#I haven't listen to the dub version but I feel it can't be bad

[thesecretingredientislove]

Will I be able to convince my mom to watch another cartoon with me?

I've already convinced her to watch Over the Garden Wall (she loved it and now we watch it every summer) and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (she liked some of it but I don't think she loved it).

[fragmentofmemories]

Since you reblogged that post about how it's ok to send you questions & statements 👀 I'll try asking a few!

a) do you draw traditionally ? if yes what's your favourite medium ?

b) do you have a favourite Touhou-related track/song ? or any recommendations ?

c) is there any voice actor you especially like ? (from any country)

d) is there a specific character or media you really like but don't make fancontent of (for whatever reason) ?

Feel free to only answer to the questions that interests you btw~

I feel like most of these answers are going to be boring because I'm somewhat neutral on these (lol), but I'll try anyway--

a) The answer is... Not really! I spent my earliest drawing years (2019-2020) using a sketchbook and whatever stationery I had. Nothing really professional or creative, just me practicing for the first time.

Which is to say I haven't drawn traditionally in a long while. As soon as I got my first and current tablet, I switched fully to Digital.

Although, that's part of the reason why I want to buy a new tablet with a screen (I don't really know what those are called).

It's not traditional, obviously, but I feel like it'd help me improve my drawing skills further. Also I need to switch my old tablet.

Don't ask me for any pre-2021 drawings btw. Besides being very low quality, I just don't feel like talking about them.

---

b) If you haven't listened to the Cafe de Touhou albums before, I'd definitely recommend those! There's 8 of them, each one themed after a different game, but they're all great.

As for official tracks, I can't say I have many favorites, but if I were to pick a few:

This might be a hot take of sorts, but music is probably the aspect that interests me the least about Touhou. By no means I'm saying it's bad, obviously. I'm just saying that, compared to the characters, gameplay, worldbuilding and everything else the series offers, the music never interested me as much.

---

c) VAs are something I haven't payed much attention to, unless it's someone very prominent in the field and you can immediately tell "Oh they hired X again for this character".

I'm guessing Johnny Yong Bosch comes to mind first when it comes to VAs, just because he tends to voice my favorites (lol). He's the current voice of Zero (Mega Man), and he also voiced P4 Hero (Persona 4), and Lelouch vi Britannia (Code Geass, also my favorite performance of his).

Meme answer, but I'd also like to add Carlos Villega for being the Latin American voice for Hisoka in 1999 Hunter X Hunter. I say it's a meme because, for some reason, he was given a French accent in that version and I can't think of him without it as a result.

1999 HxH's Latin American dub didn't age very well, but it's nostalgic to me nonetheless.

---

d)

Since I'm pretty much in a Castlevania mood rn, I have to wonder why haven't I drawn Shanoa yet?

She's one of my favorite protagonists ever (if not my favorite), her character is tragic and incredibly well written, and her design is just plain elegant.

Yet, I never stopped to think "I should draw her next", for some unknown reason. Perhaps in my spare time, while I'm taking a break off ODG, maybe?

Besides her, there are other characters I really like yet never drew before, which is to say Leif and Shanna (Fire Emblem), Kasumi Todoh (Art of Fighting) and Rei Reiho (Devil Summoner)

Lastly there's my non EO/CoH DRPG parties (I.E currently Labyrinth of Zangetsu and Stranger of Sword City). Drawing six characters at once takes a long time...

[italianpersonwithashippersheart]

Tag game: List 10 of your comfort shows, then tag 10 people

I was tagged by @twig-tea thanks for the tag. Like you I'm having trouble narrowing it down so I cheated a little and some of this are grouped together.

Group One is the Detective group, I used to love detective stories, which means I watched a lot of cop shows, there are some that I can't watch anymore because of the new awarness of the copaganda but these are the ones that I still find comfort in: Cold Case, Elementary, Murder She Wrote, Columbo and Ris Roma (italian version of a CSI like show, this is the first and only spin-off which I like more)

Skam OG S3 and Eyewitness and Skam Italia s2. These I am not reaching for as much since I have BLs now. But they are still comfort shows. Skam Italian s2 in particular I reach when I want to feel better about the borderline semi-fascist hellstate I'm living in, since it's the best gay rep we italians got.

