Having recently gotten a laserdisk player (in anticipation of the KOR LD
set preorder), I also ordered the Animeigo Oh My Goddess! 2nd/3rd hybrid
laserdisks (covering OAV episodes 3-5).

(_All_ their laserdisks are on sale at their web site for a limited time,
but it was partly a question of how much money I could afford to "save" ;)

So this gave me my first chance to see an anime I'd seen before on VHS on
laserdisk, and my first chance to compare the US dub and sub versions. (On
this particular "hybrid" disk series the dub is on side one and the sub is
side two.)

I've got to say that the laserdisk looks and sounds great: the images look
crisper, the colors look clearer, and the sound is digital stereo. (Though
some of the image quality may be how many times I've played my VHS tapes,
and my cheap VCR, I think some is an intrinsic improvement.)

The last half of the sub side of the last disk is the opening/ending
animations and audio without subtitles or credits.

As for the sub/dub comparison, I think it demonstrates that I tend to get
attached to the original voice talent. I couldn't watch it very long
without wincing, not because it was an extremely bad job of dubbing, in an
abstract sense, but because of things that nagged at my mind because I'd
heard the original audio so many times (I'd taped it and listened to it as
I was going to sleep).

Chief among the things that bothered me was something that had also made me
walk out of a showing of the Shin KOR dub: the way names were said was
different, with a different stress and intonation. When I'm used to hearing
particular names said a particular way, used as terms of endearment, it's
more jarring to hear that change than to hear some other dialog in English
(though hearing them call each other "Bell" and "Kay" was better than the
way some other names came out).

I think the voice for Belldandy was the best match to the original in
general tone and quality, I'm undecided about the others.

Near the start of episode three was an item I think got "lost in
translation", though I'm not sure, really. When Skuld starts to eat her
cake, she first says something sophisticated and polite (and you hear a
little echo as she speaks), and then she bursts out with something loud and
impulsive. I'd interpreted this as meaning that the first phrase was Skuld
_imagining_ how she'd like to act, and the second was what she actually
said out loud. This effect gets lost in the dub. I really don't know if my
interpretation of the original is right. What do you think?

One thing this all makes me think about is the prospects for a DVD:
laserdisks are a bit "retro" today; but the quality of Animeigo's work on
the LD transfer seems good enough that it would seem like a good basis for
a DVD, if/when there's enough market out there.

I'm hope to buy the other LD volume when I get my credit cards over the
effects of the holidays ;)

---
    Albert Lunde                      Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu