#i'm so bad at making memes but this fandom desperately needs more content

[connorgreens]

thinking about Him™

[centrally-unplanned]

We (somewhat rightly) mock the 2000's era fansub translation notes for their otaku fixations and privileging of trivia over the media, but they should be understood as serving their purpose for a bit of a different era in the anime fandom. Take this classic:

Like, its so obvious, right? Just say "pervert", you don't need the note! Which is true, for like a 'normie' audience member who just wants to watch A TV Show - but no one watching, uh *quick google* "Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne" in 1999 is that person. The audience is weebs, and for them the fact that show is Japanese is a huge selling point. They want it to feel as 'anime' as possible; and in the west language was one of the core signifiers of anime-ness. 2004 con-goers calling their friends "-kun" and throwing in "nani?" into conversations was the way this was done, and alongside that a lexicon of western anime fandom terminology was born. Seeing "ecchi" on the screen is, to this person, a better viewing experience - it enhances their connection to otaku identity the show is providing, and reinforces their shared cultural lexicon (Ecchi is now a term one 'expects' anime fans to know - a truth that translator notes like this simultaneously created and reflected).

But of course your audiences have different levels of otaku-dom, and so you can't just say 'ecchi' and call it a day - so for those who are only Level 2 on their anime journey, you give them a translation note. Most of the translation notes of the era are like this - terms the fansubber thought the audience might know well enough that they would understand it and want that pure Japanese cultural experience, but that not all of them would know, so you have to hedge. The Lucky Star one I posted is a great example of that:

Its Lucky Star, the otaku-crown of anime! You desperately want the core text to preserve as much anime vocab as possible, to give off that feeling, but you can't assume everyone knows what a GALGE is - doing both is the only way to solve that dilemma.

This is often a good guideline when looking at old memetically bad fansubs by the way:

This isn't real, no fansub had this - it was a meme that was posted on a wiki forum in 2007. Which makes sense, right? "Plan" isn't a Japanese cultural or otaku term, so there is no reason not to translate it, it doesn't deepen the ~otaku connection~.

Which, I know, I'm explaining the joke right now, but over time I think many have grown to believe that this (and others like it) is a real fansub, and that these sort of arbitrary untranslations just peppered fansub works of the time? It happened, sure, but they would be equally mocked back then as missteps - or were jokes themselves. Some groups even had a reputation for inserting jokes into their works, imo Commie Subs was most notable for this; part of the competitive & casual environment of the time. But they weren't serious, they are not examples of "bad fansubs" in the same way.

This all faded for a bunch of reasons - primarily that the market for anime expanded dramatically. First, that lead to professionally released translations by centralized agencies that had universal standards for their subs and accountability to the original creators of the show. Second, the far larger audience is far less invested in anime-as-identity; they like it, but its not special the way its special when you are a bullied internet recluse in 2004. They just want to watch the show, and would find "caring" about translation nuances to be cringe. And since these centralized agencies release their product infinitely faster and more accessibly than fansubs ever did, their copies now dominate the space (including being the versions ripped to all illegal streaming sites), so fansubs died.

Though not totally - a lot of those fansub groups are still around! Commie Subs is still kicking for example. They either do the weird nuance stuff, or fansub unreleased-in-the-west old or niche anime, or even have pivoted to non-anime Japanese content that never gets international release. But they used to be the taste-makers of the community; now they are the fringe devotees in a culture that has moved beyond them. So fansubs remain something of a joke of the 90's and 2000's in the eyes of the anime culture of today, in a way that maybe they don't deserve.

[inchidentally]

some of my trickier asks or things I want to keep out of the tags

[link was a twitter post saying they wanted to get rid of Oscar to have car|ando back together at McLaren]

AFASFGHLASHFL babe even as a car|ando person I have to let you vent that out because that is possibly the most cringe thing I have seen since maybe 2016. I am fully expecting DTS to do another segment on car|ando and frame it so that McLaren and Lando want Oscar to leave because he doesn't touch Lando enough on camera or use nonstop gay innuendo. forget teammates valuing respect for each other and piling up McLaren's hardware cabinet, why oh why won't Oscar tackle Lando to the ground or talk about dicks and balls with him for fancams 😭

sorry anon I'm just cutting off that last part bc I don't want to attract any discourse about it to my blog <3 but yeah I honestly find it baffling that car|ando ended up being the larry ship for F1 fandom when Carlos of his own volition chose to leave after one season?? if they were real life a couple and wanting sex all the time surely staying on the same team would make sense and that he wouldn't go to Ferrari and immediately start acting more like a besotted, handsy husband with Charles than he ever did with Lando yet no one thinks they're secretly married. why didn't he do like Daniel and stick it out with McLaren even during bad times to stay with Lando if real life couple

and straight up they're not only disregarding everything that Oscar has brought to McLaren and promises for the future ! they're deciding that Pato is disposable too. I say this as a semi fake fan but even I wouldn't base my predictions about contract negotiations on rpf.

