GSD hits North American TV

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Heretic
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YTV has improved with its anime times since the old days of Wing and Escaflowne and they at least recognize that the stuff they run on a Friday night isn’t meant for kids. They even include a “Violence and mature themes” warning. Canada didn’t even get the “Disco Guns” when SEED was on.

With an upcoming “Anime on Demand” channel for satellite/digital cable, I anticipate anime becoming regarded as slightly more “Main stream” in the coming years in Canada.
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Nimrod
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Just as a bit of a follow up I caught this over on Zannen this afternoon:

From a recent YTV e-mail:

Eureka Seven will be airing at 11pm E/P & 2:30am E/P beginning Friday, March 9 on YTV!

Nice to finally have an encore slot and to be getting rid of Monster Warriors, but... OUCH. I guess the ratings weren't great if finished series' like Inuyasha and Fullmetal Alchemist aren't getting later time slots instead. But still, Gundam SEED did a lot better in the ratings in its second half after it got a chance, so it's a bit disappointing that E7 won't get as good a chance.

At the very least, let's pray that Fridays don't suffer another CanCon purge before E7 finishes its run.


Can't really say I'm surprised. Fridays at 930p was SEED's old slot so it made sense that Eureka would get moved but I had thought it would get bumped to 10pm and they move FMA to another time.

Still, no more Monster Warriors crap which is good news. :)
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Have fun Canada for once i am glad there virtually no anime on standard Brit TV.
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Anonymous

The english dubb of GSD sucks! ><;; they shoulda put the REMOVED version on YTV!!
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Brave Fencer Kirby
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Stellar-xox wrote:The english dubb of GSD sucks! ><;; they shoulda put the Person(s) of Japanese Heritage/Descent version on YTV!!
So, wait... Are you saying that the dub sucks because the VA's aren't Asian, or are those two unrelated statements?

Personally, I have the first four DVDs, and I thought the dub was fine. The only VAs that I didn't like were some of the minor characters in the Minerva crew -- like that one kid with the front bit of his hair dyed -- but they don't have many lines anyway, so it doesn't affect the series much.
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Phantomexe87
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I doubt that his hair is dyed, it's probably one of those genetic things the altered, like Lacus having Pink hair, Lunamaria having purple hair, etc. Personally I thought the dub was pretty good, compared to what I'm used to. Arthur, Durandel, Stellar and Talia aren't necessarily bad, just not right for their role. I was surprised how well Shin, Jibril, and Sting turned out, and Lunamaria's grows on you. There aren't really too many awful ones.
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Rei Murasame
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On the subject of the whole, "Don't say it sucks now, even though we've said it 10,000 times before because this time it may magically steer people away from watching" thing, I'll say this.

1. GSD's English track (you can't really distinguish this as a 'dub', seeing as the Japanese track is also 'dubbed' on after the animation, so...), airing on Canadian TV is just logical progression, because GS aired there as well.

2. SEED Destiny is one of those things where you don't really start hating it until after you've seen all of it, and realise, "This was painful, and not in the good way."

3. This might cause more interest in Gundam, or maybe not, and I suppose the question becomes, "Will it cause interest in a way that we can consider positive and true to the ideas that Gundam is generally attached to?" - well, in my opinion, probably not, since Fukuda has already pretty much said in his interviews that he was trying to go back to making a 'robot show', like 'Combattler V and others', ect.

4. I didn't like GSD at all, but I would still not deter anyone from watching it if it were on TV. So I think that while it may be my opinion that GSD is absolutely terrible, I would like people to experience it for themselves, rather than simply take my word for it. (does that sound sadistic?)

5. The mystery of why there isn't more UC in the West still needs to be addressed, because this is becoming beyond ridiculous. Technically I 'shouldn't care what they do', but I want more people to see UC-related stuff on TV, I want more media hype, I want the Titans Test Team stuff translated, and I want to really see every fascet of the Universal Century available to the public at an arm's reach away.

Overall, if you haven't seen Gundam SEED Destiny, watch it, and honestly immerse yourself in it. And then after it's over, look at it from outside the universe (providing that it didn't already break your threshold of disbelief or tolerance during it's airing), and then decide weather you think it was any good. I think it sucked. Your opinion may differ.
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Brave Fencer Kirby
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Rei Murasame wrote:5. The mystery of why there isn't more UC in the West still needs to be addressed, because this is becoming beyond ridiculous.
It's not a mystery. UC is old. MSG aired in 1979 -- almost thirty years ago. Even the most recent UC series -- Victory -- is almost 15 years old at this point. To us, this doesn't matter much -- but we're the hardcore fans, what Gundam needs to be a success is to get the average Joe viewer watching. Gundam is a niche market within the anime market -- which is itself a niche market. Granted, anime has become a lot more mainstream recently, but the point is that you don't make money catering to a small percentage of a small percentage of your consumer base. UC simply doesn't have the mass appeal like the more recent stuff does.

And for the record, I found Gundam Seed Destiny to be highly entertaining. Does that mean it was perfect? Of course not. There's plenty of stuff about Destiny that irked me (the way OMNI got utterly shafted, for one...) but that doesn't mean that the entire series was crap. I look at it like this: when I stop and look back and think about watching Destiny, did I enjoy myself? Name all the flaws you want -- bad story, bad characters, bad mecha, bad VAs, whatever you can think of -- and I'll probably just nod and agree with you. But the bottom line is that I enjoyed watching it, so in my mind, it was a good series.
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DeltasTaii
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It's hardly as if we're being showered in non-UC Gundam here. We got one North American country (who actually had success with SEED) to broadcast Destiny, and occasionally some Astray trickles our way. Woo-hoo.

We actually get more UC content, when one starts looking at Ecole and other manga, plus games, even with the anime releases being a little relaxed these days. (we're pretty much guaranteed one game with UC content for every AU one.)


The portrayal of giant robots is still decidedly different from the way most North Americans have been exposed to in G Gundam, littleown Destiny. Yes, some of the happenings are a little out there, but these are still relatively real robots, with limitations (no, Strike Freedom can't tune the world), quasi-realistic weapons (aka, guns), pilots, and the need to get fixed by welding them and wrenching, as opposed to sticking them in some sort of regeneration chamber. Oh yeah, and they're fighting a war where people like, die, and shoot each other, and use some semblance of tactics and stuff.
Fanciful and glorified depiction it may be, it's still more Gundam than anything else.
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kfrooster
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I'm watching Destiny as it airs at the moment. As a guy who grew up watching anime dubbed, Gundam SEED Destiny strikes me as pretty well done when it comes to voice acting. I mean sure there are times where I cringe and go: "Yikes, bad choice for Character X" but all in all, it's stupid to think that their English voice actors are going to sound exactly like their Japanese counterparts. Which is why I hate those elitist anime watchers who go: "OMG, liek Shinn sounds so bad" or "Eww, dubs are for lozers".

All in all, I am simply content at rewatching Gundam SEED Destiny where I don't have to read subtitles or have to stare at a tiny screen from Youtube.
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