“Supernatural The Animation” Review and First Episode Recap
Another Hellatus but this time we have at least “Supernatural The Animation” to watch for those who are interested.
I grew up watching cartoons and as my sons started to watch TV I did what lots of parents do, I bought them the Walt Disney movies. My boys loved watching them when they were very little. Once they reached kindergarten age they got into animes like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh etc. Since I didn’t let them watch TV unsupervised I spent quite some time during the years in front of the TV. While I never was really interested in the Pokemon story (I usually did my ironing during that time in the living room) I was able to get into the storyline of some other more action packed animes and actually enjoyed watching them. Sometimes I even had the TV running with one of those animes without my boys there while doing my ironing (that is such a boring job, I always needed some entertainment while doing it). I preferred the animes to the afternoon talk shows.
Both my sons like to watch Supernatural. I actually have to thank them for forcing me to watch the show. And the older one is a huge animation fan. We are German but he actually watches Japanese Animes with English subtitles on his laptop since those shows don’t come out on our German TV stations. Just like I am freak enough to scan the net for SPN news and post comments here and there he does it occasionally with animations.
When I heard the news that there would be an anime of Supernatural first thing I did of course was tell him about it and just like me he couldn’t wait to watch it. When I read that the Japanese version was released I told him once again. A couple days later he informed me that he found the English dubbed version of episode one and two on an Anime site. We both watched it. A few days later those epis where taken of that site again but we found them again on YouTube. Up until today there are four episodes you can watch.
The first three episodes are kind of remakes. They are “Alter Ego” (based on “Skin”), “Roadkill” and “Home” with some new little odds and ends. But episode four is a whole new ball game with a complete new story. Just to get your mouth a little watery for it, Baby is chased by a black Impala and it has a very funny scene in it where I had a real good laugh.
Before I go into reviewing episode one I would like to let you hear what Jared and Jensen think about it :
[videos removed by YouTube for copyright violations]
Now for the reviews:
First of all I don’t think you should let your little child watch the Supernatural animes. You know why; ghosts, monsters and it gets extremely bloody at times plus the language is not what your little one should hear.
Since the first announcement that there will be an animation of Supernatural a few months ago I have been reading everything I could find on it and seen a few con vids where Jared and Jensen talk about it. Unfortunately I am not able to remember where I found all that info so here just a few facts I remember about it. Eric Kripke is involved in the scripts and Jared and Jensen approved of the looks of the animated characters of Sam and Dean. Actually, if I remember it correctly, Jensen liked it that he looks taller and that his shoulders are wider than in real live at that he has more muscles than Jared does. In case I am wrong on any of these memories let me know.
Jared does the English voice of all episodes so far and I heard that Jensen will do episodes eleven and twelve. At first it was kind of a shock to hear Sam’s voice but not Dean’s voice. It was really strange. But after watching a few episodes I kind of got past that shock and got used to the strange voice of Dean even though I am still missing Jensen’s voice there. The funny thing is that when I hear Jared’s voice sometimes I catch myself how my mind doesn’t see the animated Sam face but the face of Jared Padalecki as Sam. Looks like I watched the real show often enough to imagine how his face would look like while saying certain things.
It seems to be hard to cram the essentials of a Supernatural episode like the introduction of the MOTW, brotherly moments and the hunt of the MOTW into the approximately 20 minutes of an animation show. Therefore it sometimes lacks something. What I haven’t discovered so far are any references to pop culture. That’s a big minus in my eyes since those references are as much part of Supernatural as the hunt. A big plus is that the show always ends with “Wayward Son” (You definitely have to keep watching till the end since the episodes keep going after that song). I also think that it is useless to watch the animation without having seen the real thing since you would be missing a lot of back ground information.
All in all I had moments that moved me to tears and I had moments where I had a good laugh but not in all episodes. In case you haven’t seen the animation yet and want to watch before reading anything about them, you should stop right here [and go find and watch them]. All episodes are in three parts between approximately 3 to10 minutes. For those who don’t want to watch or have seen it already I will try to explain what is going on during my recap.
I enjoyed that. I was curious to see how well the writers would be able to craft a story in 20 mi utes that delivered the same kind of emotional content as the original series, but they captured the essence of the early tension between Sam and Dean fairly well actually. I dig the artwork. And in a way the gore at the beginning was even more graphic than the action series. I the series yo might see blood spurt on a window once, but not over and over again.
It was a bit jarring hearing Jared’s voice but not Jensen’s. The adjustment would have been easier if they had found substitute voices for both characters.
One other complaint … was that a cheap cover of Kansas at the end? It didn’t sound like the original. Couldn’t they have just ponied up the royalty fee and put the real song in there?
All in all, though, this looks like yet another set of DVDs to add to my want list on Amazon or my viewing queue on Netflix. 🙂
Thanks ChristopherH
I was surprised at the artwork too and Eric Kripke mentioned once that he especially liked it that they are able to show so much more (like you put it) gore into the anime than the real show. I will try to find that video again.
About hearing Jared’s voice but not Jensen’s. Yes it is more than just a bit jarring but after watching a few eps it is not as bad as it is when you first discover that it is not Jensen talking. And I most definatly prefer Jared’s voice to the voice of a substitute. Can’t wait to hear Jensen’s voice in there too. He is doing the Dean voice in episode 11 and 12. Haven’t gotten around to watch those yet. Only made it up to episode 6 so far. But maybe I will have time over the weekend.
I totally agree Wayward son without Kansas just doesn’t seem right for anything Supernatural.
P.S. Dadgummit! I’m still getting used to the IPad keyboard. Sorry about all the typos.
P.S.S. Agreed … Jared and Jensen both look quite yummy in those clips.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of anime style animation. It’s just not as visually appealing to me as other types of animation. But, of course, I had to check this one out! I think the new story episodes are really pretty good. I would kind of like to see them with the ‘real’ actors. ‘Ghost on the Highway’ was a pretty good MOTW. I liked the twist with Sam in ‘The Alter Ego.’ I thought it was new and interesting.
Great recap, Yirabah! I agree with a lot of what you said! I totally get what you mean about seeing Jared’s face when he’s talking! I too can picture the exact facial expression. Not having Jensen’s voice playing opposite Jared’s really threw me off, especially at first. I got used to it after a while. I think that Anime Sam is a better interpretation of Sam, especially season 1 Sam, than Anime Dean is of Dean. He’s not as cute as he should be (and that jacket is awful!). Maybe that’s just me. I like my Dean as cute as possible!
Overall, pretty good. Maybe they should do more new story episodes than redoing existing ones. It’s hard to live up to the awesomeness of live action Supernatural. I do like the idea of seeing the cases they worked between the cases we’ve already seen on the show. I love more background and new insight to our boys’ past!
And, yeah, the cheap cover of Wayward Son just doesn’t do it for me!
Thank you Morgan.
Sam in the Alter Ego was a nice twist. I also enjoyed that I was not able to figure out immediatly who is in the alter ego in the car, Sam or Dean, or maybe even none of them.
You are right about anime Sam coming closer to Sam than anime Dean to Dean (head starts to spin here). First Dean having brown eyes, than that hankerchief and that awful jacket – nope – I prefer the real Dean too.
As I mentioned in the article, there are new stories and they are written extremly well. In one ep we will also see how Sam mets Jess.
Apparently these DVDs aren’t yet available in the U.S.? I’m curious to know whether it is possible to get the Japanese versions with English subtitles. Are the formats even compatible?
[quote]It’s definitely possible to watch the original Japanese voice track with English subtitles. WB would be stupid to not include them …[/quote]
Silly me! Why didn’t I think of that … duh … haha! 🙂
Thanks cassi for your explanation.
The anime was cut to the Japanese voice track so that’s why Jared voice doesn’t match the images. The translation and the voice actors try to make it fit but sometimes it simply doesn’t work.
I don’t think that this can be the only explanation since it is basically only Jared’s voice that is off sometimes.
Either the translation is too bad or the voice actor.[/quote]
Don’t know about the translations since I am unfortunatly not able to talk Japanese. And about the bad voice actor statement. This was Jared first voice-only-job so if it would be his fault I would definatly excuse it but I still can’t/won’t believe that it is his fault. I actually think that he is doing the best voice job in the whole anime. Since I’ve been listening to the same scenes over and over again for the recap I discovered that he is putting as much feeling in his voice as he would for the real show unlike all the other voice actors. The reason for this very likely is that he knows by now what Sam’s feelings would be.
Something I did forget to mention in my article is that the youtube videos are the ones from SPNtheAnimationEps. She lives in Japan and I do thank her for putting those vids up. According to her she is ok but my heart still goes out to her and I hope that nothing will happen to her.
Thanks Yume, I did enjoy the first original episode. It made me laugh as well as cry.
We Supernatural fans are all crazy somehow. Read a few comments who stated the same, that they watch just because it is Supernatural.
Something that makes me sad, even a little mad, is that a lot of stuff gets blocked because (like the CW side) we don’t live in the states and now the animations getting blocked on youtube since we can’t buy them yet. Something they don’t seem to understand at Warner Bros. is that SPN fans are crazy. We here in Europe watch the eps on the internet shortly after they aired in the states but that doesn’t mean that we don’t watch them once they are aired in our local TV on the contrary we do (even if it is not as good as the english original version). Plus show me the fan that doesn’t have the dvds at home. So why do they block the animes. Those ones who are into animes will still buy the DVDs even if we seen it before – after all – we are SPN fans and we are crazy about our show.
So I don’t watch a lot of anime but I’ve seen my fair share. I liked these a lot and was kind of disappointed to find episode 5 blocked. But hey, I got to watch the first 4 for free, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.
