#Crunchyroll Exclusive

[rikaklassen]

Crunchyroll released three episodes of A Sign of Affection on YouTube, an anime about a deaf girl, without any closed captioning.

Ironic.

Hearing people love our visibility, but they don't accommodate.

[foreverambrosia]

I should rewatch R.WBY...

[checkpoint-diaries]

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – A Deep Dive Into the Upcoming Anime Adaptation

Explore the captivating world of Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, the highly anticipated anime inspired by the iconic game. Dive into themes, production insights, and future possibilities. A must-read for anime fans!

If you’ve ever been enthralled by the sweeping landscapes and poignant storytelling of Ghost of Tsushima, then you’re in for a treat. With its rich narrative and unforgettable characters, the game has left a lasting impact on players worldwide. Now, its legacy expands into a new medium with Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, an anime adaptation set to explore the supernatural side of feudal Japan. Could…

[onenettvchannel]

BREAKING OVERNIGHT: RTX 2024 cancelled, financial struggles and uncertain future of the Rooster Teeth Animation [#K5NewsFMExclusive]

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- The much-awaited RTX 2024, organized by the well-known entertainment company Rooster Teeth, has unfortunately been abruptly canceled overnight (Texas local time), leaving fans in shock and the absolute failure to none. The announcement was made by a General Manager, delivering localized newsletters of their paid subscribers of Rooster Teeth FIRST.

The decision to cancel RTX 2024 has sent ripples through the community, as fans and attendees express their disappointment on various online platforms. The event, known for its unique blend of internet culture and entertainment, was scheduled to take place in Texas next year in 2024.

Mr. Jordan Levin, who assumed the role of General Manager at the aforesaid entertainment and convention company, has been a key figure in the company's strategic decisions. Levin's involvement in the cancellation raises questions about the challenges, and the reasons behind this sudden development.

In the stated e-mail newsletter, obtained exclusively by DWFH-FM 97.7mhz's K5 News FM: Dumaguete (formerly Radyo Bandera: Sweet FM Network in the Visayas and most parts of Mindanao), Rooster Teeth cited multiple reasons for its cancellation: "I’m sorry to inform you that we will not be hosting RTX in 2024. We have every intention of resuming RTX in the future and bringing everyone back together", Levin said.

Among them were significant cost-cutting measures and a notable decline in revenue, suggesting financial challenges that the company is currently grappling with.

The cancellation of the RTX 2024 raises concerns about the future of Rooster Teeth's animation division. Speculations abound that the company may be forced to make drastic decisions, potentially affecting the production and distribution of its popular animated series, including the critically acclaimed "RWBY" (a fictional acronym name of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long).

Given the financial constraints mentioned in the said newsletter, there is a growing theory that Rooster Teeth may opt for a shift in distribution strategy. The speculation suggests that future volumes like Volume 10 of RWBY may no longer be exclusively announced on the Rooster Teeth website but could find a new home on popular streaming platforms like Crunchyroll. Furthermore, there are ominous whispers about the possible permanent closure of Rooster Teeth Animation (RTA). The animation studio, responsible for creating beloved content for the Rooster Teeth community, may face an uncertain fate in light of the company's financial struggles.

(FILE PHOTO COURTESY: RTXEvent via The X Network)

As the news of RTX 2024's cancellation reverberates throughout the entertainment community, fans are left to wonder about the future trajectory of Rooster Teeth and the fate of their favorite animated series.

The unfolding events will undoubtedly shape the landscape of online entertainment within a few more years to come.

FILE BANNER PHOTO COURTESY: RTXEvent via The X Network BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://old.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/18madrg/important_updates_from_rooster_teeths_general/ [Referenced Relay Post #1 via Reddit] *https://old.reddit.com/r/RWBYcritics/comments/18mbyi7/a_roosterteeth_community_update_email_was_just/ [Referenced Relay Post #2f via Reddit] *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Levin and *https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2023-12-20/rooster-teeth-cancels-rtx-2024/ [Referenced News Article via The Austin Chronicle]

-- OneNETnews Team

[jelloapocalypse]

Has your opinion on adventure time changed at all? I’d really like to stop hating you forever.

