Day 4: Anime you're ashamed to admit you enjoyed

[sara_tanaquil]

Not a big surprise after yesterday...



I will never forget the horrified look I got from one of my more intellectual anime-loving colleagues to whom I tried to show this. (And this, should I say, from a colleague who could appreciate the exquisite irony of the Marmalade Boy/Level C mashup I inadvertently exposed her to.)

Yeah, the barbie-doll aesthetics of the naked girl transformation scenes are appalling, the monster of the week plots are repetitive, the makers of the dub should be shot. (And that's not even taking into account Sailor Says. Sailor Says!) But behind all that, there is some surprisingly epic backstory, great moments of drama (if few and far between), and some not-too-shabby character development. And, well, back in the days of 1994 when it was on Fox Kids or whatever it was right after Bananas in Pajamas, it was all I had. (It's too bad I didn't know there were such a thing as fansubs until much, much, later, since I probably would have appreciated it even more if I could have made the transition from dubs sooner. As it is, I have never yet met Sailors Uranus and Neptune.)

Comments

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I honestly do wish I had bought the dub dvds for posterity's sake

I still have my old VHS tapes that I recorded off TV. >.> I agree with you on the superiority of the Japanese version ("Who's Darien? I'm PRINCE Darien!"), but I really loved the dub when I first saw it and I still have a lot of nostalgia for it.

[collarnojutsu.livejournal.com]

I still have my old VHS tapes that I recorded off TV. >.>
Hah, me too! I also have the commercial VHS (boxset!) release of the Doom Tree arc as well as some random singles, but those tapes won't be around forever, and I have a feeling re-watching the taped off tv episodes would frustrate me after awhile since a lot are out of order or were are cut off at the endings and such (yay VHS timers....). Ha: I remember the episode where Neflite died*, it cut off right at the critical point - I was so mad at the time.

*should I have spoiler tagged that? ;)

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

since a lot are out of order or were are cut off at the endings and such

Haha, oh my, I was so OCD about preserving episode order and getting exactly the right time. If I missed an episode, I probably would have waited for the reruns to cycle around again. (Though I don't remember whether that ever happened or not.) And I always set the timer for too long and then rewound the tape so the next episode would start right after the end credits. I was pretty, uh, fanatical about the whole thing.

(With my Darkwing Duck tapes, I often recorded live and edited the commercials right out, but since Sailor Moon aired at 4:30am, I pretty much had to rely on the timer.)

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

I was pretty, uh, fanatical about the whole thing.

Please accept these chicks in lieu of a "you are adorable" sticker.

Still twins!

[collarnojutsu.livejournal.com]

Oh I was totally the same way, (OMG, do not even get me thinking about the YGO episodes...WEEEEEP), but at the time it was on regular television I was away at college with no one at home to tape for me, and so my only real chance came later, at the end of its life on Cartoon Network and while I was living at someone else's house. It was all subject to availability and I didn't get a lot of chance for re-runs at that point. Also, my VCR at the time had this crappy feature that would rewind the tape a little after recording was stopped/paused, which made it very hard to set it up for the next record and/or while watching and cutting commercials. (Seriously, I was just as OCD and it was KILLING ME, lol!!) Really, this is one of those examples that makes me sad that the DVD revolution was happening when I was so poor. I just couldn't buy everything twice back then. Hell, I could barely buy things once, I never did get the SM singles, I got the boxsets later. Anyway....

(OMG, now I seriously don't know why I didn't buy the YGO discs in thoese cheap sets... argh....want to re-watch so bad now...and my tapes are crap!)

Re: Still twins!

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Hey, no fair having all the fun conversations while I'm stuck on the New Jersey Turnpike!

I think I defined "embarrassed" in terms of being embarrassed to share it even with a fellow fan who (mostly) shares my taste, but yeah. The kind of conversation that always ends with you saying "But... it's GOOD! Really!"

LOL forever at the OCD VCR behavior. Been there, taped that.