Fujin
09-01-2002, 11:51 PM
I've been hearing people talk about anime for a long time, so some time ago I decided to try it. Because of a suggestion someone on this board gave me, I bought the Evangelion graphic novels. I loved them, but there were two slight problems. One was that each book was over $15 (US). Maybe it's just that I'm not used to graphic novels, but that strikes me as rediculously expensive. (A normal paperback novel of the same length would be maybe 6 or 7 dollars, maybe even less.) Here's the second problem: The guy who wrote/drew "Evangelion" did things ass-backwards: He created the anime and then the manga. So, unlike the anime, the manga isn't finished! In fact, it's only the first half of the anime. (Give or take a few episodes.) So now I have to get the anime to find out how this thing ends!
Now here's where I hit a huge problem: The anime is $168 in most places. I did find it for $100 dollars at one online store, but even that seems crazy to me.
So I can't afford the anime. This leaves me with three options:
1) Never find out how it ends. Live with the fact that Toji may be dead. (You did see the "spoiler" warning in the title of this post, right? Then don't complain. :rolleyes: ) Never know if Shinji ever manages to forgive his father. Never know if Rei ever stops being so withdrawn. Never know if Asuka dies a slow, painful death. (I pray for it every day... :p)
2) Try to befriend an anime fan once college starts up again (this week. >_< someone, save me, pleeeeease....) Maybe we could split the cost of the dvds. But there's one problem: I may not seem like this here at FFShrine, but in "real life" I am even more pathetic than Shinji. I'd say I'm maybe halfway between being Shinji and being Rei. :uh?: So this isn't as easy a solution as it seems. (Besides, there's no way I'm going to hang out with someone just to use them to see anime.) Well, anyhow, I'd like to stop being a loner, so maybe it's a good idea anyway.
3) In the meantime (too impatient to wait for "option 2" to work) I've resorted to downloading the episodes off the internet. This sucks for several reasons:
-I feel like dirt. I am breaking copyright laws, ripping the creators/publishers/etc of Eva out of their hard-earned money.
-You have no idea how hard it is to find episodes when you don't have streamload. (You have to love the concept of streamload. Pay to download videos that you're trying to get for free.) I've only found one place where I can get Eva episodes and it's so slow I get 3.6k/s at 4 in the morning on a cable modem.
-You have no control over what the episodes will be like. I don't mind that they're not good quality. It's that the first two were subbed and the third one dubbed that bothers me. (Haven't gotten further than the third one yet. Actually, I haven't even finished the third.)
I was really enjoying the fact that the first two were subbed. For one thing, it seemed more "authentic." This is how the original is. This is how the characters are supposed to sound. This is how someone like me, who would like to learn Japanese, can get used to pronounciation and simple words like "yes" and "no." Besides, the story takes place in Tokyo. It makes sense that the characters speak Japanese. Not to mention that with subtitles, you never miss what the characters are saying.
Then I tried watching the third episode. First of all, I couldn't hear a word the characters were saying. Nothing wrong with the video file, just that it's hard to hear anything over my screaming "THAT IS NOT WHAT SHINJI SOUNDS LIKE!!!" Secondly, they give the names American pronouncations. They called Ritsuko "Ritsuuuko," for example. Third, if they have to dub it in English they could at least stick with how the characters sounded in the manga. Where is Toji's "Godfather" accent?
I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this post to be this long and pointless. I just needed to get this off my chest.
I need to switch to decaf... o.o;;;
Now here's where I hit a huge problem: The anime is $168 in most places. I did find it for $100 dollars at one online store, but even that seems crazy to me.
So I can't afford the anime. This leaves me with three options:
1) Never find out how it ends. Live with the fact that Toji may be dead. (You did see the "spoiler" warning in the title of this post, right? Then don't complain. :rolleyes: ) Never know if Shinji ever manages to forgive his father. Never know if Rei ever stops being so withdrawn. Never know if Asuka dies a slow, painful death. (I pray for it every day... :p)
2) Try to befriend an anime fan once college starts up again (this week. >_< someone, save me, pleeeeease....) Maybe we could split the cost of the dvds. But there's one problem: I may not seem like this here at FFShrine, but in "real life" I am even more pathetic than Shinji. I'd say I'm maybe halfway between being Shinji and being Rei. :uh?: So this isn't as easy a solution as it seems. (Besides, there's no way I'm going to hang out with someone just to use them to see anime.) Well, anyhow, I'd like to stop being a loner, so maybe it's a good idea anyway.
3) In the meantime (too impatient to wait for "option 2" to work) I've resorted to downloading the episodes off the internet. This sucks for several reasons:
-I feel like dirt. I am breaking copyright laws, ripping the creators/publishers/etc of Eva out of their hard-earned money.
-You have no idea how hard it is to find episodes when you don't have streamload. (You have to love the concept of streamload. Pay to download videos that you're trying to get for free.) I've only found one place where I can get Eva episodes and it's so slow I get 3.6k/s at 4 in the morning on a cable modem.
-You have no control over what the episodes will be like. I don't mind that they're not good quality. It's that the first two were subbed and the third one dubbed that bothers me. (Haven't gotten further than the third one yet. Actually, I haven't even finished the third.)
I was really enjoying the fact that the first two were subbed. For one thing, it seemed more "authentic." This is how the original is. This is how the characters are supposed to sound. This is how someone like me, who would like to learn Japanese, can get used to pronounciation and simple words like "yes" and "no." Besides, the story takes place in Tokyo. It makes sense that the characters speak Japanese. Not to mention that with subtitles, you never miss what the characters are saying.
Then I tried watching the third episode. First of all, I couldn't hear a word the characters were saying. Nothing wrong with the video file, just that it's hard to hear anything over my screaming "THAT IS NOT WHAT SHINJI SOUNDS LIKE!!!" Secondly, they give the names American pronouncations. They called Ritsuko "Ritsuuuko," for example. Third, if they have to dub it in English they could at least stick with how the characters sounded in the manga. Where is Toji's "Godfather" accent?
I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this post to be this long and pointless. I just needed to get this off my chest.
I need to switch to decaf... o.o;;;