#also i think there's so much more nuance in the chinese dub so that's why im having issues picking between all three LOL

[revasserium]

I have to ask since I found you because of LnD who’s your fave? Are you loyal to one or are you like me and flirt either way all them ?

im so fucking un-loyal in this game LEMME TELL YOU okay in the beginning i was so sure i was an xavier girlie, but.... raf came swinging out of left field and now my relationship level is like 34 for them boTH meanwhile zayne is at 31 so like... all of them? ? ?? ? ? gods help me LOL

[xunzilla]

Having resolved to investigate the dubs vs. subs question, the DYEWSPH2TER SOCIETY watches the new Dungeon Meshi.

IZUTSUMI (DUB): The name of your race is pretty strange. I heard it came from your kind getting one of their legs chopped off for committing too much thievery!

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: She would not say that.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Why not?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: "Committing too much thievery"? She's a slave bought from a freak show and she speaks fluent Ciasslcal English?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Is the language of the island diglossic?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: They're ruled by the elves. But let's not get into translatology. (A horrid, ill-formed word: two parts Latin, one part Greek.) The manga renders Senshi's dialogue in an atrocious fantasy accent, but it makes clear a nuance of the original: he's a weird foreigner who lives alone in a cave and his only friends are orcs.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Does Izutsumi's country have a different language?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Izutsumi's country is fantasy Japan. Look at their names. "Shuro" is a mispronunciation of a name Laios is unfamiliar with.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: The dwarves' names also fit Japanese phonology. Senshi, Namari...

DICTIONARY: 鉛 なま̅り̅ nàmárí, lead (chemical element). Perhaps related to Goguryeo 乃勿 *namur; cf. Korean nap, OC (Zhengzhang) ra:b.

TYPESETTER: U+0305 COMBINING OVERLINE should render above the characters ま and り, but on some systems may display as spacing characters following them. We apologize for our inability to reliably display simple linguistic text without platform-dependent markup in 2024. 😔👎💩

ENCYCLOPEDIA: Vowel length in Zhengzhang Shangfang's reconstruction of Old Chinese represents Type A syllables.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Izganda?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Is that an official name? The scan thought Laios and Falin Touden were Laius and Farlyn Thorden.

ENCYCLOPEDIA: Lajos is a Hungarian masculine given name, cognate to English Louis. People named Lajos include Lajos Kossuth, who in 1849 presented the Hungarian Declaration of Independence. A bust of Lajos Kossuth was added to the Small House Rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in 1987.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: 1987?

ENCYCLOPEDIA: "A Gift to the People of the United States from the American Hungarian Federation"

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Did you think he was more important? At any rate, he was a nobleman.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: It sounds Greek to me.

HANPHECIUS HUMBUG: Hungarians don't have saunas.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Didn't you think he was Faroese? It's a fantasy west.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Why would Japan care about Hungarian names? But this is a stupid diversion. Where were we?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Dubs vs. subs.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Of course! A critical matter. A noble pursuit. In this fallen world, in which the noblest by nature are forced to toil in drudgery while petty-minded merchants build generational fortunes that their mediocre heirs piss away, many are unfortunately unable to read Japanese. So we debate dubs vs. subs.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: I grew up on 4Kids. I can't stand the English VA voice. The Japanese one is bearable.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Thank you for your valuable contribution.

VRISKA: why do you all have the same voice

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: We live in a bourgeois republic.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Let's grant that Izutsumi's country speaks a different language. "Committing too much thievery" is a clumsy phrase. "Thievery" sounds silly compared to "theft". And it's a vague Latinate verb that lets the noun carry the meaning - very indirect! We don't live in the kingdom of nouns.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Why couldn't Asebi, Toshiro's retainer, have been taught to speak like that? Toshiro went to the island for training. But would they pay real islanders to teach them the nuances of the language?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: She was bought at the age of six; even if the circus had the same language as the island, that's well within at least the tallman critical period.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: She would've been taught out of dictionaries, which don't say anything about connotation.

VRISKA: okay not to be rude but can i say something about some of the papers i've read

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: I didn't pay that much attention to "thievery". It's simpler, more regular. For all I know "theft" might be too hard a word to put in a mass-market translation. "Committing too much theft" would still sound too classical. It seems like the wrong intent.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Why couldn't a slave learn the acrolect?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: How broad-minded. Would your escaped slave also write her own sermons?

VRISKA: oh my god shut up

VRISKA: what does the sub say

IZUTSUMI (SUB): That odd name for your race. I heard it's because lots of you got a foot lopped off for stealing.

VRISKA: the manga?

IZUTSUMI (MANGA): I hear that the reason your race got that name is because a bunch of halflings got punished for theft by having one of their feet cut off! Guess they had to deal with having half as many, huh?

VRISKA: yea the dub is bad

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: It could be a deliberate choice. I personally think that "thievery" is awkward, but it's a possibility to keep in mind. We'll see if what follows bears it out.

VRISKA: marcille sounds like a college republican horse girl

VRISKA: #notwrong

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

I found your account I love your readings! Quick question, what language do you play in? I think different voice acting give the characters different vibes. I play Japanese, but I heard the English is really good and funny too.

ahh thank you so much!! i'm glad that you like them! <333

Ohh interesting!! i play the game with the English dub? I've heard clips of the original Chinese and also the Japanese dub and they both sound really good to me! i play in English, but then i watch certain scenes in Chinese and Japanese so I can get the intonations of how the other languages characterise certain characters - specifically Alhaitham and Kaveh! i think that the English dub can be a little,,, off sometimes? So it makes sense why characterisation can differ greatly depending on what language someone plays in. For example, I've seen that in Chinese, Kaveh apparently seems more cheerful or whimsical? or at least he fronts that way! Alhaitham in Chinese apparently is a lot more straightforward, whilst in English this can be interpreted as more snarky perhaps? Although, personally I really like the English voice acting, I can see why others don't!

on the other hand, i don't like how the translation text for whatever language the game is dubbed in is the same :( especially when the dub changes specific nuances or detail that the english misses - for example, alhaitham saying that kaveh is 'overly sensitive' in seemingly a negative manner in the EN when the actual nuance is that perhaps kaveh cares a bit too much for other people at his own expense? no matter what dub you pick, the english translation text remains the same so you have to look online for alternative translations

i'm excited to hear what the new dubs, Japanese and English alike, have in store for us in cyno's story quest 2!!! <3333

[jelloia]

omfg I just listened to the English voice acting for the cheek pinching part and it’s so… different ??? like in en, stelle has a more joking air about her when she’s explaining why she’s suspicious while in comparison, although cn stelle is generally kind of a quieter-deadpan-chaotic character, she sounds genuinely sad and regretful in that part

as for yanqing… all I’m gna say is that if I played in en, I would not like him as much as I do 😭 he sounds more offended and lowkey bratty in response to stelle pinching his cheek while cn yanqing responds softer, first with shocked embarrassment then with an innocent sadness

I’m realizing how bad i am at describing va comparisons so search up some playthroughs if ur curious ahjdk but it’s interesting to see how different languages and direction can lead to a completely different take on a scene! for example, i wrote my original post through the lens of the cn voice acting, and i feel like if i had solely experienced the english voice acting, I totally would have described yanqing as “annoyed” instead of “sad”

(tbh i think the english dub is often a bit too stylistic my ears and creates a less nuanced image of the characters while the chinese dub sounds more natural and complex and lowk has more emotions but ofc, this also definitely has to do with how i’m bilingual and is why I’m not commenting on jp/kr ahhsh but this is just my personal preference)

but yea anyways pls listen to cn yanqing if u like yanqing he sounds like the puppy eyes emoji !! (and i also rly like the va—venti’s voice is one of my favs in genshin <3)

// hsr trailblaze quest spoilers

WAIT STOP I JUST WANTED TO PINCH YANQING’S CHEEK I WASNT EXPECTING SAD DIALOGUE AND THE TRAILBLAZER TO TALK-

^^ aww yanqing’s sad expression… but poor express crew rly must be traumatized huh… first tingyun then mischa…

but yanqing’s line when you click the second option is so cute! the fact that it’s jing yuan worrying about his height and not yanqing himself im melting

anyways our boy is so cool I missed him so much

[tratserenoyreve]

im pretty partial on the dub i chose on the rest of my gameplay (jp) and its obvious since xiao's VA is already skilled enough to know the tone that fits him. though its interesting each dub interprets xiao in quite a variety of his characteristic; as most of them maintains his reserved outlook, jp has that spark of sass and confidence when he feels like it (it really has his struggle noises nail you in the head), cn takes the reserved more gently and accurate to his nature (a lot more tired and timid to vulnerability, casual), kr is a lot different but not far from eng, but it fits his maturity and he sounds older (he sorta has a playful tint, too).

what saddens me is not really the performance, but the subtle yet irritating inconsistency and potential hyv did on their characters' interactions and dynamic thats lost to translation. the eng subtitles may give you the basic context of something, but dialog-wise its much more than that (perhaps even more different on other subs), since jp cn kr has lots of meanings behind their writing. xiao addresses zhongli indirectly as rex lapis too in jp, and the latter had expressed concern as if he has been convincing xiao instead of stating the chasm's danger. ("do you really have to go?". theres lots of those coming from too. klee calling albedo as her brother instead of the typical Mr, same from ayaka to ayato, etc. its obviously not something easy for hyv to change and keep it all streamlined overall, but the chances were truly left unseen.

the dubs do definitely change the tone of characters yeah, and i've also been picking up on how much the lack of nuance the english dub has for honorifics changes how character interactions feel! all of the voice actors do good work, just some were given different direction than others and can't do much about localization choices.

zhongli for example has a decent amount of lines that are actually adages, old proverbs that add to his "wise elder passing on stories to the next generation" image. but in english, because we don't have the same cultural context or puns, a lot of that doesn't translate and it instead comes across as him rambling about boats. like, he is rambling, but there's more to it than what english dubs get.

another notable instance of translators having trouble with conveying layered dialogue that i can think of is during venti's story quest, where diluc and kaeya are having a discussion outside of angel's share. in english, we still get the overall idea that the two brothers are still having a disconnect but some of the details on how kaeya talks to diluc is lost. the english dub has them more directly confrontational whereas, if i understand correctly, the original chinese has kaeya using more double-meaning with his phrasing to express how he feels abandoned and diluc is being unintentionally blunt. which is why he's surprised with kaeya actually being so upset when diluc poked at him about drinking alone so often.

and yeah!! the klee thing is one that is so?? ashfhjdg i've seen a number of people be surprised to learn that klee and albedo are adopted siblings, because in english i believe one of the only instances (outside of events) of that being clear is on albedo's profile after you've boosted friendship with him and he calls klee his little sister. something that requires having albedo, which many people don't!

xiao's interactions definitely feel way different with context on what honorifics he is using in other translations. with how tight the update schedule has been and how the development team is being shuffled around between projects, i don't think the translators really have the time they need to cover those details.

