Lupin III vs. Detective Conan – A Boring Combination

It’s been a while since I updated. Life has been very demanding. I haven’t even watched any summer anime *whines* >A<. Anyway, there are also some plans of this blog merging with nihonwatch, which is owned by my good friend Selphie. We’re having some problems with the maintenance and updating of that site, so for now I’m still stalled here :D.

I’ve recently watched that long-awaited special: Lupin III vs. Detective Conan. It was shown last March 27, 2009, but the subs were released just a few days/weeks ago. I had been waiting for it since it was announced. Even my longing for Kaito Kid was expected to be quenched.

After watching, I kind of feel rather disappointed :(. The waiting was not worth it, in my opinion.

The title is misleading since the special is not really about Conan trying to catch Lupin. Instead, they worked together. The special is supposedly an original story apart from both series (see more of that below). The setting, aside from Tokyo, was a small country called Vespania. The royal family was in despair because of the death of their Queen and Crown Prince in an shooting accident while they were hunting. The next one in line to the throne was young Princess Mira (CV: Horie Yui) who, aside from looking entirely like Ran, doesn’t want to succeed the throne for reasons I did not really understand.

Princess Mira crossed paths with Mouri Ran (CV: Yamazaki Wakana) when she went to Japan as a special guest to a hotel opening. Seizing the opportunity, she ran away, leaving Ran with the princess clothes (don’t ask how it happened -_-). Keith Stinger (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru), Mira’s bodyguard and assistant, persuaded Ran to act as the princess and come with them to Vespania while waiting for the princess’ return. Mouri (Kamiya Akira) and Conan (Takayama Minami) of course wouldn’t take that sitting down. They followed Ran to Vespania and found out about the hunting incident. Thus began a series of investigations to unravel the truth about the queen’s and prince’s deaths.

At the far side of the story, Lupin (Kurita Kanichi) had set his sights on the Queen’s crown, which is the symbol of the country’s royal family. Apparently, he had tried to steal it once before and failed and now he’s back again. With him was his trusty friend Jigen (Kobayashi Kiyoshi) and Mine Fujiko (Masuyama Eiko), who had been just a bother for the whole special. Goemon (Inoue Makino) was there, too, for about 30 seconds.

And so, Conan and Lupin met in Vespania. Surprisingly, Jigen helped Conan find out the truth about the incident which is dun dun dun…actually a murder! Lupin was most of the time in hiding or whining about Fujiko because Zenigata was in the castle and he cannot actually go exploring.

After some confusing scene-tossing and random running, random discoveries and stuff which are all Fujiko’s or Mira’s faults, the crown has been stolen and Lupin found himself trapped in a locked safe. Also, the murder is solved, the criminal has been arrested and the princess came back without anyone getting angry with her even though she’s such a brat. The end.

No, really. That is just what happened aside from some random stuff.

Summer Anime 2009 List

I’m a bit late in posting about anime series to be shown this summer 2009 basically because I’ve been too busy tending to my seiyuu stuff and BL dramas. However, looking at the list of series to be shown, summer doesn’t seem interesting especially when compared to the last winter and spring schedules. It’s a bit sad that there was nothing much to look forward to (IMO). Anyway, for the sake of recording, here are series to be shown this summer, arranged alphabetically.

Hetalia Fandub Craze – Bringing Nations Closer One Dub At a Time

Marukaite Chikyuu - Hetalia's ending song

Everyone who is into Hetalia has probably heard of its amazingly adorable ending song, Marukaite Chikyuu sung by Italy’s seiyuu, Namikawa Daisuke. It has a catchy tune, stupid lyrics and very cute visuals. The first time I heard it, it stuck and I ended up listening to it in loop for weeks (until Romano’s character song was released~). It’s a great hit among fans and non-fans alike (I know, I managed to reel a friend into the fandom because of this song).

Suddenly, someone had a great idea (if you know this wonderful person, please tell me) to make a Marukaite Chikyuu version for his/her country. Taking a karaoke version of the song, someone rewrite the lyrics to fit the words in their language and sang it with the karaoke track. The project was made people amused and happy. Soon, everyone wanted to pitch in an sing Marukaite Chikyuu in their own language. And thus began the great craze of singing the ending song in different languages.

More than the paper craft, the doujin game, the MADs/AMVs, I love this project of singing Hetalia‘s theme in different languages. I do not know if it’s the participation of people from all over the world or the sheer creativity of some members of the fandom, but I’m really glad that this project started and is continuing even now.

While I was searching around for the various fandubs, I became curious of other countries and their languages, even those not even in Hetalia yet. I am thankful to those who wrote the lyrics and translations with their fandubs because I feel that I’ve learned something, even if it’s just lyrics to a simple song. It’s also amusing that some contributors even changed the lyrics to fit their countries’ cultures (like changing the food or personality of the song). All in all, this project is amazing and I hope that there will be more contributions. It’s not only making Hetalia more accepted in communities — it’s also bringing people together. I cannot particularly say how, but seeing the comments in each fandub and sharing in the excitement whenever a new fandub is up makes me think that way :).

In Youtube, there is already a playlist organized to collect all the fandubs in one place. However, there are new ones as well as some which are missed. Here’s a list of the fandubs I collected some time ago, arranged alphabetically by language.

I’m still including names of countries in parentheses even though it’s mostly obvious where some languages come from because some of the fandubs are pretty specific with the country they want to represent (like French for Canada). Each link leads to their corresponding YT video.

• Hetalia original version (Japan)
• Cantonese (China)
• English (Canada)
• English (UK and US)
• Estonian (Estonia)
• Finnish (Finland)
• French (generally Canada and France)
• French (Canada)
• French version 1; version 2; version 3 (France)
• German (Germany — and probably Prussia?)
• German (Austria)
• Hebrew (Israel)
• Hungarian (Hungary)
• Indonesian (Indonesia)
• Italian (Italy)
• Korean (Korea)
• Latin-Spanish (…?)
• Latvian (Latvia)
• Malay (Malaysia)
• Mandarin (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)
• Mandarin (Taiwan)
• Polish version 1; version 2 (Poland)
• Romanian (Romania)
• Russian version 1; version 2 (Russia)
• Swedish (Sweden)
• Spanish version 1; version 2 (Spain)
• Thai version 1; version 2 (Thailand)
• Vietnamese (Vietnam)
• Visayan (Philippines)

Sadly, the Filipino-Tagalog one seems deleted and I don’t know where I can find it again :(. Anyway, if there are more fandubs in YT, please tell me. Other than that, enjoy how a little silly song has become an international sensation :D.

To everyone who contributed to the project directly or indirectly, you are awesome >v<bbbb

Going for Gashapon

gashapon line in robinson's place ermita

Japanese merchandise (real ones, not those ones you buy in 168/Divisoria and then sell for twice the price at some mall) are hard to find in the Philippines, if you do not know where to look. It’s quite a hassle for my sister and I to order stuff from online, too, since the post office in our place is probably the most unreliable post office in the world. Most of the time, anime fans can buy anime merchandise at Greenhills (Wasabi Toys, Great Toys) or some odd anime shop in malls. The appearance of gashapon machines (capsule machines) made everything happy and gay, though. It’s both an oasis and a quicksand, those machines. They can either make you so happy you want to bust the gashapon machine … or too frustrated you want to kill the employee watching over the machine because you can’t get what you want.

Aside from gunpla and figure/candy toy collection, we’ve been into gashapon collection for quite some time rather than going to Comic Alley like everyone else and their mothers. My sister and I have made raiding gashapon stops in toy stores a hobby. We invest on our “raids” a lot. Fortunately, we often get what we want (after a number of tries? XD). We didn’t realize how big our gashapon collection was until we decided to open the capsules and arrange them on figure cases.

[impressions] Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 01

My most awaited spring anime series is undoubtedly Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I loved the anime and even rewatched it in preparation for the remake. As I’ve said before, the new seiyuu cast was a bit of a letdown, although since the replacements are wonderful seiyuu, I know the voices are still going to be awesome. What I expected from the new series minus the new voices are better art and effects while hopefully keeping the intensity of the first series as well as its charisma.

After watching episode 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, however, I have slightly  mixed feelings with the changes they’ve made to the series.

[Impressions] Pandora Hearts Episode 01

To be honest, I’ve never touched Pandora Hearts‘ manga until I heard that it’s going to become an anime. I’m usually an anime person when it comes to such genre (shounen, seinen, psycho, etc.) so I usually watch the anime first then read the manga or sometimes, not read it at all. My first impression with Pandora Hearts is that it reminds me of Kuroshitsuji (not that they’re the same o.o). I guess it’s because of the dark, shadowy backdrop, the main character, and the premise of evil and sorcery. Anyway, enough of my guessing game with Pandora Hearts. This is my unadulterated impression of the first episode.

New Seiyuu for Roy, Scar, etc. in Fullmetal Alchemist 2

As said in Anime News Network, this coming Tuesday, the main seiyuu cast for the Fullmetal Alchemist remake this spring 2009 will be announced in Newtype, Animage and Animedia. Some of the main cast, like the Flame alchemist Roy Mustang and Ishbal survivor Scar, have changed seiyuu. Here’s a rundown of some of the cast with notes on who their old seiyuu were, if they are changed.

