User blog:Lemursrule/BLEACH episode 190 english dub review

Hello everyone, this is my first blog in my english dub review series. I will plan to have these reviews up earlier. However last night, due to circumstances I could not control, I had to miss Bleach in order to deal with family issues. Everything is ok, but my family is more important than a tv show. Luckily, I was able to watch the episode this morning and I will share my thoughts and feelings on it. To give everyone a head's up, this will be kind of short, because I am just reviewing the new material. I think it is unnecessary to review the recap and the opening, because I have seen the recapped episodes God knows how many times, it would be difficult for me to give a fresh opinion on it, and the same thing goes with the opening. The one thing I will talk about is the edited ending, because there were several things that Viz did that I thought were really cool. But before I begin, please remember to vote for March's Featured Article, Featured Picture and Featured Quote! So without any delay, here we go.

So after the long needed recap (especially for dub only fans, yes they do exist), we finally get to where we left off. Ichigo has just defeated Grimmjow, and Ichigo, Orihime, and Nel, plan to escape Las Noches along with the rest of their friends and allies. First off, let me say that Nel has some of the best one liners in the dub. Some of my favorites include from episode 162 "That's Nutty-Crazy!" and from episode 190 "No matter what she weighs, you always tell her she's light as air, even if she's a hippo!" I think Nel's comedy writing in the dub is more "snappy" than it is in the sub. In the sub Nel says things like "that's crazy!" and things that are really basic, and the dialogue sounds really clunky. Plus, to be perfectly honest, if they did it that way in the dub, it would sound so unnatural and god-awful.

Of course Johnny Yong Bosch and Stephanie Sheh always have great on screen chemistry together, I don't think there is a dub out there where they have huge amounts of screen time together that sounded bad. So Johnny and Stephanie gave some of their best Bleach performances in a while, and give them credit for coming back into Hueco Mundo like nothing happened, especially after the hiatus and filler arcs. It almost sounds like they recorded 167 a few days ago, and this is just the next episode business as usual. But again, Johnny and Stephanie are some of the best english voice actors out there, and they deserve credit where it is deserved.

Of course a wrench is thrown into their plans when Grimmjow is revealed to be alive, and is still trying to kill Ichigo. David Vincent gave a great performance as Grimmjow for the little screen time that he had. I think David is an awesome Grimmjow, and I don't think I would accept anyone else voicing him. I will continue to say this, but I prefer David Vincent over Junichi Suwabe. Grimmjow is one of the few dub voices I prefer over the original Japanese audio track. I usually tend to be unbiased in the ridiculous sub vs dub debate, because it is stupid and childish, and it doesn't help the seiyu or the english voice actors. For Bleach I tend to like both audio tracks equally. There are some things in the dub (particularly dialogue) that I prefer over the sub, and there some things in the sub that I wished they did in the dub. Again back to Grimmjow. The reasons I believe why I prefer his english voice to his Japanese voice are the following: David Vincent started out as a video game voice-over artist (thus how he came to voice Grimmjow) and has only gotten into anime rather recently. Grimmjow is the only really big anime voice credit he has on his resume thus far. So, for me, it is almost like he is a new voice actor. David also comes off as being more insane and a complete psychopath than Junichi does, particularly when it comes to laughing and screaming. Plus, Junichi has voiced characters like Grimmjow before, and they sound almost exactly the same. A good example would be comparing Grimmjow and Greed from the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime, there is absolutely no difference in the voice. Junichi tends to be type-cast as crazy people, and after a while it gets old, and unoriginal.

Then of course Grimmjow is cut down by Nnoitra (I know they pronounced it as Nnoitora, but it is not Studiopolis's fault, they only pronounce it they way the Japanese tell them to. So, if you don't like it, blame the Japanese). For anyone who's wondering, no Nnoitra's voice actor did not change it is still Michael Sinterniklaas, who confirmed with a fan at a recent convention that he had just finished voicing Nnoitra. Michael was just trying to make him sound less like Dean Venture, which I give him great credit. I could still tell it was him, but I like how he got very gruff with his voice, which was probably not easy and it probably killed his voice. It is very hard for a voice actor like Michael, who has a very recognizable voice throughout the animation community, to try to make his voice sound different. So, I think people should give him a pat on the back for giving the extra effort. Keith Silverstein also did great for Tesra (Tesla, again Japanese not Studiopolis) for his one line of dialogue.

I also loved Wally, Derek, Pete, Michael P., and Hank's performances. I think Hank Matthews is doing an absolutely amazing job as Szayel, especially since this was (did extra voices in the Amagai arc)the first voice acting role he has ever had. His voice is so unique, and I am so glad Studiopolis chose him.

Steve Kramer (Kyōraku) is the current voice director. What Studiopolis is doing now (which they should have done years ago) is rotating voice directing duties. This way they don't get one person stuck directing dozens of episodes (which is what happened to Wendee Lee) and the show stays fresh and new. Sometimes what happens is some voice actors are stuck with one director for a certain amount of time, and they get too used to the person, and sometimes the performance suffers. This way the voice actors are always being challenged by different people, and makes the show a more realistic, from an acting standpoint.

I know people are upset that viz cuts down the endings for broadcast, but that is life and that's the way it goes. But, I think they gave a little extra effort on this. They edited the song at just the right place, and I love, I LOVE how they did a flash effect to reveal Nel's true form, and Szayel's Resurrección. I thought it was very creative, and it spoiled, but at the same time left a mystery for dub only fans. Plus I know the episode was not broadcast in widescreen, but hey they got rid of that ridiculous bleach border (which I hate with a burning passion), and most of the episode was in 4:3 and it would have looked ugly if they stretched it. But, it will be in widescreen on dvd, and perhaps in itunes, so at this point I don't really care anymore. I watch the dub episodes for the voices more than the animation anyway.

Final Rundown
 * Story 6.5/10
 * Art/Animation 7/10
 * Sound effects 7/10
 * Script Adaptation 9/10
 * Music 8/10
 * Acting 9/10

My final score for Bleach episode 190 english dubbed is a 7.8 out of 10. Can you believe this is my short review, if you dare join me next week when I review episode 191 dubbed, and don't forget to join me on Tuesday when I review Bleach episode 308. Until next time, so long! --Lemursrule (talk) 20:20, February 6, 2011 (UTC)