#The King of Fighters 2006

[they-have-the-same-va]

Shizuku MacLaine from the Legend of Heroes series shares a Japanese voice actress with Lien Neville from KOF Maximum Impact 1 & 2.

Voiced by Fumiko Inoue

[spectrumbotworks]

[clydemystik301]

I saw an opportunity

I fulfilled it

[devileaterjaek]

[sargeantposting]

A Logan Sargeant Primer: Part I (2000 - 2015)

Logan grows up in a ritzy suburb of Fort Lauderdale called Lighthouse Point with his parents and his older brother, Dalton.

The Sargeants don't have a deep motorsport history. Dalton and Logan get their first go-karts for Christmas in 2006, a gift from their father after their mother refuses to let her children ride dirt bikes anymore. Logan tells the NYT that:

“No one in the family was really even that much into racing. We just picked it up as a hobby, something to do on the weekend.”

The two brothers get more serious as the years go by-- within a few years, they're racing competitively. They both do well. Logan finishes in third place in only his first year of racing, and wins two titles in his second. 

Unfortunately, they figure out fairly quickly that there isn’t much more room to advance in American karting:

My older brother, Dalton, and I had been racing for a few years, and it had gotten to the point where we were asking around about where the next best level of competition was, and everybody was saying the same thing…. It was always Europe, Europe, Europe, Europe. To the point where my parents really started to think about it. At first it was just this idea, like Maybe we’ll move to Europe, who knows. I was just a kid overhearing stuff, so I didn’t know how serious the conversation must have been until this day I’ll never forget.

The conversation gets serious in 2012, when Logan’s dad, Daniel, asks the two if they want to move to Switzerland:

It was summer, and we were out to lunch. It was me, my dad, and Dalton. [...] So we’re at this restaurant, right? Chowing down on burgers (my favorite), and my dad gets to asking us about racing. Finally, he’s like, “What do you guys think? Do you really want to race in Europe? Are you 100% sure about this?” Me being 11 and naive, I was like, “Yeah sure.”  Looking back on it, I think I was lucky I was that young and that I didn’t really know what I was signing up for. All the different ways it could change my life, the level of sacrifice it would require from my whole family. Because if I had known, I don’t know if I would’ve made the same decision so easily. It all happened fast, like in the movies. One minute, it’s Christmas, I’m six, and me and Dalton are yelling at the top of our lungs, excited about the two karts sitting in the driveway, pointed diagonally at each other like in a magazine. Next minute, I’m 11 and Dalton’s 14. We’re sitting at the table eating lunch with my dad, and it’s decided — our family’s moving to Europe.

When Logan tells the same story in GQ in 2023, he says:

I was always just going with the flow. For me it was just: sure.

The Sergeant family leaves for Switzerland just as Logan finishes up fifth grade. While Logan always talks about the family move to Switzerland in the context of his parents making sacrifices for his career, it's a little more complicated than that.

 GQ’s profile steps around the subject, briefly mentioning that “in addition to the racing opportunities, [Logan’s] Dad had business there.” Unfortunately, business would be an understatement. 

At the time, Logan’s dad, Daniel, worked for the family business– an asphalt trading and shipping company named Sergeant Marine. One of the driving forces behind Sergeant Marine’s success would be Daniel’s older brother, Harry. 

When Logan’s detractors mention his family’s connections to Trump, they’re usually referencing Harry. The NYT describes his billionaire uncle as “a former [Top Gun] fighter pilot and onetime finance chair of Florida’s Republican Party who has been sued by the brother-in-law of King Abdullah II of Jordan and whose name turned up, tangentially, in the 2020 impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump. (Harry was not accused of any wrongdoing.)” 

Harry would leave the company around the time Daniel moved his family to Switzerland. According to The Florida Phoenix, “The entire family was embroiled in a long-running bitter series of lawsuits that ended with a 2015 bankruptcy settlement. Harry III walked away with a cool $56-million. In return he gave up any claim to ownership of Sargeant Marine and other family companies. There were 14 different lawsuits in several states in addition to the bankruptcy. The lawsuits produced salacious testimony that could only arise in a vicious dispute between millionaires. Harry III accused his brother Daniel of spending millions on his sons’ pursuits of race car driving and other ventures. Meanwhile, Daniel accused Sargeant III of being a spendthrift on things such as a $7.5-million mansion, private jets and exotic cars.”

Logan with his dad.

It would, somehow, get worse:

Oil and asphalt mogul Harry Sargeant III claims that industrial design plans along with recordings of "private consensual relations" were purloined from his private email account and traded off to a corporate intelligence agent as part of a years-long smear campaign against him spearheaded by his brother. Reigniting a long-running saga of brother-against-brother litigation, Harry Sargeant III claims that hundreds of pages of business records, personal discussions and "extremely sensitive videos and photographs" were illegally obtained from his email account. The material was used as currency for information-bartering between his brother Daniel Sargeant and a corporate intelligence chief at the nonparty legal service firm Burford, the lawsuit alleges. Harry is demanding damages for alleged invasion of privacy on the part of Daniel. The brothers had in years past worked together on managing the Sargeant family's global oil and asphalt empire, before intra-family disputes began to tear them apart. [...] The lawsuit claims the Burford investigator, a former corporate attorney, knows Harry well. According to the court documents, the investigator for years worked as an enforcement agent on a $28 million judgment secured against Harry by the king of Jordan's brother-in-law Mohammad Al-Saleh, who accused Harry of cutting him out of a deal to distribute oil to troops in the Iraq War. [...] Harry claims brother Daniel gave the corporate intelligence agent the treasure trove of Harry's emails  in exchange for inside information that would help the Sargeant family's asphalt company Latin American Investments in a separate multimillion-dollar legal dispute. Harry's underlying email account ran on a server of the family company Sargeant Marine. When he was ousted from the Sargeant empire, Harry had been told that the account was cut off at the root and all information in it had been destroyed, the lawsuit says. The lifted emails were instead provided to an "untold number of people" inside and outside of the family businesses in 2016, the lawsuit claims.

