Japanese TV doesn’t please me. I love Stand Up! but $200 for a set of 11 episodes doesn’t really do it for me. DVDs are hella expensive here.
But while perusing a used book shop in Osaka yesterday, I stumbled across the first set of Seinfeld for, well more than it costs in the States, but a reasonable price for Japan. So I figured what the hell? How about a show I love alrady in the language I’m trying to learn?
So I picked it up and am watching Season 1 right now. It’s… interesting. The translation is pretty straightforward. If I remember an ep well enough, I can follow along pretty well, and I have actually chuckled a few times at the Japanese. No idea if Japanese folk would find this funny, though.
The biggest thing is the voices. Japanese voices aren’t yet familiar enough to me that I can tell what “style” they have. George’s voice is whiney enough to fit, I think. Jerry’s voice is a little too deep, Elaine a little too traditional Japanese woman but Kramer does have a little touch of crazy. We’ll see if it’s enough. What was hilarious was Jerry’s parents who had really stereotypical old Japanese folk voice actors. That might have been what was cracking me up the most so far.
Oh yeah, and the Japanese title of the show is “隣のサインフェルド” [tonari no sainferudo] which, if you know some Japanese movies, is very similar to the Japanese title of the Ghibli classic “My Neighbor Totoro.” This also brings me much laughter.
