#Finally started watching the anime and went with the Spanish dub because the English one was butchered apparently

[kathybluecaller]

I just think they’re neat :]

[satanicchristiancult]

So, Boku No Hero Academia World Heroes' Mission is finally on my country’s cinemas, and now that I’ve finally watched it, it’s time for my thoughts.

(Spoilers ahead!)

Let’s start off with the fact that I’m rewatching the movie, but this time it’s someone’s recording of it. Finding it might have taken me a while, but I am the master at finding pirated content.

My thoughts:

Izuku’s new suit man, I love it.

That intro tho, now that’s perfection.

Rody’s English dub. I never watch the dubs of anything, but I found a recording of the English dub so I’m rewatching this while I write. The point is, I already love his dub.

The fact that Izuku couldn’t catch up to Rody for a while is ridiculous.

Bones is trying to do way too cool scenes, to just realize that they don’t have enough budget to make them look good, but they don’t care so we end up with this, some scenes that look crappy to be done by animation studios, but wonderful if they were fanmade.

May I propose Midoriya Izuku as the best Spider-Man? My man caught his Gwen Stacy/MJ on his first try! /ref

Todoroki is seriously like “Break your phone and run away. I don’t care if you actually killed someone. Just run”. Or at least that’s how I’ll always interpret it since I saw a post about that.

Izuku seriously just went all Light Yagami there by sending that secret message.

“Cafetería Callejón” huh. So this actually does take place in Spain? I thought that article I saw was a joke or an exaggeration, granted, I didn’t read it, but still! (Later in the post I’ll talk about where the movie actually takes place).

Rody. My guy. Best big brother ever.

That scene in the cave was the moment in which I realized, “god. I’m gay. I’m way too gay. I’m too gay for this two.”.

All of that thing about how Rody doesn’t like heroes because they never go to the place in which he lives, therefore he believes that all of them do it for the fame pissed me off. Not because I don’t agree, because he’s entirely right, but because I’ve been writing a fanfiction for a while about that idea, and now I’ll no longer make the fanfic that makes the reader go “damn, I never thought of it that way”, because canon now said so as well :/. I mean. I’m glad that they said it, but dude!

While doing the rewatch, I found out that what the dub and the sub say are different things. Sure, that’s to be expected but one stood out to me. While Izuku introduces himself, in both he says some variation of the same thing: “but my hero name is Deku”, Rody answers and says essentially the same in both the (oficial) Spanish sub, and on the English dub: “Deku. That’s easy to remember”. And while in the Spanish sub he says “yeah, that’s how I like it” (or something along the lines of that. The point is that he says that that’s the point), in the English dub he says “yeah, it’s growing on me”. So are my suspicions about Izuku not actually liking being called “Deku”, and slowly getting used to it true? GO ME! YOU FIGURED IT OUT!

I remember how much I loved whatever Rody wrote on that piece of paper he left to whoever he got the van from, but on this video version I’m watching it’s unreadable, so I can’t quite comment on in.

English dub’s “first person to break her heart gets KO’d (yes, I did have to google that word)” is the second best thing I’ve ever heard in a BNHA dub, and probably in any other dub.

(If you are curious, my favorite thing that I’ve ever heard in a dub is the dub for Latin America of the movie BNHA Two Heroes, in which Bakugou tells Todoroki, and I quote, “¡A un lado, copia de Zuko!”, which essentially translates into “Out of the way, copy of Zuko!”. I still can’t believe this is canon.)

Unrelated to it all, but I absolutely hate how they pronounce “Izuku Midoriya”.

Oh, right, this isn’t a romance movie about two guys running away from the country to live together in the middle of nowhere, I forgot that this was an action movie /hj. But in all seriousness, this isn’t your average BNHA movie, it’s too different from the other two. Not complaining tho!

Rody, why are you so much like one of the characters in my WIP fanfic? You are ruining all my hard work love! /nm. No but really, he is so much like that character. Older brother, “I have to work even though it makes me miserable”, “anything for my siblings” kind of vibe. Oh no. No I must include Rody in said fic. How do I even do that-

My girl just kamikazed herself. Jeez. (“Kamikazed appears not to be a word, but that ain’t gonna stop me!)

There’s just no reason for Iida and Aizawa not to be fighting. Honestly, there’s no reason for Mina, Aoyama, Koda, Hagakure, Aizawa, and Iida not to be out there, but even if I love them all, the fact that most of them aren’t out there makes sense. Those last two still make no sense tho!! Mirio gets a pass on this.

Godzillo!! You are back my beloved friend!!!

Toshinori, they also did you dirty man. Let this man have his protagonism! (Oh come on! How is it that the same language that made “thingies”, “ko’d”, and “defenestration” a word doesn’t have a word for “protagonismo”?! Even the Spanish language has it for god’s sake!)

Tetsutetsu’s hero name is “Real Steel”. His costume says “FE”, as in the element’s atomic symbol. Oh come on.

Salaam. I have no words to describe him so you’ll get the fandom’s wiki: “Salaam is a brown-skinned man with a two dimensional appearance, similar to human representations in ancient Egyptian art.”. A two dimensional appearance. I still haven’t gotten over this.

