I picked up NewType... here's my review of the
Azumanga Daioh episode found on the included DVD.
This was definately not one of my favorite episodes from the series... as with most first episodes of any other animation. This episode introduces two characters into an already-formed group of friends... Chiyo-chan, an elementary-school-aged genius who has just been skipped into high school (10th grade in Japan) and the slow Osakan speaker renamed by her new friends... Osaka. From here the show will go all through the gang's 3 years of high school (2 discs per year for 6 total discs from ADV [and in R2]).
The video on the disc is flawless, as any new show should be. Colors are bright, colorful, and it is a generally happy consensus of contrast and hue. The OP/ED are translated into english (as with all ADV discs) but it is actually done rather well. The OP features text moving all over the place and (on my 19" computer monitor) it looks as if it was there from the start (this could have EASILY been screwed up, if they decide to put the japanese opening on one of the discs, you'll see what I mean). The ED surprisingly does not crawl over the images and fades in and out like the original (english VAs are listed first).
The dub is absolutely atrocious, as expected. This is a VERY Japanese show and is one show that it is absolutely necessary to listen to in it's original language.
For instance:
There is a text bubble translated as "She is an english teacher" over Chiyo-chan's teacher...
She begins talking to her students in Spanish...
Osaka the Osakan suffers from "Southern accent syndrome"... IE: "It's nice to meet y'all!".
Not to mention that Chiyo-chan's English VA just... isn't almost tear-inducingly cute like her Japanese counterpart
As with most newer ADV discs, the English dialogue is remixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 (although with minimal sound in the back channels), while the Japanese retains its original 2.0 Stereo mix.
Having seen the entire series in fansub form... I have to say that the subtitles are really good... and 18-pages of liner notes included with the DVD should help explain any cultural references listed (although I would have preferred ADVid NOTES).
All in all, at the end of the month... this is going to be the must-have disc of the year thus far.
