#FUCK why do the japanese dub change NAMES

[hamletisintown]

I'm so fucking annoyed at the number of english-speaking hoyoverse players who play with the japanese subtitles

I'm only speaking about like, streamers and youtubers because those are the ones i see playing, obviously (and i'm only talking about genshin impact and honkai star rail bc those are the 2 hoyo games i play but i'm willing to bet the trend is the same in other hoyo games, and possibly in other chinese "anime" games)

The number of times i click on a video and the person speaks english but has their game set to japanese dubbing for no reason, like. Can you guys stop being weebs for just one second please.

[caineinthecorner]

Language (The Demon Brothers)

★ Based on my language general hcs. Part 2 is here.

Hi. Today we have the demon brothers language hcs, brought to you by a single dumbass bilingual. :D

I include mentions of bilingual/multilingual MC, but I use the term MC and you interchangeably in the bullet points. It's the same thing who cares (you can also add whatever languages you think fit I am just going off vibes tbh)

★ Lucifer.

Since he was the strongest and highest ranked out of the brothers, his innate abilities were muddled the least.

This is to say that he remembers a lot from his innate knowledge as an angel, and can actually fare incredibly well on his own if you leave him in the human realm.

(the language he preferred back in his angel days was Archaic Latin, which is also Simeon's preferred language)

When Diavolo brought up the idea of the human exchange program he was like "(: ok" and binged human language for like two months straight like a total psychopath

He's like one of those fancy 10+ languages fluent polyglots (how)

Despite his fluency, it is rare to ever see him speak them. He has better things to do and prefers demon tongue.

Or if he does, the Loquar Ad Vos that was applied to you once you arrived in Devildom doesn't allow you to hear it.

You try to swear in your native language around him and oh boy it backfires

That is how you learn he's fluent in everything under the sun (exaggeration)

Frustrated, you grumble that you will learn demon tongue just to one up him

He takes it like a challenge. Enjoy reading a million books on the demonic language and having double the homework for your little joke.

(he gives you hard material to learn on purpose to see you fail. Enjoy hell buckoo. Double hell? Hell²)

You kept misspelling good morning in demon tongue as a demonic death threat and that somehow turned into an inside joke between the two of you.

He has to keep himself from chuckling whenever MC screws up words

Your accent is lovely though. Keep it up

★ Mammon.

Spanish and English.

Ok I actually can't justify myself further than "Mams would absolutely fucking go to Vegas" and the fact that USA has a large Latino population but hear me out

You cannot tell me that he would not watch telenovelas. Like. C'mon.

he has the vibes of a Spanish speaker is what I am saying

he was SO frustrated about having to learn human languages you have no idea

In fact he probably still struggles a bit and that makes him really mad

Why is it so complicated all of the sudden?! It wasn't complicated Before!

He unconsciously associates human languages with the trauma of the fall, and the stress and hurt and turbulent emotions it conveys

So learning new languages besides the two he knows is a touchy subject for him

(but like, he will learn MC's native language despite this. Whining to hell about it, but he will. Everything for MC)

You are actually very lucky that you have Loquar Ad Vos with you, bcs he actually switches from demon tongue to either English or Spanish mid sentence sometimes.

Not that you notice with your crusty translator (Loquar also works for human languages it supports), of course.

"Ayo can you [Spanish phrase], oh and give me a [English word], for a [spanglish nonsense]" <- Mammon's dumbass not functioning in trilingual

Also he has an accent but he's trying

The others are used to it so they don't question it anymore, but they deadass could not understand Mammon at some point because trilingual was not computing

It was frustrating to say the least

You two play charades with each other when the other forgets a word in your respective languages

"MC WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE ANIMAL FUCK THAT CHANGES HOME" "... Hermit crab?" "THATS THE BITCH"

★ Leviathan.

Japanese (very decent) and English (bad) are musts.

You cannot tell me for a second this fuck watches anime subbed OR dubbed. He's too weeb for that. He will watch the original dub version for the full emotional impact

He wanted to know what happens in the weeb world of the west (and internet discourse), so he learned English through shitty 2000s anime forums and Duolingo

Probably plays Duolingo competitively and/or cries if he loses his streak

His hearing and speaking English is okay, his writing is literally so so shit

Tried to learn a romantic language to be corny but failed miserably.

(He steered clear of languages his brothers know so he isn't self conscious)

It was probably Portuguese or something since Mammon kept talking about being good at figuring it out as a Spanish speaker (due to it being a romantic language)

The diacritical marks killed him on the spot

Meu português não é bom... (crying)

Victim of the you're* corrections

Runs his several-paragraphs-long rants about weeb stuff through Satan so the grammar is legit

Actually thinking about it would be absolutely fucking hilarious if he knew russian just for funsies. Yeah add Russian to the list

He sends you crusty Russian memes at unholy hours in the morning. Calls that bonding

Would absolutely swear in loud ass Russian while playing Valorant or smt

"ПИЗДЕЦ" "LEVI IT'S 2AM SHUT THE FUCK UP"

Ah + he knows Morse code (obviously). He was really excited when he discovered it and proceeded to obsess over it for like three weeks straight.

Although by the time he learned about it humans had already moved on from its wide-spead use at sea (post-1999), the Devildom Navy adapted Morse code for their own use as per Levi's command.

He teaches MC how to use Morse code (bashfully) and they send lil' messages to each other for fun

★ Satan.

He inherited a good chunk of Lucifer’s angel-knows-all-languages innate talents.

He doesn't have the angel knowledge of every language, of course, but he definitely has a really high count since birth; Unlike his brothers who had to relearn their languages of interest.

However, he can tell™ that the topic of languages is kinda taboo-y, as it signifies the traumatic fall he himself was not there to witness, and kept quiet about it.

The others (mostly) think he just learned languages in his free time.

He is the designated google translate person. When the other brothers need translations, they ask him.

He gets very frustrated when he has to translate something on the spot

Absolutely knows Chinese and Latin just to read fancy old human books and be a menace about it

He has a copy of the Art Of War in Chinese I will fight you on that

Actually he probably owns every important human book in its native language

Culprit of the you're* corrections

If he has to read another thesis-length essay abt weeb shit by leviathan he will actually lose his shit

You know the Voynich manuscript? He's probably trying to decode it for funsies.

If you and him (unfortunately) share a language, he will absolutely correct the living shit out of you when you speak it

Look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't "erm ACtuAllY" MC. You can't.

His ass does not understand slang. At all. You tell him See You Later Alligator and he'll be like "tf you smoking ಠಿ⁠_⁠ಠ?"

★ Asmodeus.

French. And Korean. Maybe very mid English.

Ok so french is the language of lOVe and whatever + Korea is known for their heavy beauty-focused culture

I can see Asmo definitely picking up Korean just for makeup and self care brands purposes.

Like it is easier to browse for products he wants if he can actually browse the original places/websites himself

It's just more convenient and he's actually very good at language learning

+ Korean it is a "cutesy" language so it fits his vibe.

Like he absolutely would go "안녕 teehee (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)" to look disarming is what I am saying

He flirts to hell with Solomon in French. It is a language they both know and isn't supported by Loquar for translation so nobody can snoop their conversations

If you have the misfortune of knowing French I am so sorry for you bcs they are NASTY

Solomon is teaching him English. Asmo fakes being bad at it on purpose

★ Beelzebub.

He knows a decent amount of English.

What does he use it for? Order food. Obviously.

In fact everyone kinda assumes he just knows a few food orders and that's it but no he's actually very decent at English (borderline fluent)

He learned through clunky conversation with small restaurant owners

Beel actually makes a great effort to enunciate every word clearly, so he doesn't like speaking long sentences

"Would you like Salsa with that, sweetheart?" "... Yes," <- Beel has no fucking clue wtf salsa is but it tastes good so who is he to defy food gods (a nice Mexican grandma with a killer Pozole) whom have blessed him

I also think he would probably know some kind of sign language

Fingerspelling maybe, solely because it allows him to talk while having his mouth full or bcs his games are loud and he can't hear words very well

That and, like, the Devildom equivalent of sign language. DSL or something.

Look at him. Absolute sweetheart. He would absolutely want to include deaf or hard of hearing ppl.

★ Belphegor.

Ok so

I am going to be very fr with you

I believe Belphie would be the only monolingual (demon tongue "native") of the brothers

at most he would remember a few phrases of a few languages from back when he was an angel, but not any specifics

Like this dude has ZERO interest in human culture I cannot think he would sit down to (re)learn anything

he would fall asleep trying to learn human verbs actually

He only knows how to tell you to fuck off on 4 languages (/hj)

None which you speak. So that's kinda awkward

He doesn't know how to cast Loquar (nor has any interest in learning how)

Beel casts it for him if he needs it

He can and will deadass just remove the translator spell from you if you try to annoy/interact with him (except if Beel is who casts it on you).

(so Beel now also casts Loquar for you)

Begone >:(

[rei-does-stuff]

SaH dub ep 5!!

-Owie I forgot this ep had flashing lights :(

-Still mad abt the brother thing lmao

-HOW DID THEY NOT CENSOR THE GUY BLOWING UP??

-“This is really boring” LMAO

-Commander darami’s voice is so bad

-JESUS HOW MANY NEW CHARACTERS DO THEY HAVE TO MAKE

-God jogjebis voice is so weird and he has bad mic quality too

-Once again changing the story around

-NEW MUSIC FINALLY

-I think things are finally getting less yellow too!

-Dan Green you don’t need to tell us whats happening on the screen

-This makes me want a proper SaH dub that sticks to the og now

-“He hates lying and living in fear of being discovered” LIAR GEUM LOVES LYING

-No Geum whistling :(

-IT JUST CUTS TO THE CREDITS AGAIN?? WHAT IS WITH THESE ABRUPT ENDINGS???

——

And Ep 6!!

-What was the point abt his ‘bad’ driving even for if they dont bring it up again???

-Geum and Jogjebi have no connection in this ver due to how much they make different characters so this moment has no weight

-Wait wait wait, he had TWO BODY DOUBLES?? WHY???

-THEY FUCKING ADDED A SECOND SCENE JUST DID THE SCENE OF HIM SAYING HE HAD A BODY DOUBLE TWICE WHAT THE FUCK?? THAT IS SO INSANE??? IM LOSING MY MIND THAT MAKES HIM LOOK SO FUCKING DUMB

-“I tricked you Geum! I have a body double on the plane!”

“Damn—Wait didn’t you tell me this at the base?“

“THAT WAS ALSO A BODY DOUBLE!! I TRICKED YOU TWICE!”

“…Why what was even the point of that—??

“Idk I just wanted to fuck with you lmao”

-instead of making things yellow they made everything a lot brighter instead

-I will admit some of the dub lines are really funny I can’t wait to show the clips I’ve taken once I’ve finished this

-Mulmangcho’s voice in this sucksss

-NO THEY REMOVE GEUM TELLING HIM TO DO THE PUSHUPS

-“Hello there!” *Kicks the shit out of him*

-It feels like they’re removing so much context from the og, which they ARE but ykyk

-The mixing in this is very bad, a lot of the music drowns out their voices

-Okay yk what I’m gonna say it, this mouse from the dub is amazing and 100% an improvement he is so fucking funny and I love him???

-He’s literally like “WOAH WOAH DONT KILL ME IM A LITTLE GUY IM JUST A LITTLE GUY ITS ALSO MY BIRTHDAY YOU WOULDNT SHOOT A LITTLE GUY” icon

-Sandoz I think is his name and I love himmmmm <33

-“Was this made in Japan?? China or something???” WHAT IS THAT LINE?? YOU WORK FOR THE JAPANESE DUDE!!

