sarwor248

Honey and Clover on DVD and iTunes!

I read in a magazine (I think it was Shojo Beat) that Honey and Clover would finally be coming to DVD in America this fall. I was so excited, since it is one of my favs and I would love to own it. The animation is beautiful, and the story is touching and funny at the same time. I also found out you can download it off of iTunes! The first episode is free, so I figured I had nothing to lose. The only option is to listen to the Dub, unfortunately, but I figured it would give me a chance to check the English voices out. 

To my delight, they kept the opening just as it was, Japanese and all. It's one of my favorites OP's of all time, so I was happy about that. 

It's always jarring the first time you hear English voices coming out of a character you originally heard in Japanese, especially when you really fell in love with the characters the first time around. Once I was over the initial shock, the voices all seemed pretty good. They sound like real art school students. I'm also happy with the way the script was translated into English. They kept the setting in Japan and don't try to trick us into thinking we are in New York or something. Yen is still Yen, Kilos are still Kilos, and Sensei is still Sensei. Nothing bothers me more than when English actors say "Teacher" as if that is a common thing to say in English. 

The ending is was kept in its brilliant Japanese version. It took re-watching this to remind me how much I loved the music on this anime. According to Viz Media's website, the Vol. 1 DVD should be coming out by Sept. 22, so I'll be counting the days until I can own this for great anime.