Japanese Pilot

[Jiraiya]

I found a very cool video on YouTube which seems to be the test footage of XBomber.

PPA is missing his wild flailing arms.

Kirara makes a pass as Shiro.

Makara has a talk with Gelma on a video monitor, this is very Tatsunoko style.

I'd Love to get this footage and the stuff in the Go Nagi special and fuse it with Blaze's remastered first episode.

[Vanessa]

Link?

[Crash]

http://xbomber.co.uk/Star%20Fleet/X-Bom ... review.mp4

I was the one that ripped the thing off the Japanese Remaster DVDs.
That and the presentation of the discs and the printed materials were about all that really impressed me about that box set.

[Serenity]

Certainly makes you appreciate Paul Bliss's work that little bit more.

To my mind Star Fleet is an oddity in that it took the original Japanese work, overlaid an English dub, and an English soundtrack, and actually improved it. I can't really think of many other examples where that's happened!

[Bladez636]

To my mind Star Fleet is an oddity in that it took the original Japanese work, overlaid an English dub, and an English soundtrack, and actually improved it. I can't really think of many other examples where that's happened!

I agree with you on that, but really I like both versions. Still prefer the English one because it has that more epic feel to it with the music and sound effects.

The pilot is cool to see since I thought that if there was one it was probably destroyed or wiped.

[Vanessa]

Ah, that pilot. Yes I've seen that, got the Japanese remastered DVD's.
I used to think the English version was better as well, but over time I've come to appreciate the original Japanese version as well. As I can't understand Japanese, I can't say that the English version improved upon it. I find I actually like both for different reasons.
I seem to remember some critic saying that the original French version of "The Magic Roundabout" was pretty terrible, and that the English version improved upon it greatly. That's the only example I can think of.

[Serenity]

From memory I don't think a great deal was actually changed from the Japanese to the British version of the show. Narratively at least. The necessary changes, from the dub to the soundtrack I've always really liked. Paul Bliss's soundtrack I still feel to this day is incredible and was one of the main factors in differentiating it from the range of Gerry Anderson shows. It really was beautiful work on Paul's part IMO. The dub - I'm a big anime fan, and whilst I enjoy both dub and sub, sometimes I end up going with the dub more often than not as I tend to watch a lot of anime while I'm doing other things. Suffice to say, I know a weak dub when I hear one! Star Fleet's is very good. The only weakness is with some of the peripheral/background roles where they've obviously utilised the existing voice cast to save more casting, but then they're trying to not sound like themselves and it comes off a little weaker.

[Rachel]

Someone on Facebook said that the original Japanese Starfleet = much better than our English dubbed version. I can't agree with that, because I saw a Japanese episode on Youtube, and the Makara voice wasn't a patch on Denise Bryer's.

[Crash]

The soundtrack kills the Japanese version stone dead for me by comparison, I'm afraid.
It loses an awful lot of charm that comes across in the English dub too.

I'm struggling to think of another anime that I prefer to watch in English, rather than Japanese.

Certainly, with Gundam, you can't watch it in English, they turn the drama into a farce.

[Serenity]

Sounds to me like someone trying to big up their own kudos because they've seen the Japanese version, which most people won't have.

Other than that, I don't see it. The English dub (and whole audio track actually) is far superior IMO.