*sweatdrop* This song is... weird to say the least... A little too hypo for my tastes -- goes to show you why Sutsume-chan likes it and pressured me to get it ne? ^_^ But I guess it grows on you... like most things... ^_^

Okay~!! Now I'm getting into rant mode as this is the first time I've blogged since watching Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 last Saturday so I'm gonna do a little review thing on it. ^_^ *takes deep breath* Okay... so here goes.

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Otome no Policy" -- Ishida Youko ]

*sweatdrops* Not exactly the best music with which to rant but... *shrugs*

Anyways, it was... interesting... CG graphics were a nice combo definitely and the plot seems normal enough for now though I expect it'll get better towards the end when we do actually get to the bits of Sylia going berserk and the whole thing with Genom (is it just me or does it seem that Genom practically owns everything industrial in Neo Tokyo?? ^^;;)

So since I've only watched the first episode, the next one to come out around 20hrs later after this blog, I can't really say much about the actual plot...

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Unbalanced na Kiss wo Shite" -- Takahashi Hiro ]

Ooohhh~!! YYH Ending!! Nice~!! *L*

The plot seems a bit simple right about now but then it's only the first ep so we'll just see how it goes. The characters are... interesting too... Or would be if I could get beyond their voices... *cringe* And thus my major bitch about the dubbed version of Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 -- the voice actors~!! (I will not refer to them as seiyuus for the obvious reasons that they are not japanese and also no where near the calibre of seiyuus! =P)

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Over the End" -- Okui Masami ]

The namesake of Sutsume-chan's Sakura Saku v4.0 ^_^ And one of my faves as well!

I'm sorry, dubbed voices don't appeal to me. Now in no way am I dub bashing but I will say that IMHO, dubs don't impress me. Sure, the translations might be correct and not butchered like what they did to Sailormoon *major cringe* but still, dubbed anime just generally doesn't impress me. Take BGC:Tokyo2040 for instance, Linna's voice BUGS ME!! It's so squeaky!! And while I haven't heard her voice in Jap, I don't think it can be worse than a squeaky voice! (Squeaky voices on the whole bugs me ^^;;; even in Jap, eg. Araki Kae as Chibiusa *cringe*)

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Key" -- Okui Masami (LIVE) ]

And then there's Nene's voice... How old is the girl meant to be? Eighteen?? I know very few eighteen year olds with a voice as high as that~!! And the WHINING~!!!! URGH!! (btw, I'm not sure and I'll check sometime today but does anyone detect a trace of Misato's voice in Nene's?? Coz if I'm not mistaken, they might just be done by the same voice actor).

While I didn't get much exposure to Sylia's voice, one voice I do like is Priss's voice. It suits her... not squeaky and not high, just a sorta low and husky voice that I sorta expected her to have.

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Otome no Inori" -- Hayashibara Megumi & Suzuki Masami (Lina & Amelia) ]

Sidenote: This so is so funny~!! ^_^ Every time I hear it, I get images of Zel singing it to Lina and Amelia in Slayers NEXT *LOL* I got the mp3 actually to see if Zel was singing, but unfortunately, he wasn't *pout* oh well...

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "For Real" -- Tokuyama Hidenori ]

Saiyuki~!!!

Anyways, back to it... So yeah, I like Priss's voice... I think it sounds like Rally Vincent's from Gunsmith Cats... and since all three (NGE, Gunsmith Cats and BGC:Tokyo2040) are dubbed by ADV Films, I wouldn't be surprised...

I dunno what it really is that bugs me about voice actors... or maybe it's a combination of things... like: 1. They can't scream. Has Shinji's screaming ever bothered anyone?? Coz I know that about ep 3 or 4 when he was fighting the tentacle-y angel (^^;;) the scream as he thrust the progressive knife into the core just annoyed the hell outta me. It's like the voice actor ran out of breath half-way through and so deliberately stops screaming, takes a HUGE and LOUD breath, and starts up all over again... *sweatdrop* I dunno, maybe I'm just picky... but that bugs me... certainly Ogata Megumi, Shinji's original seiyuu didn't make the running out of breath so obvious...

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "One ~ Kono yo no Hatetemo Hanarenai" -- Daybreak ]

Oohhhh.... first ending of Ceres!! I really like this song!!

And another thing that bugs me about voice actors is that they tend to over exaggerate the character's voices and tones and stuff like that. I seem to find the jap original a little more natural. Lessee.... Asuka would probably be the best example even though she is meant to be a bitch and self-centered and stuff. I mean, just the up and down and up and down of her tone of voice when she tries to be extremely cute bugs the hell outta me -- or maybe it's meant to do that ^^;;;; but anyways... Oh yeah, and also Becky Farrar from Gunsmith Cats who was done by the same person that did Asuka, her comment to Rally about how "They can strike *anywhere*, at *anytime*!!" is so exaggerated that I can't even put it into words.... If you've got it on tape or something, go watch it and you'll see what I mean.

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Itooshii Hito no Tame ni" -- Satou Akemi ]

ooohhh.. haven't heard this in so long... ^_^ FY OPENING~!!!

But I'm not saying that all voice actors are bad, because like Priss's voice there are some that I think are quite appropriate... but even with GW dubbing, some of the voices are just so out (even though I've only heard sound clips and see the ads ^^;;). Like Trowa's... it's just way too emotional~!! And Zechs's -- did they purposely want to make him the ultimate villain or something?? And then there's Duo... *sobs* What did they do to poor D-chan~!!! And then there's Hee-chan and his scream of "Whats *wrong* with *me*?!?!" I'm sorry, if that's not exaggerated to the point of cringing and so totally outta character for Hee-chan, I don't know what is! Hee-chan screams, his voice does NOT exaggerate two words out of four!

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Ai wa Ryuusei" -- Nakahara Shigeru (Trowa Barton) ]

*sighs* See? Tro-chan's jap voice is so much nicer~!! Even though this song is OOC *L*

So yeah... and I won't even get into the Sailormoon dubs... *cringe* they are the ultimate example of over-exaggerated voices~!!

Okies okies... I think I should stop there before I can't stop myself ^^;;; and before anyone decides to flame me about my comments, I stress that these opinions are IMHO~!! Not meant to offend!!!

*sweatdrops* well... as it's 2am, I guess this is why I ranted so much *giggles* but, now me really gotta go to bed....
Ranting by Shikami Yamino at 2:07 AM

Anyways, back to Saturday... The other down side to dubbed anime is the loss of seiyuu's voices *giggles* Although that's probably not as big of a loss to others as it is to Sutsume-chan and I. Coz if they showed the original, we'd be hearing voices from Ueda Yuuji (Sagara Sanosuke from RK, Amiboshi/Suboshi from FY), Ishikawa Hideo (Kato Yuusuke from Sotsugyou M) and Masuda Yuki (Sakoshita Yanagi from Flame of Recca).

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Toki ni Ai wa" -- Okui Masami ]

*shrugs* oh well.... dubbed anime is better than no anime I guess.... *sighs* I just don't get why they don't subtitle it instead of dubbing it.... And from previous records I think I'll start to expect the same voice actors from Neon Genesis Evangelion. ^^;;; Why? Well, they've shown one anime here since NGE, "Gunsmith Cats" and almost all the voices were the same as those who did Evangelion *sweatdrop* Although I find it hard to believe the person who did Rally Vincent's voice was the one who actually did Ayanami Rei... very very different voice... although perhaps more similar to Rei's voice in one of those final episodes when Shinji's imagining stuff and Rei ran him over on her way to school with a piece of toast stuck in her mouth... ^^;;;

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Do=be's Yatte Kuru" -- Hayashi Nobutoshi (Tasuki) ]

Yet another song I haven't heard in a while~!! ^_^ Good song~! Although I like "Heart ni Kiraboshi Sakashitare" and "Setsunakutemo... Zutto" more from Tasuki. *L*

Ack ack~!! Me better get going.... planning to put another ep of BSSM Emotions on today *L*

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Asu e no Door wo Tataku" -- Ishino Ryuuzou (Wufei) ]

*LMAO* I so love this song~!!! Not the best Wufei song I've heard, that honor would belong to "Let Into Top" from the Blind Target tracks but this song.... *snickers* Can anyone really imagine Wufei going "OH YEAH~~!!!"??? *LOL* Coz that's what he sings in this song~!! *L* Ishino-san sounds really good here, makes me wonder why he doesn't seiyuu more... But ya gotta love that "OH YEAH~~!!!" bit... *L* It's just... NOT Wu-chan~!

*snicker* *sings* "Hayaku, sora e maiagare~!! OH YEAH~~!!!" *bursts out laughing*

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Fire Soul Love" -- Tomizawa Michie (Hino Rei) ]

*grins* I should get more SM songs.... *nodnod* Most SM songs are really nice, like this one, Makoto's "Starlight ni Kiss wo Shite" and "Moon Revenge" and "Moonlight Destiny"... and I could go on *L* But I won't, I've got stuff to do so I'll just sign off here... ^_^

Compelled to blog today coz I love this layout *huggles Kamui* Till next time~! *L*
Ranting by Shikami Yamino at 11:55 AM

Originally, Chaos v1.3 was gonna be Saiyuki, in honor of my (and Sutsume-chan's) new discovery, but... Well, you can see how that turned out ^_^ This piccy was too good to pass up, truly... I was also tempted to somehow combine it with its companion Fuuma piece, but that was white, so maybe it'll turn up in a later edition ^_^

For those of you who have no idea what I just rambled about, the piccy above of Kamui is cut off at the top. The original picture shows a hand (Fuuma's) holding the wing and therefore impaling Kamui. A coupla pages before this piccy in the artbook is a piccy of Fuuma hold a bloody wing -- hence, the companion piece *grins*

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Mind Education" -- Misty Eyes ]

Blind Target! "Mind Education" is the GW Radio Drama's opening, or so I'm led to believe. This song is pretty good, but definitely not as good as the Two-Mix openings ^_^ Me love Two-Mix!

Anyway, I think that Chaos is gonna be seeing a lot more X layouts before I'm done ^^;;; X just fits me more, I think *LOL* being a morbid person and all... But Sei-kun died~~!!! I just realized I'm catching Sutsume-chan's obsession with the Sakurazukamori, but.. but... It's Sei-kun~~!!!

*sweatdrop* And now I sound like her too.... ^^;;; Oi oi....

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "R & R Beethoven" -- Hayashi Nobutoshi (E.M.U.) ]

This song sounds more like Tasuki than Nakamoto-kun ^_^ But... *shrugs* Still nice.

Also, I'm dying to use that Arashi piccy for a layout. It's just so nice... *giggles* Maybe watch out for that in the future. But I hearby vow to do a Saiyuki layout! *nodnod* But I think I'll keep v1.3 for a while... *snickers* Me a very morbid person... and I love dark colors so... ^_^

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Successful Mission" -- Hayashibara Megumi (Lime) ]

Saber Marionette J~!! Yet another anime which I have to finish... -_-;; not to mention Utena, Houshin Engi, and wanting to start Saiyuki... *sighs* School sux....

And speaking of school, my exams are coming up in exactly one month... which means I really have to start studying... And I have an English assessment on tomorrow and I have to find some statistics on illegal immigration... -_-;; Plus I have a Chinese Oral assessment tomorrow, I have to write up an assessment prac for Chem and then to top in all off, I have 3 hours of Uni Accounting after school, for which I have yet to do the homework... I hate school...

And then there's the problem with the Yearbook... *growls* ARGH, school just really really sux!!

[ Shikami's winamp now playing: "Innocence" -- Hidaka Noriko (Soujirou) ]

Kenshin~~!!!! Sou-chan~!! *LOL* I'm back to using my full list of >320 songs so I haven't heard this one in a while ^_^ But I still like "Journey" better... Hidaka-san sounds better there though "Innocence" fits Sou-chan better...

And now I have completely given in to rambling... *sighs* Better stop and do some work.
Ranting by Shikami Yamino at 11:28 PM