Not really. Crunchyroll forced me to cover it along with 3 other shows selected by them as part of a sponsorship pack even though I told them I didn't like it and wasn't interested. It was either that or Bee and Puppycat which I was even less interested in. I binged five seasons of it, did not like it at all, and have not re-engaged with it because I did not like it at all.

Unrelated, have you considered that forming an opinion on someone exclusively based on how they feel about a cartoon for tweens is weird?

[sir-adamus]

a new physical release for the 1st volume has gone up for preorder on crunchyroll's store, which includes the Japanese dub and exclusive art cards

[animefeminist]

Crunchyroll fails to meet industry standards for Closed Captioning

In 2017, Sony Pictures Entertainment bought a 95% majority share of Funimation Entertainment for $143 million. Four years later, Sony completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion, bringing the two companies back together after their partnership break in 2018. The decision cements Crunchyroll-qua-Sony’s place as the largest monopoly in the English-language anime streaming space.

The merger has included the gradual sunsetting of Funimation’s streaming site; all titles that aired after Spring 2022 will be uploaded exclusively to Crunchyroll; while any Funimation-exclusive titles have either been transferred over to Crunchyroll or will leave streaming, and dubbing projects are now carried out under the Crunchyroll umbrella. All of this makes one of the biggest issues with the site even more glaring: with a few exceptions, Crunchyroll does not offer closed captioning for its English dubs.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[hetalianhistorian]

Do you have a Funimation subscription? If so, I need YOUR help!

For the past two weeks or so, there has been news going around that Funimation will be merging with Crunchyroll on April 2nd.

What does this have to do with Hetalia? The entirety of Hetalia is already available through Crunchyroll (albeit, with the episodes are out of order) EXCEPT for the Paint It White! movie and the extras for Hetalia. The Paint It White movie is at least still available for physical purchase, however it is the extras I have the most concern about.

The Funimation dub can be considered important to Hetalian history and culture due to how much influence it had over the western fanbase. These extras serves as a time capsule for when Hetalia was at its peak within the west and provides behind-the-scenes insight to the dub voice actors.

I am not sure if it will be 100% guaranteed that these extras will be transferred to Crunchyroll. Especially since I have sent Funimation an email (left) and this is what they've responded with (right):

So, that information is not too helpful. Aren't the extras provided within the DVDs? As someone who owns the physical copies of seasons 1-6: Yes! But do they have all of the extras? No.

The DVDs do include the commentaries, outtakes, and interviews, but it seems that the Funimation page has exclusive stuff like World Buffet, panel footage, fan appreciation cards, and more.

I cannot do this on my own because while I do have a Funimation account, unfortunately nowadays, when you attempt to purchase a subscription, it will only redirect to the Crunchyroll website. Hence, I am asking the fanbase to please contact me if you are someone or know somebody with an ongoing Funimation subscription. The goal is that we can work together to guarantee the preservation of ALL of these extras! You can reach out to me through the following methods: Email: hetalianhistorian@gmail.com Discord: hetalianhistorian Twitter: @HetaHistorian Reddit: u/HetalianHistorian And of course through here, on Tumblr. If you can, please reblog and share to spread the word! I'll be open for any questions or clarifications! Thanks so much! Hetalian Historian

[a-forbidden-detective]

‘It’s between lovers’

RonToto shippers, we have our own version of Gojo-Geto off JJK0 or the Whisper scene from “Lost in Translation.”

I admit that plot-based voice cancellation is the least favorite trope of mine. But, what is it exactly?

Sometimes, one line can change everything — for the characters as well as the audience. So, often, if that line has to come up early on, it will be cancelled out by some other noise, such as a truck passing or a plane taking off, or, in the case of dream worlds and other special cases, for no obvious reason whatsoever.

After being annoyed trying to find out from the mouth of Sofia Coppola what actually could Bob mean when he whispered something to Charlotte , she had this to say on the film’s 15th anniversary,

Just acknowledging that week meant something to both of them and it affects them going back to their lives. People always ask me what’s said. I always like Bill’s answer: that it’s between lovers – so I’ll leave it at that.”

