Good Omens
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Radio Drama Review: Good Omens
Since I enjoyed the radio drama adaptation of Neverwhere a couple of years back I was rather interested to hear that the BBC would be adapting another of Neil Gaiman's works, this time one co-written with Terry Prachett (I have somehow managed to read only one other of both of their works which is almost remarkable by now). Since Good Omens was already on my to-read list I decided last August to go ahead and read it anyway and then, when I could still remember most of the book but not the finer details, listen to the Christmas-timed broadcast, although I ended up so behind that I didn't get to the broadcast until well after the new year....
Friday, July 18, 2014
Radio Drama Review: Welcome to Nightvale
As Alex Hoffman of Sequential State said recently, while it's easy to review books and tv series which have set beginnings and endings it's much, much harder to do that with a perpetually on-going series (specifically webcomics, especially since they, like this one, start out as works of love not profit). But, since Welcome to Nightvale just had it's second anniversary I think it's only appropriate that I talk about it and explain why such an odd thing has captivated me. I started listening to it on my all-too-exciting trip to Otakon 2013 with a friend who was also curious about it and about halfway through the episode she turns to me and says that tumblr makes so much more sense now (I HAD been wondering where that "guns don't kill people, we're all immortal!" line had come from) and I must admit that now that I follow the show it's fun to see how it has been popping up everywhere in little ways. I attended one of their live shows (which was surprisingly fun for being 97% audio based!), bought a copy of "Condos" and was rather happy that they released their two year anniversary show as episodes in the main podcast (although I assume that their other ones are more-or-less canon this one certainly is). And so, this review covers them from episode 1 to episode 49, the second half of said live show, not just because that's the end of a grand arc but because episode 50 only came out this week and this show is also how I bribe myself to do my laundry ("no nightvale unless you actually iron your work shirts!") and I haven't had time to do laundry yet, how I do laundry the two weeks of the month this show isn't on is an enduring mystery.
Welcome to Nightvale
Monday, April 15, 2013
Radio Drama Review: Neverwhere
These days I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen working on homework and while sometimes I don't want to listen to anything and just want to focus on my homework often I do want something playing in the background. I prefer podcasts to music, since it's too easy to end up fussing over music and not getting anything done, but after burning through a dozen podcast episodes in a few days I enjoy listening to something else and radio dramas are just the thing. Sadly I know of basically no other radio dramas (the only other one I listened to regularly, the Fruits Basket fan one, seems to have died again) and have no idea where to start looking for recommendations so when the adaption of Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere popped up on the BBC website I gladly gave that a listen.
Neverwhere
Summary: Richard Mayhew was living a fairly average life in London when he takes in an injured young woman off the streets for the night. Come the next day he's discovered that no one seems to notice him and that those who do have no idea who he is. He manages to track the woman down again (Door) and she tells him that since he helped someone from London Below, which is quite literally what it sounds like, the people of London Above won't notice him as well anymore and with no better options he joins Door on her quest of revenge for her family's death and hopes that he'll find a way to return to his former life in the process.
The Good: I hadn't realized at first that this story was based on an actual novel (erm, that was adapted from a tv series apparently), I thought it had been written as a radio play, and it seems to have been adapted rather smoothly. There are enough details, both spoken and as sound effects, to set the scene and it's easy to tell who is in what scenes and when the story has switched from one character's point of view to another. The acting was rather nice as well, I never had trouble figuring out what emotions any of the characters were going through, despite the lack of facial cues, and yet it never felt like the actors were overacting and hamming it up to make those emotions clear. Finally, while the podcasts I listen do don't have terrible production values by any stretch of the imagination, they clearly have people working on them who know how to work the equipment and what to do in post-production, there was still a noticeable difference switching between those and these episodes. There's a richness to all the sounds which may be simply from having more advanced equipment or might be from having actual sound engineers to work on the show. Regardless, this sounds great in every respect, from the acting to the foley and other sound-effects, if this is the level of quality most BBC radio productions have then I really want to track down more of them.
The Bad: There were a few minutes for multiple characters that just felt, well, rather odd for them. There's a turncoat character whose reasons I never quite found to be understandable, I of course knew how Richard's story would end but still felt like it was a little too neat (which might have been more of a result of condensed pacing than anything else) and other small moments like these. I also wish that the story had explained a little better why people in London Above stopped noticing Richard (the story might have explained it and I just missed it or it could all just be a very unsubtle metaphor for people not noticing the homeless and such, although I don't think that's quite right either), although I was fine with how the rest of the magic in the story worked.
I suppose another bad thing is that while the BBC website has the first five episodes up and will until mid-March next year they only had the final episode up for one week and I'm not sure where people can listen to it. I would imagine that they'll have a complete set for download on itunes or maybe even produce a CD sometime later this year but it does seem like a bit of a strange strategy. Regardless, I give this production 3.5 stars out of 5 and if anyone knows of any other great radio dramas (I believe the director also did the recent radio drama of The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I would love to hear) by all means comment and tell me about them!