Animated Group: Animaniacs and Tiny Toons along with Looney Toons cartoons I use as background noise kind of shows. And along with the anime Kodomo No Omocha (Rossana in Italian) they remind me the most of childhood. Side note sometimes I listen to intro of Rossana anime and feel like a kid again, cartoon intro used to be a pretty big deal in Italian dub cartoons 80% of which were sanged by a single woman.

Old Sitcom Group: The Golden Girls, Boy Meets the World, Full House and The Nanny

Leverage (not the new seasons, I don't really like them, just the old ones)

Community

Living Single

Superstore

The BL Group (the most recent and the one that I am now leaning to most of all): Until We Meet Again, Be Loved In House I Do, History 2 Right or Wrong, Semantic Error and My School President are the ones that bring me the most comfort.

This is mega cheating because they are not really show as in tv series. But they always bring me the most consistent comfort: Assorted Musicals and Theather Live Recordings. In particular = The Sound of Music, West Side Story 2021, Moulin Rouge, Les Misarable 25th concert, Into the Woods (the 90s recording), Much Ado About Nothing (the 2011 recording with David Tennant), Cats and an italian one Notre Dame De Paris an Italian-French Musical based on the Victor Hugo book not realted to the Disney version at all)

Bonus: the ones that are no longer comfort shows because I can never watch them again: CSI (all of them but I used to love NY), Law and Order, and Veronica Mars (which I haven't been able to watch since I saw s4)

And the ones that didn't make the list: My favorite Power Rangers series (they range from Lost Galaxy to RPM)

Tagging: @thehollowprince @heretherebedork @callipigio @benkaaoi @slayerkitty @respectthepetty

It's not 10 but I am bad with names so these are I could think of. No pressure to them of course.

[randomshenaniganery]

TGCF Donghua

okay so I've been watching this shit since it was released and I'm fully enjoying waiting for the weekly episodes and I wanna rant about it because I love it so much but I do have some minor gripes

Bad chuchu out of the way first

I am not happy with how generic and unoriginal the designs for most of the supporting characters. Like yeah they still look somewhat different but when the pool of named characters will expand it will get harder and harder to tell people apart if they keep on going with this route. Almost everyone suffers from same face syndrome which I know is rampant in current anime I just wished they allowed for at least more dynamic silhouettes, hairstyles, and color palettes. It feels like a more toned down version of the character design in the manhua. Lang Qianqiu in the manhua is so easy to recognize because of his outfit and pei ming looks more like the bastard he is etc. Don't get me started on the design for Kemo, the manhua felt eh I feel like Kemo was too pretty and too slim but in the donghua its just he's a straight up orc idk, i feel like they could've done better. Pei Su looks very generic, I think out of everyone he's the most generic looking of them all. SQX, Ling Wen and Jun Wu are the best designs for the supporting cast and I think Banyue is also okay looking cause you can tell her apart from the rest so far.

I am super disappointed in Qi Rong's reveal because it doesn't feel as impactful in the book. In the book the reveal of him looking like Xie Lian was so dramatic to me I was like oh my god is that his brother? A twin? a doppelganger? And then Qi Rong just kinda looks like that, tbh his voice actor and his clothes are fine I think they fit. It's just weird how he suffers from same face syndrome. If they made everyone look less like each other making Qi Rong look like Xie Lian would have been so impactful and a really cool cliffhanger but they couldn't do that because even fucking Lang Qianqiu kinda looks like Xie Lian with lighter hair. Also the Fang xin design is alright on the clothes but the mask gives off a bit cheap however I get that it can't be super detailed and it still does its job so I can handwave that small pet peeve.

Also censorship we couldn't get Xie Lian falling on Hua Cheng's lap and so them trying to make up for that was super awkward LMAO, they could have solved this by making SQX fall right on Hua Cheng's chair so that they could justify why Xie Lian grabbed Hua Cheng and throws him but they didn't... and it's so awkward...

