Tale of Genji (2009 adaptation)

[jennkei]

Celestial Kitsune beat me to blogging on it, but even though I could only come up with 20 screenshots for it (quite low ._.), I did like it. I've read Art of Seduction, and while I can bish him for being a casanova (yet another 'asshat'? :P), it's probably different when you're actually involved -- and a lot of the women do enjoy their time with him. It's what seducers do. ^^

Agreement with Seji-sensei and a few others who recognised Kousuke Atari's voice. ^^ And that the OP is rather o.O.

[Exias]

There were indeed issues with sync on the 480p version, shows why you shouldn't sub at 2AM. The 720p version that is being released shortly won't have any of these issues.

[arkxkra]

erm, just watch ep1, although I don't like the drawing style (personal favor), but it quite beautiful as well (in some sense).

So this tale was actually talking about the Genji love story? I found it quite interest (dunno why), so will continue watching.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

Also if S.E.N.S is doing the music, Im doubly in.

Remember all the beautiful pieces from xxxHolic, like Deja view, Moderato and Lost Memory? It's pieces like that which are used all the time in this show. It's the same with a lot of J-Drama scores they do scores for. So glad they've been given the chance to do a similar work in Japanese animation.

Anyway, make sure you let me know what you think of the score.

I would have loved to hear Atari Kosuke sing the OP for this series, though saying that i don't believe he's worked on an OP yet. Shame.

Also regarding the original book, i plan to check it out, though i'm not sure if i'll wait until the series has finished.

[LKK]

Quick question from the sub. How would "Hikaru-kimi-sama" translate into English? Would it translate as "my lord Hikaru"?

[Celestial Kitsune]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

The best translation is in Penguin, by Royall Tyler.

Yes, it is an excellent translation, but the choice will depend on what a reader wants from the book. I covered major Genji translations to English in this post.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Celestial Kitsune

Yes, it is an excellent translation, but the choice will depend on what a reader wants from the book. I covered major Genji translations to English in this post.

That's an excellent post you link to. I love Waley's prose. I always felt Seidensticker (whom you prefer) sounded a bit awkward. Tyler has Seidensticker's accuracy with prose closer in quality to Waley, for me. Maybe I have a British bias (Waley was English, Seidensticker is/was American, Tyler is in Australia). The tiny bit of the original I've been able to read is amazing, with huge long sentences meandering on and on so beautifully. Kind of like the most beautiful English 17th-18th-century prose.

@LKK -- "My Lord Hikaru" for "Hikaru Kimi-sama" sounds reasonable to me, but the "Hikaru" is not part of his name, it is a kind of nickname: "Shining." So: "My Shining Lord," "My Brilliant Lord"? I'm not sure if the "Hikaru Kimi-sama" is in the original or is something they made up. He is often referred to a "Hikaru Genji," "the Shining (member of the) Gen clan." For anyone who doesn't know, Genji was the Emperor's son, but because his mother didn't have relatives who could protect him politically as Emperor, his father made him a commoner, making him part of the Gen or Minamoto clan.

[achirist]

I've read the novel several times (both waley and tyler translations,) and I really adored it. As for this anime - I don't like the way Genji and To No Chujo's adult faces are drawn. Also, this episode struck me as rather odd - I'm not sure who the woman he was with in the beginning was (Yugao? there seemed to be something along the lines of evening flower implied - but that is one of my favorite stories in the book, so I hope they could show it in full.) I fully agree that the opening was bad and out of place.

I don't think that this strange elaboration on child-Genji and Fujitsubo's friendship was that bad, though I don't prefer it. It must be stressed that the Emporer had many wives or consorts, all with their own children, so it definitely isn't likely that any woman the emperor took on would presume themselves to be in the position Genji's mother. As such, there wasn't anything like that in the novel.

I wonder, is Exinet the only group subbing this series?

[Cal-Reflector]

I own a Chinese and an English translation of Tales of Genji, but haven't got around to reading them. I was surprised to learn however that Genji is the archtypical original Harem Lead, and that his harem includes a wide, wide, wide range.

Damn.

Edit: Without having read the novel first, I like anime Genji pretty well so far. Nice music, pretty effects, and a unique art style.

[Dagger]

Unlike modern harem leads, however, he's a skilled seducer and doesn't run screaming from women.

[StoneCloud]

Who Subs this anime?

[WanderingKnight]

There were indeed issues with sync on the 480p version, shows why you shouldn't sub at 2AM. The 720p version that is being released shortly won't have any of these issues.

Quick question: I watched the 480p version. I could notice some issues with syncing at the beginning of the episode. Does it account for the extreme continuity issues throughout the rest of the episode? (I didn't notice any syncing issues after the first minute or so).

