#dadadada dadadada

[daffodil-screaming]

Publicly apologising to my wife for the fact it is gone midnight and I cannot stop singing the doctor who theme

@butch-snorlax its ur own fault

[samualcheese]

Real Or Cake

[taotaotaotaotaotaotao]

act like an angel n dress like crazy

[averagegtenjoyer]

Oh my god i love giant robots … giant robots who start off robotic but learn to love and to feel over time like humans. Giant robots who are built as weapons of mass destruction but have the capability to be gentle and kind. Giant robots who are built to be kind and gentle but are extremely destructive. Giant robots who have a special little guy they must protect at all costs who they grab and obsess with all the time. Giant robots who also have tiny human pilots. Giant robots that are equipped with gigantic military weapons and heavy machinery but have the cutest face and most pinchable cheeks ever. Ooh ya

[cozymochi]

For the TWST ask meme (if you haven't answered these ones already and I missed it) Favorite NRC staff member? Is there any character who seems to follow you (i.e. they always seem to pop up when you're trying to summon someone else)?

13. Favorite NRC Staff Member

SAM!!! I tried practicing drawing him the other day because I never actually did. Mostly for like a really arbitrary reason regarding whether or not to follow his JP appearance. Elements were removed for a reason I’m sure, even if it was possibly a case of over-correcting (see use of the word “master” being danced around, but don’t quote me I am merely speculating, especially because there is no official explantation behind why and never will be- I can speculate all I wanna but I think I will just do my own digging on my own time), and on that end I kinda got left in an awkward position lol. A part of me was experimenting with a compromise of sorts, but we’ll see how that goes, assuming I do it at all.

Besides, there’s allure in having less to draw lmao

Don’t mind the terribly off model exercises, I was just getting a feel. BECAUSE I WANNA USE HIM he’s kind of a big obvious elephant in the room for anyone who like reaaally cares about my little MC (*cricket noises*) and I have answers, but I wanna go crazy properly. (Granted, I haven’t really drawn any of the staff rip. BUT UNLIKE SAM, I have no reasons. See? Im uncool.)

I still wanna know more about him. But I guess I’ll have to wait until mmmmmm around next year maybe for [JP SPOILERS REDACTED].

8. ANSWERED

[greenlantrns]

cg ! robert ‘bob’ floyd

[necromycologist]

he he he cancelling all mgy posts i am a GENIUS !! go my scarab fetch me my crown

[gonedreaminggg]

i had a dream about dante, laurance, garroth, and travis being in a band it was so wild.

they were on jimmy fallon or sum shit idk i didn't see jimmy's face but it was def a late night show or smthn.

dante was lead vocals, garroth was on drums, travis played guitar, and laurance was the bassist.

idk why my mind came up with this but i want opinions on my funky dreams.

[thesnailtail]

;; minori would walk 500 miles and walk 500 more just to fall down in front of all of mmj

[chohkolatefreakshake]

Pictured: ex-void cat succumbing to the void

[bee-whistler]

I don’t wanna go where everybody knows my name… and they’re always glad I came. I don’t think we’re all the same. But I’ll tell you what… I would like to go where people get my pop culture references.

[copepods]

i feel like A Mothers Love gets so much (absolutely deserved) hype as Thee song in undertale yellow but that one part in the middle of Some Point of No Return is sooooo fucking good okay it plays on repeat in my head constantly

[juvederm]

baby baby baby baby baby aaaaaahhhhh

[millibelle]

I LOVE GROOVY LONG LEGS A NORMAL AMOUNT

[greatwyrmgold]

I have strong opinions about translating songs, derived in large part from listening to a lot of anime song covers. And I've been thinking about this because of "Useless Angel," the recent official English version of "DadadadaTenshi".

For comparison, here's the original Japanese. English subtitles are available.

Now, if you compare the official English lyrics to the translation of the Japanese lyrics, you'll notice a few things. The first is that the English grammar and pronunciation are...not exactly how a native speaker would say any of that. (It's not as bad as "Your Affection," you can definitely tell it's supposed to be English, but...writing the lyrics on screen is appreciated.)

Once you get around that, you'll notice that the lyrics are very different. For instance, the tenshi overcomes her uselessness with angelic power, while the angel uses her angel powers to overcome her flaws. Similar vibes, but the literal meanings are pretty different.

But if you were listening to the Japanese lyrics, you'll notice that the English lyrics sound very similar. "Dame [×4] na atashi wo; aishitene!" doesn't mean quite the same thing as "Darn it [×4] not a perfect girl; 'I love you' back!", but it has the same meter, same stressed syllables, and similar phonemes. "Useless Angel" doesn't always sound like it was written in English, but it does always sound like it was written with the melody in mind.

Most Anglophone anime song cover artists (or whoever they get their translations from) don't do this. They get a literal translation from some source or another, then find some way to contort that translation into the song's length, and that's it. Sometimes they don't even bother swapping synonyms around to make the syllable count match; they just get close enough and give some words extra notes or vise versa.

And that sounds like shit!

Lyrics aren't just a sideshow playing alongside the melody; they are the medium through which we hear the melody. Having lyrics that sound wrong—whether because of mismatched syllable count, mismatched syllable stress, or just trying to force words to blend together when they don't—is like playing an instrumental piece with out-of-tune instruments. Sometimes not even the right instruments—like, they didn't have a drummer, so the spare bassist just strummed their bass when the drummer should have hit a drum, and argh string instruments are terrible at percussion why are you doing this?

Song lyrics are not prose, they're poetry. They're art. Much like how anime subtitles should convey the essence of what the dialogue means over a literal translation of the words in the script, and much like how anime dubs need to follow the lip flaps even if that makes them deviate farther from the original Japanese, song lyrics need to be translated in a way that follows the song, that conveys the essence of how the song is supposed to feel.

Anyways, I can't stand most English anime covers, especially covers of songs I like. By contrast, I've been listening to "Useless Angel" on loop for days, interrupted mostly by "Dadadada Tenshi". Half of its lyrics are mumbled word salad, but none of them sound wrong.

[captain-hollis]

Baby baby baby baby baby eyahhhh