#but there are dubs in many languages and also subs so it’s accessible

[koreanling]

Learn Korean with Korean Children’s Shows

Many children’s media is easily accessible too, with a lot of shows officially uploaded to YouTube for free so you don’t have to hunt down resources or pay for a specific subscription or platform. They are great for beginner practice because of the easy-to-follow plots, simple dialogue, and story!

Hello Jadoo – 안녕자두야 The plot focuses on a young girl in Seoul and her antics with friends and family.

The Youtube channel Learn Korean with Jadoo is a good resource, with both Korean and English subtitles (with subtitle options for more languages too!) in short 10min episodes.

Pororo the Little Penguin – 뽀롱뽀롱 뽀로로 The most popular recent Korean children’s TV show, Pororo has hour-long episodes uploaded to YouTube for free as well; but the official channel doesn’t come with English or Korean subs so keep that in mind.

Dooly the Little Dinosaur – 아기공룡 둘리 A late 80s to 90s Korean kids’ TV show, Dooly is also an official South Korean citizen

Anpanman – 안판만 Popular children’s show about a bread superhero, it’s Japanese but still big in Korea (and dubbed in Korean), also referenced in the iconic BTS song

Pinkfong 핑크퐁 No doubt you probably know “Baby Shark”, which craze was started by the Pinkfong channel originally in Korean and then into English. They have a bunch of Korean songs and short stories on their channel.

JunyTony 주니토니 Channel about animated twin wizards with animal friends, who go on magical and musical adventures, using their spells to save the day.

yearimTV 예림TV This YouTube channel has many short stories and songs like the others, but also has a focus on traditional Korean stories.

[kunaigirl]

Let's talk about "Radio-ing!"

What the heck am I talking about? What is "Radio-ing" anyway?

The answer is really simple, actually! I have epilepsy with photosensitive and eye-strain triggers, and while my medication helps with lowering the possibility of a seizure being triggered, sadly the chance is never at a full zero. So, I and many other epileptics out there like me, have to find other ways around things that are otherwise not accessible for us! What I call "radio-ing" is one way I do that! I've mentioned it a few times on my blog and in other posts in the past too!

Radio-ing as I call it, is an accessibility tactic I came up with back when I was still a kid, and I still use to this day as an adult! Basically, when I'm watching a show or movie that IS NOT seizure friendly or otherwise accessible to me, I do the following:

I start by sitting in a well-lit room with the piece of media on a small screen or on my computer. I turn the entire device (usually my laptop) around/away from me to face the wall. I also turn my chair to face away as well, this is just for in case any lights might get reflected on the flat surface of my wall. The well-lit room and me facing away means I won't see it at all! Then, I plug in my earbuds or headphones and listen to it, like a radio show!

I like to imagine what could be going on based on what I already know about the piece of media. For example, if it's a show I already know, I'll be able to imagine the characters along with the spoken dialogue just fine, and let my imagination run from there! This way, I'm able to engage with a piece of media no matter how "unsafe" it might be for someone with epilepsy!

Or at least, it's one way around it! If it's something that has an insane amount of strobe lights and eyestrain, one example being the spider/verse movies/etc, I just won't go near it at all. This technique is mostly for individual cases here and there, like if there are a few unsafe episodes of a usually accessible show.

An additional note: This obviously only works if the audio is in english. If I have to read subtitles, I'm out of luck. (Plus I'm dyslexic on top of that lol) One more reason to not tease someone for preferring dubs over subs for media that's in other languages.

Anyways, I made this post because for me, this is a go-to-no-brainer that I've been going for years and years and just felt like talking about it! However, in addition to that, maybe someone else could use something like this and hasn't thought of it themselves yet! Or maybe someone out there just wants to know what I'm talking about when I say "Oh, I'll just radio it later!" Either way, it's such a big part of my own accessibility, and I wanted to share it!

Want to learn even more about my personal experiences with Epilepsy? Check out this other post I made a while back! It's still up to date!

[saltydkdan]

Salty, may I ask which you recommend more: the one piece manga or anime. I wanna get into it but I also want a recommendation on which one may be better to start with depending on the pros and cons. Anyways I apologies if this is a dumb thing to ask.

Sure! One Piece is a really interesting beast when it comes to the difference between it's anime and manga, and at the end of the day it depends on your preferences- However yes, there are Pros and Cons to each! For this ask, I'll be trying my best to stick to the Official options available to you.

Also, this post specifically will be about how to best GET INTO the series, not necessarily a critique on the content of it! (I'll gladly do a separate write up on that eventually if anyone is interested in my thoughts on the Pros and Cons of the series itself)

Anyway, here are my personal thoughts:

MANGA

(This is my preferred way to experience the story)

PROS

-I'm not a manga purist by any means HOWEVER, the One Piece Manga is really good

-The pacing is really great (especially initially). In the first half, arcs are very quick and snappy! And even as they got progressively longer in length I didn't mind because by that point the story already gripped me.

-The art is wonderful in both black and white, and the official colored scans (which you can find online)

-This isn't really a "pro" per say, but it's something I enjoy doing. When I read, I like to put on some of the soundtrack from the anime. I usually find stuff like "Tense One Piece Music" or "Emotional One Piece Music" and listen to it as I read. It really enhances the experience for me personally. I also like to look up clips of arcs from the anime that I'm reading or already finished to see what they look like, and also see them in a fun new way. I feel like this sort of mixed approach is optimal for me.

CONS

-You have to read 😔

-There are many ways to read One Piece and in many different languages. There's black and white and colored manga- however just be careful. The best one TRANSLATION wise is the official release, and while you may find other options, some older "unofficial" translations are VERY outdated (I once saw one where Zoro casually dropped slurs)

-That also being said: Even though the official translation is the best, it is stuck in black and white. Many official colored scans were never officially licensed in English, and because of that aren't as accessible.

-Collecting it physically is fun, but can get VERY pricey. Like... hoo boy. Thankfully they sell compendiums that collect a metric shit ton of chapters, however the paper/print quality is noticeably cheaper. So if you want to collect them, the smaller volume releases are the way to go. That being said, I would just suggest using the Shonen Jump App by Viz Media. It's the best official way to support the series officially, as well as the cheapest for the average consumer! $3 a month for the entire library as well as other series + getting new chapters updated every week is great. I'm not sponsored or anything either, I just really like the model. So if you find yourself really enjoying the series, THEN you can go about collecting it physically if you want!

ANIME

PROS

-It's animated (obviously)

-You have a choice of either the Japanese Sub or English Dub. This also boils down to preference but from my experience they're both great options!!

-I'll get into it in the "Cons" section, but the One Piece anime is VERY long, like... kind of in a not so good way at certain points. However, I've heard that even though some parts are a bit too long, it's one of those things that if you really get into it, you'll love the fact that it feels like a never ending adventure! Not my experience, but it's what others have told me!

-This is gonna sound crazy, but Filler Arcs. A lot of people don't like these, and I get why, but they are very easily skippable if you want to look up a guide, and some of them can actually be really short and fun (as well as add a bit of extra flavor to the story). One of the best examples is an arc called "G-8". Even Manga readers recommend it, so you know it's good and gives each of the characters some fun moments!

CONS

-You may be aware already, but the One Piece anime has a very bad reputation of having HORRIBLE pacing. Now, to be fair, many people say that the pacing only gets truly horrible AFTER a very specific arc about halfway through the series (which is where a lot of anime watchers jump ship to the manga)

However, I'll be honest... I wasn't a super huge fan of the pacing from the beginning. To clarify, I STARTED with the anime. I don't have a super great attention span, so having to wait around 38 or so episodes for "Arlong Park", the arc that people suggest you get to before deciding whether to keep going or quit, was very difficult for me at first. I got through it, and I'm glad I did, but as soon as I did, I decided to switch over to the manga and had a much easier time.

-I find the show's music very repetitive at times. That's not to say the music is necessarily bad, I love the One Piece OST! It's just... over the years they have barely updated the soundtrack. Every arc you might here one or two new tracks, however a lot of the time you'll hear the same tracks replayed in the same sort of situations. ("OVERTAKEN" is an AMAZING track, but if I hear it one more time I'm gonna snap)

-This is a bit of a nitpick but I need to say it. One Piece's sound effects, while iconic, are also extremely outdated. When you start the series and hear the older-styled Toei Animation sound design, it is super charming because it fits with the older visuals. However in more modern One Piece, which visually looks incredible, THEY STILL USE THE OLD SOUND EFFECTS AND THEY JUST DON'T FIT.

TOEI, UPDATE YOUR SOUND LIBRARY!!!

ANYWAY...

Anyway, I hope my funny little list here helps!! Sorry it's so long, went a bit off the handle. But I think this is a fine enough starter guide and may help you get started!

[ceoandslutler]

have you heard kuro dubbed in any language other than english? or in any other asian language other than korean or chinese? well i found a persian one and it's so fucking bad that it's hilarious.