-“Long live malogoto” THIS IS A FESTIVAL FOR FLOWER HILL

-NOTHING MAKES SENSE LIKE AT ALL

-NOW THEY CALL THE MAGPIES BLACK BIRDS CANT EVEN BE CONSISTENT

-THEY REMOVE THE MORSE CODE SOUNDS

-*Shot of mice getting gunned down and killed* *HARD CUT TO THE HAPPY FESTIVAL AND FIREWORKS* LITERALLY INSANE

-Everything got darker for some reason???

-FEMALE COMMANDER GENDER EQUALITY? IG??

————

Those two eps were insane but they gave me my fave rat boy Sandoz and had some rlly funny scenes so I forgive some of it

[ironvandyne]

For the tiger and bunny ask game!

2, 9, 11, and 20 :)

Damn four already?? Okay then! (i accidently deleted my draft while doing this, i hate my life 🧍‍♀️)

2. “Who are your top three favourite characters and why?”

Besides the obvious two (Kotetsu and Barnaby), my top three are going to be a quite unorthodox. It’d be Keith (Sky High),) Agnes and Lara (Magical Cat) for me. (Might change if I rewatch the entire show again for the onteenth time, I’m still new to T&B haha)

KEITH GOODMAN/SKY HIGH

OH MY LORD. This man is literally a precious soul, LIKE HE’S A DOG LOVER AND HAD A GOLDEN RETRIEVER??? SOLD. Also I find it cute and funny that he named his dogs John and JohnJohn. Dude has no naming sense whatsoever.

AGNES JOUBERT

I’m like the only Agnes fan on this site because man, she’s so fun. Like yeah, she’s a supporting character, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy her. She’s literally the producer of HeroTV and knows how to put up a good show. I enjoyed the times she got involved in the plot, kinda wish we got to see her do more. But anyhow, she’s literally a joy to watch.

LARA TCHAIKOSKAYA/MAGICAL CAT

Surprised a S2 character made it to this list but here’s the thing, I fucking love superheroes. But magical girls will always be my first love. So of course the cat-themed magical girl had to creep up on my list. Listen, T&B2 had it’s issues. But I did enjoyed Magical Cat’s arc with her mother and her dynamic with Dragon Kid. Her design is so cute by the way and I love her wand! Probably the only one I genuinely like out of all of the entire rookie trio (sorry Thomas and Subaru)

I also find it funny that water is her main ability when cats are known to dislike water.

9. “Favourite buddy duo?”

GOLDEN ROSE (Karina Lyle/Blue Rose + Ryan Goldsmith/Golden Ryan)

THESE ANNOYING BLONDES (affectionate), again besides from the obvious two. While they’re not my top favorites, their dynamic together is so mesmerizing. Ryan overall wowed me because I didn’t liked him really at first but he managed to be pretty cool once I got to T&B2. I like how they balance out from each other personality-wise. Also Ryan is pretty much the annoying older brother Karina wished she never had, its hilarious. Besides Golden Rose, Sky Emblem and Dragon Cat are another favorite duos of mine.

11. “Any characters you think could have been good friends if they had been given a chance?”

Maaaybe Lara and Kaede? They’re around the same age, I don’t see why they can’t be friends.

20. “What language(s) have you watched it in?”

I watched in Japanese first, then Spanish. Why Spanish though?? Here’s the thing, I’m Hispanic and literally was raised in a Dominican household. I did this for experimental purposes and also because I am trying to further my understanding in the language since I am taking Spanish classes at my school for my senior year. It was really good by the way, favorite voices had to be Kotetsu and Agnes (her’s was pretty close to her Japanese VA)

I might watch the English dub eventually.

[sakuracyanide]

pls know most my life i thought zoeisite was a woman & the lesbians were cousins b/c america is WEIRD but you bringing sailor moon on dash has unlocked precious core memories even if the english dub is.. a thing that happened [ legit their english names are cemented in my head to this day thanks to toonami. tell me their japanese names and i just cry confusion into my hands as a young fan who didn't know better b/c i was literally like 5-8 years old ]

softly go bleach your roots creep is like cemented in my brain the dub was so unhinged and i loved every fucked up second of it.

trust me trying to follow the changes between sailor moon adaptations is a nightmare. like classic & its og eng dub are basically different canons with totally different characters.

zoisite became zoycite, and now fandom forever spells zoisite (the actual rock) with a c and i'll die mad about it.

kunzite became malachite? for... reasons?? i don't think anyone has ever come out and said why.

and the manga is its own thing. like legit totally different vibe than the 90s anime - they were happening concurrently so the anime team was mostly just taking naoko's notes and then going feral??? like kunzite and zoisite are more or less an extended reference to patalliro. jadeite gets run over by a plane at one point. its fucking great. but like not that great if you want development for the main heroines. usagi does develop, but the rest of the girls stay very stagnant. the development in each season is given to whatever ragtag group of villains are being puppeted by the big bad. s1 had the shitennou, s2 had ali & an at the start bc the first season wrote itself into a corner by having usagi reset the timeline and they had to unfuck that before they could get started on the dark moon which you know what is a really upsetting plot i stan it. then it had the dark moon kingdom which ... if i remmeber right were people banished from the silver millennium for not wanting to be immortal and being concerned about all powerful monarchs? but they were corrupted. something something i would play saphir. s3 had the death busters and hotaru's hot dad. s4 had the amazon trio and the amazon quartet. and s5 had the sailor animates and i will die for lead crow & aluminium seiren's romance. so like if you care about the senshi as characters i don't really rec the 90s version on its own

and then there's sailor moon crystal which was supposed to be more faithful to the manga but was a ffffffffffucking mess. seriously i have never seen such ugly animation or bizarre animation choices for an ip that was lauded & is still upheld as having some of the most gorgeous backgrounds and animation in the genre. morimo clover z did the op and it slaps so like there's that but the rest of it is something else. it should be noted that the animation improves from season 3 onwards but they eventually just said fuck it and made movies out of the rest of it which is a bummer!

and then there's pretty guardian sailor moon (the live action drama which is THE BEST ADAPTATION I WILL GO TO WAR OVER THIS) which features all of the girls having an actual existential crisis over what it means to be reborn princesses from distant stars, it also gives them the spotlights they absolutely did not get in crystal or the og anime AND the shitennou get a lot of development.

and then theres the musicals.

i am happy to hold people at gunpoin - i mean, do a group watch of sailor moon! i really want to rewatch pgsm but i'm ngl its an early 00s live action jdrama so that........ that takes a strong mind to endure.

[unrealisticexpectationsofspring]

Rising back from the dead to review Udon’s English release of the P4A manga, because I love P4A, I love the P4A manga, and I hate this book.

I’ve been a big fan of Persona 4 Arena for a while now, so I was really excited when Udon announced an official English release of its manga adaptation. I’d read the unofficial translation a couple of times, and I felt that it adapted the story well, especially given the unusual way that P4A presents its story. The first volume was originally going to be released in February of this year, but was delayed until May for no specified reason. I was finally able to get my hands on it today, and oh boy does it suck. Oh FUCKING boy it does it suck.

In this post, I will be talking about why that is, not just to vent, but also to warn anyone who might be thinking of buying this. I’ve even included pictures. Please enjoy (because I’m not).

Let’s jump right in.

The dialogue is so unnaturally wordy that makes regular conversation very awkward, and ruins the comedic timing of almost every joke.

For example, compare this scene with the one from the unofficial translation. First, the unofficial:

Then, the official:

Words words words. You don’t need that many words.

And it’s not just with that panel; you’d be hard-pressed to find a single text bubble that doesn’t use at least three more words than it needs to. For example:

How hard is it to just say “Sounds fun.”??

Then, we have an issue that you may have already noticed from the examples above. Scenes that were taken directly from the game are completely re-translated, and are often nothing like what they’re supposed to be. The Midnight Channel cutscene is a glaring example of this. (I can’t post the whole scene because of the picture limit, but these are the highlights. If I had to read “eat my powerful dragon kick”, then you do too.)

Given that they play this cutscene in almost every story episode, I think I remember what it’s supposed to sound like, and it’s not this.

There’s other little things too, like calling Naoto “she” in a scene where she is most definitely meant to be referred to as “he”.

Like, seriously?

All of this would be bad enough, but it’s nothing compared to the book’s biggest sin.

So, if you’re aware of P4A, then you’ll probably be aware of a character named Labrys. If you’re aware of the English version of P4A, then you probably already know that it makes the interesting decision of localising her Kansai accent as a Brooklyn accent. The reason why this is an interesting decision is because, typically, Kansai accents are converted to Southern US accents for English dubbing, so the use of a Brooklyn accent is quite notable. One possible reason for this is because Persona 4 is already set in rural farming town, and her accent is (one of the things that are) meant to make her seem out of place, so using a Brooklyn accent is far more effective than using a Southern US accent (which would commonly be associated with rural farming towns).

Whatever the reason was, however, doesn’t change the fact that her accent is supposed to be unlike anything around it, otherwise the other characters making particular note of it wouldn’t make sense. And yet…

Oh Lordy Lou indeed, Labrys. Oh Lordy Lou indeed.

I was so excited for these books. I had even considered buying the Japanese release before the English version was announced. The art is nice, the little fragments of each story episode were chosen and interweaved well, it has Labrys in it, it was accurate… what more could you want from a video game adaption?

I’m not sure I’ve ever been more insulted by a book in my life. I want to burn it. Genuinely. I have no idea what to do with this thing. I kept trying to get through it despite all its issues, but it just kept getting worse. My god, if I had just stopped reading halfway through, I could have spared my eyes (and sanity) from Yee-Haw Labrys. Why did I not?!?!

Do not make the same mistake I did. Please. You don’t deserve this.

TL;DR: This book saved me £25.98 during the cost-of-living crisis by being absolutely unbearable to read. I’m so glad I didn’t preorder the other two volumes before I read this one. Go read the unofficial translation on a manga piracy site if you want to read this manga. Or, just play P4A. Just don’t buy this book.

[hellcatinnc]

Loving Yamada Lv 999 Review

Includes Spoilers....

So I went into this show knowing it was going to be different than most which I was happy. Most don't feel as real for me more fantasy but this was one that hit close to home to me. I have in the past met a guy that brought me into mmo world who later cheated on me and left me for the girl he met online, this I can relate completely with Akane for this. Not gonna lie her ex is attractive but such a asshole especially in how he broke up with her like he had already been seeing the girl. Worst part is its bad when a guy cheats on you but bro seriously what the fuck why is chick ugly as shit... see what I mean below.

Like seriously what the fuck he is one stupid MF thats all I got to say. Akane is beautiful and he was too blind to see it. Not to mention as you get to know Akane you realize she is a sweet girl maybe Takuma just didn't bring that out in her I don't know but I'm glad Yamada ends up being the guy she is with. I also think its funny when Takuma finds Yamada at her apartment like the realization the man he stalks on social media as a gamer is in his mind fuckin his ex lmao priceless. Now Yamada is actually kind of funny with how he says things at times the no care attitude but you can tell its cause he has never let anyone really effect him. So when she starts getting to him with little things she does its sweet watching them fall in love. It is I guess somewhat of slow burn due to his Kuudere personality however it is just the sweetest watching him change. Like from running after her, or giving her his umbrella and even calling out her name in the middle of the hallway. Like dude is sexy in his own way. So sweet when he takes care of her when she is sick like by her bedside care.

