It was so delightful. So different than the American crap we’ve been getting lately.

So, it’s called Suzume. Anyone see it?

The animation style, the music, the scope of this movie was just breathtaking.

Looking forward to The Boy and the Heron now.

Just such a different world with the style and the music.

I have quite a few now in some Folklore collection or something. Not sure why I even got it.
But, anyway, really captivating. And, opens up a whole new genre for me.

What was your first anime?

The first anime feature I ever watched was back in the early 90s called "Fist of the North Star." It was a condensed feature based on the series. In these days they called anime "Japanimation." Soon after that I watched Vampire Hunter D and Akira. I always gravitated toward the more mature and violent anime.

And, something I thought odd is it defaulted to the English dub. Why wouldn’t it be Japanese with subs as main audio track?

Suzume is from Makoto Shinkai, probably the most popular anime director going now with Miyazaki nearing the end. His most popular work by far is the blockbuster smash Your Name, which you should watch. Your Name is so popular Hollywood is remaking it.

^ just bought it on Amazon. Should have it tomorrow.
Thanks for the recommend.

I just realized there was a long thread on Suzume earlier..

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/anime-talk...o-shinkai.html

The love story between Souta and Suzume was so moving. Along with Suzume and her mothers story. And, yes I teared at that end and last song (which I bought on iTunes) Beautiful.

But, why is default English?

I started Anime back when I was 4 or 5 when a friend of my dads let me watch his Ranma 1/2 and bubblegum crisis vhs tapes and loved them and the animation style. I still watch newer anime like Suzume, Evangelion, Weathering With You etc etc but I have a hard time getting into the computer drawn stuff, I tend to only connect with the hand drawn animes

do most of these movies default to English language dub? if so, why? shouldn't the default be the original language?

And, this will be my second. But, it’s native Japanese right? This one also defaults to English language. I don’t get that.

i mean i understand that they put an English dub on for those that don't really appreciate the art and original language and just want to hear their own language for whatever reasons they have (hate subtitles, read a movie, etc.), but for a Japanese movie to have English as default is puzzling.

The vast majority of anime watchers in the USA go with the English dub if one is available. Studios have good research about subs versus dubs - it's something like 80% of the general population loathe reading subtitles. A few anime have really good English dubs which are entertaining in their own right - Black Butler's English dub featuring J. Michael Tatum is practically a completely different show with his signature voicing of that character's catchphrase.

That being said, Japanese is a language which doesn't mirror English exactly and literal translations don't always work that well.

well, i definitely liked Suzume better than Your Name. but, i did download 3 songs from Your Name. as they just sounded so good. i have the Cartoon Saloon's Irish Folklore Trilogy. Anyone have this? any good?

What service did you watch it on?

If it's Netflix, you probably have your default settings as English so it naturally assumes you want to watch this in English too since it's available. Even Crunchyroll does this if you usually watch dubs there. It's a little annoying but I understand why they do it.

My first anime movie was probably either Megazone or Do You Remember Love, at least subbed (though DYRL had a dub for reasons as well). Dubbed it might be Unico or Warriors of the Wind, the adaptation of Nausicaa (with a rad poster that... was nothing like the film)

They are both Blu-ray’s that defaulted to English.

i did not like Ghost in the Shell at all. i thought this was supposed to be a biggie, but i didn't like it at all. seemed lazy compared the two i saw prior.

Technically, the first ones I watched were Starblazers (Space Cruiser Yamato) and Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) on television back in the late 1970s. I guess my first "real" anime was renting Akira on home video back in 1991, that was quite an eye opening experience!

Ha, no Astro Boy or Speed Racer? It's funny I recall both of those early on but they were before my time. The first one I remember watching was Captain Harlock, but I was somehow still familiar with Astro Boy and Speed Racer along with Force five (Star Vengers, Getter Robo, Grendizer, Danguard Ace and Gaiking). We didn't have cable growing up so I could only watch Voltron at my friends' house. Nick also had several series like the Mysterious Cities of Gold and Belle and Sebastian, which I watched at my aunt's house. I don't think I watched Star Blazers until years later when they were on reruns (which I didn't realize at the time). I remember we had gone to the Japanese department store like a week earlier, and my mom let me choose between an Ultraman spaceship and the Yamato, and I chose the Ultraman one because I thought it looked more modern. But when I saw Star Blazers on TV I realized why the Yamato looked so old and instantly regretted it.

And then the local video store had a treasure trove of dubbed stuff: Time Fighters (Time Bokan), Taro the Wonder Boy, Harlock, Macron 1, etc.

I was trying to remember, but I honestly don't recall watching Astro Boy or Speed Racer back in the day. They were either not shown on my local TV channels or somehow were completely under my radar. I do recall Force Five, which I really liked as I had a bunch of Shogun Warriors toys. But boy, Battle of the Planets was the big one for me and my friends in the late 70s, we loved that show and desparately wished there were BOTP toys (lucky Japanese kids got a shitload!). I sincerely envy that you had a Japanese department store you could visit, I would have gone crazy over that, I can't imagine all the Godzilla, super robot and Gatchaman toys I would have bought (Japanese Spider-Man stuff too!).

Oh it was amazing. Diaclone before Transformers, Machine Robo before Gobots, Macross toys before Jetfire or Robotech, and they did have the Gatchaman Phoenix as well. So much diecast. I had a Reideen toy passed down to me from my cousin which I treasured, so when he showed up in Marvel Comics I was elated. I subscribed to Terebi (TV) magazine from that store which basically showed everything airing in Japan and all the toys. And in the Summer they played Mobile Suit Gundam (no subs) on the tv and I'd just sit myself down and watch for hours.

And all the Tokusatsu stuff. Kikaider or Kamen Rider would come give live shows.

My grandma would also occasionally go to Japan and come back with a suitcase full of toys.

Yeah I was a spoiled kid.

Nice, that's something I could only dream about! At least as an adult I've been able to visit Japan a lot, and yep, I buy some vintage Japanese toys to make up for what I was deprived of as a kid. I've seen old issues of Terebi Magazine, those are awesome to flip through.

OP might be interested in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It's somewhat recent (more recent than Ghost in the Shell anyway) and often in the $5 digital sales.

My early anime movies were all Miyazaki starting with Mononoke, then I went on to Akira etc. I've never gotten heavily into the genre.

As was noted earlier, studios use stats to see whether customers prefer the dub or the original language, and clearly the dubs are favored.

I was heavy into anime and manga back in the 90s but not so much these days, I guess it was a bit of a fad for me. Now I only watch the occasional one (including the recent Miyazaki film which I though was fantastic).

Honestly if you've never watched them it's probably worth subbing to Max for a month and going through the Ghibli films one by one. In addition to Shinkai there are several prominent directors who did a bunch of movies:

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a good one, and the director (Mamoru Hosoda) also did
Wolf Children
Boy and the Beast
Mirai
Belle

Belle is on Max.

Satoshi Kon did:
Perfect Blue
Millenium Actress
Tokyo Godfathers
Paprika

Grave of the Fireflies is haunting but I don't think it's available for streaming. And man I didn't realize Netflix doesn't have A Silent Voice anymore.