#the acting in the english dub in general's pretty bad

[mikurulucky]

I was wondering when the dub of Arcadia of My Youth was made and apparently it was commissioned by Toei itself back in 1987 and a heavily edited version was released on vhs under the "Just For Kids" banner by Celebrity Home Entertainment. Same company that released shows like Sherlock Hound and The Bluffers under that same banner. Weird choice of movie to release for a kid demographic but ok.

But aside from that, at least they kept the original names intact, but Tochiro's voice sounds like a modern day text to speech, like the kind you hear in those Reddit vids where a robot reads AskReddit posts lol.

Especially the way he says "Don't die". He says it like goddamned Google Translate's tts.

And apparently, the English dub of the 2013 film as well as the Viz dub of the anime changed Tochiro's name to a more "American" sounding one, which ignores the fact he's canonically Japanese and even Arcadia of My Youth points that out via a flashback to his and Harlock's WWII era ancestors.

[room-surprise]

Dungeon Meshi Anime Review, Season 2, Episode 14 review

This is technically the second cour of Dungeon Meshi, with a new opening and ending so we've made it to season 2, baby!

Happy Kabru day! I think Trigger did a great job with this so I don't have a lot to talk about.

Spoilers below!

The new OP is really nicely animated and very sweet, but I don't really like it. I think the song isn't as good as the first OP and the visuals just don't really excite or interest me the way the first OP did. It's cute though! I think it would have made a great ending...

The ending is wonderful like before, with more beautiful illustrations. Are these also by Kui? Will we get Kui illustrations for every ending? That would be so fantastic! I like this song better than the new OP song...

What the hell are Fleki and Lycion laughing at in the ending. Just pointing and laughing at a water fountain...

There my darling lad Kabru goes, killing again! Good for him.

Animated very nicely, conveys just how fast and lethal Kabru is against human opponents. I hope that anime onlies are now worrying about Laios and his party! That's what they should be worrying about!

Love that they managed to capture Kui's insanely wonderful fight choreography, Kabru switching targets last second after doing a fake-out, and then stealing one person's sword to use it to kill two other people... He's so slick, and Trigger captured it so well.

Sadly no improvements (extra clarity) was added to any of the talking scenes in this ep that start to explain Kabru and his party's motivations. I didn't expect them to change anything though, so it's still as good as it was in the manga, which is still pretty damn good... But would have been nice to have someone tighten up the dialog and make it flow more like human conversation.

Characters sitting around and talking about stuff that isn't monster biology or cooking is probably Kui's greatest weak points as an author, and I don't blame her at all, but it's the one blind spot she could use a liiiiiiittle extra help with. At least in the first half of the manga. Towards the end she gets way better at it. Practice does that to you!

EDIT: Trigger made Holm eat meat!!! He's a religious vegetarian!!!! Oops.

SO.... english dub issues.

The cast is still generally great and the dub script is generally superior to the Japanese subtitles, though it seems like the Japanese subs might be getting better? Or this episode was unusually bad in English so the Japanese subs seemed better.

Kabru's voice in English...

The thing about Kabru's character is that he changes how he talks and acts depending on who he's talking to. The Japanese version does this relatively well.

It's mostly about the pitch of Kabru's voice and how sweet his tone is. He's trying to make himself sound non-threatening, polite, and friendly. And then when he's not doing that, he sounds more stern and mature, talking in a deeper pitch without being so self-effacing.

The English version... is struggling a bit with this.

In the other episodes it sounded alright, but in this episode Kabru's voice actor, for whatever reason, seemed to be mumbling/slurring his words, not enunciating, and cutting off and shortening his words, shoulda, woulda, kinda, and talking in a more "relaxed" and informal manner

This isn't inherently a problem, but since nobody else in the anime so far talks like this, what does this style of speaking signify? Why is Kabru talking like this for this entire episode?

Is it because Kabru's from the West? Do all the people in the West talk that way? Will the elves talk like that?

Since they didn't match Zon and Leed's way of speaking to each other I doubt they'll follow through with this...

If it's meant to make Kabru sound "tough", why does Kabru do it the entire episode and not just with the corpse retrievers? Why does he keep talking that way while talking to his friends?

Even if sounding "tough" is what he's trying to accomplish, Kabru wasn't really being tough in those scenes, he was being tricky and conniving... And then with his friends he was being curious and solving a mystery.

It's not the worst performance I've ever heard, but it's a change/addition with no basis in the original version, so as with Leed and Zon, I'm left wondering "why are you doing this? What are you trying to tell us about the characters?"

I'll have to go back and listen to Kabru's earlier appearances to see if he sounds the same in those, but I really don't remember him talking this way before...

Kabruuuuuu

[tendoujo]

# 𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐉𝐎 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 💙.

━━━━    rules.    about.    verses.  

𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 : 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 .

00. INTRODUCTION. this is an independent mutuals - only tendo akane roleplay blog written by berry ( they / she / he ).

01. MANGA BASED. i've fully watched the anime + ovas + movies ( dubbed ), read the manga and i'm planning to watch the remake yet my akane will be entirely manga based. akane and ranma are equals and the 80s manga has been the only media so far reflecting this so i'm sticking with it.

02. FOLLOWING. this is a semi selective mutuals only blog. open to other fandoms, multimuses, ocs, and even doubles. having a rules page is a must for me, i won't follow without one. i have the right to unfollow and block at any moment. if i follow it means i'm interested in interacting ! feel free to send an ask, like old starter calls or approach to plot.

** be aware that i'll eventually soft block blogs that only interact with a limited group of people or those that i haven't interacted with at all in months. feel free to refollow later on if you do wish to interact. ** i don't support the use of ai ""art"" to make icons, edits or anything really. i'll softblock anyone who does so and won't follow back blogs using such tools. ** i will block personal blogs. i have had enough bad experiences with them so i would prefer if no personal blogs followed me or interacted with this blog or else i will block.

03. DNI. the basic dni criteria. i won't follow blogs with muses of the following fandoms unless they're a multimuse and the appearance of said characters isn't the main focus : voltron, hazbin hotel, helluva boss.

** i won't follow back rp blogs from the inuyasha sequel : 'yashahime: princess half-demon' unless there's a heavy divergence from canon. i don't acknowledge this anime and the outcome ( not to mention how it ruinied the inuyasha characters ) makes me incredibly uncomfortable, sorry

04. TAGS. ( # TW. EXAMPLE ), will tag ranma leaks and remake spoilers under : #TW. 2K24 RANMA SPOILERS.

05. IMS. open to mutuals. there's a little detail to have in consideration though: i suck at consistent messaging. i either reply right away or take weeks, months even, but that doesn't mean that i don't care about you or our plot, i'm simply forgetful and a general mess. i got a busy life so giving me reminders are pretty much welcome. with this said, feel free to reach out whenever !

** have in mind that if we have a plot or ship ( platonic, familiar, romantic ), i'll be sending you random images and musings that may remind me of our muses. i tend to spam messages whenever i owe a lot of things, if this isn't your cup of tea please feel free to tell me so can act accordingly.

06. ACTIVITY. sporadic, mostly lurking. during midterms and finals my activity will be almost nonexistent. reminders are welcome but pushing me to reply nonstop is something i won't tolerate, after all my irl responsibilities come first and this is a hobby i come to have fun. i do have another account i'm active on so if i'm not here find me on @/shungyo.

07. MUN. berry ( they / she / he ), mexican, lesbian, 21+, english isn't my first language so please be patient with me. your local akane stan and defender. akane tendo is the best girl and i know i'm right, rumiko told me xoxo.

08. MULTISHIP. this is a multiship account, chemistry and plotting are a must. i won't jump straight away into a romantic relationship. i only practice exclusivity if my shipping partner does the same, if your rules specify this then i'll follow through.

𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 : 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓 .

00. ART CREDIT. all art used in this blog will come from the official ranma media ( manga, anime, remake ).

00. EDITS CREDIT. me and i'm very proud of them.

[sugar-konpeito]

The japanese dub of ATLA is actually so bad it blows pretty much every bad english dub i've seen directly out of the water. The voice acting is good, but the quality of the localization itself is just very poor.

-The translations are absurdly direct, to the point where most dialogue is just complete nonsense. The characters talk like aliens.

-This applies to the jokes. They don't make enough sense to be funny. When they couldn't be translated at all (puns), they just insert a generic phrase to fill the mouth flaps.

-All of the characters have completely different personalities. The localization team built them based off of their appearances. Example: Mai has pale skin, dark hair, a hime cut, and is from an affluent family, so they made her the "princess" archetype. In the dub, she is naive, air-headed, and soft-spoken. This makes no sense for her character, ruins most of her scenes, and is a jarring mismatch with her bitter expressions and disinterested mannerisms.

-They also made Toph a princess archetype, because she is from a noble family. So she is dainty, idealistic, and sheltered. THAT IS NOT TOPH. (lol)

-Zuko and Azula are written more like rivals than broken siblings who were abused from birth.

-There's probably a lot of other problems.

[ninjapotatohead]

What do you think about each Megaman X’s main games?

These may not be my in-depth thoughts on the X series, but if you want the gist anyways...

• X1 was (and still is) a fantastic first impression from both a gameplay and story standpoint. Makes me all the more salty that Capcom thought that making Maverick Hunter X a PSP exclusive was a good idea. In all seriousness, it accomplished what it set out to do (being the start of a MegaMan series for the next generation). Oh, and the OST slaps.

• X2 was a pretty damn good follow-up to the first game. Opens up strong (RIP Green Biker Dude), and the X Hunters provided that extra layer of tension in rebuilding Zero before they do. Oh, and the OST slaps.