Those frames of the bad guy on top of all those dead heroes is so cool. When I find a better version of it, I’ll stitch all the frames together and make a wallpaper.

I’ll never stop finding it ridiculous that suddenly everyone wants a quirkless world. I get it, it isn’t everyone, but still. I find it so unlikely that so many people agreed and joined Humarise. Another thing I also find ridiculous is how 20% of people are quirkless, dude we know three quirkless people by name.

After comparing it with a map, I’ve found out that neither Otheon or Klayd are located in actually existing places of the world.

Unrelated once again, but I can’t get over the fact that Burnin’s hair is still. When I was reading the manga, I pictured it as a constantly moving fire in her head. Imagine how disappointed I was when I watched the anime.

Ah yes, battle scenes. Which means that now my brain will stop paying attention. Can’t I just focus on what I’m watching? Nop! You’re gonna be thinking about Encanto songs in its Español Latino dub.

All throughout Bakugou’s battle, the only think I could think about was “just use your arm grenade things”. Also, I did not care about that battle enough for it to be shown that much.

And on the other hand, I truly wanted to see Todoroki’s battle more. Yeah sure, I’m not a super Todoroki fan like others, but I like him and that underwater battle was something I’d like to see.

I still don’t quite get Mister Bad Guy’s (the villain, aka Flect Turn) quirk.

Rody catching Izuku right before he falls. Oh I love this bastard.

English dub Rody has the amazing ability to somehow make me laugh on serious moments. I don’t remember what either versions of him said, but English dub version called Mister Bad Guy something like “Blue guy” and I find that hilarious.

Izuku, my child, you didn’t realize that Eddie Soul was Rody’s father?

Aaaaand my son Rody got himself shot. FU-

Can I just point out that I’ve been doing this since before 8pm and it’s currently 11:01pm.

In both my rewatch and in my first time watching I spaced out during battles, to the point in which I still don’t know how Bakugou got a bloodshot eye.

Why is it that in every BNHA big fight someone will always end up shirtless?

Todoroki, how haven’t you drowned? Tell me your secret. Also, you can’t fight fire with fire, just make a chunk of ice and make the heat from the fire melt it into water, I have a feeling that that’ll do something useful.

And Izuku turned Super Saiyan Blue again.

United States World Smash is too overpowered.

Those last like 53 seconds lasted around 6 minutes and 12 seconds.

Recovery Girl kissing Bakugou is such a mood.

“Although if I had died stopping those bombs, I would have become a total legend!” “That’s a morbid thing to say”. God do I love this two.

Pino crying while Rody tells Izuku about how it would be better for everyone if he just stayed home. THIS. TWO.

Pino’s celebration dance.

Iida running to Uraraka and Izuku. Oh I love this trio.

UA’s Big Three get their own image. Good for them! Don’t they all just look lovely?

New chaotic trio, Cementoss, Present Mic, and Eraserhead.

I need an HD version of that handshake between Toshinori and Izuku.

Oh the Soul siblings. They have no reason to be that cute. Also, even though the version that I’m watching while rewatching the movie cuts before it is shown, that drawing of Izuku, Todoroki, and Bakugou (was Bakugou actually in it? I’d guess that he is, but I only remember the first two) is also wonderful.

To finally end all of this, Izuku and Rody are gay, that Todoroki scene in which he comes out and fights against the guys with the helicopter (the part with the crazy camera angles) looks fanmade, Rody’s English dub is wonderful, Rody has destroyed all of my WIP fanfiction as he is way too similar to the protagonist but this just makes me want to add him into the story, Aoyama should have been sent to fight in France like come on-, having timers in movies always ends up making a mess (especially since when I first watched the trailer, I thought that those 2 hours would be real life hours as the movie was most likely gonna last 2 hours and a bit more), the whole idea of Humarise is ridiculous and now I want to read quirkless Midoriya Izuku fanfiction with it, I forgot multiple times that this was an action movie, I have the attention span of a newborn puppy, Todoroki is an undrownable being and therefore, a god, and at this point I’ll create as many words as I please.

I give this movie an 8 out of 10.

I spent like 4 and a half hours on this.

-Mori

[alexeiadrae]

Nostalgia Trip: My Story of Watching The Slayers, Day 8

Day 8: This one favors our English speaking fans, but it’s too great a story in the history of watching Slayers to leave out. Do you remember the Great Slayers Disc Exchange (I think that’s what it was called)? Do you have a story involving your participation in it? And are you still mad at Software Sculptors? If English isn’t your first language, what stories do you have about the studios bungling the release of Slayers DVDs in your primary language?

So when DVDs started to become a thing, my money laden sister, Gabs, wanted to buy the Slayers DVDs for a variety of reasons. One was because we’d only seen the English dub and we wanted to see what the original Japanese voices were like. Gabs passed on the first release of the Slayers DVDs because there were some sound problems and they were notably buggy and waited patiently for the new ones to be released with the promise that the sound problems would be fixed.

