I wasn’t prepared when my brother ran into my room with the news last week. The announcement caught me off guard and I’m still in disbelief, having seen two episodes already on TV-5. This is truly a golden time for TV-5, as they managed to pick out a great show fresh from the pan–to put things in perspective, you have cable channel Animax Asia hyping up shows like Darker Than Black and Gurren Lagann (which had a spoilerific CM I could not forgive) as “THE HOTTEST NEW ANIME IN JAPAN!”
That said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cringe through the dub. If there’s one thing these dubbed episodes tell me, it’s that Philippine dubbers still have a long way to go before they could climb back up to the heights that was 70’s Voltes V dubbing. Everyone sounds off: Ryuuji is ineffectual, Kitamura sounds more like Shinji, Minorin is 70% less genki, and Taiga is plain forgettable. Heck, Inko didn’t even exude the ugly scary bird aura. But there’s a certain satisfaction to be gained in knowing that normal, non-fansub people are watching the same anime as you are. Anime for everyone!
Despite some questionable picks, TV-5 is still on a roll. They have FMA: Brotherhood, too, and this is the first time I’ve seen a local TV station acquire an anime that’s still airing in Japan. Think of the possibilities.
As for me, my wager with my brother still stands, as I believe it’s only a matter of time until I rush back home from work to watch Gundam 00 on my cable-less TV.
With better dubbing, I hope.
