#overall it just is a little too early 2000s dubbing for me to prefer it. they did try though <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[13eyond13]

Hi I have a question was there any deathnote ship wars (misalight vs lawlight or something) when the anime came out?

Hmm! I was not in the fandom early enough to see the very earliest stuff going on. I got into it close to 2008, and by then the anime was already out (though the English dub was not available to me to watch yet); the volume 13 behind-the-scenes book was out, the two novels L: Change the WorLd and Death Note: Another Note were out, and the first two Japanese live action movies were also out, too.

HOWEVER from what I recall the same main ships that are popular now were the most popular ones back then (Lawlight and M²/MattxMello), and the "wars" were usually more around whether or not people liked characters or even wanted to see them shipped at all, or even included at all in stuff? Misa was probably the one who got the most hate and most pointed exclusion from fan content, followed shortly by Near. People often said they didn't like Misa or didn't want to see her included in fan content because she was annoying and got in the way of Lawlight. It was almost like you were just asking to be flamed by even daring to put her in a fic – you didn't even have to be shipping her with one of the guys in it. And many didn't like Near because they thought he was a more boring version of L, or not hot enough to ship.

I guess M² was probably at odds with Meronia even more back then than it sometimes is now, too – Meronia content was very rare to find in comparison to M² content back then. And I distinctly remember an email from my first fandom friend in 2008, who had been in the fandom a while longer than me and was explaining some of that drama to me – both of us were mostly into Lawlight and not that interested in the successor arc, but even she told me she secretly found M² and Matt's immense popularity in the fandom a bit stupid, because she thought Matt was too irrelevant of a character for all the fuss he gets, and that Meronia at least seemed more interesting to her based on how the story goes. I would say I see the most "shipping war" type behaviour over whether people like shipping Mello with Matt more or with Near more still even now.

People also liked to argue a lot over whether or not they saw the characters in gay ships as tops or bottoms (though they'd usually say "seme" or "uke" back then instead) - in the 2000s you didn't have catch-all ship nicknames like Lawlight, and you had to tag the top/bottom very carefully in fics by the order you tagged the names in the ship (eg. "LxLight" if L is the top, and "LightxL" if Light is the top - they were treated almost like separate ships, and I don't think there was an easy way to talk about the ship without making a statement about their position preferences when you did). You can probably see what I mean in the older fics in the fandom that are still available on fanfiction.net (as this fandom pre-dates AO3 by quite a bit, so many of the fics from the height of its popularity in the 2000s were posted on fanfiction.net or LiveJournal and other such sites instead).

Overall I'd say though many things now are still vaguely similar in the fandom to how they were back then, people have gotten a little less dramatic and more "to each their own" about not telling other people off for being into DN characters or ships that they personally don't enjoy. And I feel now there's a lot more rare pair appreciation and appreciation of the female characters and more minor characters, and of ships that are interesting to explore more because of the writing possibilities than just because they make for the hottest stereotypical yaoi, if that makes sense. 😆

[darianias]

My opinions on Demon Slayer/ Kimetsu No Yaiba Dub voices.

Please read this section before giving any accusations, I am not hating on people or thier tastes. Also writing this on mobile else I'd make it prettier. But I am bad at summarizing so yeah.

Okay so I recently got Crunchyroll and I saw they offer multiple dub languages which peaked my curiousity. I wrote alot of notes down for my roommate as we both watched them all + the uppermoons for the english dub as we have seen alot of english dub clips on tiktok.

I am more neutral on the sub vs dub thing and think it comes to personal tastes or accessibility. My dyslexia isnt severe enough I can't read subtitles and use them often for my dysaudia. And as I said people have different tastes so in this case I dont really care. As long as we respect each other.

That in mind, we usually go with the ones that we like the voices for more unless the anime isn't dubbed yet. Usually we prefer the sub but often still like the dub and will watch both. Sometimes we hate the dub and a few times we like the dub better. Just really comes down to how we like the voices. There isnt always a reason for it, its just what feels right to us lol. I feel like I can be picky.