Or Gojo’s words that made Geto say “You should at least curse me at the end.”

The only thing that was definite and official is that Ron says“thank you” to Toto, courtesy of Crunchyroll.

But Ron’s speech was long and if you look at Toto’s reaction it would be a life-altering moment. This isn’t the simple declaration of comradeship. This is something more intimate thinking that the anime crew knows the implications of these scenes to the viewers. They understand what are we going to say after we watch the scenes unfold. The effects, the way the story will evolve after this arc.

Toto’s pupils are dilated for one. His mouth is a complete O. These appearances are not part of the manga. These are anime exclusive.

What did Sherlock say about dilated pupils?

Irene Adler: Oh, dear God. Look at the poor man. You don't actually think I was interested in you? Why? Because you're the great Sherlock Holmes, the clever detective in the funny hat?

Sherlock Holmes: No... because I took your pulse: elevated; your pupils: dilated. I imagine John Watson thinks love's a mystery to me, but the chemistry is incredibly simple and very destructive. When we first met, you told me that disguise is always a self-portrait; how true of you. The combination to your safe: your measurements - but this… [taking her cell phone] ... this is far more intimate. This is your heart, and you should never let it rule your head.

How about the scientific side of it :

Why Eyes Dilate: Increased Oxytocin

Oxytocin is the warm and fuzzy love hormone released after intimate connection. In empathic, healthy people (i.e. not psychopaths), oxytocin gets released after a hug, a sweet conversation, seeing a baby, or connecting strongly with someone. When oxytocin releases, pupils often dilate too.

The censored dialogue might irritate me along with the non-announcement of season 3. But, I still keep optimistic bc for the meantime we have these chapters animated. It is in our power to reinterpret it through fan fiction and fan arts. I just hope that this is not the end of interpreting Akira Amano’s work to our TV or handy screens.

[the-sapphic-raven]

I havent watched rwby in like 4-5 years what did i miss. also whats a yorse

4-5 years? thatd roughly be when volume 8 released.

vol.8 tl;dr- Atlas is gone, Penny died again and Winter is the winter maiden, Salem has 2 relics, RWBY and Jaune fell into Eeby Deeby

RWBY went on a several year hiatus. I made a Bloconut and Arryn found out about it. volume 9 came out in 2023 exclusively on crunchyroll.

RWBY are in a fairy tale land, Jaune is an old man, Blake and Yang make out, Ruby has a mental breakdown and drinks the jonestown coolaid, and Raven Branwen is down bad for Summer Rose. Robbie Daymond is there.

since then, warner killed Rooster Teeth and Viz media bought the rights to RWBY we are waiting for new info patiently.

for any and all yorse inquiries, please see yorsetorian (yorse historian) @yay-is-for-yorses

[captainportgasdace]

This is my second edition of ✨ Ace merch you can buy ✨

I don’t have a lot this month, I hesitated because of it but let’s do it anyway AND honestly I was thinking; if you’re looking for something in particular, like a nice figurine you’re looking for you can always ask me, we can all help each other this way! ❤️

SO I bought this ABSOLUTELY adorable necklace from Ukiiyo Studio and I’m OBSESSED with it! You basically choose a chain and you add the charms you’d like. The quality is very impressive and it looks super cute!

FiguartsZERO Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace Brothers Bond are on sale at Best Buy, they comes separately but if you want the Ace one, there you go!

