Author: calvinschaafsma

You know I swore off these Marvel films. They aren’t my thing anymore and my dislike of them was just turning me into an unfun stick in the mud. Just a smarmy hateful little loser. So after that 4th Thor movie, I said enough is enough and called it quits. Like Pontius Pilate, I washed my hands of this film series. But now here I am, crawling back like a starving rat begging for scraps. 

But I have a good reason this time!!! That’s right I am not reviewing the film itself, but the Japanese dub. This seemed like a good segment to bolster the site. All big blockbusters come to Japan with a Japanese dub, and for the most part, they understandably go undiscussed. I have always found dubbing to be a fascinating process. Seeing how a different culture chooses to transfer over ideas and tropes. This is present in all translations obviously, but there is something so much more direct when it comes to dubbing. This can be seen in more obvious examples, like Brock’s “Jelly Donuts” in the English version of the Pokemon anime. However, my interest truly peaked when I was watching clips of the Japanese dub of Spongebob of all things.  

Specifically in the dub’s interpretation of the character Plankton. Now as any English speaker in their mid to early twenties should know, Plankton has a deep booming voice. His voice actor Mr. Lawrence gave him a deep menacing voice evocative of older American cartoon villains like Dr. Claw or Megatron. This of course enhances the comedy when he has to talk casually in that voice.

Now shift over to the Japanese Plankton and we move to the opposite end of the vocal spectrum. Far from deep and booming, his voice is incredibly high-pitched. It’s like he has been sucking down on helium. More specifically he sounds somewhat similar to how many prepubescent boys sound in anime. This can partially be traced back to the kawaii culture in Japan. Plankton is a very cute small creature. It makes sense that they saw his design and decided to make him sound like an adorable five-year-old and not a middle-aged divorcee. However, I was shocked to find in my research that Plankton’s Japanese voice is pretty much identical to the Japanese voice of Dragon Ball’s own Emperor Pilaf. Now both these characters share similar characteristics. Both are small in stature and have even shorter tempers. Both are also parodies of other cartoon antagonists. Running with the joke “ what if your generic cartoon villain had all the same bravado, but also completely sucked.” 

Now at this point, I assume some of you may be wondering, “why has this man spent so much time talking about Spongebob in his Ant-man review?” Well, I mainly want to establish the types of exciting changes you see when you cross the cultural line. In the case of Spongebob, the idea of a maniacal mustache-twirling villain, who is also kind of pathetic, can be interpreted in two completely different ways. I also want to emphasize this idea in regard to humor, seeing as that is one of the key calling cards of the MCU and the Ant-Man franchise in particular.

But okay no more preamble. Let’s talk about the dub. I am going to separate this into an easy-to-parse list. I’ll talk about all the major players’ voices in a ranked list, from worst to best, Starting with …

Modok

English: Corey Stoll Japanese: Hitoshi Yamanoi

I instantly forgot almost everything about this character and both performances for it. I do have the perhaps controversial opinion that I actually kind of dug the design. It gave off the silly cartoony energy that the comic book character is known for, and that this film works best in. However, that’s about it. At least he wasn’t annoying. Next. 

Cassie Lang

English: Kathryn Newton Japanese: Rie Takahashi

I want to start this off by saying that I don’t think any of the dub actors did a bad job here. In this case, I would even say Rie Takahashi did better than Kathryn Newton. The problem here really lies in the character herself. Pretty much most of the horrible marvel style dialogue was placed purely on Cassie and Scott’s lap. We’ll get to Scott eventually but this harms Cassie as this is essentially our introduction to the character. Another problem is I don’t think Newton was really on set with the rest of the cast much. At least that’s how it comes off in the final product. It’s pretty rare to see any close-up shots of the cast sharing a frame, but it’s almost like playing Where’s Waldo with Cassie. It doesn’t seem like Newton was acting against actual people and thus didn’t really know the context or intended tone of her lines. This is actually where the Takahashi has an advantage. Being able to dub the film with knowledge of the full story means there are fewer awkward line reads. However, I think my real problem with Takahashi’s Cassie is just that she sounds younger than the character looks. This is Marvel’s problem. Cassie is supposed to be a teenager in the film, and Takahashi plays her like that. For example, she constantly refers to Scott as “Papa” instead of the more formal “Otousan” and it just feels off. The problem is just that Kathryn Newton looks like she is in her early 20’s. There are age-specific vocab and mannerisms in the film that don’t match with how the character looks visually and it becomes quite distracting after a while. 