Then there is the way he looks at her like seriously you can tell when he falls for her even before its even said. From the firs time he looks at her til later til the last picture his look changes so much in how he feels. His smile is full of love and contentment by the end I love that gentle side of him.

Then there is that epic ending where he tells her he really likes her, I say like because its weird in the Japanese version Suki da 好きだ is said which in the Japanese language means both I like you and I love you if its someone you feel something for that is intimate. that being said he practically said he loved her however in English language we dumbed it down to just I like you which I hate. I saw this because I originally watched in English but watched the last 2 episodes in Japanese before it was dubbed and I thought was sweeter in Japanese for that reason. That smile he gives though when she asks him if he likes her omg he has a really nice smile.

The way he holds her hand is so delicate how he held her when she was upset. I mean yes he may not be the most skilled in what to do but I think Yamada did a good job being there for the best way he knew to. He was there when she was drunk or when she just needs a shoulder to cry on he is always the one there to take care of her.

Then there is the girl he let down he even did that nicely. Like he was soft and gentle and just didn't dismissed how she felt, he let her tell him everything she needed to then admitted his heart was with Akane. I respect him for how he handled this he really is that genuine guy that I think someone like Akane needs in her life after the shit she has dealt with.

Honestly all in all I think its a really good anime with alot of heart to it. Has good characters and most are very relatable. I think Yamada needed her in his life more than he even knew and she definitely needed him. I hope there is another season but I do plan to read the manga as well. Hope yall give it a chance and love it as much as I do.

[medea10]

My Review of Ascendance of a Bookworm

Okay, time to hit up another isekai. After watching a heart-wrenching anime like 86, I need something light-hearted to watch. No…I’m not reviewing 86. Sorry. Okay, let’s get to it!

This is Myne. But not really! You see, Myne was once a librarian named Urano Motosu with a love for reading books. But an earthquake struck and she was crushed by a mountain of books. With her last breath, she wished she could be reincarnated again and read more books with her new life. Now she is reborn in a frail five-year old named Myne. Myne is in a new world, new time, and with a new family. Only thing is, she cannot obtain a single book. Books are hard to come by, especially if you aren’t a noble. And in Myne’s case, she’s at peasant level. Even materials for writing are hard to obtain.

Before one can walk, one must crawl. Myne will go through a lot in order to preserve stories on the printed page. Will this bookworm survive without reading?

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: This one strictly belonged to Crunchyroll and the dub was filled with a lot of people I don’t think I ever heard from before this. So, hearing many of these folks is kinda a new experience for me since I decided to watch the entire thing dubbed. My experience with it was okay until I hit season three. I felt a little thrown off with the pronunciation of one of the characters. Myne’s mother Effa. We clearly hear her name being pronounced as “Eva” in the first 2 seasons. Now all of a sudden, they’re changing her name’s pronunciation. Okay, sure. Why not?! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Myne is played by Yuka Iguchi (known for Crusch on Re:Zero, Tsukihi on Monogatari, Mine on Fruits Basket 2019, Mea on To Love Ru, Yuu on Sakura Trick, and Index on Railgun/Index)

*Lutz is played by Mutsumi Tamura (known for Kobayashi on Miss Kobayashi, Kanamori on Eizouken, Ermes on Jojo’s Pt. 6, Young Jintan on Anohana, and Young Ali Baba on Magi)

*Ferdinand is played by Show Hayami (known for Juan on Pokemon AG, Aizen on Bleach, Wolfwood on Trigun, Azami on Food Wars, Gakuhou on Assassination Classroom, and Ichiya on Fairy Tail)

ENGLISH CAST: *Myne is played by Reba Buhr (known for Nikaido on Dorohedoro, Cattleya on Violet Evergarden, Aoi on Demon Slayer, and LLENN on SAO: GGO)

*Lutz is played by Jeannie Tirado (known for Norman on The Promised Neverland, Riko on Love Live Sunshine, Fana on Black Clover, Kanae on Tokyo Ghoul :re, and Zera on Fairy Tail)

*Ferdinand is played by Armen Taylor

DISLIKED CHARACTER: I think it goes without saying that I hate that high priest with a holy passion. After his unsavory debut in the first season, I wished he could have died from his injuries when Myne’s mana went haywire. Sadly, he’s still around. And whenever he shows up, nothing good can come from it. He’s the reason why Myne wound up with disrespectful retainers when she started her apprenticeship at the church. I know the high priest is the go-to punching bag for most people. I am inclined to agree. It’s mostly a bias I have against certain individuals that claim to be a servant to the lord and do shady-ass shit. Yeah, he’s right up there with the Catholic Church, Mike Pence, and Judge Claude Frollo. He’s that bad!

I would have let certain things slide in season two like giving Myne unruly retainers or petty vandalism in the library. But then season three happened and there’s just no forgiveness for what this fat fuck did. I’m just happy he’s finally going to get some much-needed comeuppance.

SHIPPING: Myne x Lutz.

*sigh* I know it’ll never happen for many, many spoilery reasons. And I know it wasn’t canon or official or anything like that. I just want to enjoy their moments in season one and somehow ignore what happens at the end of season three.

AN ANNOYANCE: At the end of each episode, there’s like a chibi/4-panel style short that airs. I wouldn’t call it a preview for the next episode as there is never any mention of what happens next. It’s just random fluff. That doesn’t bother me all that much. Yes, I realize the first season had Ferdinand shown in those moments and we were never properly introduced to this character until like 10 episodes in. What bothered me the most came during the third season. There was one of these segments where Gunther and Myne were talking and he brings up that Myne’s mother had several miscarriages prior to having Tuuli and Myne. Okay, I feel like this sort of thing could have been said during the episode and not put in the passing fancy with the end of the episode LOL fluff. That’s my take on that matter.

END OF SEASON ONE: Throughout this season, Myne has been creating certain items and catching the eye of several key people. Semi-nobles like Frieda and her family have caught wind of Myne’s hair accessories. And a gentleman by the name of Mr. Benno decides to give Myne a chance with items she creates (for the right price). Unfortunately, there’s only so much Myne can do in so much time. Myne has been sick from day one and when really sick, she’ll spend days or even weeks in bed. Mr. Benno seems to think that she has mana (that is only reserved for nobles) and it’s eating her from the inside until she dies. It’s called “the devouring”. Meanwhile, Lutz has been becoming suspicious of Myne. It’s been bugging him for quite a while, but he finally confronted her. Without letting him know about her past life, she does reveal to him that she’s not really Myne and was only Myne for over a year now. Thankfully, Lutz accepted this fact and continues to help Myne pursue her dream and current ambitions.

Myne has been revolutionizing the world she’s living in with products she was able to easily make like hair shampoo, cute hair accessories, and even sweet treats. She did sell those invention ideas, but was able to keep some for her own. On top of which, she’s inching closer and closer to getting her paper goods to be successful. It’s just that her sickness (the devouring) is getting worse and worse. Her friend Frieda was able to suppress one of her attacks one night with the use of a magical item. It’s temporary, but it helped prevent something tragic from happening this time. There’s no guarantee for next time though.

With the way things are, Myne only has one year at most to live. It was a lucky break that Myne was able to get an item because her friend is semi-royal. Unfortunately, all Frieda gets are knock-offs because she isn’t really a noble. But that can all change once her coming of age ceremony comes and becomes a concubine for a noble. Myne’s coming of age ceremony is coming up and being married off to a noble might be her one solution to surviving the devouring. For now, Myne just wants to stay with her parents and if there’s time, set up her paper-making studio with Lutz and Mr. Benno.

The day finally came for Myne to have her coming of age ceremony. At the church, Myne got intrigued by all of the ancient books, scrolls, etc. We also meet Ferdinand outside of the preview setting. He is the head priest of this church. Myne was ready to jump ship and join the church just because they had many books. Let’s just say nearly everyone in Myne’s inner circle objected to that tenfold. Her employer Mr. Benno hates to lose Myne to anyone, especially to the church. And Myne’s parents worry that being in the church can be detrimental to her health since she couldn’t live at home anymore and won’t get a steady income since only nobles in blue robes obtain that and everyone else is just a gray orphan.

Things get a little more complicated when the church learned of Myne’s devouring disease and wanted her even more. Myne is full of overflowing mana and this is something the church wants. This could work to Myne’s advantage if she gets the church to agree to her own terms. Mr. Benno told her to prioritize letting her continue with her studio works, live with her parents, and help with her health. Meeting the high priest of the church went really bad. He didn’t like the fact that Myne’s parents were not of nobility and threatened to take Myne from them by force. This led to Myne’s father beating up church guards. And then Myne went demon-possessed on them all!

Throughout this season, there were moments when Myne’s eyes would go rainbow and has this anger aura surrounding her. This would usually occur when she would get really upset or angry, like in the early episodes and she would try to make clay tablets and they got destroyed. This of course is because of the devouring. Her mana is overflowing and controlling her body. This time, this power affected the high priest by almost killing him. Ferdinand helped calm Myne down and de-escalated the situation that just went down. He agreed to all of Myne’s terms and agreements. In return, Myne will become an apprentice priestess at the cathedral. She will dawn the blue robes meant only for nobles and when she’s not doing that, she will continue to help Mr. Benno. And best of all, she could stay with her family.

Ferdinand will be there quite a bit to keep Myne in check at every moment. Especially, when she gets angry and her mana goes berserk. Because if she harms any higher-up like when she attacked the high priest, dire consequences will be passed down to Myne. But that’ll be a matter for another section of this review.

SIDE STORY: There were two short stories that were aired a month before the second season’s debut. One story was revolved around one of Ferdinand’s men from the church to spy and learn about Myne from the townspeople. The other was Myne, her sister Tulli and mother Eva visiting the fabric maker Corinna.

SEASON TWO: Myne is officially an apprentice priestess. Unfortunately, things in the church might serve to be difficult for her. The high priest has it out for her and is willing to make her life a living hell. This includes giving her retainers (Delia and Gil) that give her nothing but grief. Not just him, but everyone (excluding Ferdinand) hating on Myne because she’s not a noble, but is wearing noble clothing. Let’s just say they’re not fond that a little girl like her got to surpass many of them.

On the positive, part of her job is to read over the royal scripture. A book is a book, I guess. At least Myne made it to a point where she got her hands on the printed word, no matter what it is. Myne does get the idea to make children books during this season. Because her mother is going to have a baby in the coming months, Myne wanted to make children books with the paper goods she’s been making.

END OF SEASON TWO: Myne has to step up her game at the church to prove that she is truly worthy to wear the blue robes despite being a peasant. For starters, she has to prepare for some upcoming events that’ll require her attendance and assistance. Unfortunately, that means Myne will have to stay at the church during the duration of the winter season. That does cause a bit of a hiccup as Myne’s father is fully against it and Myne kinda wanted to stay at home a little more to help out her pregnant mother.

Myne ends up assisting Ferdinand with a mission against some out of control trombe. As demonstrated in earlier episodes, trombe can be dangerous if not controlled and cut down. Such a dangerous entity, but useful in Myne’s mission to making paper goods. This trombe however caused more trouble than normal for Myne. This time it wasn’t her fault in a sense. One of the guards Ferdinand assigned to keep Myne safe was a real shit-head and put Myne’s life in danger and lied about it. This guy put the fact that Myne’s a peasant over Ferdinand’s order. Yeah, he’s in trouble. And then Myne showed him up with the amount of mana she possesses for someone like her. After all of that, we kind of get this scene that I wondered about since I started this series.