I happened to be visiting my folks when the new DVD set of Prime was released, and Gabs and me were joined by my dad to watch them. We put the disc in, set it to the Japanese audio, and the first disc was fine. But when we got to the second disc we got…EchoLina! Really, Lina sounded like she was talking at the bottom of a wind tunnel. The second and third discs both had sound issues, though the others were fine.

Gabs had ordered them through Planet Anime, which had an online store and a brick and mortar store close to where I lived. Since they were a small business Gabs concluded that they must have deliberately swapped the new discs for the ones from the previous release to recoup lost costs. So when I went home the next day Gabs came with me and we went up to Plant Anime early the next morning.

We got there before the store owners did, and we were all bright eyed and bushy tailed. We got in the store and Gabs started lecturing them, talking about how she’d waited patiently for the new DVD release but they had the same sound issues the first release did.

Their response? They gave us a wry smile and said, “you have to buy the new ones.”

Gabs and I wondered if they’d heard her right. Gabs shot right back, “these are the new ones!”

The Workers nodded and said, “no, the new ones.”

Gabs was flummoxed and I finally stepped in and said, “she just said she bought the new ones.”

The workers gave a bemused grin, I honestly think they had had this conversation several times before, and said, “No, you need to buy the NEW new ones.”

Gabs opened her mouth to say something, shook her head, and her brilliant response was, “What?”

Turns out, after messing up on their first release of Slayers in DVD format, rather than making sure they fixed the issue when they re-released it, they released a new edition with the same problem, though apparently this time it was only the Japanese audio that was affected. And what really stank was Software Sculptors knew the discs were defective when they released them. In fact, there was already a disc exchange set up. For $10 in “shipping and handling” fees you could send the defective discs in and get corrected discs. This was called The Great Slayers Disc exchange.

Needless to say, the whole thing left a rather sour taste in our mouths.

Of course, Software Sculptors is no more. From what I understand anime profits were razor thin, but it’s also no excuse to knowingly ship a defective product to people. Basically, there’s a reason they didn’t make it.

1.       How did you start watching The Slayers?

2.       How easy was it for you to collect the series to watch it?

3.       What stage of your life were you in when you watched The Slayers?

4.      Have you met anyone involved in any way with the creation of the show? Hajime Kanzaka, a voice actor be they Japanese, American, Spanish, Elvin, etc? A janitor who worked in the animation studio? What were they like?

5.      Do you have a precious collectible from the show? What is it, and how did you get it?

6.      What inside jokes do you have about The Slayers with friends/family you watched it with?

7.       What lengths did you go to to get access to Slayers VHS/DVSs/fansubs, etc?

8.        This one favors our English speaking fans, but it’s too great a story in the history of watching Slayers to leave out. Do you remember the Great Slayers Disc Exchange (I think that’s what it was called)? Do you have a story involving your participation in it? And are you still mad at Software Sculptors? If English isn’t your first language, what stories do you have about the studios bungling the release of Slayers DVDs in your primary language?

9.        What is your memory of experiencing your favorite funny moment in The Slayers?

10.       What is your memory of experiencing your favorite moment of your favorite Slayers character?

11.       What moment in The Slayers surprised you the most?

12.      When did The Slayers exceed your expectations?

13.      When did The Slayers disappoint you?

14.      What do you remember about experiencing the moment when Phibrizzo kidnapped Gourry?

15.       What was your memory of experiencing your favorite moment of your favorite Slayers ship?

16.       What is your memory of watching your favorite dramatic Slayers moment?

17.       What is your favorite memory of watching The Slayers?

18.       What was your strangest memory of something that happened when you were watching The Slayers?

19.       Which character dying at the hands of Phibrizzo affected you the most?

20.       What was your reaction to the end of Slayers NEXT?

21.       What was your experience with tracking down the novels?

22.       When did you fall in love with Lina? Or if you didn’t fall in love with her, how did your feelings about her evolve through the series?

23.      How did your feelings about Gourry evolve through the series?

24.      How did your feelings about Zelgadis evolve through the series?

25.     How did your feelings about Amelia evolve through the series?

26.     How did your feelings about Sylphiel evolve through the series?

27.     How did your feelings about Xellos evolve through the series?

28.     What moments from the show do you use to motivate you?

29.     What impact has the show had on your life?

30.      Why do you believe this show has had such a lasting impact in people’s hearts?

[latin-dr-robotnik]

Sonic Movie thoughts (spoilers)

So, after spending some days thinking and writing, I finally finished up rounding up all of my Sonic Movie thoughts. Most of these are lifted from my Spanish-written reviews, both with spoilers and without spoilers, so this is something that I've been cooking for a while now.

First of all, I’m sooooo surprised by this movie! I mean, when I stepped into the theater I expected a 6.5/10 to 7/10 movie, but after watching it I consider it to be a solid 8/10. It was a 9/10 in some moments, but there were some nitpicks of mine that hurt that score. Jim Carrey was a 10/10 through and through, of course.

Another thing that I really loved was how the secondary cast was easily capable of keeping the fun factor up in between Sonic-Tom-Robotnik action sequences. Agent Stone was always a personal highlight (he’s so nice and chill, I want him to wake me up each morning), but characters like Wade, Carl and specially Rachel were just too much fun for what I originally expected to be just throwaway characters. Rachel in particular I felt like she carried the movie between Tom and Sonic reaching SF and the final confrontation, her whole shtick was very simple, but effective.