Neverwhere
Summary: Richard Mayhew was living a fairly average life in London when he takes in an injured young woman off the streets for the night. Come the next day he's discovered that no one seems to notice him and that those who do have no idea who he is. He manages to track the woman down again (Door) and she tells him that since he helped someone from London Below, which is quite literally what it sounds like, the people of London Above won't notice him as well anymore and with no better options he joins Door on her quest of revenge for her family's death and hopes that he'll find a way to return to his former life in the process.
The Good: I hadn't realized at first that this story was based on an actual novel (erm, that was adapted from a tv series apparently), I thought it had been written as a radio play, and it seems to have been adapted rather smoothly. There are enough details, both spoken and as sound effects, to set the scene and it's easy to tell who is in what scenes and when the story has switched from one character's point of view to another. The acting was rather nice as well, I never had trouble figuring out what emotions any of the characters were going through, despite the lack of facial cues, and yet it never felt like the actors were overacting and hamming it up to make those emotions clear. Finally, while the podcasts I listen do don't have terrible production values by any stretch of the imagination, they clearly have people working on them who know how to work the equipment and what to do in post-production, there was still a noticeable difference switching between those and these episodes. There's a richness to all the sounds which may be simply from having more advanced equipment or might be from having actual sound engineers to work on the show. Regardless, this sounds great in every respect, from the acting to the foley and other sound-effects, if this is the level of quality most BBC radio productions have then I really want to track down more of them.
The Bad: There were a few minutes for multiple characters that just felt, well, rather odd for them. There's a turncoat character whose reasons I never quite found to be understandable, I of course knew how Richard's story would end but still felt like it was a little too neat (which might have been more of a result of condensed pacing than anything else) and other small moments like these. I also wish that the story had explained a little better why people in London Above stopped noticing Richard (the story might have explained it and I just missed it or it could all just be a very unsubtle metaphor for people not noticing the homeless and such, although I don't think that's quite right either), although I was fine with how the rest of the magic in the story worked.
I suppose another bad thing is that while the BBC website has the first five episodes up and will until mid-March next year they only had the final episode up for one week and I'm not sure where people can listen to it. I would imagine that they'll have a complete set for download on itunes or maybe even produce a CD sometime later this year but it does seem like a bit of a strange strategy. Regardless, I give this production 3.5 stars out of 5 and if anyone knows of any other great radio dramas (I believe the director also did the recent radio drama of The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I would love to hear) by all means comment and tell me about them!
Friday, July 22, 2011
And now for something different, Furuba fan radio drama
I know that this is a bit different from what I normally cover but, since the tagline of the blog is "if it has a plot I have something to say about it!", this actually fits in with that better than some of the nonfiction I've reviewed in the past. Plus, I know I don't have that many readers but it's worth a shot to see if I can introduce anyone new to this rather interesting fan project.
So, most anime and manga fans have probably heard of Fruits Basket, a 23 volume manga series that did well in Japan and became one of the first shojo hits in America which also got a 26 episode anime series (recently re-released here by Funimation). Fans of the series will know that the anime wasn't very faithful to the manga at the end (plenty of important characters from later on never got introduced and it created it's own ending) and it's well-known on the animenewsnetwork forums that the manga-ka did not get along with some of the staff on the show (I believe it was the director) which is why a second season was never made. So what's a fan to do when they really love the show yet the anime just isn't cutting it? Clearly the answer is to do an adaptation of the manga as an online radio drama with the intent of producing the entire series and going much farther than the anime did. JesuOtaku of That Guy With The Glasses and the d2brigade is the director/scriptwriter/producer/crazy person who came up with this whole idea and new videos (audio only) of the show go up every Wednesday on TGWTG.
Quick note, since the show is audio-only I won't include a separate audio section for this review, it would be a bit silly, and this review covers the first six episodes (ie the first manga volume which I also reread recently).
Furuba Radio Drama (volume one)
Art by carrie-ko
Summary: Tohru Honda is an orphan living in a tent in the woods while her grandfather's house is being remodeled, as she would hate to impose on her friends for such a long time, and discovers one day that she is camping out on the property of the Sohma family where her classmate, the princely Yuki, lives. He and his relative Shigure convince Tohru to live at their house for the rest of the renovation (especially after her tent is destroyed in a mudslide) and when a third member of this dysfunctional family shows up, the fiery Kyo, Tohru discovers an ancient family secret that may or may not have to do with a curse, the Chinese Zodiac and close physical contact.
The Good: For a fan project that is being completely produced by amateurs, some of whom aren't even huge fans of Fruits Basket, this is really good. Some of the voice actors already sound a little similar to the English dub voices (although it sounds like they are trying to avoid that and not sound like they are simply imitating the dub) but within just a couple of episodes the four leads sound very natural and comfortable with their roles. The sound effects sound right and having animal noises when certain characters are talking is amusing yet works well. The script is based off of the original manga and therefore follows it pretty closely, adding in details when things aren't apparent from the dialogue alone or to pad out the episode an extra minute or two, so people who are new to the series won't be missing out on anything.
