Miscellany

Yeah...I just kind of got bored have developed writers block.  Sooo...I'm not even sure what's going to go here.  I do have a fanfic rant I want to post...as soon as I finish it. 

    For now, I'm just going to rant a bit about Escaflowne...I know this is a Zechs, thus a GW domain, but it all connects, worry not.  Oh, this might contain *spoilers* for Escaflowne...you have been warned.

    Anyway, Allen Schezar's voice actor in the dub (which was God awful) was Brian Drummond, who also voiced Zechs.  So...now I have a valid reason to rant.  Now, I've only heard Mr. Drummond as Zechs, Vegeta, and Allen/Amano and in that order.  

    I thought he was pretty good as Zechs.  I will always love Koyasu Takehito for having such a cool voice, but Brian Drummond wasn't too bad.  Then I heard him as Vegeta.  I liked Chris Sabat (his current voice actor) much better.  But I was like, whatever.  Vegeta's supposed to sound insane, and insane he sounded.  Now he sounds insane and heartless, which is better.  Okay, so Brian Drummond wasn't the best Vegeta.  But, I thought, he was still pretty cool.

    Ha, then I bought Escaflowne: A Girl In Gaea and watched it in English.  Not only did I hate Hitomi's voice, but Allen's wasn't that great either.  Come to think of it, none of the voices were very good, with the possible exception being Van (who was done by Trowa's voice actor).  So fifteen minutes into the movie, I switched back to Japanese with subtitles.  When I bought the series, I was hoping that maybe the movie was a fluke and Allen's voice would kick ass in the series.  Eh, no such luck.  

    I first watched Esca when my buddy so generously lent it to me on VHS.  It was subtitled (thank God) and I watched it and loved it.  It remains my favorite anime (though Zechs is my favorite bishonen) of all time.  I also hadn't watched Gundam Wing since Cartoon Network took it off.  So all I could stand to watch in English was the first half of episode 16, "The Guided Ones".  Then I had to turn it off.  And I just had to wonder, How could Brian Drummond do such a great job as Zechs, but suck as Allen?  I came to a couple of conclusions.

    The first was that I haven't seen Gundam Wing in so long that maybe Zechs' voice wasn't as good as I thought it was.  Nope, I watched my Endless Waltz DVD and still loved Zechs' English voice.  So, I thought, it must be Brian Drummond.  

    He just couldn't capture that whole playboy-knight kinda thing.  Zechs is a soldier with a past.  Allen is a soldier with a past and an illegitimate child and a playboy reputation.  I adore Miki Shinichirou's voice as Allen, its suave and and...just very 'Allen'.  So...I was highly disappointed with Brian Drummond. 

   And so comes the end of this little mini-rant.  Care to disagree?  E-mail me and we'll talk, I'm always up for debating.  I say debating, not flaming, cursing, or otherwise making an ass of yourself.