I think it was like Episode 2 of s2 that the animation feels weird, Mu Qing's face felt off to me idk what was going on it just felt like something went down but the next episode it was perfectly fine anyway.

Positives!!!

Something the manhua didn't have was Fu Yao and Nan Feng looking a bit like each other, that was so fucking funny and it's a great display of how much they hate each other and live rent free in each other's heads ong. I love that detail the donghua did I think that's smart.

The voice actors are so great in both dubs they're doing amazing (I haven't listened to the jp dub) I have no complaints I love their work

ONE of my favorite things about the donghua is being able to see Hua Cheng's expressions even when Xie Lian is doing something in the book so he wouldn't notice. I love seeing how pleased he is every time someone points out the intimacy with him and Xie Lian. Like in season 1 when Fu Yao is shocked/horrified that Xie Lian shared a bed with Hua Cheng, San Lang puts a hand on his chin and looks so fucking smug and happy. This happens a couple times in s2 as well someone will be like oh that's weird you're so like this with Hua Cheng and he becomes a smug cat it's great.

Another one I enjoy is during the beginning of the banyue arc when Xie Lian reveals to Fu Yao and Nan Feng that he's used to sleeping in squalor the camera goes to Nan Feng not revealing his face but clearly showing his guilt over what Xie Lian reveals. That's good shit.

Lan Chang picking a fight off screen, also cool, love seeing her. I like that she looks inconspicuous so for someone who doesn't know shit about tgcf they will not see *that* shit coming.

ALSO the men look kinda generic if they're not the mls but the girls are all gorgeous???? like the woman who was Hua Cheng's speaker, the girl who led Xie Lian further into the gambling den, XUAN JI, Banyue all the girls are unique without being so ostentatious and I love them. If you put them beside each other they all look like they're own thing but still on theme. From clothes, to hairstyle and colors it's easy to tell and that's good design. I also include SQX's female form cause she's gorgeous too.

The donghua I think adds to stuff I haven't read I'm not sure if this is because I have a bad memory but I don't recall reading a flashback of Lang Qianqiu and the failed robbery. But the message of that entire section was so fucking good. The way that what Lang Qianqiu said about 'maybe he shouldn't have intervened' and the sound effects UGh. It's so good, i love how the book tackles the morality of everything, breaking down Lang Qianqiu's firm positivity and believing in humanity but still promoting being kind and considerate through Xie Lian. This theme still carries on in the show and I think they're doing a great job.

GOD THE MUSIC in the donghua is so fucking good, I love it. The songs, the meanings, the beat it's all perfect I can't say anything more.

even though i'm disappointed in the character design choices the donghua is very solid, I love it a lot. It does come off as very expositiony sometimes but I think that's very prevalent in Chinese Wuxia and Xianxia. Probably weird for people who aren't used to the genre but to anyone who's seen something like it, it's not unbearable and it's kinda necessary because of how the book is written. Waiting for wednesday patiently whilst i draw huahua

There are so many fun details the Donghua adds that shows that they know the story and where it's going as well hinting at character stuff, it's so fun to spot those. Like Xie Lian's reaction to Hua Cheng biting the bun made me wanna claw my face that shit was good af.

[oneinathousand]

Every once in a while the subject of digital necromancy and bad biopics will pop up and create a lot of discussion, and when it happens, a lot of the same subjects will be brought up repeatedly. However, there's one movie I came upon several months ago that combines "bringing dead actors back to life" and the disrespectful biopic in a completely unhinged way that I've never seen done elsewhere, but I never hear anybody on English-speaking parts of the internet bring it up because it's virtually unknown outside of Russian-speaking areas. Let me introduce you to a little movie called Vysotsky: Thank You for Being Alive.

First, some context on who the subject of this biopic is: Vladimir Vysotsky was a Russian singer/songwriter/poet/actor who was incredibly popular among much of the Soviet Union; you could consider him the Russian equivalent to John Lennon or Edith Piaf, all being artists, who - because they died relatively young - were elevated after their deaths to becoming cultural icons of almost mythical status.

