Okaeri, Tales of Inoue Marina-holic
So it seems lately that a lot of the stuff I’m watching or playing at the moment has Inoue Marina in it. Which is a good thing.
Firstly, most of my time is now being taken up by playing Tales of Hearts (anime version) on the DS. I’m not a Tales fan at all, preferring my Dragon Quests, Dark Clouds, Golden Suns and Final Fantasies, but I was desperate for anything resembling a RPG after my Disgaea save game went kaput (having logged some 90 hours of play).
I knew the Tales cast was good – we have Kakihara Tetsuya voicing the hot-blooded (ie lots of screaming) Shing Meteorite, Marina the ’soulless’ heroine Kohak(u) Hearts, Matsukaze Masaya the siscon-with-the-girly-name Hisui Hearts, Ito Shizuka as the ‘nice body!’ Innes Lorenz and best of all, Minagawa Junko as the evil Incarose. I don’t know if it was the case for the other Tales games, but the seiyuu actually had to audition for their roles here – normally game-makers just call up agencies to request so-and-so specifically, as Valkyria producer Nonaka Ryutaro did for Marina as Alicia Melchiott.
Interestingly, the Tales of Hearts’ dialogue was recorded in an afureko setting, with all the seiyuu sitting in a studio like they would in a normal anime episode recording. It’s usually done individually in booths but (this) Tales game(s) has plenty of cutscenes (animated by Production I.G.) & a large chunk of the in-game dialogue is voiced, so I guess it makes sense to get everyone together. I’ve not gotten very far in the game yet – still messing around with the battle system and the Soma Build, but things are currently progressing well.
Watch the interview with Kakihara & Inoue that came with the preordered CGI version of the game – Kakky is close to perfecting his ‘kimoi’ act, almost up to Ono Daisuke level standards now! Incidentally, ToH is the fourth Kakky-Marina pairing after Gurren Lagann (Simon & Yoko), Minami-ke (Fujioka & Kana) and er… Nanoha Strikers (Eriol & Strada). Somebody sure likes putting them together…
Secondly, Minami-ke Okaeri has aired and I have upgraded my outlook for coming episodes to ‘quite optimistic’. Opening/ending song combination is the best of all the seasons so far, the gags are actually funny and the character designs/art are not as terrible as I’d imagined they would be. Marina fitted into her Kana role with ease and I was getting disturbing mental yuri images when she snuggled up to Uchida (who is voiced by Kitamura Eri – yay brain!). I also love the way Kana chomps on her food, though I’ve never known anyone over the age of 5 who sticks their thumbs in mandarins.
Thirdly, Maria†Holic. I already knew what Marina’s Matsurika was like from the drama CD, but it’s still great to hear her trading insults with Kobayashi Yu in animated form – kuso okama (shitty tranny) and mesu buta (sow) are swear words I’m keen to try out, but as yet have not found a suitable target to use them on.
Best of all, there’s still Maria-sama ga Miteru to come. It’ll be a couple of episodes yet before Shoko makes her appearance, but I’m really looking forward to it. Marimite Saturdays followed by Minami-ke Sundays – can’t think of a better way to end or begin a week… oh, and I like the new OP by the way. Helps that I’m a Shimotsukin fangirl.
It’s great to once again hear Marina voicing character I like in shows I actually enjoy watching, something that was sorely lacking last year. She was good in Skip Beat!, but I don’t particularly like the anime – and the opposite is true for Toshokan Senso.
2009 is shaping up to be a good Marina year! 大吉 like Uchida, not 大凶 like Hosaka. Back to more ToH now.
Inoue Marina~! <3
Yes Minami-ke Okaeri first episode was not as bad as many make it out to be. Sure there were a few animation quality issues but I wonder why people are so freaking picky when the jokes and the content were pretty fine, almost (but not quite) back to S1 level. But most of the winter anime series are yet to come though, so I will hold back on 大吉 till I see the rest I guess.
lol @ photo, they look like Fujioka and Kana, even their hair color matches! <3
2009 Winter is pretty good, don’t forget Ichimashi OVA is coming too~
hmm, so.. so far you’d recommend ToH as a good game?
Oh oh, and I’ve always wondered this, those swear words you mention, would they actually be censored words if they were like on a daytime show? As in, would they be beeped? Not sure if i explained myself :p (equivalent to like when you watch family guy and stewie says the F word and they beep it, but in a jap context
)
Inoue Marina. She is already in my “to-watch” seiyuu list. Her voice just grows on to you the more you listen to her. Plus the variety of her roles is now pretty staggering, from “Miu’s long lost sister” Kana to the foul-mouthed Matsurika.
Eri Kitamura is now the new Romi Paku, thanks to Maria+Holic.
That reminds me…I need to continue watching the first season of Minami-ke. So many shows, so little time OTL.
Inoue is one of my favorite female seiyuu mainly because of her versatility. I’ve been watching her in Skip Beat!, where her character goes from sickeningly cheerful to demonic at the drop of a hat. She’s at the top of her game. I’m interested in listening to her in the upcoming Umineko no Naku Koro ni with Daisuke Ono.
@stewie
Oh I’m sure mesubuta would get censored, calling someone a female pig isn’t very pleasant. The word ‘okama’ itself might not, but paired with kuso… you’ll most likely get a beep ^^;
Hmm….you sure it’s alright for Marina and Kakihara Tetsuya kept working together? -__-”
Matsurika <3
Oh hey Tales. I never played a Tales game, but did you like Deen’s title song? I bought the single just because of the song and the DVD which had the Tales of Destiny opening as well.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=32-iNqWszo4 (DS opening)
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=u3EarYNaS2c (PV)
Then again you didn’t mention it so probably it was meh for you. But it’s DEEN…
Actually I’m waiting for the Xbox 360 “Tales” to go down in price. Too bad there’s no DEEN.
@piyo
Ah DEEN…. gosh, they were one of my earliest Jpop loves (around the late 90s?). Kono mama kimi dake o ubaisaritai was one of those songs I’d mime to in my room with a hairbrush… um, yeah. Yume de aru Youni and LOVE FOREVER were great songs too… I think I started going off them around 2003, their singles just weren’t that good anymore. I must admit I haven’t really listened to Eien no Ashita, but it sounded OK from what I heard in Tales of Hearts. Time to go and dig out the old DEEN songs and give them a spin again!
What’s surprised me the most about Inoue Marina is that… she CAN sing ! At first I noticed her low and very mature voice in soundtracks from Zetsubou Sensei (Bara no Hitsugi, masterpiece) and thought she was a full time singer. A real and RARE talent, very different from all those female seiyuu who sing cutie cutie childish (Nonaka-chan, Shimizu-chan, Gotou-chan… I’m talking to you!).
And surprisingly she is very young…
Then I realised she worked in many anime series that I like. And is a talented voice actress.
So now I’m a big fan, collecting records and looking forward all the stuff she goes into.
Marina-chan, ganbatte!
Hmm, i personally knew of marina when she did Yoko in Gurren Lagann, thats when i took notice of her and she became one of my faves when she did Kana in minami ke shortly afterwards.
Then i dug up old stuff from her, and absolutely loved the Beautiful Story and Energy singles