before I continue... Apologies to Wolfheinrich because I haven't worked on the next 4koma much... I've been kinda panicking, trying to find another job this past week, plus my friend dragged me to 2012, even though in the end he hated it himself. Not to mention the long lineup and the fight during the lineup... Fun fun fun...

Next up is a couple of DVD and Blu-Ray news I found through AnimeNation and Anime News Network.

It is the local release of Bandai's Kurokami: The Animation. Honestly, I tried reading the manga and I could not finish the first volume. It was a bit too confusing and the story was all over the place. The only reason why I got the manga was because Park Sung-Woo is the artist, one of my favourite Korean artists. So the anime is even further away from his character designs.

So what's the point of talking about the anime? Bandai is releasing the first 6 episodes in a 2-disc DVD set in Subtitled Japanese and in English Dub for $40 and also the first 4 episodes on a Blu-Ray in English Dub only for $30. I thought there wasn't anything wrong about this until I saw the details for the Blu-Ray edition... DUB ONLY?? This worries me and of course it was one of the topic of the day the next day on AnimeNation.

Apparently one of the reasons for Dub only release of the Blu-Ray is that there is no regional restriction between Japanese and North American Blu-Rays. So the Japanese company is worried that people will import it from North America, which is typically cheaper... SO!? Why not make your release the same price as the North American release and have the both audio on it?? AAARGH! Ok fine I won't even buy this series, but I'm worried that this is gonna set a precedence for future Blu-Ray releases.

And it was only a few days before this news was released that the Japanese DVD release of Shangri-La has been shortened from single 2-episode discs to boxed DVD release. It sounds like Japan's sales of DVD are down as well... Obviously because they're expensive, so it's nice to see Japan somewhat adapts the North American release system. Though who knows how much they priced that box set... So why not make it cheaper? Price it the way it's done for the North American release. Then we can get that Japanese audio in the Blu-Ray releases here... Of course it's not helping when there are over 10,000 copies of Endless Eight DVDs are being sold -_-

The point of showing the dub-only release of the Kurokami Blu-Ray leads to my stance on the ever-present Subs vs Dubs argument. I personally don't mind if people like dubs. That's their choice. I personally do not like dubs because I've heard a bad dub of Legend of Lemnear years ago. It was a sexy anime with character designs by Satoshi Urushihara. The voice that came out of the character just killed the whole thing for me. I couldn't finish watching the very short anime because the dub was awful.

These days it's about the same... Very ear cringing dubs just killed it for me. The last dub I saw was the Evangelion 1.0 movie. Shinji's voice was so bad that it killed some of the dramatic moments... and even the comedic moments. It would've been better if they somewhat use their natural voice instead of trying to imitate what it was like in Japanese. And that goes with all anime. I pay attention to the female characters the most in anime, so if they don't sound right in dubs then I won't even listen to it at all. So now I don't take chances anymore with dubs and go with subs.

Now for a counterpoint... I also have heard a bad Japanese dub. I remember watching an early episode of Angelic Layer and cringed as much as I did while I was listening to English dubs because the voice actress was trying to sound younger. It only happened in 2 of the 24 episodes, or even half of an episode, but she sounded ok the rest of the time. Generally the Japanese audio is always a better watch for me because I would not be distracted by the English dub.

The other counterpoint... I have heard good English dubs. A lot of them were the Ghibli movies that used actual actors. They sounded great! I wouldn't mind watching them in dub if I have to. Especially Kiki's Delivery Service, my favourite Ghibli/Miyazaki movie. I loved both the Japanese and English edition. The English songs were great!

Ok... enough rant, but at least I've finally put it out there.


And lastly... something I've read recently from AnimeNation News as well... Yamaha is releasing a couple of Voiceroids; a male and female voice synthesizers.

The thing is... they're synthesizing the voice that of a very young boy and girl. Tsukuyomi Ai is the female one and pictured above. Yes, she sounds exactly as she looks.


The boy is named Tsukuyomi Shota. Now can you imagine what some people are gonna do with these two? Yeah... Very interesting things, that's for sure. Check out the AnimeNation link to get some of the voice samples.

Sometimes I really hate the otaku and consumer in me. I just want to get and get but I really shouldn't have because I don't really have the money for it. Ok I may not get the Voiceroids or the Kurokami DVD/Blu-Ray, but the watch is something I really want to get. I'd love to upgrade to Blu-Ray but if it costs me the Japanese audio and subtitles, then what's the point? I really hope they don't ruin future Blu-Ray releases because someday there might be something I really want to get...