So, in 2011, this movie was released, based on a screenplay and partially produced by Vysotsky's son, Nikita Vysotsky, and it tells a story about Vysotsky having a near-death experience while on tour in Uzbekistan in 1979 as KGB agents are spying on him. The producers apparently wanted viewers to see the "real" Vladimir Vysotsky, and to do that, they took a very... unique approach to his portrayal in the movie.

They had the actor who played Vysotsky go through six hours of makeup every day, then used CG on top of that (to what extent, I don't know, maybe it was just a general digital airbrushing, though I also heard some shots might have his face be entirely CG, but I can't confirm since there's not a lot of info about this movie in English), and then had Nikita Vysotsky dub the voice.

So far, not so unusual, other than the filmmakers being incredibly obsessive about making the actor look exactly like Vysotsky because they didn't think audiences would accept anything else.

Here's the batshit part: They didn't credit the actor, Sergey Bezrukov, upon release. They kept his involvement a secret. Instead, they credited Vladimir Vysotsky as playing himself.

It wasn't until the next year when Sergey Bezrukov admitted to playing Vysotsky, and apparently for a 2013 TV version they finally credited him. Also, this review from before the confession indicates that many people managed to figure out it was him all along. Still, that just goes to show that keeping it a secret was a pointless endeavor.

Maybe this movie is actually really good and tells this episode of Vysotsky's life in a factual, even-handed way, but I wouldn't be able to tell you since, again, not a lot of super-detailed info on Vysotsky in English that's easy to find. What I CAN say is that regardless of its quality, all those efforts pretty much go down the drain by the producers deciding not to credit the actual actor for a time. Pretending Vysotsky played himself feels like putting words in his mouth postmortem, it would be kinda like if I made a biopic about somebody and then at the end of the movie I put up a disclaimer being like "We held an Ouija board session and communicated with our subject's ghost who TOTALLY gave us the stamp of approval."

I haven't seen the whole film but from what I have seen, the use of all that makeup, CG, and dubbing plants the performance pretty firmly in the uncanny valley, and if I were a Russian who had grown up listening to Vysotsky's music and watching his acting roles, then saw this movie in a theater or on TV, I'd be creeped out and insulted at the notion that this is as good as the real deal.

The effect looks fine in some angles and lighting conditions, but otherwise it's generally weird-looking. The face is overly smooth, Bezrukov clearly couldn't emote much underneath all that makeup, and the dubbed voice doesn't always match the facial expressions, or lack thereof. It doesn't help that this movie is REALLY brightly lit and saturated as if it was shot by a 2000's video game developer who just figured out how to do bloom effects, so there's really not much the film could do to obscure the face. The creepiness is something you have to see in motion to feel, just posting pictures wouldn't get across what I mean, so if you do want to see it, the movie has been uploaded here.

[dervampireprince]

Don‘t mind your long post at all! It‘s very good to let it all out and express those feelings!! I hope you feel better after telling us about these things and well that’s a lot of trust right there. I hate it when people say that to me but I am proud of you for taking this step <3 I think it’s a good method to follow what your brain AND body desires and gets off on, it sounds healthy! I also believe that if you find someone you would like to have sex with, they will be the type of person to understand how you feel and what’s up with your body, you understand? Because subconsciously you are searching for somebody who accepts you the way you are and I am certain that if you trust your feelings and your gut that you will find that somebody! They will understand how you feel and who you are, I am sure of it <3

Also uuuuh my phrasing perhaps got a bit weird, I was already on ink‘s blog and was drawing some stuff for her, so I’m not her or own her blog I just Uuuh run around here on tumblr and sometimes draw stuff for people

Also hey it’s totally cool if you don’t wanna share your art!! And I totally get you not having any ideas what to paint 🧍 Also you‘re into anime/manga??? That’s so cool, maybe it’s already quite popular that you like anime & stuff on your blog but I have been only following you for?? A month? Idk my brain is a little mush right now, but it’s so cool! Are you still into it even after what happened or did you distance yourself from it? If not you could perhaps list your fav anime, if it makes you feel uncomfortable I analogise and ofc you don’t need to at all, this blog is supposed to be a space of comfort for you and nobody should dare to change that. Just want to say that you are good the way you are and if you ever gonna change, that’s good too. The way you are, the way you have been and the way you are going to be, all of them are going to be enough and fine in their own ways. Idk if you need to hear this but now you did <3

well it's out in the world now and no one's called me gross so far so hey. yeah, i think if i continue to engage with that content just because it causes a physical reaction, but me and my brain hate it then it's clearly not good for me because i just get upset with myself afterwards. there's definitely been some learning with my lately of okay what is a hard limit, what is a kink we like in fantasy but hard limit in reality, and what is actually a kink. that middle category was something i could never feel okay with existing but i'm trying to get there.

i've never mentioned it on here, but yes 11-14 year old me was a fukin weeb. and not only a weeb, but the only music i would listen to was vocaloid. i knew way too much about vocaloids. i drifted out of anime and haven't watched any in years and years and i always put that down to i prefer subbed but also watch things in the bg and can't do that if i'm reading subs. i never thought about maybe i have some bad associations with anime or other content i was consuming at the time but... oh boy you might be onto something. but yeah i'm cool to talk about anime. i probably will always say the original 90s sailor moon first because it was my first proper anime and butterfly effect from that got me into so many other things. yu-gi-oh (the original, 5ds and gx) because that was actually my first anime but i was a little kid watching tv and didn't know what 'anime' or that it was from japan. angel beats. first time i cried at an anime. rozen maiden, i'm such a sucker for the original version of the anime because i collected dolls as a kid and an anime with living dolls?? and a banging soundtrack of baroque pop?? yes please. and some dumb fun ones? space patrol luluco and inferno cop. real stupid but omg. i don't normally watched dubbed but i can't recommend watching luluco dubbed instead because it's comedy and the jokes land better and more suddenly if you're listening rather than reading. it's such a short little anime (literally each ep is 10 minutes) and barely anyone talks about it but its such a fun watch. same with the bizarreness that is inferno cop if you can handle really random stuff. both are little works by studio trigger (known better for: kill la kill, little witch academia, darling in the franxx, promare, ssss gridman)

and thank you for all that stuff at the end there. it's very sweet of you to say and idk to respond to compliments but ❤️

[lee-etc]

I watched the Millionaire Detective English Dub so you don't have to

And oh boy was it the comic relief I needed after episode 8

Let's talk voice acting. Overall the dub is mediocre at best, so I guess it's good for dub standards

Some of the voice actors sound more professional than others but maybe that's just me???

The translation wasn't bad tho. The ending "How much?" scene was still iconic, being almost word to word

Obviously tho there were a few translations that got me like when Daisuke said "In Japan, I found purpose." instead of 「 It happened in Japan. 」 Idk man I feel like these lines are pretty different but go off

Alrighty let's talk characters cuz oh boy... Oh boy

Thoughts on the individual characters:

Haru Kato

Haru's voice actor, Ricco Fajardo, did a pretty good job!

As much as I love Mamoru Miyano, I always felt that his voice was a lil bit deeper than what Haru 'should' sound like

But Ricco Fajardo voices Haru in a similar way to what he could sound like if he was... Well... if he was English

Still, Japanese Haru is my favourite,,, Miyano nails Haru's frustrations and puts so much emotion into his acting which makes Haru's strong will that much stronger

Daisuke Kambe

oh boy here we go again

Okay so two things about Daisuke:

He may be short but he has a deep voice

That deep voice is a part of his appeal ask any daisuke simp and they'll tell you

... And yeah. Daisuke's voice actor doesn't suit him at all.

He starts to sound a bit like Daisuke whne his voice gets deeper but otherwise... nah fam this ain't it

This isn't to say that Adam Rowe is a bad voice actor tho, he's actually quite good. I think that he just wasn't the best choice for the rule

Also my Japanese is terrible but idk if you say Kanbe like that man... It needs more ✨flair✨

Shinnosuke Kamei

Kamei was perfect and you can't convince me otherwise

I mean his voice doesn't really suit him but no one's voice really suits the sooo

Honestly I feel like his voice actor just had fun with it and I'm here for that

He sounds like the twink I'd always imagined him as it's prefect

Ryo Hoshino

UHM SIR

When did Hoshino become a top like daMn his voice is so much deeper

"You haven't changed a bit." sir 😳 you've got a grin in your voice when you say that

... What are you implying

... That wasn't in the Japanese version 😳😳

Anyway his voice, as expected, doesn't really suit him but damn he sounds good

Excuse me while I listen to that part again cuz damn

Yukihiro Kiyomizu

:(( he

Honestly Kiyomizu had a really unique voice in the sub because he has a very cute voice with a little bit of a lisp that was a lot deeper when he was younger but yeah I just think that his voice really suits him

But his voice in the dub is just... Okay... I guess

Final thoughts, or tl;dr:

It's an average dub that's probably not worth your time unless you think that hoshino is hot then go off I guess

Honestly maybe I'm just conflicted

Daisuke should have a deeper voice

HEUSC sounds basic af... like a GPS voice or Google Translate voice epically when he gave the directions to the bridge

I'll always love the soundtrack more than anything tbh, it's such a groove

And lastly

One-liners that I found funny:

- *GPS voice* Balance: unlimited

- *takes chocolate* nnnuHmM - hUh. They're not very sweet

- Hey you! Are you outta your damn mind? You're under arrest for obstruction of Justice- *coUGh cough phEh more coughing pheH INHALE*

- *blows cigar smoke* pardon

- *strained voice* WHAT THE HOLY HELL IS GOING ON

JuSt pull over, we're screwed!

*police cars flipping over and crashing in the distance*

- *telephone rings* It's me. What? You arrested him? what about the bomb

- HEY WATCH IT! hooligan

Important Note:

... yes I'm a sub purist (you can judge me I really don't care lmao) but I know when to watch a dub as well/instead of a sub. Usually it's okay for comedic shows such as Golden Boy or if you are not good at reading subs. But otherwise I'm not really a fan of dubs - sure, they help introduce anime to a wider audience but otherwise eh. They're alright. This dub was enjoyable, but yeah.

Thanks for reading!!

[thatguywiththecoydog]

Anpanman: Apple Boy and Everyone's Hope (2014)

Introduction

Fox's primary free-to-use streaming service, Tubi, had announced that they would be picking up at least 10 of the Anpanman movies to be released in English and Spanish back last October, with them slated for a fall 2020 release. This never happened, so many fans of the Anpanman franchise that spoke native English or Spanish would have to wait a little longer for dubs of these movies to come out.

The delay of these movie dubs went unannounced, leading fans to speculate that the dub was either in limbo or just silently canceled. This was until the first of them was released on April 15, 2021, with no announcement, or even complete details on who is dubbing them or the cast list. This had fans believing for a short while that the dub had taken a bit longer to assure its quality, but as you will soon read, this was most likely not the case.

Naturally, fans were excited as this was the first time these movies would see an official dubbed release in the west. There were other dubs of the franchise in English and Spanish, such as an English dub of the television series made for India that aired on Pogo, and a Spanish made in Spain sometime in the 1990s. However, these dubs are hard to come by and there are no official ways to watch these dubs in North America, as far as I'm aware.

Promo for the Indian Pogo dub posted by @doraedoramichan2021 on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oxAx5EEdX_4

So now we have an official dub of one of the movies that can be watched at no charge with ads. Joy!

Plot synopsis (spoilers below)

The plot starts with Dokin (spelled as "Dokeen" in the dub) and Horrorman (dubbed as "Horror") as they read a book of fairy tales, landing on Snow White. They end up accidentally releasing a shadowy figure from the book as it flies off into the darkness.

Meanwhile, Melonpanna's and Creampanda's (spelled "Cream Panda" in the dub) class are making sketches of the ocean. This is where Baikinman comes in to cause trouble for them with his giant crab robot. Anpanman rushes in from the blue to beat the tar out of Baikinman to save the day as the theme song plays in the background.

After that, we cut to the movie's other titular character, Apple Boy, attempting to fly his hot air balloon over the ocean. After the balloon falls to the ocean, he is swept away by the current.

A whale finds him dehydrated and floating lifeless in the ocean, where he gives him to Anpanman so he can help. After offering a piece of his anpan head to Apple Boy, he takes him to Uncle Jam's bakery, where Uncle Jam and Batako let him stay while they wait for a new shipment of apples from SL-Man.

Back at Baikinman's lair, he discovers that the book of fairy tales was being read by Dokeen and Horror. Looking very worried, he explains to the two of them that he was told never to open that book.

Anpanman, Melonpanna, and Cream Panda find SL-Man with the apples, Baikinman comes by to ruin the apples with his giant caterpillar robot. After Anpanman slows him down, Melonpanna and Cream Panda take SL-Man to the bakery.

Uncle Jam and Batako receive the apples and make them into apple juice. They give the juice to Apple Boy which he quickly drinks and rejuvenates from.

As Anpanman is still fighting Baikinman, Melonpanna and Cream Panda come back with Apple Boy for assistance. Apple Boy ends up beating him by planting an instantly-growing apple seed on the robot's tongue, where Anpanman then punches him into the next time zone.

That evening at the bakery, Apple Boy explains to the crew, with Shokupanman (dubbed as Bread-head Man) and Currypanman there as well, that he needs his balloon to search for the fabled magic apple seeds that can apparently grow the biggest apples anyone has ever seen. Anpanman, Mellonpanna, and Cream Panda help him search for the tree that gives off the magic seeds, while Bread-head Man and Currypanman search for the Apple Balloon. With no luck in finding the tree, they return to the bakery.

As the heroes in the bakery are setting off to find Appleina, an apple girl who might have clues as to where one can find the magic seeds, Horror informs Baikinman and Dokeen of the whole situation through a mock TV newscast.

Once at Appleina's, she shows the crew (and by extension the young audience this movie caters to) how to grow large apples. After many hardships of growing the trees, they finally blossom. Just as they are admiring their hard work, a bunch of bats swoop in and suck the life out of all the other apple trees around them. Unrelated to this, Baikinman attempts to steal all the apples for himself.

At this point, the bats go together to form the wich from the Snow White book that Dokeen and Horror were reading at the beginning of the film, revealing that she was the shadowy figure at the beginning of the movie that escaped from the book.

The witch turns everyone into moldy apples for no other reason than she is evil. The only ones left standing are Apple Boy and Appleina. Uncle Jam and Batako rush to bake Anpanman a new anpan head so he can turn back from apple form and be powered up enough to beat the witch. However, the witch destroys the Anpanman Blimp's oven, meaning they can't bake the head. Apple Boy stuns the witch with the power of a magic apple that he ended up growing. This also bakes the cold head into a perfectly cooked one, giving Uncle Jam and Batako the chance to turn Anpanman back to normal.

They successfully do this and Anpanman beats the witch back into the storybook, as the movie ends and everyone sings about apples.

My opinions

Before you say it, I am fully aware this movie is made for young children, but that is no excuse not to have a quality movie in my opinion. If anything, kids deserve more good content so they can learn and remember seeing that content for years to come. It just makes me feel bad for these children who watch movies that don't have much substance purely because they are "made for children."

The movie itself

The movie is average at best, and boring at worst. I did type out a pretty large plot synopsis for this movie, making it sound like a lot, but there really was not as much as you would think. This movie is only 46 minutes in total too, so there really should have been more here. Like, there was some emotional stuff going on with Apple Boy back on the Apple Planet he came from, but it's never really relevant to the story, nor the series as a whole because of him being made for this movie and only this movie. The movie also has a surprising amount of filler. Like, the part where I briefly mention Anpanman looking for the tree is a montage in the movie that lasts about two minutes, along with a scene where Apple Boy falls off a cliff, which is also not relevant to the main plot. I want to say a good quarter of this movie in total was filler, so we only have about 33 minutes of actual plot.

The writing that is there is also broken. I believe that the most entertaining part about this series is the series villains, Baikinman, Dokeen, and Horror. They don't make too many appearances in this movie to serve as comic relief, rather, Baikinman feels shoved in here to serve as more padding to make that over-40-minute time slot. There are also parts of the movie that make absolutely no sense under any perspective, not just an outsider's. Like, why does giving Anpanman a new head suddenly transform him from a moldy apple back to normal?

Overall, I feel as though both adults and children would be bored to death by this movie. 3/10.

Dubbing quality

If the movie itself wasn't soleless enough, the dubbing somehow makes this worse.

The movie was dubbed by Macias Group, a Florida-based studio that is best known for dubbing English shows into Spanish but does have some English dubbing in their catalog.

They had hired voice actors that I have not even heard of, nor do I think anyone else has. This doesn't make the dubbing automatically bad, in fact, a no-name cast can be quite good if given the right direction. However, this cast I feel did not give enough life to the characters. Some characters sound fine, like Horror or Dokeen, but others sound like the actor is struggling to put on a good performance, like Baikinman.

The characters also tend to speak in a way I like to call "Dora the Explorer Syndrome." It's kind of hard to explain what this is over text, but characters will talk extremely slowly for the young children, along with sounding considerably condescending. Watch the first two minutes of a Dora episode and compare it to this movie and you'll hear what I mean.

The voice acting itself sounds a bit bland and flat, almost like the actors didn't really care for their roles and were just doing it for a small paycheck. I don't blame them, really. An obscure series that they most likely haven't even heard of streaming exclusively on an unpopular streaming service most likely won't pay too high certainly wouldn't get me motivated. To do something like this, it needs to pay high enough or be on a service where it will get more notoriety, and most importantly, the people need to have a passion for the project and voice acting in general, neither of which sounded like they were here. I also heard a bit of recording echo, but I'm going to chalk that up to the actors recording at home rather than a booth due to COVID restrictions. If the dub had a bit more heart, then I probably would have liked it that much more.

I feel as though some of the name changes could have been better. Like some were unnecessary like Dokin to Dokeen or Horrorman to Horror, but things like Baikinman and Anpanman were kept the same, which probably needed the most explanation to an English audience.

The iconic songs from the Japanese version were also translated to English, which is a rarity in 2021 dubbing land. However, the songs sound off from their Japanese counterparts. If you were to listen to the theme song (https://youtu.be/3qSiSWTJkzw) or the closing song (https://youtu.be/c4DY7xmLlQI), you hear that they are bouncy, happy, and catchy. The English versions sound a bit off-beat to the rhythm these songs are supposed to be in. Now, I don't mind if the rhythm is a bit different so it can be optimized to the English language better, but here, it's so off it makes the songs sound worse. Most likely, the singers were given no direction and only listened to the Japanese version a few times. Not only that, but the lyrics are nearly directly translated from Japanese, also messing with the flow of the songs. When listening to the Japanese musical tracks, it almost makes you wonder what could have been.

Overall, the dubbing is not too good and probably could have done better either with a different cast with more motivation, or a whole 'nother studio behind the wheel.

Final thoughts and other recommendations

If you do want another English dub of Anpanman that I think is miles better, watch the fandub by Thomas Blue on Fandubbers Unite, starring myself as Anpanman (renamed to Bean-bun Man) and @clwsblog as Baikinman (renamed to Cavity Creep). It has better writing, better acting, and better songs. Both kids and adults alike will enjoy this version. Before you ask me, no, there is no bias here. I truly believe we did it better and for no pay!

Here is a link to Thomas Blue's dub:

https://fandubbersunite.weebly.com/beanbunman.html

If you really want to watch the official English though, even after my warnings, then go ahead. Here's a link to the Tubi listing:

https://tubitv.com/movies/592033/anpanman-apple-boy-and-everyone-s-hope?start=true