[ouyangzizhensdad]

hey if you're still curious here's a compilation of cql tea from bilibili. There's pics of the original ending script where wangxian part ways so wwx can look for his beloved wen qing. And google translate isnt very reliable but it seems that the voice that called out to wwx really was NOT lwj. Also schedules of the reshoots are there and as well as the list of the stuff they had to cut and you're gonna be happy about this but there really was supposed to be a wwx/wq/jc love triangle but they chose to retain her romantic subplot with jc. There's also the og cloud recesses script leak with dozens of wen qing scenes including her fighting over the rabbits with wwx. Yeah anyway if you know someone who can translate for you do try. Hope this link works https://www.bilibili.com/read/mobile/3489356

Hi anon,

Okay that post has pretty interesting stuff, although I don’t like some of the tone and framing of Meng Ziyi (after all she’s just an actress playing a role and then probably was just told how to best spin the situation by PR people, even if that meant her lying. In a way if she’d be sold the role as the ML I do feel sorry for her). Also, as much as it would be the end result, these changes would not have been made to “upset” danmei/novel fans, but... you know, more the result of the team trying to figure out ways to pass censorship when there are no clear sense of where the line will be drawn. No need to make this into a victimisation narrative. But tone aside, let’s move on to the content of the post!

The allegation that an earlier version of the script included LWJ rescuing WQ and injuring elders in the process is..... very interesting wrt how the punishment LWJ ends up receiving in the final version of CQL seems very disproportionate to the harm he actually did to anyone? Once again, things like these can be doctored so we cannot just accept them as indisputable proof, but it is..... interesting when we think about the final product we did get..... and how it makes a lot more sense with that added scene.

I especially love the point about episode 13: “the 13th episode of Xuanwu Cave was remade, and Wei Wuxian was changed back to save MianMian in the play, but the dubbing and mouth shape were not right” (translation by by google translate lmao). If you go check, it’s true. Like it is so distinctive the way lips move around a name like MianMian and yet--! Nicely caught.

It was also fascinating to think about the point they make wrt MianMian’s scene at Jinlintai. It’s something I’ve mentioned in my MianMian meta, that the confrontation is diminished by a lot and that we thereby lose a lot of nuance wrt her character and themes explored through her. Notably, I noted that “ [In CQL there is] no dismissal of her based on the fact that she is a woman, or suggestions that she is standing up for the YLLZ only because she is enamoured with him”. But I never stopped to consider if that was the consequence of them having, in the past, changed the Xuanwu cave scene to have WQ in MianMian’s place. And if they didn’t change that scene in Jinlintai after changing the scene in the Xuanwu cave, it makes even more sense why they would excise this from what was in the novel. 

And the breakdown of the added WQ-WWX moments that were still kept in the final versions do only make sense as additions if there were a romantic storyline intended. I mean, I’ve mentioned it before, but the very casting of Meng Ziyi as WQ, to me, is proof enough. You can only think she’s a good choice for WQ if you’ve decided to turn WQ into a love interest. 

Overall, in terms of evidence, it is certainly convincing that CQL as its own work of fiction would make more sense and would be more cohesive with the scenes that are alleged to have been planned/originally shot.

Honestly, though, sometimes I do wonder if it would not have been best if CQL had kept the ambiguous/romantic relationship between WQ and WWX, just because I’d bet my entire life savings that the show would have never reached the international audience it ended up getting. No more uppity CQL-only fans praising the production team for ‘’’’’’’’’’Gay Rights’’’’’’’’. It’s like, the Chinese novel fans got what they wanted.... but..... at what cost.......

But yeah, jokes aside, CQL-fans should probably remember this one line from the post: 《陈情令》能有今天如此出众的成绩，书粉功不可没。

[dropintomanga]

Being Both Chinese and Otaku

I’m sure many of you may know this, but I’m a 1st generation Chinese-American. My first exposure to anime was back in the early 1990s’ through Cantonese-dubbed episodes of Dragon Ball Z. It’s been quite a ride since then. However, because I’m 1st-generation Chinese-American, my parents are both 1950s’-born immigrants from Guangzhou, China. They knew people and relatives that went through a period of time in China (the 2nd Sino-Japanese War) when the Japanese invaded the country. Even decades later, tensions between China and Japan still exist and Chinese otaku are caught in the middle of this.

I caught this 2019 Foreign Policy article “Super Patriotic Anime Youth Wars!” on one of my feed readers recently. It talked about how the Chinese government is worried about the influence of Japanese pop culture on many Chinese youth. They believe that foreign media in general will cause dissension. China has gone on to start their anime/manga stuff in order to gain some kind of control over Chinese otaku youth. Bilibili, a Chinese anime streaming service that has gotten a lot of attention over the past few years, was formed to help promote the Chinese government’s views.

I began to think about my own otaku journey and how someone else similar to me living in America feels.

Years ago, I wrote an article for an anime site about being a Chinese otaku. I forgot what I entirely wrote (link is now dead), but I remember I talked about a story that my mother once told me. It was about one of my aunts who literally ran away from Japanese soldiers during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. My mom said that when my aunt was a young child in the early 1940s’, she carried one of her friends and searching for a hiding place with their caretaker while Japanese soldiers were looking to capture them. The soldiers yelled all kinds of profanities similar to how some anime characters say them. My aunt is still around, but has never talked about those experiences to me and I have never once talked to her about my love of Japanese pop culture.

Back in the mid-2000s’ when the anime boom was happening, my dad once said to me that he thinks anime may corrupt Chinese youth and that we wouldn’t understand the horrible things they did to China. After reading that Foreign Policy article on China/Japan tensions affecting otaku, I see that a good amount of Chinese folks, who grew up in China pre-1990, have utter dislike over otaku culture. The 2D world is full of imaginative ideas that aren’t easily controlled. What’s funny is that my parents didn’t mind me getting involved with all things Japanese. They knew it was what kept my mind occupied from depression. They knew I would probably hate them for taking Japanese pop culture away from me.

It’s hard enough being an otaku. But it’s harder when you’re an otaku and also have to deal with cultural tensions between two countries (one of which represents your nationality) that don’t like each other very much. I know China is a lot more receptive towards anime and manga compared to the United States, but the government will try to censor/ban anything with messages that sound overly rebellious against authority figures (i.e. Attack on Titan is the biggest example). It’s also very hard to businesses to ignore China because of its super-large population and the money potential.

I see a lot of Chinese youth in my area watching anime and reading manga on the train. I see them hanging around in places like Kinokuniya. That’s not going to change. I do feel that we all have our mental blind spots. I want the older Chinese generations to understand that some aspects of modern Japanese culture aren’t guilty of association for past war crimes and I want my generation and future Chinese generations to realize that Japan isn’t always some kind of great 2D holy land. It’s so easy to get caught up in the passions of whatever it is you love or hate. Follow your heart and gut is not always good advice when it comes to nuanced situations that involve complicated relationships. That thinking becomes a bit too biased for its own good.

As someone who’s been told “It’s all in the past. Get over it.”, I kind of relate to the pain that the older Chinese adults feel when they get ignored. They can’t keep up with how fast the present and future can go. My parents went through a lot to get to America. We can’t ignore the past. There’s too many untold stories that need to be told for a better future. Plus there has to be better acceptance of how random the future is. We may have a future where Japanese pop culture isn’t popular in China anymore due to politics. We may not as well. Trying to place so much control on things you can’t control leaves someone prone to endless frustration. I would love an emphasis on focusing on what someone can do now in the present moment.

I think sometimes we’re not taught to have these kinds of conversations because they make us feel emotionally vulnerable. And that’s terrifying to a lot of people. We want to look strong because that’s how we’re supposed to get through life and its obstacles according to the powers in place.

However, I do worry about China (and quite frankly, Japan as well) that focus on manipulating otaku fandom. I know that Japan’s history is awful and their tendency to not apologize for past war crimes is unnerving. I feel that otaku are being portrayed as a “dumb” kind of geekdom that only cares about getting what they want. That makes us prone to outside manipulation by people (i.e. governments) who say they care, but they don’t. That makes us no different from someone who loves to shop for brand-name clothes/shoes/etc. It’s natural to be recognized by a greater majority of people though as we have been picked on for so long. Maybe we’re getting external validation from the wrong types of people out of some desperation.

As a Chinese-American today, I don’t like China very much even though I do enjoy and respect some aspects of their culture. I’ve been there a couple of times, but I don’t feel compelled to go back compared to Hong Kong. I also can’t imagine myself living in Japan despite my fascination with the culture. I’m not sure if the country’s the right place for me as someone living with mental illness. I do see that there’s a good number of Chinese fans that have managed to find their own truths on how to handle cultural tension.

In any case, don’t let significant and mainstream in-group interference on all sides cloud all of your decision-making. Sometimes, the best kind of advice to get is from someone who doesn’t know you personally or is a part of your inner circle, but can relate to your situation and feelings. We will always have doubts and they deserve some validation. 

I think the beautiful thing about otaku fandom being more widespread due to the internet is that it allows us to connect with diverse strangers of all kinds that are genuinely good to be around. For so long, we’re taught to avoid strangers growing up because they are either suspicious or not worth talking to. However, it’s those same strangers that can lead us to new paths and friendships outside of bubbles that can stagnate us. Those paths can help us make sense of our own past and current situations as well or at least come to terms with them.

I can tell you that a lot of Japanese series I followed have helped me go back  to analyze and confront troubling aspects about my life in a way that matters. Maybe that’s why I manage to deal with many tensions including the Chinese/otaku dynamic instead of being just a passive consumer like most fans. I partake in a kind of “personal nostalgia” that’s more about your own growth and willingness to take on the bad stuff compared to collective nostalgia, which leads to hardcore nationalism/tribalism. I want you all to do the same when possible.

Life is strange to begin with. Maybe just embracing that notion will allow us to appreciate the diversity of all that surrounds it.

Shout-outs to anyone who is a Chinese otaku and managing cultural tensions in their own way. It’s hard work and as long as you’re not intentionally hurting people, you’re doing alright.

[realvicoba]

At first I was a dub hater, especially after having rewatched the jp so many times that I've practically memorized the dialogue. But then I watched the dub with my friend, and honestly?

I LOVED it sm.

Another line change I love is Killua's "Son of a bitch." at Pouf. And the detail of their voices slowly becoming deeper over the course of the show felt more obvious with the dub imo which I loved— it just kept getting better.

I remember going on for a couple hours on call with my friend about the nuance in the Japanese with Gon and Killua's argument, and how some of it was lost in translation— but honestly, that doesn't mean the dubs bad. It was great, and I loved it so much that I don't even know what language my next rewatch will be.

But going onto why I wanted to add onto this blog— the other dubs! Me and my friend went down a rabbit hole of trying to find all the dubs and translations we could get our hands on online and here's what we found:

The 2011 anime

Honestly finding the different dubs for this version are so tough. Had to visit so many different sites and visit social media pages and find the specific studios that licensed some of them. A lot of the sites were unsafe too or just didn't work in some countries and regions, so be real careful if you wanna find them! I was sharing my screen and just going Yolo and trusting my adblockers and my sheer fucking will at that point. But without further ado, let's go! (if you want the sites for any of the dubs lmk, I'll share them!)

Both the Arabic and Indian dubs have their own version of the opening, and honestly? they're BANGERS.

Pitou has wonderful casting and voice acting in literally every dub. My favorites are the Spanish and Arabic ones after the jp and eng.

Spanish Gon sounds cute in a I-want-to-punch him way. Honestly one of my favorites!

A lot of the dubs gave Killua a much softer voice!

There apparently is a Chinese dub, that I found out from this blog:

I went to bilibili to find it, but that's how I found the Indian dub instead.

It also has a Kurdish dub, and from my research there are two versions. The better version is locked behind a paywall, so I'll definitely get back to post about that when I manage to get and watch it ☺️

In the Arabic dub, Gon is a lot more calm while confronting Pitou, and a lot more strict and cold.

Bisky has a great voice in all dubs!

Spanish and Arabic Killuas have a genuinely soothing voice like bro I could sleep to those

There's a Russian dub too? But I couldn't find it.

The 1999 anime

It is MUCH easier to find full dubs of this version on YouTube, so go and find them!

Honestly, the Korean dub of this version was so genuinely good that it outshines the original jp at times

On the other end of the spectrum, the Kurdish dub made me want to stab myself

Arabic dub Gon is so polite and well spoken, and Melody(senritsu) is also a man in this dub...? I think they got a little confused there. They also use a cover of the first ending for the opening, and it literally sounds so good.

The specific Studio that animated 1999 hxh also animated a lot of classics that went on to be aired on middle eastern television too, so this dub specifically is very nostalgic for adults in the region.

I think we also found Cantonese and tagalog dubs for this ver!

Illumi either sounded very young or very fucking old in these.

Hisoka was a creep in all of those, but most toned down his weirdness 😭

That's all I remember at the top of my head! Honestly exploring the dubs was sooo fun, I definitely recommend them!

If you have any of the dubs or ones I haven't talked about, lmk! I wanna see 👁️👁️

ngl, i’m tired of pretending that i hate the hxh dub lmao. 💀

like, sure, it’s not “perfect” or wtv, but i honestly rly like it. 🤷

imo it’s not rly anywhere near as bad as ppl like to say it is (esp since most ppl are constantly hating on all dubs regardless, so their opinions don’t rly matter anyway 🤷), and some of the translations are actually very enjoyable. 😭

just some examples i rly rly liked off the top of my head (and yes, these are all from ep. 147… sue me):

“well, the truth is… after you told me you were gonna defeat pitou alone, not to mention that it was ‘none of my business’, i got… pretty depreeeeeeeessed.” killua teasing gon (i love petty killua & i loved the delivery. 😭 he can be such a little dickhead sometimes lmao. alluka’s “big brother!” and killua’s little evil chuckle were also so cute, i love them lol.)

“why are you just telling me that NOW⁉️⁉️” gon to killua after killua finally told him that alluka’s power (nanika) is who healed him (i just absolutely loved the delivery here, he sounded so genuinely annoyed & exasperated lmao 😭).

“it’s sort of a… complicated family thing, ya know?” killua to gon after gon’s reaction (i just absolutely love this line. 😭 it manages to be an absolute understatement while being completely accurate at the same time LMAO).

“she was locked in our house for a real long time… for the crime of being too awesome.” killua to gon abt alluka/nanika (i personally love this translation choice sm… not only was it comical, but it honestly felt like it encapsulated killua’s character & his opinion of his sisters very well.)

“wait just a minute, i don’t need you planing play dates! isn’t she great?” (one of the cutest things killua has ever said. he sounds so genuine when he says it 😭)

i also honestly think that alluka/nanika has such a cute voice, i love it sm. i honestly might like it more than their sub voice.

[melissafoxmedia]

Gender roles, witches, demons and Hereditary. A film essay and review.

An opinionated and biased essay ahead, perfectly imperfect. This writer is aware of said bias's and welcomes your ideas respectuflly. Proceed. 

Halfway through his movie, I turned to my husband and said, “I think we might need therapy when this is all over.” I’d like to start with a caveat that we are a household that loves horror movies. In my opinion, horror is an under-appreciated genre. I'm not talking about franchise horror films, of which we are not a fan, with the exception of Insidious. I'm talking, The Shining, Blair Witch Project, Suspiria, Mommy, Let The Right One In, Babbadook. Classic horror tales and the like. Greek tragedies, even Shakespear. I have a lot to say about this one. So fair warning, this essay is long. 

A QUICK BACKGROUND

I grew up reading Steven King, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelly, Edgar Allen Poe, Anne Rice and Mark Danielewski. I would argue that even my favorite fantasy and science fiction writers like Tolkien and George R.R. Martin borrow from the horror genre. 

What solidified my interest in horror was actually a class in Chinese and Japanese cinema and art history. I enjoyed studying the nuances of the culture through the stories they told. Most of which were ghost stories. Ancestral worship is part of their culture. When visiting someones home, you might find a shrine to their passed loved ones. Ghosts are a normal, everyday part of their spiritual life. So too are their ghost stories. 

This connection to the dead is apparent in many cultures. The Celtic festival of Samhain, The Buddhist Obon, Dia De Los Muertos, Chuseok in Korea and Gai Jatra in Nepal. All have ceremonies and celebrations that honor ancestral spirits. Essentially, the ghosts of your family. I joke that even the Bible is one long ghost story. Full of death, rebirth, angels, demons, spirits, voices and apocalyptic visions. But where eastern religions and ancient cultures differ is around the premise of fear. Specifically spirits.

Take, for instance, the Buddhist Obon and Del Dia De Los Muertos. Celebrations designed to honor the people who came before you. Essentially, one envokes the spirits of your ancestors come back to visit the living. One would light lanterns or lay a path of flowers to guide those spirits back to earth for the celebration. You are literally inviting ghosts to come and have dinner with you. These rituals are not fear based spiritual practices. You will find no children running away in horror from the ghosts of great granddad. They are beautiful rituals full of dancing, prayer, and community.  

I grew up going to Church for a large part of my life, so my religious experiences of adolescence are based on my experiences with the Chrisitan church. Here notes my personal bias. I have no such memories of honoring my ancestors in a such a way from the Church. In fact, anything involving something seance-like would have been viewed as the devil. The dead are mourned in quiet reverence but one must be careful in creating any false idols. The only ghost that is ok to envoke, is the holy ghost. It's still very old testement thinking when it comes to this one. 

I have a vivid memory of sitting on a picnic bench at Jesus camp, 13 years old, sobbing uncontrollably. I just listened to a fiery sermon about hell and I was truly conflicted. I was already "saved," having said the prayer and done the ritual at 8 years old. But my father was not. He was an atheist. I didn't want him to go to hell. I was terrified and felt guilty. My counselor at the time kept pressing me to call him. She wanted me to "get him saved," right now. 

As an adult, I see how flawed that moment was. I did not call my father that night. I couldn't understand how my Christian peers thought less of me for doing so. I thought for sure that God would understand my compassion. My father and I had already discussed his feelings. He always respected my right to choose a religion, and I liked that, so I respected his. But that is not how I was treated by members of the Church. Needless to say, my relationship with the Church ended shortly thereafter and became an agnostic in my adult life. 

I could give many instances of examples of why I feel that Christianity is a fear based religion, but I am not defending that point for this essay. Let's assume that it is. 

I think it's interesting that our writer for Hereditary uses Goetia as it's religious influence. Goetia, an ancient Greek word that literally means sorcerer, get's its roots from the 16th century. Later, during the Renaissance, it became dubbed "black magic." The backdrop for the ending of the film and it's 17th-century Greek influence, we will explore later. But culturally, I think it's worth looking at this film through an American lens, of which, most of the population is Christian, making the comparisons I make relevant. Hereditary is an American film, written by an American writer. So I don't think he is trying to say anything specific about religion, other than to use it as a horror construct. This writer is obviously aware of his audience and is using that within his film. 

We like horror films about evil, possession and ghosts almost as much as we like superhero movies. That classic good versus evil fight. We love it when the lines are drawn in the sand and the tension is clear. We don't get that kind of clarity in life. In fact, life is made up of many unknowns and gray areas. Those two, a cause of our fear and anxiety. 

Hereditary doesn't put this idea front and center. Which is why I love it. The supernatural takes a back seat up until the second act. It dives headfirst into the gray areas to establish our characters and keeps us in the deepend with our worst fears. 

ABOUT HEREDITARY - NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Hereditary is brilliantly written and performed. If I were awarding Oscars, I would give one to the writer and one to the lead actress. The writing and specifically her performance is award worthy. It is visually stunning and draws from some of the best ancient storytelling techniques of the ages. Its greek tragedy influence is what makes the whole story so strong. The best moments are the long takes, the timing of the edit, the absence of music and truly breathless performances. 

But I would argue that the best thing about Hereditary is what it doesn’t explicitly say. Like a Greek Tragedy, it’s about the things that take place in-between the lines that make it so terrifying. It’s a spiritual horror film that speaks to our fears of inheriting the tragedies and traits of our ancestors. It’s about secrets between parents and children. Grief and it’s emotional manifestations. How tragedy can transform a person. It’s about the unspeakable terror that leads to more questions than answers. If you are looking for a nice bow-tie ending, you won’t get it. You are more likely to walk away going, “huh?” I loved the ending, but I think it will turn a lot of people off. It’s not what you are used to these days. 

The best thing about the movie, in my opinion, is about women, spirituality, possession, and emotion. Which leads us to the essay below. I won’t be diving into Greek Tragedy or deconstruction of its uses in horror films. That’s for another day. I think it’s been widely documented in reviews thus far. I’d like to take a look at Gender, Christianity, Religion and how this film plays with those larger social constructs. 

GENDER ROLES IN HORROR FILMS 

Gender roles in horror films are one of my favorite things to pick apart culturally. If you want to dive in more, this is an excellent place to start. Women in horror films have a long history of being gas-lighted by the male characters they interact within the plot. They are scorned with male “logic,” that the things they are experiencing aren’t real. Usually, they are tortured, shallow characters that look pretty and scream on cue. Often viewed as “crazy,” and spend most of the plot running from danger. This isn't always the case, there are a few standouts. But for the most part, I think the above is true. Women are either victims or "witches," in the majority of horror films. I also think it's interesting how we treat women who are having spiritual experiences. In our stories, we are uncomfortable with female emotion. Therefore, if someone is having an extremely emotional experience, we are likely to view them as scary.

We are at our roots a Puritan nation. One whose fear of “the devil,” allowed us to pillage “savage Indians,” in the name of that fear. Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries persecuted thousands of witches. Whole villages of Swiss women were wiped out in the hysteria.

In America, we have the Salem witch trials. 

I recently got to visit Salem Massachusetts. I read this fantastic book before I went called, “A Delusion Of Satan, The full story of the Salem witch trials.” Which outlines in more context the conditions and beliefs that lead to the "witch hysteria.” Today, those Puritans have received their Karma. Salem is a joke. It’s become a tourist Halloween town. Complete with haunted houses, tarot readers, and hippie spiritualists. The “devil,” they so fought to destroy has won. I laughed thinking about the righteous judges jumping through time to see children running around in witch costumes pretending to put spells on each other in their beloved village.  

The story of Salem became a cautionary tale of the dangers of religious belief. But the book attempts to take it one step further in outlining the gender roles of women, power dynamics between men and women and femininity, creativity and inspiration. Unlike the modern telling of the story like “The Crucible,” the book deliciously researches connections from historical records. The trials were meticulously documented. Which may be why the story has been passed down to new generations and became taught in schools. But the book makes some connections for me that my 5th-grade classroom reading of The Crucible didn’t. 

Life was hard as a puritan and men made all the rules. Imagination was stifled among children. Art was functional. Creativity was not encouraged, survival was. Sexuality was almost exclusively prohibited as a sin of the flesh with the exception of procreation. Pleasure was not allowed. Expression among women was silenced. These are all feminine values. Women who express extreme emotion are “crazy,” while men who express themselves in extreme ways are “passionate.” Soon “crazy,” became “a witch.” Any outburst of extreme emotion and a woman could be accused of being possessed by the devil. Witch hunting thus became inherently female and while anyone a could be accused of being a witch, most of the persecution was of women. 

As a little girl, I played a lot in an imaginative space. I experimented with all kinds of storytelling and play acting. As a teenager, I was emotional and dramatic. I guarantee if I had been observed by a Puritan priest, they would have convinced the town that I was possessed. I think most artists would have been accused of witchcraft in that era.

These tropes still exist today. We still silence women. We write stories where they are silenced by others. In a large majority of our horror films, women are either the victims or for lack of a better term, "witches." As time moved on, we stopped persecuting witches and started locking women up in asylums for misbehaving.  Thus replacing "witch," with "crazy."

I’m sure at some point, we have all thought our mothers to be “crazy,” through this lens too. Extreme imaginative outbursts or expressions of emotion are squashed in our society. We can barely handle a crying baby on an airplane let alone a woman who cries in public. 

And here marks the line of spoilers people. If you wish to continue, do so at your own risk. I am about to talk about the details of the story. 

GENDER, DEMONS AND WITCHES IN HEREDITARY

 Hereditary begins with our main character, Annie, in the midst of working on her art. She creates model dioramas. It is implied as the story chugs along that these dioramas are her emotional outlet. This is how she processes grief, anger, and fear. The tension between imagination, memory, and reality play nicely here. Why in the world would someone make a miniaturized model of the death of her mother? 

I enjoyed the duality of the models with life. The idea that I could take memories and tragedies out of my head and examine them as real-life objects. To see if I could make sense of them, process them differently. This process apears painstaking in the film. The details are fussed over, out main character possessed with the idea of recreation. A rebirth of her pain. Nicely done. 

Next, we meet Charlie. Charlie is different. She makes you uncomfortable but we trust her slightly more because we assume it’s a mental disorder. The play on gender here is masterfully done. Our young actress is phenomenal but I question the casting choice. We love to put our humanly different in horror films and this borders exploitation for me. It's akin to pointing at her and calling her "freak." I get that we are establishing a long line of mental health issues for our characters, so I'll leave this one be. But do better next time. 

Next, the shocking tragedy that propels our characters into some of the best moments of the film. Personally, I did not see that one coming. The car accident begins our true emotional terror. 

Annie experiences real grief for the first time in the loss of her daughter. She was relieved when her own mother died, having been released from the burden of that relationship only to be thrust forward into the guilt of playing a part in her own daughter's death. Grief is not handled lightly here. Our main character moves through hysteric fits. She retreats. She creates twisted dioramas of the accident. All the while her husband grows more and more suspicious of her behavior. Her husband literally acts as men have throughout history. Questioning the intensity of her emotions and wondering if he should send her away. If we are sticking with our horror metaphors, Annie is possessed by grief. 

My favorite scene to illustrate this concept is at the dinner table. Tensions mount in the household to an emotional breaking point. Our male characters confront our female lead and claim that she isn’t being truthful about her feelings. They invite her to express herself. 

She does. This eruption is the best scene in the film. Rarely do we get to experience female emotional flow on the screen. The sight of a woman in full emotional and visual expression makes our male characters physically retreat from the scene. The very thing they invited her to express is the very thing they can not handle and rather than applaud her completion of this expression, they squash it. The men refuse to join her and instead they persecute her almost as if saying, "burn the witch.’ The refreshing length of the shot and the stellar performance by the actress is noteworthy. They do not shy away from the complexities of extreme emotions. 

I think all of us are afraid that if we let go on some level, what comes forth would be bad. Tapping into our emotional flow is scary. So scary that as a society we can’t handle people doing it in front of us. We tell each other, “don’t cry,” when comforting one another. We tell our men, “crying isn’t manly.” And when we see our lead actress express herself on screen, we too as an audience are scared. We question her sanity, if only for a moment. Can we pause for a moment to admire the cinematography choice here? It's like an 18th century painting. 

I mean, look at that still shot above. Gorgeous terrifying women in full power feeling herself fully. Just hand Tonni Collect the Oscar, please. This scene is fucking amazing. I applauded Annie's capacity to let go and laughed when the men wouldn't join her. Granted, it has taken me a long time to be ok with my own extremities of emotions but now that I am, I was praising this goddess on screen. I honestly can't think of another on screen performance that accomplishes this as well as Hereditary does. 

Emotoins escalate as the film begins introducing the supernatural to the plot. Annie, meets with a new friend in her grief group, this friend conducts a saence to bring back the spirit of her grandchild. It seems to work and despite her reservations, she tries it. This triggers the climax of our film and leads to its ultimate resolution after discovering that her mother had a secret spiritual life. Spirituality “literally," kept in a box and hidden away until the very end of the film. I think spirituality is what our writer wants you to infer as the "hereditary trait." It’s the thing that our lead character doesn’t want to inherit from her mother. Her secret life. Her mental illness. Her spirituality. One might even say, she demonizes her mother. 😉 

 CHARLIE

The gender play with Charlie is also worth noting. At the conclusion of the film, we learn that Charlie is a male demon reincarnated into a female body. His name is Paimon. His rencarnation into Charlie was a mistake, as we learn at the conclusion of the film. The whole film is a plot to correct this mistake. Charlie referenced as she presents more like a tomboy with an androgynous name. While women are often “Witches,” in our scary stories so to men are painted as “Demons.” 

I always wondered why this trope existed in our storytelling. Sometimes I think it's about dominance and submission, Witches serve Demons. Men subservient to women. Demons are usually powerful creatures in our stories. Females are usually the victims of demon possession, either used for literal possession or for impregnation. But it wasn’t always that way. 

In the pre-Christian era, demons were both male and female. Much like the ancient polytheistic religions that had many gods and goddesses, so too was the gender spectrum of demons. It’s Christianity that spun the gender roles and made them sexless. Technically, Christian demons are fallen angels, as referenced in the Bible. They are sexless beings whose purpose is to test human beings on their faith in God and lead them to sin. 

 "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” —2 Corinthians 11:13–15

 I always wondered, why then do we paint demons as masculine throughout history? See that winged creature demon up there - - - what sex do you infer when observing it? For context, the above painting is Dante and Virgil in Hell - William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1850. It’s a scene from Dante’s inferno, in which there are several biblical references used to describe the journey into hell. This painting is terrifying in person btw. It’s the size of a billboard and you can see the demons eyes staring at you from all angles. Notice the color palet and the lighting on the main figures in the foregroud. Remind you of any shot from before? 

Back to Hereditary … 

Why does Paimon need a male body? Why is he unhappy in a female body? Paimon is supposed to be a Prince not a Princess. If you don’t know who Paimon is … you aren’t alone. I had to look it up too. He’s one of the kings of hell with Goetic orgins, also referenced in Persian and Iranian stories. The “King," denotes man right? 

Paimon is referenced in a demonology spell book called Lesser Key Of Solomon. Therein lists 72 demons of which, one is Paimon. Each demon has a symbol, which was a clue in the film. Annie wears one around her neck. Guess she should have googled the symbol before wearing it. 

 So essencially our demon "man-king," is pissed because he was born a woman and his followers work to correct the issue. Wow. Talk about some gender issues right? The wiki page for Paimon also gives us a hint at a sequel btw… go read it if you like.

SO have you made it this far? 

If you have, cheers to you. Welcome to my geekery. I spent a lot of money on my education in art history, English and film critique. Literally wrote a paper a day for 4 years. I’m still paying off the bill. Blogs are more refreshing though, I don’t have to worry about being perfect or getting graded. I can just share my passion for picking apart social and cultural references in storytelling. 

That said, if Hereditary made me spawn a long essay like this, imagine what it might do for you. I will warn you, my husband is still having nightmares from the visuals. Which I didn’t even get a chance to geek out about here. That said, I do think that our tales of horror are the most interesting things to look at in society. Our relationship to fear or lack thereof is still taboo. Last year marked the first time a horror film was nominated for an Oscar, and I think to Get Out was nominated more for its cultural relevance and discussion of race in our time. I’d love to see more from this writer. I was seriously impressed. It’s well researched and smart with an excellent understanding of pace and emotional landscapes. 

So just like our movie, here ends my essay. I’m not going to neatly tie this up.

What did you think of the film? 

[ninatranslates]

Just thoughts about some of the official NDRV3 translations.

I just wanna discuss a few of the things I’ve seen talked about here and there. As a couple of side notes, (1) these are just my opinions. You’re free to disagree, but don’t lose your mind over it. 

(2) There is no one true way to translate a language. Give the same text to a bunch of different translators and they will all come back with different results. Therefore, there can be multiple “correct” translations of a single text. And in the end, fans are allowed to use whichever they like best. 

(3) Literal meaning isn’t all that makes up a language. Keep in mind that translating is a balancing act between meaning, nuance, and feeling. Sometimes you need to choose one over the other. Translators will try their best to minimize this, but some things are bound to get lost in translation. This applies to any language.

And (4) what counts as an acceptable English equivalent for a fan translation may not be appropriate for an official localization, and vice-versa. This is because they target different audiences, and naturally, the same text is perceived differently by different people. NDRV3 fan translators will assume their audience is familiar with Japanese media, know a bit of the language and culture, and have played the past DR games. On the other hand, the official localization is targeting a general English-speaking audience to sell their game as much as possible. This includes those who are new to DR and Japanese media, and the localization team needs to take care not to alienate them, since they make up the bulk of the western audience. 

Anyways, if you’re interested about my thoughts so far or are curious about a few of the localization choices, keep reading for more. But note that I’m not a professional or veteran translator, I’m a young Japanese-American who likes anime and translates for fun. Don’t take my opinions as the word of God. 

There are no spoilers. 

Here are some things about the localization that I agree and disagree with:

STRONGLY AGREE (I wish I thought of that):

Luminary of the Stars, Kaito Momota - This is great, they managed to make it sound both cool/epic and short/sweet, while capturing the nuances of his catchphrase 宇宙に轟く百田解斗, uchuu ni todoroku Momota Kaito “I am Kaito Momota, who will become well-known/famous throughout space”, but in a “they will speak of me in legends” or “my legends will spread throughout the galaxy” sort of way. I’m jealous. 

Nyeeeeeh - Cute, funny, and lazy! Admittedly I have trouble translating unusual onomatopoeias, and Himiko’s habitual んなー was no exception. Literally spelled as nnaa, I tried to translate it as “uhnaa”, but I still wasn’t quite happy with it. “Nyeeeh” is so much better gaaaah.

AGREE

K1-B0/Keebo - Probably the most controversial, and I’m probably offending people by saying this, but there’s actually more to Kiibo’s name than you’d think. Before they released his name, I was wondering how they would translate it, since there are just so many elements in his name that a simple “Kiibo” or “Kibo” can’t carry over. I think this deserves a longer explanation, but basically, K1-B0 and nickname Keebo preserve most of the nuances and intentions that were in the original Japanese. From the obvious and stupid humor, to the cuteness, to emphasizing his robotness and humanness at the same time, to giving off the right first impressions, and to setting up some of the intended expectations... The only thing that’s missing is the “hope” wordplay. But hey, unless you can think of a feasible way to overlap “Kiibo” with “hope”, it’s just one of those things that’s gonna get lost in translation. Also, whether “K1-B0″ and “Keebo” will work still depends on the execution of the dialogue. However, both キーボ and K1-B0/Keebo gave me the same “wow that’s so stupid, I love it” reaction as both a Japanese and American fan, and I was just really impressed by how they were able to replicate it so perfectly. Anyways, I can still understand why people would hate it, since it is just such a jarring non-name. But as long as you don’t work for NISA, you’re still allowed to call him whatever you want. In case you haven’t noticed, the Japanese language doesn’t use alphabets, and there’s no one true way to romanize his name. So K1-B0, Keebo, Kiibo, Kibo, Ki-bo, and Kībo are all acceptable ways to spell キーボ. However, “Kibou” is incorrect, since that’s just “hope”. It’s the difference between キーボ and キボウ. But I won’t hunt you down for it, it’s not that big a deal.

Oma - Similar to Kiibo, except not nearly as complicated or as big a deal as fans make it out to be. Ouma, Oma, and Ōma are all acceptable ways to romanize 王馬. But since they already used the “Oma” method of spelling for every other character in every other game, making an exception just for “Ouma” for no real reason would be inconsistent and unprofessional. The “Oma” spelling is also the most common way to localize Japanese names (ex. Pikachu from ピカチュウ pikachuu and Goku from 悟空 gokuu). Even among real-life Japanese people living in America, they are more likely to spell their name the “Oma” way, though the “Ouma” way isn’t uncommon either. The fact “Oma” means “grandma” in another language is irrelevant, since last I checked, this is an English localization. As an example, did you know Japanese people find the French phrase “qu'est-ce que c'est” really funny? It’s cuz it sounds like ケツクセ... as in, “Your butt stinks”. But I’m not gonna tell the French to stop saying “What’s up?” because they’re implying someone farted in Japanese. Or hey, even my own first name means “newly-bloomed na flower” in Japanese (新菜 nina), but it basically means “fresh vegetable” (xīncài) in Chinese. Or an even better, real-life localization example would be Miyazaki’s Laputa: The Castle in the Sky. The fact that la puta means “the whore” in Spanish didn’t force the English localization to change the name of the castle, though they did understandably drop it from the title. “Laputa” is something the Spanish dub needs to worry about, which they did, they changed the name to “Lapuntu”. Anyways getting side-tracked. As you can see, a normal word in one language can mean something silly or inappropriate in another language. This literally happens all the time. And if you don’t like “Oma”, you’re still free to call him “Ouma”. Just because it’s unofficial, doesn’t mean it’s incorrect. Really. It just. Does not. Matter. Also here’s every other main series DR character who got the same treatment: Kyoko (Kyouko) Kirigiri, Mondo Owada (Oowada), Sakura Ogami (Oogami), Toko (Touko) Fukawa, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu (Kuzuryuu), Kazuichi Soda (Souda) Rantaro (Rantarou) Amami, Ryoma (Ryouma) Hoshi, Shuichi (Shuuichi) Saihara, Korekiyo Shinguji (Shinguuji), Kirumi Tojo (Toujou), Monotaro (Monotarou)

Piano freak - Not quite sure why people were upset about this other than excessive nitpicking. In Japanese, you could call nerds “(obsession) idiot” in the way that all they care and think about is their obsession and nothing else. But this isn’t how “idiot” is used in English, so the best equivalent is actually “(obsession) freak”. However, “idiot” is acceptable for a fan translation, since many anime fans are familiar with the meaning and connotations of バカ (baka). 

Monokuma Kubs/MonoKubs - Pronounced Monokumaazu, the direct translation is “Monokumarz” or “Monokumaz”, which works just fine for a fan translation, but doesn’t quite carry over the connotations for a general English-speaking audience. It’s like the huge gap in feeling between “The Doraemons” in English and “The Doraemons” (ザ・ドラエモンズ) in Japanese. (How many of you are actually familiar with The Doraemons btw lmao.) Using “the”, the plural “s”, and “ers” (like workers and singers) is normal in English, but using them in Japanese gives off squad or team vibes with a dash of silly humor. “MonoKubs” does just that while sounding nice and simple. “MonoKubz” would’ve been great too, and fans can still use whatever they like best.

NEUTRAL

Voice recasting - One word. Budget. 

Dub quality - I think the quality is pretty expected since the voice acting industry in America isn’t nearly as big as in Japan. But I also have zero interest in dubs, so I’m pretty biased on this one oops. My assumption is they’re doing the best they can. Also English speakers mispronouncing foreign names is nothing new. Even though I do find the memes funny, I don’t expect people who don’t speak Japanese to get it perfect, just like I don’t expect Japanese voice actors to get their English perfect.

Mastermind - The most literal translation of 首謀者 (shubousha) would’ve been “ringleader”, except “ringleader” doesn’t sound nearly as cool or memorable as “mastermind”. So they chose impact and rule-of-cool over literalness and subtlety. Which is understandable. Besides, if they wanted to be literal, they should’ve gone with “puppetmaster” (黒幕 kuromaku) in the first game. I think both “ringleader” and “mastermind” are acceptable here. 

First-name basis/no honorifics - I personally prefer when translations preserve honorifics. It just says a lot about the character and their relationships. However, just like there are no perfect English equivalents for all the Japanese ways to say “I” and “you”, there’s just no exact English equivalent for all these honorifics, so using them risks alienating the general audience. Also, this is what they went with for the other two games, so it’d be a little bit awkward changing it now. This decision doesn’t match my personal preference, but it’s a completely understandable and common one. 

DISAGREE

Male delinquents - Tenko uses the term 男死 (danshi) for men, which is a pun on “men” and “death” to show her disgust for them. However, there’s a big difference in meaning and implication between “I hate male delinquents” and “I hate males”. Also not as punny as “menace” (credit to @oumakokichi for the pun). I worry they did this to avoid offending guys... but there’s no way to know for sure. My opinion of "male delinquents” could also change depending on its execution.

Kiyo - I can understand that English-speakers might have trouble pronouncing Japanese names that are more than three syllables... but this feels like they’re dumbing down the audience a bit. Come on, let the boy keep his name!

STRONGLY DISAGREE (Just. Why.)

Gonta’s Tarzan speak - Gonta has the intellect of a child, and speaks like one, sure... But he doesn’t speak like a caveman. He’s perfectly fluent and literate in Japanese, so this seems like inappropriate stereotyping to me. My guess is someone really misinterpreted Gonta’s character and dialogue, or wanted to treat feral children “realistically”. Not a fan of this at all.

UNDECIDED

Atua - Honestly not sure what to think of this, since I know nothing of Polynesian mythology. I don’t know if naming Angie’s god after a real-life term for Polynesian gods and spirits is appropriate, since we don’t know if Angie’s god is actually an atua, and especially because her religion is depicted as shady and cultish. I think depicting her religion this way would’ve been (arguably borderline) acceptable as long as her god remained unspecific and made-up. And considering that most Japanese people are agnostic, possessing a general, unspecific belief in a god or infinite gods/spirits, I did assume this was the intent of the original context. But I just don’t know enough about Polynesian culture to form a concrete opinion. Like, does the Japanese text make references to Angie’s god being an atua? Are there any atua that fit the description? Or is it like Shinto where there are an infinite amount of all kinds of kami? How much care is being put into accuracy and respect for the culture in the English localization? My gut reaction is “strongly disagree”, but until I hear some thoughts from Polynesian DR fans, I’m going to remain undecided. 

Anyways, just wanted to get my thoughts out there. In general it seems the localization is trying their best, but there are a few glaring decisions. Again, you’re welcome to disagree. Just remember your human decency and don’t be rude. Everyone lives a different life and perceives things differently, and just because something is imperfect or unpopular doesn’t mean you can’t like it or you have to hate it.

Thanks for reading, I welcome any friendly comments and additions!

[pulpklatura]

Justice League Trailers

This was the only GIF I could find, which was rather sad because I even thought of popping the Martha scene in here just to trigger all the BvS haters

Haven’t written anything for the DCEU fandom in a long while but I thought we could perhaps pool our brains together for a lark. The one thing I’ve learnt from lurking in the Star Wars fandom is that paying close attention to the foreign language trailers may yield interesting things in an age where the film market is global - studios understandably find it very hard to keep track of who knows what in what language. Now, I don’t think we will find any spoilers - I feel like Chris Terrio's early interviews and the Akira Kurosawa lead would be far better as an avenue for hungry fans to pursue - but I needed a break from work and to revive my withering language skills, so here are my observations from watching non-English Justice League trailers. (You are all invited to add on, and let me know if I misunderstood anything since English is my first language!)

The first thing I need to say is that they don’t get extra scenes in the different versions, although maybe I need to be a little more diligent in my detective work and actually watch EVERYTHING. Hahaha. No. I have a day job.

French

When Bruce speaks of the threat and Diana answers that it’s already here, the feminine is used. Why? I entertained thoughts of them referring to Ciaran Hinds (Edward Rochester/Frederick Wentworth and therefore ultimate literary romantic hero of all time) in the feminine, but this could be an error in translation. Cue how the trailer guys aren’t the same as the filmmaking guys, and how we know that Zack isn’t checking all these marketing shots as furiously as he did for BvS. Is she talking about the Steppenwolf threat then? Or...?

Just for the record I like Gal Gadot’s real voice better

“You should probably move” becomes more like “stay out of my way”

Although “vous êtes le batman ? ” is a total win.

“They said the age of heroes would never come again” no longer references the notion of return (okay, I’m just angling for a Nietzsche reference in the film; Chris Terrio please don’t disappoint me hahaha)

Another win: “je suis riche.”

“I dig it” becomes “je kiffe”, which is great for establishing the difference between the two characters (one uses slang, the other textbook French

“On y va” instead of “shall we” makes it very clear that they were waiting for Diana to lead the charge (or maybe French just tends to be spoken in a more direct manner than English is. At least my spoken English tends to be full of “um...if I could just...we should probably...”)

“Maybe temporary” becomes “This is evidently hard” or maybe “this is evidently a trial” when Jim tells Bruce it’s good to see him working with others again

Mandarin

I was hoping to pick up on the possible lead from the French version, but they used the neutral pronoun for it, so maybe the French translation is wrong. I wonder what’s the case in German, or maybe in the other Romance languages...

Yay all the names in Chinese!! Although it makes me sad that Superman is called 超人, whilst every other character gets to have a 侠 in their name

Which matters in Chinese because that word tells the reader that these characters are heroes of a legendary status, possibly implying they have extremely moral codes of honour

I am protective of my Kryptonian son, call me Martha

“Whoever you’re looking for” uses a plural you - all these dubbers and subbers getting ahead of themselves now hahaha

Instead of Justice For All, which was translated more or less literally in the French version (Justice Pour Tous), we have 正义得以伸张 which more or less means justice can prevail 

The nuance in “I dig it” is lost in Chinese but “Maybe temporary” remains that way

“Shall we” is becomes “开战吧”, which I would translate as “let’s begin fighting” - not quite a command, because of the way that is phrased in Chinese, but I am missing the nuance in the word “we” being uttered (you can drop pronouns in Chinese)

The Chinese subtitles actually cleave to the English far closer than the French did, which I thought was surprising given how far apart Chinese and English are as languages compared to French and English, but what have you, well done on the subbers

Japanese

Disclaimer: my Japanese is really rusty and I was never one for reading Kanji, so do forgive my mistakes in translation

“超人たち” is used in place of “the others”, which may be a reference to all the other JL members being actually superpowered, or may also work as a reference to how they are building on Superman’s legacy (since Superman is 超人 and the translation of the whole phrase would be something like the ones with Superman)

Don’t you want to shed a tear for our favourite boy in red and blue

I’m actually really pleased they didn’t dub over Diana in Chinese or Japanese because for some odd reason female dubbers tend to have ridiculously high voices (just watch every Mandarin dub of a Korean drama ever)

Gal Gadot’s voice is one of the many things about Gal Gadot that are great

Seriously, thank the film gods she doesn’t sound like a magical girl fantasy character

Nothing wrong with magical girl stories (I grew up on Cardcaptor and I binged Miraculous Ladybug whilst learning French), but not for Diana, no

Hahahaha “You should probably move” becomes “run away” and a little more imperative in tone, which I think makes sense from a translation perspective because whilst you can be very indirect in Japanese it wouldn’t fit the characterisation or the scene

OF COURSE Barry uses 僕 (boku) to refer to himself, which fits nicely in with establishing him as the youngest and least mature of the group

“You’re the Batman?” is unfortunately just “Batman?”, which makes me laugh a little because I’m reminded of those sketches about his secret identity, but I’m also reminded of how much attention to context is required when speaking Japanese

“It has to” becomes “(the age of heroes) starts now”, which makes Bruce sound more active

Bruce’s response to the question of his superpowers is “金持ちだ”, which can be translated as “Wealth” or the original “I’m rich”

“Justice For All” becomes “超人集合”, which would suggest they are not refering to Superman per se but really just speaking about the League coming together, with no reference to justice (“正義”)

Incidentally the Justice League is a name that has been rendered in Katakana as opposed to Kanji, which to my mind rather draws attention to the comics tradition in Japan and how this is very obviously to them a foreign import

Bruce’s “My turn” becomes “覚悟しろ”, which does not mean the same thing but translates to “Get ready”

Diana’s “Shall we?” becomes “始める?”, which can be translated to “Shall we begin?” but again the fact that you can drop subject-pronouns all together in Japanese misses the significance of this being a TEAM effort

Although this is immediately rectified when Jim comments on Bruce working with in a team, because the word used is 仲間 (nakama) as opposed to 友達 (tomodachi), which alludes to them having the same mission and purpose (whereas the latter would indicate that they are actually friends who share personal intimacy)

Someone you can’t stand can be your 仲間

Like Hal Jordan

Now I have a need to check the Japanese version of BvS (have only seen the French version) just to see what Bruce uses when he tells Martha he is a friend of Clark’s

“I dig it” becomes “悪くない”, or“Not bad”, which can be interpreted a bit flippantly - note that Arthur isn’t speaking with the necessary politeness you would afford a stranger, which suggests he’s not concerned with strict formalities (my preferred interpretation) or that Bruce and he are close

“Maybe temporary” becomes “先が不安だ”, which I understand as “Previously (I had) anxiety (presumably about working in a team, note that there’s no playing with others joke in Jim’s line)”, which I love

I had a lot of fun with these and would love to see other languages - hope you enjoyed it!

