Ghost Stories DVD 2
I’m not going to bother calling this a review. It’s a rant, plain and simple. One of my earlier posts here at AnimeFansOnline was about the first Ghost Stories DVD. I liked it. Kind of. I was surprised that such extreme changes were made and there was no indication of it on the packaging.
I figured the rest of the DVDs in the series were about the same. I could get 2 different shows on the same DVD. I was wrong. While the subtitled version remained the same, the English dub got much worse. It’s like everyone involved knew they were screwing it up and decided to screw it up as much as possible. Gotta give ‘em that, they had the balls to really run with it.
Entendre, and make it a double.
The first DVD had a few jokes that relied on innuendo. Not that bad, right? A couple of almost dirty jokes in the entire DVD. It could have been worse. Then here comes number 2. The second DVD of Ghost Stories cranks up the innuendo until the knob breaks off. That’s a good one. Think I should apply for a job at ADV? Hmmm… Nah, too subtle for them.
Seriously, it was bad enough that one voice actor asked to use a pseudonym. I won’t out them here, and any comments that do will be edited or deleted. I respect the fact that they lived up to their obligations even after the found out what was happening. The rating on the DVD case says PG when it really should be for older viewers.
If you’re like me and you kind of liked the first one, rent this one before you buy it. It’s much worse than the first one is. I will not be buying the rest. Animax did a serious version of this called Ghosts at School. So if you’re interested you might want to see if you can find that one instead.
Anime, Rant, DVD, ADV, Ghost Stories, Animax, Ghosts at School, Bad Dub, Lost in Translation, Innuendo
January 29th, 2008 at 12:34 am
[...] cutbacks in the titles than see them disappear like Geneon. I know I’ve given ‘em some crap in the past, but I like ADV. They’ve released some great [...]
July 30th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Nah, overall the dub ROCKS, and the original was run of the mill.
ADV wouldn’t have done this to Lucky Star, which is too bad, because LS is one of the most painfully unfunny shows ever. Like Madlax after Noir, Lucky Star after Haruhi is banal. I won’t bother with the dub.
Too bad, looks like ADV is going under. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they did a lot of great things for anime.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I love ADV… mostly.
My biggest problem with changing the story is that there is no indication on the packaging or in the ads that I’ve seen. If there was a notice stating that the original story was lame and they added a new one I wouldn’t mind so much.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Yeah, I do understand that. I actually found this show by accident on ANN, reading a review of a newer show that referred to this dub as being very funny. I checked other reviews before I bought it, haven’t been sorry I did.
It’s a bargain bin title, the shipping cost me more than the 5 discs.
On another note, Lucky Star just didn’t do it for me. I liked Lucky Channel, I thought it was pretty funny until the later episodes, then it seemed to run out of steam.
I thought Haruhi was both funny and thought provoking, and has great re-watch-ability in both the sub and the dub. (I prefer the sub, mostly because Wendee Lee stumbles a bit at the LIVE)