I would almost think this is kind of AU from the TV series since there are some things that seem to be happening differently. I look forward to seeing what else is different and what other little twists they throw out there.
Hi there Jeannine, thanks for commenting. If you check Dark Austral comment there is help for you.
Hello Dark_Austral, thank you for your input.
I would be interested what your friend thinks about it too since I can’t believe that the SPN anime makes any scenes to someone who doesn’t now the real show.
Missouri sure was a disappointment thanks for letting us know that there is a reason for that.
About that sidenote. I was fighting with myself if I should put that info up or not. Warner Bros. already blocked to many of her videos. Didn’t want to help them find those links.
There used to be links on various anime sites. I even sent one link to Alice. She had it posted on the crossroads. But that link, like all the others we found, never lasted for more than 2 to 4 days before they were blocked.
I also believe that we here in Europe can keep dreaming about being able to access the same stuff as the people in America. It is slightly frustrating if you chat with a world wide group and want to show them e.g. fan made vids and talk about those and then they are blogged in some countries. I for example can’t watch approx. half the vids of the week Alice puts up. Though I keep dreaming that one day I will be able to watch them too.
re blocked content …
I’m pretty sure that the copyright laws of various countries have something to do with it. It may be true that we in America have access to more cntent … but I often find things that I’m trying to watch blocked for copyright reasons, especially content generated in Canada (don’t know why Canada and not other places though) …
Hi Yirabah
When my daughter was young, she also liked watching Pokeman, Yu-gi-oh and her favourite Sailor Moon.
I managed to watch up to episode 3. It’s no way comparable to watching the live version of Supernatural, but I still found it enjoyable.
I liked how they altered the original scripts that little bit, giving it a different twist to the story. I would like to seen the ones where both Jared and Jensen do the voice’s, however I didn’t mind the guy that did Dean’s voice, I think he did an ok job.
Anyways…Thank you for putting this together.
Hi Karen,
you are right that it is not comparible to the real thing but still I found it fun to watch. Since you already made it up to three episodes just watch one more and let me know what you think of the complet new story line.
So far,I’ve seen SPN The Animation up to episode 9 and it’s really fun to watch.
It’s okay as a substitute for the real thing during spring hellatus.
I think Jared is doing a good job with his first voice over gig.
I agree it’s really strange not to hear Jensen as Dean, but the voice actor is really doing best he can to sound like Dean Winchester Season 1 and I think he improving with every episode.
Can’t wait for the complete box, it’s not the real Supernatural but hey diversity is everything these days.
And how many of those “big network shows” made it from real life action show to animation?
Hello Dana,
so I am not the only one who uses the anime during this hellatus. Thanks for telling me that.
And yes I do love it, that our “little show” was thought interesting enough to become an anime (unlike some of those shows that millions watch each week)
I beg to differ. It is “real” Supernatural … in the same way that the prequel comic books are “real” … and in the same way that all the prose fiction novels are “real” Supernatural.
I think it is really cool that the television show is apparently spawning a host of cross-media cultural production … REALLY cool. Whether one likes the variations is a totally subjective thing. But to say that the anime version isn’t “real” is like saying the sixties Batman TV show wasn’t “real” Batman because it was too campy.
Oh come on ChristopherH, you have to understand us girls, that we prefer to watch the “real thing”. Jared and Jensen are just to beautiful and the anime characters (as well as they were drawn) just can’t match those two.
LOL …
Oh trust me … I hear ya! Jensen and Jared are both quite yummy to look at. 😉 I was only “begging to differ” in a constructive way.
About a year ago, I wrote a paper on Batman and discovered that one of the subthreads in cultural criticism is concerned with the role of the reader/viewer in interpretation. I just think that observing the ways cultural product can be expanded, adapted and re-created is very interesting.
It’s funny. I didn’t used to appreciate anime at all, but it has been growing on me. And now that one of my favorite shows is being adapted to the medium, I have another excuse to watch it. 🙂
I think over all are good show i finish all 22 episode in 2 days, and i really enjoy it how the story goes and really love how the way it end hopefully there will be a seasons 2 for it 😆
It was painful to watch the first two episodes english dubbed, lacking emotion and starting way out of order. Im going to try it in japanese and see how it goes, but not a big fan of the animation style they used. Overall, I would never pay to see this crap! Save all yourselves a headache and see the real show, hell alot better.
The anime is now available in DVD and Blueray!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=supernatural+anime&x=0&y=0
[url]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=supernatural+anime&x=0&y=0[/url]
I didn’t line the anime around all. To me it being anime anime it should have been way better w/ alot more action. It was more talk than anything. Deans character was all wrong the way he brushes everything off. The live action show is a way better. I think it has potential but they should get new writers and study the show a little bit more.
Update … seven episodes in … the knock-off episodes were OK, but the original episodes are quite good actually.
I love Supernatural. There’s a great post here comparing the TV series to the anime – http://www.mangauk.com/?p=supernatural-versus-supernatural