Edward Elric – Paku Romi
Alphonse Elric – Kugimiya Rie
Winry Rockbell – Takamoto Megumi (formerly Toyoguchi Megumi)
Roy Mustang – Miki Shinichirou (formerly Ohkawa Tooru)
Riza Hawkeye – Orikawa Fumiko (Neya Michiko)
Alex Louis Armstrong – Utsumi Kenji
Maes Hughes – Fujiwara Keiji
Jean Havoc – Ueda Yuuji (formerly Matsumoto Yasunori)
Scar – Miyake Kenta (formerly Okiayu Ryoutarou)
Vato Farman – Hamada Kenji (formerly Murozono Takahiro)
Maria Ross – Nazuka Kaori (formerly Saiga Mitsuki)
King Bradley – Shibata Hidekatsu
Lust – Inoue Kikuko (formerly Satou Yuuko)
Gluttony – Shiratori Tetsu (formerly Takato Yasuhiro)
Envy – Takayama Minami (formerly Yamaguchi Mayumi)
Zolof Kimblee – Yoshino Hiroyuki (formerly Ueda Yuuji)
Isaac – Yamadera Kouichi

Personally, I’m a bit disappointed that Ohkawa Tooru is not reprising his role as Roy Mustang. Roy was one of my first anime crushes and I love everything about him. I’ve imbibed that voice into his personality. MikiShin’s voice is good, but it’s of different quality and timbre and I don’t know if I can get used to it. I’m also sad that Okiayu is not Scar anymore, because he’s one of the strongest and most emotional characters in the series. Like with MikiShin, I don’t have anything against Miyake Kenta, but I was hoping they’d keep the original cast, especially with the main.

I guess we can’t have everything, especially since this is a remake that will follow the manga more closely.

Spring Anime 2009: Do you have enough time for watching?

Spring is promising a wonderful and long list  of anime to watch, which is a bit bad for my viewing habit, my sleep schedule and for my work. Here are, as usual, the list of anime to start this March-April-May
, their previews (if any), short info and my decision if  I should watch them or not. Sadly, I seem to like almost everything and only left out a few compared to the previous seasons ^^;.

Again, no pictures because I am super lazy. My verdicts will be YES, NO and MAYBE.

Hetalia’s Pilot Episode — Moving Crack

Hetalia‘s first episode was finally made available for viewing and loyal fans did not waste any time streaming it off animate.tv and seeing for themselves how good Hetalia would be if it’s moving. I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of Hetalia and the troubles it met after the announcement of its airing, but to those who are new to the whole Hetalia affairs (a rather steamy affair, indeed!), here is a little primer.

Axis Powers Hetalia started as a webcomic published in Himaruya Hidekaz’s blog. It’s immense popularity allowed it to be published as a manga and it earned even more followers. The series is set in World War timeline where the countries involved are represented by human characters. Each person!country’s personality is loosely based on the stereotype characteristics the original country has during WWII, according to Himaruya’s view. The word Hetalia itself is a play on words “hetare” (useless) and “Italia” to make a pun regarding Italy’s attitude during World War II.

Some readers regard the webcomic as cracky and almost satirical. Some, though, discover lesser known facts regarding WWII and some countries by reading between the lines and looking beyond the comedy. Because of certain issues, like the characterization of the countries and other historical facts, this series earned a lot of criticism. Some of the complaints and issues caused the upcoming anime to be pulled out of being aired in local television channels and was instead brought to the public through mobile download and streaming.

Anyway, back to my initial topic. The first episode of Hetalia has been streamed and it’s supposed to follow the published manga form (the main historical arc, if I’m not mistaken). There are over 40 countries mentioned in Hetalia, but only the few are recurring, most of them were those who took part in WWII.  Since I’ve been waiting for this to be available for viewing even more than I’ve been waiting for Gundam OO episode 16, here are some highlights of the five-minute pilot episode, including the cast of characters that were initially mention. I’m also thankful that there’s a Chibitalia insert! Really, an episode wouldn’t be complete without that adorable little boy…girl…boy…

Warning: IMAGE HEAVY, but crappy screencaps.

Winter 2009 Anime — Of Sequels and Sci-fi

The year 2009 promises another phase of wonderful anime, most of them continuation of series released the previous year. Here is the lineup for this season. I’m a bit late but ignore that XD;. These are arranged alphabetically, with the usual info like date, seiyuu cast and a short summary. I did not include pictures, but you can find links to each series’ official site.

Again, my watching verdicts are: YES, NO, and MAYBE.