• X3 was an okay game. Not spectacular, as it did fall short of the first two, but you also never forget that moment where Zero bursts in from the ceiling and - OH SHIT, I'M PLAYING AS ZERO?! Shame Zero was implemented so haphazardly after all that hype from X1 and 2, tho. Anyhow, I've played X3 the most out of the early X series to the point where I can name off every single X3 Maverick by heart. Always thought that Dr. Doppler was neat, too. Oh, and the OST slaps.

• If playing as Zero in X3 was only an appetizer, then him being fully playable in X4 is the creme of the crop! I always admired that Capcom stuck to their guns and kept X4 a 2D game instead of just diving headfirst into 3D (we would eventually have Legends for our 3D MegaMan fix). Gameplay was fantastic (if a little on the easy side) and I never brought this up before, but I love X4's selection of weapons the most. The story of X4... not gonna lie is kinda dumb in retrospect. Okay, I'm gonna TRY and talk about X4 without bringing up its... "infamous" English dub, but I just can't empathize with Repliforce (except maybe General's sacrifice at the end) because their situation could've easily been avoided. Not that X and Zero were much better, given that Zero shouldn't have attacked Colonel if the latter just wanted to talk, and X... let's be real here, X got completely shafted from a story standpoint because the interesting story beats (and I use that term loosely) happens in Zero's campaign. Well, at least this game gave us Magma "HE BETRAYED THE IRREGULAR HUNTERS AND HID HIMSELF IN A VOLCANO" Dragoon, and the armors you can get for X are fun to mess around with. Oh, and the OST slaps.

• X5... Hoo boy, X5. You know the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Well, X5 feels like the result of someone who didn't quite get that memo. It's not a bad game by any means, but it does a myriad of questionable things (oh hey, Alia). I always wondered what it was about Capcom making the 5th entries in their franchises the most handhold-y yet also most frustrating games ever (oh hey, Dual Destinies). Not to mention the Enigma cannon having a chance of failing even at 100% completion. As a (at the time) finale to the X series, it stumbles in places, but it's an okay send-off, in my opinion. Even has a celebratory vibe to it from the moment you boot the game up. Oh, and the OST slaps.

PS,

• X6 was a headache and a half; doomed to fail from the start since it was greenlit (and against Inafune's wishes, no less). Also, Zero's back now! Never you mind that he was just an arm and a talking torso the last time we saw him; he hid himself while he tried to repair himself, clearly! In all seriousness, this game was very slapped together to make a quick buck off of brand recognition, and it shows. Even the plot feels like little more than a first draft (how much of that is due to the game's REALLY poor English localization if it had any, who knows?) The Nightmare was poorly thought out too, and the bosses? What can I say? They suck too. At least the OST slaps.

• What can I say that hasn't been said already about X7? It controls like molasses, the 3D sections were forcibly tacked on, the voice acting (while not nearly as bad as X4's imho) was stiff and atrocious, X's portrayal in this game (though I didn't mind it as much as most people did) is infamous for a number of reasons, and the less said about one particular fire-based Maverick, the better. If anything good came from X7's existence, if you asked me... it's Axl. No seriously, I remember being one of the few people on the planet who actually liked Axl as a character (not sure if that's changed any in recent times, though). At least the OST still slaps.

• X8 was a decent (if a little mis-timed) pallette cleanser after X7 came and went. Although, weirdly enough, it's the only game in the X series I played from beginning to end once, and then never touched again. I can never remember why, though. Oh, and the OST slaps.

[oneinathousand]

Every once in a while the subject of digital necromancy and bad biopics will pop up and create a lot of discussion, and when it happens, a lot of the same subjects will be brought up repeatedly. However, there's one movie I came upon several months ago that combines "bringing dead actors back to life" and the disrespectful biopic in a completely unhinged way that I've never seen done elsewhere, but I never hear anybody on English-speaking parts of the internet bring it up because it's virtually unknown outside of Russian-speaking areas. Let me introduce you to a little movie called Vysotsky: Thank You for Being Alive.

First, some context on who the subject of this biopic is: Vladimir Vysotsky was a Russian singer/songwriter/poet/actor who was incredibly popular among much of the Soviet Union; you could consider him the Russian equivalent to John Lennon or Edith Piaf, all being artists, who - because they died relatively young - were elevated after their deaths to becoming cultural icons of almost mythical status.

So, in 2011, this movie was released, based on a screenplay and partially produced by Vysotsky's son, Nikita Vysotsky, and it tells a story about Vysotsky having a near-death experience while on tour in Uzbekistan in 1979 as KGB agents are spying on him. The producers apparently wanted viewers to see the "real" Vladimir Vysotsky, and to do that, they took a very... unique approach to his portrayal in the movie.

They had the actor who played Vysotsky go through six hours of makeup every day, then used CG on top of that (to what extent, I don't know, maybe it was just a general digital airbrushing, though I also heard some shots might have his face be entirely CG, but I can't confirm since there's not a lot of info about this movie in English), and then had Nikita Vysotsky dub the voice.