ABYstyle Ace's Backpack is available for preorder at Crunchyroll store, perfect for cosplay ❤️

Luffy & Ace Portrait.Of.Pirates NEO-MAXIMUM Figure Set (Bond Between Brothers 20th LIMITED Ver.) - Crunchyroll Exclusive, not new but it’s 30% off on CrunchyRoll Store

MegaHouse Nyan Piece Nyan! Maneki-Neko FORTUNE LUCKY☆CAT PIRATES were available for pre-order but it looks like it’s already out of stock 😭 But look how CUTE they were! Still putting it here so you guys know it exist and maybe they will restock on BoxLunch

Note: those are blind boxes

World Collectable Figure Parent and Child Bloodline I & II so HEAR ME OUT I wanted it so bad because there is no merch of Portgas D. Rouge but those are BLIND BOX and I’m so fed up 😭 ANYWAY if you want, it will release on October 2025 and Ace, Roger and Rouge are in the 2nd serie, if you’d like to pre-order, I would recommend to do so by BigBadToyStore ❤️

[mikyapixie]

🌸🌸🌸

The Pizza Hut franchise announced a delicious and magical collaboration with Cardcaptor Sakura. It is a special pizza to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the anime, and the future sequel to Clear Card. The special edition of Pizza Hut "Key of Dreams" will be available from June 4 for diners in Taiwan. In a promotional video, other delicious products are announced, such as a bun filled with matcha and red beans, but with the appearance of Kero-chan.

In addition, for the purchase, fans of the CLAMP series will be able to take a special edition pizza box, which is shown in the advertising video. There are also four collectible keychains as exclusive gifts for purchases. Pizza Hut revealed on its official blog that an activation will be organized on a Sakura bus. The 48 winners of this promotion will be able to travel on this bus decorated with the illustrations of the anime. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card began on Nakayoshi's pages in July 2016 as a sequel to Cardcaptor Sakura. The series follows Sakura in new magical adventures during high school. The anime adaptation aired from January 7 to June 10, 2018, under the direction of the director of the original series Morio Asaka for MADHOUSE.

This is the synopsis of the anime that is available on Crunchyroll:

Guided by the Key to Dreams, Sakura embarks on a new adventure. Sakura managed to capture all the Clow Cards that could have caused a cataclysm in the world and turned them into her Sakura Cards. Now spring has arrived, the cherry trees are in bloom and Sakura is about to start a new stage in high school. His beloved Syaoran has returned from Hong Kong and Sakura is very excited to be able to go to class with him again. That's when one night something strange happens to your letters...

[illdothehotvoice]

Bro I just wanted to see that hologram in person so fucking bad literally a childhood dream of mine and I finally get the chance to and I get lucky and get my tickets way cheap and it's a small LCD screen that I'm gonna see like 2 pixels of.

My goal is to not be sad and constantly checking the Miku Expo tag all day. There's a whole ass eclipse tomorrow and I am lucky enough to see that and that's so fucking cool

[cleverboiclothes]

Crunchyroll Exclusive Junji Ito Scarecrows Shirt

For @splinkoop

[haru-dipthong]

Why are anime translations so bad?

Disclaimer: I have never done any professional translation, and I don’t watch dubbed/subbed anime very often. But recently I watched a few episodes of subbed Demon Slayer at a friend’s place, and I noticed how bad some of the translations were. It reminded me of my childhood, watching subbed Ghibli movies and thinking “that english sounds weird”. As a kid I thought it was an unavoidable part of translation, but now that I can speak Japanese, I realise that we can do so much better with translations!

This post is my attempt to identify what a “bad” translation is, and hazard some guesses at what mistakes translators make that lead to these bad translations.

Examples are from Ranking of Kings, episodes 10 and 11. Screenshots taken from Crunchyroll.

What do I mean by bad?

Reason 1: They don’t sound like natural English.

If a character in an english cartoon said some of the stuff that characters in anime say in translations, it would sound very unnatural. Anime-translation english is unnatural and awkward sounding.

ダイダ様、久しぶりに街に出てみますか？ Price Daida, it’s been a while, so why don’t we go down into town?

This example sounds awkward. What’s with the random “so” in the middle of the sentence? No one in English media talks like that. If you just remove the “so” and replace it with a full stop, we get a much more natural sounding sentence.

Price Daida, it’s been a while. Why don’t we go down into town?

Or even something like this:

Price Daida, why don’t we go into town? It’s been a while since you’ve been down there.

Reason 2: They don’t fit the character.

