Quick thoughts on dubbing

Can’t Twitter this. But I’ll try a Twitter’d version in a bit.

• The issue about dubs today is that they suck, sounds the same no matter what, and the original feel is lost.
• Ironically, the second complaint can be applied to the original work as well (Kugimiya Rie being typecast being a big issue among certain groups of people)
• Some of the aural effects are sometimes lost too, though it’s easily replicated. Why no one does this is a mystery.
• But what makes a good dub? It’s one that, while lacking in some parts, manages to capture the feel of the character (some would say the soul of the character) or of the show in general.
• Also, Gurren Lagann joins the list of good dubs to have ever existed. YAY HERESY.

Drm is nostalgiatripping. Epically nostalgiatripping.

This was part of my childhood. No, I’m not kidding.

And yes, I have watched these shows before.

NINKU

HOLY FUCK THERE WERE NINJAS BEFORE NARUTOE?

BEFORE NARUTO CAME AND PISSED US OFF WITH HIS ANTICS, THERE WAS… … … a ton of shows involving ninjas doing completely awesome things that didn’t resort to goofy maajeeks. Ninku was one of those shows.

There was once a bunch of fucking awesome ninjas that relied on the power of the elements to kick butt, restore order, and basically did awesome things for the benefit of the people. Then Raoh came in, punched one of their leaders’ heads so hard he became evil. This poor Raoh punchingbag became obssessed with power to the point where he tried to capture this awesome dragon dude. And then when that failed, he created an evil empire and killed off these awesome ninjas, save for a few since one of them probably would cause the UN to come in via time paradox and own his ass for child soldiers.

SOME TIME LATER, the aforementioned child, Fuusuke, who is also one of them totally awesome ninjas, goes on a journey to find the remaining awesome ninjas in order to kick that guy’s butt.

WHY IS THIS AWESOME: Farting penguin? Great story? The main character is just that fuckign awesome? HOKUTO NO KEN WITH NINJAS?

STARSHIP GIRL YAMAMOTO YOHKO

This is moé. MOERU WA YO I TELL YOU.

BEFORE HARUHI ANNOYED THE SHIT OUT OF SCI-FI, AND KONATA, THERE WAS… … … SHINBOOOOOOOOO- I meant, Yamamoto Yohko.

See, 990 years from now (1000 in the show), Earth is going to play wargames for planets. Not as ridiculous as mahjong for nations, I assure you, but still. The games are as such: 2 teams send out 4 of their very best fighters to kick butt and chew bubblegum. Last man (or team) standing wins. Winner gets a planet, loser gets to whine. Our heroine, the proto-Konata Yamamoto Yohko, seems to be your average geek, playing video games, helping out with everything, and just basically being the sexiest geek ever before Konata came along and made us all pedos. Unfortunately, she’s also an ace pilot who is helping out in these wargames  by being THE BEST PILOT EVER (even better than Basara, Roy Fokker, and MAXIMILLIAN JENIUS AND MILLIA FARINA JENIUS COMBINED) and kicking tons of sci-fi ass. But she does not remember any of what I just said due to her being a derp and not wearing a helmet. Thankfully, with a lot of help from her best friend Kagariya Momiji (not related to Touhou’s Inushibari Momizi) and probably FUTURE CULTURE SHOCK, she regains her asskicking skills and proceeds to be totally awesome.

WHY IS IT AWESOME: What I said above is resolved in the first episode, thus turning it into AWESOME SPESS BATTLES. Also SHINBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. And yes, Yohko was moé before the word was coined.

FLAME OF RECCA

Man shoots fire from arm, more at 11.

IT’S FUCKING YU YU HAKUSHO WITH A GUY SHOOTING FIRE AND THE MAIN CHARACTER NOT DYING. WHICH MEANS IT IS AWESOME. I have never watched Yu Yu Hakusho, so I may be way off here.

FUUUUUUUUSHIGI YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGI

NAMI DA KANA, SUZAKU, IMA HOKUTO~

Ever wondered why I am such a Yuu Watase fanboy? I BLAME THIS. SOI T_T

AYASHI NO CERES

T_T

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd this was what made me a hardcore Yuu Watase fanboy. I’m serious. I really like Ayashi no Ceres a bit too unhealithily.

And that wraps up my nostalgiafaggotry.

WORLD, INTERNET, DO YOU FEEL ALIVE!!!!

Basara certainly gets it.

Basara gets it. So does the whole cast of Macross 7. The Yapan Express also gets it. The whole bloody cast of Gurren Lagann get it (YES, EVEN THE ANTI-SPIRALS.) Tomino finally gets it. Kawamori probably got it, but seems to have lost it in some bizarre ritual involving a giant lump of cash. GAINAX has finally got it. CLANNAD tried it hardest to get it, but probably fell very, very short. And on the flipside of getting it, planetarian and Iriya No Sora probably got it, though it’s been ages since I experienced either work and my mind is extremely fuzzy on it. The fine trolls at Colony Drop know and get it, but are probably using the worst possible way to express it.

Ironically, there are a lot of people who don’t get it. Top of the pops is that brain-dead nobrow troll Owen S aka saturnine. DarkMirage also does not and will not get it, for all the education and 2 years in the fucking Singapore Armed Forces have given and will give him. Hideaki Anno will never get it, because his head is too stuck up his smug ass to even consider it. Zac Bertschy and pretty much a good amount of the ANN team will probably never get it too. And it’s a safe bet that the likes of Kaioshin will never grasp the mere workings of this totally awesome idea . Japan, sadly, does not have the infrastructure to even get on the path to get it.

