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– Ouroboros, Girls’ Frontline x Dropkick on My Devil!
I finally stopped watching RWBY two episodes into the latest Volume 8 season. After a small glimmer of hope in Volume 6 and 7, where the story looked like it was going in an interesting direction, I gave up.
Continue ReadingThis post contains major spoilers for the entirety of Fate/stay night. Please stop reading now if you dislike spoilers.
via: BBC News
Parasite’s win for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars has once again, reignited the debate about subtitles vs dubs. As someone who has spent his whole life watching shows with subtitles, I find the argument against subtitles to be very poor. The usual complaint against subs are something along the likes of:
I live in Singapore which is a multi-language, multi-racial country. While English is our official language for conducting business, we are surrounded by neighbours who have different cultures and different languages. We’re constantly exposed to non-English media every day — TV shows, movies, music videos, news reports, etc. — the only way for the average Singaporean to understand them all is if they’re subtitled. Dubbing everything will be a waste of resources and time when subtitles would suffice.
Saying that a subtitle is distracting, is like saying that the traffic light is distracting to look at. Or road signs are distracting to look at. It’s like saying that moving your eyes — to shift your gaze momentarily to read a sign while driving — is distracting.
Those stuff are placed there to tell you if it is safe to go, or if you need to stop. Or if you’re travelling in the right direction. The information is RIGHT THERE for you, but you refuse to learn how to use it because it is “distracting”.
What about English films that have characters speaking a foreign or alien language (think of the alien races from the Star Wars films as an example)? If the director wants the audience to understand this foreign dialogue, then subtitles have to be included. What’s your argument against this then? It’s too distracting to read, even though it was the film’s intent to have subs?
I watched The Witcher on Netflix recently. Immediately after finishing the entire series, I went back to Episode 1 and rewatched everything in Japanese. My Japanese listening comprehension isn’t that great, so I needed to enable Netflix’s Japanese subtitles to assist me. I found myself having to pause occasionally, just so that I could finishing reading the subs for scenes with complicated dialogue. A bit of a hassle, yes. But far from annoying, as I was able to learn new words.
On the flip side, I am not saying that dubs are a sub-par viewing experience. Sometimes, a dub in your native language can even make the viewing experience much more enjoyable. After finishing Dragon Ball Super, I went back to Episode 1 to rewatch the whole thing (all 131 episodes) in English. While it was nice to hear my favourite characters scream and yell their battle cries in English, some lines of dialogue had to be completely rewritten in the dub. It was interesting to see how the English localisation team went about handling all these changes, and I think Funimation did a pretty good job.
Subs and dubs, if done correctly, are both legitimate ways to watch a film. I encourage everyone to rewatch their favourite shows in a different language that they are familiar with (eg. go rewatch The Witcher on Netflix in Japanese if you’re an anime fan).
But please don’t ever say that “subs are annoying”. You probably should stay away from driving a car. Or cooking. Or learning an instrument. All these skills require you to shift your gaze and focus repeatedly.
I like to collect Penguin Classics. My collection is very small but I love their cover artwork, most titles have a painterly and occasionally abstract style. Awhile back, some folks on 4chan had created an “Anime Classics” thread, featuring fan-made covers of popular anime titles and visual novels. Unfortunately, that archived thread has already been pruned (as with all 4chan threads after a certain period of time), but I managed to save some of the more interesting ones. See if you can spot and understand the references!
Neon Genesis Evangelion
via: IGN
One of my favourite anime series of all time, featuring my favourite female protagonist of all time, is finally getting a videogame release. Almost more than five years after it debuted on Japanese television back in late 2013.
It’s quite surprising that it took this long for a game adaptation to come out. Kill la Kill is the type of cartoon that seems absolutely perfect as a game, but as this IGN article explains, the game had to go through a lot of meticulous planning and scrutiny from Trigger and lead character designer Sushio.
I’ll play the game on day one when it’s out in late July. It’s great to see Trigger putting in the extra effort for one of their most beloved properties, and I’ll support it with my heart and wallet.
I don’t really consider myself a Castlevania aficianado, nor an expert on the series’ lore. My first encounter with the games was Symphony of the Night on the original PlayStation, then later the Nintendo DS games Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. I enjoyed the 2D action-RPG combat and plethora of weapons and abilities that you could use; the dungeon exploration mixed with puzzle-solving; and the bestiary of ghouls, goblins, and wicked monstrosities.