Okay so with this in mind the Japanese voices are our favorite and what we like, but I'm here to give my opinion on the English, Spanish & Porugese dubs. And go from favorite to least favorite.

I do NOT think these are bad VAs but more so bad casting.

Its going to roll as:

Section

TL;DR

Paragraph

⭐ favorite tidbit of it as I want to have at least a bit of a positive for each.

Spanish Dub

TL;DR: Would legit watch if I had it had english subs or if I was MUCH better with spanish. 😅🥰

I feel like it mostly hits the mark pretty well, I don't like Kyojuro's voice and muichiro sounds a bit too old. But a few of them sound like the japanese vas speaking spanish, some changes in voice but voices do that when switching languages I find. But overall if not sounding very similar they go for something that fits the character in some aspect very well. Like Sanemi's unhinged rants when he has Nezuko.

⭐ SPANISH OBANAI GIVES ME LIFE. The guy they chose sounds a little hissy in his voice and it just fits so well and makes me laugh bc of that. (Fits well enough outside the hissy part too)

English Dub

TL;DR: Great VAs, BUT the casting person was high or drunk tho. Its so dissapointing and infuriating to me.

THE CASTING FEELS SO OFF. LIKE I KNOW VOICE ACTORS IN HERE AND THEYRE GREAT, BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY GAVE ALOT OF THEM THE WRONG ROLE SISODHIDJS. Some of these feel like the bad dub voices of early 2000s and 90s anime (not saying all are bad, just talking about the bad ones) very annoyingly so. Not my least favorite but infuriates me the most 😅 Inosuke, Gyomei and Sanemi are alright. The hashira overall bother me the most, though it sounds almost like they aimed for a deku-like voice for him which bugs me as like.... that worked for Deku because he's a dweeb.

⭐ The uppermoons sound great! I feel like its pretty spot on, zenitsu as well. Albeit that Zenitsu is more annoying.

Portugese

TL;DR: Overall least favorite, maybe its that I need to hear more Portugese voices overall? Regardless it just didn't scratch my brain the right way. Like trying to pet a cat like a dog.

so far one of my least favorite, the voices mostly sound so off.  Sanemi is pretty decent, Gyomei's voice is SOOOO DEEP. The Sanemi is kind of similar to the spanish. But most dont feel like they fit at ALL. Misturi's sounds like a stereotypical spanish tv dramas (tele novellas??) Like in cartoons and such. Shinobu sounds almost like robotic, or a voice filter. 

⭐ So far Second favorite voice for Kyojuro I feel, despite me disliking most of the voices??? Very odd 😅😂

[mysticdragon3md3]

I saw the Natsume Yuujinchou dub for the first time...

unfortunately, I don't think I like it.

I'm very disappointed in myself. I had considered myself past all that "sub vs dub" arguments. Since the 2000s and Bang Zoom Entertainment, I had considered all dubs to be good now. ...I mean, with a few exceptions, like Sentai Filmworks' dubs...

I'm still disappointed in myself that I didn't like the Natsume Yuujinchou dub. I feel like a bunch of the voices just don't match the serene tone of the overall series' sound design. Even individual scenes feel like the lively voices clash with the tone. Usually, I appreciate a voice actor able to inject a lot of life into each line, but I feel like Natsume Yuujinchou needed to be calmer, more serene. Even Tanuma's voice sounds too much---and he's just talking like a normal person! I dunno...

And I get the idea behind Nyanko Sensei's dub voice. It makes sense. He is a self-important little mochi who thinks he's the grandest creature ever. It makes sense to voice him like a pompous aristocrat, removed from reality. But he sounds too delicate to me. Like a sheltered nobleman who would crumble at his first venture outside. I get now why Kazuhiko Inoue voiced Nyanko Sensei like a grumpy old man.