(also stay tuned to find out why the persian dub of kuroshitsuji being so bad has directly to do with anti-shipping sentiment and puritanism)

i would like to politely invite anyone who's ethnically from/lives in/speaks the language of a country with an ultraconservative government to contribute to this post if they know a dub of kuro (fandub or licenced by a company) in their language to contribute to this post (agree or disagree that policing media causes a drop in its quality and accessibility in other countries) but let's keep it civil. if you are not from a country like this but have something to say, feel free to add anything on, the conversation is open to all :)

so i just heard the homemade persian dub of kuro's first ep made by some young people who sound like they're in uni (probs 18-23 yr olds), tears have been flowing from my eyes for the past 20 mins

(link under the cut)

to save time, go watch the bits i linked below or just laugh at the whole thing (full link) but don't blame these kids for being awful at this or just skip to the end of the post. as i said, there is a reason this dub is so bad and no official dub exists and it has to do with... anti subculture?!?*

but first, the funny stuff

ciel's voice is awful but just listen to the goofy dub laugh seb's va did at the start I'M FUCKING SOBBING (00:15-00:35), and also not ciel's va MOANING after the op song (2:35) ??? i REPEAT the woman who VA'd ciel was fucking MOANING, the YAWN was the worst part, dub team shotacons???

also SHEEL FANTOMHAYO?? THE KID'S NAME WAS DUBBED AS SHEEL FANTOMHAYO. (refer to 6:30 in the video linked)

now this isn't because we lack a 's' in our language (my alias is literally a persian name meaning shadow aka ✦sayé✦), we've just transliterated it as shiyel, but SHEEL???

the other guy calls him fantomhayo too (8:25) and the fantomhayo condition strikes again with sebastian's va talking about the fantomhayo hospitality at 12:40 ish in the video.

this is particularly bizarre because we do have a V in persian, please guys, use it!

please note: i have nothing but good things to say about finny's va... the way the va says "sebaastiyaan!" (12:43) is so cute <3

at 13:00, we get this golden crumb "meyrin... oh meyrin" from this college aged dude doing sebastian (who is SO lost) then he proceeded to say in persian "i beg you, ON MY LIFE, just pour the fucking wine in the glass and walk away" save me from the bad dub, ono daisuke, save me...

the furnace scene is just gold (18:50 onward is comical, the scream at the end... priceless), these people deserve an award, im tempted to do subs on this whole video because the translation is so wrong yet absolutely too hilarious to leave untranslated. also, i like how you can hear other people talking in the background constantly, they didn't even bother finding a quiet room 😭😭

finally i translated some of the best comments under the vid (everyone fuckin hated it 😭)

..tldr: irani/persian speaking netizens are brutal. but also, it shows that persian speakers are used to quality dubbing, otherwise this wouldn't be so offensive. if we were used to badly done dubs, the comments wouldn't look like this. many famous kdramas and jdramas and indian/turkish films have been dubbed. animated movies e.g. disney films and most commonly 70-80s anime have huge followings in iran and were dubbed extraordinarily well. in fact, in iran, many of our own films are dubbed especially if the original footage did not capture the audio well enough/the director was unhappy with the actor's delivery and it's usually hard to tell if this has happened because it's done very well. shockingly, dub is more popular than sub. so why does kuro not have an official dub? why is the fandub so bad???

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING

*IMPORTANT: an anime like this is not allowed to be legally dubbed by studios in iran because iran is under an islamic theocracy (the islamic republic) and all media that promotes devil worshipping and blasphemy is banned, homosexuality is too (anyone can tell kuro has homoerotic undertones, the homophobic heads of media would never let this queer gothic romance through). oh and trans people are "allowed" on TV but only if they're not vulgar/explicit (not even then, half the time) & grelle would not make it into the anime AT ALL. even if we ignore all the devil worshipping and queerness, sex is banned too (as well as lewd appearances of women), so season 1/2 & boc would never make it. oh and alcohol, bom would never make it. oh and also, women's empowerment is banned too so boa would never make it. when will it end? will someday everything be banned? sure looks like it. but isn't this what anti shippers want? i mean kuro IS problematic media, it never condemns people for having sex or partaking in drinks, not even murder is condemned.

moving on, the subtitled version of the episodes are very well done for what they are but it's still not good, you won't understand what's going on properly. meanings are lost. a dub is much more accessible to those who can't read subs and generally a necessary option. people NEED dubs. don't get me wrong, the iranian fansub team are dedicated however subs are much easier for fans to do than dubbing. as you heard, kuro's persian fandub was frankly terrible. these kids didn't even know how to pronounce ciel's name and it's NOT because of the language barrier, my theory is that because the internet access is so limited, they had to figure out how to pronounce ciel's name purely from the japanese original or another lang dub and had no access to the eng dub. as you can see, they are not able to follow the mouth movements either (don't have editing software); i assume the internet restrictions targeted streaming platforms w the dub on it (because the government wants to CONTROL what media people consume) so they had to figure everything out from japanese or another language, (they probably used another fandub to translate since the ed seems to credit the eng vas while they can never be heard in the bg) which is not easy. unfortunately english is taught in schools around the world not japanese so the dubbers' translation was quite honestly terrible- after all, they had no official script to base their translation off. BUT if a professional dubbing studio (e.g. iran's glory entertainment) got their hands on kuro, it'd probably be dubbed very well. if mehrdad raissi, CEO of glory, was on for seb's role, it would be glorious (pun intended). if he did flynn rider well, he can do sebs well too. but that studio often has their shows played on state televisions and the last thing they want is to get blacklisted and arrested for dubbing the gay demon butler anime. please do not take this fandub as representing all persian-language dubs. and remember, kuro itself is banned for being problematic media in counties like iran... no sebaciel needed (although anyone can definitely see the gay undertones to the story from a cover alone).

if you want to ban people from shipping things or making fan works that are problematic... soon you'll have to get rid of problematic media in general. and already, antis sound like the media people in charge under a dictatorship. "violence is okay, murder is okay but s-sex?!? women in scandalous clothing!!! oh good heavens..!" this is the kind of mindset which leads people down the rabbit hole of "this is problematic!! let's ban it!!!" until there's nothing left, a slippery slope. imagine this was the english dub of kuro. imagine it was banned in western countries and a team of young'uns had to gang up and make their own dub using only the japanese raws. imagine problematic media like kuro wasn't picked up the west because it's "shota" and that's bad. we'd be stuck looking at the same sanitised stuff and if we wanted to watch kuro, our options would be trash dubs (no offense) like this one. pretty scary to think this could be the state of the english dub if puritanism was as bad here as it is in countries like iran. policing media and deciding what creators should or shouldn't create will take you to the side of theocratic dictatorships and you will fall into alt right puritan lunacy, fanpoll are about as woke as a dictatorship, remember that.

don't sound like this:

NEVER sound like this.

it is clear that conditional freedom is no freedom at all. there should be zero criteria to the media we want to create, no religion or purity culture to it. just be media literate. let nobody control what you want to create or consume! (or you'll end up in a world where the media that is deemed "problematic" is maintained but only through underground circles, losing quality and accessibility day by day, until these channels are shut down too and only a sanitised husk of options for media consumption remain)

[marshmallowgoop]

Excuse me, I want to ask a question. Is it ethical to like the Kill la Kill dub? I noticed some of the changes in dialogue between it and the sub. I ask bc the kill la kill dub is my favorite dub of all time.

Hi there!

This has obviously been sitting in my inbox for a while. I haven't been quite sure how to respond.

Maybe I can start by posing another question: is it ethical to like a movie adaptation of a book that makes changes?

A translation—be it of a book to a movie, or of one language to another—is always going to be different from the original. There's no getting around that. But I in no way believe that this means we shouldn't try to translate books to screen, or that works in one language should only ever remain in that one language. Translation increases accessibility so that more people can enjoy and engage with a text.

Of course, however, I do recognize that accessibility is also a concern for particularly loose translations. For those unable to read, a movie or an English dub of an anime may be the only way they can enjoy a story—and if there are drastic changes, is that really fair?

It's not a question I can definitively answer. But personally: though it's not Kill la Kill related, I eventually want to finish writing my report about Anime NYC's English dub premiere for the 24th Detective Conan film, The Scarlet Bullet, which released last month. And the tl;dr of my thoughts really boils down to how disheartened I was by the movie's script. Unlike the series's English dub from FUNimation, which changed characters' names (and occasionally dramatically altered plots and dialogue), Bang Zoom! Entertainment's dub is very accurate—to the point that I felt it was to its detriment. It sounded like the actors were simply reading subtitles, not speaking like actual humans; I scribbled down several lines during the showing with the thought, "No one would ever talk like that." While I certainly have my concerns with how many creative liberties FUNimation took, I desperately missed it watching the new dub. The script felt so stiff and lifeless.

So, another question: is it unethical to make changes to the source material to better fit the translated medium?

It's again a question I can't definitively answer. But as I've said about Kill la Kill...