[vetivervelvetviolet]

Yuri!!! on ICE Dub Review: a Translator’s (in training) Perspective

As promised, here's my review of the Yuri!!! on ICE dub by @funimation. In case you are new to my blog (which will be 5 years old this July, yay), I'm currently in graduate school for a Master's in Japanese Translation. I've been studying Japanese since 2005, and I've been watching anime and/or reading manga for a little bit longer than that. Some of the points I’m going to make are based on translation theory and practice facts, some are educated guesses about a dubbing process I had no part in, and some are just personal opinions. Please keep this in mind.

Strengths

Overall I was truly impressed with this dub, especially given that the episodes would have been translated, subtitled, and re-recorded on relatively short notice, and that there would have been increased pressure on the actors to get their lines in a few takes since the episodes were being released on Crunchyroll only a week after they premiered in Japan. Josh Grelle was an excellent voice match for Yuuri and carried this show, Jerry Jewell's Viktor was charming and funny, and Micah Solusod did an admirable job as Yuri P., doing what I think might have been his first Russian accent (at least as far as I have seen), and generally playing the motivated little asshole part very well, once again proving that sweet guys tend to play the best douchebags.

The side characters also had very good English voices, in terms of suiting the character type. I'm in love with Joel Mcdonald's Phichit; his voice is 110% believable coming out of Phichit's mouth. Joel seems to have the "kindhearted boy voice" corner covered. JJ's voice actor was great, and conveyed the character's outrageousness over to English superbly. Lastly, I love Chris Sabat's Christophe. I love him. That is my boy right there. Sorry haters, you can't change my mind. I hope Christophe gets some more backstory next season. In all, the choices of actors in the dub were excellent.

・The Asian characters didn't have accents. This subtle decision was a very thoughtful move in terms of maintaining how Yuuri, a Japanese person, would perceive his fellow skaters in an English-dubbed environment. You know how people talk about "a director's director" as someone who makes movies that appeal to directors, this was a translator's translator’s decision.

In Japanese culture, Chinese and Korean people are not considered gaikokujin, per se, despite being foreigners from a legal standpoint. These countries and cultures have heavily intertwined histories, so it makes sense that Japan would consider them sort of in-group. In recent years, too, perhaps as a result of globalization and increased contact, this foreigner-but-not-really-a-foreigner status is also sometimes given to Southeast Asian people. Europeans, Africans, Pacific Islanders, people from the Americas, and people from the Middle East are still gaikokujin, and are seen as Other from a sociological perspective. Although I obviously wasn't in charge of translating the Japanese script, writing the English script, or hiring the actors, this is the only logical reason I can come up with for why Phichit, Guang-Hong, and Seung-Gil didn't have accents, but everyone else (save Leo who is American) does. JJ even said "eh?"  and pronounced his vowels a little differently in the first episode he appeared in, just in case you didn't catch that he was from ~Canada~. Intentional or not, I was really impressed by this decision and hope it is a sign of movement towards more nuanced dubbing.

・No one's name was gravely mispronounced *is still not over the D. Gray-man dub*

・Yuri P. was adequately rude; he didn't sound toned-down or forced (like how I felt about some moments in the Attack on Titan dub) 

 ・I think Minami sounded equally gender ambiguous in the English dub as he did in the original. Apparently his seiyuu was the protagonist in Haikyuu. I have not seen that series, but I can say from what I have seen of the art that that character is much more obviously male, and perhaps people who were familiar with Haikyuu and that actor knew right away that he was a guy, but it was not obvious to me in the the original! Minami’s character design is not terribly masculine, nor is his behavior, and if Trina Nishimura hasn't dubbed him, I honestly would have expected Greg Ayres, what with that hair, personality, and snaggle tooth.

Weaknesses

・Why did Celestino have an Italian accent? Even his Japanese Wikipedia description clearly says he's イタリア系アメリカ人, which means he is an American of Italian descent, as in, his parents/grandparents/etc. were from Italy. He is not an Italian immigrant/expat who lives in America. 

 ・I think Stephane Lambiel's guest appearence was handled clumsily in the dub. Considering how thoughtful the American crew seemed to be in regards to dubbing just about everyone else, I couldn't understand why they didn't either 1.) Keep the original audio of Lambiel, himself, speaking his few lines, or 2.) If that wasn't possible, record someone else speaking his lines in French. There were only a few, and with no lipflap to match, it seemed doable for someone who isn't necessarily a professional voice actor, but is either French or speaks French fluently. Granted, if they had re-recorded French audio, they would have needed to overlay English subtitles around or over the already-present Japanese ones which would be visually awkward, butttt... which for some odd reason they still had in the dub??? I don’t doubt that they --the dub crew-- probably also thought that this was less than ideal, having two sets of subtitles on the screen simultaneously, but I found it supremely distracting, for one, and absolutely unnecessary in the case of the English ones, since the dub actor was already speaking in English.

・One of the international skaters (either Guang-Hong, Emil, or Leo, I can't remember which), in his first appearance, was clearly dubbed by someone using a completely different mic or recording system than the majority of the cast. I lack the proper technical terms to describe his voice for those lines, but it sounded fuzzy or clouded, not like someone was speaking to me in real life. By no means did this ruin the entire episode or something for me, and it was probably a result of the time crunch ("you can't make it in today? okay, sure, you can record from home and send it in, so long as we have it by the end of today"), but it was noticeable.

Addressing some issues and qualms brought up by other fans

・"Jerry Jewell's Russian accent wasn't flawless/he sounds like Gru from Despicable Me". I know next to nothing about Russian, so maybe it was horrible, but it wasn't so horrible that I could tell. But more over: TIME CONTRAINTS. Funimation had to find a veteran voice actor who could reliably get lines done in a few takes (given not just the time contraints, but the fact that Viktor speaks a lot in every episode) and could also do a passable (to Americans) Russian accent. I cannot imagine that there are too many people in the Forth Worth-Dallas area who meet both of those requirements. Second, if you can sit through the Minions, you can suck it up and deal with a just-okay Russian accent. 

 ・Which brings us to my next point: the time element. You cannot reasonably expect something, any sort of product for consumption, to be flawless, fast, AND cheap/free. Going too fast in translation, including subtitles, almost always results in errors. Hence there were minor flaws in the subs (as @fencer-x has noted; she has better listening comprehension skills than me, and I trust her ear) , and since the dub script was not terribly different than the subbed script in this series, I'm going to guess that those errors carried over. I don’t have time to go back and analyze the places where the mistranslations occurred, though, so I am not 100% sure. They did not affect the plot or the characterization of the characters, though, so I do not consider them serious. 

 ・Some time ago @fencer-x responded to a comment about jokes/references/lines being moved around. I don't remember what she said, but here are my two cents:

Moving around jokes/references/lines is normal in translation, especially when you need to match lipflap. There may be many reasons why, and they will vary depending on language pair, but they can all be said to be necessary to meet target culture norms, and in the the case of dubbing, meeting target culture mouth movements. Although technically up for debate in academia, I am of the persuasion that some loss of linguistic and cultural content is inevitable in translation, even in literal translation, sometimes (linguistic relativity). A good translation attempts to make up for some of that through "compensation", though. This could explain why some characters reactions or quirks (*cough*Christophe*cough*) are more extreme in the English dub than they appear to be in the original. I for one found the humor funnier in English, and the touching moments, like the ring exchange, more touching in the dub.

・I get the sense, not just from this particular dub,  but from the dub vs. sub way of thinking of some fans have in general, that there is a severe misunderstanding about subtitles and their relation to translation and language. Also, that some people do not understand that what is being said, as in literal words being used, is not the same thing as what is being conveyed/what they meant by those words....

SUBTITLES =/= EXACTLY WHAT IS BEING SAID IN JAPANESE, BUT 'JUST IN ENGLISH'

Subtitles are not literal (hopefully) or "pure" translations. There are no such things as "pure" translations. Subtitles are not necessarily any closer to what is being said, or what is being conveyed in Japanese (or any source language for that matter) than dubbed scripts. Subtitles are not magic language decryption.

・For example, subtitles, like any translation, frequently make use of techniques called transposition and modulation when going from Japanese to English. Transposition is "a change of one part of speech for another (e.g. noun for verb) without changing the sense" {Introducing Translation Studies, Munday}. Modulation is a change "in the semantics and point of view of the [source language]". In many cases, when coming from a language so linguistically different from English as Japanese, using these techniques is basically mandatory if you want the resulting English to sound 'normal', or as we say in academia, unmarked. Combined with the concept of linguistic relativity, the moment you translate even quite simple sentences, phrases, or words from Japanese to English, you have irrevocably changed them. Theoretically speaking then, no matter if the subs or the dub say "My name is Meghan" or "I'm Meghan", they are both 'correct' translations, but entirely DIFFERENT THAN "メーガンです". 

 ・Subtitles often include adaptations of what is being said in Japanese on screen. This means that cultural references, in-jokes, and the like are changed to be relevant to English-speaking audiecnes. This is an instance where what is being conveyed outweighs what is literally being said in importance. That is, if the translator or script writer didn't change them, the joke or reference would be meaningless, and thus, pointless, supposing the necessary cultural information doesn't also exist outside of Japan.