But what am I going on about here that makes me sound like some idiot who wrote a book slamming moral and cultural relativity and then going on about how the Army is turning us into zombies (and not via nanobots or violent chemical reactions, mind you)? What is this totally awesome idea that a lot of people are dismissing or are not getting (and are getting)? Why is Owen such a shit troll (Answer: Because he is fundamentally, an asshole, that answers that question)?

It has something to do with art (be it high culture, low culture, animé, cartoons, PIXAR masterpieces, etc) being more than just another way to lull the masses and to sell stuff. Art, in one form or another, has always been more than just pretty paint on canvas, bytes on a CD, or even flickering pixels on your LCD screen.

From painted rock walls, to the grandeur of the Taj Mahal, to the painted frescoes in the Vatican, to stained-glass windows in churches, to the Elgin Marbles, to the Acropolis in Rome, to the Eiffel Tower in France, to the Mona Lisa, to Shakespeare, to Bach, to Issac Asimov, to Plato, when you see, read, hear, or otherwise experience any form of art, what is the first thing you note?

That upsurge of feeling that forces itself out whether you like it or not. The sense of wonder. The tears that seem to fall out no matter how much you try to hold it in. That surge of adrenalin you get when an exciting moment comes on. The anger that burns in your heart when justice is not done. The feeling that such things of beauty, ambition, literary mastery, and refined wit, is something that is beyond us. The feeling of BEING HUMAN. THE FEELING. OF. BEING. ALIVE.

Animé, like all forms of human expression, is supposed to be filled with raw emotion, under the framework of  good basic technical framework, such as a good script, or art technique, or a basic story structure, for example. But it is more than just that.

WORDS MEAN NOTHING! FEEL THE PASSION OF THE SONG!

There’s a very good reason why I had to link the Overman King Gainer OP. The lyrics make absolutely no sense whatsoever. This is the equivalent of throwing all established rules out the window, and still ends up being AWESOME due to the raw emotion. This, I have to highly stress, is an exception to the rule.

But listen to the song for a moment. Ignore the confusing graphics and obviously charismatic dancing for a bit. LISTEN TO THE SONG. It gives off an energy quite unlike any other. (You could also search Youtube for “Masaki Endoh”.  Same effect)

It’s that same energy I’m talking about. It’s this “energy” that creates the feeling of being alive, so much more alive than what the world cares to give.

And that, in my opinion, is what art, and specifically animé, is all about. It’s not about attention-whoring, or about troll wars, or about thinking the world owes you a million blowjobs or something, or about what makes show tick (though that last bit is very important, especially for people who LOVE the scientific method). It’s about PASSION, BEING HUMAN, and A JOURNEY INTO DISCOVERING THE SOURCE OF THESE FEELINGS. I’m not advocating animé = life here, but I do advocate animé as a jumping-off point into discovering the source of these feelings.

Coincidentally, about Haruhi, I find the same sort of energy you find in Gurren Lagann, Macross 7, and Overman King Gainer (unsurprisingly, these 3 are my favorite shows thus far.) coming out of the cashcow, though how does KyoAni does it and how does the show manage to generate it, is not within my knowledge to understand it. Still, one must appreciate such an effort, even if the only thing it has going for it is being merch advertisment and fanbaiting. Kadokawa does not treat this hot franchise very well, it seems. Even if the fine folks at Colony Drop were trolling about the harem aspect of the show.

And with that…

Rationalism is dead and postmodernism lives on,

HOWEVER, the journey of being human lives on in my head and in my heart!

Finding the centre of the human experience,

Even at the edge of despair, I will never give up!

WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I AM???

I am myself! Not others, But MYSELF, A HUMAN BEING!

And woe betide anyone, or anything who dares interfere!

ED: OH SHIT I HAVE TRANSCENDED THE ARGUMENT I AM NOT GOOD AT BEING AKAGI

HOLY CRAP WHAT HAS JAPAN DONE AGAIN

HOT SHITCOCKS.

K-ON meets Macross FRONTIER.

HOLY FUCKING SHITCOCKS ON A SHITCAKE FROSTED WITH SHIT. AZUSA SINGING THE NYAN NYAN SWONG. AND BLOWING THE FUCK AWAY RANKA’S TAKE ON IT.

I think I might rage if some Japanese otake made Mio sing DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE. Or worse still, the Keion Light Music Club doing anything from Macross 7.

I think I hurt my head.

Unexpected news: Higurashi and Umineko head writer/creator endorses fan translation efforts

Awesome letter is awesome.

Yes, really.

This is probably the first time a content creator has endorsed and encouraged a fan translation of a commercial game.

Though this could be a fluke, it could also open up a flood of congratulatory letters. Or business oppotunities outside of Japan.

I’m just glad no country in the world can touch these people. I mean, LEGALLY-BINDING LETTER. BERNE IS PLEASED.

TINY TESRU IS PLEASED.

WHY. SO. MOE. INTERNET.

I ACCIDENTLY A JEAN INTO POST. (This series of posts dedicated to Blueflower/Jeanstealer, mostly because of this)

I’m kinda forced to blame OTAKU USA, Daryl Surat (hurr hurr hurr) and the Internet for this.

In what may seem to be an actual effort to flog what seems to be a dead horse, and because of all the recent news about rape games, Haruhi and OTAKU USA running a feature on “Japan’s most controversial export”, I am forced, nay, I am compelled to do a series on the said article.

Anyone is welcome to help/troll/do whatever. In fact, I expect people to flame me for not updating if all goes well.

Now if you excuse me, I’ll be looking for long-dead articles.

P.S: HAI JEAM.