Gantz World Premiere!!
I'm back from the Gantz World Premiere (but I was at Boston's theatre). Needless to say, NIno was kakkoi~~~ And obviously, the dubs were not as great as if the movie were subbed. To be honest, the voice actor who dubbed Nino's, rather Kei's, part was not as experienced as I had hoped it would be. The people who casted the voice actors did make some effort to get the tambre of the voice to match Nino's... though Nino's natural voice is wonderfully distinct and cannot be matched perfectly. The dub for Nino, however, was not misinterpreted because of Nino's acting skills and great facial expressions. The dub for Matsuyama was slightly more awkward because Matsuyama's acting is arguably less refined.
A few things that I noticed (beware, spoilers!):
- The Gantz suits are surprisingly beautiful. I had originally thought that the suit was one panel of material. But.... there are actually three different layers with varying cut-outs to accommodate the layering. I can understand why the suits costed $5,000 each. And of course, they are extremely form-fitting, which showed off NIno's toned body. (When Nino had it.... obviously from the past AniS episodes, we know that Nino lost his abs shortly afterward.)
- As odd as it may sound, I really like Nino's screams as an actor. (Think about Ao no Honou and Tekkon Kinkreet.) They're just so soulful. Unfortunately, we miss out on that because of the dub.
- The cinematography is fairly nice, and I especially appreciated the intense contrast of the black suits and dark night scenes against the blue lights from the Gantz suits. (Again, perhaps it reminds me of the poignant silences of Ao no Honou?)
And some that contain spoilers:
- In one scene, Kei looks through his old yearbook. It was super cute to see chibi-NIno because the yearbook included his own childhood photograph.
- I liked the scene in which Kei "tries out" his Gantz suit. He has this smug look on his face as he jumps off stairs and buildings. And he's wearing a really cute pink/plum-colored cardigan over jeans, an outfit that looks like it should be in Mannequin 5.
- When the Daibutsu came to life, I immediately thought... Oh-chan!!! (Because the other Arashi members would also joke with him and call him "Daibutsu-kun" instead of "Kaibutsu-kun".)
At the end of the film, they played a trailer to the sequel. And then they opened up time for interviews! I actually took video of this, but can't seem to get the audio to work. I wil try to give an account of the questions and answers that were included in the interview (obviously not verbatim):
1: What was your favorite scene to film?
Nino's answer: "I liked the action scenes because they were cool. After filming and reviewing what was filmed, I would think, 'Wow, I'm really doing that!!'"
2: Was it hard / scary to film the action scenes? Did you have a lot of stuntwork done?
Nino's and Matsuyama's answer: "It was actually scary at some points...."
3: If you were in the Gantz game, what would be your score? Would you have died?
Nino's answer: "Ummm... if you think about it, I've died quite a bit in my previous films. So it might have actually died in the game as well. I would be scared though. I would probably be hiding behind Matsuyama-kun, like this." [he demonstrates this]
Matsuyama's answer: "I would probably be the same..." [he demonstrates this, but hides behind his interpreter]
*When Matsuyama's interpreter translated Matsuyama's answer, he said something along the lines of, "Matsuyama says that he would hide... behind his interpreter." As a general note, Matsuyama's answers were a bit long-winded, and his interpreter would apologize for having to shorten the answer in translationg.*
4: What was it like working with Watanabe Natsuna (Kishimoto character)? What is she like in person?
Nino's answer: "She's about the same height as me..."
Matsuyama's answer: "We had just started working together on the film, and we had to film the scene where Kishimoto appears naked and floating in the air when she first encounters Gantz. It was nice to film that scene, but it would have been nice to film that scene towards the end of the filming."
*He's probably referring to how it was a bit awkward to start with that scene, since they did not know each other well beforehand.*
5: Was there any strange or surprising happening during filming?
Nino's answer: "It's not that strange or funny, but Matsuyama celebrated his birthday when we were in the process of filming. We were filming the scene with the daibutsu [the Big Buddha] and we were saying how during that scene, Matsuyama immediately aged and got older."
Matsuyama's answer: "Also on that note, for my birthday, Ninomiya actually baked a cake for me."
Nino's reply: "That was the first and last cake I bake."
Matsuyama's reply: "Then I'm very honored."
I'll probably upload some videos (without audio, again, sorry) later. But for now, some pictures of the introductory greetings and interview:
Walking on stage
Premier introduction
Ninomiya talking
Nino pretending to hide behind Matsuyama
Again, trying to hide
Matsuyama's turn to hide