Tag Archives: death note

I Recommend- Episode 60

We are back for another great episode! This one is also a little late but since how the last was a lot late this one was delayed on purpose to transition the audience into listening again! The next episodes should be on time!

If you are looking for more from us then check out our YouTube Page for game reviews, quick looks and more. You can also check out our other Podcast I Recommend. We really want to know what you think of this episode so please let us know your thoughts. You can leave feedback on iTunes, Zune, Twitter, Facebook, Stitcher Radio, send email to TheGeeksFTW@gmail.com , call our voiceline at 1-347-433-5389 (Geek-FTW) , or leave a comment below. And remember we are still looking for writers and guest hosts so if you are interested than please contact us. Show notes will be below. We hope you enjoy!

Episode 21- 2 Guys,a Girl,and a Podcast

We are back for another episode. We are joined by our new writer Elf. We go into our main topic first by discussing our top 5 anime shows. Skip to 59minutes and 16 seconds to skip the anime talk if your not interested. We then talk about Prison Break the video game,  Borderlands latest DLC, Dead Rising 2, and America: The History of us TV series. As always we encourage feedback. Leave us a review on iTunes , follow us on Twitter , Email us at TheGeeksFTW@gmail.com , hit up the Forums , or leave a comment below.

“L, do you know Shinigami love Apples?”

Death Note

I’m usually very wary of movie adaptations of books, comics and anime…and with good reason (I mean, look at the Harry Potter movies). So it was with a bit of trepidation that I watched the first Death Note movie. At that time I hadn’t finished the entire anime so I didn’t quite know what to expect. Yes, certain plot points veered from the anime (much in the same way that the anime veers from the manga) but overall the movie stayed true. Heck, the final scene of that first movie was an epic moment in and of itself. I actually pumped my first in the air when watching it for the first time and cheered.

The second movie “Death Note 2: The Last Name” picked up immediately after the first one and continued the plot line. Again, it veered, but this time in ways that I not a single problem with. Trust me, if you’re an L fan then you’ll love the second movie.

Then a third movie was released and this one I was lucky enough to catch for a one night showing in theaters with the subtitled version. This one was called “L: Change the WorLd” and it also picked up immediately where the previous movie left off. Even with the chatterboxes behind me in the theater, I totally enjoyed this movie that gave us a deeper look into L’s character and mannerisms. (It was also creepy that I saw this in theaters just before the Swine Flu outbreak…if you’ve seen the movie then you’ll know why that was creepy timing.)

The actors that were chosen for the various roles impressed me. I was quite happy with all of the choices and extremely excited that the seiyuu for Ryuk reprised his character. After all, that Shinigami just wouldn’t be the same with a different voice.

I’m also totally convinced that Matsuyama Ken’ichi is the perfect live-action L. He had the posture, the mannerisms and the look completely down pat. Even L’s way of sitting (or “perching”) was perfect.

If you loved the anime series (especially if you loved the first half best or are a giant L fan) then you’ll adore the films. Even if you loved the second half of the anime (and I’ll forgive you for that) you’ll still enjoy the films. They’re even a good starting point for folks who haven’t seen the anime and aren’t sure when they’ll have time. The movies are good as stand alone sources for the series and yet compliment it extremely well when you’ve been able to watch it all.

Any thoughts or opinions? Favorite parts of the movie? Hated them with a passion? Drop a note!

You may call me a snob…(or why I prefer my anime subbed)

Vash's Angels

I’m a big anime fan. There’s no way around that. If you walk into my living room you’ll see a decent anime dvd collection and anime cels covering the wall behind my couch. I love the stuff though I’m very picky about what anime I call my favorites. Over the years I’ve gotten into many debates about my “snobbish” attitudes when it comes to anime being subtitled or dubbed. Time to let the whole world know my opinion and reasons on the subject.

The easy winner is subtitles, hands down.

If you think I’m biased because the first anime I watched was subtitled you’d be wrong. The first anime I remember watching happened to be “The Magical Adventures of Unico” and “Unico and the Magical Island”. Both of those I watched dubbed and as a kid I totally enjoyed them, even though I had nightmares about evil puppets turning me into a giant puzzle piece. There was a large gap in my anime watching for many years. The next anime I watched was the subbed version of Fushigi Yuugi.

Since then I watch all my anime subbed and enjoy it that way. I have tried to watch various ones dubbed and while I can live with a couple of English voice actors in certain roles (the English voice of Vash the Stampede isn’t terrible….) I much prefer to listen to the original Japanese seiyuu (voice actors). I’d like to point out that the seiyuu were chosen carefully to fit those particular roles. In certain cases, such as in Fushigi Yuugi, the seiyuu even have several character songs that play as background music and are on the soundtracks that they actually sing. If you only ever listen to the dubbed version of Fushigi Yuugi you’ll miss that wonderful little bit that adds to the experience. I realize it’s easier to focus on the images if you don’t have to read the subtitles but I think you can master the ability of reading fast and seeing the picture at the same time.

I’ve tried and tried to get used to dubbed anime but every time I ended up running from the room, hands over my ears and singing loudly to block out the sound. While I love the sound of Japanese seiyuu, even in high pitched high school girl mode, I cannot stand to hear an English voice actor trying to pull off the same tone (and usually failing miserably). The pacing, the tone, the emphasis never sounds quite right in dubbed anime. Perhaps the actors try too hard. Perhaps they don’t try hard enough. In either case, it’s enough to make my ears hurt.

There’s a local anime convention here in Nashville called MTAC and each year I try to convince the con chair that he would have a huge surge in attendance and fangirls by the truckload if he would just get one relatively well-known seiyuu here as a guest. Or even an actor from a live-action move like Death Note. Heck, if Matsuyama Ken’ichi was at the next con, I’d be one of those drooling fangirls in line.

I’m open to debate about the whole subject of subbed vs. dubbed. If you prefer your anime dubbed and want to give me some great reasons why, drop a comment!