YinYang 16th Anniversary Fanime Re-dub: Review
I watched the premiere of the YinYang fandub, and it was a great experience! I'll try to keep this concise but here are some things that I thought were most noteworthy (fair warning, it's gonna be mostly nitpicky criticisms, sorry!):
The jab at Chris Thurman at the start was just... *chef's kiss*. I was wondering how that controversy was going to be addressed, if at all. I even thought about writing about it here; only thing that's stopping me is the question of whether it'd be worth reopening old wounds on something like that. Whatever the case, fuck him.
I feel like the prologue would have been better without the sound effects. I get that the first two episodes were very much lacking in background noise where music and/or dialogue were due to the technical limitations of Windows Movie Maker, but I personally saw the use (perhaps even overuse?) of the sound effects here as more of a distraction than anything. Same with near the end of what is marked in the fandub as "Scene 4", in the shots where Chiyoko's wings subtly appear and the Tsubasa Twins' eyes glow.
The opening animation was pretty well-made! The choice to have the "newer" logo that was used in Episode 3 and some artwork was a fine choice, and the animator's interpretation of the scenes really makes me wonder if that's what Pari-chan was going for all those years ago.... The title cards taking up a good chunk of the screen and the way the OP music was edited wasn't my cup of tea, though.
Chiyoko's VA in this dub is far too cute. I like it just as much as I liked Pari-chan as Chiyoko's original VA. As for the Tsubasa Twins' dub VAs...? I hesitate to say, but while Kuro's voice seemed out of place to me in the original version and Hikaru's voice seemed to almost fit his character, the opposite seems to be true here. Kinda like... nevermind.
Lots of great fanart!!! Say, that Chiyoko in the fourth piece is pretty cute... I wonder who made it~?
I'm a bit disappointed that the line "We planned to move here until we got graduated" was corrected!!! But *loud sigh* it's fine, *even louder sigh* I understand.
A lot of the points I've made about the OP can also apply to the ED. Also, I was sorta thinking that the reanimated ED would have their designs as they appear in the series rather than what I'm assuming is the early versions - especially with Yamiko. Also also, the audio being in high fidelity is throwing me for a loop.
Lani's insight on the project in the latter 1/3 of the video was also fun to hear as well, and the bloopers were really funny!
All in all, although I did have a lot of nitpicky comments, it really doesn't matter, because in the end people got together and made a project paying tribute to YinYang and showing that they still love it, and I think that alone beats anything and everything else. It's such a beautiful thing, IMO. And, I doubt it'll ever happen, but I really hope that Pari-chan sees it at some point and recognizes that people still love her work even this long after. Actually, I just hope that she's alive and well in general, perhaps even thriving in life, despite everything.
...Anyway, I've said enough. Thanks again to Lani for featuring my art in the segment, and I'm really, really, really looking forward to the next episode - if it ever gets re-dubbed, that is!
I'll probably post another thing here or there, but for the most part, this account is likely going to remain dormant. That said, peace!
(Edit 7/9/2026 1:30 AM: I had to go back and fix a few typos and change a few things and I am not happy about it.)