<3 thankfully it isn't all of us car|ando people who go too far but it feels like the other side are getting louder and louder

honestly I can boil my two main issues with the car|andoisreal brigade to three points:

misogyny and publicly targeted hate toward their real life girlfriends who they actually do have sex with/have romantic feelings for and who they openly choose to be around at the exclusion of their sports bromance friend

this particular brand of car|ando revolving entirely around Lando being conveniently stripped of a personality apart from giggling so he can be handy insert for women desperate to have Carlos for themselves

bringing 1D shipping into yet another new fandom and basically rinse and repeat with Carlos and Lando's names inserted in the [namexname] box

I know that a lot of us car|ando folks are nothing to do w this garbage and the good thing is that usually these people take themselves out either by pissing off the men involved in the ship or getting bored waiting for their fake ship to "become canon" finding a new rpf ship to latch onto.

oh and I do know that the person who made the office meme about Lando saying the podium thing intended it solely as a joke but it found the Other Side real fast and they genuinely put it in their dossiers of car|ando vs |andoscar. which I don't get for many reasons but also if they think Carlos and Lando are in a secret gay relationship and Lando doesn't even like Oscar then why the need to keep going seeee seeeeee he loves Carlos not Oscarrrrr aslfhsalfhslahf jesus christ why am I even trying to rationalize this

thing is I don't want any more of this on my blog or in our part of fandom so I'm going to limit how much of any asks I'll answer about it. I don't at all mind if people need to vent but jsyk I might not always post it publicly.

I'd recommend blocking and not engaging with it to everyone else too. I might curb how much car|ando is on my blog for a while just because it's so embarrassing to be associated with the grown ass women stalking Rebecca/Carlos content and flooding it with car|ando comments.

[animentality]

See, you cringe at the idea of the onceler fandom now. But what was that fandom??

Passionate teenage girls and young women, filled with inspiration and obsession. Zealous, hungry artists and writers who were making content for themselves and only themselves, not for money or for attention or fame or to make professional connections, but just for the joy of it. Back in the wild days of Tumblr, in the infancy of memes and content sharing and the transition from forums.

Those people loved something that wasn't meant to be loved that way.

But that's how love is.

You don't choose what or who you love. You don't choose how.

I defend those fandoms we all see as cringy now.

Because superwholock and onceler might embarrass you in 2022, but they're still better than the way fandom works now.

Look at what Disney does.

Look how they carefully construct and promote fandom, whether that's for their animated movies or Marvel or Star Wars.

Look how "fans" make reaction videos of every damn Disney product, gushing about how great it is or even how bad it is, just for clicks. Just for engagement. Look how Disney uses anti sjw rhetoric to promote themselves as woke and progressive, manufacturing outrage and "shutting down" man babies just for the exposure. It's so performative, how every time someone criticizes one of their shows or movies, they "fire back" by saying oh look these straight white guys can't handle a female protagonist!

It was the wrong fucking thing to do because by giving those fringe idiots exposure, they just created more and more. Now we have a fucking movement surrounding it, when I'd bet most of those annoying guys would've just kept grumbling to themselves if they hadn't been addressed at all. But Disney needed to look like a hero!

Look how cosplayers are paid by companies now to help promote their content and singers cover theme songs for YouTube views and artists draw fanart to sell stickers and pins and Youtubers create fake discourse and either rag or gush about some product just to try and game an algorithm.

There's nothing wrong with people using their fandom talents professionally, I'm not knocking that.

But the way media companies interact with fans feels so fucking sleazy. There's this desperation to it.

It's changed fandom.

Like people don't just like stuff anymore. They have to be slavishly devoted because they're told to be, not because they actually are.

You have to be dedicated to watching every marvel show. You can be paid to be dedicated to watch every marvel movie.

You can be paid to make iron man suits.

Sell pins. Make figurines and sculptures and post them on Etsy and redbubble.

You have to make a YouTube video, so you can make enough money to quit the job you hate. You have to make TikToks about fandom stuff so you'll get followers. You have to be funny on Twitter so you can be verified and fandom famous and have followers.

You have to hitch yourself to this company, or else you'll never be anyone or anything on your own.

It's not about actually being a part of a community. It's not about connecting genuinely with new friends and talking about characters or plots you liked.

It's not even about ship wars anymore. People viciously arguing over who should be with who, because they really, truly, delusionally love certain characters to death and were filled with rage at the idea of other fans misinterpreting them.

Now they just...consume product. Love the canon ship.

Because it's the only thing they can see anymore, when fandom no longer encourages alternative thinking about itself.

New fandom just feels like you're working for a fucking company and seeing everyone around you like a work buddy.

No one wants to step on toes cuz maybe that guy will be famous. Maybe that girl will be a Disney cosplayer. Maybe that guy will be sponsored by Disney itself.

Maybe that TikTok star will be the next hulk, you don't know.

Be nice because you're here to make professional friends.

It's...so hollow.

It feels so different.

Maybe it's just me.