MAN, THAT ENTIRE BAR SEQUENCE WAS SICK. Sonic watching Hot Rods so hyped was funny, and even though the “he’s older than he looks but don’t give him alcohol” joke was weird, the whole Bar sequence was sick as fuck. I particularly laughed a lot at the mention of a “ZZ Top cover band” playing, which may be a result of my dad actually listening to ZZ Top tributes IRL. But then the bar fight happens, and the way the whole sequence was directed, animated and presented was simply mind blowing. Favorite moment of the entire movie, 10/10 would watch again. Also, Fry reference when Sonic stops time? (Futurama gang rise up)

Kids jokes vs adult jokes were something that low-key caught my attention when watching the movie. I noticed that kids enjoyed Sonic’s silly shenanigans a lot more, while we adults were laughing at each single second Jim Carrey was on screen. Also, Rachel’s jokes had a tendency to not make children laugh that much, but man I would be lying if I didn’t say I laughed my ass off when she spelled D-I-V-O-R-C-E to Maddie. Of course there was going to be a generational breach, but I thought it was interesting to see how kids reacted versus certain jokes in comparison to adults.

Speaking of jokes, I saw lots of critics complaining about the way certain jokes would not stick and were potentially “cringe material”, but to be honest I can’t think about more than two or three instances where a joke really made me slap my face and nod in disagreement. I thought even the sillier jokes were mildly funny, maybe due to the fact I was able to completely shut down my brain since the first minute. Either that or my sense of humor is shit.

Now for a complete change of pace. I thought the final sequence was beautiful, not from a narrative perspective, but for the way the whole thing was set and done. Awesome climax, but I could not take the “emotional” moment of Sonic dying seriously, only because this franchise has that fucking morbid tendency to kill its protagonist, and when I realized what was going on I started to laugh. Not only it was predictable, but to be honest, it’s emotional message went over me big time. Though, like I say on my Spanish review, being predictable, by the numbers and cliché doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Not at all. It’s just... I couldn’t take the scene in the same way some of you took it and reflected upon here on Tumblr.

Though that last point could’ve sounded like a personal gripe, it really wasn’t. I only had three major gripes with the Sonic Movie, and those were: 1) Sonic doing the floss... TWICE; 2) Sanic in 2020, are you serious? (at least it was presented with some decent context, I buy the fact Carl drew that); 3) that whole Olive Garden thing. Those three points do really bring the movie down from that 9/10 spot from me, but think about it: those were the only THREE short moments that I did not like during an 1 hour and 40 minutes movie. That speaks volumes about the quality of the overall project.

This one may be a little more local to me, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the Latin Spanish dub of the movie was pretty nice. I’m normally a subs or original language only guy, but I didn’t have any trouble with the way the actors were dubbed. Mario Castañeda has been dubbing Jim Carrey for decades now and he’s still top notch, while Luisito Comunica’s Sonic wasn’t nowhere as annoying as I once feared he could be. I’m still going to watch the movie in English whenever it releases digitally or something.

Last point: would you believe me if I tell you I didn’t want to listen to Speed Me Up until I was there staring at the credits? Because that’s what I did. I didn’t listen to a single Sonic Movie track before going, and while I don’t usually pay too much attention to movies’ OST (I’m way more strict with game OSTs), I thought Speed Me Up was quite nice. Now, don’t expect me to spend my days listening to the OST, but I least I was left a good impression by what I could remember. That 16-bits ending sequence was glorious, too.

So, that was the Sonic Movie to me, an unexpectedly better movie than I thought, and the comeback of the century to be honest. I was one of the people that really feared for it back during the first trailer, so after everything that was done to solve that mess I felt obligated to pay up some tickets (because I invited my best friend to go with me, he’s a true trooper and a big Jim Carrey fan). And so I did, and so I was pleasantly surprised.

Can’t wait for Sonic 2 featuring Tails, which is cool and everything... but when are we getting Amy tho? Maybe a vague enough, Sonic CD-esque plot adaptation? COLLISION CHAOS ON THE BIG SCREEN LIKE GHZ? BIG FUCKING YES if so.

[the-archlich]

What exactly did occur with the English DW9 VA actors anyway? I feel some of them could have actually given a decent performance with better direction along with better and more consistent pronunciation, it still kills me every time, but its probably more complicated than just that.

Maxwell Chase, who voiced Li Dian and Guan Suo, gave a bit of an explanation. As a caveat, this is a testimony from only one person involved in the project. The experiences of others may have differed, though it’s likely everyone has similar stories.

You can read his statements here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/dynastywarriors/comments/800mrr/hi_my_name_is_maxwell_chase_i_voiced_weis_li_dian/

As always, it’s reddit, so don’t read the comments. I skimmed over them and didn’t see anything illuminating or helpful. Because reddit.

I’ve summarized it below, but basically it comes down to the fact that these actors and this studio don’t normally do this kind of work.