. . . the dub script and actors are taking some liberties with the material—while still keeping it in-character, in my opinion—and coming up with stuff that maintains the energy and feel of the original lines but is still new and different. That’s what I like in a dub; it’s faithful, but it isn’t afraid to mix it up a bit.

And Detective Conan:

Loosey-goosey dubs that take lots of creative liberties with the material are my favorites. I think they’re so much fun and add so much flavor. Not to get too "subs versus dubs" here, but as I see it, a dub is an adaptation, much like how an anime can be an adaptation of a manga, and I like it when adaptations put their own spin on the work and breathe a new life into it.

I'd personally much rather a translation be lively and creative and different than try so hard to be as accurate as possible that it loses so much soul.

But that's just my take!

[peacocktalk]

Hello! Someone who works in subtitles here! I’m only speaking as one person who works on the inside at one company, and I probably do not have a complete picture of all things. But here’s some things I can clear up.

For one, yes, you are absolutely right, these things are incredibly irritating for me, too, but if they do happen it’s typically necessary. Not always! There are, of course, bad subtitle files. But there are reasons why otherwise good subtitle writers do this.

“Speaking [language]” is a Pet Peeve of mine, and when I have my druthers I’d love to write out the words, but it normally comes down to directorial decisions. If a character is speaking a language that the main character shouldn’t know for the purpose of a gag or dramatic purposes, for instance, that language may not be given an actual subtitle, otherwise the beat doesn’t work. Also, and perhaps most importantly, production companies will usually have third party businesses make the subtitle files, and if the third party company isn’t given a file that includes transcriptions of foreign languages, there’s not much they can do if they don’t know the language.

Subtitles being cut or trimmed by a few words is truly not a matter of trying to be lazy (again, when it’s done by someone who cares), it’s usually due to CPL, or Character Per Line restrictions. Every production company has a limitation set on reading speed, how short any individual subtitle can be, and how many lines (typically two) can be on screen at once. If a scene has a lot of characters talking over each other, or quick back and forth, or any sort of swell of information, some lines deemed inessential to the scene may be cut. We are in fact thinking about accessibility in this, because otherwise subtitles would be going so fast to keep up or be so big within the same short amount of time that people would have to pause the media to be able to get everything. Furthermore, if you’re watching something with character tags on lines where the character is off screen, those character names will also eat into the CPL limitations, which can make our job even tougher trying to cram all the lines in at the right spots.

But! If you’re noticing this on documentaries with experts, or live, non-scripted shows, incidentals like “uhs” and “ums,” or people starting a sentence over, will get streamlined to provide the information as clearly as possible. And then, of course, there are shows that were originally in another language - a dubbing studio will not typically use the script outlined by subtitles, which are direct translations of the original audio, because dub scripts have to actually match lip movements. So there’s a lot of reasons why subtitles may have words missing. We don’t find this ideal, mind, but sometimes it becomes necessary within the restrictions we work within.

And as far as censorship goes, it really depends on the rating of the project. By a project’s label of PG-13 or G or R, streaming services have a list of unapproved words or sentiments they won’t allow - Arguably, these things would have already been censored enough, but if it’s on a streaming service, the service is the one who will be blamed if something “vulgar” slips through the cracks and lands on the wrong television set. This gets the most squirrely with shows that originate in other countries, of course, where the approved audience rating may be equivalent in name but the sentiments allowable are not. I’ve definitely audibly heard a character say, in English, “Shit!” in a family-oriented show that originated from another country, that I had to change to “Shoot!” in the subs to match with it’s audience rating here in the states.

All this to say, yes, please continue to advocate for changes to make this system better! It’s not broken, but we can always improve accessibility. I just hope this context helps clear some questions up and allows you to focus your efforts.

Ableism in Subtitles

Something that really pisses me off is the litany of ableist issues found in subtitles. So, let's talk about 3 huge issues that need to stop.

Subtitles should never ever say [Speaking -language-]

When a hearing person is watching a TV show, or a stream, if someone starts speaking another language, if that hearing person knows that language, they will get to know what the person said, regardless of if the average viewer knows that foreign language.

Deaf and HOH viewers deserve the same opportunity, and to rob them of that opportunity by putting [speaking -language-] in the subtitles is ableist.

Every word spoken in a show or movie, unless given translated subtitles in the uncaptioned version of the show or movie, should have every word captioned exactly as it's spoken. If someone starts speaking Spanish, the words spoken in Spanish should be subtitled in Spanish. If someone starts speaking German, the words spoken in German should be subtitled in German.

When a show or movie is created, if you want a character to speak a foreign language, you get an actor who can speak that language. When you hire someone to transcribe a show into subtitles, your hire someone who can speak the languages spoken in the show, or you have them mark points where a foreign language speaker will need to assist and then have someone who speaks that language add in the parts that the transcriptionist can't.

Subtitles should never be cut short for convenience

This is something I see constantly. Shows and movies will frequently cut out words or even large chunks of a sentence from the subtitles to make the subtitles shorter.

When you remove descriptive words, parts of a sentence, or even whole sentences to cut down on the amount of subtitles in a given segment, you are completely changing the attitude, mood, and expression of those sentences. You can completely ruin all of the implicit feelings in a sentence if you remove words that show feelings or the way a person phrases things.

It is not your moral right, as a company or transcriptionist, to decide that deaf or HOH viewers shouldn't get the original phrasing.

I am not deaf or HOH. I have APD and have to use subtitles to keep up with what's being said, or I won't process it fast enough. Because of that, I get to see all of the ways subtitles deviate from the original wording all the time. This isn't an issue that just happens here and there. It happens in pretty much every episode of every show I've watched. And it's unacceptable.

Even if we ignore the way this impacts the intent of a sentence, this is ableist by its nature. When subtitles are made, they are made to fill the gap in a deaf or HOH person's TV experience. When you don't accurately fill that gap, or fill it partway, or half ass it, you are cutting corners on a disability aid. It's like if you sold someone a wheelchair with the wheels not pumped with enough air, or giving someone a hearing aid with damaged battery capacity.

When deaf or HOH people watch TV or movies and they use subtitles, they are relying on those subtitles to give them the most accurate wording possible. So why are companies directing or allowing their transcriptionists to half ass or cut down their subtitles? Every piece of media should be having its subtitles checked for accuracy before they're approved, and subtitles that cut corners should be amended before a show with subtitles is published or aired.

Subtitles should never censor words that aren't censored in audio

If a show or movie has swearing in it, of any kind, the subtitles should accurately depict what is happening audibly. If the audio has swear words censored, the subtitles should depict the noise - or lack thereof - that is used to censor the word. Subtitles should never be censored when the audio isn't.

Not only does this touch on the same issue from the last section, it's also ableist in another way. Not only are you giving deaf and HOH people a different experience than hearing people, you're also infantilizing them by disallowing them from hearing swear words that hearing viewers can hear.

Deaf and HOH adults are not children. They have just as much right to read the word "fuck" as a hearing person does to hear it. Censoring subtitles is disrespectful, ableist, and infantilizing and it needs to stop.

Make a change

I'm not familiar with the details of the ADA and how it regards subtitles, but if anyone would like to work with me to do something about this, I would really like to fight for subtitles to have more regulation.

If the ADA prohibits inaccurate subtitles, we should be reporting companies like Netflix who constantly provide inaccurate subtitles. If it doesn't, we should be fighting to amend the ADA to include regulations for subtitle accuracy.

Anyone who's researched this before or who knows more about it than I do, please tell me what you know or give me some sources I can look into myself. I would research from scratch but I'm disabled and don't have a lot of spoons for it, which is why I'd like to work together with others.

[assim-eu-sou]

Disney Paralleles fandom, where are you at? I just watched it and it’s so good!

[olderthannetfic]

I'm in a German speaking country, so all American media we get on TV (which is about 90% of our media) is dubbed. There has been a weird trend lately with streaming, though - Austrian teenagers have apparently become a LOT better in English because more and more of them are watching shows and movies on streaming with subs when they aren't dubbed yet

Another fun thing about German dubbing - whenever a German person speaks, they carry their regional accent with them. There is no neutral accent in a normal person, even in a screen actor. But for SOME REASON voice actors speak a type of German that is so smooth you cannot hear anything out of it except 'German'. Which is why it is incredibly grating when animated movies get dubbed with Big Name German Stars, because those stars are screen actors, not voice actors, and their voices have their regional accent.

I think the voice actor-accent is a derivative of Theater German. I learned some of that at some point, and it has its very own rules and regulations that feel extremely unnatural but when you can do it, they sound like _nothing_. Like your voice got rubbed smooth. But then Theater German is also modified to be as clear and as resonant as possible, which is a slightly different quality than Voice Actor German...

Dubbing is a huge part of our culture, and there's a whole big linguistic and cultural underbelly attached to it. It's fascinating - especially because unlike Russia, we started dubbing absolutely everything really early (as opposed to voice-overs). So you have this gigantic cultural block of about 100 million people in German-speaking countries for whom dubbing used to be just a fact of life - and now with streaming this is getting slowly but surely broken up for more people than just fans of weird obscure british shows or anime fans.

idk, I'm just passionate about German dialects and ever since I started seeing those asks my fingers have been itching....

