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The field of anime, while embraced by the media and
fans finally during these recent years, it is still considered to be a violent form of
of entertainment. Many other infamous characteristics of anime show also provided grounds for
such comments as "anime is not for children due to the blood", "anime is porn", etc. It is
therefore obvious that the major film companies such as WB and Fox has taken extrem care when
handling this type of entertainment. WB for instance, bought and released Card Captor Sakura.
However, fear of critzism from parents, WB has elected to change many aspect of the show such
as the names, relationships, even cut out entire episodes to please the public. What is fortunate
in this dramatic turn of event, is that Fox has done something that WB has neglected to do: please
the anime fans. With the recent debut of the fantasy anime show Escaflowne, Fox kids just might
have the edge over its core audience: anime fans.
When asked about different types of anime shows, many newcomers would immediately babble out
some familiar themes such as scifi, porn, apolyptical, etc. It is no wonder that people are only
geared towards anime in these forms since those that are commonly avalible here in the US has always
been about scifi and the future. The major impact from Escaflowne is that it revived a genre long
forgotten by other animation studios called "fantasy". With the all star production staff of Sunrise,
Shoji Kawamori, and Yoko Kanno, Escaflowne has been a fan favorite ever since its run on Japanese TV.
After Fox's announcement about the recent acquisition, many fans, including me, were shocked about
the development. After all, look at what happened to sakura. And that is already a geared-toward-children
anime, yet it is still butchered from its original release. With all the violence in Escaflowne, what
does Fox possibly expect to accomplish? I thought to myself for quite sometime and warned oh-so-many people
about another anime disaster that is just around the corner. The premier of Cardcaptors was a dark day
indeed.
There's an old belief that after the storm has passed, the day would be brighter. The sunlight which
pierced through the dark sky came this weekend, with the premier of Escaflowne on Fox kids. While the forum
of a friend, who attacked Fox in every way to the announcement of omitting the first episode, is still fresh
in my mind, I was expecting the worst when the clock strike on the hour of the premier. The show begins, and
I crossed my fingers. A different opening, expected, but wait: the show looks very similar, in fact, too similar.
It is like looking at my fansubs. The thought all of a sudden hit me with full force: maybe the editing won't be
all that bad. And it doesn't get worst after the opening sequence. In fact, that is the worst part of the show.
much to my surprise, they (Fox) carefully edited in the important part of the first episode as hitomi's memory
(minus the blood, even though it is green dragon blood), thus keeping the story fairly intact. This was truly
phenominal because this sort of editing takes some time to integrate into the show and they must have taken
that precious time to help viewers understand the full story. OUtstanding is hardly the word to use, it would
be an understatement. This type of care hasn't been matched by any other company and I doubt they will. Nonetheless,
how about the rest of the show, you ask? As i continued to savor the successful recombination of episodes, I paid
close attention to dialogue translation, music, voice acting, and editing. I have to honestly say that none of the
above truly deviated from a near perfect translation, except for the music.
As I mentioned before, Yoko Kanno, the
veteran from many other shows such as Macross Plus, Brain POwerd, and most recently, Turn "A" Gundam, was the music
composer/director of the entire series. Her music was replaced by some other music made by fox production in certain parts
of the show. There was no ground for this substitution since Kanno's BGM contained no japanese and was not a direct threat
to the new dubbing. Fox deemed it appropriate and took the liberty of editing out the most crucial part of Kanno's music:
Escaflowne's first melee with the Guymelefs. Little was lost during the substitution and for those weh would mourn
for the original music(like me), the investment for the soon to be releaed Uncut DVD is very much justified.
Even though I can't say that this is the day which anime fans can finally embrace the US TV networks for their
understanding of this complex medium of entertainment, it is evident that they are trying. Fox's attempt
has so far earned a big smile from me, and I hope in the future they can continue to work at their best to allow the general
public to see what anime is all about. As for the success of Escaflowne here in the states, well, only time will tell,
but so far, the sky is looking a lot clearer these days.
Brief anime synopsis: |
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"Here's the site which an anime
fan actually speaks his words. If you agree with his thought or would like
to offer suggestions and comments, please mail him by clicking below:"
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