The information that Daniel traded his brother’s sex tape for would end up being useless. Daniel is currently out a $5 million bond and awaiting sentencing for the foreign bribery and money laundering charges he pled guilty to back in 2019. After bribing officials in three South American countries to secure asphalt contracts, the Department of Justice ended up making an example of the company– and Daniel– for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

While Logan cites his career as a big reason for the family move, it appears that Sargeant Marine had conveniently made shell companies in Switzerland to aid in their illegal business dealings that same year.

Logan, blissfully unaware of any drama, tries to make the most of the big move. They move to Lugano, Switzerland– Dalton and Logan go to the American School on weekdays and race on the weekends in the European junior circuit, bouncing them between Italy, Switzerland and Britain. In GQ, Logan says:

“I definitely felt like school was a lot more challenging than in Florida,” he recalled. “And we were missing a lot of school, for sure, but that’s part of it with racing. It is what it is.”

Logan loves Switzerland. In his Players’ Tribune article, he says:

We moved into a three-bedroom apartment. It was me, my parents, Dalton, and our dog Roxy, the world traveler. Big difference from Florida. We had a whole new life. I loved Switzerland. I had a lot of good friends at my school there. I can’t explain it, but I just felt more a part of things. Me and my friends were big Chelsea fans, and we’d be hanging out, playing soccer all the time. We played Call of Duty like every other kid in the world.

However… Logan is the only one. Daniel is out doing shady asphalt deals around the world and suing his brother. Dalton moves back to Florida after a year-and-a-half. Their mother follows soon after that. Logan ends up living alone at the school: 

Dalton was my older brother, so for as far back as I can remember, I was chasing him. Man, we fought all the time. Every race, we were up against all these other kids, but he was always the one I was really trying to beat. But the thing is, when you’re a kid you miss things. You just can’t see everything so clearly. Like, for instance, being a bit older than me, I think he felt the shift more strongly when we moved, but I didn’t know it. He stayed in Switzerland for a year and a half, did some European karting, and started testing Formula cars. Then one day he just decided he wanted to go home and race in America. I won’t lie, that was a shock at the time. But I get it more now. Making that big life change was hard on my mom, too. Just think, you’re living in this brand new place, don’t have many friends. Me and Dalton were at school all day. My dad was traveling all over the place with work, so he was hardly there. The reality is, she was on her own a lot. So she ended up going back to Florida, too. For about a year and a half after that, it was just me. I was living at the school during that time.

When talking about how his mom moved back to Florida while Logan was living alone in Europe as a teenager, he told the Players’ Tribune that:

Looking back on everything, I just see all the sacrifices they made, and it means so much. No matter what they were going through, my family always pushed me to keep going. I feel like that was probably the hardest for my mom, especially. She means the world to me. She’s a bit of a worrier too, and overthinks. I think I get that from her. She’s always been the person I could go to when I was doubting myself. So I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for her to encourage me to keep going, when I know she probably wanted our family to be together. I’m really grateful, not only that they believed in me that much, to move our entire family, but that they took my passion for driving seriously enough not to let me give it all up.

While Logan’s personal life may be troubled, his karting career is doing exceptionally well. In 2014, he wins the prestigious SuperNats18 in Vegas:

Infinity Sports Management, Facebook - SARGEANT DOMINATES IN LAS VEGAS. Logan Sargeant produced a stunning display last weekend in the TAG Junior category at the Supernationals race in Las Vegas. After finishing runner up in the race in 2013 Logan was eager to go one better this year and bring home the winners trophy. Although Logan got pipped in qualifying he still managed to win every heat ensuring he would start from pole position for the final on Sunday. From there he kept the lead and came home 5.6 seconds clear of the second driver. With this win in TAG Junior Logan become the first driver ever to win the TAG Cadet and TAG Junior categories at the Supernationals race.

2015 manages to be even more exceptional. Logan starts the season by being the first North American driver to win a WSK event by winning the WSK Champions Cup in La Conca, Italy.

Logan with his mother after winning the WSK Champions Cup.

The season reaches its peak with Logan becomes the first American to win an FIA Karting World Championship, the top junior series, since Lake Speed in 1978.

He gets to go to the FIA Awards:

Logan: And I couldn’t thank my mechanic enough. And also my parents, uh, they really helped me to be able to win the world championship and it’s just an amazing feeling. Interviewer: I mean, did you, did you, what did you do when you found out you won? Did you call your friends at home? Did you phone your grandpa? What did you get up to? Logan: Uh, no, I just gave my mom and dad a really big hug. Interviewer: Is it still sinking in now? Logan: Yeah, it’s, it’s a really emotional thing. [...] Interviewer: Tell me about when you were a little bit younger than you are now. You’re only 14 now. But why racing, why, why is this so important to you? Logan: Um, well, my dad bought me a, a racing kart when I was five years old and we started from there. We thought it would just be like a little hobby and, uh, it ended up becoming like a professional thing we did. So. Interviewer: So, so was there a moment when you, when you or your dad just thought ‘Wow, I’m quick. I can do this’? Logan: Um, well, not really. We just kept progressing and then, um, when we, when we decided to come to Europe to race, um, we moved to Switzerland and from then on we were just, uh, going to school, I started going to school in Switzerland. And, yeah, and then we just kept going and then ended up like this. Interviewer: Do you have any other hobbies? Can you fit anything else in? Logan: Um, well, other than school it’s really hard. But when I get my breaks and I go back to Florida for, um, I like to go fishing a lot and, yeah, that’s what I do. Mostly. 

