Anime & Manga Teh CX Anime Review Thread

[Captain X]

Fist of the North Star
(1986 movie)

Ah yes, another anime "classic." Well, I can't say this was really to my liking either, at least not in the traditional sense. In pretty much every way, this anime is the stereotype that everyone and his uncle loves to make fun of, and that's pretty much where I derived my enjoyment from.

It has a pretty basic story. A nuclear war has happened, and it pretty much leaves the landscape and people looking like something you'd expect to find in a Mad Max movie. Actually pretty much all the guys look like some variation of Lord Humungus, the only real variations being the outlandish armor and hair style they happen to have, and how big in relation to one another they are. Apparently the nuclear war has caused men to grow into giants even though there's a distinct lack of food and water. Of course they can also glow and pull off impossible fighting moves that can bring down skyscrapers on their own heads that won't even make them flinch. On the other hand, most people seem to be made of pudding, and certain "skilled" warriors can just stab them or cut them to shreds using nothing but their fingers, or better yet, they can use some made-up martial art fighting move to touch all the right pressure points to just make people spontaneously explode. So really the only way to enjoy this movie is just to turn your brain off and accept it as the over-the-top kung-fu action flick that it is. Otherwise you're bound to notice things like how characters who are strong enough to shred all their clothing by just flexing their muscles will suddenly have them back again, and how the bloody mess of the person they just made explode is suddenly not there anymore. I'm actually reminded of Sengoku Basara in just how over-the-top and manly this show is, and it doesn’t even care what you might think about it, dammit.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the story, I kind of got off track there. Like I said, the story is extremely basic. The protagonist, Kenshiro, loses the love of his life (who was actually just betrothed to him by his would-be father-in-law) to his former best friend. Apparently humanity is divided into sects of North and South, and the two sides have slowly been moving toward peaceful coexistence. Ken is from the North, and his old buddy who backstabs him, Shin, is from the South. The chick he was supposed to marry, Yuria, is also from the South. So Shin kicks his ass and takes Yuria for himself. Ken also has a couple of evil brothers who basically want to be the special successor of the martial art style they've all been learning from a master of the art, and one of them set up the whole thing while the other just decided he wanted to take over the heavens, starting with the planet. So that one kills their master while the other dumps the mostly already dead Ken off a cliff so he can take his place as successor to this martial art style. Some time later, Ken appears out of no where to save some innocent kiddies and goes on a roaring rampage of revenge. And that's pretty much all there is to it. And Ken manages to not even really win in the end. He doesn't kill his asshat older brother Raoh, and Yuria just kind of disappears, like she found hammer space or something. Ken just ends up wandering everywhere to try to find her again, but in the end he doesn't. Logic would've suggested she ended up somewhere in the rubble of all those skyscrapers Ken and Raoh knocked over during their fight, but this movie is the opposite of logic. I mean, there’s a flying horse and a ship through a skyscraper. Logic isn’t nearly manly enough for this movie.

Reading about this movie prior to watching it, I actually elected to watch the Japanese version first because of all the flack the English dub was getting. Having seen them both, I can't say I noted a lot of difference there. The English dub changed the story a bit, unless the subtitled version I watched was wrong in its translation, but as far as quality, well, it sounds like a cartoon from the '70s. It isn't the most horrible dub I've heard, but I can sort of see where people were coming from. But honestly the Japanese dub wasn't any better.

As far as suggesting this as something to watch or not, I'd say it's only something to watch just to see and make fun of yourself. There isn't much point to the actual movie itself since nothing of the story-line is really resolved, and there wasn't a whole lot to the story to begin with. I will throw it a bone for the unintentional entertainment value, though. 2/10.

ETA: Something to keep in mind here is that it's been like 10 years since I wrote most of these, so while I maintain that this movie is insane, I've actually become somewhat fond of it more lately, as I find it much more entertaining to watch, though in some ways I prefer the series. The movie is better in that it will just straight-up show you the gore, where the series tries to hide it in different ways because it was intended for a younger audience.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Man, totally spoiled yourself for Fist of the North Star by watching Excel Saga first.