So far, not so unusual, other than the filmmakers being incredibly obsessive about making the actor look exactly like Vysotsky because they didn't think audiences would accept anything else.

Here's the batshit part: They didn't credit the actor, Sergey Bezrukov, upon release. They kept his involvement a secret. Instead, they credited Vladimir Vysotsky as playing himself.

It wasn't until the next year when Sergey Bezrukov admitted to playing Vysotsky, and apparently for a 2013 TV version they finally credited him. Also, this review from before the confession indicates that many people managed to figure out it was him all along. Still, that just goes to show that keeping it a secret was a pointless endeavor.

Maybe this movie is actually really good and tells this episode of Vysotsky's life in a factual, even-handed way, but I wouldn't be able to tell you since, again, not a lot of super-detailed info on Vysotsky in English that's easy to find. What I CAN say is that regardless of its quality, all those efforts pretty much go down the drain by the producers deciding not to credit the actual actor for a time. Pretending Vysotsky played himself feels like putting words in his mouth postmortem, it would be kinda like if I made a biopic about somebody and then at the end of the movie I put up a disclaimer being like "We held an Ouija board session and communicated with our subject's ghost who TOTALLY gave us the stamp of approval."

I haven't seen the whole film but from what I have seen, the use of all that makeup, CG, and dubbing plants the performance pretty firmly in the uncanny valley, and if I were a Russian who had grown up listening to Vysotsky's music and watching his acting roles, then saw this movie in a theater or on TV, I'd be creeped out and insulted at the notion that this is as good as the real deal.

The effect looks fine in some angles and lighting conditions, but otherwise it's generally weird-looking. The face is overly smooth, Bezrukov clearly couldn't emote much underneath all that makeup, and the dubbed voice doesn't always match the facial expressions, or lack thereof. It doesn't help that this movie is REALLY brightly lit and saturated as if it was shot by a 2000's video game developer who just figured out how to do bloom effects, so there's really not much the film could do to obscure the face. The creepiness is something you have to see in motion to feel, just posting pictures wouldn't get across what I mean, so if you do want to see it, the movie has been uploaded here.

[hastings727]

New Scott Pilgrim show review/reaction (No Spoilers)

Okay so, new Scott Pilgrim show finished: (Disclaimer real quick just because: This is the first piece of Scott Pilgrim media that I've experienced. I did not read the comic and I did not watch the 2010 movie. I have heard about both just because of being a nerd on the internet, so I know the general idea)

Science Saru put their entire foot into it. Which is to say the animation is good. Really good, like WOW. The backgrounds, the character acting, the fight scenes. THE FIGHT SCENES MY GOD. As much as I love Cyberpunk Edgerunners, I think the fight scenes in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off are better, if only because the sheer variety of them. Nearly every episode has a cool fight scene, and they are all extremely varied between them. The last episode had me mashing the pause button just to look at each frame of animation, it was that good.

The story was fun, engaging and right when you're mentally thinking "okay whats the point" is when the show immediately drops a plot point for you to think about. The character writing felt fun and intentional. Everything the characters said and did felt appropriate to that characters personality and goals. And no one felt too one dimensional.

I watched it in English dub, which appeared to be the intention, what with the original actors from the 2010 Live action movie coming back to voice their characters. You can tell none of them are experienced VAs (besides Mae Whitman aka Roxie), but by episode 3, they get it. Special shoutouts to Mary Elizabeth Winstead aka Ramona. VAing is not an easy feat and she is effectively the MC of the show, and she had alot of lines. By episode 2 she pretty much got it and was fantastic the rest of the way.

You can tell in the 1st episode that everyone is still figuring it out though. Now, I come from the days of 1990s/00s anime dubs, so in general the VA is fine, I'm just picky because I'm a nerd. There are no straight up *bad* line reads. And it being intentionally animated with the english dub in mind, there's no awkward sections where the mouth flaps don't line up. I do have some nitpicks with the direction of the voice acting, but for what its worth each actor clearly had a direction for their character and stuck to it. Which is better than me nitpicking a specific line or the way a character says a particular word.

Overall, I'm a big fan of it. It feels like a mix between american cartoon and anime, which makes sense considering that Science Saru worked on Adventure Time and OK KO.

