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elabySo, we watched M. Butterfly tonight, which, by the way, is not what I
was referring to in the title. It was good; WEIRD, but good. The end
was very weird and depressing, but it was... going along quite nicely
up until then ^^;;
But
it set me on a strange train of thought, first to the song Dude Looks
Like a Lady, and then to the anime music video that I have to that
song. And that video has a couple clips in it (only one, actually) from
an anime called Maze.
Which is possibly the worst anime I have
ever had the misfortune of seeing the entirety of. Half because it had
such promise at the beginning.
It all started at the mini-con I
went to at the University of Maine Farmington. My mother spent most of
the time holed up in the anime theatres in the basement, whilst I ran
about in a Kunzite costume. I don't know what I was doing when she saw
Maze the first time... I might have been watching Tenshi ni Narumon in
a room upstairs. Anyway, she came to me raving about how this show was
SO funny, and I had to come watch it... it was very funny, indeed.
The
problem was that when we got our own copy of the fansubs, the subtitles
were a radically different translation. Much more literal, much less
amusing. The other problem was that the tapes themselves were SO bad
that you often couldn't see the subtitles at all, and all the colors
were reduced to shades of brown. Yet, we watched the whole series.
The
reason M. Butterfly reminded me of this show was that the main premise
was one of a girl who turns into a guy. Not that that has much to do
with M. Butterfly, but Maze really seemed to be utterly based in gender
weirdness. The main character, Maze, turned into a boy at night - a boy
who looked just like her brother, Akira. She stumbled into some
alternate fantasy universe at the beginning of the show. The reason her
name was Maze was because her name was Mei, and her brother's name also
could be read as "Mei", so the kids at school called them "Meis". The
problem with this (aside from the obvious) was that Male Maze was,
while a lech, absolutely hilarious. Akira, when in the normal world
(Maze went back sometime during the series, they were separate people
there) was a whiny, depressive, wannabe-punkass LOSER.
Other
than those two/one, for gender abnormality in the cast, was The
Lesbian, who wanted to get into Female Maze's pants, and wanted to
eviscerate Male Maze. There was a woman who was raised as a man because
her father wanted a son, and she was a nifty military type but I THINK
she was in love with her (male) captain. Then there was Gorgeous and
Chic. I thought the latter's name was Sheik, because that's how the
subtitles put it... since, how would they know what it was supposed to
be? Gorgeous was, well, gorgeous - purple hair, nifty face markings,
Treize's voice. I was very happy with him.
Segue time for a
voice-actor check. Female Maze was done by Mitsuishi Kotono, aka Juri,
Sailor Moon, and Excel. Male Maze was done by Seki Tomokazu, aka CCS's
Touya, Van, and Ken from Weiss Kreuz. Gorgeous was indeed Treize's
voice (Okiayu Ryuutarou, also Crawford), and Solude, who I think was
the nifty military lady, was Orikasa Ai (Ryouko, Quatre). Somebody was
Midorikawa Hikaru (Heero, Fiore, Mikage) but I don't remember who the
character was O.o Back to rambling.
There was the generic
Annoying Prepubescent Princess when all anime have to have, but this
one wore only ribbons over her chest ¬_¬ BAD anime, I tell you. The
only good thing about her was that she called Maze Oneenii-sama
(onee-sama - big sister/ onii-sama - big brother). Speaking of
brothers, Gorgeous's brother, Chic, was pretty cool too. Much less of a
pansy, but still pretty (though not as girly). However, by the end of
the show, it all got so plot-fucked and the subtitles were so bad that
we really had NO idea what was going on. What we COULD figure out about
the plot was absolutely terrible, and the rest was just confusing, in a
stupid, boring way.
The Anime that Could Have Been. Really, the only good things about that show were the opening and ending songs, which rocked.
was referring to in the title. It was good; WEIRD, but good. The end
was very weird and depressing, but it was... going along quite nicely
up until then ^^;;
But
it set me on a strange train of thought, first to the song Dude Looks
Like a Lady, and then to the anime music video that I have to that
song. And that video has a couple clips in it (only one, actually) from
an anime called Maze.
Which is possibly the worst anime I have
ever had the misfortune of seeing the entirety of. Half because it had
such promise at the beginning.
It all started at the mini-con I
went to at the University of Maine Farmington. My mother spent most of
the time holed up in the anime theatres in the basement, whilst I ran
about in a Kunzite costume. I don't know what I was doing when she saw
Maze the first time... I might have been watching Tenshi ni Narumon in
a room upstairs. Anyway, she came to me raving about how this show was
SO funny, and I had to come watch it... it was very funny, indeed.
The
problem was that when we got our own copy of the fansubs, the subtitles
were a radically different translation. Much more literal, much less
amusing. The other problem was that the tapes themselves were SO bad
that you often couldn't see the subtitles at all, and all the colors
were reduced to shades of brown. Yet, we watched the whole series.
The
reason M. Butterfly reminded me of this show was that the main premise
was one of a girl who turns into a guy. Not that that has much to do
with M. Butterfly, but Maze really seemed to be utterly based in gender
weirdness. The main character, Maze, turned into a boy at night - a boy
who looked just like her brother, Akira. She stumbled into some
alternate fantasy universe at the beginning of the show. The reason her
name was Maze was because her name was Mei, and her brother's name also
could be read as "Mei", so the kids at school called them "Meis". The
problem with this (aside from the obvious) was that Male Maze was,
while a lech, absolutely hilarious. Akira, when in the normal world
(Maze went back sometime during the series, they were separate people
there) was a whiny, depressive, wannabe-punkass LOSER.
Other
than those two/one, for gender abnormality in the cast, was The
Lesbian, who wanted to get into Female Maze's pants, and wanted to
eviscerate Male Maze. There was a woman who was raised as a man because
her father wanted a son, and she was a nifty military type but I THINK
she was in love with her (male) captain. Then there was Gorgeous and
Chic. I thought the latter's name was Sheik, because that's how the
subtitles put it... since, how would they know what it was supposed to
be? Gorgeous was, well, gorgeous - purple hair, nifty face markings,
Treize's voice. I was very happy with him.
Segue time for a
voice-actor check. Female Maze was done by Mitsuishi Kotono, aka Juri,
Sailor Moon, and Excel. Male Maze was done by Seki Tomokazu, aka CCS's
Touya, Van, and Ken from Weiss Kreuz. Gorgeous was indeed Treize's
voice (Okiayu Ryuutarou, also Crawford), and Solude, who I think was
the nifty military lady, was Orikasa Ai (Ryouko, Quatre). Somebody was
Midorikawa Hikaru (Heero, Fiore, Mikage) but I don't remember who the
character was O.o Back to rambling.
There was the generic
Annoying Prepubescent Princess when all anime have to have, but this
one wore only ribbons over her chest ¬_¬ BAD anime, I tell you. The
only good thing about her was that she called Maze Oneenii-sama
(onee-sama - big sister/ onii-sama - big brother). Speaking of
brothers, Gorgeous's brother, Chic, was pretty cool too. Much less of a
pansy, but still pretty (though not as girly). However, by the end of
the show, it all got so plot-fucked and the subtitles were so bad that
we really had NO idea what was going on. What we COULD figure out about
the plot was absolutely terrible, and the rest was just confusing, in a
stupid, boring way.
The Anime that Could Have Been. Really, the only good things about that show were the opening and ending songs, which rocked.
