| Re: Gunslinger Girl [message #354808 is a reply to message #354804] |
Fri, 27 October 2017 21:29   |
Brian
Messages: 441
Registered: February 2012
Karma:
|
Senior Member |
|
|
On 10/23/2017 06:15 PM, Dave Baranyi wrote:
> BTW - I wrote my review on the series way back in 2003 when the series was being broadcast and posted it on r.a.a.m.. I tried to find the review in Google Groups but failed. However, I still have an e-copy of the review (and most everything else that I've posted on r.a.a.m. over the past 20 years or so) so if you are interested in my thoughts let me know and I can repost it.
>
Reposting it isn't all that necessary, but just out of curiosity, what
did you think of the show overall. What about the music?
I could probably count on 1 hand the number of shows I know of that use
a English-language theme song, if you include shows that use
English-language music For shows that use it somewhere else, such as for
background music or an ending theme, I might have to go a 2nd hand, but
probably not much past that. I have no doubt that you know of more than
I do, but I really do not think I am going out on a limb to say it is
quite rare for that to happen.
I am up to the second season, and in that season there is an episode (I
would have to do so googling to remember exactly which episode, but I
think it was toward the middle) where the song "Scarborough Fair," one
of my favorite songs, by Simon and Garfunkle was mentioned, so it was
used as the ending theme rather than the regular ending theme
(unfortunately, I am pretty sure that the Simon and Garfunkle version
was not used).
I think it would have been quite interesting if they had kept up this
motif throughout the whole show. For example, in another episode, the
girls are listening to Beethoven's ninth, and start singing "Ode to
Joy," and so that could have been used for the ending theme. In
another, some of the girls to the opera "Tosca," so that one could have
used an aria from Tosca as its ending theme.
The beginning, ending, and internal music of a show don't magically make
a good show into a bad one, but I think that it does add to the overall
experience of the show.
For example, I like both seasons of K-ON!, but I think the opening and
ending songs from the first season are by far the best individual parts
of that show, and I watch both of them when I watch that show. The
themes from season 2, not so much, and I either go out to the kitchen to
refill my iced tea or hit the FF button when those come on.
My favorite of the Pretty Cure series is Splash Star (which maybe makes
it my favorite magical girl show, I have not decided yet), and my 2nd
favorite from that meta-series is the original. However, the opening
and ending from Splash Star generally inspire me to either refill my
iced tea or hit the FF button. For the original however the
opening/ending is one of my favorite such combinations (after perhaps
K-ON! first season and Evangelion), and I usually quite enjoy it when
watching Pretty Cure.
I also like the translation that they did of the ending theme (Love Love
Mode, I think) that was done in the English dub of the show. Usually
transliterated songs are the epitome of cringe (look no farther than the
Ranma 1/2 Tendo Family Christmas Scramble for an example of this), but I
really like the translated song from Pretty Cure. I am sure however
there is someone out there who likes the translated song from Ranma 1/2
(and not just because sexy anime girls are singing it), but absolutely
hates the song from Pretty Cure.
I have not watched more than a few episodes of the show "Your Lie in
April" (though, from what I hear about the show, I guess I need to get
on that right away), but I do know its "basic" plot and that the leads
are a classical pianist and a classical violinist so it features quite a
bit of classical music (Beethoven, Mozart, etc.), though I don't think
it features any opera arias. I think it would have been neat if they
had used a classical piece, perhaps even a different one each time, for
the ending theme.
I also once came across a YouTube video where someone had translated the
themes for "Your Lie in April" and "Lucky Star" (these were brought to
my attention in a review by Anime America). Though the translations
were not used by the official English dubs and were just little projects
done by anime fans (at least I assume they were anime fans),who: spoke
Japanese and English well enough to translate a song, also happened to
be musicians and were also songwriters, because it seems to me that when
translating a song, if the best translation does not "mesh up" with the
music, some songwriting skill have to be come into play to produce
lyrics that do not sound cringy.
Hmm...I guess it takes quite a few skills to translate a song well.
Well anyway, I quite enjoyed both of these translated theme songs. I
think they were fairly accurate translations and not total rewrites like
the theme for Sailor Moon where I think essentially a love song was
totally rewritten to a song about how Sailor Moon and the other super
gals swoop in to save the day (don't get me wrong, I actually like the
dub version of that song).
I kinda wish Viz had translated that song, because as the translated
versions of the themes to "Lucky star" and "Your Lie in April" (and a
few others such as "Smile Bomb" from YuYu Hakaso, Ruroni Kenshin) at
least show me, that sort of thing can be done well. Or at least Viz
could have put subtitles on the theme song of Sailor Moon.
I meant for this to be just a short statement that a reposting of your
review is not really necessary, but it turned out to be a lot longer
than I thought it would.
--
My Yonkoma: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian0908/albums/7215768022352 6176
The E-mail associated with the account is a "spamcatcher" account that I
got to every couple of months to empty out, and anything sent to it will
not be seen for probably several months, if it is seen at all.
Brian Christiansen
|
|
|
|
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