In conclusion, I was very impressed with the Yuri!!! on ICE dub. I am definitely going to buy it on DVD. As a longtime fan of anime, I appreciate quality dubs, and can relate to fans who want to see dubbed episodes as soon as possible. I am also, unfortunately, familiar with how a poorly chosen cast can ruin a show--which obviously did not happen here. However, as a translator, I am now more aware of what goes into the translating and dubbing process, and I firmly believe that the dub crew gave it their all here. I also have the firsthand experience to say that, hell yes, being rushed sets you up to make mistakes, which seem to have happened in some places in the translation process of this series. However, as I said earlier, those errors did not affect the plot overall, or the characterization, or my understanding of the story, so I can still confidently give the dub a thumbs up.

See you next level!

[atypical60]

Christmas is arriving in less than a week– time is flying by at such a rapid speed that I feel I’ve been doing everything……………………………………….and nothing!

Time.  It’s fleeting and I’ve so little of it–but I feel like I’m not getting anywhere!

The house is decorated as tastefully and as discreetly as I could possibly make it with the tree being the center of attention.  I didn’t even load the tree up with all the ornaments we have amassed—I wanted to take it a bit lightly.

All the bannisters in the house are dressed and lit up…

The tree has settled in nicely and is decorated but not overdone…

Sofas, loveseats and chairs are festooned with holiday pillows, blankets, and throws!

It’s the small touches and little nuances that are adding a festive look to our home this year.

A plaid tablecloth, a very large poinsettia, milk for Santa and more…

A basket on the wall with holiday greens and berries..

Ribbon and garland on the cupboard..

And the Master of the house admiring it all! That Chippy!

Work has been crazy-busy.  And as much as I thrive on a busy and productive work day, during the holiday prep days, I kind of wish that I had more time. Time.  We all need it during that stretch of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Am I right?

Sometimes not having enough time turns me into a Scroogette.  But not for long!

The list for Christmas dinner has been created and Bonaparte and I will head out to cross the food items off tomorrow as we do the final shop. Luckily, I’m off from work and will be able to get this done!

The kids begin to arrive on Saturday.  I’ll pick Jake up at the airport and Oona and Sam will arrive with their new puppy, Gracie, by car.  Roman will get here on Sunday.

And with that means three nights of family dinners pre-Christmas!

Christmas Eve dinner?  Since we are not big on Christmas Eve and I’ll be preparing for the next day with guests coming over, Christmas Eve is usually relaxed.  When we lived in New Jersey, Christmas Eve was a gathering of neighbors and was wonderful.  Everyone has since moved on which is sad in a way.

But—my new Christmas Eve tradition is take-out.  What’ll it be this year?  Chinese or Asian fusion?  Middle Eastern food (I vote for that)?  Buffalo Wild Wings? We’ll all figure it out together.

What’ll Christmas Eve be–Chinese?

Middle Eastern? (yes)

B-Dubs wings? …or all three?

Sunday’s dinner will be a very-much requested meal by all three kids. Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken.  Always a winner!

The very well-loved Lemongrass Chicken. Spicey.  Lots of Heat and delicious.  I’ll have to triple up on the recipe and quadrupe on the sauce and rice! A great Sunday night dinner!

But—Saturday evening’s dinner will be slightly different.  At first, I was going to go very casual with a big pot of chili.  But the thing is that Oona can’t stand beans in her Chili.  I love mine with a ton of beans.  And then she added that since she and Sam are driving, they’ll arrive later so they could pick something up.

My first choice was chili–mmmmm.  But Oona doesn’t like beans in hers!

That left me, the Frenchman and Jake to dine together.  What could I make for Jake that could be special?  Since his move to L.A., I don’t get to see him at all (which makes him happy, I think) and he’s really busy traveling between the coasts to meetings.  He deserves a nice home-cooked meal from mommy!

And so, I decided upon duck.  He loves duck.  Bonaparte loves duck. I love duck.  And the more I thought about it, the more I was determined to make duck.

I’ve made duck breasts with an orange sauce but not a whole roasted duck with orange sauce1

Now—understand my kids and I have a group text.  When Oona got hold of the duck thing her reaction was a very sibling kind of thing.  But I assured her that there would be plenty of duck for them when they arrive.

Actual text between me and Oona.  She’ll take the duck!

Now—about the duck.  Have you any idea how difficult it is to buy a friggin’ duck on Philly’s Mainline?  First of all, there are no duck farms around here.  Secondly, I don’t think many people even roast a whole duck anymore.  Thirdly (is that even a word?), I couldn’t even depend on our local Wegmans for duck.

Let me explain something. People think that Wegmans is the be-all and end-all in grocery.  It isn’t.  In the first place, the company insists on product placement in odd areas of the store.  Furthermore, the help, as amiable as they are, have no idea what is in the bowels of the stock area.

I swear my chances of finding a golden egg are better than finding a duck at Wegmans!

I went in to Wegmans two days ago in search of duck.  Now—the store usually has the ready-packaged D’Artagnan brand duck breasts, duck fat and duck sausage. On this particular day, I picked up the last breast as a safeguard. There was no duck fat (thankfully I have some in my fridge) and…there were no ducks in the frozen weird food’s freezer.

If I couldn’t find a whole duck, I would scour the Mainline to find a few of these!

This is a freezer set apart from the frozen foods section.  In this freezer, the store has shelves of bone marrow, beef liver, gizzards and other meat oddities.  There had to be about thirty frozen gooses (or is it geese), frozen capon, but no frozen duck.

I then walked over to the “fresh meat” counter—the one where Wegmans fancies it up to make one think there is an actual trained butcher.  But there isn’t.  Anyway, I walked over to the counter and asked the pretend butcher if there was any duck in the back because I didn’t see any in the freezer.

Either this guy’s name was Thomas, aptly named after the doubting Apostle, or he thought I was a student on the short bus who didn’t know what a frozen duck looked like.  He walked over to the freezer to find a duck…and ended up validating my works that there were no frozen ducks.

Truthfully, I was Jonah to the meat man at Wegmans (even though I DID have my lip waxed over the weekend!)

Stunned at the site of an overabundance of goose, he scratched his head and told me he would go into the back to see if any came in.

After ten minutes he appeared and told me that ducks had, in fact, been delivered but he couldn’t find them.  He took down my name and number and promised me he would call when he found the ducks.  It’s been two days now and he hasn’t called me.  I feel like a rejected date.

No!  He didn’t.  Duck him!!

Acquiring this duck was now becoming an obsession.  My husband offered to see if he could get one  or two at the Wayne Farmer’s Market when he gets the chicken for Sunday evening.  For me, it’s the principal of the thing.  I declined his offer because I wanted to find the duck and the Farmers Market duck would be very expensive.

Then I thought about my days growing up on Long Island. Duck farms were plentiful out on the East End and now only one is left.  But—at least I know I could get a damned duck if we lived out on Long Island!

If only we lived out on Long Island.  I would be a regular at Crescent Duck Farm.  The Corwin family would think I’m a duck stalker!

And on the way to work yesterday I had an epiphany.  I could bet that Whole Foods would have duck.  It would be overpriced but perhaps not so much as the Farmers Market.  If I purchased the duck before work, I could store the duck in the office fridge.

Whole Foods in Devon.  They got the goods!

Have you ever been to Whole Foods?  It’s a trip, that store.  What Walmart is to the common, basic and under-salaried folk, Whole Foods is to the well-salaried, trendy, hip and “I-only-buy-the-best” crowd.

Thrillist.com got it right about the sterotypical Whole Foods Shopper!  Where we Walmart Shoppers tread in five-buck leggings–Whole Foods has the Lululemon contingent–but they don’t eat–so who are they buying this food for?

I arrived as the store opened.  My Toyota Rav-4 nestled between the Land Rovers and Beemers.  My red coat stood out like the outerwear of a seasoned walk of shamer in the crowd of blonde (real hair too—not wigs like mine), almost anorexic-thin, Tory Burch clones dressed in activewear.  I wondered why they were in a grocery store at all since all they probably consume are two green shakes a day and maybe a raisin or a grape for added protein.

Not kidding.  99 percent of the women in Whole Foods were Tory Burch lookalikes.  The other one percent was me!

Note to self:  Next time you are going to shop at Whole Foods please wear a blonde wig! Also. Lose thirty pounds and don activewear.  Only buy ingreeds for a green shake.  Then buy a duck!

Then I had a ray of hope—these women would never eat a duck—there’s too much fat!

And speaking of fat…look what I found!  At Walmart!!  This spray duck fat is greatness!

And so, I sauntered over to the butcher (a real one) and inquired if I could get a duck.  Well..I must have been one of a rare breed who actually asked for a fatty bird because he seemed very happy to help me—either that or he hadn’t seen a woman with meat on her bones in a while. After all. this Whole Foods is on Philly’s Mainline where women live in activewear unless they are attending a wedding, funeral or formal fundraiser for their child’s private school.

He led me to a refrigerated section that was loaded with ducks.  Succulent, fatty, undressed ducks that were waiting to be placed into a cart and roasted or grilled or cooked confit style.  Ducks that would be slathered with a citrusy syrup of orange and Grand Marnier or a Cherry sauce or an Asian sauce.  Duck that would put a smile on those who consumed it.

This is better than the golden egg. This is Saturday Night Dinner!

I purchased not one, but two ducks.  Two will feed five people perfectly.

My ducks!  I can’t wait to roast these babies!

And the breast I picked up at Wegmans?  It’s in the freezer for another time!

Cooking for my grown kids is even more fun than cooking for them when they were young.  They appreciate a fine meal these days.  We can share wine with dinner and aperitifs before.  Yes. I miss the days of Santa but these are the days when we can enjoy each other as adults.

Whatever preparations you are making for Christmas, I hope you are having a great time doing so!

True dat!  Those memories linger on.  I’m sooo sentimental that I cannot bring myself to get rid of this pretzel and photo ornament Oona made for me when she was in second grade. Look at the pretzels–they faded!  And they are broken but my memories aren’t broken!

The holidays come and go but oh..those memories linger on!

    The Christmas Chronicles 2018. WTF?? All I Want is a Freakin’ Duck! Christmas is arriving in less than a week-- time is flying by at such a rapid speed that I feel I’ve been doing everything……………………………………….and nothing!