(L) Katanagatari

[DragoZERO]

Just got my NIS release and it looks great. The art book has a glossary in the back explaining every name, term, and more. Really excellent stuff here. There are no interviews but I am hoping they are saving those for volume two.

[Shiroth]

Is the blu-ray one region only?

[DragoZERO]

Just watched the first episode and it was excellent except that the BD subtitles were way too small. I'm gonna take a screenshot later.

Edit: I can't play the damn blu-ray on my computer. PowerDVD can go to hell.

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Is the blu-ray one region only?

The BD is A and the DVD is 1. On a side note, if only Japan were Region C, then we'd get our Gundam 00 and Code Geass BDs.

[Shiroth]

Yeah i thought as much . Thanks Drago.

[DragoZERO]

Just get two players, one for each region, haha.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Just get two players, one for each region, haha.

I wish it was that simple.

[omimon]

Wow, they showed EVERYTHING.

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Just got my NIS release and it looks great. The art book has a glossary in the back explaining every name, term, and more. Really excellent stuff here. There are no interviews but I am hoping they are saving those for volume two.

How would you grade the translation? Did they keep the honorifics? Were there any weird words that were clearly mistranslated? Did they try to westernize it by turning all the Japanese pun jokes into lame English ones? (Such as the maid<--hell one in episode one)

[DragoZERO]

Trailers these days show way too much. This wasn't too bad. The only bad parts were the ones with his sister getting attacked on the island.

As for the translation - I thought it was good. The honorifics did go but they kept a lot of things Eastern, like Togame's "gyafun" in the first episode but things like "Nee-chan" turned into "Sis."

There is an entire dictionary in the back of the art book with a lot of stuff. Here is the dictionary's intro with some explanation behind their translation style:

It is extremely challenging to translate this epic literary work into the Western language. The foremost among all if the Romanization of Japanese names. We tried our best to deliver them in a way American viewers can understand and appreciate all the sweet, juicy goodness inside the fruit. As for characters' names, we followed the Japanese traditional order: the family name first and the given last. [...NAME ORDER EXAMPLE...] For the names of characters, places, and other things, we honored the most original Japanese names by using traditional Roman-ji rules. For those whose meanings are more important than their Japanese phonetics, however, we translated them into their English equivalents because each kanji character has profound denotation and connotation behind it, we will explain them in full depth here. When Japanese idioms or sayings appear during the quests, we tried to literally translate them into fathomable English phrases in order to introduce the culture behind it, as opposed to seeking Western idioms to call out similar effects. The reason for doing this is that the NISA staff hopes you will enjoy the story itself as a literary work without missing any raw flavors of the quests and decipher the full profundity of it with the guiding hand that is this glossary.

Dictionary Examples:

• Yasuri Shichika [KANJI] Yasuri Shichika The main character and head of the Kyoto Ryu sword style. The characters mean "file" and "seven flowers."

• Kenpo[KANJI] Sword art Not to be confused with its homonym, the other "kenpo (KANJI)," being "fist art." Of course, the author is using a pun here; Kyoto Ryu is a "sword art" for those without a sword, meaning, a fist art.

Anyway, everyone who loved this series should be buying it. It's worth the money, especially if you'll want to watch it again and again. Not to mention you'll be supporting the companies and people and all that virtuous stuff.

[kimpleng]

Did this thread already discussed about artwork change in ep 7?
When Shichika must fight his sister, Nanami.

I want to know why the studio using that kind of artwork? Actually kinda like the style and laugh when Nanami slash the monk in classic side scrolling video games.

[Kudryavka]

Wait, what? When did they show the fight with Sabi Hakuhei?? Don't tell me it was DVD only. That's real dirty right there.

Is the whole box set really only $20? Or are those some bootlegs I'm finding? :/

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Komari

Is the whole box set really only $20? Or are those some bootlegs I'm finding? :/

That would be a bootleg, because the whole series hasn't been released in the US yet.

[Kudryavka]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

That would be a bootleg, because the whole series hasn't been released in the US yet.

Okay, I was thinking $20 is too low for 2 DVDs and an artbook, but I don't know what tactics companies will do to sell these days...

[HasuMasu]

Guess who's...really late for the party.

Well, it took about a week, but I finished it, and...

Spoiler for ...:

...Well, let me start off by saying that Togame's death, I was for the most part indifferent to, that is not to say I disliked Togame, she was okay, she wasn't as smart as she was made out to be, and the people around her were more interesting to me, but there was nothing for me to dislike. Her death was...just a bit too dragged out, though I suppose it was necessary. Now, Shichika was insane, everything about him was better in the last episode: his clothes, his eyes, his voice, his moves, etc. I liked him from the beginning anyway, I suppose I'd feel cheated if he didn't get this awesome by the end. Now, I mentioned Togame's death, and I find it rather odd, or not, it just catches my attention how her death was one of the least impactful to me, I was more affected by Namakura's owner, the insect squad Nanami squashed, Nanami herself, Tsurugi's owner, Pengin, Emonzaemon, and ofcourse, Kami no Houou himself. Pengin's death though, I found impactful in an...annoying way, I was liking him more and more...then those pathetic last words, I agree wholeheartedly with Emonzaemon on how those words alone prove why he should just die like a dog on the street.