[annoyingfobbie]

barbie was great btw! i had to watch it dubbed in spanish, which sucks bc dubs always lose out on a huge aspect of the acting, and the acting as a major part of what made this movie good, but i'll be able to watch it in english once i get back to the US.

anwyays yeah i figured it wouldn't be AS popular here in spain as in the US so we didn't buy tickets ahead of time and ended up having to sit in the front row lmao but it wasn't that bad, nothing looked distorted and i wasn't like looking straight up or anything. lots of people were dressed up and shit (my cousin and i went in all black, and i did a little goth Look) which was cool, and when the movie ended, a bunch of people clapped.

my no spoilers review is that it had a lot of good funny jokes that worked well, as well as a few here and there that didn't. it had a nice 'appreciate life' moment that i feel like they got across pretty well. it was pretty nice and escapist just to see a gilmpse of a a generally uncomplicated society just run by women with no questions or problems. but also i didn't LOVE how they handled the ken thing?? i'm not gonna go into detail until the movie has been out for a while and spoilers aren't an issue, but yeah. overall, it felt obvious that a lot of care and detail went into this movie, and it wasn't just some waste of a big budget. like, it really felt like a bunch of people had an artistic vision and came together to make it happen, you know? thats all

[myinterestsvary-writes]

Rewatching the contentious beach episode again, like perhaps the third time this year hehe. I don’t know, maybe I’m just built different but I still really like that episode and wholeheartedly, unironically stan Tamaki and Kyoya without disregarding the episode or any of their character flaws that are usually effectively lampshaded and/or made fun of. But I do agree with a lot of people in that the manga portrays this much better.

I compared the Japanese and English Dub and the English voice acting does make it sound worse, even if I can still take away that Tamaki wanted Haruhi to be more careful and considerate because she’s a girl because of all sorts of biological and societal reasons. Many of which feminism directly counters partly by saying that “Haruhi doesn’t need a man to save her” and “women are capable to deal with things themselves/they shouldn’t be infantilized or belittled for their gender” but I’ve never been much of an outright self-proclaimed feminist anyway despite agreeing a lot with what they have to say so that probably explains my leniency with this episode.

The point is that it’s not only that she’s weak(er) because she’s a girl. He literally questions if she knew how to fight/defend herself, which tells me that it would’ve made the situation better for her to be in regardless of gender to Tamaki but because she can’t and to add on that she’s a girl as well, in Tamaki’s eyes she was being stupid. I still agree with that specific point, what can I say? Not with everything he said and did though like ignoring her for example, yet this episode still proves that Tamaki is an idiot yet well-meaning and serious/capable in the right situations.

Here’s the thing that’s hard for people to wrap their heads around because there’s so much under-explained ideas clashing with each other that confuses people into thinking it’s bad: Haruhi correctly counters what Tamaki says about her being a girl with someone (her) needing to do something regardless of gender. She sounds far more correct and reasonable in the English Dub—she’s presented as right and relatively calm in both versions actually, I’m pretty sure objectively in the context of the show because Haruhi is the reasonable one here still as usual, though given more character through her decision-making. Maybe it’s because I can understand the language Caitlin Glass is speaking, maybe that’s why there’s stronger reactions from me with it. I understand better in Tamaki’s head that he just wants her to act more like other girls and not be as troublesome, but the show never betrayed her into conforming to those ideas (in the manga, he eventually learns that it’s fine for her to be herself and she learns in the beach episode that still regardless of gender that it’s okay to ask for help which is a fine message to me to portray {“Alright, [Haruhi] you win.” - Tamaki} because…I saw her as being more reckless than brave in that confrontation with very noble intentions, she’s allowed to be flawed and humanized). Tamaki and Haruhi are coming from two different perspectives here, that’s why people choose sides in this episode when I don’t think that’s truly necessary.

It’s a thing that Tamaki idealizes and fantasizes about the perfect Haruhi of his dreams, supported by the fact that they are not friends who spend time together outside the club. It’s a thing that Tamaki is very much wrong (and weird) for doing that. That’s not talked about enough when analyzing that argument scene. What he says here is in character and his sexism/stupidity is not played up to the extreme, just made serious and actually understandable/not niche in that Tamaki’s only understanding of women has been presented so far in his encounters with women from similar SES in the Host Club. It’s consistent to what we know of him so far, his words don’t warrant deeper analysis of his general view of women and why he feels the need to treat Haruhi the way he does because of, for example, how he grew up with his mother. It’s as simple as him being stupid and yes, sexist but realistic. If he were real, there’s no excusing or reasoning away his behaviour excluding the beach confrontation. Since he isn’t, however, I’m pretty sure it’s fine to laugh at him as he’s usually very wrong when it comes to the politics of the show (and the leftist online world—not upset or judging you guys) and this episode is no exception in portraying him as such yet allowing us to find him endearing as he is allowed and should be presented for more than the clown for good character writing imo to avoid flanderization (plus, I do think that he does chill out and becomes more tolerable and understandable if you’ve always taken him seriously as a character because he gets dissected in the manga later on). I can’t explain this well right now, but Tamaki is more than just his incorrect opinions.