This scene was the very first scene from the first episode of the series. Myne with something on her head and Ferdinand going to find out things once and for all. And that’s exactly it, they’re linking minds with magical items so that Ferdinand can lay his worries and fears about Myne to rest. Ferdinand got a first-hand look at what a library looks like in modern-day Japan. Myne got to see her old adult self before she died. And also, Myne almost had a breakdown after seeing her mother and wanting to say goodbye but never got the chance. That scene was pretty rough to watch, along with her hugging Ferdinand. That’s why Myne decides now to say how thankful she is for this family. Gunther, Eva, and Tuuli aren’t the family she knew back before Myne came to this world, but she’s happy for them.

Oh, and we get a scene of Ferdinand and Karstedt discussing Myne and planning to have her be adopted by a noble. Okay, that’ll be a story for season three.

SEASON THREE: Things take a bit of a violent turn in the first episode. In the previous season, Myne was seen asking about alternate inks for the book she wanted to make. The ink guild saw the book and got serious. They came to Benno’s shop and were very scary. And then, these ruffians assaulted Lutz in the street. It is now best that Myne have her winter stay at the church happen now. Meanwhile, it looks as though one of her own retainers can’t be trusted…AGAIN! It’s Delia. Of course, it’s Delia. Gil’s on Team Myne and its going to stay that way. Delia on the other hand is an informant for the high priest.

Myne’s life is about to get a little worrisome. Ferdinand told her that he thinks that Karstedt should adopt her and it was met with harsh rejection from Myne. Ferdinand decided it is best that at age 10 she be adopted by a noble. And at that age if she isn’t under the care of a noble, she will be at risk due to her amount of mana and everything she’s done up to this point.

ENDING: This season we’ve seen the good and the bad. I’ll start with the good. The book that Myne came up with was finally done. She had a lot of help from her retainers, the children from the orphanage, and other allies in the church. Myne was able to spend some quality time with her family as this may be the last years she can be with them. Along with that, the birth of her baby brother Kamil was worth celebrating. But then we delve into the seriousness here when an orphaned baby comes to the church and has the devouring disease like Myne, things take quite the turn for the worst. The high priest is at it again really causing trouble for Myne and just being an all-around fat dick. The high priest invited a noble man to take the baby and use him as a servant. Then, force Myne into a contract.

This plan led to Myne almost being kidnapped, Tulli almost being killed, Delia being deceived, Gunther and Fran injured, and an all-around magic showdown at the church. Myne went into berserk mode when her friends and father were injured by the high priest and this dick-head noble that wants to use Myne’s mana for his selfish wants. It wasn’t until Ferdinand came in the room that things settled. Unfortunately, Myne assaulted the high priest and a noble. They overlooked that crime at the end of season one when her mana caused her to go berserk. This time, Myne, Gunther, Fran, and the rest were to receive punishment for this. But a twist arose.

During this season, Myne met a man named Sylvester. He’s a bit eccentric and can be a bit of a headache. But he gave Myne a charm to form a blood seal if she were to come into trouble. What she didn’t know was that this blood seal was to form a contract with Sylvester. This means instead of being adopted by Karstedt in two years, Myne is to be adopted by Sylvester right now. If this happens, Myne and everyone else will avoid punishment because her status as Sylvester’s daughter will surpass that of the high priest and dick-head noble. Myne agrees. Add to the surprises, Sylvester is the lord of the land, the nephew to the high priest, and half-brother to Ferdinand. Sylvester laid down some much-needed punishment here as that shady noble was to be incarcerated and the high priest got the death sentence for harming Myne.

Sylvester made it official, but with some unfortunate terms. Myne is to be adopted by Sylvester. She will be a noble officially. However, she is to give up her name and her family. She will no longer be known as Myne and the commoner known as Myne will be legally dead. She may never again be with her father, mother, sister, and brother again. If they were to see Myne, they must treat her like a noble and not like a part of the family. Myne’s company and work will continue as paper goods and books are necessary. Myne will now and forever be known as Rozemyne. Rozemyne swears that she will protect those she loves and gives them a special blessing before bidding them goodbye.

This is the end of Myne’s tale as you see with her tombstone. But Rozemyne’s story is just beginning.

We just don’t know because nothing has been green-lit as of yet. But we got a “To Be Continued” at the end. That’s hopeful!

Oh, I loved this anime. I think this was one of my favorite Isekais to come as of recent. Probably up there with Mushoku Tensei and Re:Zero.

I’m going to go off a bit on something I was pondering about for a long time and how I feel about it. This mostly has to do with the story itself and not the anime at all. During season two, I got curious and read some spoilers. Once I finished season two, I really got upset that Myne was to be adopted by nobles and have all communication from her family cut off. The reason behind me being so upset is because at the end of season two, we got that sad scene where Myne is back in her modern world in her original body and her wanting to say something to her mother before she dies. So, learning about Myne’s separation from Gunther and Effa made me really upset. Myne was distraught remembering her mother in the previous life and swore to always say that she loved Effa. But now that I sat through season three, am I still upset by the circumstances? Hell yeah. But I understand that there really was no happy outcome where all parties could be satisfied. Myne was still going to be adopted whether now or in two years like originally planned.

Never mind me prattling on about this crap about adoption. This has been a fun watch and an educational one too. Isekais can get creative with new languages, items, and customs. I always enjoy learning about new worlds in anime. But not just that, I learn something new when Myne brings up something invented in her original world. We learn something new every day. By the looks of things, the light novel is still in publication, so I expect to see more content with Rozemyne and her continuing ambitions surrounding the printed word. Anyways, full recommendation from me!

If you would like to watch Ascendance of a Bookworm, Crunchyroll has every episode (along with the side stories and recaps) available to stream.

Man, I hate to think what I’m going to watch next. The anime following this one must be fucking bullshit.

It is.

*gasps* FINALLY! I GET TO WATCH IT!!!

*This stupidity aside, Medea is really enjoying Carole and Tuesday*

[empressofthesunwriter]

The Queen's Gambit: The Story

The most powerful piece in chess is the queen.

When this piece joins the game of Duel Monsters anything will change.

With two dragon sisters, a magician and her descendant, the queen will take her rightful place.

As it should have been.

After nearly two years, I'm back :D I'm currently watching YGO! in Japanese, and I got the feeling back to write for it and use the Japanese dub now. It's way better than whatever 4KIDS did, so I will rewrite the chapters. ^^

Please enjoy!

Chapter 1: Happy 15th Birthday!

On the day of her 15th birthday, Sehrazat Faizan woke up like any other normal school day.

More asleep than awake and groaning.

She didn’t care that today was also her birthday, it was too early!

Why does school start this earlier?

That was inhuman!

The dark blue-haired girl put her pillow over her head.

Any minute now Kihana would storm her room and drag her out of bed. She loved her best friend, but these were times when she wished Kihana and her family would live in their own house.

…Yeah, Sehrazat didn’t think that would stop Kihana either.

There!

She heard the familiar boom of her door opening and wanted to cry.

Today was her birthday, even a special one in her family, so why couldn’t she stay at home and sleep?

Fuck, school!

“Rise and shine, your highness!”, sing-songend Kihana. She couldn’t be normal. Who was that happy, at this time?! “Today is your birthday, happy birthday my dear Sehra!”

Aww, at least this was cute.

It stopped being cute when Kihana gripped her blanket and left her in the cold morning air.

Sehrazat hissed like an angry cat and rolled herself into a ball.

Cold, way too cold!

Why were mornings so cold in Domino? How she missed the warm mornings in Lisabon!

Kihana just tutted at her.

The white-haired girl with the bluest eyes Sehrazat had ever seen was merciless.

She gripped one of Sehrazat's arms and just let her fall to the floor!

“Hey, what was that for!”, shrieked Sehrazat offended.

The floor was even colder!

Her best friend just put her hands on her waist.

She was already wearing the Domino High School Uniform, her long white hair perfectly groomed into a ponytail, decent make-up which made her blue eyes even more pop and her white porcelain skin glowing healthily.

“That’s the only way to wake you up, Sehrazat and you know it. We do this five times a week.”, reminds her Kihana.

Making a face Sehrazat stood up and had to control herself to make a worse face.

She still reached only under Kihana’s breast.

Why was her best friend tall like a supermodel and she was small like a child?

They were now the same age, so unfair!

Only Sadiye, Kihana’s younger sister, was smaller than her!

And that was because she really was a ten-year-old child.

Again, so unfair.

Pouting she followed Kihana to the dining room, where both their moms already were with little Sadiye eating breakfast.

Even if they all lived in Japan now, they still had a more wester-styled breakfast.

With pancakes, cornflakes, bacon, and eggs, you name it.

That didn’t mean none of them had tasted the local cuisine.

For example, Sehrazat loved Ramen like she was Naruto from the same named Manga, but sometimes you needed a bit of home.

They were all originally from Egpyt, but Rahila, Kihana and Sadiye’s mother, and her own mother Amira grew up in London, England.

Sehrazat’s Grandmother still lives there, like Kihana and Sadiye’s Grandparents.

Besides Rahila and Kihana, who were white-passing, all of them were black.

Sadiye was the first to note them.

“Happy Birthday, Sehra!”, shouted the ten-year-old, which gripped the attention of the two older women.

Her mother smiled and stood up from her seat.

She opened her arms for her.

“Good morning, my little princess, and happy, happy birthday!”

Still tired Sehrazat let herself fall into her mother’s embrace.

Ah, nothing to raise her spirits like her mama’s hugs!

Mama was warm and smelled, like always after jasmine and sandalwood. Comforting and homey.

“Happy Birthday, Your Highness. Now you are finally 15.”, said Rahila to her and Sehrazat felt how her head was patted.

“Thanks aunty Rahila.”

They all sit down at the table and Amira signs wistfully.

“15 years already…I can’t believe time flew so fast. It was like yesterday you were this tiny and I could pick up you whenever I wanted.”

“She still IS tiny!”, joked Sadiye and grinned at her.

Sehrazat looked at her angrily and bit into her pancake.

Kihana tutted her little sister, who shrugged her shoulders.

Sadly it was true.

Didn’t mean like Sehrazat liked to hear that.

“And you can still pick her up Amira.”, reminded Rahila.

Thanks, Aunty!

Sehrazat bit harder into her pancake.

“You know what I mean.”, said Amira and then turned to her daughter. “Don’t forget, today IS a special birthday. Now you will be the Keeper.”

It took Sehrazat any amount of strength to not roll her eyes.

Ah, yes, she became now the Keeper of the mysterious Millennium Fragment which had her family since the times of the great pharaohs.

She never even saw that thing, because her mother kept it in a little golden box with Hieroglyphs written on it.

But nearly anyone treated it like it was something sacred.

Holy!

The dark blue-haired girl thought personally that it was too much.

It was just some jewellery.

Yes, it is really old jewellery, however still jewellery.

There was nothing special about it.

Or let’s say better she didn’t want to believe the stories her mother and grandmother told her.

They were just too crazy!

/*/

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEHRA-CHAN!”

Sehrazat and Kihana flinched at the loud shout and the birthday girl couldn’t even look as fast, as Maja, the third in their friend group, launched herself at her, hugging her tight.

The blue-haired girl couldn’t even respond, since Maja’s hug was so strong that it squeezed the air out of her lungs.

