VIZBlog

posted 8-28-2008 5:39 PM by Rob L McCarthy
Perry Mason and the Case of the Murderous Mimic

Like many people who watch a lot of anime I get annoyed by the “sameness” of voice acting. But today I woke up early to watch Perry Mason, and I have come to believe we as fans need to cut anime directors a break!

This episode was made in 1964 (when Perry Mason was a staple of CBS’s lineup) and features two “French” (they sound like Pepé Le Pew) and one “English” villain played by James Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon from the 1960s live-action Batman). His accent isn’t so much English as a product of Twentieth Century Fox’s diction school. If you listen very closely you can hear Darryl F. Zanuck saying “Talk classier dammit.”

If a huge outfit like CBS could not find one English actor in 1964 for a live action show, one can hardly fault Funimation for using their stable.

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posted 8-19-2008 10:54 AM by Amy Yu
GLAY!! in SF!!

In case you were wondering why 8/12/08 was such a legendary day, let me fill you in—super famous J-rockers GLAY performed in the U.S. for the very first time! In the freakin’ Fillmore of good ol’ San Francisco. Yours truly and some Viz cohorts got to experience the awesomeness that is GLAY up close and personal (okay, like ten rows back, but still)! It was nothing less than subarashii.

In Japan, it’d be nigh impossible to see GLAY in such a (relatively) small venue. These boys have rocked out to 50,000 plus screaming fans in Tokyo Dome in the past, and no way in hell would you have been able to appreciate the sweat beads on lead singer Teru’s brow the way we were able to. So yes. We were cho~ lucky!

The opening song “Verb” was an excellent choice since A) Hey! It’s the name of this tour and B) it totally set the tempo with its heart-thumping beats. And oh man, when they started playing that opening riff to “Yuuwaku”—“da na na na na na”--we started whooping and screaming with abandon, fists pumping in the air. Okay, I was. So was Yuki M. (I saw you, girl! Don’t deny it.) The cherry on top for me was when they played “Glorious” shortly thereafter. I think that was when I started to lose my voice. It was so…well, glorious. \(^o^)/ The ground was literally shaking from everyone jumping around. Too fun!

GLAY really does know how to work the crowd. You get this feeling they’re genuinely nice guys who were doing their damndest to give us an amazing show. Teru’s energetic vocals, Takuro’s hilarious guitar poses, Hisashi’s groovin’ visual-kei style, and Jiro’s adorable demeanor all added up to one unbelievable night. (By the way, Jiro seriously stole all the ladies’ hearts. He totally reminds me of Shin from Nana. I just wanna go “Kyah” and hug him.) ;)

I was pretty sad they didn't play “Beloved” though. That was the one song I wanted to hear above all else, so I was bummed I didn’t get to hear it live. I was tempted to drag Pam to karaoke with me afterwards because I wanted to hear that song so badly. Alas, my tired feet ushered me home, where I had to settle for blasting that song from my speakers.

Not. The. Same.

But, hey. GLAY said that they’ll be back, so all I can say is…“Matte imasu!” (^_-)/

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posted 8-14-2008 10:57 AM by Rob L McCarthy
Music in a deaf medium

When you think as much about comic writing as I do, sometimes you can have a concrete answer, e.g."Yes, Naruto will end up stronger than Sasuke—the show's not called Sasuke."

Sometimes you just have an opinion: “Unflopped is better than flopped” or “untranslated effects are better than translated" and so on.

Well today I have a straight-up question for you the reader. With so many manga being about pop idols and/or rock bands, how does one effectively convey the power of music in a soundless medium? Should somebody actually record some Lucifer songs and sell them with Sensual Phrase? Fun idea, but a CD would jack up the price. Worse yet, the band needs to be REALLY good for a thing like that to work.

I have a lot of personal experience with the music-in-comics paradox. The comic I write when not doing my day job was supposed to take place in a karaoke bar. I dropped that idea very quickly when I realized how hard it to represent good singing (which, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, can happen in a karaoke bar). With BAD singing you can do broken notes, people clutching their ears, or even barfing if your editor is cool with that. For good music all I could ever come up with is people clapping and saying “good job!”

Then again that’s what a lot of people do. If somebody knows a better way I’d love to hear it.

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posted 8-11-2008 7:21 PM by VIZ HR
Fall Internships

VIZ is looking to fill several internships for fall, 2008.

All internship are unpaid and interns MUST be able to receive college credit. We cannot accept candidates who are not currently enrolled in school.

You can read more about the internships we are offering and the requirements here: http://www.viz.com/about/jobs/?id=17

To apply for an internship, please send your cover letter and resume to jobs@viz.com, specifying the internship for which you are applying.

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posted 8-7-2008 6:28 PM by Rob L McCarthy
On Words

(I swear I didn’t steal this from George Carlin.)

Why is Death Note so popular? I think it’s really simple: A lot of people—from school kids to anybody who works in an office—write a lot and must sometimes wonder “Why do I bother? Who looks at all this nonsense?” In Death Note Light (among others) writes down a name and BLAM—they die! Some freaking (got to say ‘freaking’ because the real word will get axed) kid’s notebook can kill. That’s a lot of power!

Think about it though. Words are powerful, but inconsistently so in the real world. Nobody minds a “poop” joke but a “sh#t joke (mail me $5.95 for the missing vowel!) will get you in trouble.

Personally? I’d like to know when “retard” became so damned acceptable. Everywhere, but especially on the internet. Not calling for censorship here, just some tact, and I’m also just speaking generally. Really though, in an age where we take “bad words” out of Banana Fish (Ash may be a gang-banger raised by a pedophile but he doesn’t work blue.) I just wonder how “retard” escaped the ever growing list of “words you can’t say.” Not just on television either.

Okay, I DID steal the last bit from Carlin. I’d like to think he’d at least smirk.

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