But enough about me, lets talk about the much-talked about Summer Wars!
First, you might recall the lengthy rumor mill about the license back before it became a certainty. (EVA Rebuild #2 was also involved in that rumor mill and thankfully was also grabbed up by Funimation!) Basically, the rumors came from a UK company about an English dub being worked on for Summer Wars by Funimation.
Well, now we see the fruits of that labor. From one blog to another, I think that cast looks pretty darn good. It's actually a fairly diverse group if you look at the whole thing. Several major veterans and several rising stars. Maxey Whitehead is building a rather quality resume with Funimation, having worked on two of their higher profile series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Soul Eater. Clearly the people who complain about a lack of new and/or young talent in Texas need to perk up their ears a bit.
Summer Wars appears to be getting a high level of treatment, though I've heard about some rather serious glitches at a screening. Hopefully, those will get worked out but I believe that a screening is a far different creature than a final production release. Sometimes, one takes the draft version to a screening or a problem that appears to be related to production is actually caused by technical difficulties. In any event, we'll have the chance to learn the truth soon.
Best quote from the Funi blog quotes:
WarGames re-imagined as a Japanese ensemble family drama. And then animated. – John Gholson, writer for CinematicalAssuming he meant this War Games, that's like telling me they took an old Mercedes (cool car) and refurbished it, added enough electronics to practically allow for space flight and then painted it like these otaku lovelies.
Yeah, that quote alone puts this one on my Top Buy list.
And yes, I'd totally drive that to work. Even if I were PoTUS.
Especially if I were PoTUS! (Air Force One with Nanoha on it? Pure concentrated awesome!)
On the Inuyasha: The Final Act front, we've got word of recasts starting on this page of AoD comments on Mania.com. Fairly reliable sources apparently. No outright confirmations from VIZ that I know of but hey, since when does VIZ really tell us anything?
As it stands, it is confirmed by the VAs themselves that Kelly Sheridan and Kirby Morrow are reprising their roles of demon hunter Sango and the lecherous monk Miroku respectively. ANN lists Jillian Michaels, Richard Ian Cox and Scott McNeil as reprising the roles of Shippo to fox demon, Inuyasha the loud warrior and Koga the wolf demon as well.
Confirmed recasts are Michael Dangerfield taking over the role of Sesshoumaru and Kira Tozer taking on the role of Kagome.
This of course screws around with two of my favorite ships but I think Dangerfield can handle the role given some of his previous work I've heard (take Johann Trinity and just deepen the voice a bit, add a pinch of aloof gruffness and bake to taste.)
Tozer I'm not so sure about. Of course, Moneca Stori's voice for Kagome was always a bit of an acquired taste for many with some liking her work from the get go, others growing into it and others still being quite unhappy about her work. Me personally, I always liked her voice work on the show though I could never really figure out exactly why. (I know that sounds odd but I felt that there were flaws in the performance but I liked the performance in part because of them.)
For some non-anime performances of Kira Tozer, check here. Go here for some clips. This might be her first anime role.
So the question is, what about the last few major players? Will they be re-cast or reprised? VIZ isn't exactly a font of fan communication lately (or ever) so we've just got to keep our fingers crossed, our ears open and our teeth brushed.
So what are your thoughts on all of this? Are you excited about these English dubs? Are you apathetic? Will you donate money to me? (What if I post videos?)
Well, that's it for this blog posting. Stay tuned for more of my pointless posting!
Bye-ni!
