By the time I learned of Gonzo, they had become known as the studio who produced shit and I pretty much avoided everything they put out after seeing a few episodes of their dreck. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered that before the good people on their staff went on to David Productions, Gonzo churned out really amazing anime like no other. Seriously, I’ve never seen such a definition of “how the mighty have fallen” the way Gonzo has. And don’t get me wrong, David Production is a good studio, but whilst they kept the talent found in Gonzo’s earlier works, they didn’t keep the budget. Will Gonzo come back? Well, according to what I’ve heard of Fam, they’re back animation quality-wise. Now if only they’d go back story quality-wise.
Anime Are Ranked Based on What Order I’d Prefer to Watch:
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
Bokurano
Welcome to the NHK
Hellsing
Full Metal Panic!
Last Exile
My Bride Is a Mermaid
Afro Samurai
Romeo x Juliet
Black Cat
Special A
Kaze no Stigma
Zettai Boei Leviathan
Chrno Crusade
Rosario + Vampire
Coda: Yeah, I have to admit by looking at this list that Gonzo was hit and miss even back then. It’s just that when they hit, they were really good. Admittedly, Bokurano and Welcome to the NHK had awful animation, but the writing was really solid whilst deviating from the source material. Now they’re doing…ugh…Rage Town. Fuck that manga.
The interesting thing about KyoAni’s take on FMP is that they pretty much split up the slice-of-life and mecha elements into two different series–Fumoffu and The Second Raid, respectively.
Make sure to watch Fumoffu first, since it’ll counterbalance the amplified grittiness of TSR, and it comes first chronologically anyways. They both kind of lose that charm the first series had with how it juxtaposed the comedy and action, but they’re still great series in their own right.
Already saw Fumoffu. It was really funny.
The English dub of Hellsing is riddled with to many flaws to be taken seriously.
It was barely passable in 2002 it sure as hell doesn’t hold well in 2013.
The dub of Hellsing Ultimate is an improvement but still doesn’t beat the Japanese dub which as aged beautifully.
Maybe to those who actually care about seiyuu, but in my totally biased opinion, the dub is the greatest part about Hellsing. I tried watching Hellsing in Japanese. Unwatchable.
The Japanese dub has a sense of presence. a sense of purpose that can be heard in every word spoken. The english dub lacks the many things that keep it from reaching greatness. That keep it from being on par with the Japanese dub.
What truly keeps the dub down is the vocal performances that vary depending on the actor/actress that is on screen. Freeman at times simply can’t carry the weight of the dub while other performers are either to stiff or rather mundane in there vocal delivery. I like the dub but it simply doesn’t rise to the high standards that I have.
The dub is tolerable no doubt sometimes even solid but recent material from the OVA 5-8 shows the dub in very wary shape. Here is the greatest example of what I’m speaking of see for yourself in this short clip.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFp3UGmoMEc
The dub is passable but its not in Funimations or hell even Sentai’s league let alone in the Japanese dub’s league. I like Freeman but his performances leaves much to be desired but that’s just my thoughts on the current dub.
I enjoyed Spaciel A and Chrno Crusade as a matter of fact, sure they were not the best I’ve ever seen considering the main female characters have some personality traits that got on my nerves, but honestly it was nto THAT bad, I thought Chrno and Rosette were a cute couple even though th eplot was lacking, it was still nice to see them getting closer and closer until they die together. As for Hikari and Kei, they formed a sweed couple as well, him being in love with her since childhood and ready to do anything to keep her happy made him a sweetheart in my eyes, zand I generally prefer female characters to male ones but here Tadase and him were my favorite ones, because Hikari was too much of an obivious tomboy for that^^ (I don’t have anythin against tomboys, in fact I love Cagalli from Gundam Seed so yeah^^), and Akira was funny but she lacked some depth.