 

[Captain X]

New Fist of the North Star
(3 episode OVA)

A reboot rather than a sequel to the 1986 movie, this OVA manages to change a lot of the details without really changing the story. Mostly what's different are the characters and the roles they play. We no longer see Kenshiro's origin, and he's no longer been betrayed by his best friend or his brothers from as much as I could tell. But there's still a big bad that has to be fought and a kidnapped woman who has to be rescued, even if it isn't his girlfriend.

To its credit, this OVA does try to improve on the old movie, and to an extent it does. The artwork is a lot better even if the animation really isn't and the use of CGI can be somewhat distracting. We're introduced to a sympathetic set of characters before Kenshiro is introduced rather than showing his origins, and the OVA even plays a bit with drama. Some of it even works a little, but then it's easy to tug at heart strings by killing a child, especially a sickly one. The story also tries to be a bit more expansive, introducing a city called "Last Land" where most of the story takes place as well as a group of fighters which has sworn itself to seal away the weapons and the secrets of the nuclear war that devastated the planet. This OVA has also practically made Kenshiro into Superman. For all the fights he's in, he's never actually hurt and he tends to just devastatingly defeat any enemy that fights him, no matter how many people that might be. He also seems to have about the same sense of justice, only killing people who really seem to deserve it and committing selfless acts to help others despite having no real connection to them.

But in the end, this OVA is still just a bunch of impossibly well-muscled dudes fighting each other. There are still two big bads Kenshiro has to fight and defeat, with the last fight stopping short of actually killing the other combatant. There's still a busty blonde woman who is kidnapped and must be rescued, and there is still some random kid who Kenshiro feels the need to defend against anything for. Then there's the typical over-emphasis on fighting style, with each pressure point that's touched being loudly called out with an accompanying expository description of what exactly it does. The only difference there is that these pressure points can also be used for insta-healing instead of just making peoples' heads explode.

The characters themselves are rather bland, and the mediocre dub doesn't really help anything. Kenshiro himself is the stereotypical mysterious short-spoken hero type, Sara is the hot chick whose purpose in life is to heal and who hates seeing violence, and the other characters are pretty much just defined by their role. Then there's Toby, who started out somewhat sympathetic, but ended up suddenly turning into a giant douche and locked Kenshiro up, only to attempt to become sympathetic again in time for him to die.

So really if you liked the first movie, this OVA is a lot like it, just longer. It has the same kind of fighting, more or less the same style of character design, and the same story, with just a bit of fan service and nudity thrown in for fun. I’m sure there are people who go for that, but I’ve never been a fan of fighting anime, and this one lacks the corny charm that the original movie had. 1/10.

 

[Captain X]

Flag
(13 episode series)

While short, this was an effective, fairly good series. The vast majority takes place in a fictitious country of Uddiyana in Central Asia, which is in the midst of a civil war between the two major religions of this country. The United Nations has been called in to help, with its fictitious UNF military force securing and bringing order to the country's capital city. At the time of their arrival, some of the locals made a makeshift flag from a UN flag that became a symbol for peace after a young Japanese photojournalist named Saeko Shirasu snapped an iconic picture of it. The UN is supposed to be setting up some kind of a peace treaty that will bring a permanent cease fire to the country between the warring sides. As one might expect, holding this flag up as a symbol made it a target and it was stolen. A special military unit, the SDC, has been put together to recover the flag, with Saeko going along as an embedded journalist.

This is a fairly typical "documentary" style series, except of course for the fact that it's an anime. It's a somewhat different way of telling a story, as everything is supposed to be from cameras which were on the scene recording everything that's been happening. There's also some heavy hinting that the narrator and character Keiichi Akagi, another photojournalist, is going over all of the raw footage and editing it for us, which is also why we see his part of the story. I have to admit that the attention to detail is pretty impressive, and I both liked and disliked this unique storytelling technique. The reason I disliked it at times was that it could get a little obnoxious. Since doing it in a completely realistic way would really restrict what could be seen and heard, there tended to be a lot of shots taken that realistically wouldn't have been. That and all the camera guides and indicators superimposed over the image could get a bit annoying at times.

As for the story itself, we get to see everything that's done to recover this stolen flag. It soon becomes apparent that there are some sinister dealings going on behind the scenes, as the terrorists end up packing some pretty serious hardware that normal terrorists wouldn't have access to, like say attack helicopters. The UNF is also made to look pretty shady, which is a little different since anime tends to practically glorify the UN. It brings into light the frankly quite corrupt way the UN tends to do things, and how ineffective they can be. For instance, when their headquarters in the capitol city is taken over and occupied, none of the numerous remaining UNF forces want to do anything. And then there's the way the upper echelon is more interested in saving face then in actually accomplishing the mission. So when a mission they planned to recover this flag goes wrong, they try to make a scapegoat out of one of the SDC pilots involved in the operation rather than accept responsibility for themselves. Then there's how the morning press briefings try to tell one story when the journalists who are following it know that the opposite is true. Of course there also tends to be something of an anti-military tone to all of this, and I can't help but think that the people who made this had a somewhat unrealistic expectation out of the UNF's military strikes. With all the complaining about collateral damage and demonizing of the UNF for it, one wonders what short of just not being there is expected. After all, if they did leave, the country erupts into civil war again and the UNF would be blamed for leaving. Of course this is also somewhat realistic as a reflection of the real world where the impossible is expected of the participants in any military conflict.

Most of the time, though, we follow Saeko as she hangs around with the team tasked with finding and retaking the flag in time for the all-important peace treaty signing, and the personnel she documents are very sympathetic. While somewhat stereotypical, especially the Japanese pilot, they were, for the most part, very human and it was easy to like them. None of them was really singled out much as comedy relief, though the mechanic could at times be a comedic foil to Saeko since he often took pictures of her at awkward moments as a kind of karmatic way to get back at her for always taking pictures of them. It was also nice to see a female commander who was strong-willed, competent, cared about her people as much as her mission, and who wasn't ever put on the spot in any way because of her gender, unlike say in Argento Soma.

Keiichi Akagi is also very easy to like, though he isn't seen a whole lot in the series until closer to the end. He actually comes off as somewhat stereotypically the dashing adventurer type, especially the few times we get to see him on screen – he very much looks the part. The other free-lance journalists he hangs out with seem oddly cooperative with each other considering the competitive field they are in. Mostly his part of the story is there to glorify photojournalism. To be fair, some of the things they accomplish can be pretty cool, but this tends to really glorify them while tending to skim over their less admirable traits. His part of the story is also where some of the hammiest scenes come from, in particular one of the scenes where he is initially trying to reach Saeko during a battle both of them are documenting. At one point he stops trying to reach her and instead shouts all kinds of hammy encouragements at her to keep taking pictures, completely reversing his earlier shouts of how stupid she was to risk everything like that. I think that scene would have actually been way more effective had he not said anything, but that's me.

And now comes the part I've been purposely putting off until the end – the mechas. As the other "with a difference" aspect of this series, what is otherwise a show about war journalism apparently felt the need to add, "but with mechas" to its pitch/description. While not done in an overly obnoxious way, I still can't help but think it's a bit silly that they felt the need to make this yet another mecha anime. God knows how many of them I've watched up to this point. In my opinion that aspect of it brings this series down a little bit, especially since these mechas, called HAVWKs (or "havocs" phonetically) are depicted as basically being super-weapons. It's true that at least one of them is destroyed and that they tend not to come out of fights entirely unscathed, the amount of punishment they can take and their capabilities can at times come off as pretty ridiculous. I think it could have been a pretty good show without the mechas, but in some ways that’s what makes the story somewhat unique. It really helps, though, that the focus is on the characters and not the mechas.

The series does have something of a downer ending, though. It isn't really unexpected considering the extremely heavy foreshadowing given by the narrator. While a little anticlimactic, I can't help but note that real life just tends to be that way sometimes, and this series has made a point of trying to make this show as realistic as possible given the subject matter. It may not be the best thing ever, but it's still a good series and I'd recommend it. I'm thinking that I'll actually add it to my over-all recommendation list. 8/10.

 

[Captain X]

Gall Force
(4 films and 5 episodes of OVA)

I'm combining everything that made up the "canon" Gall Force series into one review, because frankly, it's going to be a short enough review as it is. The thing is, everything about this series can be summed up as one part space opera and one part fan service. The entire franchise revolves around the same seven female characters, and let's just say that the action tends to be broken up by frequent shower breaks, and that one character in particular tends to wander around naked or at least mostly naked on at least two occasions. Actually, the first three movies are all about a really weird alien that is actually some kind of living goo, and its mutually destructive war with a human-like species that happens to be made up entirely of women. It’s hinted that they use artificial means of reproduction in case you were wondering, but for the most part this is just an excuse for fan service and to play up the cutesy "moé" aspect as much as possible. The fun part is when they all have dreams about a male version of one of themselves and act all embarrassed to wake up hugging and nearly making out with each other. After all, with no males and all...

The point of the first three movies, in between mood swings of killing people in horrible ways and trying to make us laugh, is to establish that humans are the product of a genetically engineered union between this race of women and the goo monsters. They do this by having one of the goo monsters rape two of the women. One dies and the other gets preggers. Conveniently they are able to just beam the embryo out and it rapidly grows up into an adult male version of the chick that was knocked up. One of the moe characters escapes to the eventually to be Earth with the dude in order to be Adam and Eve while everyone else dies. The war kills everyone and humanity is supposed to be like the future legacy of the two alien races. Part of this includes leaving a computer record of all their technology for when humans are finally advanced enough for space travel.

Then, much like Battlestar Galactica, all of what happened before happened again, only now the unwinnable war was between humans and their machine creations, which just happened to resemble the goo aliens when they were wearing their mecha suits. There is much proselytizing about how there should be a way for humans and the machines to peacefully co-exist, but the machines (led ironically by a computer called "Gorn") seems pretty intent on killing all humans no matter what, so suggesting to the humans to seek a peaceful solution is just as pointless as begging both sides in the first three movies to stop fighting each other. Naturally the war ends, with the reincarnations of the seven main characters showing up again to win the war.

Then it happens all over again in the last two OVA episodes. Gorn and the seven main characters are once again reincarnated out of nothing and Gorn does a pretty good job of killing all humans, who have once again decided to trust computers a lot more than they should have if they'd been genre-savvy. Basically the whole point is to have the main characters on the run once more, constantly under attack. Then the OVA just ends, with them managing to escape but to an unknown fate. Obviously whoever worked on this franchise meant for it to continue in some way, but it looks like it never did, seeing as it was made in the late '80s and the only other things to be done with it were a reboot and some video games.

Probably the most fun to be had out of all these movies and OVAs involves the many shower breaks the female characters take. Even in post-apocalyptic Earth during the war with the machines appears to have a plentiful supply of showers in its ruins, specifically so the women can take shower breaks. So basically this is all just a cheesy space opera with plenty of fan service, which means that it's only worth it to watch if you can have fun with that. 1/10.

 

[prinCZess]

Only ever seen the first Gall Force movie and a very little bit of the second, but I actually rather liked what I saw. It's certainly cheesy, but...The first movie is basically an animated rip-off of Alien with, yes, more shower-scenes and an all-female cast (and some space-battles!). It's hammy and cliche with (especially now) stock characters, the most 'What?' plotline and left-field 'solution' being sought to a war possibly ever, and all kinds of idiot-ball running around, but it's got soul.

And by 'soul' I suppose I might mean 'big floofy 80s-anime hairdos' which I've got a soft-spot for.

Coincidentally, anime-hairdos designed by Kenichi Sonoda--who I've also got a bit of soft-spot for.

I dunnow. Probably not 'good' (can't speak to even the majority of the shows, after all). But it seems to be one of the early-entries in that whole subgenre of anime where it's women doing all these badass things...And even if it's an excuse for shower-scenes and scenes of them walking about naked, I suppose I've always had a soft-spot for that subgenre of shows?

And REFERENCES! Okay, probably 'ripoffs', but still...Seeing 'Alien' the anime as the first one basically is was fun. I'd give the first movie a solid five or six myself.