He prefaced his comments by saying DW9 was only the second voice project he worked on with his studio and his first time doing a video game. Chase himself doesn’t sound very pleased with the finished project. (“Listening to some of my lines in conversation form in the certainly makes me want to hop back in the studio and record again.”)

As he explains it, his training was mostly in TV and film - not voiceover work. He doesn’t have a lot of range or “characters” he can do like you’d expect from a professional VA (like Steve Blum, who does voices in almost everything). Chase’s previous voice work was dubbing a Portuguese telenovela for VOXX Studios in 2015 - a project that I’m sure I don’t have to explain is very different from dubbing a video game. DW9 was his second project with them.

Chase discusses the difficulties he had with the actual delivery of lines. Namely that the timing was difficult for them to manage. “When recording our lines, we had a very strict time slot of when to start and stop speaking our lines. Basically, we needed to match the length and timing of the original recorded dialogue since KOEI didn’t adjust lip flaps to match different languages. So whatever the original actors dialogue read as (you know, in Chinese), we had to fit our own dialogue into their timing. The result? Stagnated dialogue.”

If you’ve watched any behind the scenes footage from video game or anime dubs, this won’t sound unusual to you. It’s pretty much standard in the industry. You try to get the delivery to match up with the original as well as you can, and usually there’s a little bit of editing to help smooth things over. (That editing is much more common in anime than in video games, though.) The studios and actors that do this sort of thing regularly know how to work within these limitations - how to rescript and deliver dialogue to deliver the same meaning, but fits better. This evidently isn’t something VOXX specializes in. When you’re dubbing live TV, no one expects anything to match up.

Chase also talks about the inconsistencies with the way the names of characters are pronounced. The short explanation is that none of the actors had any material before going into the studio, so they didn’t have the time to do any research. If they didn’t already know how Chinese names were pronounced, they had to just try their best.  Chase also mentions that everyone recorded their lines alone, rather than in a group, so there were a lot of inconsistencies among them. Again, this is standard practice with this sort of work. Chase notes that there were no native Mandarin speakers with them - and that he and his director had a language barrier. English wasn’t her first language, Spanish wasn’t his, and neither of them knew anything about Mandarin.

He also talks about the lack of context for his lines. As he explains it: “For reference I had a still photo of whichever character I was currently reading for, an an Excel spreadsheet of just my lines, then I was told the basic feelings I should be portraying and who I was talking to. Explanations were general like “this guy makes you mad and your father hates him” and they wanted us to push the high fantasy, over the top acting here so I did what I could to sound as natural as possible given the criteria.”

These are all problems that can be blamed on the directors and producers. The VAs did the best they could with what they were given, but they weren’t given much. The directors should have made sure they were pronouncing things correctly - or at least consistently. It was also their job to make sure scenes are coming together properly and that conversations actually feel like conversations.

What all of this boils down to, really, is KT hiring a studio that didn’t know how to do this kind of work. This wasn’t their usual gig and they just didn’t have the training for the work. Instead of going with a studio that normally did this sort of thing (and knew how to do it right) they went in a different direction.

As a final note:

The general speculation was that KT chose an amateur studio because of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Chase says that he was hired in August of 2017; but SAG-AFTRA reached a deal prior to that, in September. And I’m not sure if their strike actually affected any contracts with TecmoKoei; it was only directed against certain companies and I don’t think KT has any affiliation with any of them. So I don’t think the SAG-AFTRA strike had anything to do with it, although those details are beyond the scope of my knowledge. I recommend against speculating.

[solemnveloci]

COCO & BOOK OF LIFE Joint Review

Alright, lemme just get this out of the way.

I know that I’m gonna get some people saying “Hey, don’t compare them! They did a good job conveying two different stories, don’t be spiteful to one over the other!” and that’s a good point. I didn’t even intend on watching them back to back at first.

However, I needed a cleanser after the three straight Open Season movies I’d watched, and it made more sense to me to rewatch TBoL and to… first-watch Coco since they were both about the same holiday. So, worry not. I’ll get it over with quick in the beginning.

Let’s start! (obvious spoilers for both movies)

The Book of Life was practically strangled to death before its time by the multiple years in production until it was finally accepted by ReelFX. The creative minds behind the project were native Mexicans Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Gutierrez, famous for such projects as El Tigre, Carmen Got Expelled, and with resident fish-kisser Guillermo Del Toro working as producer, they could finally bring their idea to fruition.

Then Lee Unkrich went to Mexico on holiday, mentioned sugar skulls to his higher-ups, and Pixar immediately grabbed him by the throat and said, “DUDE MAKE A MOVIE.” DisNepotism at its finest.

Of course, Disney proceeded to screw themselves over so hard they practically ripped their metaphorical cocks off when they tried to trademark DIA LOS MUERTOS so that no icky DreamWorks producer could get their paws on it. The blatancy of this dick movie rightfully pissed off about a million Latino people (Mexican or otherwise) and Disney realized that maybe they had the wrong priorities. In order to assuage the backlash, they threw about six Mexican creators at the script and creative departments and begged them to sew up the Austria-sized fuckup.

Coco now sits as the highest animated film of all time in Mexico. I’d say they helped a lot.

