Reblog If Your Muse Has Scars.

Reblog if your muse has scars.

ok, i give up, someone please tell me when this happens

Mikleo: What should I do?!

Me: HEAL YOURSELF YOU STUPID IDIOT!

Mikleo: *gets killed*

Me: GODDAMNIT I'M NOT HEALING YOU AGAIN!

Thoughts on: Japanese vs English Voice for Lunarre (the X)

One big and quite obvious difference between the original and dubbed voice for Lunarre is their tone. Put simply, in my opinion, the original Japanese emphasises Lunarre’s hellion side, while the English voice emphasises the human one. 

To bad the story ensures both end up confusing things even more by the end.

JP

The wildly undulating tone and pitch (with a few rare exceptions) of Takehito Koyasu’s voice constantly signals to the audience that this is a man-turned-hellion, a chaotic madness barely hidden under a veneer of casual yet sinister human facade. He also replaces human grunts and gasps with feral hissing sounds that further dehumanises Lunarre and makes you wonder how much of him is monster and how much is man. 

It fits well with his wild and erratic behaviour, but is let down by the fact that the writers and plot demanded sympathy and a redemption for Lunarre that his actions and behaviour prior just didn’t correlate to. This isn’t Koyasu’s fault, of course, and he did a splendid job. It’s a shame that the story didn’t allow him (or us) to be able to see Lunarre as much else than a dangerously insane creature.

EN

Austin Tindle (unsure whether he was the VA for Lunarre in the games, it sounds quite similar from my memory) takes a more subdued approach. There is still a hint of malice in his speaking voice, and he certainly doesn’t hold back when letting out shrieks of mad laughter (god those laughs are awesome), but a combination of the more wordy English script and a more level tone and pitch of voice makes for a more human hellion. Plus he doesn’t insert creature-like hisses and growls as Koyashu does.

Personally I think this would have suited Lunarre’s journey to redemption perfectly if the script had allowed us more insight into Lunarre and why he felt compelled to follow and even help Alisha. 

I see the potential especially in Episode 20, Season 2, where Lunarre approaches Alisha and the two ‘talk’. (I put the inverted commas there because the way the scene plays out the two characters talk at each other rather than with each other, so it barely counts as a conversation, but I digress.)

Tindle’s voice gives the impression of a Lunarre who is struggling to understand Alisha’s mindset and genuinely curious as to whether she’ll keep going despite everything. It’s more of a test of her resolve, secretly believing he will be proven right because he is projecting his mindset onto her. There’s less malice in his voice as with Koyashu, so there’s less indication that he’s trying to bring out malevolence in her as the original seems to imply. He doesn’t understand her, and he’s frustrated by this, rather than angry he failed to tempt her to the dark side.

Not that his intentions are any more clear thanks to the script and the way the story goes, but again, neither VA can be faulted for this, and it’s beside the point.

Final thoughts:

Between the two VAs there is a Lunarre screaming to get out, a Lunarre the X anime series failed to capture for multiple reasons. They aimed to depict a man who became an insane monster, but through his interactions with a pure and steadfast princess, managed to reclaim his humanity despite his form. 

Unfortunately, the story clearly favoured an insane monster, and so Koyashu in particular thrived in this role and Tindle did well also. But then a sudden, unexplained and woefully underdeveloped redemption was thrown in seemingly at the last minute and Lunarre’s character suddenly had to exude pathos in between his wild shrieks as he becomes a reluctant hero. It’s a role almost completely at odds with Koyashu’s performance thus far and Lunarre’s behaviour to match. It’s practically impossible to take his sacrifice seriously, even though the show really really wants you to.

And though the episode hasn’t been released in English yet, I imagine that though it doesn’t fix how confusing the whole thing is, Tindle would make the scene sound more natural, more like a man sacrificing his life out of a sense og good will than a creature riding on what could just as well be a bought of suicidal madness as recapturing the last shred of human dignity he has left. 

But then that only makes Lunarre’s insane behaviour prior to it all the more confusing. Argh!

But that’s just my opinion, what about you guys? :)

ゼロサム6月号発売中！！

コミックス第3巻収録分直後のお話になりますので、今までゼロサムを読んでいなかったという方もそのままお楽しみ頂けます。

よろしくお願いします！