--

That's super interesting!

Obviously, my own feelings about subs vs. dubs come from being an American. Almost none of our easily-accessible media is foreign. (Or at least, that was the case before streaming services.) We barely even import English language things from elsewhere. So a lot of the attraction of foreign media for me is that it is foreign, and our dubbing industry is less than stellar to boot. Hearing the original language is a nice break from the monotony of all American everything all the time. Very different from a media landscape where the majority of stuff is imported.

I do, however, notice problems when people cast regular actors as voice actors here too. Some of them are good at it. Many are not. Give me a VA who specializes in that any day.

[rigelmejo]

entertainment reasons to study chinese. because i know there’s a ton of stuff out there saying “learn japanese cause of anime, entertainment etc!” and then i run into posts of people lamenting that kind of stuff is hard to find in chinese when. it really isn’t

tons of dramas, many for free on youtube (so watchable on tv, computer, or cellphone). many also available on apps like netflix, viki, iqiyi, youku. many shows (in case you want to rewatch something you’ve seen) dubbed/subbed in chinese on netflix, iqiyi, youtube. check out mydramalist.com if you have no idea where to start with the huge amount of dramas that exist. Dramas very often have hard chinese subs so you’re likely to have a very easy time finding chinese subs, often an easy time finding dual subs in chinese/english, a ton of stuff has english sub options, a ton of stuff on youtube has several language sub options, viki has ‘viki learn mode’ with dual subs and click-definitions and instant replay for audio. its incredibly easy to find dramas with whatever combo of english/chinese subs you want, and if you want no subs, viki often has versions of dramas with no subs on the actual video. 

tons of donghua (cartoons). again, many for free on youtube, also on apps like netflix etc. 

tons of manhua (comics). there’s a lot of webcomics for free on bilibili and webtoons. also if you already like a comic, you may be able to find a chinese translation if you’d like to reread (change the webtoon website language or browse for the chinese version of the title on bilibili and other comic-reading sites)

tons of audiobooks and audio dramas, a huge amount being free. check youtube, ximalaya, music.i63.com, fm.qq.com, missevan.com, bilibili (if you cannot access an app because of your region, go to the website version in your phone browser)

google/duckduckgo/search engine of your choice etc. is your friend. a large amount of chinese media can easily be found by just searching “media-title media-type online” (possibly adding “free” if needed). just search entirely in chinese. For example, you’re looking for modaozushi(Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) manhua(comic) online in chinese? Search “魔道祖师漫画在线”. You will find a lot of pages immediately with the mdzs manhua in chinese. If you don’t know the chinese name for a given media, or for a given term, put that into google translate (or translator of your choice) and/or use a websearch for “chinese title for Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” etc. I ususally go onto novelupdates.com and look up english names of webnovels I’m reading (or comics/dramas based on them), since novelupdates.com will also list the original name in chinese under the titles area. Or I go to mydramalist.com, as that site will also list the original media name in chinese along with the english and other titles. If you’re having trouble finding something specific on youtube or bilibili (like daomubiji audiobooks 盗���笔记有声读物), change your search terms from english/pinyin into chinese. On youtube, sometimes you can find dual english/chinese subbed audio dramas and audiobooks by varying if you search for something in chinese, pinyin, or english, so try a few combinations. 

there’s a ton of chinese webnovels accessible online. the google search result above will find you anything specific you’re looking for. and then there’s also specific sites you can browse to find new webnovels. Again, i suggest starting with novelupdates.com if you have no idea What to read at all. Then for exploring more webnovels, you can try jjwxc.net, qidian.com, 17k.com, zongheng.com, chuangshi.qq.com, faloo.com, book.douban.com, tadu.com, hongshu.com. Honestly though I’ll just find one novel through google, then browse whatever webnovel site that first novel was on (because there’s a LOT of webnovel hosting sites - some specialize in english novels translated to chinese or childrens literature etc, so if you find a particular genre you like its worth exploring the site hosting it for more similar content). 

Some VERY general recommendations on places to start for chinese media (these aren’t even specifically my favorite, so you may find you hate some of these or love some of these and not others, these ones are just quite well known so they’ll be easy to find as introductions: 

The King’s Avatar - drama, manhua, donghua, audiobook. A modern story about esports players, and slice of life. Generally well liked in all formats.

The Untamed - drama. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/MoDaoZuShi - manhua, donghua, novel. A xianxia bl story about two cultivators in love, about justice and war. The drama is not the highest budget/prettiest of all cdrama options, but it was well received and liked. Many people also loved the novel and donghua. 

Word of Honor - drama. Tian Ya Ke - novel. A wuxia bl story, with found family. There’s a lot more iconic wuxia shows out there (Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Handsome Siblings, maybe Evernight), but this one was quite popular last year and is on a bunch of streaming platforms. 

Detective L (drama, youtube), My Roommate is a Detective (drama, iqiyi) - they may not be perfect dramas, but both are VERY in the style of Sherlock type stories and so if you like detective shows like Sherlock, Elementary, etc then this is a taste of the similar genre stuff in chinese dramaland.

Nirvana in Fire - political historical drama, one of the most well known well loved cdramas. 

Someday or One Day - a short taiwan drama, cool concept with time travel and slice of life of a woman’s life and connections. Its mostly realism with some fantastical elements, was well received, and is a good taste of the more realistically shot/presented kinds of dramas you can find in mandarin if you go looking. (I also really like History 3: Trapped - a taiwan bl between a cop and gang leader investigating a murder case, and Bromance taiwan drama with Baron Chen a slice of life/gang boss reformed/gender-exploring drama).

Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - drama, novel. (Not my favorite I really don’t love this one, same with Ashes of Love, but they’re very popular and very much embody a particular kind of romance xianxia style story that a lot of dramas are - I’d personally recommend instead though that you watch Love and Redemption, or Love and Destiny. But if you want to see the hype or maybe EL or AoL appeal to you, they’re worth checking out - regardless of your preference, they have very well known well loved actors who give excellent performances).

Dao Mu Bi Ji/The Lost Tomb/The Lost Tomb 2/Ultimate Note/The Lost Tomb Reboot (Reunion Sound of the Providence) - dramas, novels, a LOT. Basically pick one. Whatever one sounds good to you on mydramalist. If you like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, Lara Croft, these are a taste of cdrama tomb raiding genre horror/action stuff. There’s more dramas in this kind of genre (like Candle in the Tomb). dmbj dramas vary in quality, pacing, budget, etc, so not all will necessarily appeal if one does. But its good to know the genre exists. 

Under The Skin, The Bad Kids, The Long Night - dramas, pick one. Basically crime/thriller modern setting realistic drama genre. These are some of the more popular recently made ones. 

My personal recommendations (which will NOT suit everyone’s tastes so by all means feel free to ignore these): Guardian (if you like Buffy The Vampire Slayer/The X Files/Torchwood and can tolerate 90s quality special effects), Bureau of Transformer (if you like Star Trek/Black Mirror/In The Flesh and want something incredibly well written), Ice Fantasy (if you want Really Fantasy), Romance of Tiger and Rose (if/when you get used to some cdrama tropes this show excellently plays with a lot of them comedically), Till Death Tear Us Apart (bl, period piece spy romance, happy ending, full of action, very charming), Love and Redemption (my favorite romance xianxia drama), Men With Sword (NOT for everyone but its all men world of bl in fight between warring kingdoms fantasy and it is Something), The Wolf (a very fairytale esque wolf-boy/princess historical fantasy drama), Goodbye My Princess (a phenomenal fantasy historical romantic tragedy), Secret of the Three Kingdoms (I am so biased but I do adore this drama), Humans (cdrama adaptation of shows by the same name - Ma Tianyu is in this and I love seeing a futuristic sci fi cdrama).  

[lesmond-sycamore]

Please tell us the "useless" mcsm facts

HI THANK YOU FOR ASKING I HAVE A LOT OF THESE. To my knowledge none of these are listed on the fan wiki so you're getting ~exclusive knowledge~ that I've learned/noticed from my 100+ hours of playing and some snooping on Eric Stirpe's tumblr. I don't know how many of these are actually console-specific so just know I play on Switch and PC and all the screenshots are from my Switch.

- Jens is at Endercon!

- Holding left/right before Jesse gets caught in the tractor beam of the Witherstorm when running out of Endercon (right before the gate) and continuing to hold it on the death screen causes Jesse to slide off the screen.

- Magnus's intro in "The Order of the Stone" has a picture of a cat on the left side of the screen. I have no idea whose cat this is.

- Jack can be seen twice before Jesse and Petra officially meet him. You can see him once in the credits and again if you make Jesse walk past the piston and towards the mine until the camera changes and then walk back to the piston.

- Jesse can say Harper's name before she even gives it to them by selecting "There's no place to hide out here." while in the ditch.

- In the Spanish sub of Season 1 a lot of the lines are just. not translated. I can't speak for the other languages though.

- Gill can be seen multiple times throughout Endercon. He's at the DJ booth, but he doesn't move, have a shadow, or despawn for some reason.

- Anytime the game shows the big zoom-out of the Portal Hall (end of "Order Up!" and the beginning of "Access Denied"), there are no purple portals, but in playable parts, there are purple portals.

- Also in the zoom-out, there's a green portal that gives off a red glow for some reason.

-Eric Stripe didn't like the fact that Reuben was killed and wanted to bring him back for Season 3 before it got scrapped. He was going to be the Reuben of another universe where Jesse was killed by the Witherstorm and be battle-hardened.

- Female Jesse gets misgendered in "Assembly Required" by Ellegaard calling them "Non-Goggle Guy," a Boomtown resident using "him" for them, and of course, being called "King of Boomtown," which could just be a joke since they also call themself that.

- Soren can actually be seen outside hanging out with the endermen!

- Petra appears (and by "appearing" I mean has a speaking role and has some bearing on the episode's plot because she does appear in the "Previously on MCSM" in "Assembly Required" but I don't count that) in every single episode unless you choose Gabriel over her in "The Order of the Stone."

- If you look at the well while searching for Reuben and back out (at least on Switch) this happens.

It can be fixed by walking in circles or interacting with the costume.

- In the Spanish dub of Season 2 in "Giant Consequences" when Stella and "Vos" are floating down the water canals, the scene is super slowed down and genuinely nightmare fuel.

- There's a beta version of "Training Montage" in the files. It's file name is "The" and sounds more electronic.

- Also in the files for every episode in Season 1 is every sound file from Minecraft??? They're all labeled "source_(minecraft file name)"

- Xara's cell wouldn't work in actual Minecraft. Pistons can't move obsidian.

- Also something that doesn't work is Romeo's sacrifice where he runs back after you try to take him with you but you took Radar to the surface in "Beneath the Bedrock" and Radar's hero scene where he runs in with the giant enderman to save the day. The bridge is destroyed, but for both scenes, the devs replaced the non-existent bridge so they could have their big moments.

- Also speaking of bridges, I don't know what causes this (I think it's the decision to stay and help Ellegaard try and make the command block), but the Redstonia bridge Jesse jumps off of can have a larger gap that results Jesse running on mid-air. The high-quality one is the normal bridge and the two crunchy ones are the bugged-out bridge. (Sorry for the quality on the right ones, I had to screenshot my phone recording of it.)

- Ivor was going to have a different plot in Season 2 involving him being all fixed-up by Harper (like what he looks like in Season 2) and was going to be on a quest for Soren that would gradually make him fall back into his old eccentric ways as the game progressed.

- If you rebuild Reuben's monument and then die to the strays, the monument you rebuilt will still be there even though the dialogue still says it was destroyed.

- Also while on the topic of strays, there are multiple mentions of 1.11 features (llamas, woodland mansions, etc), but there are only 2 mentions of 1.10 features (polar bears that show up in the credits of "A Journey's End?" as Jesse enters the Competitor's Village and the 5 strays Jesse fights in "Giant Consequences."

There you go! I have a few more, but they're mainly just mentions of bugs/glitches I've seen throughout the course of playing. Thanks for letting me dump a bunch of these!

[ressyfaerie]

OKAY YALL. 

I haven’t been paying attention at all. 

Do you want to be really angry,

Like really, really angry? 

I’m putting this in a read more since there’s going to be a LOT and it may start a FIRE.

It was a lonely snowy night in the north of British Columbia Canada.

Just kidding.

For real though- I had no internet! We could only watch TV on satellite (the only anime I watched was on YTV). If it snowed in the winter we had to go outside and brush the snow off the satellite to continue watching Beyblade or Inuyasha. 

So I was 5-6 when I first started watching Beyblade. Of course I LOVED IT. I would rush home to try to watch it everyday. Beyblade has just airing and it was a HIT. I watched season 1 religiously, I actually don’t remember watching much of V-force or G-rev but that’s probably because it wasn’t made yet lmao. 

I grew up in a small town, whatever you’re imagining, imagine it smaller. (I could write a whole essay on the social hierarchy of Port Ed in the early 2000s but I’ll keep it short for now) White kids= rich/ pretentious, Native kids=poor. I didn’t like the attitude of most of the white girls, so I mostly made friends with the native kids (I miss yall btw) but anyways, this is where you’re going to get angry.

So I didn’t know what Japanese WAS. Like I knew what Chinese was (Small town surrounded by racists? Who would have guessed?) I don’t even think I knew Japanese existed, but any other anime I watched (Sailor moon, Inuyasha, Gundam Wing) most of the characters were white representing or had extremely light skin tones.

So what the heck was 5 year old me supposed to do with beyblade? Which was a show filled with lots of different ethnicities? 5 year old me was obsessed with beyblade, tearing apart every episode I saw, so I gathered: Max=American, Ray=Chinese, Kai=Russian (Because that’s what matched with all their championships, makes sense to a kid right?)

But what WAS Japanese? I dunno? But you know who Tyson looked like? 

My chubby native friends.

THAT’S RIGHT

YALL ARE DEBATING BIRACIAL KAI

LITTLE ME THOUGHT TYSON WAS NATIVE FOR YEEEAAAARRRSSSSS.

I’m laughing as I write this, when I learned Japan was indeed a real place, it didn’t dawn on me immediately. It still took finding beyblade online when I was like 11, re-watching it and being like ‘huh’. (Note: Remember when beyblade was on youtube but each episode was like 4 parts? Good times.) 

So, on the topic of Kai.

First of all, I need to point something out that I deem obvious, but must be said. 

Beyblade (As well as many other shows from long ago (Yugioh, Naruto, Inuyasha, and Sailor moon come to mind), a lot of us latched on to these shows so hard because of trauma or lonely childhoods. Which means a lot of us find our connections to these shows or characters very personal, which is why it’s hard to break headcannons. It’s more than a fandom for us, and any of us who feel this way, are risking their comfort show to involve themselves in the fandom (This is why I believe a lot of beyblade fans don’t interact with fandom, and I go out of my way to warmly welcome all whenever I can)

It needs to be said, that you owe no explanation to anyone, and neither do I, nor do I apologize for my headcannons.  

With this being said, I knew eventually the fandom would blow up (as it has many times, over the idea of biracial Kai/ Kai with Russian ancestry/ Japanese Kai), now that it has hit so close to home, I feel the need to validate my decision to make Kai biracial in my two long main fics. However, it needs to be stated, I am not doing this to validate myself, but because I simply want to talk about it, I’m not explaining, or apologizing, simply stating some facts, and how I feel. 

For a lot of us, these characters are so personal and we’ve kept them for so long that they’re verging on OC’s, this is NOT YOUR JOB to point out! Although I believe my Kai is very close to canon, there’s many things that aren’t, regardless, myself and many others, still belong to the fandom. 

Back to my childhood:

FINALLY DIAL-UP INTERNET!

The first thing I did when I learned how to read and had private access to internet was google ‘Kai Beyblade’, if you asked, I probably would have said a child’s equivalent to ‘“fuck you that’s why”. 

I learned his last name was Hiwatari, and man, I thought that was SO COOL. But that wasn’t a Russian name was it? I dived further, I don’t think the beyblade wiki even existed at this point, I think I was reading everything off of wikipedia. What I read was: Kai’s father was Russian and his mother was Japanese. I didn’t think too much of it, I mean, it made sense. It would explain Voltaire’s connection to Russia. Later on I realised it made more sense for Kai’s mother to be Russian since the Hiwatari name is Japanese and would most likely come from his grandfather, and for some reason, I was convinced Susumu was Voltaire’s son. The idea of Voltaire marrying his son off to some Russian heiress made so much sense to me. I never read fics, my ideas were definitely influenced by wiki edits, I had no reason to doubt it, or think any differently, I think a lot of people followed the same footsteps. It’s interesting to think that’s how headcanons became universal back in the day. 

I learned the manga existed after a trip to Metrotown Vancouver where I bought every volume they had (3 lmao) (I still haven’t read every volume, and will when I can afford them). 

I just always assumed Kai was biracial, IT JUST MADE SENSE. Kai’s family’s deep ties to Russia, the reason why he knew Russian (regardless of the Abbey), his figure compared to Tyson’s in season 1, I had no reason to doubt it, and it seemed the Dub side of the internet agreed! 

When I wrote my fanfics at 18-19, 5 (years ago now, wow), I still assumed Kai was biracial. Only recently have I dived into the fandom and got into every side (Sub, Dub, Manga). I learned there’s 3 things Dub/Sub/Manga people will instantly fight over: Kai’s race, character’s names, and their ages. 

The reason these three things are so debated is because of the dramatically different storylines/ differences in language versions. The Dub and Sub are two completely different shows when played side by side. I am most familiar with the Dub, as it stays close to my heart, which influences most of my headcanons.

I still headcanon Kai as biracial. We actually don’t know much about his parents, and canon is very loosey goosey. We’re learning more in Rising, but I highly doubt Takao Aoki is going to be like “AND THEN KAI’S MOM WENT TO VISIT HER RUSSIAN FAMILY IS RUSSIA BECAUSE SHE IS RUSSIAN” I’m not going to go into super detail why I think it’s likely that Kai is biracial, but you know what? It doesn’t really matter. This fandom is old, and being from the early 2000’s that means the dub is much different, which means there are MULTIPLE versions of canons. I guarantee you, in every version there is something problematic, and one of the least important ones, is whether or not the fandom white-washes Kai by making him biracial (Maybe full Russia could be an issue, but you know what? Does it really matter?). You know what DOES MATTER. What they did to Eddy, they did that boy dirty. 

I mean they LITERALLY white-washed him. LIKE. 

Also changing Tyson/ Takao’s skin tone in G-rev/ V-force will forever annoy me; that might be an asian skin whitening thing though, still, problematic.

But anyways, in the end I’m sure the reason why the English fandom so frequently headcanons Kai as biracial is not because of white-washing, but because of the time the Dub was created. 

The early 2000’s was an interesting time. Some towns were still stuck in the 90’s, lots of kids had no access to the internet, and when they finally DID, they did not use it wisely. Misinformation was spread easily. Not many people in America read the manga, and very few people watched the Sub.

People like me, young and old, filled in the gaps that were missing.

It’s been 20 YEARS GUYS. A lot has changed. Headcanons that aren’t problematic will stick. As long as it’s not hurting anybody, or anyone else, it’s really not a bad thing. 

Our main focus should be to keep the fandom going! We can’t die, we’ve been together too long to die and I refuse to let it happen, where will I get my serotonin from?? 

Here’s a pic of my love to end it off:

Dumb idiot loser fuckin smiles fucking lunatic.

[shihalyfie]

hi! this is out of curiosity, since when do you start to watch adv series in its original jap. ver.? do you find any difficulty in trying to adapt, get used to it? like the voices, names of the characters, music, the way the story is presented. i first watch the series in my own language and the english ver (not the us ver., more like asian english ver.) before i encounter the original jap. ver. during my teenage years and get used to it over time until now. i'm okay with dub ver, but i always prefer, love to watch the jap. ver. more than other dubs.

(Note: This was cleared up later with the asker and various parties, so mostly leaving this for posterity: while it's not universally well-known, "J*p" is a slur originating from WWII, so I ask that people please be careful about not using that even as an abbreviation.)

Regardless of language, I've always been interested in original versions of any dubbed media for as long as I've been consuming media (I won't say I'm necessarily a purist, I just happen to have a natural curiosity for what must have been the original source), so I'd been interested in the Japanese version of Digimon ever since I first got into it, and had been following it ever since it started getting translated. If you know anything about Digimon and subbing, it actually took some years for most early Digimon series to get decent quality subs in full, so I thank everyone involved for their hard work, especially since the prevailing attitude at the time was that "the (American) English dub didn't change anything substantial anyway" (ignoring the fact that there would still be good reason to have the Japanese version on hand even if that were the case...) and the demand for it was even more niche than it is now.

I didn't really have problems getting used to names. I did have to get used to the voices, because since I got in with the American English dub initially, I had a strong attachment to the voices I'd associated with them there (and I still do, even if I haven't fully watched the dub in years!), so there would be things like Yamato (Kazama Yuuto)'s voice being much deeper than I'd expected, or Agumon's voice being completely different in general, but I got used to it quickly because I felt like everyone fit their character perfectly in their own way. The music was a bit surprising, but I was never too incredibly attached to the original music anyway so it was mostly just discovering something new and fun. Other than that, I guess I was incredibly surprised by how different of an impression 02 gave me, especially Daisuke; having been eyeing 02 in Japanese since translation efforts first started, I knew there had been some changes (Hurricane Touchdown...) but the actual degree really surprised me, especially since, as I said, the prevailing attitude was that "it didn't change much". Part of the reason I write so extensively about how much the 02 dub changed is that I personally witnessed firsthand how much my perception of the series abruptly shifted after my first time watching it in Japanese, and how nearly impossible it became to hold analytical conversations about certain smaller details with people who mistakenly over-applied dub things to the Japanese version because "we're actually talking about two different things, aren't we..." never comes up thanks to how prevalent this myth is. Driving this home further, I don't have this issue at all with fans who had their own local dubs more closely adapted from the Japanese version, so the problem really isn't whether it was in Japanese or not, or whether it was a dub or not, as much as the fact "the script really did change that much".

Currently, I guess I would say I have a pretty complicated relationship with Digimon's American English dubs. Like I said, I don't necessarily think I'm a purist or anything, and even though I have an increased stake in watching things in Japanese since I can actually understand much more about the language than I used to, I myself still enjoy a good dub and also completely understand and appreciate the nature of what dubbing entailed in those days, the dub's role in getting Digimon to a wider audience, the reason people prefer dubs and how important this one is to people, and, heck, I still love the voice actors. At the same time, this "it didn't change anything significant" myth has been really damaging and frustrating to deal with, because you get pointless, unnecessary arguments about people trying to talk about two very different versions of the series and arguing because they don't realize the characters they're discussing weren't even written similarly (hi, Mimi and Daisuke). Even if people do acknowledge the changes, there's also a tendency to worship that dub, so even though I feel my complaints about it are pretty legitimate ones (my gripes mainly being that I'm uncomfortable with the characterization changes, I feel many of the changes caused a significant adverse impact on the story and characterization integrity especially in the case of 02, and I get a bit of a bad feeling about some of the cultural localization attempts in dialogue borderline crossing into racism), it's frustrating to constantly get shut down because everything should be excused as long as it was in someone's childhood, and it's also frustrating to see these dismissals applied to people who had their own aforementioned local dubs and are upset at how this impacted their own childhood, but are thrown under the bus because their own dub is treated disrespectfully as if it were "secondary" to the American English dub somehow being the enforced, mandated standard for any kind of localized Digimon outside Japan.

I completely understand that a lot of this is lashback developed from Japanese-version-only purist camps being obnoxious about dunking on dubs, but it's uncomfortable observing the results of the fallout when you're kind of here in the middle not wanting to dunk on it for the sake of dunking on it, but also having concerns that you feel everyone is dismissing you for. (Not helping is also the fact that obnoxious purists love to dunk on people for having a personal preference for dubs; there are a lot of reasons to prefer them even if you're aware of the changes, personal emotional attachment and accessibility reasons being among them, and my grievances have more to do with the "it didn't change anything" myth still being prevalent, the experiences of having any criticism I have of it being so easily dismissed, and the fact that a combination of both means that having strong loyalty to the Japanese version gets you pinned as being an unusual purist or being overly picky.)

Also, I think one thing that isn't often talked about is that there's a huge difference between the dubs of everything up to 02 and the dubs of everything between Tamers and Savers (Xros Wars we'll...leave aside for now, haha). In the case of the latter, the aggressive joke-adding is much less intrusive, the changes (including to characterization) are less significant, and you can even see this in that Diablomon Strikes Back's dub has much closer dialogue and characterization to the original than anything else from the 02 dub. So a lot of what I said above actually just applies to Adventure and 02 more than anything. For series after, I don't make it a habit to watch their dubs as often these days, but I'm still familiar with them and have my own pretty strong sense of nostalgia for the Tamers and Frontier ones in particular, and for anything after 02, I haven't had any particular experience with other fans regarding trying to discuss the series but finding we're talking about two different things, other than maybe one or two minor things that had to be cleared up every so often. So in that case I myself also agree more with the idea of mostly treating the dubbed and Japanese versions as the same thing, whereas with Adventure and 02 I honestly feel they need to be treated as separate and distinct things.

In the end I guess the take-home I have here is that I feel like my experience going from the dub to the Japanese version has been a lot less shocking or eventful than dealing with the perceptions and stigmas around them from other people...^^;;

[chaosmax]

No screenshots bc DVD at home and amz.n doesn’t allow screenshots--

Diva/Aigami!Dub :“When the pharaoh leaves this world, the power of the Plana will be granted. But shall he ever return, this power will be recanted....[the power to remake the very fiber of reality. I will use this powr to avenge him [Shadi]]”

Diva/Aigami!Sub: “Evil souls will transform into light, and the door to a new dimension will open. The people who have noble souls will create a new orderly world of light.”

Because I’m not dedicated enough to make a huge list of sub and dub comparisons of DSoD I’m going to be using this one line to illustrate my general thoughts on the matter. I do want to preface this post by saying I’m in no way trying to rip on the dub or vice versa. There are some things from the sub I like better and some from the dub I like better (for real, hilarious lines like ‘You fight me with fruit’ and ‘perfectly coiffed hair’ would only happen in the dub & I love it xD and even more powerful ones like ‘You set me up... But I knew you’d set me up.’) Also, given accessibility for many people, dubs are honestly necessary, not everyone can read subtitles. It doesn’t always mean they’re being that lazy English speaker (tm) who can’t be bothered. I will also say I don’t know too much about the dubbing process and what goes on, if the dubbing writers get to see a full translation of the original script, if they get to talk to Japanese people during the process, if the VA’s get to read the original script as well, etc. So keep that in mind.

However-- This scene itself is one of the perfect reasons why when analyzing lore stuff of any artistic creation that gets localized, I use the original Japanese first and foremost. I think people that only see the dub sometimes forget that a lot can be altered in the translation or give off a totally different vibes because LANGUAGE IS COMPLICATED.

Both versions are sort of saying the same thing, but given how word diction works and how it’s phrased if you only watch one version you can get totally different vibes from the same scene that hasn’t really been censored in any way. (As for once, DSoD had no censorship between versions) Order, diction, what is said and what is left out and emphasis can make the same idea/sentence have many different meanings in English and different things can be inferred from what is said and what is not.

The Dub line here is very vague, it says the power of the Plana and talks about how it can rewrite reality-- but what that truly means is left pretty open-ended. It’s far less explained what the Plana as a whole is shooting for and more so focuses on Diva’s personal vengeance.  This can make the plots of the Plana seem kind of foolish and confusing because it's far less concrete-- it makes them harder to sympathize with because we don’t understand really what they are after and why--we see Diva’s desire for revenge at that moment and that’s about it (which he later lets go too, so).

The Sub line is still pretty vague because the Plana is a soft magic system, but it is also used more in an example and says exactly what can be accomplished with its power. This one is saying that everyone evil (unknown if that includes people that aren’t outright evil but aren’t Plana members) will be changed into light and a new dimension/world will open and in that new world the Plana will be able to create a utopia, (which makes a lot of sense given how many Buddhism motifs and ideas are alluded to by the Plana it’s not a 1:1 with it, but there are a lot of simularatires).  Through this version it’s not all about revenge as the end goal, it’s to achieve things thing that has both been promised to them and also this mission that has been entrusted to the Plana to create this new world free from Earthly suffering. This is far more understandable and easier to sympathize with because we actually understand it better. Or at least know more what it is about. There’s a concrete A -> B.

But not only the Plana members, but it also makes everyone’s else’s actions more powerful-- we know better what the Plana is capable of and thus when Yugi turns down the offer to join it’s much more powerful. But that’s a post for another day.

Back to the main point, this doesn’t mean the Sub is # better than the dub in every way fite me -- ugh no. It just means it often elaborates more which in some cases can make it more compelling (though of course the Sub has its weaknesses as well and so does the manga, which of course, the movie was following the manga continuity). And at the end of the day, because the movie was made in Japan in Japanese even though the translation process has room for error in itself as you often can’t get across the exact meaning you want (or certain cultural things are a given in one culture and not the other) it is closer to what KT & the other staff intended than a dub which has passed production hands several times. In many cases the sub and dub of yugioh are so different you have to treat them as separate entirely.

This isn’t to say people can’t enjoy dubs or draw upon them for fanwork or their own personal viewing/reading of the content, of course not (personally I take a mixture of both). I guess all I’m saying is it frustrates me when there are as big gaps as there are and different vibes between the versions that people will do things such as write off Kaiba’s actions in DSoD as “lmao so stupid what a sore loser lmao he’s never gonna win give it up bro”  or knock Diva only down to “petty/revenge dude who wants revenge (tm)” when there are so many more layers that were meant to be present, but got altered and the vibe the work as a whole changes just by a bit of a language barrier and how specific and finicky word choice is.

[meimae]

overview.

If you’re reading this, I guess you’re curious about how I’ve stumbled into the world of language learning, and why I was interested in making Japanese my third language. 

tl;dr I’ve wanted to learn and acquire the Japanese language for so long, I’m finally doing something about it. also, I do not claim to be an expert. I’m just a sad bean making the best out of a bad situation

From a young age, I’ve been exposed to a lot of subbed/dubbed anime thanks to the local channels that will always, to this day, broadcast tons of different Japanese TV shows (yes, even the iconic game show, Takeshi’s Castle)! Needless to say, a lot of kids in my country find it normal to consume ridiculous amounts of Japanese content, albeit dubbed by the same five voice actors. 

Many of my peers have remained interested in anime and manga culture including myself. For me, not only was there hundreds of hours of accessible  and enjoyable content, but the language and culture in itself was extremely interesting to me and the only way to unlock every aspect of it is to learn the language. After all, if learning the language meant being able to watch anime without subtitles or dubs, immediately reading the latest manga release, and the best bit of all, never having to wait for translations for the next big Haruki Murakami novel, then of course the next logical step would be to sign up for the next available Japanese language class. 

And that I did. 

I first studied Japanese as an elective at university in 2017 using a popular beginner textbook. I needed to take a few electives to complete my degree, and I didn’t even have to think twice: I signed up the very moment a slot was available. When those classes were done and dusted, I realized that we spent two semesters in class studying only eight chapters of the textbook, therefore barely making a dent in basic grammar. It was a fun class - I had a cool professor, a native Japanese assistant teacher, and great classmates, but ultimately, it wasn’t the most efficient or effective way for me to learn a language.

When I graduated, I made the attempt to self-study, but it unfortunately led me nowhere, and it wasn’t because I was lazy, made excuses, or couldn’t manage my time well. I was stuck in the beginner trap - stuck learning the same grammar points, stuck answering dozens of textbook exercises, and stuck fantasizing about reaching “fluency”. Needless to say, I burnt out and dropped Japanese for a while.

When I had the urge to study again, I scoured the web for better ways to acquire languages, and eventually stumbled upon the SRS in September 2019. Later in March 2020, when the pandemic hit and lockdowns were implemented, I finally took the plunge and started immersion based learning - actively reading and watching everything in Japanese. Since then, I’ve seen myself progress by leaps and bounds. At the time of writing (Mar-Oct 2020), I am able to understand some shows without subtitles, and read raw text with the help of a few dictionary look ups.

Frankly, I still have a very long way to go, but I feel confident that I’m finally on the right track towards Japanese language acquisition. Stick around if you’re interested in my progress!

[monochrome-in-madness]

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My Top 10 Favourite Horrors

Within this top 10 list, some will include the prequels, sequels and any other follow ups as 1 ranking number. Some may be considered thriller, sci-fi, suspence etc, however, I do regard these as horrors myself.

I have take many aspects into account, such as videography, actor quality, SFX makeup quality, soundtrack, directors, CGI etc.

Note : this is my personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, though if you haven't seen these, I highly reccomend them.

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1. The Conjuring

(1 & 2)

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The Conjuring 1 :

The Perron family moves into a farmhouse where they experience paranormal phenomena. They consult demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, to help them get rid of the evil entity haunting them.

The Conjuring Trailer :

The Conjuring 2 :

Peggy, a single mother of four children, seeks the help of occult investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren when she and her children witness strange, paranormal events in their house

The Conjuring 2 Trailer :

My Opinion :

The Conjuring was the start of an incredible series of horrors that beat any other horror to the ground. It is absolutely fantastic and I basically worship these films. James Wan is my favourite director and he never ceases to amaze me.

Paranormal horror is my favourite and as someone who actually believes in the paranormal and who has had paranormal experiences, I can confirm that The Conjuring is much more realistic than any other paranormal films, which just makes it extra spooky.

The actors, camera angles, music, sfx makeup and storyline is just - chefs kiss -. I've been waiting for the 3rd one for so long, but they keep extending the release date. (R. I. P)

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2. Annabelle

(all of them)

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Annabelle :

John and Mia Form are attacked by a Satan worshipping couple, who uses their doll as a conduit to make their life miserable. This unleashes a string of paranormal events in the Forms' residence.

Annabelle Trailer :

Annabelle Creation :

Samuel and Elle embed their daughter's spirit into a doll, only to realise it is a demon. Years later, they open their home to a nun and six orphan girls, one of whom finds the doll.

Annabelle Creation Trailer :

Annabelle Comes Home :

Judy and her babysitter are left alone in her house after her parents leave to investigate a case. However, an unexpected guest sets Annabelle free, unleashing demonic activity in the house.

Annabelle Comes Home Trailer :

My Opinion :

Another great film series that was birthed form The Conjuring. Definitely less realistic, with many more jumpscares and spooky characters, which is appreciated in the horror world. Many people find dolls far more creepy than ghosts, myself included, so that's another perfect aspect that adds to the suspense.

I prefer Annabelle 3 over the others, mainly because I found that one to be more scary overall, even though Daniela is an idiot and she makes me so frustrated 😂

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3. Saw

(all of them)

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For the totally unindoctrinated, the Saw movie franchise revolves around the Jigsaw Killer (a.k.a. John Kramer), who tortures victims he believes are complacent or guilty, in order to make them appreciate their time on Earth.

All Saw Trailers :

Obviously I'm not going to list every Saw movie, because there are 7 (Jigsaw aka number 8, does NOT count. It is a disgrace).