PROS

The Book of Life:

God, the voice acting is amazing. How the hell they got Channing Tatum in this, I’ll never know, but he nails his lines like he’s not even trying. Kate Del Castillo and Diego Luna are my two favorites, though, considering they dual-dubbed La Muerte and Manolo in both English and Latin American Spanish. This line in particular always gets me.

I adore the puppets as a framing device. There’s just something so cool about it, especially with how characters like Xibalba and the Candlemaker interact with them.

Joaquin shouting his own name like a Pokémon every time he does something.

The Mariachi brothers physically roll around sometimes instead of walking.

Both versions of Manolo’s love song are gorgeous and sweet. They’re a welcome addition to the jukebox musical style of the rest.

Placido Domingo as Manolo’s disabled, opera-singing, bullfighter great-grandpa.

*chuckles* “They crushed our dreams!”

Manolo’s mom is so darling, you guys.

“Being bullfighters, we often flirt with death.” “And that’s why there’s so many of you down here.”

Xibalba, the god of evil, pigging out on a giant table of food and causally telling Manolo that’s he’s been completely screwed over.

Something’s oddly funny about the fact that Chakal’s got a giant, untouched drawing of the medal in his Cave O’ Death.

“Hey! My arthritis is gone!”

“Hello… puddle.”

Manolo’s mom bitchslapping Chakal.

The scene where Manolo apologizes to all the bulls his family killed, and the way the bull just clams down and dissolves into marigolds, like its soul was just put to rest.

Luchadore Priest. Hell, just the whole fight scene.

The kiss between Manolo and Maria, not helped by the fact I though he was flipping Chakal off during it instead of raising a finger.

“Men! Typical.” I love that delivery. “WELP, SAW THIS SHIT COMIN’.”

The little goth kid passing out when La Muerte undisguises herself.

Coco:

Again, the voice acting, fucking astounding. Props goes to Gael Garcia Benal, he pulls off his character so well! Disney/Pixar movies have sort of been lackluster with their voice acting (with a few exceptions) but this one was perfect.

*flashback to Ernesto getting flattened under a bell* “I wanna be just like him!”

“Miguel, vitamins are real.” “Well, now I’m thinking they might be!”

Hector’s facial expressions are so good, you guys.

Actually, I want to talk more about this. Not just him, but all the physical comedy with the skeletons. Like, they way they detach their limbs or heads, it’s so animated and weird. Reminds me of old cartoons.

If someone told me they watched this movie for Hector, I’d support them.

“Those aren’t the words!” “There are children present.”

I don’t care if all the acts were meant to be bad on purpose, I thought they were cute.

“Bring back the singing dogs!”

Seriously, the body language is incredible. Gael must have been having the time of his life recording this.

“HAVE YOU MET MY GRANDSON?”

“I hope you die very soon!”

Ernesto’s twist villainy is better than Big Hero Six and Frozen combined, fight me.

In fact, it’s the only way the villainy would have worked. Dammit, Disney! You made it look lazy!

Holy fuck, he just fell over. That’s… jarring.

Art theft is bad, you guys.

*sobbing*

*LOUDER SOBBING*

Awww! She’s dead! Wait, that sounds bad.

CONS

You scrolled down here for the negativity, didn’t you?

Book of Life: This movie gets shorter every time I watch it. Not kidding. Maybe it’s because I’m used to all the plot beats and twists. But… why is it soooo short?! Even like, two more scenes could have helped it along. I NEED MORE.

Coco: The inclusion of Frida Kahlo. This one kinda doesn’t count, but it does annoy me that she was used as just a quirky side-character, which is a huge slap in the face for all that she’d done as an artist and an activist.  The gag at the beginning with Hector wasn’t that bad, but if I could’ve changed it, I’d put the guy who invented Alebrijes in her place, Pedro Linares. You’d only have to do a little bit of tweaking, the Rivera family would dress as a giant Alebrije puppet to get backstage instead, Hector could disguise himself as one to sneak past Ernesto’s guards, and we could have this scene.

Ernesto: Ah, excuse me, sir! The stage is that way.

Hector: *takes off mask*

Ernesto: Hector. You’ve gotten back into performing, I see.

And now, for some rapid-fire nitpicks if that wasn’t enough negativity for you.

Why does the museum have a trick wall? Is it always there, or just there when La Muerte needs it? Is this their day job, or did they shapeshift into actual museum workers? Where’s Joaquin’s Mom? If she’s alive, why is she neglecting a child to live out in the streets? If she’s dead, who the hell raised him before Maria’s dad? Where’s Maria’s mom? Is nobody going to point out that Manolo is the only living member of his family left?!

Why didn’t Imelda just ban people seeking out musical careers and not all music? Are they not allowed to go to church? What do they do for parties? Quincenaras? Did nobody that Hector knew talk about the movie where his own death was ripped off? Did he never even overhear it? If you do something evil, do you only go to the Land of the Remembered if you never get caught?  What if you’re a serial killer who never got caught? Does that mean there’s a hell? DID CHICH GO TO HELL BECAUSE HE WAS FORGOTTEN? WHAT KIND OF FUCKED UP GHOST CAPITALISM DOES THE PIXAR-VERSE AFTERLIFE RUN ON

[eswel]

It's been another 4 years and I thought it was time to add a few other memories to my Digimon history:

I went to another fan event. It had pretty decorations and a few fun games.