“Maja-Chan, let Sehra breath, she is turning blue!”, came Kihana to her rescue.

The brown-haired girl let her go with ups, yet Sehrazat fell nearly on the ground if Kihana and Maja didn’t catch her.

“I’m so sorry, Sehra-Chan!”, whined Maja, while Kihana checked on her.

Sehrazat just made a thumbs-up.

She could feel how nearly everyone in the schoolyard was looking at them.

Like always.

Maja was consistently over the top with her affection, but that’s why she and Kihana loved the other black girl.

The three were a bit infamous in Domino High, the only black girls, even if Kihana was white-passing and Maja half-Japanese and their morning routine got them even more attention.

After Sehrazat could breathe again, Maja handed her a little gift box.

“Here is your birthday present, my dear Sehra-Chan. I hope you like it!”

“Thanks, Maja, that’s so nice of you.”, told her Sehrazat smiling.

Maja grinnend and rubbed her nose.

Kihana looked on as she unwrapped her gift.

A small gasp left her lips.

“Dark Magician Girl and Magical Hats! I searched for them everywhere, where did you find them?!”, shouted the birthday girl happily.

How long she had wanted these two cards for her deck of Duel Monster? She couldn’t remember and Maja found them and gifted them to her.

“Aww, makes me happy you are so happy! I found them in a cute little card shop named Kame Shop. The old grandpa who owns it was nice and he has a lot of good cards.”, explained Maja, rocking back and forth with her hands behind her back.

“We need to totally visit it!”, decides Sehrazat.

Maja raised a fist in the air and shouted a loud Yeah!

“But not today.”, came Kihana, the voice of reason in their group. “You know how important your 15th birthday is Sehra. Our moms expect us back after school, no improvised trips.”

Both Sehrazat and Maja let out a gloomy sound and slouched over.

Sadly Kihana was right.

The brunette was the first to gather herself.

“Is this again some of your guys’ weird family tradition? Reminds me of my Obaa-Chan and her demand that we always have Mochi after dinner.”, said Maja.

“Eh, you could say.”, answered Sehrazat.

It was forbidden to tell outsiders about their family affairs, even if Sehrazat didn’t believe one bit and would like to tell Maja, that she respected this rule.

Also, Kihana was there and would give her a headbutt if she told a thing.

Other than her Kihana believes this shit.

Sehrazat wonders sometimes if she was the weird one in her family or if the others were all the weird ones.

Stupid ancient jewellery and its stupid ancient legend around it.

It was then that the school clock sounded, meaning it was time to get to their classroom.

The three girl pals hocked their arms with each other and followed the long line of their school- and classmates into the building.

/*/

The school day was too fast over in Sehrazat's eyes.

Normally she would be happy, but she wondered what would her await home.

She doesn’t want to participate in that superstition of her family, yet she doesn’t have a choice.

So she had to say goodbye to Maja and follow Kihana home.

Arrived there her mother reminded her that they would go out for dinner today and then the ceremony would take place.

So she had to dress nicely.

Her mother had bought her a pretty white dress, with it she should wear her best golden jewellery.

After a shower and dressing up Sehrazat had to let out a sign.

She looked like a modern version of an ancient Egyptian princess…she really hoped no one she knew saw her like this.

Well, at least she wasn’t the only one.

Her mother looked like a modern Egyptian queen, while Aunty Rahila, Kihana, and Sadiye looked like priestesses.

Besides her, little Sadiye whined to Rahila that she wanted to wear her favourite red dress, she knew the stories too, but she seemed only to half believe them.

Yet Rahila didn’t give her a choice and so not only Sadiye pouted, Sehrazat did it too.

Her mother tutted her and so she tried to smile.

At least they would eat well before the whole weird shit happened.

Since Sehrazat’s favourite food was Pasta, they would eat out in the best Italian restaurant in Domino.

The food, of course, was delicious and as her birthday cake came out, made out of chocolate and vanilla and everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday to her, the birthday girl forgot for a second what would await her home.

Then it was time for her presents.

From Rahila she got the new CD from her favorite J-Pop Idol Mimi Kawaii! It was even a special edition, with an autograph and an exclusive poster.

From Sadiye she got a self-drawn book, with drawings of her and Sadiye having adventures together.

Also, she gifted her a Kuriboh card, which was adorable since Sadiye used her own money to buy it. Everyone cooed at her.

From Kihana, who had a passion for sewing, she got a self-made bag with a large D and M on it for Duel Monster and a new card holder.

From her mama, she got a new dress in her favourite colour gold which sparkled like the sun, with fitting shoes new earrings, and a necklace.

Her granny had sent her money, which her mother gave her.

Sehrazat already knew she would buy some new Duel Monsters cards from it.

All in all an awesome birthday.

If it wasn’t for one thing remaining.

/*/

“Long ago when the pyramids were still young, the great pharaohs played a game filled with obscure magic. These were the Shadow Games. But these Shadow Games erupted into a war that threatened to destroy the entire world. Until a brave and powerful pharaoh locked the magic away, imprisoning it within the mystical Millennium Items. His name we don’t know, he is only known as the Nameless Pharaoh.”, told Amira the story Sehrazat had heard 100 times or so.

She had to keep herself from yawing.

This was important.

Oh well, for her mama.

She just wanted to get over it.

They were back home.

Currently in their dining room where now the table and chairs were missing and a little altar was placed.

On it was a statue of the goddess Isis, lotus blossoms and the famous golden box of her mother.

Rahila with her daughters stood at the side, and beside Sadiye who seemed to wish to be somewhere else, listened to Amira's words.

Amira stood beside the altar and Sehrazat was standing before her.

God, it sounds like they had a cult meeting or something similar.

People would call them crazy if they saw them.

Thankful the curtains on the window were closed and the room was illuminated by a lot of candles.

“The Nameless Pharaoh had a wife. This wife born our ancestor, the founder of the Faizan family.”, continues Amira. “The great queen gave her daughter a duty which we fulfil to this day.

She gave us the 8th Millennium Item, the Fragment, which belonged only to the queens of Egypt. Sehrazat.”

Oh, dear.

She looked at her mother, who had raised her hands like a prayer, which made this even more sound like a cult meeting and tried to stay impassive.

Even if she just wanted to go to bed.

“Sehrazat, my dear daughter. For thousands of years, we have protected the Millennium Fragment from outer forces who want to use its power for evil. From mother to daughter, when reached the age of 15 the keepsake gets passed down. Now it’s your turn.”

Amira took the golden box in her hands and Sehrazat nearly forgot to hold her hands open, so her mother could place the box in them.

“You will keep it safe till it’s your turn to pass it down to your daughter or when the time will come that its power is needed again, then the great queen, our ancestor, said one day the world would need it again the power of the Millenium Fragment. Fulfil your duty to our family, our bloodline, as all the other daughters before you.”

“I will, Mother.”, she responded and stared at the box which was now hers.

So that was it?

Yeah, of course, nothing strange happened.

It was just a box with jewellery.

Nothing more.

At least this ceremony was over now.

/*/

Sehrazat was freshly showered and wearing her PJs as she retired to her room for the night.

Yawning she closed the door after her.

Well, this birthday was over, she got cool gifts, had an awesome time with her family, ate well and now was the Keeper of a shiny little box.

The Box with the Millenium Item was sitting on her Vanity Mirror where she had it placed before taking her shower.

She frowned at the thing.

Till she had a daughter and she was 15, she had to keep an eye on it. Yeah, she could imagine more fun activities.

Stupid family tradition.

The blue-haired girl bet some of her ancestors got conned with this thing and the story, making anybody believe it to this day.

Well, she surely wouldn’t.

Mumbling to herself about stupid shiny boxes, she sat down on her bed and reached for her deck.

She wanted to put the new cards in it and then in the cardholder, Kihana had made for her.

Just…something was bugging her.

She couldn’t explain it.

It was something in the depths of her mind. Something like a whisper.

Something deep in herself told her to look at what was in the box.

Frowning she placed her deck on her bedside table and took the shiny box from the Vanity Mirror to her bed.

She crossed her arms and sat before it.

“So, now what? Stupid shiny old box, what is so special about you?”, she said to herself.

Meanwhile, a storm was forming with lightning and thunder, and howling wind.

The blue-haired girl took the box in her hand and opened it.

There laid this Millennium Fragment.

It was golden, tear-dropped formed with a big eye of Horus staring right into her soul.

She admitted it looked really…ancient.

And the eye was creeping her out.

“So you are the Millenium Fragment, heh?”, was she really talking to jewelry? What had gotten into her? “What is so special about you?”

To demonstrate, she and anybody else Sehrazat decide to break the rule about not wearing the jewellery.

It was just a story.

She took it out of the box.

It was just a story.

The box was placed on her bed.

It was just a story.

Lighting illuminated its surface and reflected on it ominously.

It was just a story!

Sehrazat took all her courage and put it on.

Her heart beat so fast, that she could feel and hear it.

Sweat has broken out on her body, but it was done.

The Millenium Fragment hung now from her throat.

The storm outside got more intense.

“Heh, that’s it?”, she said with a wobbly voice. “It’s really just-“

The teenager couldn’t even end her sentence as some kind of energy flowed through her being.

A golden eye appeared on her forehead and she threw her head back in a silent scream.

If someone saw this he wouldn’t believe his eyes, but the girl seemed to grow taller, her body taking more womanly curves, her hair reaching her bottom and her eyes becoming shaper.

Her mouth closed and she slowly put her head again forward.

She blinked her eyes a few times and raised an elegant eyebrow as she looked around the room.

“Well, this…this is surprising.”, Sehrazat or not said in a melodious sinful voice who belonged to a woman and not a young girl.

She raised her hand to look at it, studying it.

“Really surprising.”

Next

[fancylala4]

Weebs love making shit up for their stupid ass “dubs are awful” argument. They do know that 4kids is dead right? So why are you crying over a show that was dubbed over 20 years ago!?

Also the Naruto thing is dumb because the dub for kids kept his fucking name the same. And bleach never had a dub for kids. So why the fuck would they change his name?

This fucking loser would cry that people call ash from Pokémon his English name instead of his “real” Japanese name.

Edit: I was right. Fucking weeb is a loser wanting to feel special or watch it like a “real Japanese person” lol.

