Letters

It's a good thing Jei assures me my readership is still high, because a month like this one would seriously depress me otherwise. After months of my mailbox being full, due to the fan-bash thread, the letters dropped down to nothing. After I eliminated the letters congratulating me on my new professional column (thank you!) or telling me to get well soon (thank you!). I was left with this single letter:

I consider myself a anime purist. I think it's best enjoyed in its original format. Being multi-lingual (English-Chinese-Japanese), I have the option to view and hear it in all three forms and to be brutally honest, most of the dub-English anime makes me nauseous. I think the best one they ever did was Mononoke-hime and that was because they had a first rate voice-over cast.

My biggest complaint is that sometimes the true meanings of the original Japanese version gets lost in the conversion. Look at Card Captor Sakura, when I was home for several days with bronchitis, I opted to watch Judge Judy just so I wouldn't throw my dictionary at the TV set. I couldn't believe how bad the script and the acting was on "Card Captor".

But I totally agree with you that American censors are totally not ready for Japanese anime. By the time the censors get through with something like "Evangelion" for public viewing, it may end up to be Shinji the Robot Boy...........boring.

Good Luck with your new venture.

Miyori AlainL960@aol.com
NYC

Okay, that's one vote against dubs. I'd be curious to know what dubs you've seen. The recent dubs by Animaze, Cowboy Bebop for example, are incredibly good, in my opinion. I don't believe any of Animaze's dubs have been on TV, though. That should change soon, as Outlaw Star comes to Cartoon Network.