Dialogue Changes

Heero: "The Alliance is already onto me...dammit."--"Dammit" was changed to "blast it" in the cut version. I'll talk more about this in episode 2 (This is because of my stupidity of forgetting to record the uncut version the first time it was on, so I ended up reviewing episode 2 first.)
• General Septum: "Are you making fun of me, dammit?"--"Dammit" became "Treize" in this case. Interesting, because this is the first and only time in the entire dub that a swear word is changed into someone's name ^_^

• Heero, to Relena: "I'll kill you."--This was changed in the cut version to "I'll destroy you." I was a bit worried when I first heard Heero say this in the cut version. I wondered why they had chosen to say this instead of "I'll kill you" like Heero had said in the original. It's Heero's favorite line! It's just not nearly as effective to rip up some brat's...err, I mean, someone's invitation and say "I'll destroy you." This happens in later episodes, too. Except in a few rare cases (i.e., twice in the next episode ^_^;;) the word "kill" isn't used in the cut version. This made me wonder why it's OK in all the other shows on TV, but not in Gundam Wing. Well, at least they can say die in Gundam Wing...most of the time, anyway. In later episodes, they sometimes change "die" into other words between the two versions, which seems like a bit much to me. Compare this to the other programs airing in the Toonami block (Note: This was the Toonami block at the time I wrote this; it's a lot different now): In Sailormoon, they use both kill and die. I haven't seen much of Ronin Warriors, but in the few episodes I saw, people were saying "kill" and "die" all over the place. In the first two seasons of Dragonball Z, the words "kill" and "die" weren't allowed (instead, they replaced it with the oh-so-wonderful "other dimension" *shudder*) but in the third season, those words finally came back. So, comparitively speaking, Gundam Wing is the "cleanest" anime in the Toonami block, concerning the words "kill" and sometimes "die." (That sentence sounds funny...sounds like I'm talking about vowels..."a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes "die" ^_^;;). It seems to me like people dubbing anime for American TV often take extra precautions and make anime even "cleaner" than most American cartoons! I don't understand the logic of doing this. If something is pushing the limit but not breaking it, then you don't need to change it so it's nowhere near the limit. I just can't see the logic of not using the word "kill" when you see characters in the show get "killed" all the time. Now I suppose they'll all get "destroyed"...Oh well, I guess that's better than being sent to another dimension ^_^

Voices

• Zechs Merquise: I was able to figure out this voice right away. This guy has a very distinct (and sexy ^_-) voice. Some people may recognize him as "the guy who does Vegeta" (during the first two seasons of DBZ, and the non-Funimation English versions for later seasons as well), which is exactly right ^_^ It's Brian Drummond! He's very easy to recognize if you've ever heard his voice before. In my opinion, he sounds pretty damn good as Zechs ^_^ (Then again, some people didn't think he sounded good as Vegeta when I thought he did, so perhaps others won't agree with me on this one...but hey, this is my page, my opinion, so :P). He sounds soooo Zechsy! *readers slap Spazz with a giant trout to get her to stop using stupid puns* I could gush over this for quite awhile, so I'll close now by saying I think Brian Drummond is a good choice to play Zechs.

• "Better than the original?!": Well, here's something that came as a surprise to me...I found something that I thought was better than the original concerning voices. And that would be...Relena's stupid little groupies. Yes, they're still annoying and still say the most idiotic things ("The colonies are much more beautiful because Relena-sama is up there" o_O;; *gaaaaaaag*), but they sound a lot less annoying in the English version. In the original, they had such annoying high-pitched voices that were just so irritating I could've slapped them. In the English version, they're no longer so sqeaky sounding, although they still say the same stupid things...Well, I guess that's one of the drawbacks of having a good translation: Not only are the good and important parts of the show translated correctly, but so are the crappy and sucky parts ^_^;;

• First impression of the voices in general: Well, it's only the first episode, so it's hard to say which voices are good and which are not. Generally speaking, I didn't hear any voices that made me want to vomit in terror. That's always a good sign, ne? But one thing I noticed is that Heero's and Trowa's voices had a little more feeling than they should have. These are two characters who try to stay cool and emotionless most of the time, so they shouldn't be having too much expression in their voices. But it's only the first episode, so I'll wait for more episodes before I let it get to me. As for other voices...ummm, doesn't Duo sound a bit old? I know his original voice sounded a bit old sometimes (Especially when he sang ^_^), but he usually managed to sound pretty young. Bah, oh well, he may sound old, but at least he sounds good. Now, on to Quatre: heh heh, he actually sounds like a boy in this version ^_^ I love Orikasa Ai's voice, but I think she made him sound just a bit too girly in the original...(Orikasa-san did Ryouko in Tenchi Muyou, and Ryouko sounds more manly than Quatre o_O;;). I think whoever does Quatre is really good. Even though I'm used to the girly Quatre, it's nice to hear him actually sound like a boy. Finally, last of the five main characters, Wufei. I can't really say I have any problems with his voice so far. It just sounds really good to me. Anyway, this is getting long, so I'm going to close it now since I have a page in which I will go into all of the voices in detail here, so anyone who wants to hear more about the voices can go there.

In General

• Well, that about wraps up my review of the first episode. If you want to get even more detail about what I thought about this episode then go read my initial reaction to it.

Go to Episode 02