And I'm still against changing names just for translation's sake. I prefer when translations explain the meaning of a name/title early on, once, and then just keep using that name. I'm too used to Natsume calling out "SENSEI!", to just accept him in the dub calling out "MASTER!". Who is that???? Sensei is Sensei. All names mean something, but we don't translate everyone's names. We just say their names. ...But I'm being too picky now.

I do like Hiiragi's dub voice though.

And Natsume seems okay, but not quite as gentle as I would have liked.

[fallen-gabrielle]

Hello, fellow Detective Conan fan! I'm also an extreme avid fan of the serie, I discovered it on Cartoon Network France back when it aired in early 2000s. I'm not exactly that active in the fandom, because another fandom is my current brain rot and I don't know what to add to the community. I still read the chapters and buy the mangas whenever they come out. I have the Magic Kaito (Kid is my favorite character) and the Hanzawa-san volumes too (and the WPS). Now for the movies themselves!

Hard question. Definitely a movie where Kaito has a huge role. The Fist of Blue Sapphire was great because for one, we got to see Kaito had ptsd from his meeting with Makoto from canon, and that had me laugh way too much that it should have. Also, we got to see more on Kaito's side to prepare his heist (kinda) and we only see that in Magic Kaito (okay, I know we saw that in the Fairly Lips case, but i'm just saying, i want to see more of that).

Curaçao 🥺 I'm super emotional about her and I always cry when I see her dying.

Trick question, because I never really thought about it. I haven't really made a list or ranked the movies so I have no idea. They all have their pros and cons, therefore they are pretty much equally good to me. I will prefer certain things, yes, but that doesn't mean a movie is bad because that one thing i like isn't there. But probably movies 9 and 17 just to name something.

Another hard question. Because I will take anything that will be thrown at me. I just need my DC content. But I must admit, if we could get a movie where it's mainly about Kid and the Ekoda gang (Aoko with a bigger role, Hakuba being that nerdy little shit that everyone loves, Akako being mysterious [cuz she's not allowed to be mystical nor magical, lame], Keiko existing, I would be happy. Yes, that would be basically a MK movie with the DC cast, but let me dream five minutes, okay. Let me have this.

So, apparently, we will get some MK backstory. I love that. I highly doubt that Kaito's identity would be reveal but it would be interesting if that happens. After all, Kaito knows about Conan/Shinichi, it would be normal that Conan finds out about Kaito Kuroba. But since we have the whole Heiji-Kazuha-Momiji thing in the movie, I highly doubt we will have time for some MK stuff (also there's no way they would do that cuz the movies are technically not canon so) I hope i'm not getting to hyped for nothing. Okita seems to be invited to the party too. More rivalry stuff between him and Heiji? Also also, perhaps a quick Yaiba-Moroha cameo ? That's just me being super hopeful but it's okay if it doesn't happen. I think there's way too many people in this movie and the plot might suffer from it. I have nothing against a plot where Heiji has to face Kid, but Momiji being here seems extremely unnecessary, same with Okita. That could have been the plot of another movie but without Kid. Overall, I'm trying to not have too many pre-concieved ideas or else I know I will be disappointed.

Pretty much everything xD? we get some interesting stuff in the movies and a part of me dies everytime I have to remind myself it's not canon. Well, a few things have been kiiiinda canonized by Aoyama? Such as Kaito knowing Conan's identity? Meaning that technically all the movies with Kid are now canon? It's still unclear and I'm demanding some clear answers!!!

Yes, I am!! Ihave all the available DVDs with the french subtitles.. I even went to watch the movies in cinéma these last two years. The scarlet bullet was during the pandemic so i couldn't go see it, but I raced like crazy for The Bride of Halloween and The Iron Submarine (where i went with my sister and bro in law, they loved the movie and hope to see the next one if it will indeed come out next year. The french dub didn't make much entrance to the dubbing production so we might not get more DC movies in french 😥)

Generally, I don't watch the non canon episodes because to me it feels like a waste of time. The only exception I make is for the movies (and sometimes the magic files and ova) because they are interesting in their own way.