Seriously, I think there's something definitely wrong with this anime, somewhere. I just want to make sure it's the encoding, because if it's not, I'm going to be quite disappointed at a Noitamina production making some quite silly amateur directing mistakes.

Don't get me wrong, I like artsy stuff as the next elitist fan, but some things were completely wrong. And I'm even giving them a free pass on the substandard quality of the animation and the extreme amount of flashy tricks they pulled to avoid drawing extra frames.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Celestial Kitsune

Yes, it is an excellent translation, but the choice will depend on what a reader wants from the book. I covered major Genji translations to English in this post.

Thank you for this very helpful guide as I was planning on reading it eventually. This series might actually encourage me to read it sooner. Although part of me thinks I should read the book first. But then this is a Noitamina series with Sakurai Takahiro and that is very enticing.

[Nerroth]

Just saw ep 1 on Veoh - very sad, and I noted the hint at Heian-kyo's strict customs.

(The Kyoto cho had its origins in square areas laid out in old Heian-kyo - patterned after Xi'an - which were walled, and from which commoners were mostly forbidden to enter or leave. It was the onset of the shogunate which saw these walls begin to crumble, since the focus of power had shifted to Kamakura and to the military rulers, and the strict societal rules keeping the order were less vigorously enforced.)


Oh, and I hope a sub group will do avi releases - my Archos portable media player doesn't care for mkv files...

[White Manju Bun]

Oh man....TakaSaku and Tomokazu Sugita in the same anime...I almost didnt make it through the first 4 mins due to I kept hitting rewind to hear them talking

Ill have to get used to the animation style but the seiyuu and music is enough to keep me interested for now

[glyph]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

@LKK -- "My Lord Hikaru" for "Hikaru Kimi-sama" sounds reasonable to me, but the "Hikaru" is not part of his name, it is a kind of nickname: "Shining." So: "My Shining Lord," "My Brilliant Lord"? I'm not sure if the "Hikaru Kimi-sama" is in the original or is something they made up. He is often referred to a "Hikaru Genji," "the Shining (member of the) Gen clan." For anyone who doesn't know, Genji was the Emperor's son, but because his mother didn't have relatives who could protect him politically as Emperor, his father made him a commoner, making him part of the Gen or Minamoto clan.

"O Shining One?"

In fact, are not the names most (all?) of the characters are addressed by nicknames , epithets, or titles and not given names? Like Genji's mother Kiritsubo-no-koi is the "Concubine of the Paulownia Chamber", Fujitsubo-no-nyobo "Lady of the Wisteria Chamber"?

Hmm, looking good so far, but what a godsawful OP.

[Thingle]

Hikaru's a freaking stud. But it seems that he's fussing over the wrong woman.

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

Quick question: I watched the 480p version. I could notice some issues with syncing at the beginning of the episode. Does it account for the extreme continuity issues throughout the rest of the episode? (I didn't notice any syncing issues after the first minute or so).

Seriously, I think there's something definitely wrong with this anime, somewhere. I just want to make sure it's the encoding, because if it's not, I'm going to be quite disappointed at a Noitamina production making some quite silly amateur directing mistakes.

Don't get me wrong, I like artsy stuff as the next elitist fan, but some things were completely wrong. And I'm even giving them a free pass on the substandard quality of the animation and the extreme amount of flashy tricks they pulled to avoid drawing extra frames.

Yea there's something definitely wrong with the audio. I even thought I heard commercial break sounds somewhere in the episode. But then again, it's free so just enjoy

[Mistressofburden]

Originally Posted by StoneCloud

Who Subs this anime?

Live-eviL
Yoroshiku(not sure :S)
Strawberry Mint Subs
Nire-subs
Exinet Fansubs

[Irkalla]

Watched the first ep, didn't expect the shojo kinda art, but it's still better than the most moe kinda art out there right now. Also the seiyus are

[Exias]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

Quick question: I watched the 480p version. I could notice some issues with syncing at the beginning of the episode. Does it account for the extreme continuity issues throughout the rest of the episode? (I didn't notice any syncing issues after the first minute or so).

Seriously, I think there's something definitely wrong with this anime, somewhere. I just want to make sure it's the encoding, because if it's not, I'm going to be quite disappointed at a Noitamina production making some quite silly amateur directing mistakes.

Don't get me wrong, I like artsy stuff as the next elitist fan, but some things were completely wrong. And I'm even giving them a free pass on the substandard quality of the animation and the extreme amount of flashy tricks they pulled to avoid drawing extra frames.

There are sporadic issues as a result of the source raw and encode, which were cleared up in the 720p version. All around, it's worth deleting the 480p and getting the other version; as it also has minor script fixes.