Peacemaker Volume 1: Innocence Lost - DUBReview
- DUBReview
- M.C. Wilson
- 09/30/04
- click here
Picture a room filled with about thirty anime fans, all unsure of whether or not this new show, Peacemaker, of which the first volume is now available from ADV Films, is right for them. Picture me, the consummate anime enthusiast, attempting to convince them all to give Peacemaker a shot. How do I convince them? It?s easier than you might think; all I have to do is mention that it features the Shinsengumi and?- oh, look, there go fifteen fans, off to Best Buy to pick this up. One of the episodes on this DVD features Hajime Saito, and?- oops, there go fourteen more. Did I mention that the lead character is voiced by Luci Christian?- there goes some guy in a Vegeta costume.
Yes, at first glance Peacemaker seems to have quite a bit in common with fan favorite anime series Rurouni Kenshin. It takes place in eighteenth-century Japan, it prominently features rival samurai factions the Shinsengumi and the Choshu, and it even includes some of the same historical figures (such as the aforementioned Saito). But this new series from acclaimed animation studio Gonzo is an entirely different sort of series, and despite my view that this is a pretty solid show thus far, I will say that being a fan of Rurouni Kenshin doesn?t necessarily mean you?re going to enjoy Peacemaker. It?s not because there aren?t any decent fight scenes?- there are. It?s not because there aren?t moments of lighthearted humor?- that?s here, as well. It?s not because Peacemaker lacks the feminine appeal of Rurouni Kenshin?- it?s there... in a very different fashion. Thus far that?s the main underlying problem with this show: Call me jaded by anime stereotypes if you will, but when I think of shounen samurai shows, I don?t think of characters who are heartless killers part of the time and dripping in ambiguously homosexual festivity the rest of the time.
Peacemaker is the story of the Ichimura brothers, Tetsunosuke and Tatsunosuke, and their new lives with the Shinsengumi clan, having just joined up. Without any surviving family of their own, the two brothers are very close, Tatsu constantly worrying about his younger brother and Tetsu leading the charge with his fiery determination to become a great warrior and avenge the murders of his parents committed by members of the Choshu clan. The younger of the two, Tetsu looks much younger than he is, being as short as he is ill-tempered. His fighting spirit is enough to get him into the Shinsengumi... though when he sees the sort of brutal acts they must commit as part of their war with the Choshu, he has to question whether or not this is really the path down which he wants to travel in his life.
Don Rush takes the helm for this dub from Industrial Smoke and Mirrors, following up on his successful directorial duties in the dub for the recently-completed Full Metal Panic!. While that series was another Gonzo production featuring Luci Christian as the voice of the lead character, her character in Peacemaker shares no similarities with her character from FMP?- not even gender. That?s right: in this lead role, Ms. Christian is voicing a young boy. It?s far from uncommon for women to voice young boys, even in Texas where some of the more prominent studios are employing young boys to voice young boys; but it takes a very talented voice actress to effectively voice a young boy as a leading character for an entire series. Whether or not Ms. Christian will be able to pull it off will have to be determined after I?ve seen more of the show, but so far, she has the energy.
Thus far in the series, we?ve seen Tetsunosuke the hot-tempered youth, thirsting for revenge and frustrated with his own lack of battle experience. But we haven?t seen much of Tetsunosuke the conflicted son, torn between his own desire for vengeance and his father?s wish that he bring peace, not violence, to the land. It seems pretty clear that this second Tetsunosuke will play a more prominent role in the show as more episodes are made available. Voicing a young boy who?s feisty and angry all the time is not necessarily a simple thing, even for actresses who naturally sound like young men; but we see it so often in anime that with Tetsunosuke in the lead role, part of the attraction of this show for me is that his character may become something different than the usual stereotype, and I?m intrigued to hear how Mr. Rush and Ms. Christian will handle this transformation. Of course, if it never happens, I blame Gonzo, and bring my vengeance to their doorstep.
The ADR script for Peacemaker is brought to us by Mike Yantosca with translation by Shoko Oono. I state this here because I don?t think they?re to blame for the accents; that was probably director Don Rush. What accents, you say? When you watch the show, and you should, you?ll know what I mean. The accents used by some of the Choshu clan mark them as Choshu to many of the characters in the show; even as early as volume one, this plays a part in the storyline, and other characters make reference to it. Failing to localize this distinction would be unforgivable, so Rush has chosen to make use of Southern accents in the dub of Peacemaker. Reading about the use of Southern accents in anime dubs is usually enough to make us Southerners cringe, because our accents are often so poorly represented in such dubs; and while the use of Southern accents here is much better than in most other anime dubs I?ve heard, there are still problems.
Some of this discussion I will withhold until I hear more volumes of the show. But my opinion thus far is firmly mixed, meaning I like the use of the accents 50% more than I usually do. Chris Patton voices two characters so far, one whose allegiance is unclear at this point and another who seems to be the villain. The former character speaks normally part of the time and with an accent at other times (this is part of the story, so don?t freak out). The latter character, Seiga-no-Chujo, is only heard for about one minute throughout the entire disc?- and yet it?s one of the more intriguing moments of this entire volume. Who is this guy, and why is Chris Patton's take on him so impressive? Perhaps I've been watching the video for 'Ashes to Ashes' a few too many times, but finding out more about Seiga-no-Chujo is one of the primary reasons I'm looking forward to the next volume of Peacemaker.
But it's the former character, Susumu Yamazaki, that is more relevant to this discussion of Southern accents, as he himself uses a Southern accent part of the time. It's presented in such a way that the accent alone, used when out of sight of the Shinsengumi, gives the viewer doubts as to the character's motive. In this, it is effective; and Mr. Patton's decision to go with a light Tennesean accent for the character helps considerably. Contrast this with the outlandish and unfocused accent used by Christine Auten in her role as Ayumu and you'll hear the 50% I didn't like. Overall I can't grade the dub lower for this alone, as I don't fault Mr. Rush's decision to go with Southern accents and Ms. Auten's accent, while silly, is still the only one on this volume with which I have a real problem, and if I didn't live in the Heart of Dixie I would probably be a lot less sensitive to the issue-- as will be a number of the folks reading this review.
Without attempting to judge every aspect of this dub at such an early venture, so far this is a dub worth watching-- of a series that intrigues and frightens me at the same time. On the one hand it definitely has the fundamentals in place to endear itself to fans of shows like Rurouni Kenshin-- and I count myself among those. On the other hand, the bizarre emphasis on adoration of young boys placed on at least two of the leading men in the cast so far worries me that this show may go in an entirely different direction than samurai fans would expect. On the whole, I like what I'm seeing so far, though comments from other readers who have seen the entire series worry me. Our review copy came packaged with a nifty little trinket: a letter opener, modeled after a samurai sword, complete with sheath and ornamental ribbon. After I mentioned that the show was Peacemaker, one reader commented, 'It's a good thing they sent you a sword with it, because there are practically none of those in the show'. Let's hope this peacemaker is packing more excitement than that.
Posted on Thursday, September 30, 2004 (Archive on Saturday, October 30, 2004)