I saw Ai Maeda and Takayoshi Tanimoto.

I bought my first v-pet (20th version). All due to the english release. I have a relative in the US that can help me buying stuff. I'd like to buy the DMX or the VB (but that one is a more expensive investment).

Over the years I've had a few interactions with some people that worked in the franchise through social media. It has made me incredibly happy being aknowledged. Volcano Ota is particularly kind, because he goes the extra mile for the fans. If you told me 20 years ago that I'd get the chance to talk with the creators of this anime I liked so much I would've not believe you.

The companies have also been slowly taking the fans' opinion in consideration through surveys, polls and other projects. It's nice to be seen and heard.

I happened to be in the US around the time Kizuna was set to premiere, but the pandemic striked. I couldn't see it in the theater as I had planned and ended up watching it online. More about this later.

During the pandemic the spanish community conducted a massive online event, consisting of interviews with the voice actors of all seasons, which was something unheard of. This helped to tighten ties between the fandom and the actors.

During the last two years a studio has been dubbing (unofficially) the old movies. It's something I always wanted, but I thought that after all these years was impossible. I'm really grateful this miracle happened. I would like they also dub the songs and CD dramas, but we'll see.

It's amazing that since the Adventure reboot we can watch the anime subbed almost instantly through streaming services. Up until Universe it was not that easy.

I noticed I forgot to mention something in my previous posts. When the Xros Wars dub premiered I was so excited, because it was the first time I was going to follow a season on TV since Frontier (10 years!).

It also makes me glad that, as we grow up, our old prejudices are starting to fade away and we've come to appreciate every season. This is why I love that 02 is finally getting the attention it deserves (I always liked it since I was a child). Can't wait for the new movie.

It really surprised me hearing that there was going to be another series right after the reboot ended, because the last time it was Tamers-Frontier. It means that after years and years of ups and downs the franchise is finally stable. And that is a memory I want to treasure, because it made me enormously happy.

And how could I forget about all those times I stayed up all night to see the events being held in Japan lol.

During the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics they put Bolero and I legit ended up crying.

When someone dear for one geographical community pass away, the other communities around the world show their support. I think it's beautiful. I remember when that happened to us, it felt overwhealming.

With the TCG release, finally a product landed in my country officially. I started collecting the cards, because the art is gorgeous. I'd like to play, but sadly I don't know other fans in my city :(

After two years I finally got my wish and I could see the movie on the big screen. And it was even better, because I saw the spanish version. I had waited 6 years for a new dubbed release (since Tri). I was worried that the voices would sound different (because it changes as people get old), but they sounded the same as 20 years ago. It was beautiful.

I’m happy I’m still here 22 years later and hopefully in the coming years I'll have more memories to share.

Digimon Memories

The very first episode I saw was when Kokatorimon attacks the children. I think it was the cruise in the desert plus the cactus with boxing gloves what did the trick for a 8-years-old.

When Adventure aired its last episode I was sad, of course. And then came the preview of 02 and obviously I got excited. Also, I was confused because I thought the blue haired was Jou and he had turned evil.

I could never forget the premiere date of 02 in my country, because I waited for weeks. It was July 1st, 2001.

Keep reading

[sage-nebula]

How come you use dub names for most PokeAni stuff but you use Japanese names for TSME stuff?

There are a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that I address the characters by whichever names I knew them as first. I started watching the PokéAni with the 4Kids dub, way back when I was an eight-year-old child, and so I learned their names as Ash Ketchum, Misty Waterflower, Brock, Jessie, James, Delia, et cetera. Particularly for those characters, I have known them by those names for close to two decades; while I know what their Japanese names are, their English names are way too ingrained in my head. When I see Ash, I think of him as Ash. I don’t think of him as Satoshi. Therefore, I’m going to call him Ash.

By that same token, however, I watched The Strongest Mega Evolution in Japanese. This means that I was introduced to Alan as Alan, to Manon as Manon, et cetera. While you could argue that I should then be calling Sycamore “Platane,” keep in mind that I’ve always been a fan of the games first, anime second. My first introduction to Sycamore was with Y Version, and in the English language games, his name is Sycamore, not Platane. Therefore, while Alan is Alan and Manon is Manon, to me, Sycamore is Sycamore. The games are always going to be how I meet the characters first, and as such, I’m always going to go with the English names for characters who appear in the games as well as the anime, even if I end up watching the anime in Japanese. (This is also why Bonnie and Clemont are Bonnie and Clemont, instead of Eureka and Citron. They appear in the English games as Bonnie and Clemont. Of course, I was introduced to their father Meyer through the fandom first, rather than the games or the anime, so I knew him as Meyer before learning that his name is Limone in the Japanese version … whoops.)