Kang The Conqueror 

English: Jonathan Majors Japanese: Kazumasa Nakamura

Next, we sadly have Marvel’s next big bad Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathon majors and dubbed by Kazuma Nakmura. In this case, we don’t have an issue with performers, both these men are very talented. I think the issue lies with marvel’s interpretation of Kang. they go for quiet menace and that doesn’t really work with a film and concept this silly. Kang is a multiversal conqueror who was apparently so chaotic that he was banished by his alternate selves to a place called the quantum realm. Now reading that you can hopefully see the issue. We’re getting into some hardcore genre of sci-fi. Real nerdy stuff.  This type of ridiculousness needed some bug-eyed Michael Shannon as Zodd energy. Especially with some of the turns near the end of the film, quite menace just doesn’t cut it. Jonathon Majors is sometimes operating at that level, but that type of crazed intensity never crystallizes in the dub.      

Hope Van Dyne 

English: Evangeline Lilly Japanese: Yuki Uchida

This is our neutral spot on the list. Played by Evangeline Lily and dubbed by Yuki Uchida, both these women have years of experience with the role at this point and they fit comfortably back in. It’s hard to get a real gauge of the performance as the character is barely utilized in the film. A real shame given the title suggests she is a co-lead. As such this will stand all neutral 0 on the ph scale of performances here.   

Hank Pym

English: Michael Douglas Japanese: Kimiyoshi Mitomo

Next we have Michael Douglas and Kimiyoshi Otomo as Hank Pym. This is another example of a veteran of the character, where Otomo has been dubbing Hank since the original. This is also an example of one of the major players in this franchise being sidelined for the third film. I do wonder how much of this was Michael Douglas not wanting to commit to a lengthy shoot, but it’s probably best not to speculate. Regardless, Michael Douglass has a dynamite screen presence even when I’m not hearing his voice and Otomo is allowed to loosen up with a much more chilled-out Hank Pym than in previous films. Overall I feel this is somewhat interchangeable with Hope, however, I’m going to give the nod to Otomo as I feel the more downplayed calmed performance works better with the shrunken role.

Scott Lang

English: Paul Rudd Japanese: Hidenobu Kiuchi

Scott himself was the voice I was most looking forward to hearing. Played by Paul Rudd in English; the Japanese voice is none other than the incredibly talented Hidenobu Kiuchi. Kiuchi is probably most famous for roles such as Kenzo Tenma in Monster, Ryohei Sasagawa in Hitman Reborn!, and most exciting to me was Hol Horse in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Both Hol Horse and to a lesser extent Ryohei are characters that show the exact type of high-energy absurdity that a film like Ant-Man needs. Kiuchi has been Paul Rudd’s Japanese voice for years now also dubbing for films like Ghostbusters: Afterlife. This should be a comedic slam dunk. That’s why I was so surprised to see that it was the dramatic moments that Kikuchi was hitting for me. Now, this is not a surprise in that I didn’t think Kikuchi could do drama. He has proven on many occasions that he absolutely can. It was just that there is a decent gulf in quality behind the dramatic reads and the jokes. Now a few of the jokes land, but for the most part they fall pretty flat. I was puzzled as to why this was until it finally clicked with me. The marvel style of quips just doesn’t really fit with more over-the-top anime voice stylings. Marvel jokes are meant to come quick and not hit very hard. They keep things light without being too absurdist. This more sarcastic mumblecore vibe of joke just doesn’t connect with a performance style that needs to be more over the top. I kept hoping for some big exaggerated reactions or just some more energy with the delivery. Sadly it never really materializes. On the other hand, Kikuchi is on the perfect wavelength for dramatic moments. I especially love the scenes where Scott needs to be a loving but stern father to Cassie. This type of family drama was what the original Ant-man movies did well and was for the most part missing in this one. That’s why it is a huge breath of fresh air when the film does go down that route.     

Janet Van Dyne

English: Michelle Pfeiffer Japanese: Gara Takashima

Last and the exact opposite of least will be Michelle Pfeiffer and Gara Takashima as Janet Van Dyne. Takashima is a veteran dubbing actress who has been the voice of Michelle Pfeiffer since 1983 with Scarface. She is also the main dubbing actress for celebrities such as Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Emma Thompson, and is even the Japanese voice of Princess Leia. As such this third-rate Ant-man movie is child’s play for her. On top of that Janet is the most prominent character in the film besides Scott. She has the clearest and most concise arc and the best overall scenes in the film. Particularly the ones where she has to act against the film’s villain Kang. However, she has great chemistry with all of her castmates, able to jump from stoic badass, to snarky quip machine, to loving mother, to mysterious secret haver all at the drop of a hat. Her presence is easily the highlight of the film.

And there you have it. Please let me know if this is the type of content you like seeing here and if you would be interested in any more. I have a review of the new Japanese film Blue Giant coming in a week or two. Until then, happy trails.

