robotech_master

Someone on rec.arts.anime.misc pointed out an interesting-looking anime, called Catblue: Dynamite. The trailer can be viewed at the URL. It's entirely CGI with cel shading, and entirely in English. My curiosity piqued, I went looking for more information and found an interesting synopsis at AnimeNfo.com, but hit pay dirt with this Magnetic-Rose.net article.

The show is to be set in the 1970s, and director Higa Romanov is styling it in homage to Blaxploitation films such as the original Shaft. And he's also making it in English, for reasons that are never made entirely clear; perhaps it's just that the Japanese find English to be "kewl" like that. And something else you might note is that "Although the entire dialogue is English language, Romanov admits he can’t speak that much and the script was written in Japanese and then translated into English." And this results in something you can hear clearly from the trailer: bad voice-acting. When your cast is acting in a language you can't speak, you have no way of knowing whether they're acting well or not. This is a hallmark of English-language scenes in most anime, going all the way back to Project Ako or beyond.

On the other hand, the fight choreography is top-notch, and it's interesting (albeit a little unrealistic) to see a catgirl who wields a third gun or sword with her prehensile tail. Even more interesting is the fact that the 40-minute anime movie is going to be streamed for free on the Internet in December. I think I'll be watching that.