Dub Impressions: Trinity Blood & Bleach

Tonight, I watched the first dubbed episodes of Trinity Blood and Bleach as well as continuing my weekly Eureka Seven fix. I found Trinity’s dub to be pretty good and Bleach was also enjoyable…for the five characters that were heard. I’ll have to watch a couple more of each (especially Bleach) to get a good feel of the English adaptations but for now, I’ll just say they’re not bad.

Trinity Blood (TV MA-V):
I didn’t see the series when it was being subbed so I can’t really compare how “accurate” the dub voices are. That being said…tonight was not the North American dub premiere. Canada’s Razer started showing it in July and I assume is now on reruns.

Quick Summary: A vampire hijacks the airship Tristan and threatens to crash it into the Vatican if prisoners aren’t released. Luckily, Father Abel Nightroad, a Krusnik (vampire who feeds on vampires), is on board to fight him.

Fr. Nightroad sounds good with some nervousness, a little like Vash — another mild-mannered hero; this aloofness is contrasted by the serious tone of down-to-business Nightroad who can literally rip out someone’s heart. The tea girl/pilot-in-training, Jessica Langston, had some good chemistry with Abel and the vampire sounds evil enough. The Pope is nervous and indecisive, and sounds like Negima (Greg Ayres). His sister, the Cardinal, was so-so in sounding dignified.

Also, apparently a missile is “a lost technology from ancient times”. Kind of makes me feel old, living in the early 21st century…o_0

Bleach (TV 14):
Unlike Trinity Blood, I watched Bleach subbed until a couple episodes into the Bount Arc. I should probably start watching again because I think the filler’s almost over. But in the meantime, I might as well enjoy Bang Zoom’s efforts to localize the title for North America.

Really Quick Summary: 15-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki becomes a substitute Shinigami Soul Reaper after Rukia transfers her power by stabbing him in the heart. This is so he can protect his family from a Hollow attack.

Johnny Yong Bosch works pretty well as Ichigo. Rukia shows her condescendance to Ichigo and kindness to the middle-aged ghost. “Wholes” are good spirits and “Hollows” are bad spirits. Ichigo’s father had a nice comedic voice. Karin’s apathy was well expressed while Yuzu has a good “come on, eat your dinner” line.

Unfortunately, this first episode alone isn’t enough to judge how well the dub is. The next one will feature Ichigo’s classmates and key characters’ voices like Orihime, Chad, Tatsuki, and (of course) Chizuru. Ishida will come a few more episodes down the line. The final pre-Soul Society arc dub test in my mind would be Don Kanonji; “Spirits Are Always With You!” has to sound at least somewhat awesomely cheesy.

Full opening credits, w00t! Pronounciation of “Kurosaki” sounds a little weird in English and so does “Karin” (ka-rin). Thankfully Rukia’s Kido incantation was kept intact and so was the word “zanpaku-to”. No Soul Slayer here! Finally, Kon’s voice in the preview was interesting but not as boisterous as Mitsuaki Modono is. Hopefully, the “perverted Kon” moments yet-to-come turn out fine.

Eureka Seven 20 (“Substance Abuse”):
Yesterday, I watched subs of episodes 18 & 19 (don’t ask where!) to catch up and heard the Japanese voice cast for the first time. To my surprise, the dub voicing sounds close to the original in terms of character comparisons with Talho being the most noticable audible difference.

Renton and Holland get into an argument about the Nirvash. Holland then picks up a Vodarek priest in his LFO but has trouble getting back to the ship. Talho shows her jealousy of everyone talking about Eureka and defends Holland’s refusal to take her to a doctor. Renton jumps into the Nirvash and saves the battle-wounded Holland. However, he gets too enraged and beats a military LFO to a bloody pulp, bringing to mind Shinji’s blood-thirsty moment in Eva Unit-01. Something’s definitely gotten into him…