[disappointingyet]

Brats

Director Andrew McCarthy Stars Andrew McCarthy, Bret Easton Ellis, Lea Thompson, Malcolm Gladwell USA 2024 Language English 1hr 32mins Colour

The bloke she shouldn’t have ended up with in Pretty In Pink is still bitter about a magazine article from 39 years ago

[Spoiler alert of sorts: you will learn some of the co-stars who agreed to speak to McCarthy below – but I’ve left them out of the credits above]

Recently, I was writing about Less Than Zero, the not-very-good 1987 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel. That film starred archetypal 1980s soft boy Andrew McCarthy, who this year resurfaced with perhaps the neediest documentary I have ever seen.

The starting point is this version of events: in 1985, everything in McCarthy’s life and career is going swimmingly. Then David Blum of New York magazine goes to interview Emilio Estevez, tags along on night out with him and some of his Hollywood mates and dubs the scene the Brat Pack. A magazine person would focus on the pun begging to be used, but the actors fixate on the word ���brat’ and on what they felt was an implication that they were spoiled and not serious about their craft. This act of naming curses not only McCarthy – who wasn’t even there on the fateful boozy evening – but any of his contemporaries who had recently worked with Emilio… 

I don’t think Andrew McCarthy is an idiot, and over the course of the film he allows himself to be talked away from much of this belief. I assume that he decided that this movie-as-therapy angle was a better sell* than ‘hey, I was in some stuff people liked a long time ago.’ But he certainly plays up to it, constantly bringing his interviews with other people back what happened to him.

He begins by  – on camera, while walking around New York –  ringing up other commonly agreed-on members of the Brat Pack: Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Demi Moore and Ally Sheedy.** None of them pick up, and it seems he hasn’t seen most of them since the 1990s. So the suspense is which of them will agree to see him and that sort of lends a Nick Broomfield-lite touch to proceedings.

Fortunately, he doesn’t only talk to former co-stars: we get assorted behind the scenes Hollywood folks from the time plus contemporary journalists and, yes, Bret Easton Ellis (bad man, good-value interviewee.) And from them, we get a lot more perspective.

There’s also lots of excellent archive; maybe you expect that in a documentary from the age of mass media, but someone has to find this stuff and – we’re not talking about a YouTube video essay here – secure the rights. Here we get plenty of clips from the movies, talk show appearances (meaning we hear from people McCarthy didn’t interview), on-set stuff, premiere parties, news stories… Not only does this all provide crucial context and texture but for anyone who wasn’t around at the time, it shows that, yes, this handful of actors was a big deal. 

But the hook is McCarthy coming face-to-face with his old cast mates. Estevez (they talk standing up in his kitchen) is the one who most shares McCarthy’s sense of having been upended by the article and its aftermath. He admits to having pulled the plug on a movie the two of them were going to make together because he didn’t want the association. 

By contrast, Lowe and Moore – both of whom have had their troubles – come across in this film as having since won life. 

Demi serenely dispenses wisdom in her rainforest garden. Lowe, in his Malibu pad, is indistinguishable from his unceasingly positive Parks And Rec character, Chris. Overpowered by these two life coaches, McCarthy concedes he has reasons to be grateful.

Even so, I don’t think anyone in the film stresses that movie stardom is generally a fleeting state. Tom Cruise, say, is a freakish exception. 

One of the people McCarthy visits is his role model when he was starting out, Tim Hutton. Hutton was a young actor who was cast in serious roles and won an Oscar when he was 20. But although Hutton has worked steadily in the decades since, his notable film appearances came firmly in the earlier part of his career. And there’s no Brat Pack media moment equivalent for him it’s just what happens to most actors, especially those who start young.

Brats, then, is odd bag. On the one hand, you’ve got a surprisingly thorough documentary with all the good archive material and a decent range of voices – eg, journalist/podcaster Ira Madison III giving a black queer perspective on 1980s teen movies. On the other, you’ve got a bloke in his fifties still whining about being perceived as a brat – when certainly for me it was just a catchy name and didn’t mean I ascribed any different personal behaviour to those young actors who were notionally in the gang or outside it.

*This approach has a track record – see critically beloved podcast Dead Eyes, for example. Although, it should said, the reason Dead Eyes stayed good past the first three or so episodes is that Conor Ratliff allowed other people to tell their stories.

**McCarthy leaves out Anthony Michael Hall from his list. Lea Thompson describes herself in the film as ‘Brat Pack adjacent.’ Jon Cryer says he wasn’t a member, although I think knowingly - it’s not something he gets to decide. There are obviously plenty of others who sometimes get tagged in: James Spader, Charlie Sheen, Robert Downey Jr, Matthew Broderick etc etc etc…

[otnesse]

Not just fandom problems either. We had something similar occur with Dragon Ball via the character General Blue. Long story short, after Bulma and Krillin find the pirate treasure, General Blue (who was stalking them to find both the dragon ball and the treasure) reveals himself by getting out of the water. Bulma gets smitten by his bishonen features and starts flirting with him and they basically deduce he's gay due to him not being receptive towards her advances to say the very least. And this gets reinforced when he refuses to fall for Bulma's attempt at a honeypot trap to save Krillin (well, save mostly herself, but she WAS trying to save Krillin as well). To be fair, having Blue react to Bulma's flirting in such a manner that's more expected for young boys who have yet to outgrow their cooties stage doesn't exactly help his case, but Bulma WAS being somewhat crass in her flirting (I'd react the same way as him [well, save for MAYBE calling her disgusting, since I am attracted to the opposite sex] if she did that to me, and I'm actually ATTRACTED to her).

The anime was a bit better in that regard where we at least got evidence in filler towards General Blue actually HAVING an interest in the same sex. Whether it was an actual improvement or not is up to interpretation because said guy he crushed on was Obotchaman who... well, let's just say his size and demeanor can easily be mistaken for a child.

Personally it's fandom, or in this case, fandumb's stupid take that gets me REALLY annoyed at horndog characters, makes us straight people look bad (that's also one reason I'm not particularly fond of Brock ESPECIALLY after his return from the Orange Islands. At least in Kanto, he DID train Ash a few times, so he had THAT going for him, not to mention helped out Charmander when it needed it. He's pretty much the only OG character I really wasn't fond of for the most part.).

In case you need pictures or videos of what I'm getting at:

Here's the color version of the latter two, directly translated from Japanese (would post the color version of the first, but... well, let's just say Bulma basically called Blue something off-color that rhymes with "hag"):

And finally, the scenes from the anime itself. At least the English dub (which doesn't directly state Blue's orientation):

And this is the scene regarding Obotchaman (viewer disgression is advised):

To be fair regarding the last one, his derisively calling him "shorty" would imply he merely mistook him for a dwarfen man rather than a child, but still...

Either way, to get back to the topic at hand, this was from an actual manga/anime, and not just fandom, but what was actually conveyed in-story. And while I definitely don't care one way or another about his orientation in itself (certainly beats how Claire Bennet, Willow, Ice Man, and Alex Danvers got "outed" in their respective series where it was abrupt and had them clearly being interested in the opposite sex. Made worse with Ice Man where it was arguably a reverse version of conversion therapy that Jean Grey inadvertently performed on him.), it does get annoying that us heterosexual men must act like horndogs to any girl we meet lest we be automatically deemed gay even if we're just disturbed at the manner in which the girl flirted (and let's face it, in reality, I'm pretty sure most heterosexual guys would be disturbed at the manner in which Bulma flirted if they were in Blue's shoes).

Fandom Problem #5374:

"This character didn't ogle this other character of the opposite sex or make a comment that suggests they are attracted to them so they must be gay!" or, just here me out, they have some self control and characters don't have to act like horndogs to show they are straight or they could be ace. Just a penny for your thoughts.

[icharchivist]

I definitely agree, the VAs are doing a great job and just because one prefers the Japanese dub over the English or doesn't like a specific performance doesn't mean they're bad voice actors or anything

I'm happy for any and everyone working on the game and the VAs certainly seem to be having a great time

The Japanese dub is a tough act to follow as is and most people have heard the Japanese voices first, so there's clear biases

That's not to say the English dub is bad

I love Cristina Valenzuela's work and I think she does a great job on Charlotta and Ferry, for instance

But yeah, it's also completely valid to give constructive criticism on performances

But we're not hating, we're just commenting without being overly negative, I'd say

The Anime, for instance, is perfectly fine, in either English or Japanese imo. Both are very listenable

And again, in Mr. Rudd's defense, Hosoyan as Belial is pretty much impossible to live up to. He is very much living in that role. But kudos for trying!

Looking forward to the English dub on Relink!

Yeah pretty much agreeing on all of that!

I think the other thing that influences the "Japanese voice came first" is that, the original seiyuu are the ones who kinda end up deciding how they'll interpret their characters, and it's not unheard of that it ends up also changing the writing of those characters as well in ways that can make the voice stand out.

Any redub therefore ends up in a tough position because everything will be an interpretation. There's the pressure of the previous voice, the way to adapt it in a way that works out for an English speaking audience... It's tricky! it's walking a balance of trying to make the characters theirs while respecting the original for example.

and English and Japanese are still different language in term of how accentuation and grammar is structured. Like if you want your character to accentuate the verb of the sentence you have to be prepared with the fact they will not accentuate it at the same time of the sentence. do you rework your voice acting to fit the accentuation of the voice flow or the accentuation of the meaning? and stuff like that, can usually also end up coming off weird no matter the final decision.

And it's not really a situation i envy and it takes a lot of work to make it work!

Personally i like to see the "original" mostly because i like to stay as close as possible to the initial intention of the creators, but i do sometimes play big Japanese RPG with English dub mostly because i often play those with my brain on autopilot and get frustrated if i miss an ambiant line of dialogue.

But also i feel like i'm not being fully transparent without mentioning that, as i'm not a native English speaker, English dubbing can seem more uncanny to me in general. I'd say i'm not fan of French dub either, but my point is that I therefore usually find English's dub - specifically when it's redubbing something else - to be a bit uncanny to me, and it comes from the style of voice acting they tend to do, which personally takes me a LOT of time getting used to.

