I don't often review things, but...

Well, I was at the comic shop and randomly decided to pick up the January 2007 Newtype USA, if only because I'd have something to review and that sort of thing is a nice break from the stuff I usually do. Besides a two-page spread on Kanon (which focused entirely on the girls' chosen foods, might I add... I didn't know taiyaki was a kind of crepe, but there you go), the magazine included a promo DVD that included episodes from Coyote Ragtime Show, Best Student Council and Utawarerumono.

Well, since I seem to be the only one around here that actually cares about the English voice actors companies use (seriously, they're not that bad), I figured I should review the ADV brigade's performance. Utawarerumono had the best lineup for the characters. For some reason, they showed episode 4, instead of episode 1, like the other series. I guess it was so they could show off more characters, because the acting's pretty good. And in case you didn't know what happened before (as they should know, this being a promotional disc put out by the most anti-fansub company we've got, a lot of people wouldn't), they had a little recap at the start kinda like the recaps at the beginning of Gargoyles episodes, only with a static screen and text, not clips and narration. Fun. Best Student Council, AKA Gokujou Seitokai, was meh. I guess my judgment's tainted, though, because I never really liked that series to begin with and only saw the first episode anyway.

Coyote, though, was a big mix. Most of the voice actors were really good. They did a new take on May that fits her character pretty well (plus we don't have to hear her "uhuhu" anymore) Chelsea was even less annoying than her Japanese voice. There were three voices, though, that irked me. Bishop was excusable, because his normal voice was fine, but disguised as the bomb squad guy, he sounded like a rat trying to write on the chalkboard with its teeth. Jessica Boone is normally a decent actress, but she needs to concentrate her work on her lower register; as Oct, Nove and Diesse (they changed her name to Dec... I guess that makes more sense), she was just annoying. But those pale in comparison to the travesty of Mister. He's supposed to be this great master coyote, but played by John Swasey, he just sounds like a dirty old man. I appreciate that the actor was trying to emulate Ootsuka Akio's gravelly voice for the character, but... no, just no. On the plus side, I so called Christine Auten as Angelica, and she was great. So most of the cast is on the good side, but Mister and the ugly box cover are just wrong.

(It reminds me of this Mickey Mouse poster that I got for my fifth birthday, except ugly and red. Keep that in the 90's, people!)

You know I just did this article for an excuse to post this.