This screenshot shows the character Kage speaking (the black blob). He has a character trait of being kind of immature and almost never using polite Japanese, even to royalty, which is very disrespectful. The original translation makes him sound so formal! Kage is supposed to sound like a 15 year old who tries way too hard to be rough and intimidating. Can you imagine someone like that saying “You may say those things”?

いやいやいや、なんかいい感じなこと言ってるけど、違うからね！ No, no, no! You may say those feel-good things, but reality is different!

It doesn’t preserve his characterisation at all. Way too formal and not juvenile enough! A better translation would be:

No, no, no! Nice motivational speech, but they’re just words!

The devil’s advocate & descriptivism

Now, I’ll preface this by saying I am a hardcore descriptivist. I’m not saying that these translations are wrong, or that the resulting English is incorrect English. What I’m saying is that they do not achieve the goals of a good translation, those goals being preserving what is being said and how it’s being said.

It could be argued that by now, anime translations have become a new dialect of English. Anime fans have come to expect the awkward-sounding phrasing, and instead might see natural English as unexpected. This is a fine rebuttal of my first point (it sounds awkward) but not of my second point (speech-pattern-based characterisation is often lost). Even then, anime translations are not exclusively for established anime fans. First time viewers may be put off by the unnatural language choices and strange turns of phrase. “Anime is cringe” they might say, and they wouldn’t be wrong. A good translation should be understandable to the entire target audience, and first time or casual viewers certainly make up a large portion of that target audience.

Why do the translations end up so bad?

They err on the side of direct translation over meaning-based translation

Often, it seems like the main nouns and verbs in the sentence get translated verbatim, and the rest of the translation is forced to bend around those. In addition, they do not consider how a similar sentiment might be phrased in english. Even if it’s a japanese way of saying something, they preserve the individual words instead of changing the whole sentence. Let’s look at the Kage example from before:

いやいやいや、なんかいい感じなこと言ってるけど、違うからね！ No, no, no! You may say those feel-good things, but reality is different!

I’ve coloured the text so you can see which pieces got translated separately. In this example, basically every word is being translated separately. Now let’s look at my example:

いやいやいや、なんかいい感じなこと言ってるけど、違うからね！ No, no, no! Nice motivational speech, but they’re just words!

I’m translating the entire middle verb phrase as one atomic piece of meaning. It’s not individually important that, for example, the specific word 言ってる was used, so it’s not important that I translate it directly to the word “say”. What is important is that Kage is saying that Despa is saying some nice stuff, but it doesn’t change the facts. I have a feeling that the more you can group words together and translate them as a whole phrase, the more natural the translation ends up sounding (and the more characterisation you can preserve).

They use weird words, due to dictionary translation

Let’s look at another example:

兄上は弱者だと、どこか甘えていないか？ Aren’t they sort of spoiling Brother, just because he’s a weakling?

In this example, the word 弱者 is translated as “weakling”. “Weakling” is a pretty rare word to hear outside of anime. That’s probably the best direct translation if we’re looking at the word 弱者 out of context. However, words always appear in context. Both times the word 弱者 is used to refer to a person in this episode, it’s used to refer to disabled people (Bojji, who is deaf, and a citizen, who is both blind and deaf). The citizen is actually not physically weak, in fact he looks pretty chunky and strong, so 弱者 is not being used to refer to his physical strength, only his disability. The English word “weakling” strongly suggests physical weakness, so I don’t feel like it’s appropriate here. Instead, I feel like a more appropriate translation would be:

Do you think Brother gets special treatment, just because he’s so pathetic?

Daida is immature and heartless at this point in his character. He has contempt for both Bojji and the citizen, and sees them as weak, but he also feels pity for them. I think the word “pathetic” sums up his emotions for them much better than the word “weakling”, as well as not coming loaded with the incorrect “physical weakness” connotation.

As a side note, you may have noticed I translated the first part of the sentence differently too. That’s another example of how (in my opinion) grouping words together to translate a phrase as a whole results in a much more natural phrasing.