Detective Conan Movie Thread…

Hi everyone, I am Saku Holmes an avid fan of detective Conan and have been watching since I was 4. I want to allow you all to make new friends and find hidden members of the detco community. I am doing this for other things in my blog.

Let’s make a thread for the detco movies! Pls share your opinion and pass this along! To start this thread let’s ask a series of questions:

What’s your favourite detco movie and why?

Who is your fave character from detco movie that only made an appearance in the movie ( not in the series)?

What’s your least favourite movie and why?

What do you wish to see in the upcoming movies?

What’s your theory for movie 27?

What scene from the movies do you wish was canon?

BONUS QUESTION: are you upto date with the movies? 😂

This is a question I want to ask for myself but if you want me to do similar engagement post, comment down below or in my blog posts I have a google form where you can enter what you want to see ( your personal details are not saved/ non included in the submission of the form) if you don’t feel comfortable with that’s just send me a DM🥰

[dewbond-blog]

The Summer of Love: The English Dub of High School DxD

We will be jumping into the second half of season one next week with a look at the “Raiser Arc” and all it brings to the table, but this week I wanted to steer the Summer of Love into a topic that many people don’t really discuss: The English Dub, and my overall thoughts and feelings on it. There is a good, a lot of good, and some slightly not so good. So join me after the cut as we jump into our next chapter of The Summer of Love, the dub! This is another long one, so be ready!

To discuss the English Dub of High School DxD, it is important to give some backstory about English dubbing of anime in general. If you grew up in my generation, (late 90s, early 2000s)  then you are very familiar with the 4kids of era; a time in which the american company 4kids entertainment pretty much had a stranglehold on the western anime market. Simply put, they called the shots and every anime that was actually on television had to go through the 4kids “Americanizing process.” Needless to say, this was a bad thing.

Cardcaptor Sakura had it’s entire yuri/yaoi subtext removed and whole episodes removed. Dragon Ball censored and omitted world building, Yu-Gi-Oh became a “so bad it’s good” mess of a dub. Vision of Escaflowne became a shadow of it’s former self. Monster Rancher went from a 50+ episodes series to only a handful, and of course what they did to One Piece. The list just goes on and on. The 4kids era of anime was not a good time for the youthful medium, and frankly the wounds inflicted by this era are still fresh in many minds of my generation.

Things have gotten far better since then, with companies like Funimation, Sentai Filmworks and Aniplex taking over the dubbing market and delivering quality dubs of anime that are true to form and (sometimes) even superior to their Japanese counterparts. Yet despite this massive improvement there are still many who refuse to even give an English dub a chance, whether it is loyalty to the “authentic’ Japanese version, or trauma for the scars of the 4kids era.

Now how is this connected to High School DxD? Well not really that much, but I think it is important for readers to understand why people are somewhat hesitant on English dubs, despite a whole new generation growing up with them. There are old wounds that have yet to heal, and in this era where censorship is a hot button issue, I wanted to explain why.

Anyway, let’s get into the dub itself, and let’s start by talking about the cast.

The Cast

The English cast of DxD is frankly very strong, though it has been a cast that has had a few replacements. Akeno has been voiced by two different actress, as has Asia, and the while voice changes are noticeable, they thankfully don’t differ too much to make much of a difference. What I can say is that Asia and Akeno are both voiced excellently, with Asia being played with that cute innocent perfection, and Akeno with a level of sultry seductiveness that, while not on par with her Japanese seiyuu, gets the job done well.

The biggest voice change though has to be Issei himself, who was voiced by both Scott Freeman and later Josh Grelle, and while the change over in season 3 is a rather noticeable change (unlike Akeno’s voice change in the same season), with many people being initially put off by the sudden shift in voices. I can both say that they play an excellent Issei and bring a-

Wait..what’s this?

Fuck…do I have to do this? Do I really have to bring it up? REALLY?

ALRIGHT FINE…FINE..I’LL FUCKING ADDRESS IT.

