[JenB]

Escaflowne's too weird for American tv. Cartoon Network shows one episode of Kenshin on Saturday nights at 10 or 11.

Unfortunately, anime on tv is dubbed, and dubbing is evil evil evil. Subtitles are the way to go. You sort of pick up more of the flavor that way. Especially with the honorifics - 'san' versus 'Mr' - they don't feel the same.

Ok, I have figured out why I like Rurouni Kenshin so much. The death count is low because they're not fighting to kill people, in fact that's Kenshin's whole point, he doesn't kill people any more. So - it's subtle and I don't know quite what I mean here - the swordfighting and such becomes about life rather than death. 'The sword that protects people' - it sounds really corny but it's actually pretty neat.

Or maybe that's the cough syrup talking.

[Fedora]

I'll keep an eye out for the Saturday night Kenshin.

I prefer subtitles for foreign films, too. Japanese dubbing cracks me up, though :) I also like when they splice stuff into Japanese films to try to make it more appealing to the US market. When they released the original Godzilla in the US, they added scenes with Raymond Burr playing a reporter named "Steve Martin" (LOL!) so there would be an American character. It's hilarious because in Burr's scenes, all the Japanese characters are played by a small group of actors who play different characters in different scenes (like we're not supposed to notice!). My favorite character is a Japanese scientist who misprounces the word "phenomenon" several times as "phenomemom" and, when asked how Godzilla could still be alive after millions of years, explains, "Well, it is possible, due to the curvature of the Earth's surface. . ."--ROFLMBO!

[My back yard]

Asked D about Kenshin, he says it is awesome.