UCLA’s Asia Pacific Arts online magazine (which former aO writer Bryan Hartzheim occasionally writers for, though he didn’t do this one) features an interview with the dub actors, writers, and director. Normally I don’t find much very interesting in these kinds of interviews; people just talk about what makes their roles fun or different or whatever and that’s kind of it.

But this time mentions something really interesting: the dub for Blood+ was apparently on a “fast track,” and the writing was all done while the show was still in production in Japan, which means that the dub writers didn’t actually know what was going to happen in the series.

Interestingly, they also talk about fansubs– and very positively:

I think it’s great as long as they can enjoy the show…. So if this brings something to them and if they can feel like part of the show doing that, go for it! You see, it gets it out there and I don’t think it detracts from what we end up doing because we bring something different to it.

…Of course, these guys are doing a show that’s airing on Cartoon Network, and one that wasn’t aired until long after the original series finished…

Still, interesting read.

I’ve been workin’ on the railroad non-anime type work today (I do have to, y’know, make money to pay my rent and whatnot), hence why it’s been so quiet here in spite of the MASSIVE amounts of news. So, here we go:

• Yasuo Fukuda is now Japan’s Prime Minister. He offered a Cabinet position to Taro Aso, who said something like “screw you bitchezzz I resign!” instead. So much for the “otaku Prime Minister,” eh?
• The makers of the School Days game are going to host a special screening of the anime adaptation’s finale, according to Canned Dogs, which would be cool except that people can only get in if they have an unopened copy of either the School Days or Summer Days game. Which is kind of retarded.
• The first promo image for the live-action Blood: The Last Vampire movie is now online, if not terrilby exciting. Twitch also has word of Asian Oscar contenders.
• Last but not least…well, no, it’s probably least. But anyway, TokyoGraph reports that UVERworld (who you probably recognize from Bleach soundtracks, and/or Blood+ and/or Terra E) is going to do the theme song for the new live-action TV adaptation of Moyoco Anno’s manga Hataraki Man.

I’ve got a commentary post I’m about to do, but I’ve also got more work and a meetup tonight, so sorry if you miss me ;o

TokyoGraph reports that the actress Koyuki has a role in the live-action Blood: The Last Vampire flick. She is playing a vampire who was not introduced in the original anime movie. I wonder if she might be playing Diva, the antagonist from Blood+? I’m on the fence as to whether I’d like that; I like the dynamic and I’d be interested to see what direction it would take in a movie, but it seems like the Blood franchise favors each iteration to be its own thing. (…But…but…if there’s a Diva, there could be a Haji! *swoon*)