| 1. | (10 posts) | R2 Kiki/Cagliostro DVD Thoughts |
| 2. | (9 posts) | Subbed Kiki VHS |
| 3. | (2 posts) | Comments on Susan Napier's Anime Book |
| 4. | (9 posts) | Humanized Shishigami |
We looked at 61 posts by 38 different contributors.
MML Traffic's on-time performance this month is simply amazing!
Sharon Westfall expressed concern after reading the reports of the poor subtitles on the R2 Cagliostro DVD, "I'm having second thoughts about picking up the Region 2 Kiki DVD now.... shoots, back to square one... :-("
Lee Johnson replied, "At least the kiki dub is a fairly decent one... I've thought about this actually - the Kiki dub will be a BV dub unlike the Lupin dub. Perhaps (*perhaps*) BV will include two sets of subtitles on the kiki DVD <crosses fingers>. After the great subtitling job on the Yamadas DVD i was truly disappointed with the Lupin subtitles. Ah well, such as life is..."
Sharon wrote back, "Yamadas is an example of a DVD that doesn't have an English dub track available; Cagliostro is an example of one that does. The R2 Kiki DVD isn't made for English speakers, so if they did add an alternate translation track they'd probably add an alternate Japanese text translation track for the English dub before adding an English text translation track for the Japanese dub."
Geir Friestad remained hopeful, "Keep in mind that Buena Vista released a properly subtitled version of KIKI on VHS. Hopefully they will use those on the upcoming R2 DVD."
On a different note, but same thread, Michael Kerpan added, "We had fun counting the number of lines of "subtitles" in a row that that matched absolutely nothing in the actual Japanese dialog. (It was kind of like couting the seconds between a flash of lightning and the sound of thunder.) I think on one occasion we got up to 10...
On the other hand, the video quality is so good that it might be worth buying it (once you've memorized all the dialog off the _other_ release and can simply turn off the subtitles altogether).
Marc Gregory concurred, "The video quality of the transfer alone is worth the price of admission. And the addition of the synched Film / E-konte, utilizing DVD's multi-angle viewing capabilities, on the second disc is an inspired touch."
In the middle of the previous thread Kevin Tucker asked, "Sorry, lurker here jumping out from the shadows for a brief instant. There's a KIKI subtitled vhs?? Out here? Is it in Japanese?"
After several "Yes, but hard to find" messages, Michael Johnson advised, "When you visit your local video store, look in their widescreen VHS section. For example, Suncoast Motion Picture Company stores did not shelve the _Kiki_ subtitled VHS in the normal animation section because it is widescreen instead of pan & scan."
Wayne Unten added, "Have faith... There are still some subbed Kiki's out there. I found mine at a Suncoast Motion Picture store about two months ago for $14.95. . . for some reason the Suncoast computer catalogs don't list the Widescreen Subbed version. (When I found my copy, the store clerk was kind enough to help me figure out why exactly Kiki Subbed was always "out of stock" at that particular store.) So calling a store (Suncoast at least) for availability sometimes just isn't enough, unless you or the clerk physically check the aisles."
Cynthia wrote, "I got it at AnimeExpo2000
Hey, I just noticed a gold seal on my case that says Animation Celebration: An International Collection of Highly Acclaimed Films from
Renowned Artists Worldwide! Kewl!
Michael Johnson bought Susan Napier's new anime book, "Yesterday (Sunday), I picked up a first edition paperback copy of Professor Napier's book at the Seattle Kinokuniya for $16.95. I think there were at least two more copies on the shelf. . . To whom can I report errata? Three of the picture captions of the color plates between pages 152-153 are incorrect."
Marc Hairston replied, "She mentioned in a private email that she's already aware of them (having received several emails from fans already ^_^ ) so I assume that Palgrave is also aware of it. If they have to do a second printing (as it sounds like they will) I assume that will be fixed then. (And you and I will have *valuable* first edition copies with the incorrect captions that we can later sell to collectors for big bucks. ^_^ )" I think he's only half-kidding.
Andrew Osmond wondered about the Shishigami "human face", "But does it? That's how it's described in Ryoko's synopsis too, but it struck me as pretty alien. Anyone have further comments?"
Michael Mitchell replied, "I personally think the Shishigami's face looks human more than an animal's, but it also has marks on it. The marks reminded me of paintings you might find on the face of many indigenous people's.
I also wonder that perhaps that which can take life and death should be something which transcends the limits of human and animal identifications and traits. Just as when one looks at a Buddhist statue or Hindu god/goddess statue, the image we see is not how the Buddha or god/goddess looks but more of a representation of ideas and beliefs of Buddhism or Hinduism. . . Perhaps this explains the dual nature of the Shishigami's appearance. It kind of transcends the limits of both western and eastern's images of the divine. We in the west have those divine and godly traits represented in the human image...Whereas, in the east it can be represented in nature, as in Shintoism spirit can be in the inanimate.
Maybe Miyazaki wanted to create the Shishigami in this light, a god which cannot be so easily identifiable, a god to be left mysterious.
Robin Casady agreed with Michael, "To me, it looks like a tribal mask, which makes sense; tribal masks depict gods."
Hanno Mueller replied, "That's odd, to me he always looked like he had the face of an ape, somewhat similar to that of a baboon. Somehow I was always reminded of the Chinese Monkey King tale in that scene, probably because some long time ago I saw an animated film about that tale where the Monkey King had a similar red baboon-like face. However, the severed head does look a lot like that of a normal deer."
Elanor Rogers added, "Mainly I said it had a human face because this is what sources outside of the movie (including Miyazaki's poem) usually said. . . It looks like the face changes shape in response to damage- when Eboshi shoots the deer god in the neck, its face sort of 'warps' and becomes more animal, then gets back into shape as it recovers. The severed deerhead is definitely a deerhead, too."
Bruce Jones wrote, "I just thought the face and eyes were an attempt to raise Shishi Gami above Moro and Okkoto, the personification allows Shishi Gami exhibit human emotions directly through facial expressions i.e. sadness. Giving eyes (human?) to things that don't necessarily need them is pretty common in Japanese Animation (especially mecha)."
Max Walrus chipped in, "Doesn't Koroku say that sometimes he has the face of a human, and sometimes the face of an animal? Being the god of life, it seems logical that he would be kind of a mixture of the two dominant forces of life. Maybe his face seems alien because it's a mixture, nothing we've ever seen before."
Mirko Schnellbach took a different approach, "Eboshi states that, when the deer god would be dead, all non-human creatures would turn to normal animals. It seems logical*, that when wounded, the power of the deer god weakens, and therefore the powers that keep it from turning to an animal, as well as all others it has. As it gets shot in the neck, it sinks a little into the water it was walking upon, until it regenerates. When the head is finally severred, it turns to a normal deer head, as all its (life-)power is gone.
*at least to me ;)
Freddie W will checkout the Studio Ghilbi Guitar book and write his thoughts. Win a copy of the Mononoke Symphonic Suite CD. Derek Webster posted a outline of the second "Sen" trailer. Joe Monson noticed two new "Sen" CD. Mike Arnold and Andrew Osmond ran a lengthy conversation on the topic of "Sen preview / Wanpaku Ouji / Angel's Egg". Andrew also posted one of his "semi-regular 'being rude about professional critics' posts". Scott Ryan posted a huge Toei film rundown.
MML Traffic is hitting the big five-oh issue mark next week. Wow.