In the year of our lord 2023, I think most anime fans, in the know, are aware of both Mamoru Oshii and Rumiko Takahashi. The former being the legendary director responsible for classics such as Angel’s Egg, Jin-Roh, the entire Patlabor franchise, and of course Ghost in the Shell; The latter being the prolific writer of shojo manga classics such as Inuyasha, Maison Ikkoku, and Ranma ½; so on and so forth. Both veritable icons in the industry with incalculable numbers of works and creators influenced by them. Despite the obvious canyon-sized gulf between the stories they are known for, both their careers share a common nexus point. That point being a silly little gag series called Urusei Yatsura.   

Rumiko Takahashi started writing Urusei Yatsura in 1978. It’s a comedy romance manga about a high schooler named Ataru Moroboshi, and an alien princess named Lum. After a complicated set and ridiculous set of circumstances, she comes to believe that she is Ataru’s wife after he accidentally proposes to her. As was customary for popular manga of the day (and currently as well) an anime was produced. In 1981 the anime first aired with the then-relatively unknown Mamoru Oshii as the series’ chief director. Oshii brought directorial finesse and a sense of grandiosity to the series. The episodes were mostly straight adaptations of the chapters written by Rumiko Takahashi. However, Takahashi’s jovial free-wheeling character archetypes and Oshii’s light arthouse sensibilities created a bizarre yet compelling combination. He stayed on the show for the first 106 episodes of its run; directing 24 episodes himself and the first 2 films.

That brings us to the key topic for today. That being the second film, Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer. Unlike the first film, Beautiful Dreamer was written entirely by Oshii himself, and you can see his handprints all over it. Anyone who loves films like Ghost in the Shell or Angel’s Egg owes it to themselves to watch this movie, as many techniques used there can be found here as well. Albeit, in a much lighter more family-friendly overall package. There are many narrative diversions where the story/tone flips on its head and transforms into something entirely new. It deals with heady themes with certain parsley animated scenes featuring purposefully didactic monologues on whatever themes Oshii was interested in at the time. There is an avalanche of surreal imagery and visual metaphor that would make any film hard to follow even in one’s native tongue. It’s a multilayered complex film inside one of the most deceivingly approachable packages it could be part of.

That’s a big reason why I was so interested in experiencing this film without subtitles to guide me. On the one hand, while it is quite easy to grow accustomed to reading and watching at the same time; (so much so that one barely notices after a few minutes) it is true that Subtitles can sometimes distract from the imagery of a given piece of visual media. I wanted to look at this film with new eyes and really take in the rich animation on display. I have already seen this film multiple times, so I was not too worried about being lost. On top of that, despite the complex narrative, it’s still fundamentally aimed at younger audiences with themes mainly geared toward teenagers. This made it a great start to this project. It’s a good test run to see how well-crafted films are able to, not only convey narrative, but also motifs and ideas through cinematic tools other than dialogue.  

Admittedly some scenes were a bit difficult to parse, especially the ones heavy on dialogue. This includes most of the scenes involving the character Sakura. Sakura is the school nurse and serves as a sort of mentor character throughout the film. As such most of her scenes end up being rather expository. In one key scene, Sakura is unknowingly confronted by the main antagonist of the film, Mujaki. A “dream” spirit that has trapped the cast in a time loop. Forcing them to repeat the same day over and over, without them noticing.

In the scene Mujaki is disguised as a Taxi driver, driving Sakura back home. After a while, Sakura asks why the drive is taking so long; prompting a perhaps a bit pretentious and dubiously set up elongated dialectical discussion on the relativity time. These introspective almost Brechtian philosophical debates between characters would become commonplace in Oshii’s later films such as Ghost in the Shell or Patlabor 2. They are very low-energy scenes with animation that focuses more on the background. It’s not necessarily cinematic and it’s certainly hard to parse even if one does know the language, as it does deal with surprisingly complicated concepts for a children’s anime. 

On the surface, the visuals do little to help relieve one’s confusion. Most of the scene consists of what is essentially the animated equivalent of a still shot. We only see Sakura and Mujaki sitting in the car, talking; as the street lights go by, in the background. However, it is in those street lights that meaning is found. As the drive continues we see them pass by one after the other, almost in a rhythm. Mujaki and Sakura are partially draped in shadows. The streetlights remain in the background but they become the clearest source of light in the scene. The street light becomes a time loop themselves; endlessly repeating. A visual metaphor for the cyclical nature of how the characters are experiencing the current day.

In fact, driving and the open road serves as a metaphor for time at many moments in the film. Near the beginning, there is a confrontation between our protagonist Ataru and his rival Mendou. Mendou is driving Ataru back home and lecturing him about his behavior at school. Like Sakura in the Taxi, the streets are curiously quiet and barren. All Ataru can do to pass the time is stare out at the windows of the passing buildings. There is a protracted shot of Ataru staring at the windows as the car drives on. We see the animation loop as buildings pass on by; Ataru’s reflection looping along with them.