When interviewed after his win, Logan tells kart360 that:

Moving away from home is a very hard thing in your own personal life. You lose all of your best friends. You don’t have your "home" and you have to adapt to a different culture. It is hard to move to a country that speaks a different language than what you know, but racing is so important to me that I stuck through it and kept on going.

Logan clearly struggles on a personal level. He discusses his feelings in his Players’ Tribune article, saying: 

Coming up racing as a kid isn’t easy. That’s the most honest way I can put it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said to myself, I’m done. I’m ready to come home. I’m glad I didn’t, but there were plenty of times when I wanted to. I remember one big time was the summer right after Dalton went back. We took this trip to the Bahamas with some of our extended family and friends. We were on the water, and everything was feeling like old times. And I think I just had this pit in the bottom of my stomach, like dreading going back. There was a night when I went to my mom, and I was like, “I’m just ready to come home.” I remember her asking me more questions about what I was feeling. I don’t even remember what I said, to be honest. I just remember that she didn’t tell me what to do. She left it completely up to me. My dad used to always say, “If you put in the work now, it’ll pay off eventually — it’ll be worth it.” And he kind of reminded me of that on that trip too. It’ll be worth it. Those four little words … that’s what kept me going. After that I sucked it up, went back to Switzerland, put my head down, and I went for it."

When Logan makes the jump to single seaters the next year, his parents rent him an apartment to live in by himself in London. The only time he’ll spend more than a few weeks in the US since he was a 12-year old would be during COVID.

But Logan’s time in single seaters will be for the next installment.

Logan through the years.

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 56: The Writer's Barely-Disguised Fetish (part 1)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon!

…sigh. Buckle in, kids. This one is going to be a bumpy ride.

Episode 56: The Writer's Barely-Disguised Fetish (part 1)

I mean, where do I even start with this one? Over its 23 year long run, there were sooooo many different fetishes that popped up in the comic at one time or another. I’d even go as far as to say that if you have a particular favourite fetish that it probably showed up in ArchieSonic at some point.

Are you into magical girls?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Are you into furry love triangles?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Are you into feet pics?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

But maybe you’re more into cannibalism.

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

How about tickle torture?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

What about leather and whips?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Or maybe asphyxiation and/or drowning?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

How about vore?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Whatever the f*** this was?!

ArchieSonic’s (clap) got (clap) you (clap) covered (clap) fam.

But hey, no kink shaming here. I’m all for encouraging the kind of things you sick, twisted readers are into. 😀 But what about the writers themselves? What kind of weird stuff are they into? Well… look, I’m not going to say that Ken Penders has a fetish for tickle torture, but I will point out that he wrote that Tails scene I showed you earlier, and also drew this... “political statement.”

I’m just going to let you come to your own conclusions with that information. 

There is other stuff we could look at as well though. I’m not sure whether or not the rest of this stuff technically counts as “fetishes”, but considering the number of times it got written into the comic, I don’t think we can completely rule it out. For this section I’d like to concentrate on the three writers who contributed to ArchieSonic the most: Ken Penders, Karl Bollers, and Ian Flynn.

Ken Penders is first up, and there’s a lot to explore here during his time on the comic from 1994 - 2006. First of all, he had a habit of introducing zillions of new characters (usually echidnas). But as was pointed out by former ArchieSonic writer and colourist and current awesome person Aleah Baker, that topic might be a little too broad. So let’s break that down into several smaller categories. The first one is “Introducing secret family members that no one knew about and/or were supposed to be dead.” There were so many instances of this!

Sonic’s long-lost parents!

Sally’s long-lost brother and mother!

Antoine’s father!

Knuckles’ father!

Knuckles’ mother!

The League of Extroadinarily Racist Grandpas!

This is in stark contrast to both post-reboot ArchieSonic and the current IDWSonic run, where very few of the cast have family members making appearances.

Another one Penders loved to pull out was introducing unnecessary new characters who were there for the single purpose of replacing already established characters, usually those that were introduced in the games or SatAM. ‘Wait, who did Penders want to replace?’ you may be asking. Quite a few people, actually. For starters, he wanted to get rid of Princess Sally. Do you remember this infamous moment from the Endgame saga?

Sally eventually recovered from that fall, but Penders’ original intention was the death fake-out to be for realsies. Ken wanted Sally gone, as he felt that having King Acorn back gave us a character that served the same purpose as leader of the Freedom Fighters, and that Sally, in Ken’s own words, “cramped Sonic’s style.” Fortunately SEGA intervened and demanded that Sally live, partially because they were using her for marketing SEGAWorld Sydney. I got to visit that place as a kid, fun times. 

It wasn’t long after this that Ken pulled Sally’s long-lost brother Prince Elias out of his hat, whom I can only assume was also designed to serve a similar purpose to Sally.

Is that not bad enough? Well then how about the time when Ken killed off Dr. Robotnik and planned to replace him with this guy?

Meet Dr. Ian Droid (ugh, I hate the pun), a guy who basically boils down to “Dr. Robotnik but cooler because he was made by me, Ken Penders.” Who is this guy? What are his motivations? Buggered if I know. He was supposed to be the villain of Ken Penders’ original series, The Lost Ones (which only ever had a single issue released), and Knuckles: 20 Years Later (which was scrapped and replaced with the Mobius: 25 Years Later storyline).

Dr. Droid was implied to be a time-traveller who had fought Sonic and Knuckles in the past… or future… or whatever! We didn’t really find out anything else about this guy in the single issue he showed up in - a crossover with Image Comics. We should all be grateful that this bland knock-off never showed up again.

Lastly, whether or not he intended this, Ken Penders largely replaced the Chaotix. With whom? Why more echidnas, of course! The Chaotix may be an independent team nowadays, but back when they were first introduced ArchieSonic established that these guys were Knuckles' crew. I’ve talked about this before, but as the Knuckles series progressed the Chaotix tended to make fewer appearances, often becoming background characters whose page time was eaten up by Julie-Su, Constable Remington, and the League of Extroadinarily Racist Grandpas. Even in a three-issue arc called “The Chaotix Caper,” the Chaotix spent a large chunk of it hospitalised while Julie-Su and Remington investigated the case they had been working on.

Penders even used this arc to write Charmy out of the story for the next few years aside from a few brief cameo appearances.

Were there any other “fetishes,” Penders constantly wrote about? Well yes, and it’s a big one: daddy issues. There was King Max of course, a jerk mostly known for making typical boomer calls such as demanding Sally agree to an arranged marriage with Antoine or lose her right to the crown, or calling for all the robots who used to be Robotnik’s mindless slaves to be disassembled.

Obviously, Sally’s relationship with him was rather strained. But it was Knuckles’ father Locke, introduced and mostly written by Penders, that was quite possibly the most controversial character in the entire series. On the one hand, he was something of a guardian angel (pardon the pun) to Knuckles, watching out for him from afar and secretly helping him in his most desperate times. But wow, did he ever go about it the wrong way. Locke took Knuckles away from his mother at a young age to train him to be the next guardian of the Floating Island, and when that training was complete Knuckles had to watch his father yeet himself into a wall of fire, leaving him completely alone.

Obviously Locke didn’t actually kill himself but instead took up residency in a secret base called Haven where he could spy on his son all day long. But Knuckles didn’t know that and was left alone to suffer. When Knuckles finally reunited with him and wanted to know everything he’d been kept in the dark about up to this point, Locke was surprisingly forthcoming and finally came clean with the big secret.

Before Knuckles was born Locke had a vision of him in battle against forces he couldn’t comprehend, so Locke decided the only way to ensure his future son’s survival was to pump himself full of steroids before impregnating his wife and then blasting Knuckles’ egg with radiation from a Chaos Emerald. You all know the meme:

Penders was famously upset by other writers’ interpretations of Locke, especially when Ian Flynn became head writer of the comic and killed Locke off.

Penders had already previously written Locke’s death to take place during the future events of the Mobius 25 Years Later arc - and dedicated the story to his own late father - but despite his insistence otherwise, this was not considered to be the canonical future of the series but rather and "elseworlds" or "what if?" story.

It’s quite possible that this incident was the reason Penders decided to copyright all of “his” characters and start writing The Lara-Su Chronicles. But no matter what Ian wrote for Locke, nothing can be as bad as what Penders himself wrote for him:

Ick. I’m sorry, I thought I got all the gross stuff out of the way at the start of the post.

Tumblr has a limit to the number of images you can put in a single post, so I’m going to have to save Mr Bollers’ and Mr Flynn’s fetishes for next time. I’ll try to have that one out for you tomorrow. 🙂

[g4zdtechtv]

by フ゛ッチャーU@butcha_u

[dangan-kagura]

Opinion About Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Having an English Dub. Will People Use It?

So the newest, upcoming fighting game installment by SNK is gonna bring back the Fatal Fury series, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. And get this, the game is gonna have an English dub!

Exciting?

Well, I say “Exciting?” because I’m not even sure if people are gonna play the game with English voice acting, they might instead play the game in Japanese. The likeliest reason why anyone would want to do this is probably because they’ll think the Japanese dub has better voice acting. This would concern me a little bit, because if I watch people’s videos of the game on YouTube, a majority might prefer to play the game in Japanese and not English.

Now before I explain why this would concern me, what I want to talk about first are the past fighting games SNK made 20 years ago. I’m of course talking about KOF: Maximum Impact. It was a spinoff game that brought The King of Fighters to the 3D fighting game genre, and get this, it has an English dub.

Or rather, a really bad English dub, as in, either no one knows who the voice actors are, what other work they’ve done, or they’re not professional voice actors who have dubbed anime by Funimation. It was the mid 2000s, and at the time, not every Japanese video game series got to cast professional voice actors in the dubbing business. This playlist should suffice as evidence if you want to check out some character playthroughs of the game.

I will say that while there is some positive reception with Maximum Impact (like in the 7/10 range) the game’s bad English dub is probably the reason why no one would want to play it. If I remember right, in IGN’s review of the game, they described the English dub as “piss poor”. And worst of all, the PlayStation 2 version of the game doesn’t have the option to switch between English and Japanese dubs, although the Xbox version has this issue resolved. So if you went to a store that sells used video games and wanted to try out Maximum Impact (if they have a copy) I’d recommend playing the Xbox version if you don’t want to deal with its bad English dub.

SNK even ended up making a sequel, KOF: Maximum Impact 2, although the localized version is titled as The King of Fighters 2006, which is weird since 2006 was when The King of Fighters XI came out on console. SNK even made a third game, KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation A, which was released in Japan only. My guess is that because the first two games had bad English dubs, SNK probably figured that Regulation A wouldn’t sell good outside Japan.

But it doesn’t end there, well, maybe for Maximum Impact. In 2009, SNK released The King of Fighters XII, and I’m sure not many people know this, but the game does have an English dub!

But there is a problem. While the voice acting in KOF XII is better than Maximum Impact, the game doesn’t credit which voice actor voices which. The game now remains as probably one of the most underrated installments in the series, seeing as how the game can be seen as sort of a beta version of what The King of Fighters XIII would be like. I’m not sure if there was a majority of gamers playing the game in Japanese, but from my experience, I chose to play the game in Japanese out of concern that the game’s English dub would be just a lame as Maximum Impact.