They try to preserve the original grammar

An important skill to have when translating is knowing which aspects of the phrase are important to preserve in translation, and which parts are not important. Word order and grammar are almost never important enough to preserve.

ダイダ様こそ、選ばれた人間。 Prince Daida, you are one who is chosen.

In this example, the past tense verb 「選ばれた/chosen」modifying the noun 「人間/person」 seems to have been determined to be important to preserve by the translator, which leads to the awkward phrasing “one who is chosen”. In reality, the minutia of the original grammar is not important to preserve - we can translate 選ばれた人間 as a set phrase rather than translating the words individually:

Prince Daida, you are one of the chosen few.

Again, we can see that the translation is improved by grouping words together and translating the phrase as a piece of atomic meaning!

Anime translation is a naturally restrictive medium

For dubs, the characters’ mouth movements need to match up. This really narrows down the possibilities of translation options. It means that sub-optimal word choices may be used, and the rhythm of speech may be forced into an odd speed in places.

For subs, although the syllables and mouth movements don’t need to match up as perfectly as they do in dubs, the subtitles still end up needing to be applied over the same moments of speech. However, often, if the given situation in the anime was to be completely reframed in English, maybe no one would have said anything at that moment. There are times when someone would say something in Japanese that you would expect someone to not say anything in english.

デスパー：弟子の悪口は許しますけど、私の悪口は許しませんよ！！ カゲ：逆でしょ！！！！ Despa: You can insult my apprentice, but I won’t let you insult me! Kage: You’ve got it backwards!

In Japanese comedy, the role of ツッコミ (best translation is “the straight man”) is ubiquitous and plays the part of a laugh track - telling audiences when to laugh. In this case, Kage is playing the part of ツッコミ by pointing out that what Despa has said is the opposite of what you’d expect him to say. In this example, I feel like if this was an English cartoon, Kage wouldn’t have said anything. English speaking comedies generally expect/trust audiences to get the jokes without them being explicitly pointed out. I feel like this shows how attempting to fit subtitles to every spoken phrase can lead to slightly unnatural turns of phrase, since the translator is attempting to fit some speech into a place where there wouldn’t have been any in the first place. In my opinion, the best “translation” for the above would have been to cut the 1 second clip where Kage butts in with his line altogether.

———

Again, I should reiterate that I’m not a translator. I’m very keen to hear counter-arguments if you disagree with what I’ve said! Translations have got me really interested recently and I’m hungry for more opinions.

[animenostalgia]

The Anime Nostalgia Podcast - ep 140: Record of Lodoss War with Grant

The Saturday Anime series is back! These are episodes where we talk about anime that aired on the Saturday Anime block of Sci-Fi Channel back in the 90s on US Cable TV. This month, I'm joined by returning champion and Lodoss Super Fan GrantTheThief to talk all about one of the most well-beloved fantasy anime ever created: Record of Lodoss War! Listen as we go through it's journey from D&D campaign to anime OVA, our main cast of characters, and why giant shoulder pauldrons need to make a comeback in character design.

Stream the episode or  [Direct Download] Subscribe on apple podcasts | Spotify

Relevant links:

Buy the out-of-print DVD or bluray on Amazon

Stream Record of Lodoss War in the US on Crunchyroll

Buy the novel Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch ebook on Bookwalker

Read the fan translations of the original Record of Lodoss War replays from Comtique Magazine on The Internet Archive

Watch a broadcast recording of the first 3 episodes of Record of Lodoss War (with commercials!) as it aired on US TV's Sci-fi Channel in 1996 on The Internet Archive

Platina Jazz's cover of Adesso e Fortuna from their album Anime Standards Vol 2

Listen to Grant & Paula talk about Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch on their podcast, Adventure Tomes!

Follow Grant on Bluesky!

Support the work I do on this podcast by leaving me a tip on Ko-fi!

See how you can get access to behind-the-scenes stuff, early access to the podcast, and a BRAND NEW subscriber exclusive podcast with my new Ko-fi Subscriptions!

As always, feel free to leave me your thoughts on this episode or ideas for future episodes here—or email me directly at AnimeNostalgiaPodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening!