Review of Media Blasters release of Kanokon Vol. 1
Time again for me to talk about one of my favorite shows, and review the newly released Kanokon volume 1, released by media blasters
First let me refresh your memory of what the show is about…
The show is about a country boy named Kota, who lived with his grandfather in the mountains, and has moved to the city to attend high school. changes come with a new home and new school, but nothing could have prepared him in dealing with girls, especially a bombshell fox spirit named Chizuru. As if her aggressive advances weren’t enough, he also catches the attention of a frosty wolf spirit named Nozomu. Kota is dragged into supernatural events as a result of his contact with the two girls, and his school life only gets more chaotic by the day. But with a girl who gives “foxy” new meaning and another howling after him, things are looking up in his love life…
First let’s talk about the show in general. It is by no means a stellar show, What little plot it has is shaky at best, but what this show does offer is fan service, so much of it, you could almost classify this show as hentai (animated porn), but it does not cross that line. It may slap against it like crazy, but it never crosses that line. I personally enjoy shows of this nature, especially when I just need a laugh. This is not a show to sit and watch with your children, unless your son is a teenager. and even then he might look at you funny. I call shows like these “guilty pleasures”
New to the R1 American release is a English audio Dub track. After the first episode, I can summarize that they did not spend a whole lot of money on the English audio, now do not get me wrong, at least they did take the time to dub the show in English, other companies are just releasing anime with the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, so just the fact that they spent any money on a dub is a plus. The English voice actor for Kota is acceptable, but the rest seem to fall a little short in my opinion, If I could pick someone to voice the main female character Chizuru, I would pick Monica Rial, but that is just a personal preference. There is one voice actor in the show, that I believe English might be a second language for him, plus it sounds like he is just reading the script without any expression. In all, because this show should not be taken seriously, the dub works well with it, it enhances the cheesiness of the show, and makes it more enjoyable.
I am a fan of watching shows in their original language with the English subtitles on, so I also watched the first volume that way. I can say that the subtitles do not match the English audio that much, sure some of the lines match, but most of the time they are different, in one scene when Kota first sees Chizuru as a fox spirit, the first thing he notices is her tail, in the original language with subtitles, he says the Japanese word for tail, and says it in a way as if he was asking himself, is that a tail I see???, but in the English dub, he clearly says to Chizuru, nice tail. That in my opinion completely changes the mood of the scene, but maybe I just looking to hard at it. The subs are easy to read, and are yellow on the screen, I prefer white, but yellow seems to be a standard for some companies.
On the negative side, Media Blasters failed when it comes to extras. Sure it has the textless opening and ending, but it is missing the token short episodes that are on the R2 Japanese release. That alone is a huge disappointment in my opinion. The American distribution companies should give us all content that was released originally in Japan. There is still a few Gigabytes of room left on the DVD to add more content. Now Media Blasters might be holding onto the token shorts to put them together on the last DVD release, like Sentai Filmworks did with Tayutama ~Kiss on my Deity, so I will have to wait and see.
In conclusion I feel this is a solid release, and hope that it is received well in the American anime community, because I would love for Media Blasters to acquire the OVAs of Kanokon, as well as if a second season ever gets made, I have seen the entire show, but I will not spoil it for anyone who has not seen it yet, I will save those comments for when I review the final volume of the show. So I highly recommend you go out and buy this one, and sit back and get ready to laugh so hard, you might fall out of your chair.
now for a quick recap:
English audio…….: Not the best, but works well for this type of show
Subtitles…………..: Not the same as the Dub, more in line with the original language (also a good thing)
Video Quality…….: I find it watchable, no censoring (also a good thing)
Extras……………..: Missing the token short episodes, but maybe they will be released all together on the last volume, if not that is a shame
Conclusion………..: This is a must buy in my opinion
But what is a review without some pics for people to see what I am talking about…….
here I will post screen shots of both the new R1 release and the R2 Japanese release with custom subtitles
But first a look at the DVD slip cover
Looks clean, easy to read and single sided
now for the DVD itself
I think they did a good job on packaging
Now for the screen shots….
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And last but not least 2 pics to compare picture quality
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There is a noticeable dot crawl in the R1 pic
And as a final note. The R2 beats out the R1, not just for Video, but for extras, but at least the show was brought over here.
Special thanks to Blinx01 for taking the time to subtitle the R2 Japanese DVDs, and thanks to Ayako fansubs for translating it
Haven’t Stopped Completely
Just a brief announcement, I am still around, but school and work have been a lot busier than I have anticipated. so projects have suffered, but I am still continuing with what I have, plus I am working on an extra project with another person, So I will have more to share sooner or later, but sorry for not updating this sooner.
And now it is time again to review another show I dropped in favor of buying the R1 release. Will it be good? Will it be horrible? Well let us find out.
First let me reacquaint you with the show: At Yachimata, there is a legend of a deity named Tayutayu-sama who protected the area, but this deity and other so-called “Tayutai” have been lost in time. Mito and his friends discover a relic on the school grounds with mysterious patterns on them. Then, at the opening ceremony of the new school year, an equally mysterious girl named Mashiro appears before Mito. Mashiro is somehow tied to the relic and the legend of Tayutayu-sama. Soure of synopsis: Anime News Network
So after watching the first 2 episodes, I feel this release is on par with the Maria+Holic release that Sentai Filmworks released last month. the subs are the usual yellow, signs seem to be done standard white. When comparing the Japanese R2 release using fan subs as subtitles, they really seem to be very similar in translation.
Along with the complete 12 episodes pf the series, they also included on disk one, the clean opening and closing animation. Also on the first disc you will find the original Japanese promo,
On the second and final disc, the special features are the six mini shorts titled “Tayutama-Pure My Heart”, in the original Japanese releases they put one special episode per disc. but with all of them together, along with a play all feature, you can sit back and watch them all at once and enjoy.
In conclusion I feel this is another must buy, even though this is a more generic niche show than Maria+Holic, but the more we support Sentai filmworks, the more shows they will give us in the future. as well as maybe jump on the blu-ray bandwagon.
Now for the most important part of the review, The Pics, for the R2 Japanese version, use Ayako fan subs for the subtitles.
First the R1 cover
And now time for the subtitle comparison
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And last but not least, two pics for the encode quality.
I like to use pics without subtitles, so they do not distract from the whole image
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All comments welcome.
More disapointing news
Well looks like Asu no Yoichi is on the chopping block now, due to sentai films announcing that they are releasing it in may, along with a few other shows, so now I am down to a few older shows, so I might be adding something new to the list, I have the raws to an older show, and I am working on it with another subber so it is for a private project first, but it might make it to nyaa after it is fully done.
I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, so I will continue with the shows I have left until I am ready to announce the joint project.
Maria Holic Review – R2 fansub versus R1 Retail
We all know the story behind Maria Holic, so I will just summarize it for those who do not know.
The story centers on a sophomore named Kanako who enrolls in all-girls school because she has a phobia of men and wants to find her destined yuri partner. She meets a captivating freshman named Mariya who fits her criteria — except her seemingly ideal mate happens to be a cross-dressing sadistic boy.
now with that out of the way, let’s get to the meat of the show, the subtitles.
I find, after the first 2 episodes, that I feel Sentai films did a decent job at subtitles, they tried to place the signs where the originals are, sometimes they are on top, sometimes they fit into the sign, other than not using any color other than white and yellow, Sentai films subtitles are very similar to the R2 fansub version, except some have different translations.
I did see maybe 2 mistakes, one is a sign shows up late, but ends when it should so hard to read it, another thing they could have not done is that they added some TL notes here and there, they could have just added a second sub track for that, so we could have the choice of seeing them or not.
The opening and endings are rotated between English and Japaneses, and are nothing fancy but look good
so now to the pics, the first set will be looking at the difference in subtitles
Just remember the R1 pics are officially translated subtitles, and the R2 pics use Fansubs as the source for the subtitles.
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As you can see, there is not to much of a difference in subtitles, they are tolerable in my opinion, now on to the quality of the DVD, I have taken 2 screen shots from each,
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In all I feel this release from sentai films is a very good release for them, the subs are integrated more in the video, instead of being generic and put on top of the screen with the word “sign” next to it. and other than that they could have used a few extra colors, but it is a must buy for anyone in the R1 area who wants to see a great shaft show, I suggest you go out and buy it. so maybe they will give us more shaft greats like Dance In The Vampire Bund, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei and Bakemonogatari. Just have to wait and see.
So what do you think of the R1 release, post all the love and hate you want, I don’t mind,
Concerning Maria Holic
I will have the R1 complete collection of Maria Holic in about 4 days, I will then post a review of it here with screen shots comparing the subtitles of the first two episodes with my version I posted, and if I feel they did a complete and absolute fail on it, I will consider finishing up that series,
just remember I said I will “consider” it.
No consideration needed, the R1 version gets a big thumbs up from me, now get out there and buy it, so we can get more shaft shows.
Another reason to hate me
Well I have been so busy with school and work, I have not yet finished Rizelmine volume 5. But that is not the reason for this post. I am posting to announce that I am officially dropping Toradora due to it being licensed by NIS america,
They just announced that they will be releasing four shows this year and Toradora is one of them, please save all the hate messages because it will not change my mind, If you want Toradora for free, then just check around, there is a complete batch torrent on Nyaa torrents right now subbed by someone else, I feel his releases are better than mine anyway, since he has been subbing longer than me.
I know I subtitled half of the show, but there were 2 others that completed it, so as stated before I only subtitle shows that I want, unless a retail version becomes available, well a retail version is becoming available so I can move on to the other shows that I need to catch-up on, like skip beat and asu no yoichi,
I have a few shows I might replace the ones I dropped with, but until I have all the DVDs I wont decide if I will do them or not.
and if this causes you to not want any of my future releases well that wont stop me from doing them, that will just mean less time keeping my computer on to seed.
Kurokami the animation DVD or Blu-Ray
now that I have taken the time to watch Kurokami, I kinda like the show a little, not crazy about the ending, but a decent show as is. But I am troubled a little about bandai’s release of it. The DVD will come with both English and Japanese languages with English subtitles, but the blu-ray version will only have the English dub. I honestly feel cheated because I want the blu-ray version, I am the kind of person who enjoys the original japanese language audio with subtitles. And I want the best picture with blu-ray. Sure the DVD is crammed with 6 episodes, and the blu-ray has only 4 episodes, but I bet the picture quality is very good on the blu-ray release.
I know They are trying to stop reverse importation of the show on blu-ray, by not including the Japanese audio track and subtitles because it is always cheaper to buy anime from companies outside of japan, but they are not doing this with other blu-ray releases. Now I know the blu-ray is selling for less than the DVD, so I might consider getting both, Maybe the anime companies should do like the other companies, Most new movies that release on blu-ray also include a DVD copy of the movie. I would pay a small premium for that, so instead of 18.99USD for just the blu-ray, I would consider Paying 28.99USD if it came with both, that is only a 10.00USD premium, some blu-ray movies sell for 29.00USD just for that version, while others give you both the DVD and the blu-ray together for the same price, Disney seems to be doing that also with a few of their classics,
So in all I would have to say, the anime distribution companies need to start giving us more Blu-ray options, and start giving us more anime in blu-ray format. I don’t mind if the show is just up-converted, or if it was made in HD quality, I would like to start moving into the blu-ray format more.
I know a lot of older shows will never get the blu-ray treatment due to licenses being lost, or the show didn’t do well to begin with, but I will always keep a DVD player around for that, even if I have to buy one just to hide in the closet for when DVDs are no longer found in stores, I will still find a way to watch my shows, and if you think blu-ray players will always support DVDs, we all know That one day they wont, just like now you can’t go into 99% of stores and find a brand new VHS player, I’m sure one store in the middle of nowere still has one for sale, but very unlikely…..
The holiday is over…..
Well the time to relax with family and friends is over, and once again I head back to school. But for some reason school seems like more of a break that the christmas holiday did. Oh well, I hope everybody had an enjoyable holiday, mine was a little crazy at times, but I got through it.
and just a quick update on my work. I have one episode out of 3 done for the fifth volume of Rizelmine, just in case there are still some of you interested in my progress……
Mudduck454's Blog 
Relocating
Since I am moving, most of my work has been stalled, but whenever I find the time I slowly work on a show, and right now I am continuing working on Itazura na kiss. Once volume 4 is complete, and I have settled in to a new place of residence, it will be posted. so don’t think I have abandoned all my shows