 

[Captain X]

Probably at some point I'll be going back and taking another look at these. I only really have vague memories of watching them and only really being mildly entertained. I didn't realize it at the time, but it has a few examples of Kenichi Sonoda's fetishes, what with the loli-like character and the toilet scene (off the top of my head). It's maybe worth noting that his latest Bean Bandit short also featured a toilet scene. Probably the thing I remember most from them is the scene where they're taking a shower in the basically collapsed buildings of the wasteland - that really stood out for how funny it was to me at the time. But more lately I've gotten a bit more nostalgic for older anime like this so I'll probably take another look at it at some point. If I can get myself to start writing reviews again.

 

[Captain X]

Dirty Pair
(26 episode series)

This series is basically your average '80s buddy cop show mixed with Charlie's Angels. In fact, the title pair of women actually call themselves the Lovely Angels. Despite being the show's excuse for almost constant fan service, the two women actually do prove to be quite intelligent and quite capable. The problem is that they tend to go a bit overboard at times, and even if they don't mean to, they tend to cause a massive amount of damage for a good chunk of the jobs they do, hence the "Dirty Pair" nickname they are more commonly known by, much to their chagrin. This is the basis of most of the comedy in the series, which really doesn't take itself seriously at all. Not even when they accidentally blow up an entire planet.

The series is very episodic in nature, and there was only one story which apparently turned out to be long enough to split between two episodes. The missions the Lovely Angels go on tend to be very random, and each episode isn't always ended in a very conclusive manner – we're just supposed to accept that they made it out of whatever situation they were in at the end of a given episode. Like in one episode they rescued a bunch of engineers being held in a prison. The engineers made it out okay, but the Lovely Angels missed their ride and the episode literally ended with the two of them blasting away at all the guards from the top of a prison wall. It wasn't even a real job and was set up by Kei, the red-haired Angel as a favor for Yuri, the dark-haired Angel, because she believed an old flame was one of the engineers being held. Naturally, in the next episode, everything was normal and it was just the usual banter between the Angels' boss and the pair before being sent on their next mission. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but this should give you an idea of what you're getting into as far as the story goes, because there is no overall plot for the series.

Actually in some ways there's a little similarity to Excel Saga in that there are some occasional in-jokes that show up during an episode depending on what the theme of an episode is. For instance, in a treasure-hunting episode, the Angels are trapped in an ancient booby trap and at one point a skeleton dressed like Indiana Jones and impaled on a set of spikes just like out of one of those movies briefly appears. In another episode, a model of the original Enterprise briefly appears on screen.

I can see why this series is considered a classic by some, and to be fair, it hasn't aged all that poorly from what I can tell. I have a certain fondness for the series, too, and this has only grown on repeat viewings. It has plenty of '80s corn, but that's part of the charm, in my opinion. If I really had to knock it for anything, it's that some of the episodes have obvious filler in them, and at times it can get a bit repetitive watching them, at least when you marathon through them. The other, much more minor complaint is that a disproportionally large amount of humor seems to be derived from the Angels being sluts. Which is to say it doesn't bother me all that terribly much, but having them constantly go on about how they have so many boyfriends or how they hope men they work with or even men they are sent after to capture are young and attractive got old very fast. On the plus side, when random male douches show up and try to force themselves on them, the Angels tend to beat the crap out of them instead of being helpless. Actually, when they get captured, which doesn't happen a whole lot, they tend to be able to get out of it on their own instead of relying on others to rescue them. Of course, they are supposed to be the protagonists, so that helps.

Oh, and despite one of them being actually named Yuri, if you're thinking that the two of them might be partners in more than one way, I'm just going to disappoint you now. Actually, for that matter, most of the fan service consists of them being in their normal revealing outfits, or a towel immediately after a shower with the usual discretion shots you'd expect of something that aired on TV. So being the pervert I am, that was something of disappointment for me, too. What? You've got your tastes and I have mine. So what if I like seeing cartoon boobs? (BTW, watch episode 24 if you're into that kind of thing too. )

Anyway, this series is charming in its own way, and I, too, would call it a classic. It isn't a complex series, but it was fun to watch. The characters were a likable kind of goofy, and their "pets" tended to be kind of interesting too. One was a small robot that sounded a little like a dog's chew toy, and the other was a giant genetically engineered cat that actually looked more like a bear. They were also somewhat capable and competent, although the cat was a wuss, but they also did double duty as the comedy relief of the comedy series.

