Saturday, May 30, 2015

Dungeon ni Deai: Continuing nicely, and Observations


Last Seen:
Episode 3

Y'all see that armor the Silverback is wearing? Yeah. That's fresh, it was completely unarmored in the original design in the manga.

So, I finally made some time to sit down and watch a few more episodes of Dungeon Deai (I refuse to use the full name, or Crunchyrolls fabrication). I was intrigued enough to write a quick post about it. Ever since I started writing as a sub here, it has changed how I watch anime. The most noticeable on my side, is that occasionally I actually notice animation quality, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. Today I want to talk about expectations, particularly ones you didn't realize you had.

So there's this Silverback yeah? In the manga it wasn't armored. At all. It had the manacles around its wrists with the chains, but none of this armor the thing is wearing in the anime. I actually had an insight why they put armor on it though! For once, I see a change, and I understand it: It bought them a few more seconds of animation to fill out the episode, when they eventually had it shed that armor. Personally, I think that is a really clever way to buy time you need. It's an inevitable fact, that like wheat into flour, with manga into animation the massive amount you bring is always reduced to a much smaller output than you would have hoped for. In the first place, there isn't a massive amount in manga anyway, so I always try to sympathize a bit with animation studios trying to squeeze out as much time as they can from what they have to work with. (But not crappy filler. I hate crappy filler. Crappy filler is unforgivable).

Additionally, I wanted to talk about character personalities. It's something I've never thought about before, how when you're reading a manga or book, you fill in a characters personality based on context if the book/manga doesn't explicitly tell you what it is, or show you. I'm really impressed with the perfect fit they got for Bell and Hestia, so that's a null point. What I really want to talk about, is Loki and Hephaestus. I didn't even realize I had an image in my head of what I expected Loki to sound like, because she hasn't showed up much in the manga up to current translations, but her voice fit really well. Hephaestus though, is the big one. I did not expect Hephaestus to sound like she does. I mean, it fits really well, that's the part that's so interesting to me. It fits so well, it made me look back and realize I had incorrectly assumed things about the way her personality is, from how the manga portrayed her. I just found that amazing, personally, that the anime's choice in voice actor could cause a retrospective change in how I viewed and thought of a character.

[Aside]
 So in other news, I think I've finally found a job! Yay. There's still a chance for me to muck it up, (training yo), but hopefully this will finally be money coming in regularly. Of course, that means less time for other things, but I will still try to always have at least one post a month for here, no matter what. More, if I can swing it, or there's enough to actually talk about.
[Aside end]

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

[New] [April 2015] Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?)


Summary: Really? Again Crunchyroll? They need to fire their translator, or get him some better training and pull the marketing departments fingers out of his ears. I'm going to include an unedited copy of their summary at the end of this post in the Aside. Here's (what better be) the Real summary of this show if it sticks to the original story:
The huge labyrinth city, Orario, is the gateway to the huge underground maze commonly known as the “Dungeon”. The story follows Bell Cranel, a new adventurer come to this city of Gods, Treasure, Fame and Glory, and the Dungeon, with high hopes. The God he forms a contract with has no other followers in her 'Familia' (family/followers/servants), and they both work to get by. What's worse, Bell's ambition is further crushed when his daydream of a romantic encounter rescuing a pretty girl, is reversed. He ends up over his head about to die when he delves too deep in the dungeon, and is instead himself saved by the pretty girl. The story follows his new ambition to become as great an adventurer as the one who saved him: the so-called 'Sword Princess'.

First Impression: Good. It's staying true to the good story. I'll never understand the thinking behind changing the story that was good enough for it to be worth animating, to animate it.

My Opinion: The new title is just Crunchyrolls choices in translation being stupid again, It's the original story, for however long they can keep that going. As per usual, I have no idea how far the manga I was reading actually has published, as translations are slow to roll out. Having said that, this is another one of those cases where even if the end deviates, in the mean time, the base material is great enough that you should watch it anyway.
Having said all that, I find the quirks of manga transitioned to anime to stand out in the first episode to me. The minotaur fight in particular. In a manga format, that was a very fast done deal, but obviously in consistent motion it takes longer and is more detailed. I just found it interesting how much it stood out to me for once. The manga made it seem much more like it was all over in a single blow, and I found it pleasant to see it carried out in more detail.


[Aside]
"Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is set in the world of Orario, where adventurers band together and look for treasures in an underground labyrinth known as Dungeon. However, for Bell Cranel, fame and riches are secondary to what he wants to find the most: girls. He soon finds out though, that anything can happen in Dungeon, and winds up being the damsel in distress instead!"

I paraphrased out the quip about it being made from a Light Novel by Fujino Omori, illustrated by
Suzuhito Yasuda, but you get the idea yeah? If this summary was to be believed, this show is about nothing more than some saps harem dream, and that couldn't be farther from the truth.
[Aside end]