In 2015. Scott Freeman, the voice actor of Issei and several other Funimation dub roles, was arrested, convicted and imprisoned for the possession of Child Pornography. Funimation rightfully and subsequently cut all ties with him and his roles current and future were replaced with new actors, hence the sudden change to Josh Grelle in season 3 and later 4.

Anyway, Issei’s work in the English dub marks the first, but not the most significant change in the DxD anime. While the script plays him true to form, Issei’s performance in the dub is markedly more “american” compared to his Japanese counterpart. While it is 100% loyal to the authentic story, there is a lot more ‘sex jokes’ and ‘western references’ that peek out from time to time. I’ll get into this when I discuss the script, but I did find it worked quite well for the story, and both voice actors are able to ‘get serious’ when the time comes, especially in season 4 when Josh Grelle gives his best performance as a harem lead, and this guy has MANY to his name.

However the biggest and frankly best change has to be Jad Saxton as Koneko Toujou, who completely re-invents the character for the English dub. In the Japanese version, Koneko is the quiet little kouhai who seems to only have one single emotion, very much in the veins of the Rei-clones that had a stranglehold the industry for years. The English dub however turns this completely on it’s head. Koneko becomes a motor-mouthed little girl who, while still holding true to the character’s spirit, adds far more to the plot and group chemistry than her Japanese counterpart. I just find Jad Saxton’s Koneko to be a far more interesting character, acting as a sort of the reality foil for Issei for many season, and still willing to call him out on his perverseness even after falling in love with him. Frankly, the difference between the two voices is astonishing, just watch this comparison clip.

The rest of the cast do a find job. Jamie Marchi as Rias is an excellent casting choice, and while I prefer the Japanese voice, Marchi’s signature voice is able to play both sides of Rias’ personality well and she only gets better as the seasons roll on. Kiba, Gasper, Xenovia and Rossweise are all again done very well, but it is only really characters listed above who are the real stand outs.

The Script

Remember how I brought up 4kids at the start of this post. Well I did also bring that up, because the English script of High School DxD does feel very much like a bit of a holdover from that era of anime dubs. There is more than a hint of the adapters putting in their own lines and having some fun with the dialogue than compared to other shows. It was clear to me that the writers were having some real fun trying to adapt this show for an English dub, and while some may grumble by only  being a 90% authentic script, the show does give us some great memorable one-liners like:

“I’m gonna make you eat those words like a kid doing the tide-pod challenge!”

“Cunt-tuckey fried chicken over there is in love with you”

“Forgive dat ass, don’t spank it!”

“Her milk-shakes are all over my yard”

Those are just some of the examples of the fun bit of humor that is injected into the series via the English dub and yes, it is not for everyone and yes, it is going to turn some of the purists off. Yet the voice actors give it their all and when the time comes for the show to “get serious” like with the Akeno break down, Asia story-line, the Issei/Rias fight, and more, those actors absolutely step up to the table and deliver excellent performances. So I can forgive them for having just a bit more fun with a show that is, again, about busty big boobed girls fawning over a perverted idiot.

What I do NOT forgive though, is the “president gaffe,” which undermines a vital and important plot point.

See, there is a very clear reason that Issei calls Rias “president throughout most of the anime’s run.” It helps show the class and social difference between the two characters and how, despite Rias falling truly deeply in love with Issei, her social status and his role as a servant make him hesitant to step up. It is only when that issue comes to a head that does Issei finally start calling Rias by her full name, and it is a great moment to cap off four seasons of development.

The dub however ignored that completely for the first four seasons and admitted that they weren’t aware of just how important it is. While they do address it in the season 4 dub, making an offhand comment that “Issei has been calling her President a lot lately” it doesn’t really fix the problem and remains an annoying nitpick for me. Is it a deal breaker? No, but it is a pretty glaring problem when looking at the series as a whole.

Final Thoughts.

Overall, the English Dub of High School DxD is a great one, and I honestly love it to death. As i said in my primer, I would have watched the series dubbed to do this event, but I wanted to be faithful to the Japanese release. The dub is still my go-to way of watching DxD and I suggest anyone to give it a show after watching a bit of the OG Japanese version. It’s not perfect, but it’s made with love and affection and doesn’t stray too far from it’s routes, but when it does what 4kids never could do to anime. It adds something without taking anything away.