Overall, this was an okay series, and I would recommend it. If you liked Excel Saga there's a chance you might like this, too, even though it isn't nearly as over the top. 7/10.


ETA: Like a few other things, I've actually come to appreciate this show a lot more, and pretty much just love the hell out of it now. Not sure what I'd re-score it as, because it is still '80s corn. Maybe 8/10?

 

[ATP]

Dragon half OVA from 1993.Excellent parody of both fantasy and idol genre.
Basically,MC is daughter of male knight and female dragon,who try get affection of hero who also is singer.
If you want good laugh,watch it.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Dragon Half suffered a lot from only being 2 episodes long. The original manga was a long runner with a much better developed plot but the OVA itself, due to shortness, has a lot of jokes that make no sense without the lengthy setup the manga gave them (Damaramu's in particular).

 

[Captain X]

Dirty Pair: Affair on Nolandia
(single episode OVA)

If you've seen the series, this OVA sequel is pretty much just more of the same. About the only new thing about it is that it has an English dub available, and that the giant cat, Mughi, has changed colors. Also both Mughi and Nammo, the title characters' pet robot, don't play nearly as much of a role as they did in the series. Oh, and the Lovely Angels have a new ship, apparently.

The story focuses almost entirely on the Lovely Angels and their antics once they've been assigned to a case. Of course it might only seem to be a bit more than usual because this OVA is longer than a standard episode despite following essentially the same format. Basically, something odd happens and the Lovely Angels are called up by their boss to resolve the situation. We don't really see the boss this time, and the Angels are already on the way to the planet of the week. In this case we have two seemingly unrelated situations developing, namely that a woman the Lovely Angels were hired to help out has been killed and her daughter has gone missing, and a space plane has crashed on landing due to some kind of telepathic interference from a little girl. It really isn't all that hard to figure out that the little telepathic girl and the missing daughter are one and the same. From there the pair goes through the typical difficulty with corrupt local officials while being helped out by some honest ones. In this case, though, the mission, which looked to be successful, actually ends in failure, with everyone on the planet being killed. In this particular case, only a large plateau area of the planet was habitable, and the telepathic girl had a hand in basically killing everyone by collapsing the plateau. The Angels even deliberate a bit somberly for all of a few minutes as to whether this instance of mass deaths was their fault or not. And then the OVA ends with the typical light mood that really isn't all that appropriate considering what just happened. It's kind of like that episode in the series proper where they managed to destroy an entire planet and everyone on it, and then joke about it later.

The characters are the same as in the series. The Lovely Angels are still the same shallow yet capable women. On the plus side, there's a bit more in way of fan service in this OVA, so hurray for OVAs.

As for the dub vs. sub, really it's just going to be a matter of taste. From what I understand, the same actresses portrayed Yuri and Kei for everything except the latest reboot of the franchise. I just happen to prefer not having to read subtitles while I'm watching. That being said, the dub isn't really bad, but it does sound a bit awkward and unnatural in places.

Overall, I feel very indifferent about this OVA. You could probably go without seeing it unless you're just desperate for the full Dirty Pair experience or something. 6/10.

 

[ATP]

Kekko Kamen OVA.
Sparta Academy is ruled by evil schoolmaster Toenail of Satan who love sexually harass innocent girls,but naked heroine,Kekko Kamen,always save them.Funny ,even in primitive way, parody of hero stories.
If you have time and need something not complicated,choose that.

P.S she is naked,but wear mask - becouse justice must be naked.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Eh.... maybe put reviews of the ones like that in a NSFW thread? I'm not sure it's appropriate here.

 

[Terthna]

As for the dub vs. sub, really it's just going to be a matter of taste. From what I understand, the same actresses portrayed Yuri and Kei for everything except the latest reboot of the franchise. I just happen to prefer not having to read subtitles while I'm watching. That being said, the dub isn't really bad, but it does sound a bit awkward and unnatural in places.