I did, feel cheated at Houou's eath, he was...well, not used to his full potential...is a light way to put it.

That fight between him and Emonzaemon proves why Nisio should've done Naruto instead of Kishi

That being said, this was an amazing show, makes me think 50 min episodes should be more common.

10/10 despite Houou's poorly done...well you know.

As for Hitei, well...I always liked her anyway

[Mystique]

I'm currently joining this bandwagon since it was reccomended as one of 2010's top anime, currently finished ep 4.
Two things hit me:

Spoiler:

NEE-SAN, KOWAEEEEE!

She reminds me of Dr Jackal from Getbackers, that level of super polite Japanese yet deadilier than anything just messes with my mind, she'll give me nightmares

We were robbed of a fight, after they set up the deal with the 'strongest swordsman in Japan', showing him helping people in earlier eps, what the hell's with that shit!?
Totally annoyed!! ><;;;

Needless to say, the less Togame talks, the more I enjoy the series (like ep 3 as well). The first two eps tested my patience with her...

[Proto]

Sabi's skipped battle was completely intentional IMO. After Sabi being touted as the strongest in Japan and Shichika as being the only one who could defeat him... we get to see Nanami potential when she is just playing around. Making the former battle sound like child play, something that is not even worth showing.

[Enjou]

Originally Posted by Proto

Sabi's skipped battle was completely intentional IMO.

Yes, it was intentional - it was skipped in the original light novels IIRC.

[Kaioshin Sama]

So Archon_Wing and I were actually talking about watching this together, but I have one slight hang up. I just found out that this was originally written by Nisio Isin, and in every experience I've ever had with the guy he seems incapable of writing a female lead that doesn't come across as a Mary Sue (i.e Medaka Box). In fact even just reading up wiki articles on what he's done that I have no experience with every single female lead character comes across as one. Heck, even the way Togame's character description is written as a cheery proud tactical master at a young age has me thinking, "here we go again". It doesn't help that it sounds like the male lead and her have some sort of master/slave relationship going on.

I'm wondering if anybody can tell me if the female lead from this one is also a Mary Sue and be honest and blunt please cause I really need too sort this out before I decide to go ahead with it or not.

And yes before people asked I have been reading the TV Tropes page on Mary Sues ever since my one post in the Break Blade thread.

[Sol Falling]

Togame is physically fragile to the point of absurdity. At least, it's played that way as one of her joke features. You can't really take Togame's 'brilliant schemes' seriously all the time either. Really, her overblown pride and haughtiness is more endearing and humourous than at all offending.

:P I personally also think that's not quite a fair evaluation of Medaka Box. Medaka isn't perfect so much as absurd/absolute. Her character is played as completely unbeatable in certain aspects (but only some aspects) in order to set up compelling contrasts and conflicts with antagonists that are actually equally absurd/amazing. You get a first taste of the kinds of awesome conceptual conflicts Medaka's character allows with the introduction of Unzen around chapter 17 or so, but the show really takes off around chapter 55 when we are properly introduced to Kumagawa. The third major player, Ajimu Najimi, joins the stage in the arc after that and is similarly just as awesome.

Frankly, Nishio's writing style is extremely 'idea'-based so a whole lot of his characters are portrayed in an unbelievable or absurd way in order to fully convey a certain thought or perspective. When his stories really get into things, I find them extremely fun and intelligent. Medaka's early chapters are marred by a misplaced "slife of life/school life" theme typical of Jump shounen mangas, while Katanagatari starts off also somewhat filling time with pointless jokes about the 4th wall, but in the end they are both very solid works with interesting core ideas if you put your time into them. I can understand that some people can't get into Nishio's kind of storytelling, but frankly, from my perspective, that is really nothing more than their own loss.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

I just love the 3rd episode and the last episode! I couldn't get enough of them. The only minus of this anime is that there are too many dialogues and many of those are shown with static picture. Those can be boring as hell!

Also, the fight with Sabi Hakuhei was shown during the episode preview where he slash anything on his path (boat, shark, sea & the whole island if I'm not mistaken).

[Proto]

It doesn't help that it sounds like the male lead and her have some sort of master/slave relationship going on.

Personally I found the romantic relationship in this series to be one of the most straightforward and refreshing I've seen in my whole time watching anime.

I'm wondering if anybody can tell me if the female lead from this one is also a Mary Sue and be honest and blunt please cause I really need too sort this out before I decide to go ahead with it or not.

She's not. At least I wouldn't consider her one.