The King of Fighters XII ended up being the last game in the series to try out an English dub. When The King of Fighters XIII came out in 2011, that game didn’t bring back the English voice actors from KOF XII, whoever they were. Interestingly enough, it’s one of two KOF games (the other being KOF XIV) where Atlus got localization rights (I think) and even though they’ve made English dubs for some of their own games (e.g. Persona) I’m guessing Atlus chose not to give KOF XIII & XIV English dubs. Or it could’ve been SNK’s decision, thinking back to the bad English dubs the Maximum Impact games had, they probably couldn’t afford to hire professional dubbing voice actors.

For this new Fatal Fury game, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, it does look like this is SNK’s first try to cast professional dubbing voice actors. Unfortunately for me, I don’t know who they are, and I’m too lazy to even look them up. I mean, my generation of dubbing voice actors might be different, so I doubt this game is gonna cast any voice actors I’m familiar with. For all I know, my favorite voice actors are probably retired at this point.

But now I want to talk about why it concerns me that a majority might prefer the Japanese dub over the English dub.

It’s silly I know, but I’m actually worried that people would think the game doesn’t have an English dub if a majority play the game in Japanese. Then again, with all the English trailers, I’m sure people will know the game has an English dub, but I’m worried that people won’t actually care for the English dub, no matter how famous the voice actors are (if they’re famous).

And it’s more than just thinking back to the bad English dubs the Maximum Impact games had, if anyone today remembers those games. I remember 9 years ago when Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- came out. A lot of people were playing that game in Japanese despite the game having an English dub with professional anime voice actors. Back when I used to be a Guilty Gear fan, I did play this game in Japanese, thinking that maybe Aksys Games didn’t have the funds to hire professional voice actors like with SNK. But it’s only until a few months back I got to learn a little more about Aksys Games, namely the fact that they originally localized the Zero Escape series by Spike Chunsoft, and that series has the same kind of voice actors from Spike Chunsoft’s more familiar series, Danganronpa, and they’re the same kind of voice actors used in the Guilty Gear Xrd games.

I ended up learning a year after Xrd -SIGN- came out that the game has, well, I’ll try not to say it multiple times. I found out for example that Tara Platt ended up voicing both Millia Rage and I-No in the game, which surprised me since, at the time, I knew her as the original English voice actress for Vert in the Neptunia series (before being replaced by Carrie Keranen) and in that series, there were plenty of familiar voice actors to me and lots of people were playing that series in English. Vert is my favorite Neptunia girl, and back when I was a fan of Guilty Gear, Millia was my favorite, so I guess it was like… destiny or fate? Or maybe just a big coincidence? Despite this, it did bother me a little to see a majority play Guilty Gear in Japanese and not English.

But Guilty Gear aside, I’m not sure if other Japanese fighting games like Street Fighter and Blazblue are like this too, where there’s a majority of gamers playing them in Japanese despite these games having, again, professional dubbing/anime voice actors. When I did try out Street Fighter IV and the first Blazblue game, I chose to play them in Japanese. But I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of either of these games, I thought Guilty Gear was cooler looking than Blazblue, and Street Fighter IV felt like a piece of shit game (but that’s a different story for a different time). I will say that I do see a lot of people play Soul Calibur in English (myself included) but I’m not so sure about those other games.

As an aside, in the 90s, there were anime movies based on the Fatal Fury series, and they got to have English dubs made by Viz Media (the same people who made the English dubs for Bleach and Inuyasha) and they do have some pretty good voice actors. For example, I remember reading that they casted David Kaye to voice Kim Kaphwan (surprisingly, I know him as the voice of Clank in the Ratchet & Clank series). If Kim does return for this new Fatal Fury game, I highly doubt SNK is gonna recast David Kaye to voice him.

I mean, I can’t say for certain if the Fatal Fury anime films were any good, I’m not one for anime reviews, and this is a 90s anime we’re talking about. There’s also an OVA based on Art of Fighting, but it wasn’t that good despite having an English dub too.

I’ll admit that there are some games where I’ve chosen to play them in Japanese despite the opposite, where a majority might prefer to play them in English.

For example, I play Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and even Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in Japanese, but a majority seem to prefer to play them in English. It’s not that I think the English dubs are bad, though I admit that I’m not big on Princess Zelda having a British accent or Matt Mercer voicing both Rauru and Ganondorf (I think Jamieson Price would’ve been a great casting choice for Ganondorf) but they’re one of those games where the lip sync during cutscenes is based on the Japanese dub. That, and I only know a few of the voice actors, more specifically, I only know that Kate Higgins voiced Purah, and Cherami Leigh voiced Riju. Another example is Dynasty Warriors 9, I play that game in Japanese since the English dub didn’t recast the original voice actors from the other games and the English dub is, well, just as bad as Maximum Impact I guess.

So with the upcoming Fatal Fury game, how are people gonna play the game voice acting wise? Will they actually try out the English dub to see if their favorite characters are voiced by their favorite voice actors, or will they stick with the Japanese dub thinking that the English dub might have some lame voice lines or bad translations like with Maximum Impact. In my case, I’m curious to try out the English dub. It’s the first time in 15 years since SNK gave one of their games an English dub, and it looks like this game is gonna have some very professional voice actors. I highly doubt I’ll recognize any of them, but I’ll still play the game in English to see if I’ll like it.

I hope I made some sense with this blog, and I apologize for how long it is if you made it this far.

[itsfantasticac]

Mai fanart submitted to Arcadia magazine in 2006, coinciding with her absence from The King of Fighters XI.

[they-have-the-same-va]

In Japanese, Kula Diamond and Lilly Kane in KOF Maximum Impact 2 (aka The King of Fighters 2006) both share a voice actress.

Voiced by Yumi Kakazu

[g4zdtechtv]

When in doubt use your tush!