So, the first and biggest reason is that it really depends on how I was first introduced to the character. Whatever name I knew them as first is going to be the name I stick with. And as far as Pokémon in specific is concerned, I don’t think consistency really matters outside of things such as attack names, place names, and pokémon names. While some people insist that, “the Japanese-based regions really are Japan!” the truth is … they’re not. At least, they’re not our Japan any more than Unova is our New York and Kalos is our France, et cetera. The PokéWorld regions are based on those places, absolutely, and I think it is 100% accurate to say, “if we mapped these characters to real world ethnicities, these ones would be Japanese because they are from a region based on Japan.” That is 100% true, they are Japanese in that sense.

However, the PokéWorld is still fundamentally different from our world, and we have evidence even in the Japanese versions of the games that characters who were born and raised in, say, Kanto can have English names (e.g. Gym Leader Erika, whose name is consistent in both Japanese and English versions, or all of the Rocket Executives, who also have English names in both versions). We also have evidence (in the anime especially) that there are cities and towns in, say, Kanto that come across as far more American than Japanese (such as actual literal Hollywood … jfc the OS was a strange time—and yes, Hollywood was specifically in west Kanto in the Japanese version of the anime, that really happened as part of Meowth’s backstory). So since it’s clear that each region has their own culture which is based on real world cultures but is still not precisely the same—and since we have evidence that names are mixed up and tossed around in all the regions, which could lead to headcanons of a common language that goes around the world—I don’t feel that it’s as necessary to be strict about using Japanese or English names. I’m strict with it in regards to YGO because YGO very clearly takes place in Japan in the mid-to-late 1990s, and therefore all of the characters should be using their Japanese names, but with Pokémon? Pokémon takes place in its own universe. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and Alola may all be based on real places, but they’re still very much their own thing, and so they can be treated as such. Name fluidity, a potential common language, and unique cultures and cultural rules are all way more valid there than they are in most other series. I have a lot of fun with it because of this.

So that’s all tied up in the first reason. As for the second reason? Well, that’s simple:

I prefer the Japanese names for Alan, Manon, et cetera.

To begin with, I VEHEMENTLY ABHOR the English dub for anything TSME related. I know what you’re thinking: “Oh my god, you’re just a 4Kids stan, wah wah, you probably still hate Sarah Natochenny, too!” Well, if that’s what you’re thinking, then you’re incorrect. I don’t think all of the voice casts that TPCi has done are horrible, and I actually think Sarah has vastly improved over the years. She’s still my least favorite actress for Ash, but she’s come a long way since she was first hired. I can listen to her acting for him now without cringing. She’s doing a fine job.

No, my issue is specifically what they did with TSME. Music replacements aside (and 4Kids also fucked with music in later years, so they’re not innocent in that either—I’m still mad about what they did with Misty’s departure scene), Alan’s English voice is OFFENSIVELY TERRIBLE. Like, I’m still legitimately angry about this. They cast someone who has no other credits on his iMDB page. They cast a nobody—and a nobody with no skill, at that—to voice my boy. I can’t listen to anything his English voice actor does without wanting to scrape my ears off with rusted, dull ice picks. He’s that bad. I’m honestly going to hold this against TPCi for the rest of my days. On my death bed, TPCi voice casting executives will come visit me, asking if I can forgive them in these, my final moments. And I will look at them. And I will take a rattling breath. And with that last gasp of air in my lungs I will say, “see you in Hell,” and then die, because that’s how long I’m going to hold this grudge for, I’m so angry. Say what you will about 4Kids voices, but at least their actors had skill, even if the voices didn’t always fit. TPCi picked some rando off the street to voice Alan, apparently, and I’m never going to forgive them for it. (Meanwhile, the Spanish dub went all out and got the same voice actor who voices Hiccup in their dubs, and I just??? WHY IS THE ENGLISH VERSION SO AWFUL?! I wouldn’t have wanted Jay Baruchel—he wouldn’t have fit, tbh—but Steven Yeun!! Borrow him from VLD!! He would have been perfect!!! ASdjfkasldfsafdsa)

So I really, absolutely, positively, without a doubt despise the English dub for anything pertaining to Alan. It’s grotesque and unforgivable, and I want nothing to do with it, and that includes using the dub names. Building on that, I simply think the Japanese names are better. “Manon” fits her better than “Mairin,” especially since the way “Mairin” is pronounced bugs me (it looks like it should be “my-rin,” but people pronounce it like “mare-rin,” and I just … no). And as far as “Alain” goes:

The “i” is unnecessary

His name looks ugly af with an “i” in there

Like, I honestly just dislike the way “Alain” looks. It’s aesthetically displeasing, on top of being a reminder of the detestable English dub (honestly, TPCi can meet me in the pit behind the 7-11 for what they did to him, I will fisticuffs every last one of them, no joke).

So tl;dr:

I use whatever names for the characters I learned first;

The PokéWorld is based on, but still fundamentally different from, our world, and so we don’t need to apply real-world language and name origin rules to it;

The names Alan and Manon are a.) better looking, and b.) better fitting than the names Alain and Mairin;

TPCi can go to Hell (directly to Hell) for what they did to Alan, and no, they are not allowed to pass Go, nor are they allowed to collect $200.