[t4tklonoa]

I watched digimon movie. conclusion ? imf gonana kill somfne /pos

(spoilers under cut)

literally no one did anything here what the fuck happened for those almost two hours WHATTEH FUCK HAPPENED. no figth ? no fight ????????? well there was one short moments they were soooo awesome BUT INEED MORE IM GONNA EXPLDOEF Rui ilov u Ihope u ar eokkay whatte fuck is wrong with u tho. ukkamon I love u but also what the fuck is wrong with u. dying ukkamon scene was good best part I think. whatthe fuck WHY DID THEY MELT. why the digimon has connections to someone powerful and no one questions it ukkamon mentions it two times that's it iguess

Daiken moment I honestly zoned out mid scene erhmmm I only put attention back to the screen bc like the 6 ppl there laughed and I only saw Daisuke blushing and I was like UHHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK JSU HAPPEN and then I forgor abt it bc Rui trauma moment but now I will never stop thignking abt it (he did not keep rhinking abtit)I didn't see Ken's face tho I will have to change dis when I go watch it agin bc I wanna see it in japanese also

the moment where Rui and Ukkamon talked it out was awesome I'm eimd(<- what the fuck isthis word what did I mean to put there) there was this part where Ukkamon called rui ugly bc of a saying in dpanish (eres feo or smth I forgor) Iloved it somuch Ilove them whattefu k and the the Rui and his mom chatting happyly in the bg I hope whoever thought of that expldoes

Imperialdramon. that's it

erhm Iori moment (did fucking NOTHING NORHGIN THE WHOLE MOVIE WHYYFHYD) anywyas I expected to see more veemon no veemon for me ig I expected to see armor digivolutions none forme also they called digivolutions digilutions in the spanish dub why did they do that. it sounded awful also someone in the film pronounced digimon the wrong way

NO ONE FUCKING CHEERED WHENG WALLACE APPEARED I FUCKING STARTED CRYING BC LOPMON WAS THERE I ONLY CRIED BC OF LOPMON AND NONE IN THE THEATER SAID NAYTHINGGGGG NNNNNNMNM!!!!!!!!!! FAKE FANS. anywyas when Chichos appeared I looked directly at the person I went to see tha movie with and said. look it's chichos. and we started to laugh TOO loudly bc why is she fuckign named tha

I can't get over how the talking it out scene ALMOST made me cry but Lopmon moment made me cry my eyes out in front of all the ppl that went ro watch the movie. lights on and everything when we were leaving I was sobbing also

The funniest shit ever actually is that I don't remember if lopmon was actually there bc the scene passed too fast and the excitement of seeing the other kids was toomuch in one sitting (lol) and maybe Lopmon wasn't there and I'm just making shit up. and I don't wanna check it's gonna b a ride to confirm things in parts I zoned out in next time I go seeit

I love u Miyako I hope next time they can do better I can't take this anymrle Takeru. Hikari. Iori. Ken. Miyako. do something. ARMADIMON TALK TOME AR U ALIVE ?????????? THEY HAD LIKE TWO LINES PATAMIN ALSO. Takeruuu talk to me what happend

wasted potwntial the digieggs should've hatched. nostalgia bait put digimon there that ppl like and have our guys fight them + Ukkamon also they need to kill Ithink. plus more action I can't believe this movie is 'Rui trauma the movie' it's just abt him man. but I like him so it's okay Ilike his digimon eye and his trauma

anywyas this movie fuckig. sucks I loved it. I didn't watch Kizuna tho why the hell did they hav cellphone digivice why only in one scene

IRURBDDIDYJXJWYJWUFFG <- extra smashing bc I need to stim I cannot talekd this anyrmele WHAT THE FUCK DIGIMON MOVIIEIEEE

[longroadstonowhere]

okay, i have in fact fired up my old laptop to read through my zero two revision notes

there are definitely things i would want to change around, but i did like a lot of how i organized the story overall - if i were to work on this again, i’d probably want to change some specifics (like takeru’s story is... well i just think i’d do it differently), but the foundations aren’t bad

so basically i divided the story into four arcs, although not evenly - first arc has thirteen episodes, second arc has 12, third arc has twenty (but like it could also be split into two arcs possibly? the sort of thing i expect would be debated in the theoretical fandom, haha), fourth arc has 6 episodes

in general i wrote with dub names, possibly just because they’re, like, shorter most of the time, but not sure if i would’ve used english or japanese names in the final product

another general note, digimon don’t travel with the humans back to the human world, and they don’t have communication abilities until near the end of the first arc (izzy is in the background developing a lot of things) - also i just let the d3s do a bunch of the new stuff instead of the d-terminals, like acting as interdimensional walkie talkies when they figure out communication, and they hold the digieggs and all that jazz

first arc is the digimon emperor arc, and i basically have it where ken’s dark digivice lets him control digimon (basically turning things into a pokemon game for him if he wants), and he’s experimenting with the control spires and dark bands and dark spirals in order to expand that sphere of control beyond what he can do with just his digivice. during the course of these experiments, he kidnaps agumon and tries to force digivolutions out of him (this is presented as tai’s agumon for some length of time before revealing it’s actually a different agumon, and he personally creates blackwargreymon at the end of this arc through forced dark digivolution). arc finale ends with kari purifying the dark ocean’s influence on him, so that he finally realizes what he’s been doing is pretty fucked up and he gives up the digimon emperor’s mantle. this arc also includes yolei getting trapped in the digital world overnight and ken saving her, giving her insight to his genuinely kind nature. also! i devoted some amount of time to explaining why the older digidestined weren’t involved, which came down to digivolution being much harder on both digimon and digidestined, and also the older kids’ digimon all finding some place they needed to protect, so they couldn’t go haring off on random adventures (tai is the one who takes the longest to work through this). also also there’s an episode where the whole queen kari thing gets brought up (it’s also the episode where submarimon happens for the first time, and i like how i wove those two together).

second arc is kind of the demon corps arc (surprise!), and... well, this is one where i’d want to revise a decent amount because i think it’s a little bit of a mess as is. but anyway, first episode of this arc gives ken’s backstory (which does include his stuff with ryo and the wonderswan games). he ends up running away from home and going into the digital world full time in a bad attempt at fixing his mistakes. the kids find out he’s missing and kinda halfheartedly try to look for him (except yolei actually does look for him because she’s convinced he’s better than he seemed), and they spend a lot of time taking down old control spires and kinda just dicking around. the demon corps is also there, sorta. blackwargreymon is also there! and trying to hunt down ken because he’s pissed off at how he was tortured as agumon and the circumstances of his birth! the kids end up finding ken, but the newbies are horrified because ken is willing to kill bad digimon (they’ve always just beat them up and let them slink off). arc finale is a battle royale between the kids, blackwargreymon, and phantomon of the demon corps. davis does a dark digivolution (because i was a little salty that he was the only gogglehead who didn’t get a dark digivolution) and kills phantomon, which kinda shocks him to his core. wormmon (as spikemon) protects blackwargreymon from phantomon under ken’s orders, which shocks blackwargreymon into not trying to kill ken anymore, but wormmon does end up getting killed. so we end up with phantomon dead, blackwargreymon off to reconsider his life, ken going back home (after being gone for about three weeks) with wormmon’s egg, and the kids being wary of the rest of the demon corps (while also still wrestling with their feelings about killing digimon). you can probably see why i kinda think this one is a mess.

third arc is arukenimon, mummymon, and the destiny stones. and also the demon corps still. first few episodes are more about developing human character relationships with each other, with conflict coming from tk not trusting ken, sparking a bad rift between him and yolei, which peters down four episodes in (tk dials down the distrust so they can work together, also wormmon hatches - this face turn is not laid out super well in the outline haha). this does allow for davis and ken to have heart-to-hearts about darkness and such. the queen kari thing is also focused on in another episode. anyway the kids spend a lot of time trying to find out about the demon corps and also gennai (who came out of the woodwork after ken stopped being the digimon emperor) tells them the barriers between the worlds are being eroded. like six episodes in we start finding out this is because mummymon and arukenimon are corrupting the destiny stones (while working alongside oikawa). there’s a bunch of stuff about kari getting nightmares and headaches and being depressed, and the first time they see arukenimon and mummymon it’s just her and ken and she freezes, and when this comes out later (after she’s lied about nothing happening) a rift opens between her and tk (which opens the door for her and yolei to have a heart-to-heart). jogress digivolutions start happening. there’s also a bit where cody’s family goes to visit his dad’s grave and oikawa runs into them (grandpa doesn’t like him but details are not explained yet). they figure out the demon corps is probably after ken’s dark spore (from the video game backstory). arukenimon and mummymon end up opening portal to human world by corrupting enough destiny stones (originally i had them making some kind of devices that could manipulate the world borders, which could foreshadow oikawa’s involvement, but also i don’t think i had that as a secret and it seemed silly to include this whole new thing and never bring up the destiny stones). the remaining demon corps members take advantage of them opening the portal to invade the human world themselves, while arukenimon and mummymon are killed by silphymon and blackwargreymon (who’s done a fair amount of soul searching off screen and has decided to not kill ken while there’s bigger threats around). so now we’re dealing with a full invasion of the human world, there’s lots about the kids dealing with their families, the older kids are also involved. oikawa’s connection to cody’s dad is explained by his grandpa, and oikawa tries to convince cody to join him (it doesn’t work). there’s a wizardmon cameo. portals are opening up all over the city and there’s a handful happening internationally, the kids stay in tokyo and take care of all the portals they can reach, international portals get taken care of international digidestined on their own (including mimi in new york, which is her first actual appearance in the story ahhaha), but closing the portals is only a short-term solution. we do a week timeskip where portals are still occasionally opening up, gennai’s trying to fix dimension rips, and there’s two members of the demon corps left. they finally find ladydevimon but oikawa gets the dark spore during the fight, he eats it and gets unpossessed by malomyotismon. demon and malomyotismon end up fighting each other (???? cannot remember why now), oikawa’s still connected to malomyotismon so kari ends up purifying the dark spore out of him, which weakens malomyotismon enough that blackwargreymon (randomly showing up) is able to kill him. then he and demon fight and demon kills him, then takes the dark spore from ken and opens up an unexpected portal to the dark ocean, gets killed by a hand of darkness from the portal. kari gets kidnapped into the dark ocean and the newbie gang go after her. (you can see why i think this could theoretically be split into two arcs, but like, where)

fourth arc! the classic ‘the dark ocean was criminally underutilized in the original show’ arc. kari ends up in a cell with gatomon, the other kids start on the shore and walk into the ocean (which is breathable. they specifically do not think about this in case it only works when they don’t question it). they come across a creepy temple and everyone gets separated as they walk along. they all get to deal with individualized nightmares - yolei deals with her feeling of powerlessness in the face of the threats she’s faced (breaks the illusion when she fights back against an illusion of myotismon, cuz she’s been dealing with the fallout from the odaiba fog incident this whole time), davis deals with his loneliness from growing up having no friends (which i probably made up but i like it because it gives a good reason for him to dislike tk at the beginning - he’s afraid he’ll take away his first close friend) (anyway he breaks through the illusion when he deals with lingering doubts about the dark digivolution and he remembers that his friends have his back), ken gets stuck in illusions lambasting him for his actions as the digimon emperor including sam kicking him when he’s down (breaks through when an illusion of blackwargreymon talks him through the guilt and forgives him), cody gets to hang out with his dad and gets mad at armadillomon when he tells cody it’s an illusion (he breaks through the illusions when he opens up to armadillomon and actually talks about his feelings which he feel like he can’t do with his family because he had to be strong when his dad died), tk gets hounded by visions of all the enemies he’s fought in the digital world including like piedmon and devimon and breaks when he relives patamon’s death in adventure (gets broken out when davis finds him), meanwhile kari gets out of her cell but runs into dagomon cultists who can overload her with darkness and make her pass out, yolei ends up finding them carting the unconscious kari somewhere and follows them, end up in like creepy altar space, dagomon shows up and kari wakes up, he wants to steal kari’s light powers but she denies him, shurimon and yolei get her out, everyone finally meets up, cultists chasing yolei and kari find them and there’s fighting, dagomon joins and does an epic smackdown, final episode the kids won’t give up, tk gives a rallying speech to kari (so she can have her own moment of facing her insecurities in this arc haha) which inspires her to focus her light powers, this allows all three jogress ultimates to digivolve to mega, being filled with light means they can actually hurt dagomon to the point where he retreats (threatening to return when they let their guard down), they wish themselves home and end up at the school, close the portal, and we get an epilogue that just jumps, like, one year later explaining how inter-world interactions are going (since they couldn’t actually shut the two worlds away from each other this time) and one last scene of the new kids hanging out.

whew

so yeah, there’s stuff i’d need to work on, like i don’t think i like tk’s arc (he starts the story as basically a confident war vet being pulled back in and he slowly becomes more bitter and hateful as things go on because he never actually processed things like patamon’s death or puppetmon, he just shifted all those dark feelings onto hating dark digimon), and the second arc is a mess, and the demon corp really are around for too long, and.... well, yeah, i could go on forever

i did give a decent amount of time to each of the jogress pairs developing their relationships before jogress is even an option, and i did my best to integrate the older kids throughout without overshadowing the new kids (although there was a subplot with sora during the human world invasion that i didn’t even mention in this summary that i would definitely want to rework i think), and i’m glad i just. shank malomyotismon, hahaha, that’s a good moment, and oikawa’s involvement with cody’s dad is much more foreshadowed

i also like how i changed up the dark emperor arc, with a gap between the digimon emperor ending and ken joining the team, feels more realistic (oh also there was gonna be a thing where the kids all think the digimon emperor is, you know, a digimon, so when yolei runs into ken she doesn’t think anything of it)

i dunno, i appreciate the work i put into this all, and i think it has potential... but it would take a lot more work to make it workable, so i think i’m just glad to have typed all this out here so the concepts can be known

[rottenbrainstuff]

I am half way through Jojo part five! The main bad guy has FINALLY showed up! Lmao.