[geekysweetie]

Rhapsody a Musical Adventure Retro Videogame Review

Rhapsody a Musical Adventure is an anime musical strategy JRPG first appearing on PS1 and Later on the Nintendo DS. This review focuses on the PS1 version.

Preface: Okay, while researching some stuff (such as release date, etc) for this review, I discovered there was a sequel, and now I am sad AF because the sequel never left Japan….. Major Heartbreak!

WARNING THIS LINK ABOUT THE SEQUEL HAS HUGE SPOILERS ABOUT BOTH GAMES!!!! READ AT OWN RISK!!! 

The original is one of my all time favorite games. I love all the songs, the heart warming, touching story, the cute characters, adorable graphics, simple grid based turn-based Strategy JRPG gameplay, and use of the puppets in battle.

I greatly prefer the version by Atlus on the PS1, much more than the version by NIS on the DS, because Atlus dubbed all of the songs in English, while NIS only left them in Japanese. If I remember correctly, the version by Atlus let you choose to play them in the original Japanese as well. If it’s a musical, it’s more fun in English, so we can sing along, am I right? 🙂 I still can remember the words/melody to a lot of the songs even though it has been years since my first or subsequent play throughs. NIS also changed the gameplay from a grid based system to a straight forward turn-based traditional JRPG style of combat.

For the purpose of this review, since I prefer the original, and the two games are significantly different in terms of gameplay, this review only covers the PS1 game by Atlus. Now onto the review…

Title: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Alternate Titles (Also Known As): Marl Kingdom, Little Princess Marl, or Marl Okoku no Ningyo Hime in Japan. Also referred to as The Adventure of Puppet Princess.

Genre: Strategy RPG

Publisher: Atlus

Platform: PSOne

Release Date: 2000

Where to Buy: If you want new, factory sealed, you’re looking at $250. Luckily, many used copies exist for under $35. You can check the current price and purchase Rhapsody for the PS1 here.

You can also find the Nintendo version here. Though if at all possible, I’d really urge you to play the PS1 version, it’s just so much infinitely better.

Overall Score: 73/90 81% B- “Very Good Game For Girls”

Geeky: 3/5 – Dated as this game may be, its bright colorful graphics are still quite pretty. The combat is nothing spectacular and it is linear and simple. The big “geek” points go to the fact that the game is literally a musical. The characters break out into song and dance and the soundtrack very much tells us the story. There are well over a dozen or more vocal tracks and all of the characters are fully voiced. Interestingly enough, wikipedia tells me that it was almost entirely a one girl show, what a talented voice actress! She gave voice/song to all except for 3 or 4 of the characters.

Sweetie: 5/5 – the graphic style is so cute and colorful, the characters are very full of emotion and there is a ton of humor, as well as romance, and a message about the meaning of family, and morals, and just… everything. Also strong female leads, which was pretty rare “back in the day”. This game is a must play for all girls.

Overview: 10/10 – There is simply nothing else in the world like this game. It’s an anime musical JRPG. It has adorable graphics, touching, amusing, and likable characters, and is brimming with “feels and emotions”. From a technical standpoint, there’s really nothing ground breaking here. It is very typical of gameplay in most other Strategy JRPGs of its time. But the music and characters set this game apart and make it an extremely unique experience.

Gameplay: 5/10 – Gameplay isn’t bad, but it’s not the reason you play this game. This game is very easy and simple. The main character takes a back seat, supporting her army of puppets who move around a grid and use various items, attacks, and abilities to thwart their foes. It’s a linear game that takes you from point A to point B, pretty monotonously and mindlessly. This game is carried by the music, voice acting, memorable characters, and touching story. There are different costumes you can find and different puppets you can add to your team, but other than that, it’s a pretty straight forward experience if you’ve ever played any other Strategy JRPGs before.