In both of these scenes, The world outside the vehicle is repeating. As Mujaki comments “Maybe time slows down when you’re in a Taxi.” Anyone familiar with long drives, especially ones in the late hours of the night and early morning has personal experience with this. Time is relative on the road. You exist in your own little pocket dimension, where everything slows to a crawl. The mundanity of it all consumes you. I myself am no stranger to long road trips and arriving home far past the time everyone else has gone to bed. For me, it was always the trees. Driving on endless stretches of straight roads as a near-infinite forest of trees seems to stretch forever into the horizon. It’s almost hypnotic.

Oshii not only captures the madcap plot of time loops and pocket dimensions, but also the film’s themes, just by subtly honing in on the almost universal human experience of long late-night drives. Even if you can’t understand a single word of what is being said, you can feel it in the atmosphere. It may call to mind similar experiences of your own late nights on the open road.   

The taxi scene also contains another clue into the mysteries of the film. When discussing the taxi ride, Mujaki alludes to the Japanese folktale character Urashima Taro. In fact, the story of Urashima Taro is referenced a number of times throughout the film. These references to Japanese folklore are par for the course in the stories of Rumiko Takahashi. Many of Takahashi’s stories deal with Japanese folktales, but why this Urashima Taro in particular? Urashima Taro is an old tale about a man of the same name. One day he saves a small turtle from being attacked by a group of young children. The following day a larger turtle comes to the surface to thank Taro. As a gift, he gives Taro gills and brings him to a magnificent undersea palace to meet princess Otohime. Taro stays with the princess for 3 days; before departing Otohime gives him a mysterious box but warns him not to open it. When Taro returns to the surface, he is distraught to learn that 300 years have passed since he last left. In his despair he opens the box and immediately ages 300 years, Otohime laments from the water that she warned him not to open the box, as it contained his old age.

There are some pretty obvious parallels between this rather dark fairytale and the themes of the film. Beautiful Dreamer goes further and literalizes this metaphor near the end of the story. In the climax, It is revealed that our cast has become trapped in the series mascot Lum’s dream. Earlier in the film, she talks wistfully about how she would like to spend forever in these youthful days with her friends. Thus, in her dream, everyone is stuck repeating the same day. Like Taro spent 3 magical days in an underwater kingdom, unaware he was there for hundreds of years. The cast spends one eventful school day with each other, unaware they have been doing this for months.

The metaphor is at its most blatant when the cast finally leaves the city. In Mendou’s Jet, they fly into the sky. From this higher vantage point they notice that their hometown is no longer connected to the rest of the world, but now floating in space suspended on a large turtle (I told you the imagery gets wild in this).  That is as literal a reference to the Urashima Taro myth as you can get. Like how the turtle brought Taro to an undersea palace, these characters are being carried to their own magical dreamland on the back of a turtle.

Like the rest of Takahashi’s series that the movie is based on, Beautiful Dreamer uses common Japanese myths and folktales to tell its story and reveal more about its characters. Anyone familiar with these myths will be able to pick up on the imagery being displayed without needing to hear the characters explain it to them.       

As the days continue the city itself starts to crumble. All the people that are not primary characters disappear. This marks the key genre and tonal shift in the film. As the school and city slowly change into rubble, the film takes on the aesthetic of a post-apocalyptic survival film. It’s still a silly animated teen comedy at heart, but the setting and many of the genre conventions seem to share more DNA with Mad Max than Breakfast Club.

This is not the last time the film’s genre walls start to completely break down. Once the scope of the story is revealed to Ataru. He is sent on a veritable nature tour of new dreams as Mujaki tries to get rid of him. Naturally, all of these dreams take the form of classic Hollywood films. Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Frankenstein. These references help ground the film and guide the viewer through its pretty wild plot and drastic tonal shifts. Intertextuality is used to keep things light, but also give the audience a visual jumping on point to better engage with what is going on. This includes story references from Urashima Taro to Godzilla.

That’s at least part of how I was able to keep track of the insanity on display. Beautiful Dreamer is jam-packed with mesmerizing moments of unreal animation that I didn’t have time or justification to talk about here. I have seen the movie multiple times at this point, and every time there are multiple scenes I forget about entirely, that blow me away all over again. It’s not that they are unmemorable, far from it. It’s just that there is too much in this one movie to completely internalize. It’s filled to the brim with bizarre imagery and mind-bending scenes. I didn’t have time to touch on the flying elephant that grows huge and devours the dream world, or the Giant unsettling statues of the humans ejected from the dream.

You’ll just have to find all that stuff for yourself. The film is available dubbed on amazon prime, and the dub is quite good from what I have heard. Sadly, it is more difficult to get one’s hands on the original Japanese version with subtitles. That is one of the key motivators in starting this project. You can buy the blue ray if you want to experience the film in its original language, and I highly recommend that you do. It’s one of my favorite films and I would love it if more people could get the chance to hopefully love it as I do.