The Bad: While the main cast has already hit their stride, extras or side characters who haven't had much air time yet sound a bit flat and it's jarring to hear the difference between the two groups. Everyone's acting with certainly get smoother, that's what happens with experience after all, but this is one of the cases where the difference between a professional voice actor and an amateur are obvious. There are also places in the story where it is a little hard to understand exactly what is going one but this is hardly surprising, going from a no audio, all visual medium to the exact opposite isn't easy but there are a few places where a quick line of description or establishing background noise would be nice. Finally, the narration at the beginning of each episode has begun to get a little dull and if manga readers haven't managed to figure out who's narrating this series, which was actually a rather clever idea, then they really need to reread the series pronto.
In short, this is a pretty amazing fanwork that can only get better as it goes along, people who haven't checked out the series before and those who have alike should really try this out. New episodes go up most Wednesdays on thatguywiththeglasses.com or on the radio drama's main website and most episodes are avaliable for download as well.
Sorry this is up so late guys, I was messing around with tvtropes earlier today and that really does eat up all your time. But I would like to also say that I'm going to try and put up something different each Thursday until I go back to school just to add a little more variety to the blog. So next Thursday expect to see me ranting about common problems in science-fiction settings. I've been on a sci-fi kick lately so I've seen a lot of stuff I like and a ton that I haven't and, for a genre that is supposed to be about the new and cool there is an awful lot of similarities between the sub-genres....
So, most anime and manga fans have probably heard of Fruits Basket, a 23 volume manga series that did well in Japan and became one of the first shojo hits in America which also got a 26 episode anime series (recently re-released here by Funimation). Fans of the series will know that the anime wasn't very faithful to the manga at the end (plenty of important characters from later on never got introduced and it created it's own ending) and it's well-known on the animenewsnetwork forums that the manga-ka did not get along with some of the staff on the show (I believe it was the director) which is why a second season was never made. So what's a fan to do when they really love the show yet the anime just isn't cutting it? Clearly the answer is to do an adaptation of the manga as an online radio drama with the intent of producing the entire series and going much farther than the anime did. JesuOtaku of That Guy With The Glasses and the d2brigade is the director/scriptwriter/producer/crazy person who came up with this whole idea and new videos (audio only) of the show go up every Wednesday on TGWTG.
Quick note, since the show is audio-only I won't include a separate audio section for this review, it would be a bit silly, and this review covers the first six episodes (ie the first manga volume which I also reread recently).
Furuba Radio Drama (volume one)
Summary: Tohru Honda is an orphan living in a tent in the woods while her grandfather's house is being remodeled, as she would hate to impose on her friends for such a long time, and discovers one day that she is camping out on the property of the Sohma family where her classmate, the princely Yuki, lives. He and his relative Shigure convince Tohru to live at their house for the rest of the renovation (especially after her tent is destroyed in a mudslide) and when a third member of this dysfunctional family shows up, the fiery Kyo, Tohru discovers an ancient family secret that may or may not have to do with a curse, the Chinese Zodiac and close physical contact.
The Good: For a fan project that is being completely produced by amateurs, some of whom aren't even huge fans of Fruits Basket, this is really good. Some of the voice actors already sound a little similar to the English dub voices (although it sounds like they are trying to avoid that and not sound like they are simply imitating the dub) but within just a couple of episodes the four leads sound very natural and comfortable with their roles. The sound effects sound right and having animal noises when certain characters are talking is amusing yet works well. The script is based off of the original manga and therefore follows it pretty closely, adding in details when things aren't apparent from the dialogue alone or to pad out the episode an extra minute or two, so people who are new to the series won't be missing out on anything.
The Bad: While the main cast has already hit their stride, extras or side characters who haven't had much air time yet sound a bit flat and it's jarring to hear the difference between the two groups. Everyone's acting with certainly get smoother, that's what happens with experience after all, but this is one of the cases where the difference between a professional voice actor and an amateur are obvious. There are also places in the story where it is a little hard to understand exactly what is going one but this is hardly surprising, going from a no audio, all visual medium to the exact opposite isn't easy but there are a few places where a quick line of description or establishing background noise would be nice. Finally, the narration at the beginning of each episode has begun to get a little dull and if manga readers haven't managed to figure out who's narrating this series, which was actually a rather clever idea, then they really need to reread the series pronto.
In short, this is a pretty amazing fanwork that can only get better as it goes along, people who haven't checked out the series before and those who have alike should really try this out. New episodes go up most Wednesdays on thatguywiththeglasses.com or on the radio drama's main website and most episodes are avaliable for download as well.
Sorry this is up so late guys, I was messing around with tvtropes earlier today and that really does eat up all your time. But I would like to also say that I'm going to try and put up something different each Thursday until I go back to school just to add a little more variety to the blog. So next Thursday expect to see me ranting about common problems in science-fiction settings. I've been on a sci-fi kick lately so I've seen a lot of stuff I like and a ton that I haven't and, for a genre that is supposed to be about the new and cool there is an awful lot of similarities between the sub-genres....
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