Story: 10/10 – Cornet is a kindhearted girl who has a magical gift in that she is able to communicate with dolls and puppets. One such doll is Cornet’s faithful sidekick, Kururu. Kururu has guided the young Cornet all her life. Cornet is often lonely as her mother passed away at an early age. However, despite her loneliness, Cornet remains cheerful, kind, and helpful to all of the villagers in part thanks to her puppet friends. She is regarded as a simple and sweet girl, and many of the villagers take pity on her for not having a mother.

Although she is just a common girl, Cornet has fallen in love with the Prince. Unrealistic as her love may be, Cornet has always believed in “dreaming big” and her innocent outlook on life leads her to hope that anything is possible.

Cornet isn’t the only one with eyes for the prince however. A beautiful witch appears in the kingdom one day with her sights set on the prince. When the prince refuses her advances, the witch casts a spell on him turning him to stone.

Thus begins Cornet’s series of quests to reverse the witch’s curse. The witch has many henchmen and lackeys who try to interfere in Cornet’s plans.

As she travels, Cornet will make new friends and enemies, both human and puppet alike. Also she will learn more about herself, her mother, and her unique gifts and talents.

Characters: 10/10 Cornet is the star of our show, a simple, pure hearted girl who can talk to puppets. She lost her mother when she was very young and has mostly been raised by a strange talking puppet named Kururu.

Prince Ferdinand is the prince who early in our story is turned to stone. Cornet and Marjolly are both in love with the Prince.

Marjolly is a wicked but beautiful witch who vengefully curses the prince when he refuses her romantically. Marjolly is also not very skilled at magic, and somewhat of a “bumbling idiot”. Her spells often have very unintended consequences and/or back fire. She is often less “evil” feeling and more of a “comedic relief” despite being the main villain in the game.

Kururu is a “living doll” who has always watched out for and guided Cornet. The two are extremely close. And there is a secret that Cornet does not know about her puppet friend.

Etoile is a wealthy and beautiful, but ill tempered and spoiled girl who is close to Cornet’s age. Although she is “better than” Cornet in almost every way, she still feels jealous and inferior and threatened by Cornet. The two have an interesting love/hate relationship, frenemies if you will.

There are many other delightful and wonderful characters as well.

Graphics: 7/10 – Although dated severely, the graphics remain bright and colorful and still attractive, even 17 years after its initial US release. Also in a time when retro gaming is very popular, and pixel art is “in” – what was once old, is now hot again. An interesting thing to note, although there are many, many cutscenes, these are done with the same sprites and pixel graphics as the rest of the game, unlike other anime games of that time such as Persona and Lunar which use a more hand-drawn or anime style for their cutscenes. This in one way helps keep things cohesive and flowing well from one moment to the next, however, it does result in less detailed cutscenes. The sprites are still adorable and animated and capable of conveying a lot of emotion despite the simple sprites. I would love to see a new release with anime cutscenes (like Lunar and Persona) and/or celshading used throughout the game and cutscenes (such as with Catherine).

Music: 10/10 – Easily 10/10 – one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time because of the huge number of vocal tracks and how they tie in so closely to the story – in fact, they ARE the story. Many of them are insanely, like seriously insanely catchy!!! I love the songs in this game!!

Voice Acting – 10/10 – They sing and act, and as I mentioned, one girl gives voice to about 6 of the main characters – very talented!  If you hate dubs (which trust me, I usually do too!) you can also play with the Japanese audio. 🙂 But then you can’t sing along, or as easily get the song stuck in your head the next day lol.

Replay Value: 3/10 – It’s linear, and simple, and the only reason you will want to replay is to re-read the heartwarming story, and hear that awesome soundtrack again. I’ve replayed this at least 3 or 4 times now and love it every single time – but objectively, yeah there’s really nothing here story or gameplay wise for increased replay value.

Overall Score: 73/90 81% B- “Very Good Game For Girls”

Rhapsody a Musical Adventure Retro Videogame Review was originally published on GeekySweetie.com - Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News