I bought the blu rays so I’m watching it on those now, rather than the fansub I grabbed earlier. I really am not a huge fan of the newest viz releases. I don’t like their “new and improved” subtitles. Translations of things are going to be on a sliding scale ranging from a completely accurate translation, to something that is more accessible to the target audience, and I know that where you think a translation should fall on that scale is going to be a matter of personal preference. Me, I very much prefer more accurate translations, and especially now that I can understand a little Japanese, I get really annoyed when I know that what I’m hearing doesn’t match what the words are saying. I feel like the dub is the place for creative interpretation. If I’m watching it with the Japanese audio it means I want to know what the Japanese version is like, and I want accurate subtitles.

Similarly, I get really really irritated with all the name localizations and I don’t really understand why. I mean. It really doesn’t make any difference to the story if the thing is being called Moody Blues or if it’s being called Moody Jazz. Right?

I guess it’s just… first of all like I said, you can HEAR with your DAMNED EARS what they’re actually saying, and it’s silly to have that disconnect with the subtitles and be taken out of your suspension of disbelief for a second and you’re reminded oh right, because of whatever stupid copyright negotiation or lack thereof, they’re not allowed to translate the name that I can HEAR THEM SAYING ANYWAYS. Like, for the dub do whatever you want. Localize the names however you need to. (I really dislike the part five dub btw, more than I dislike the dubs for previous parts. The part four dub was actually pretty good) Change it how you need to. For the close captioning of the dub, caption what they’re saying. Sure.

But I don’t want to read subtitles that are supposed to be a translation of the audio and be reminded constantly that it’s not an accurate translation. It’s fucking irritating.

Second, I feel like it removes one of the interesting little quirks of the show. The manga artist puts so much of his weird little interests into everything, he is a huge music fan so he names characters after famous bands and songs. It has nothing to do with the plot, it has nothing to do with anything, but it’s part of the charm of the thing. So it’s irritating having it taken out. And in such a stupid, clumsy way. L’il Bomber? L’il Bomber???!!???

For the actual part five itself though… it’s not my favourite, but I think I’m learning to like it in its own way, more than I thought it would. The plot makes the least amount of sense of all the other parts, and that’s saying a lot for a show that’s about punching bad guys with ghosts in increasingly complicated ways… Abbacchio is still my favourite even though he’s not in it much. Doppio should be showing up soon here so I’m looking forward to that.

One thing I really like: it looks like every once in a while, they got a bigger budget for certain eps, and suddenly there will be a scene with some really nicely drawn keys (key frames). It’s quite nice! I wish the other parts were given the same treatment occasionally.

Nice! I love it. Anything that gets away from the very homogenous look that it otherwise has. For some reason it reminds me of Kouta Hirano’s Hellsing faces.

Everyone talks about King Crimson being confusing but like man I’m confused enough just by Gold Experience, none of these stands make any sense to me anymore, I miss the days when it was just really buff ghosts punching each other to death. I don’t really care that I don’t get it. Mista gets shot an awful lot for a dude who has bullets for a stand. (It’d be like Ghiacchio getting frostbite… it’s funny) The bad guys continue to be gross and nothing in this show makes sense and that’s how I like it.

[beansterpie]

Thank you so much for the link! I've been looking for something like this for ages (I tried looking some of this up on the internet archive before but I didn't manage to find it at the time 🤔 also @marley-manson, here, if you're interested!)

Also, is it just a case of the internet archive's digital library being formatted from left to right, or did VIS print the manga back in the day in a western format too?

And thanks for chiming in with some pics from the official VIS version! It's interesting to see how they handled the dialogue, and also the little changes they chose to make in certain places.

Like the VIS version of the title page gets the overall message across, but it does lose the vibe of Kurita and Sena just excitedly/timidly extending a request for others to join them in playing American Football, only for Hiruma to come in with the final line and make it a violent demand lol. But I guess with translation, small things like that are difficult to maintain while keeping sentence flow. (also let Hiruma say fuck!! Or more like, 'MOTHERFUCKER!!!' in the case of this title page lol)

RIP poor Sena, only just met his new classmates and they've already scoped him out as gopher material.... :') And yeah, 'go buy me/us food' is a common bully trope in Japan for suuuree, I just figured for those who didn't know that, the line 'go buy us bread' would sound pretty odd. (yakisoba bread is delicious btw, it's basically a hotdog bun stuffed with yakisoba lmfao, just carbs on carbs with umami flavor. EXtremely satisfying.)

Hiruma's speech patterns are so funnyyyy, I love that 糞 is dubbed with ファッキン (fucking), and that he's so consistent about it too. But yeah you're right, I mean I think kuso-(noun) can be pretty biting, but it also depends on context and like, tone. And ファッキン used in Japanese certainly doesn't have the same bite as it does when used in English, so I guesssss I can understand why they settled with 'Damn'. Still, let Hiruma say fuck!!!

Regarding the whole Shumu thing, it's interesting VIS went with 'manager'. It makes sense, and the shumu role doesn't end up being important enough to justify trying to clarify it, but I do wonder how they did Hiruma's dialogue later on when he manipulates Mamori into becoming their manager by saying that it was unreasonable to expect Sena to be able to take on both shumu and manager responsibilities? (I guess they could just have him say that Sena couldn't take on all manager responsibilities by himself or something).

LMAO the 'Renraku-sama' bit always had me go ????? I was like 'is this some sort of reference or idiom that I'm not aware of?' but no it was just some kind of confusion with the word for contact info. I also wonder if they didn't realize that うん is a sound of agreement? Like 'uh-huh' (though the usage is subty different). Or if they thought having Sena agree there made him less sympathetic...? Idk but odd change.

But yeah I have no doubt that the VIS translation is overall superior to the fan scans, even if they occassionally end up sacrificing small things in the name of sentence flow and readability. And I've heard that certain lines are translated in really clever ways!

I'll still use the fan scans for my readalong posts just because I think that's the version most people are familiar with, but it'll be great to have the VIS version handy (up to a certain point lol) for reference! Anyway thanks for the lovely and thorough response, I'm glad people seem to be into this!

ES21 japanese volumes - part 1/??

Sooooo I recently got my hands on the complete Eyeshield 21 manga series in Japanese and as someone who's only ever read the story through fan-translations on dodgy websites online, I wanted to go through and "live" blog about it, so to speak. I thought it would be interesting to see the changes between the languages and where the fan-translations likely fail with mistranslations. (No shade btw, I think fan-translations are great both as a hobby and the fact that they're doing their work for free, but it's also a reality that the vast majority of fan-translators are amateurs, many of whom don't fluently speak the language they're translating, so there's bound to be mistakes!) Also, I wanna know what they're originally saying because I’m nosey <3

I know the official English translation by VIS is allegedly pretty decent, bar the toning down of some things (like Hiruma's language lol) so if you've had the chance to read the official version, feel free to chime in on differences with the fan-translation that I'll be referencing, or potential differences between the Japanese version too!

And finally, while I am half Japanese and grew up there, tragically my language skills are imperfect. I speak it, but my vocabulary isn't very robust, so I do look up the definitions for a lot of words and kanji, as well as more nuanced connotations or references that may go over my head. Bilingual problems <3 But again, it's good practice for me and I think it'll be kind of fun!

Right off the bat, this page. What it’s saying is essentially, “You better come out and play (in the) American Football match!” But because Japanese syntax is different from English, it’s structured like “American Football Match you better play!!” The translator was confused by the final line, because in Japanese a way to say ‘participating in a match’ is by using 出る which means to ‘go out’— sort of like ‘go out (into) the match’. Maybe a better option would have been ‘get the fuck out and play!!” or just “you better fucking play!!”. It still keeps the overall sentence structure which sounds awkward in English, but at least it gets the meaning across.

(I’m not gonna get into every little mistranslation btw, because that would take forever, but I felt that was a good way to explain how frequently there are little mistakes like this.)

Putting the rest under a cut because I imagine this will get long

Look at our boy <3 So as you know, we start our story with Sena Kobayakawa timidly seeing if he passed his high school entrance exam into Deimon High School, with his childhood friend/older sister figure, Mamori Anezaki lending moral support.

In the third panel, what Sena says is actually “I feel like I’ve been praised for the first time in 10 years—” (maybe they changed it because that was too pathetic 😭) Then in the fourth panel, what Mamori says is more along the lines of “And to think you were a total mess in math and English… It’s all thanks to Mamori-sensei!”

Also I want to point out that Mamori is a little cheekier in the first few chapters. Like obviously still kind and nurturing in personality (her name is literally ‘to protect’), but she teases Sena and feels more like an older sister than like, an overprotective mom lol. Miss that for her 😔

Then along comes our kind senpai to accost our clueless protag...

There’s no mistranslation, but I just wanted to mention that the way Hiruma talks in Japanese is so funny? Like in panel 1, he’s speaking with a dramatic affect, he sounds like some sort of npc in a jrpg giving the protag a quest. And then in panel 2, his ‘of course!’ is this shortened, slang version of the word that sounds almost cute and very modern after the previous line. Hiruma uses a lot of slang in general, though I can’t say if any of it is like, common or used by teenagers (of the time, anyway) or if it’s just Hiruma-isms.

(Look at Kurita doing the sign of the cross in panel 3 😂)

I can’t believe Hiruma managed to physically emulate the experience of contracting some shady internet virus…..

Something that’s done with Hiruma’s dialogue a lot (it’s done w/ other characters too, but most often with Hiruma) is where there’ll be a word/term in kanji that means one thing and pronounced in a certain way, but then the romaji (so the phonetic pronounciation, basically) next to it says something different. Now, in some stories (like Berserk for my pals out there), this is used to create poignant, layered meanings in the text. In ES21 however, it’s mostly used for sports manga flavor. For example, in the above page in Hiruma’s spam fax message, he uses the word 作戦, which means tactics or strategy, and is pronounced: “sa - ku - se - nn” さ-く-せ-ん. But the romaji next to that word reads タクティクス which is quite literally just the English word ‘tactics’ spelled phonetically in Japanese lol (aka a loanword).

