In the past few days, I've read news of two confirmed anime sequels that I'm interested in.
The first one I'd like to address is the second season of The Seven Deadly Sins. I made a comment on the Crunchyroll page confirming the news, but in case you don't want to access the link, I'll add it here with some elaborations.
I don't know how to take this news. On the one hand, I'm happy they're giving it a sequel, but on the other hand, I haven't seen the original anime.
Even though I haven't seen it, I do know that it covered the first major story arc, which was about 100 chapters. How they were able to cram all that into 24 episodes is beyond me. Since the second season will premiere sometime in 2016, I wonder how faithful it could be to the second (current) arc. Since I've been following the manga, I have a feeling that there's not enough source material for them to follow.
The other thing to speculate is the licencing issues. I'm pretty sure the Netflix rumors were simply that-- rumors. If they had it, they would have announced it by now. After all, it's been a year since the premiere, and the hype has died down. Anime News Network has an article that supports this hypothesis.
Now that I think about it, maybe the sequel is a good way to regenerate interest so that someone can finally pick it up. Hopefully, that someone is Crunchyroll. Heck, anyone with an option to stream it for free would be great.
The second bit of news that I'm excited about is that the third story arc of Sailor Moon is going to be rebooted. This makes me happy. Sure Sailor Moon Crystal had flaws, but it wasn't without merits. I'm optimistic about the new season, maybe naively so, but even if it's at the same level as the first SMC, I'll still watch it.
My biggest worry is that with all the delays that SMC went through, who knows when this one will premiere? Then there's the question of whether it will follow the same broadcasting format or not. Getting only two episodes per month was torture. Then again, the ritual of getting up at some ridiculous hour in the morning to watch it was kind of fun.
Ever since the announcement of the re-dubbing of Sailor Moon, I've been thinking a bit about the days when anime characters received westernized dub names. Most English speakers knew Usagi as Serena. Likewise, Satoshi from Pokemon became Ash and Taichi from Digimon was Tai. I'm sure there are other series that gave characters westernized names, but I'm not as aware of them as I am of these three examples. If you know of any others, please comment and tell me.
Nowadays, dubbing companies want to preserve characters' original Japanese names. But what if they didn't? Think of an anime set in modern-day Japan. Think of the characters. What would those characters' names be if the dub changed them?
I have often wondered this, especially in the case of the anime, Azumanga Daioh. Chiyo would likely have a "cute" name like "Christie", Sakaki would have a more masculine name like "Morgan", and Osaka's nickname would be "Alabama". Even after all those name changes, there are so many gags and cultural references that they'd have to cut or change to make the show make sense for western audiences. Basically, the show would be butchered. Kind of like the original Sailor Moon dub.
My final thought on the subject regards anime in which the characters' names are clearly western to begin with. When I mentioned Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan to my dad for the first time, he had to cut me off to tell me that Eren's name should be Japanese. I tried to defend myself by telling my dad about Mikasa, but I purposely neglected to mention that her last name is "Ackerman".
I guess the east is as interested in western culture as the west is with eastern culture. At least, that makes things a bit easier to translate.
If you've noticed, I haven't been on that much in the past two days. Truth is, I've been really depressed. Here's why:
- My new job is stressing me out
- Confidence issues with EVERYTHING
- Facebook is made of evil
- This one guy I know won't leave me alone
- I don't think my parents approve of me
Last night, I was pushed to the brink because of a bunch of things my mom said to me. It took a long while for a few people to talk me down. I had many suggestions of what I should do to pull myself together, but I didn't feel like doing many of them. I listened to music the whole evening to calm me down, and I felt better. Still, I felt that I'd have a hard time going to sleep.
That's when I decided to finally read the Sailor Moon manga. I had owned the first volume for about 2.5 years, but never actually read it. Why was I holding off for so long? In all honesty, I'm not too sure. Maybe I was saving it for a time like this.
Anyway, after I finished the first volume, I fell asleep right away. I can't say that I dreamed a handsome prince or anything. In fact, I don't remember what I dreamed about. But I can say that I feel a little better. My eyes are still puffy though. And I'm kind of tired because despite falling asleep pretty quickly, I only got about five hours of it.
I realize that my World that was supposed to be for anime commentary has now turned into a personal blog thing.