I also really appreciated the background story and setting for each of the games, and the Netflix series has done a good job of summarising all of it: The lineage of the Belmont bloodline and Belnades family as vampire hunters and magical sorcerers respectively; Alucard’s half-vampire heritage and why he chose to side with humanity. They’re all adapted quite faithfully for the animated series and are brought to life with the superb British voice acting. I mean, it stars freaking Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont and Graham McTavish as Dracula, both very well-known and accomplished British actors.
One thing I like about Netflix is how you can access different language dubs by switching your account profile’s language settings. I was very eager to listen to the Japanese dub, and was absolutely thrilled that Alucard’s JP voice was done by Shinichiro Miki. I recognise his voice instantly, anywhere and anytime: His most recent, prominent role was in Dragon Ball Super as the voice of Zamasu. If you’re a frequent anime watcher of the last few years then you’ve no doubt heard Miki’s voice before. He likes to play villainous or morally ambiguous characters.
Castlevania is rated M18, and I soon discovered why. It’s a very violent series, more violent than most anime shows airing on Japanese TV. There’s a lot of blood, decapitations, and organs being ripped out. Such a level of violence would never make it past TV censors, so I guess this is one advantage of being a Netflix-exclusive show.
The action sequences for some of the fights are very well-executed. I’ve gone back and replayed the duel between Alucard and Trevor several times now. It’s easy to follow, choreographed in a manner that makes the battle feel impactful, and depicts the immortal powers of Alucard and the human resourcefulness of the Belmonts in series-faithful fashion.
I also loved how it took 11 episodes for the classic Vampire Killer theme to appear in the show. If you’ve ever played any Castlevania game, you’ll know how it sounds like. The build-up to that moment was great and it’s a subtle reference meant for fans of the series.
Speaking of Netflix, I have no idea how Konami and Netflix collaborated to produce this series. What was the level of involvement, if any, that Konami had on production? If my gut feeling is correct, I think the answer is zero: Konami have been treating their videogame properties like trash for the past few years. You’ve no doubt heard many negative reports about how they mishandled and mistreated their employees over Metal Gear Solid V. That level of ineptitude also extends to their Castlevania series: The last “proper” Castlevania game, Lords of Shadow 2, came out in 2014. This was followed by a pachinko game in 2015 (I’m not kidding), and after that a Castlevania mobile game will also be released.
For fuck’s sake, Castlevania on mobile??
That’s a discussion for another day. Let us celebrate the wonders of Netflix instead, an online-viewing platform that is bringing so many adaptations that no one asked for to life on the big screen. I have resisted Netflix for the longest time because I’m a traditionalist for physical media — if I really like something, I will go out and purchase it to add to my Blu-ray collection.
Castlevania, Stranger Things, Daredevil, they’ve all shown me that sometimes, it’s ok to go full digital. Also please give us more Japanese dubs. It is very important.
I am assigned with what is probably the hardest role in my company (translating English to Japanese). If it was translating Japanese to English (my first language), it would be much easier. But I have to translate to Japanese, a language that I am still learning. No one truly understands how difficult this is, because no one else in my entire company (including overseas colleagues) has any Japanese ability.
Repeatedly, I am being placed on solo shifts by myself, which is a total nightmare. Every morning I wake up at 6.30am to 7am with absolute dread, because there are lots of other things to do besides translation. If I had another colleague on shift with me to share the workload, it’s a lot easier. But with one colleague on paternity leave, and another about to go on reservist… you get the idea. The World Cup is long over, yet I’m feeling absolutely exhausted again, and I am not happy about this.
I was watching the English Funimation dub of Dragon Ball Super the other day, and reached the popular Future Trunks arc. Vegeta was telling Future Trunks: “You don’t give up. You find a way.”
Sure Vegeta. But Trunks eventually overcame insurmountable odds with the combined powers of his friends, family, and all life on Earth. I am just one single individual, all by myself, lost in thoughts all alone.
Artist: @Kawanocy on Twitter
Now it’s time for another Kill la Kill character to get the Kawanocy treatment. Notice the fine, intricate details on Satsuki’s trench coat and belt. The oriental Japanese background flair is a reference to one of Kill la Kill’s episodes, where she begins her conquest across the country.