First of all, the anime covers the first two seasons of the original series in 22, 22-24 minute episodes. This means that they've compressed a few of the original stories to half the length, skipped a lot of them and then added some new anime original ones. Several of them containing Japanese lore.
Secondly, they also added a small piece of background story where they give Sam and Dean a housekeeper-ish person (demon of course) and make Sam blow up some demonic bull with his mind right in front of Dean. They also screw with Dean's personality a bit. In "Roadkill" he ends up burning his leather jacket for a no good reason ( leather doesn't even burn very well) and then he goes and puts on some ugly ass jacket that not even apple-pie-life-Dean would wear. However, the leather jacket does mysteriously reappear at some point. What's worse is that in one episode the Impala gets hit by another car and Dean doesn't even drop one line about it. Sure, they were still being chased and all but the real Dean wouldn't have let it slide without a comment in any situation.
Another sad thing is the new design of Bobby. They made him a short, plump, bald man. They even took his cap away. Bobby is awesome and he deserves way better!
I don't mind that they change how the story plays out as long as they end up at the same ending but when they start adding things to their past that should have changed how they see things or start messing with the characters, I get upset. Don't mess with Sam, Dean or Bobby!
And lastly a bit about the voice acting.
Now this was released with both a Japanese and an English dub. And this is the first time that I can't say that the Japanese is better.
In the English dub Sam is voiced by Jared Padalecki throughout the whole anime but Dean is voiced by some Andrew Farrar. Only in the last two episodes do we get Jensen Ackles as Dean. It does help with the chemistry of the series but doesn't take it all the way.
As for the rest of the cast it's more or less like any other English anime dub, generally bad but perhaps a tiny bit above standard since it seems like they used some original dialogue and the fact that it's actually set in the USA helps.
I didn't think it was going to work in Japanese and I'm sad to say I was right. It just sounds wrong. The witty jokes and most other lines get kind of butchered. Imagine taking away all the sarcasm from the entire series. I mean the dialogue makes more than half the show and it's just not the same without it...
Both Padalecki and Ackles really do a good job voicing their characters. I'll admit, not as good as the acting in the original series but close enough. In general the acting of the Japanese cast is better (well duh) but the what really makes the series what it is, is lost.
One of my favourites things about the anime is that they use this image and Carry on Wayward Son as the theme song. Sung by Japanese but they do a decent job.If you're a fan of the original series I can't really recommend the anime... Maybe it'll be better if you haven't seen the original. But then again, if you've yet to see anything Supernatural at all, just skip the anime and go watch the TV-series!
But if you are gonna watch it, remember to watch the bit after the ending too or you'll miss part of the story and might end up feeling very confused at the beginning of the next episode.
But if you are gonna watch it, remember to watch the bit after the ending too or you'll miss part of the story and might end up feeling very confused at the beginning of the next episode.