He does this A LOT, most frequently with sports terminology, where the kanji are pretty dense, technical terms, and the romaji a loanword version of the same meaning. (though now that I think about it, it might also be because while パワー (power) and スピード (speed) are frequently used and well known loanwords to the average Japanese person, タクティクス (tactics) might be more obscure, so the kanji is there to like, clarify the meaning? 🤔)

Also I love all the early 2000’s tech we see in the early chapters— flip phones and fax machines galore! Even within the later segments of the series, the flip phones start to magically get more advanced, but in my heart ES21 takes place in like, 2003. If they ever do a remake of the anime (which is unlikely to say the least) I’d want them to maintain the early 00’s vibes. It just wouldn’t be the same if everyone had smart phones.

Skipping ahead a few pages, I remember this bit never really made sense, but I got enough of the general gist that I kind of shrugged and moved along. But!! the translation is just making stuff up here?

So for context: it’s Sena’s first day at Deimon, and Mamori (who’s a grade above him) advises him to make proper friends this year, since he has a history of only ‘hanging out’ with shitty bullies who used him as an errand boy.

In the English translation, Sena seems to get a text from a mystery number, telling him to pay up for a bet we never saw happening. He goes to meet up with the texter, who we assume at this point is a previous aquaintence, since he had Sena's number? Maybe one of those bullies that Sena hung out with from middle school? They make Sena go and get them an unspecified thing, but because Sena ran there and back so quickly, they don't believe that Sena actually went, and is lying when he says they were sold out. They drag Sena to a small shed to beat him up, and in the last panel of the third page, Sena says that he's been their errand boy since kindergarden?

So for a number of years I was under the impression that the Ha-ha brothers knew Sena from before the series, even though that never seemed to come up in the rest of the story.

But in the original version, Sena is actually getting a text from Mamori-- which makes sense because it was established earlier that his cell phone is brand new and he only has Mamori's number in his contacts. Mamori's text says: "If someone tries to make you run their errands, tell them 'let's decide by rock-paper-scissors!'" Sena is understandably kind of embarrassed by this, and mutters to himself that he's not a kid anymore.

Then it cuts to Sena being picked on to be an errand boy lmao. Presumably this is because Sena just looks like an easy target to bullies, not because of any previous aquaintence rip. The blond bully tells Sena to go buy them bread (which might sound weird, but Japan has a lot of tasty snack breads that they sell everywhere). In panels 2+3 of the second page, Sena timidly tries to bring up the rock-paper-scissors thing, but is intimidated into giving up and just doing what he's told.

Again, they don't believe that Sena actually went all the way to the school store and back with how quick he was, so they decide to beat him up in the shed. As he's being dragged, Sena says, "It really was sold out! I've gotten used to being an errand boy since kindergarden, so I've just gotten fast--!"

So yeah, if there were any other people who've only read fan-translations and were confused by this bit, there you go.

oh you just know it smelled like ass in here.....

(I never noticed the shotgun propped against the desk on the right before lol, idk why I'm surprised, but Hiruma really just left his Actual Guns lying around huh?)

(2nd pic - Kurita: "New club applicants!!?")

There he is!! Our boy Kurita!! I do miss when he occassionally had like, more human features lol. As much as I love his big ol' smiley face, it does rub me the wrong way when the fat characters (because Komusubi falls into this too) are the only ones with anpanman faces.

(anpanman, for the uninitiated)

(Kurita: "To literally clash with the opponent in order to pursue a goal together with everyone-- that moment is exhilerating!")

Aw look at Sena feeling inspired! Honestly I really love how Kurita is Sena's first friend he makes in the series, and that vibe in the early chapters where it's just Sena, Kurita and Hiruma is so much fun <3

(P1: Kurita: "Way to go Sena!" Imaginary Coach: "It's thanks to you that we could participate in the Christmas Bowl!" Mamori: "You're so cool Sena!"

P2: Mamori: "You have to make the first move!" Sena: "U-um!"

P3: Sena: "Can I... be the team shumu*?" Kurita: "WHAAATT!? O-OF-OF COURSE!")

*Ok soooo I don't fully understand what a shumu is lol, or how you'd translate it to English. The word itself apparently means 'person in charge' so? The fan-translation just calls it the manager, but based on something Hiruma says later, I get the impression that the shumu and the manager are technically different roles? But when Mamori becomes the manager later, she takes on a lot of what are allegedly 'shumu tasks', along with Hiruma, so idk. If anyone's read the official VIS translation, feel free to chime in on how they did it, because I'd be curious to know!

That being said, adorable of Sena to think he could have handled that responsiblity at all 😂 our boy has many talents, but being smart and organized is not among them.

Ok fun feelings are over, it's time for pain.

(Sena looking at his contact list, having just added Kurita's number, then wham D: )

The three bullies from before were waiting to get revenge. The dialogue is a bit different in the original. Juumonji (the blond one) actually says: "That fatso a friend of yours, Sena? Tell me his contact info-- if you do that, we'll let you go." To which Sena timidly and reluctantly agrees. Then Kuroki (the dark haired one) says: "But do you think one bat will be enough? With that brute strength..." In the final panel, Juumonji says: "It's better with just one, since we're gonna call the police beforehand." Togano (with the glasses): "The police?"

Juumonji: "As long as we get him wrapped up in the fight, it'll be fine. We'll say we got these wounds from being assaulted by the fatso with the bat -- We'll get him disqualified from the American Football tournament." One of the others: "Ooohh, smart!"

I guess the overall sentiment isn't that different, but knowing that the initial demand was for Sena to hand over Kurita's contact info with the promise that they would spare him if he obeyed-- and that at first he agreed-- makes his change of heart feel even more significant.

(Sena: "IF YOU'RE GONNA HIT ME, THEN HIT ME!!! I'LL NEVER TELL YOU (Kurita's info)!!!")

Tell 'em Sena!! A part of me sort of wishes the story maintained this serious story beat instead of undercutting it with humor in the next panel (not shown here) but at the same time, ES21 is overall a more lighthearted, comedic story which I love it for, so I don't think I'd like it getting too angsty. I'll always have Berserk in my corner if I want some actual angst lol.

(1st pic: various sounds of surprise or pain, and in the last panel: "Oi, don't let him get away!"

2nd pic: Sena -- "No way!!!" Hiruma: "Hm? Oh it's that guy" )

Lol I do love the little details Murata included, like Kuroki taking a swing at Sena as he's biting Juumonji's hand but then totally missing in the fourth panel because Sena's so fast. Also I'm always on the lookout for the kinds of stuff Hiruma buys, snack wise. We know he loves sugarless gum, obv, and drinks coke based on that one time he bought some for himself, Kurita & Sena, but what else are in those bags? I want to know!!

--------

And lol apparently I'm only allowed 30 images per post rip, so I guess I'll end this here. I guess I can.... reblog and continue? Or I might just make another post for the next part 🤔 Besides this got way too long, so I'll have to be more brief in future posts lol.

I'm honestly not expecting more than like, five people to interact with this lol, but if anyone is interested in specific points of the story they want me to look at, please feel free to ask!

[evakaname]

What they mean? The alternative translation.

“ Attention pls! ” (x3)

“ This is important research for us! ”

“ Meh, vanilla. “

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Worst YGO Dub Names

I’ve softened to the dubs lately but they still committed some atrocities, particularly toward character names so here’s the ones that personally piss me off the most. The first two are the worst ones but after that they’re not in any kind of order.

Jun Manjome to Chazz Princeton

The crown jewel of shittiness. I know Manjome is a comic relief but he’s not a complete joke. He’s a character and a good one. This name just makes him sound stupid. And aggressively American. This one just really really angers me personally, as does pretty much everything in the GX dub.

Yuzu Hiiragi to Zuzu Boyle

Yuzu is a fruit. “Zuzu” is a degrading nickname Azula gave Zuko. It’s fucking stupid and I hate it. And pairing it with the last name “Boyle” sounds like a disease or something.

Mai Kujaku to Mai Valentine

THIS PUN IS FUCKING AWFUL. Yes Kujaku is a pun too but it’s a pun with class goddammit. Also “My” sounds confusing in English and is one of the few times that changing the name could’ve been acceptable. I would’ve accepted “May.” But no. They made a mildly sexist pun out of her name. UGHHHHHHH.

Hayato Maeda to Chumley Huffington

I can’t explain it, but this name sounds vaguely like a fat insult. Also, it sounds fucking stupid.

Noburo Gongenzaka to Gong Strong

…do I need to explain this one? It’s just… so stupid. It sounds more like a mockery of the character rather than a real name. It’s not even a pun! It’s just dumb. I haven’t seen the Arc V dub but it wouldn’t surprise me if Gongenzaka is treated like a joke considering his name.

Judai Yuki to Jaden Yuki

If this were any other character, I wouldn’t really care about this name change. The “Americanizing” is bad on principle but if they insist on doing it, then I’ll take it as long as it doesn’t sound stupid. This though? This is the main fucking character, you should not be changing it, especially when “Judai” isn’t hard to pronounce. Like at all. Not that these names care about pronunciation though considering-

Takuma Saio to Sartorious

This is literally harder to spell and say than his original name. And makes him sound like a fucking dinosaur, which is ironically how old he looks compared to the others.

Anzu Mazaki to Tea Gardner

“We need to make these Japanese names easier so the dumb American kids aren’t confused! Let’s put a fucking accent mark in one of them! You know, that thing that most American keyboards can’t even type!” -some moron at 4Kids, probably

Copy and pasting accent marks is effort that Tea doesn’t deserve. Therefore, she is forever hot leaf juice on this blog.

Rei Saotome to Blair Flannigan

The GX dub names are all fucking stupid. If I had less self control, this list would be every single GX dub name because I hate what the dub did to this show so much-

Okay, stupidity aside, this one is also a story issue. Rei’s very first act in the series is disguising herself as a boy. It is a twist that Rei is a girl. One of the things that makes this a twist is Rei’s name: a gender neutral name in Japanese. I’m not saying a boy can’t be named Blair but social biases and your very first thought are going to say that Blair is a girls’ name. And this show aired in 2004. So you know… maybe don’t make the twist that fucking obvious, dub. I know this doesn’t apply as much in other countries but this show was dubbed by an American company with American kids in mind so I feel like my point still stands.

Also, the name is dumb. It’s just dumb and upsets me.

Kaito Tenjo to Kite Tenjo

I know this seems like a small and kind of whatever change at first glance and honestly it probably is but just… the audacity to take a Japanese name, remove one syllable, and go “hurr hurr, he flies like a kite, aren’t we so clever?” is just irritating to me. I’ll let Hart off the hook because that’s admittedly a cute name and could have some symbolism to it if you squint but I draw the line at “Kite.”

Ryoken Kogami to Roken Kogami

WHY?! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?! WHY WAS IT NECESSARY TO REMOVE THE ‘Y’ FROM HIS NAME?! KIDS CAN SAY THE NAME “RYO.” THERE HAVE BEEN PLENTY OF YGO CHARACTERS BEFORE THIS WITH RYO IN THEIR NAMES. IT’S NOT A PRONUNCIATION THING. IT’S JUST STUPID.

Okay don’t get me wrong, this one is far from the worst change, hence why it’s all the way down here, it’s just... a pet peeve that’s gotten under my skin the more and more I’ve typed it in my tags. It’s extremely inconsequential especially compared to the previous ones it just annoys me.