Letters

Thanks to everyone who suggested shojo anime for this column. To save space, I won't be printing those letters. I assure you, they were all read, and without them, I would have been clueless as to what I should have browsed.

I read through your archives and couldn't help but notice that you dislike Marmalade Boy (Feb '98 column). I understand where this comes from. Unfortunately you have been exposed to the anime, but take heart in that manga is actually MUCH better. There are only 2 manga sites on the web (although many MB sites are starting to offer Craig Nishida's translations) one of which is Zahara's at http://www.swb.de/~zahara/yo/mb.html. But she only offers translations along with an overview and the other is mine- http://pages.ivillage.com/misc/chaznani/seseragi.html. Give Marmalade Boy another chance by reading the manga.

Leilani leilani@startrekmail.com
http://welcome.to/planetwilliams

My dislike of Marmalade Boy is merely a matter of personal taste and has nothing to do with my opinion of the quality of the show, which I understand is one of the best in its genre. Unfortunately, it's a genre I personally can't stand. Nothing wrong with it. I just don't like it.

I'd asked for Princess Mononoke reports. Here are some:

I am sorry to hear that the theatre was less than busy when you saw the new Miramax dub of Mononoke Hime. You asked for other people's experiences, so here is mine:

I saw the movie in Boston, at the Coolidge Corner theatre. This is a great little arthouse type theatre in Brookline, just a bit down the Green Line from Boston proper. The theatre has wooden floors and a small stage, and old fashioned wooden seats which are a little bit more comfortable than those you would find in a typical high school auditorium. It seats a lot of people, however, and the screen is very large. I had meant to see the early release at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge (where they did a Miyazaki film festival), but I had to work (blayh!). At least I did get to see Laputa and Porco Rosso (both were awesome on the big screen!). I have not seen the subtitled version of Princess Mononoke, so this was my very first time seeing the movie.

We got there about a half an hour early, which was good because the theatre was packed! The inhabitants seemed to be equal parts hard-core anime fans (like myself!), other science-fictiony type people (fen miscellanea), and Japanese college students. There were also a surprising number of families with kids! My husband and I sat next to a ten-year old, who was there with his parents and sisters, and who was very excited to see the movie. He borrowed my Pokemon Game Boy to play while we waited for the show to start. It was interesting just to listen to the conversations of people talking about anime and other things before showtime. After the movie started, everyone was very respectfully quiet, only erupting into applause at the end of the movie.

As for the movie itself? I loved it! I _really_ like what he did with the intertwining themes of the different levels of man versus nature, and the animation was superb. It was not at all what I expected from the brief synopsis of the plot that I had heard ("girl raised by wolves fights against iron foundry.") Everyone else seemed to greatly enjoy it as well, and I heard many favorable comments about the dub from those who had seen the subtitled version.

As a side note, I should mention that Neil Gaiman was in town recently, and he gave a reading to promote the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. He took questions from the audience afterwards, and I asked what it was like working with Miyazaki on the Mononoke script. He said that he couldn't work directly with Miyazaki because of the language barrier, but that Studio Ghibli was very helpful in translating back and forth, and it sounded like they had a good working relationship. The real problems came in editing, when the words had to be altered to fit the movement of the character's mouths. He was still pretty happy with the result, but it was frustrating having all his well-crafted lines chopped up. The good part was that since Moro didn't move her mouth to the words, none of Gillian Anderson's lines had to be cut!

I still want to see the subtitled version when it comes out on video, but this is one that I will definitely consider buying dubbed, if only so that it is more accessible to all of my friends that I am subverting with anime!

Vivian Abraham

Actually, although the crowd at my showing was tiny, twenty people or less, I thought it was respectable enough for the 10:45 PM showing on a Sunday night when people have to go to work the next day.

Y'know, it's funny that you mentioned "strange laugh girl" in your last article. I saw Princess Mononoke at the Baxter Theatre in Louisville with I guess a medium sized screen and (to my experience) a small room and *we* had a strange laugh girl as well. The only difference between our viewing experience was the number of people in the theatre, my room was packed :/. Anyway my strange laugh girl had this annoying giggle, and she giggled almost the entire beginning of the film until I turned around and said "shut the hell up now." I rarely summon up the courage to do something like that, fortunately (sp?) she (and her friends) didn't make any fuss about it. Also she was mostly quiet during the rest of the film, until the lil komodas showed up. I laughed with the rest of the audience but like you I felt that it wasn't *that* funny. As proof that the voice acting was really well done a friend sitting next to me was surprised when we told him Gilian Anderson was the wolf god Moro. Anyway I'm going to be seeing it again, and BTW I really enjoy reading your column.

~Pat, Louisville KY pclaw@cse.bellarmine.edu

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I really liked the Miyazaki column this month, although I was sad to see you mention that not too many people were at the last showing, and the theater was small. We here in Phoenix are far luckier. It's only at one theater, but it's at the nicest one, and the late showing (and most showings since) sold out. And hey, don't knock the Kodamas! ^_^ I took my plush Kodama to the movie with me and got a kick out of everyone "worshipping" it. :-p I don't think they are the comic relief (rolling in the ailsles? That is a bit wierd...) but they are cute. But you also say you didn't think Thornton was a good choice for Jigo. I strongly disagree. I thought he fit the personality of the character very well, and he sounded believable to me, yet you arent the only one who had a problem with it. I wonder what kind of voice people were expecting him to have...a wiezend old crackly "Ah, grasshoppah" type voice maybe? (As or the voice not fitting the face...have you SEEN Billy Bob lately? ^^;; Take away the mole...) He didn't sound that way in Japanese, so why expect different in the American dub? I'm glad he wasn't 'typecast' vocally.

I only had one major peeve as far as the movie goes, and it's not with the movie itself, but the previews before the movie. They were all for kiddie films! Winnie the Pooh, Pokemon, Toy Story 2 and Stuart Little were the previews shown before. No one in the theater was under the age of 16, and maybe only a third *might* have had children, but I felt a bit insulted that once again theater owners and distributors think all animation is kids only, and that only children would be at this movie. If these were the kind of previews everyone was subjected to before this movie, no wonder so many reviewers who's columns I've read think Mononoke is supposed to be kid stuff!! Movie previews are usually selected to target the intended audience of the like. Would one put a preview for Winnie the Pooh before End of Days or The Messenger? I think not...although this "problem" did lead me to write a rather silly column for our club's fanzine. (see attached..you might like it ^^;;)

Again, thanks for your time.

Christina Carpenter makochan@dcarpenter.com
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T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews

I thought Billy Bob Thornton acted well, but I would have expected a more gruff voice. He just doesn't sound like the little troll that character is. It's only a minor complaint, really. As for previews, the theater I went to only shows previews for the other movies playing, so I saw previews for Dogma and Being John Malkovich.

I'm glad that you though Princess Mononoke Hime was good, even though it was done by Disney. I have come across alot of bad comments from my other anime-watching friends who seem to have the same idea that American Dubs are terrible. This is totally untrue about Mononoke Hime. Disney actually found REAL voice talent for the characters and the voices fit the characters. I, frankly, was pleased and surprised about this development and am waiting for Laputa for be released by Disney.

About Cinema comments, I am no angel when it comes to watching anime. Frequent viewings of subs and dubs with friends in rooms have gotten me a habit of commenting freely about the show. Anything from comparisons or heated discussions could be heard as we watched whatever we could get our hands on. I had not realized this was a problem until I was told to stuff a sock in it multiple times by a person sitting next to me. This by no means is an excuse of behavior such as laughing out loud in the theater in scene between the Prince and San where he said she was beautiful. I'm just apologizing ahead for any misunderstandings and irritated moviegoers who may be in the same theater as me. Its quite a transition from the Little rooms with a TV and VCR to Large screen theaters, but I, we, can adapt...

Its for the better right?

Theo frostedgrape@sharonapple.com

On behalf of the moviegoers of America, allow me to say... "SHUT UP!!" :-)

Any word how Mononoke has done in other places? Sorry to hear the showing in your neighborhood was under attended and somewhat shoddy. Here in Hawaii most showings were sold out and then any empty seats on the day of the showing were resold to those on last minute a waiting list.

Princess Mononoke got shown on one of our newest theaters, the Dole Cannery with the latest sound and seating (Star Wars Episode I was shown at this theater). I ended up getting the very last seat in the front row off to the far left. Next time i tried to see it, i got a little luckier with a 2nd row seat in the middle....
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Wendell @ animatsuri@dm.net
http://limepub.com/wend.html

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Since you asked for your readers' experiences with the US release of Mononoke, I thought I'd share some of mine. Here in Sacramento, the film premiered at the Century; an older theater complex, but still host to first-run features, rather than a small "art house"-type theater.

A friend attended the last opening-night showing; the capacity crowd was enthralled until the projector blew a bulb approximately 2 minutes from the end(!), prompting a near-riot (so much for the film's message of peace & harmony...) until management issued an apology and refunds.

I went a couple of days later-all was fine except for two brief periods when the sound cut out early on (both times during dialogue scenes ..grrr). I thought the dub was generally very good, but I do agree Billy Bob Thornton sounded a bit strange. On the other hand, Minnie Driver was perfect as Eboshi; the iron fist in a velvet glove. Claire Danes' performance early on seemed a bit forced, but improved considerably by the end of the film.

All in all, the best movie experience of the year for me. The film has since moved to the UA Olympus Pointe, a new, state-of-the-art theater 10 minutes from my house, where I recently saw it for the third time. Now, if only Miramax would actually begin advertising it...

Best regards, Kay Sakamoto kaysak@concentric.net

Firstly, I would like to thank you for reviewing my Laputa website on the Anime Web Turnpike. Regarding the HTML criticism, I would agree somewhat with you - the only pages that were too long were IMO the "Objects" and "Places" sections.

Do you agree, or are there other sections that you think are too long ?

The website will be getting its own domain name once the system on my host's servers is set up, and I may redesign the pages if I have time, in February....

Best regards

~~~~~~~
Mark Deli
Laputa : The Ultimate Castle in the Sky !
http://www.worldzone.net/ss/Atlantis/laputa/laputa.htm

Kauru Taurus ~ Qawool Towles ~ Shrine
http://www.worldzone.net/ss/Atlantis/elhazard/kauru.htm

Mysterious Cities of Gold Information Resource Centre
http://www.worldzone.net/ss/Atlantis/mcog/index.htm

Since Mark wrote me this letter, he's made some significant improvements to his Laputa website. !

I dont believe you covered this topic yet but there is an underground anime fandom out there in regards to fandubbing. Not subbing but dubbing! This has been happening on the net for the past 5 years or so. But now the average fandub actress is female and in her younger teen aged years. You might find it very interesting.. interesting enough to do an article! Some of these girls are *very* talented. Here's a few links. ^^

http://whimsical.nu/kate/clips.html (My fandub page)
http://www.michiru.com/va/
http://redrival.com/varc/
http://members.xoom.com/ShoujoSpirit/index.html
http://www.sacred-star.com/voice/

Kate Peterson SailrYohk0@aol.com