[Blog Entry] Anime Musings
Anime Musings
I'm currently reading Watching Anime, Reading Manga by Fred Patten (a well known personality among anime scholars) and it reminded of one anime from my childhood, as well as as an anime that was ahead of its time.
First is Windaria, which I saw on local TV, dubbed. The gist of the story is that there are two kingdoms, one powered by technology and pollution, the other by more nature-friendly means (they use blimps for flight, for example). But this isn't a nature vs technology story. The two kingdoms have heirs, and each is in love with the other. However, the war eventually overcomes them and they are forced into a role they never expected to be in (think The Godfather). And of course amidst all this is another sidestory between two peasants in love with each other, and how their village is literally in between the two kingdoms, and inevitably become a casualty of the war. Of course this was way back in the 80's, when I was still watching the likes of Transformers, and certainly stuck to me more than the English version of Nausica.
The other anime is a show I've never watched, but I've often mentioned in the past as one of the earliest OAV's (perhaps even erroneously stating that it was the first, when it actually wasn't): Megazone 23. Again, the basic plot of the story is that this Japanese youth is living in contemporary Japan, and his life is turned upside down as he has several encounters with several mysterious people, some of which are after him. And surprise! Turns out it's 500 years in the future, and the world he lives in is a merely a simulation or a virtual world, and they're all aboard a space ship. Of course the concept of The Matrix isn't really new and is discussed in Philosophy (as can be seen in the novel Sophie's World) for example, but it's interesting to see an anime with the same concept back in 1985.
The last musing is the result of browsing TV. The Gatchaman OAV was airing, and I was surprised that the dubbers named the lead character's technique as "kage bunshin", a term popularized by Naruto but is actually something that's been done in anime and ninja movies for the past few decades, usually translated as shadow clone, shadow split, etc. So I guess Filipino dubbers/translators don't bother translating it, and use it as they would a native Japanese term these days.
Anime Musings
I'm currently reading Watching Anime, Reading Manga by Fred Patten (a well known personality among anime scholars) and it reminded of one anime from my childhood, as well as as an anime that was ahead of its time.
First is Windaria, which I saw on local TV, dubbed. The gist of the story is that there are two kingdoms, one powered by technology and pollution, the other by more nature-friendly means (they use blimps for flight, for example). But this isn't a nature vs technology story. The two kingdoms have heirs, and each is in love with the other. However, the war eventually overcomes them and they are forced into a role they never expected to be in (think The Godfather). And of course amidst all this is another sidestory between two peasants in love with each other, and how their village is literally in between the two kingdoms, and inevitably become a casualty of the war. Of course this was way back in the 80's, when I was still watching the likes of Transformers, and certainly stuck to me more than the English version of Nausica.
The other anime is a show I've never watched, but I've often mentioned in the past as one of the earliest OAV's (perhaps even erroneously stating that it was the first, when it actually wasn't): Megazone 23. Again, the basic plot of the story is that this Japanese youth is living in contemporary Japan, and his life is turned upside down as he has several encounters with several mysterious people, some of which are after him. And surprise! Turns out it's 500 years in the future, and the world he lives in is a merely a simulation or a virtual world, and they're all aboard a space ship. Of course the concept of The Matrix isn't really new and is discussed in Philosophy (as can be seen in the novel Sophie's World) for example, but it's interesting to see an anime with the same concept back in 1985.
The last musing is the result of browsing TV. The Gatchaman OAV was airing, and I was surprised that the dubbers named the lead character's technique as "kage bunshin", a term popularized by Naruto but is actually something that's been done in anime and ninja movies for the past few decades, usually translated as shadow clone, shadow split, etc. So I guess Filipino dubbers/translators don't bother translating it, and use it as they would a native Japanese term these days.
posted by Charles at 8:55 AM
2 Comments:
Hey Charles, I got Windaria on video! Includes a scene not shown on TV.
That must be the 2004 ADV release. The original dub had something like 12 minutes cut from it.
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