I'm lucky enough to be able to read really, really fast (I barely even have to glance at the subtitles), so dubs just never appealed to me.

 

[Captain X]

I've started to come around more lately on the issue, but this is mostly thanks to certain companies censoring and changing scripts to suit their politics when they localize something. But there are plenty of older shows that have perfectly good or even great dubs. Cowboy Bebop is the gold standard, IMO, and I honestly prefer the English dub to the Japanese one. The opposite of that for me is Girls und Panzer, because the almost all of the voice actresses sound bored and just don't really bring the fun of the show out the way the Japanese actresses do.

 

[ATP]

Asobi ni Iku yo,12 episodes.
good Aliens - or precisely space catgirls - come to contact Earth,and started with not-so-lonely- japaneese boy/he have 2 girls who are after him/
There are human against them,vile doggirl trying to conqer Earth,but you could quess what kind of happy end we get.
Do not fear,there is romantic love,not sex plays.

Good when you wont feel good and do not think too much.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I've started to come around more lately on the issue, but this is mostly thanks to certain companies censoring and changing scripts to suit their politics when they localize something. But there are plenty of older shows that have perfectly good or even great dubs. Cowboy Bebop is the gold standard, IMO, and I honestly prefer the English dub to the Japanese one. The opposite of that for me is Girls und Panzer, because the almost all of the voice actresses sound bored and just don't really bring the fun of the show out the way the Japanese actresses do.

I agree, Cowboy Bebop was significantly better dubbed than subbed, alongside Outlaw Star which had nearly the exact same voice crew. Particularly Gene and Jim, who's voices in the original didn't match their characters at all being tough-guy gravel-voices, Dub Gene's sarcastic wise-guy voice and Jim's actually-a-twelve-year-old voice fit them much better.

Azumanga Daioh I find immeasurably better as a dub than sub because some of the girls (especially Chiyo-Chan) had extremely shrill voices in the original Japanese and it detracted from my enjoyment.

Naruto was just plain bad as a dub. Dragonball Z... I could never wrap my head around the fact that the Japanese gave Goku a female voice.

 

[prinCZess]

Girls und Panzer also benefits in the native Japanese of not running into...issues. I dunnow if it was copyright or voice actress capability-to-sing, but...Well:

Spoiler: Comparison

Japanese: Schoolgirls sing the traditional Russian folk song Katyusha
English dub: Tetris theme plays in background on Accordion

This also gives me the chance to say Girls und Panzer is a lot of good fun, since it's something I've been meaning to mention to anyone willing to listen for the last week or so after having watched it. Unlike previous recommendations I've been handed based on 'It makes historical allusions! You'll love it!' it's not an excuse for schoolgirl-crotch (Strike Witches is seriously such a lost potential of a story...I think. Noped out after about three episodes)...It's just, like, an Air Bud movie that replaces the dog with schoolgirls and the sport with tanks, while gloriously keeping all the other stupid, cliche beats of a sports movie. Then adding STEREOTYPES. Lots of fun.

Dirty Pair is also a lot of good fun, and I'd be remiss if I didn't get that out there. Because, like Gall Force, it's in that eternally dear-to-my-heart genre of 'lets make a cliche action movie with women so we can have fanservice during fightscenes!' that I still love.
It's stock space-detective action-movie stuff with wonderful dumb references to other media, Western and Japanese, and just...fun.
In a (better) world without endless fan-fights over which mentally and emotionally-scarred girl in Evangelion was superior, there would probably be endless fan-fights over which of the Dirty Pair was...Even if the answer is obvious (Kei).

becouse justice must be naked.

Justice, Just-Ass...Same thing really!

 

[Terthna]

In a (better) world without endless fan-fights over which mentally and emotionally-scarred girl in Evangelion was superior, there would probably be endless fan-fights over which of the Dirty Pair was...Even if the answer is obvious (Kei).

Kei's hair looks like a poodle crawled onto her head and died; Yuri is way prettier.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I only ever saw Dirty Pair Flash. Kei's hair was superior there.