My shoulder angel!

[phosfate]

Watched the first half of Risky Safety Disk 1. So cute you could beat it to death with a mallet. We're talking Card Captor Sakura cute.

Basically it takes the animation conceit of the little angel on one shoulder and the little devil on the other and makes a series of it. It works, in no small part thanks to the 10-minute length of the episodes (a lot of anime would be better if it were shorter), and the quiet tone. Except for Risky (the devil) and Safety (the angel), who yell a lot. There's some serious stuff, including depression and suicide, but so far it's not in the least preachy. There's also a lovesick Pomeranian with an arrow in her ass.

I'm not normally a subtitle Nazi, but in this case, avoid the dub if you can. The Japanese voices aren't outstanding, but English-language Safety's voice is a joyless little falsetto horror.

Comments

[pentimento.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about "quiet tone." I finally bought the My Neighbor Totoro film on DVD a while back -- the subtitled one, not the dubbed one -- and the shrill, shrieking voice of the youngest kid almost ruined the whole thing for me.

Why do the Japanese think kiddie voices that are the aural equivalent of double-edged razors, at top volume, are cute? Who knows. Another puzzle of the enigmatic East.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

It's not just a Japanese thing, though. Check any Saturday morning for loads of shrieking girls and kids, and bizarro blustering boys. (The guy who does Yami Yugi apparently took lessons from David Garrick.)