My Opinion :

A classic for horror and gore lovers of all kinds. Of course I need to list this as number 3. I simply adore these movies. I even have the DVD set, so I am definitely a long term fan haha.

The obstacles and creativity regarding Saw as a whole needed a lot of thought put into it, plus it has a happy little side note of "make sure you don't cause harm to others in life and don't take anything for granted" which some may have not even noticed while being overwhelmed by the amount of fake blood.

Yes, a lot of characters are annoying, but that just makes us enjoy seeing them tortured even more (shh it's not real). Some of the blood doesn't look very realistic, the sfx can lack attention, BUT... It's still great and I can overlook these few flaws to appreciate the movies to the max.

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4. Blair Witch

(2016)

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A young man and his friends venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mystery surrounding his missing sister. Many believe her disappearance 17 years earlier is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch.

At first the group is hopeful, especially when two locals act as guides through the dark and winding woods. As the night wears on, a visit from a menacing presence soon makes them realize that the legend is all too real, and more sinister than they could have ever imagined.

Blair Witch Trailer :

My Opinion :

I love the camerawork. Not because it's perfect, because it's the opposite. It's a documentary style and this makes it feel more realistic, as if you are within the film yourself. I enjoy how they skip to the action at just the right time after a mild buildup.

The visuals are great as well and there were definitely some parts where I was disgusted and claustrophobic, which is good to experience while enjoying these types of films.

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5. Under The Skin

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Disguising itself as a human female, an extraterrestrial drives around Scotland attempting to lure unsuspecting men into her van. Once there, she seduces and sends them into another dimension where they are nothing more than meat.

Under The Skin Trailer :

My Opinion :

I would classify this as horror, but many won't. Either way, this is an amazingly artistic film with beautiful imagery and silent awe. It definitely makes you feel the suspense in a calming manner and it has some really dark moments. Without reading the description, one might be confused as to what is going on, but how art is supposed to be interpretated is by the imagination of individuals.

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6. Veronica

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During a solar eclipse, young Verónica and her friends want to summon the spirit of Verónica's father using an Ouija board. However, during the session she loses consciousness and soon it becomes clear that evil demons have arrived.

Veronica Trailer :

My Opinion :

A Spanish masterpiece, to put it simply. It's hard to find proper horrors like this in English. I really enjoyed this one and I watched it subbed not dubbed, because I feel like voiceovers tend to ruin the art of the original film. The buildup is perfect and unlike many horrors, it barely shows you the face of the "monster". That leaves it to the imagination, which in general makes it far more scary.

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7. Underwater

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Disaster strikes more than six miles below the ocean surface when water crashes through the walls of a drilling station. Led by their captain, the survivors realize that their only hope is to walk across the sea floor to reach the main part of the facility. But they soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they come under attack from mysterious and deadly creatures that no one has ever seen.

Underwater Trailer :

My Opinion :

This movie was released quite recently and I didn't know what to expect. I was definitely blown away by how good it was. Being trapped underwater gives most people a sense of anxiety. Add being trapped underwater and being hunted by creepy sea monsters and you've got yourself a good horror. Kristen Stewarts general anxious personality definitely suits this film well.

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8. Split

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Kevin, who is suffering from dissociative identity disorder and has 23 alter egos, kidnaps three teenagers. They must figure out his friendly personas before he unleashes his 24th personality.

Split Trailer :

https://youtu.be/84TouqfIsiI

My Opinion :

An incredible film with phenomenal acting on the part of James McAvoy. You can get lost within his character and almost feel as if you are the character itself. Suspense is built up slowly and the climax of the film is released rapidly. People I know who do not enjoy horror, love this film themselves, which is saying something. It's definitely one of the best modern films that draws you in from the start. 

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9. A Quiet Place

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A family struggles for survival in a world where most humans have been killed by blind but noise-sensitive creatures. They are forced to communicate in sign language to keep the creatures at bay.

A Quiet Place Trailer :

https://youtu.be/WR7cc5t7tv8

My Opinion :

As you can tell by now, I love anything alien related. This film has some of the most amazing looking aliens I've seen, I was honestly in awe by how great they looked. Another silent film, but in a different sense to the previous one. Instead of being the hunter, this family is being hunted and this adds more to the fear factor.

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10. Unfriended - Dark Web

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When a teen finds a laptop with a cache of hidden files, he and his friend discover that the previous owner has access to the dark web and is watching over them.

Unfriended - Dark Web Trailer :

https://youtu.be/XenTM_C9fxM

My Opinion :

A modern take on horror. Involving the actual dangers of the dark web and the use of technology and turning it into a horror was a magnificent idea. It definitely had me at the edge of my seat.

Due to another film type that is not often explored (thus being that most of the movie is equal to what it would be like to look at your computer and video chat), it makes it different and therefore more compelling than the usual videography styles.

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Thank you for reading, if you've made it this far! Feel free to share your top 10 in the comment section, I am definitely interested in your opinions and finding new movies to watch myself. Any questions are also welcome.

Until next time, take care and stay spooky!

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[thefloatingstone]

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Not much to say this time. I was actually scrolling something and realised I wanted to point to some places where you can, specifically, watch movies online. And then I remembered I’ve made 3 of these playlists so I might as well make this one of them.

Like I said, this time around I have places where you can watch full length movies for free and that aren’t part of a streaming subscription. For the most part legally and not on some shady website or with the need of a torrent client or anything like that. Just easily accessible movies.

Please enjoy! In no particular order;

Wu Tang Collection

A youtube channel dedicated to archiving as many vintage martial arts movies as possible. Most of their films have their cheesy 70s and 80s dubbing, and include everything from true cornerstones of the film genre to silly exploitative nonsense like a collection of “Brucesploitation” movies starring actors like Bruce Li, Bruce Lai, Bruce Le etc etc.

They have films mostly in dubbed english but also have spanish dubs, english subbed, French dubbed, and original language versions.

They also include playlists of female martial artists, Wi Xia, and even documentaries on martial arts.

Korean Classic Film

an Archive channel dedicated to preserve Korea’s classic cinema, focusing mainly on live action. The backlog of films goes all the way to the 1930s and most of their movies have english subs. They also have certain films with French and Italian subs as well as Korean subs. They don’t focus on a specific genre and you can find a bit of everything here.

Mosfilm Official

The official Youtube channel of Mosfilm,(Мосфильм) one of the oldest and largest film studios in Russia and Eastern Europe. Their youtube channel has an archive of several Soviet films most of which have english subtitles. Navigation might be a little difficult unless you can read Russian as the films are all titled with their original titles, but if you know what film you want to watch and have google on hand it shouldn’t be too hard! Probably a good move would be too google “best Mosfilms” or “best USSR movies” or something for a top 10 list and go from there!

TOEI Tokusatsu World Official

Not exactly full length movies but still worth mentioning is TOEI’s official youtube channel where they’ve been archiving their libraries of vintage Tokusatsu shows from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. They upload regularly and are consistent with each show. Sadly, their videos don’t have english subtitles on them, but seeing as tokusatsu are action focused, it’s not too hard to understand what’s going on,and maybe can help for anyone trying to learn Japanese! Plus, it’s just neat seeing what was popular on Showa-era TV.

Looking at the channel description;

“ We will update daily to share TOEI’s TOKUSATSU with the world. At launch, we will have the first two episodes of all 70 shows available with English subtitles! Further episodes will be available in Japanese for now, but there could be frequent updates. We plan on making a public call for subtitles in any language.”

(the channel was shut down a few months ago after TOEI’s channel got copyright claimed by a TOEI bot for “copyright infringement” LOL but it’s back now)

Ninja Warrior Worldwide

Also not movies but considering the length of these I might as well include this too. I was going to include a channel that uploads vintage horror movies but it seems the user tied to the channel got banned and so the channel was shut down with them which is super lame.

ANYWAY! This channel is awesome. It has the episodes of the Japanese obstacle course show “Sasuke” known as “Ninja Warrior” in other countries. The Japanese episodes don’t have subs but, being an obstacle course show, you don’t really need to understand anything.

I recently watched the 5 hour episode for 2019′s contest and I had no trouble understanding it.

Highly recommend.

Rifftrax

Rifftrax has a 24/7 running Twitch channel which plays their catalogue of B-movie and shorts for free (unless you feel like subscribing or however Twitch works). It’s an official Twitch and so it supports Rifftrax directlyand you can just put it on and let it run for as long as you want. Only downside is you can’t pick what you watch. But honestly, It’s Rifftrax. You can’t go wrong.

That’s all I got for now. I could make an entire playlist for public domain movies you can find on their own on youtube, but I wanted to focus this list on channels rather than individual films. (btw “Stalker” is up to watch for free on Mosfilm’s channel, as is “Solaris”).

I know these may not be where your brain goes immediately for movies, perhaps, but there is honestly so much good stuff out there free for you to access that aren’t controlled or owned by The Mouse that are no less enjoyable or important.

I’ll make a post for specific movies next time.