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 7.4

Holidays

Alice in Wonderland Day

Apocalypse Day

Army Day (Guatemala)

Baal Fire Day (Northumberland, UK)

Buffalo Bill Day

Bullion’s Day

Caribbean Community Day

Commemoration Day of the Victims of the Genocide Against the Jewish People (Latvia)

Damavand Național Day (Iran)

Day of Agwe (Haiti)

Dree Festival begins (Apatani people, India) [Ends 7.7]

F-Day (Alaska)

Fighter’s Day (Yugoslavia)

Filipino-American Friendship Day (Philippines)

Forensic Expert Day (Ukraine)

Garibaldi Day (Italy)

Helicopter Flight Anniversary Day

Hillbilly Day

Independents’ Day (UK)

International Whippet Day

Invisible Day

Jewish Genocide Memorial Day (Latvia)

Joey Chestnut Day

Jumping on the Mattress Night

King Tupou VI Day (Tonga)

Koko the Gorilla Day

Kwibohora (Liberation Day; Rwanda)

Liberation Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day

National Architect Day (Venezuela)

National Karl Day

National Micah Day

National Police Day (Ukraine)

National Safe House Day

National Sophie Day

National Tom Sawyer Day

Queen Sonja Day (Norway)

Republic Day (Philippines)

704 Day

Steve Rogers Day

Stone Skipping Tournament (Mackinac Island, Michigan)

Tobacco Day (French Republic)

Tom Sawyer Fence-Painting Day (Hannibal, Missouri)

Unity Day (Zambia)

Virgin Islands Day (British Virgin Islands)

White Cloud’s Birthday and Tatanka Bison Festival (North Dakota)

World Day for Captive Dolphins

World Day of the eBook

World Sarcopenia Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Build a Pasta Sculpture Day

Caesar Salad Day

Honor American Beer & Cyder Day

Independence from Meat Day

Independent Beer Day

Jackfruit Day

National Baked Beans Day

National Barbecue Day

National Barbecued Spareribs Day

National Caesar Salad Day

National Pub Opening Day

Sidewalk Egg Frying Day

Independence & Related Days

Abkhazia (from Georgia; 1993)

Caricom Day (Barbados; 1973)

Hawaii Statehood Day (#50; 1960) [observed 3rd Friday]

Lanao del Norte (Philippines)

Lunar Independence Day (from “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”)

North Carolina (Readmitted to the Union; 1868)

Orly (Declared; 2010) [unrecognized]

Philippines (from US; 1946)

Providence Day (Rhode Island; 1636)

United States (from UK; 1776) a.k.a. …

Barbecue Day

Boom Box Parade (Willimantic, Connecticut)

Firecracker Day

Holy Firecracker Day (in John Updike's Couples)

Independence From Meat Day

Independent Beer Day

Indivisible Day (Minnesota)

National Country Music Day

Valnor (Declared; 2006) [unrecognized]

1st Thursday in July

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

Ommegang Pageant ends (Belgium) [1st Thursday]

Thirsty Thursday [1st Thursday]

Throwback Thursday [Every Thursday]

Weekly Holidays beginning July 4 (1st Week of July)

Freedom Week (thru 7.10)

Festivals Beginning July 4, 2024

Anime Expo (Los Angeles, California) [thru 7.7]

Anthrocon (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) [thru 7.7]

Berrien Springs Pickle Festival (Berrien Springs, Michigan)

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bucheon, South Korea) [thru 7.14]

Buxton International Festival (Buxton, United Kingdom) [thru 7.21]

Eurockéennes de Belfort (Belfort, France) [thru 7.7]

Fan Expo Denver (Denver, Colorado) [thru 7.7]

Fishin' Fiesta (Freeport, Texas) [thru 4.6]

Lexington County Peach Festival (Gilbert, South Carolina)

Main Square Festival (Arras, France) [thru 7.7]

Mountain State Art & Craft Fair (Ripley, West Virginia) [thru 7.7]

Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog-Eating Contest (Coney Island, New York)

Northern Lights Festival Boréal (Greater Sudbury, Canada) [thru 7.7]

Old Fashioned Farmer Days (Van Wert, Ohio) [thru 7.6]

Ottawa Bluesfest (Ottawa, Canada) [thru 7.14]

Portland Craft Beer Festival (Portland, Oregon) [thru 7.6]

Quebec City Summer Festival (Quebec City, Canada) [thru 7.14]

Red, White, and Blueberries BBQ Bash (Lahaska, Pennsylvania) [thru 7.7]

Rock Werchter (Werchter, Belgium) [thru 7.7]

Sand Mountain Potato Festival (Henegar, Alabama)

Shoals Catfish Festival (Shoals, Indiana) [thru 7.7]

Tech Open Air (Berlin, Germany) [thru 7.7]

Tremolo (Tolyatti, Russia) [thru 7.7]

Waterfront Blues Festival (Portland, Oregon) [thru 7.7]

Feast Days

Admiral Abigail Breeze (Muppetism)

Andrew of Crete (Christian; Saint)

Bertha of Artois (Christian; Saint)

Bolcan (Christian; Saint)

Build a Pasta Subculture Day (Pastafarian)

Build a Scarecrow Day (Pastafarian)

Carolus-Duran (Artology)

Catherine Jarrige (Christian; Blessed)

Day of Pax (Ancient Roman)

Elizabeth Montgomery Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Elizabeth of Aragon (or of Portugal; Christian; Saint)

Feast of Translation (Ordination of St. Martin; Christian)

Finbar (Christian; Saint)

Flavian (Christian; Saint)

Jumping on the Mattress Night (Shamanism)

Mescalero Apache Gahan Ceremonial (Spirit of the Mountain; Everyday Wicca)

Nathaniel Hawthorne (Writerism)

Nellie Mae Rowe (Artology)

Odo of Canterbury (Christian; Saint)

Old Midsummer’s Eve (England)

Peter the Hermit (Positivist; Saint)

Pier Giorgio Frassati (Christian; Blessed)

Procopius, Abbot of Prague (Christian; Confessor)

Rube Goldberg (Artology)

Sam Eagle (Muppetism)

Sisoes (a.k.a. Sisoy), Anchoret in Egypt (Christian; Saint)

Solstitium IV (Pagan)

Sun Dance (Paying homage to the god who dwells within the fire of the sun; Ute Indian Tribe; Utah)

Tomaž Šalamun (Writerism)

Ulrich of Augsburg (Christian; Confessor)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [38 of 71]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Premieres

About Last Night (Film; 1986)

Alice in Wonderland (Novel; 1862)

America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee), by Lowell Mason and Samuel Francis Smith (Song; 1831 or 32)

American Top 40, by Casey Kasem (Radio Show; 1970)

Bats in the Belfry (MGM Cartoon; 1942)

Bedtime Bedlam (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1955)

Big Trouble in Little China (Film; 1986)

Cats & Dogs (Film; 2001)

Die Hard 2 (Film; 1990)

Doomsday for the Deceiver, by Flotsam and Jetsam (Album; 1986)

Droopy Leprechaun (MGM Cartoon; 1958)

Farnham's Freehold, by Robert A. Heinlein (Novel; 1964)

Fernwood 2 Night (TV Series; 1977)

Foo Fighters, by the Foo Fighters (Album; 1995)

Gonzo (Film; 2008)

The Great Mouse Detective (Animated Disney Film; 1986)

The Green Berets (Film; 1968)

Greenfields, by The Brothers Four (Song; 1959)

The Great Escape (Film; 1963)

Hail to the Chief, performed by the U.S. Marine Band (Song; 1828)

Jungle Jumble (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1932)

Kylie, by Kylie Minogue (Album; 1988)

Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman (Poem; 1855)

Mamma Mia! (Film; 2008)

Mexicali Shmoes (WB LT Cartoon; 1959)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Film; 1969)

Poor Little Butterfly (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1938)

The Schooner the Better (Phantasies Cartoon; 1946)

Summer in the City, by The Lovin’ Spoonful (Song; 1966)

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (Novel; 1891)

Tony Orlando & Dawn (TV Series; 1974)

U.S. Declaration of Independence ratified (Political Document; 1776)

Walk This Way by Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith (Song; 1986)

Washington Monument (Cornerstone Laid; 1848)

The Werewolf of Paris, by Guy Endore (Novel; 1933)

Today’s Name Days

Berta, Elisabeth, Ulrich (Austria)

Berta, Elizabeta, Elza, Laura (Croatia)

Prokop (Czech Republic)

Ulricus (Denmark)

Virgo, Virmo, Virvo (Estonia)

Ulla, Ulpu (Finland)

Florent (France)

Berta, Else, Elisabeth, Ulrich (Germany)

Loukia (Greece)

Ulrik (Hungary)

Antonino, Cristina, Elisabetta (Italy)

Sandis, Uldis, Ulriks (Latvia)

Gedgailė, Malvina, Skalvis, Teodoras (Lithuania)

Ulla, Ulrik (Norway)

Ageusz, Alfred, Aurelian, Elżbieta, Innocenta, Innocenty, Józef, Julian, Malwin, Malwina, Odo, Teodor, Wielisław (Poland)

Andrei (România)

Prokop (Slovakia)

Berta, Isabel (Spain)

Ulla, Ulrika (Sweden)

Bohdanna (Ukraine)

America, Calvert, Calverta, Calvin, Calvina, Kalvin (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 186 of 2024; 180 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 27 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Duir (Oak) [Day 26 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Geng-Wu), Day 29 (ji-Si)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 28 Sivan 5784

Islamic: 27 Dhu al-Hijjah 1445

J Cal: 6 Red; Sixday [6 of 30]

Julian: 21 June 2024

Moon: 2%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 17 Charlemagne (7th Month) [Peter the Hermit]

Runic Half Month: Feoh (Wealth) [Day 11 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 15 of 94)

Week: 1st Week of July

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 14 of 31)

[mugenfinder]

How it feels to drink iced water first thing in the morning

[wolfvirago]

v; we’ve long believed that the hero would appear as a divine beast (zelda au)

It is an age of upheaval. Rival clans have begun to form within Hyrule, splitting the once united kingdom into separate territories, each ruled by fierce shogun-like fighters. The strange period had been formed thanks to the strange occurrence...

The Hero of Legend was not born. For the first time in ages, the Princess of Hyrule has little power, their rule puppeted by a demonic Shogun who bares resemblance to the old prophesized King of Evil.

Deep within a territory unclaimed by the ruling clans of Hyrule, a forest brimming with spirits protects a young girl named Robin. A strange mark appears upon her hand one day, followed by the sudden voice of the gods...

"Restore peace and unity to Hyrule... Bless it with your light, as the SUN must do."

In this timeline, Link was never born. Zelda is a princess in the court of Hyrule, with very little power. She remains but a priestess inside the court, searching for visions to try and unite the warring factions of the kingdom together again. All at the same time, strange demons and yokai have begun terrorizing the country.

Robin is the protagonist of this story. Her brother is taken away by demons, which leads to her chasing after him and slaying the demonic forces puppeted by that universe's Ganondorf, who resembles an old samurai warlord.

Fighting as both wolf and swordsman, Robin goes around Hyrule purifying nature and the hearts of those swallowed by the dark hatred the Demon Lord has spread.

This iteration of the story was inspired greatly by shows such as Shōgun (2024), games like Ōkami (2006) and movies like The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) and Princess Mononoke (1997).

[littleeyesofpallas]

pulling a random paper sleeve from the trash bag they've been sleeping in, my first salvage of the day is... The original 1984, "Glass Mask"/GLASS no Kamen, adapting the classic 1970s manga of the same name, by Suzue Miuchi. (And right behind it two DVDs of the 2005 remake)

The original manga started running in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume/"Flowers & Dreams" shoujo magazine(and later its, now defunct, supplementary magazine, Bessatsu Hana to Yume) in 1976 --The magazine itself started in 1974-- and ran until 2012 (with a little gap between 2006 and 2008) when it was put on its now indefinite hiatus. With over 50million copies sold across 49 volumes, it is one of the best selling shoujo manga of all time. Especially impressive considering Hakesensha is a bit of a runt of the litter in terms of big manga publishers; they're not exactly "small" but they don't stack up anything close to the big hitters like Shueisha, Kodansha, of Shogakukan.

The 1984 anime was by Studio Eiken, whom are kind of all but forgotten these days. They really peaked between the 80s and 90s, but were responsible for a handful of real foundational classics. They did Tetsujin-28 and 8-Man, which were of course the basis for early American anime imports Gigantor --one of the early giant robot series-- and Tobor The 8th Man --which would go on to influence the creation of Robocop, and get a shout out in Big O.(the electric eel episode is an almost shot for shot remake of an 8-Man episode.)

The director of the original TV series was Gizaburo Sugii who is himself a real monolith of the early anime industry. He was an animator on White Snake Legend/Hakuja-den(Panda and the Magic Serpent in English) an early anime film adapting the Chinese Lady Whitesnake myth, often cited as part of what inspired Hayao Miyazaki to become an animator. Gizaburo, like Osamu Tezuka, for whom he worked, was himself inspired by the Japanese theatrical release of Disney's Bambi. He was also an animation director on the original Tetsuwan Atom/The Mighty Atom (aka Astroboy in English). He's been a key figure behind a bunch of classics, often sports series, and in Mushi Production's Animerama film trilogy, as well as a few iterations of Lupin III and Street Fighter, but perhaps his most uniquely enduring work was as the creator behind Night on The Galactic Railroad, adapting the 1934 Kenji Miyazawa novel.

The 2005 series had a different kind of big name behind it: Mamoru Hamatsu. He may not have been a godfather to the art or the industry, but he was no slouch as far as pop culture hits go. He's the director behind the original Dirty Pair and Urusei Yatsura, Yoroiden Samurai Troopers aka Ronin Warriors, all of which had substantial success in English release, and some big but slightly B-list giant robot series like Giant Gorg and King of Braves GAO GAI GAR.

[paglinawan]

Economic Implications of the Israel and Palestine

Another conflict has broken out between israel and palestine at 6:30 a.m. on the morning of 7th october, while most of the israel is were sleeping soundly in their homes suddenly, the air raid sirens began blaring.Thousands of rockets were fired at israeli cities.The estimate of israel is that 2,200 rockets we're fired at israel. Thousands of people were killed and injured in israel because of these attacks. Hundred died and jose age this surprise attack is the biggest in the last few decades,Exactly 50 years ago and october 1973 egypt and syria had lunched as similar surprise attack on israel.After that a war broke out known as the yom kippur war. From the ground see in their the boundary wall on the israel Gaza order was broken down by a bulldozer. Israel military said at 10:00 am(07:00 GMT) the Palestine fighters penetrated at least three military installations around the frontier. An israeli tank was captured.The israeli soldier were captured and held hostage by the hamas group. Many innocent civilians have been killed here, many are being held as hostages and israel has declared a state of war and response.

•CONFLICT -The only Jewish country in the world is Israel, which only gained official recognition in 1948. However, a lot of individuals link Israel to the current war with Palestine. a bloody conflict over territory, power, and resources. We need to go back a few thousand years to understand why. Strong theological and cultural ties between Jews and Muslims to the area date back nearly 4,000 years to Abraham, who is regarded as the founder of two religions. In accordance with the Old Testament, God instructed Abraham and his people to dwell in a location roughly equivalent to modern-day Israel, known as Canaan.-The Israelite monarchy was created by King Saul in the year 1,000 BCE. It was maintained by King David and his son Solomon, who also built the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish people's claim to the country of Israel included this historical inheritance. Various peoples, including the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Egyptians, and other nations that dubbed the region Palestine, would continue to conquer and dominate the land. It would eventually be the location of numerous places revered by Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike. Jews were compelled to depart the area throughout these transitions, which led to a dispora, or dispersion of people from their homeland.

•WHAT IS GAZA?The Gaza Strip, which some people have referred to as "the world's largest open-air prison," is a small area of land situated between Egypt and Israel. One of the densestly populated areas on earth, the 140 square mile enclave is home to more over 2 million Palestinians.

•WHAT IS HAMAS AND WHO THEY ARE?Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a political and military Sunni Islamist group in charge of the Palestinian territories' Gaza Strip. Its headquarters are in Gaza City, but it also has a presence in the West Bank, which is under the leadership of its secular foe Fatah. Aiming to "free Palestinian prisoners, stop Israeli aggression on al-Aqsa Mosque, and break the siege on Gaza," according to Hamas, a militant organization that has ruled the densely populated Gaza Strip since 2006.

•WHO HAS THE LEADER OF HAMAS?In 1962, Haniyeh was born in the Gaza Strip's Al-Shati refugee camp. In 1987, after completing his undergraduate studies at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he had joined Hamas, he received his degree in Arabic literature. He rose through the ranks of Hamas after being selected to lead an office in 1997.

•PALESTINE It is thought that a large portion of the local Palestinian people in the Nablus region is derived from Samaritans who embraced Islam. It is unclear if Islamization of Palestine occurred before or after the Crusader era.ISRAEL Israel is the first Jewish state to exist in more than 2,000 years. After the long period of exile that followed the fall of the Herodian monarchy in the first century ce, it stands for the Jews' return to their ancestral home. It continues to be the principal destination for significant Jewish immigration.

•WHO ARE THE SUPPORTER OF ISRAEL? American support for Israel is strong and growing as a result of the recent attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, which has sparked an open conflict in the Middle East.