does anyone like the Alternative world?

[xxpacmanv1]

Is it just me or do the majority of the people not like the Alternative World?  Personally i think it's great, but for some odd reason i just can't get myself to like the wanderers...maybe it's because i watched it right after i had seen the ova's and the alternative world so i had my prejudices about the characters and storyline.  Well i guess it's that and i guess it's partly because qawoor is one of my favorite characters

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Actually, let me just be blunt and say that, yes, that actually makes you a "weird" El-Hazard fan.    But seriously, it always strikes me as a curiosity when one actually finds Alternative World to be a favorite.  Once a not-too-long time ago, I was against Wanderers for the same reasons you speak of, but genuinely fond of all the string series OAV1-OAV2-AW.

However, eventually I decided that I needed to lighten up if I was going to maintain a general site and represent the series collectively, so I put things in mental ranks and left them that way.

But that by no means states that YOU have to!  It's fine if you only like a particular branch and not another.  My sister also doesn't care for Wanderers (although she's never actually seen more than a few moments of it ) mostly I suspect because of the de-cooling of Ifurita.

I too am actually an Alternative World fan to a degree.  I like some of the things it posed for theory, but I will admit that in overall entertainment degree it is lacking.  That is, I like its concepts, but I don't know if I'd really want to sit down and watch it through again.  At least not right away.  Whereas OAV1 begs to be watched through at least 2 or 3 times before given a break.  At least some of the big characters like Jinnai and Fatora are at their best in Alternative World, so I think that keeps it alive.

I will admit I've never really minded Makoto, and concider him the generic important hero figure who is the center of the universe for some reason.  However he really is off in AW.  Mostly I think because he's not part of any real conflict, he kind of gets reduced to "party technician".  His job is to sit there and figure out how to fix everything, meanwhile it's the  two groups Fatora and the kids and Jinnai, Groucho, and Shayla who're out there fending for themselves and finding trouble.


Anyway, yes, to the original question, most people do NOT like the Alternative World.  Neil doesn't either, but he's only seen the first quarter of it, so he can't possibly upgrade his status at least to "okay" as I've actually lowered mine to.  (I used to biasedly raise it higher in praise because I didn't like Wanderers.)

A lot of people also don't like Qawool because she lacks substance.  (Kind of like Makoto.)  Of course, I only see all of these problems as something I want to address collectively in a project someday to kind of "salvage" Alternative World.  But that's still a bit away at the moment.


ROB'S DUB NOTICE


I don't know if you're a dub fan or not (if you haven't gathered, me and Neil both praise the dub well over the original sub), but anyone who is, can I get you to ever spell "Qawoor" as "Qawool"?  The 'r' is an Engrish element.  They say "ool" on the end in the show!  And "Arjah" is pronounced "All-oo-jah" in that one moment they say it at all, so "Allujah" would be the better spelling.  For some reason AW is the only series where they didn't properly "English-fy" the names in print form, but they did in audio.

[Kathy Guinea]

But that by no means states that YOU have to!  It's fine if you only like a particular branch and not another.  My sister also doesn't care for Wanderers (although she's never actually seen more than a few moments of it ) mostly I suspect because of the de-cooling of Ifurita.

Heh it's true... Wanderers just didn't grab me... I suppose I MAY watch it someday when I have time. But mainly what turned me off was Ifurita. Ifurita was my FAVORITE character in OVA 1 and 2. I was kinda grizzled that Wanderers Ifurita was not kick ass but kinda ditsy and annoying. :p

I liked Alternative world for Emperor Dahl, Parnasse and Gilda. Dahl and Parnasse amused me (Dahl especially cos he was so eccentric). Gilda was sooo grizzled. I liked her cos she was all pissy and bitter. I sympathize with her... ; anyone who has been REALLY burned can identify with her. She also didn't take crap from anyone. I respect that. She practically ran the damn empire anyhow. She was cool.

[MrWhat]

(coughs) The Alternative Amuck (coughs)  

For me, the Alt World is probably a somewhat below-average series-- at least, as I write this.  But, of course, my obsession with the El-Hazard franchise is off the scale, so the Alt World gets watched a lot more often than any other somewhat below-average series around here.

You say po-tay-to, I say po-tah-to.  You say Qawoo*, I say Kauru  

[Tim needs time to work it out]

Phonetically speaking...

To me "Kauru" would sound like ca-oo-ru, much like a bird with a dog bark.

Of course, we all could spell Shayla "Shaellah" or Miz Mishtal "Meeze Myshtar" and Afura Mann "Afrah Mahn".  

Now... do you say "to-mah-to" or "to-may-to"?

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

See the Etranger book pages 10 - 24 for more Japanese-Engrish translations, like Londs -> Ronz.

The English-ification process is two-fold, don't forget.  The Japanese are trying to use non-Japanese names, for which they do not have phonetics for.  It's not just for my own amusement, but it's more or less the most proper way we can represent what they were trying to say in the first place.  For example (let's see if I remember this correctly), my sister's name is Sarah (Sah-rah).  The closest the Japanese can come up with is "Say-lah", or something to that extent.  And our last name of "Showalter" (prounounced the way it looks) blew her Japanese instructor's mind.

So anyway, case in point, Kauru is just phonetic copying from the original Japanese, which wasn't exactly "right" to begin with.  

[Kathy Guinea]

 For example (let's see if I remember this correctly), my sister's name is Sarah (Sah-rah).  The closest the Japanese can come up with is "Say-lah", or something to that extent.  And our last name of "Showalter" (prounounced the way it looks) blew her Japanese instructor's mind. 

heh actually she eventually decided on Se-ra as far as Katakana goes... as for our last name she wrote it and rewrote it about 5 times ^_^; it kinda did throw her.

[xxpacmanv1]

ROB'S DUB NOTICE


I don't know if you're a dub fan or not (if you haven't gathered, me and Neil both praise the dub well over the original sub), but anyone who is, can I get you to ever spell "Qawoor" as "Qawool"?  The 'r' is an Engrish element.  They say "ool" on the end in the show!  And "Arjah" is pronounced "All-oo-jah" in that one moment they say it at all, so "Allujah" would be the better spelling.  For some reason AW is the only series where they didn't properly "English-fy" the names in print form, but they did in audio.

Actually yea i prefer watching it in english, well that's how i am with all anime(no matter how bad the dubbed voices can be...and even though most people who swear by the original japanese dubbing hate to hear this, japanese voice actors can be just as bad and are, but i will admit not as much though)  i always thought it was qawool but i've always seen it spelled as qawoor so i figured it was just bad pronunciation... thanks for the correction.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

On that note, another forum has linked to me to quite a nice read:
Dub vs. Sub, the article to put a nice foot down on the issue  Addresses all common arguements I've ever heard, including talent, cultural representation, "translation ability" and more!  

Get into a habit of spelling "Qawool" and "Allujah", and you'll make me a very happy guy

[dooky]

Heheh... once a "Qawoor" man, always a "Qawoor" man, I'm afraid ^_^ I've always used this spelling, simply because it's the one Pioneer always uses on credits and the like. And whilst the pronunciation is clearly a bit different, I just think it makes the name seem a bit more exotic. Also, don't forget that a Q without a U after it is always pronounced like a K... (such as the country of Qatar), and yet the dub always pronounces it "Quawool". There are people who still spell her name as 'Kauru', so I don't feel like a single letter makes any difference anyway.

Arjah is a bit more of a problem, but his name is only ever mentioned once anyway. So again, I go with Pioneer's spelling. Chabil is the worst, since his name has two alternative spellings and the dub agrees with neither of them...

I'm afraid we just have to accept that there is no definitive answer to the problem of romanising anime names. Look at Tenchi fandom, still arguing over whether it's Ayeka or Aeka after all these years...

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Alternative World still has retained spellings that they simply didn't use.  They use the Japanese prounciation spellings (albeit more corrected then "Kauru", which is pure Japanese phonetic distortion) as opposed to "corrected" ones in English.  And I am aware of the "Q" versus "Qu" problem.  On that note, after thinking about it, maybe it should be Quawool then.    I really don't know how "Qawoor" is anymore exotic.

[Saucer]

That's just how names evolve. Japanese phonetics determine in the end what the name is. Otherwise, Belldandy of Oh My Goddess would still be Verthani.

In the end, the way you're really supposed to spell it is in Japanese characters. But we can't always do that, can we?

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Especially with this board and the filter of everything except pretty much alphanumerics.

But no, seriously.  Japanese phonetics don't always represent the name the way it's really "meant" to sound, even in pure Kanji.  The only one who really knows how it's meant to sound is the creator.  Only the painfully elite English speakers in Japanese will ever say names correctly.

The El-Hazard Saturn game was good to listen to for variance.  AFAIK the VA's were the same as in the show for Japanese.

Obviously Japanese names like Makoto, Fujisawa, Nanami, Jinnai all come go in and come out like they're supposed to.  However, take for example the name "Alielle".  We say it "Ahl-ee-elle".  The Saturn audio...

Ahel-lay-lay
Aal-lehd-ley
Ah-lay-lay

I think Fujisawa was the only one who could, on occasion and usually only when he talked fast, actually pronounce it "Ahl-ee-elle".

Given Japanese phonetics yield such varied results, no, I don't think Kanji is even proper representation of the names.  Those were "best fit" to begin with.  Unless the names themselves were Japanese to begin with, in which case, it's obviously okay.  Just not always.

But hey, to be fair, it's not like English is the only set of phonetics, either.  Lots of Middle Eastern names, for example, are near-impossible to pronounce, right?

[MrWhat]

Now... do you say "to-mah-to" or "to-may-to"?

Well, I'm from central Illinois, in the midwest USA, so I say "tuh-MAY-ter."  It may help to imagine that in David Letterman's "dumb guy" voice  

So anyway, case in point, Kauru is just phonetic copying from the original Japanese, which wasn't exactly "right" to begin with.  

Yup.  Ka uu ru  Ta u ra su, from the big katakana on the right hand side of this page.

Didn't mean to start or continue a dub vs. sub argument.  I just like "Kauru" better than "Qawoo*" myself.

Just to wander back in the general direction of the original topic...  Kauru isn't really a favorite character of mine, but she is interesting.  Afura, Shayla and Kauru have such wonderfully contrasting personalities, it's a shame AIC couldn't have given them a little spin-off OVA of their own, or something.

[kiri_kitty_kitt]

Obviously Japanese names like Makoto, Fujisawa, Nanami, Jinnai all come go in and come out like they're supposed to.  However, take for example the name "Alielle".  We say it "Ahl-ee-elle".  The Saturn audio...

Ahel-lay-lay
Aal-lehd-ley
Ah-lay-lay

I think Fujisawa was the only one who could, on occasion and usually only when he talked fast, actually pronounce it "Ahl-ee-elle".

x_X Arg! That drove me nuts when I watched the subs.

Kitt: *listening to voices* Huh? Did Fatora call her Ariru?...No wait, Makato's calling Alieeh. But Fatora's calling her Arrrru now...X_X

On Topic - I like the Alternate world . I just don't care for it's story flow...