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Global Shinkai Day Comes to An End

5 Centimeters per Second Anime Events

Global Shinkai Day Comes to An End

And so, Global Shinkai Day has come to an end. I literally stayed up overnight until Saturday morning at six for the first session, slept for the second then stayed for the others. The number of attendees started off pretty well. It mostly floated between the 10 to 15 people mark for the day but peaked to just over 21 while Promised Days was being watched for the first time.

So who appeared? Out of my blog readers here and the other forums that I usually visit, I only recognised Maltos. Then of course, we had the organiser Laz making his opening comments to give the event a very well delivered formal introduction and, a few of the attendees helping with the countdown so that we were playing the movies at the same time. Zitch came along and, I'm sure everyone who was there would agree, unintentionally did an excellent job of a "commentary track" on the Ventrillo voice chat that he hosted. It could probably have fit in perfectly with the movie releases so far! It was also nice to see Daike, who helped promote the event, drop by to say hello too.

Global Shinkai Day Opening

CrunchyRoll had some technical problems presumably due to the surge in demand with over 22,000 hits if I remember correctly. They had all three movies streaming for the 24 hours including an official unreleased new dub of the 5 Centimetres per Second movie by Bang Zoom Entertainment. It was very well done and was very faithful to the original script except for the following.

The New Official Dub at Crunchyroll

Note the times are approximate and the original text is in italics.

16:00

  • とにかく、アカリの待つ駅に向かうしかなかった。
    It doesn't matter. I can only go on to the station where Akari is waiting.
  • It doesn't matter. I'll make it to the station where Akari's waiting  - sooner or later.

The change is good here I think because it shows Takaki more determined to reach Akari than in the original.

31:35

  • 澄田はなんかいつも真剣だよね。ものすごく。
    You're always so serious about everything.
  • You're so serious about everything - even picking a drink.

Good again since it should help the viewer wonder why she takes so long and if you've read the novel summary, she wanted to pick something that would make her look cute in front of Takaki but, he would always leave before she could.

55:32

  • そうやって いつかまた一緒に桜を見ることができると 私も彼もなんの迷いもなく そう思ってた
    And so we thought, we'd be able to see the cherry blossoms together again someday. He and I without a doubt... That's what we thought.
  • And we thought that we'd go see the cherry blossoms again together someday. He and I without a doubt... That's what we thought.

There's a slight subtle difference here. The original makes it sound like they had been expecting a chance that they'll see the blossoms together again while in the new dub, they sound like the were looking forward to it. I guess either works just before the movie ends with the "music video" and crossing scene although with that surprised look on Takaki's face, maybe the original would have been better.

Anyway, there's no news about whether this dub will be released commercially yet but, I'm sure it will considering ADV has ceased distribution of their version of the DVD release.

My thanks goes to Laz for organising the event and allowing all the Shinkai fans to gather. It was interesting hearing people speaking out their thoughts and discussing them as we went through each of the movies because there was a fair bit of new insight such as Zitch mentioning all the real world military related material used in Promised Days.

There were quite a few jokes cracked towards the last session of the day but, I think the funniest moment was the unintentional one. While I was watching the dubbed version of 5cm and was at the part where Akari was saying, "And we thought..." Zitch's voice (yes, again!) suddenly boomed over the mic saying, "Bye Fred!" That made us burst out laughing. Of course, he was just saying bye to one of the attendees. Didn't mute voice chat at the time because I was just comparing the scripts.

In the end, I think Laz and everyone else who helped promote the event has helped raise the number of fans because I've been getting a burst of hits over the weekend with people looking up Makoto Shinkai or trying to find out more about 5 Centimetres per Second. I think I might design a separate page for 5cm instead of using Wordpress for it because I like the movie so much!

Well, lets hope the online event will be even greater and that even more people will join the voice chat the second time round!

makoto shinkai


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#1

Zitch


I am tempted to put that together... actually... ;)

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#2

Xcomp Author


Too bad it doesn't have a background recording of the part of the movie I was watching when you said that!

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#3

Zitch


I was reviewing the ventrilo recordings from last year for this year's commentary and to find amusing parts to put out on MP3 (like my attempts to play guitar on vent), and I actually said: "See you later, Fred!"

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#4

Diego


Great commentary!

And that "Bye Fred!" incident makes me wish I'd been there to hear it. I was aware of the online chat, but I never knew there was a voice chat going on at the same time.

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#5

Xcomp Author


I'm not sure but if the Ghibli DVDs are any indication, they should have some good subtitles. The only bad ones I've come across are from bootlegs.

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#6

Pat


Do you know if the HK version of 5 centimeters has good english subtitles?

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#7

Nick "Zitch" Istre


I'm glad you enjoyed the commentary... :) it was surprisingly fun; I usually tend to stay quiet and in the background. And I'm not sure about being the resident Shinkai expert as Laz tried to point out; most of my information comes from interviews and other people's analysis in the first place. For example, the military hardware explanation in The Place Promised came from here, it's just difficult to add footnotes when you talk... :)

Hopefully, I can help make next year bigger and better. And I hope other knowledgeable Shinkai fans can pick up a mic and help me out... :)

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#8

Maltos


Hahaha, I had fun reading this! (Still cracking up...“Bye Fred!”)

A great summary of the day. Also seeing the comparrissons between the original and the dub are very interesting. I found the new dub shattered my expectations. Even without detailed analysis it seemed very faithful to the original in language and tone.

All in all, a very successful and rewarding day! Zitch offered up some great facts about all the films which gave me a chance to revisit them in greater detail than i've previously done (I think i've still got to go back over Voices of Distant Star and think more about the 'science' of it, hahah).
It was also great to be able to chat about the films and meet other Shinkai fans around the world and chat in great time!

Heres hoping for an even better Shinkai Day 2010!
~Maltos

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