Episode 4 of Kids on the slope is ones that you rewind and change the audio tracks on several times. Always fascinating when that happens.
And yeah, the original Japanese audio so much better. The English dub is solid, a seven or eight outta ten. Not complaining. But you're comparing it to some nine outta ten stuf. Arguably a ten. And there's an argument to be made about the novelty and authenticity of the audio in the original, given the subject matter. Many such cases. Especially given the subject matter.
It's a good problem to have though. Good stuff.
God the pacing and story beats are incredible and it's not even half over. That's how you know it's goood television.
Anyways, yeah, the audio mixing for the dub is a little inconsistent. Most notably in the first episode preview, but also sometimes for scenes near the opening, which is always louder than everything else. Kinda important for a show about music. But whatever.
Anyway. Episode six introduces some kinda twink. Some kinda charismatic bratty minor charact-
Yooo! It's "My Favorite things"!! Hell yeah!! Hell yeah!! Thank you Yoko Kanno and co.
Maybe this dub is leaning a little too much into twink boy's-
Oh he did a gay little sprint. Totally justified. Gayest straight character here somehow. Especially with that supid little fang.
Beatles Jumpscare. The fab four tears the bros a part. Kinda.
Nothing like great a great slice of life thing with fun twists. Sentomaru is the best. Absolutely.
Anyways, ep 11 has one of the most obvious "We're not dubbing these vocals" moments. I don't blame them, but you get hit with two different kinds of it back to back.
Well. That's that finished up. They sure do give you a few surprises before the ending comes around. Without saying much, I really enjoyed the last few minutes a whole lot. The whole thing was pretty nice. Looking forward to rewatching again in the future.
Nothing makes you appreciate a production more quite like a look at how it came together.
There's neat stuff in there, like Shinichiro Watanab strongly insisting on the musical performances not being CG, even if it's obviously a huge challenge to animate. And then basing that animation on footage on the two musicians they brought in to make the audio of those scenes sound more authentic. And of course, Yoko Kanno's involvement. It's good. Real good.