[Frein]

Originally Posted by Taiyz

First-off, I'm gonna say that my entire opinion refers to North America.

Fair enough.

I can't logically agree with this, as I've gotten into conversations with some of my European friends about this; they don't like the "accent" in American English dubs, so they dislike everything, where-as in a language they don't natively speak, accent means nothing to them, which is why they prefer Japanese with subtitles. How many times have you been bothered by character who speaks with a Kansai-ben? I'd imagine not often.

The Haruhi dub was fantastic to most American audiences. Hell, the Haruhi dub was CHOSEN by American audiences. They had 5 people casted for each main character, and allowed the fans to vote on the voice they liked best, without giving away the actor names. There was no way the dub could be in bad taste.

I don't think the accent is the problem. American TV is everywhere over here as well and it sounds very natural to me, except in dubs. I don't know what it is, but your dubs tend to have different voice acting than when actual actors speak. It's like I can tell I'm listening to a dub without seeing the screen.

Also, the Japanese names really cause problems as they sound so silly when pronounced by English speaking actors, especially when they seem to just "Americanize" it without even trying to pronounce it like a native, or perhaps they just can't. It's perhaps a bit difficult for me to relate with that as Finnish is phonetically so close to Japanese that I could probably pass for a native speaker if I really focused.

And finally, Kansai-ben rocks. It's often hard to understand but it's always a breath of fresh air.

As for the "appeal" of Lucky Star, it isn't "moe" like you seem to think. Sure it has girls, but did people watch Azumanga Daioh because the characters were physically attractive? No, it was for the comedy. Genshiken succeeded MASSIVELY in America as a slow-paced, slice-of-life otaku comedic commentary, and Lucky Star is no different; it just has a mostly female cast.

I still think LS is almost pure moe. I don't know what according to you is required for a series to be moe, but LS isn't really that 'funny', so I don't see it as an actual comedy. 'Entertaining' is the word I'd use and it does rely heavily on a set of cute female characters, after all. Even Konata thinks Miyuki is totally moe.

Besides, there are few people less manly than Minoru Shiraishi and Anime Tenchou.

Haha, yeah, they're almost as manly as a certain To Heart scooter.

You mean like how GONZO just started releasing two of their newest series' simultaneously world-wide, and for FREE at several streaming sites, with options to pay for direct-download high quality files?

I don't think this debate could've been held at a more convenient time. >_>

/grindsteeth

Well good for Gonzo, though the other studios need to join in to make the industry-wide service reality. Besides, Gonzo makes so much crap. :P