Like i can't actively judge an English voice because some stuff that peeves me for example are also just kneejerk reaction from some overexaggeration of the English language that *i* pick up on because they're not usual for me to start with. I don't feel equipped for a proper review of that in general.

there are stuff that are worth discussing still! I'm just not sure i come with the best of bias when it comes to doing that though.

but yeah, Ferry/Charlotta's English VA does a very good job, and yeah, for the Belial's voice it's really just that Hosoyan is just too big an act to follow and it will always suffer from comparaison. It's either trying to bring it close to Hosoyan and it could be hit or miss depending on how good the imitation is, or even more hit or miss if he interpreted it any differently.

In the end everyone is doing the best they can with the material and limitation they got!

I don't think we're hating on it either, but i do think i'm not the most qualified to talk about it in depth and i would loathe to end up sounding dismissing to someone's hard work in a sense.

But yeah! Looking forward to see the dub of Relink too! that'll be cool!

[longroadstonowhere]

okay, i have in fact fired up my old laptop to read through my zero two revision notes

there are definitely things i would want to change around, but i did like a lot of how i organized the story overall - if i were to work on this again, i’d probably want to change some specifics (like takeru’s story is... well i just think i’d do it differently), but the foundations aren’t bad

so basically i divided the story into four arcs, although not evenly - first arc has thirteen episodes, second arc has 12, third arc has twenty (but like it could also be split into two arcs possibly? the sort of thing i expect would be debated in the theoretical fandom, haha), fourth arc has 6 episodes

in general i wrote with dub names, possibly just because they’re, like, shorter most of the time, but not sure if i would’ve used english or japanese names in the final product

another general note, digimon don’t travel with the humans back to the human world, and they don’t have communication abilities until near the end of the first arc (izzy is in the background developing a lot of things) - also i just let the d3s do a bunch of the new stuff instead of the d-terminals, like acting as interdimensional walkie talkies when they figure out communication, and they hold the digieggs and all that jazz

first arc is the digimon emperor arc, and i basically have it where ken’s dark digivice lets him control digimon (basically turning things into a pokemon game for him if he wants), and he’s experimenting with the control spires and dark bands and dark spirals in order to expand that sphere of control beyond what he can do with just his digivice. during the course of these experiments, he kidnaps agumon and tries to force digivolutions out of him (this is presented as tai’s agumon for some length of time before revealing it’s actually a different agumon, and he personally creates blackwargreymon at the end of this arc through forced dark digivolution). arc finale ends with kari purifying the dark ocean’s influence on him, so that he finally realizes what he’s been doing is pretty fucked up and he gives up the digimon emperor’s mantle. this arc also includes yolei getting trapped in the digital world overnight and ken saving her, giving her insight to his genuinely kind nature. also! i devoted some amount of time to explaining why the older digidestined weren’t involved, which came down to digivolution being much harder on both digimon and digidestined, and also the older kids’ digimon all finding some place they needed to protect, so they couldn’t go haring off on random adventures (tai is the one who takes the longest to work through this). also also there’s an episode where the whole queen kari thing gets brought up (it’s also the episode where submarimon happens for the first time, and i like how i wove those two together).

second arc is kind of the demon corps arc (surprise!), and... well, this is one where i’d want to revise a decent amount because i think it’s a little bit of a mess as is. but anyway, first episode of this arc gives ken’s backstory (which does include his stuff with ryo and the wonderswan games). he ends up running away from home and going into the digital world full time in a bad attempt at fixing his mistakes. the kids find out he’s missing and kinda halfheartedly try to look for him (except yolei actually does look for him because she’s convinced he’s better than he seemed), and they spend a lot of time taking down old control spires and kinda just dicking around. the demon corps is also there, sorta. blackwargreymon is also there! and trying to hunt down ken because he’s pissed off at how he was tortured as agumon and the circumstances of his birth! the kids end up finding ken, but the newbies are horrified because ken is willing to kill bad digimon (they’ve always just beat them up and let them slink off). arc finale is a battle royale between the kids, blackwargreymon, and phantomon of the demon corps. davis does a dark digivolution (because i was a little salty that he was the only gogglehead who didn’t get a dark digivolution) and kills phantomon, which kinda shocks him to his core. wormmon (as spikemon) protects blackwargreymon from phantomon under ken’s orders, which shocks blackwargreymon into not trying to kill ken anymore, but wormmon does end up getting killed. so we end up with phantomon dead, blackwargreymon off to reconsider his life, ken going back home (after being gone for about three weeks) with wormmon’s egg, and the kids being wary of the rest of the demon corps (while also still wrestling with their feelings about killing digimon). you can probably see why i kinda think this one is a mess.

third arc is arukenimon, mummymon, and the destiny stones. and also the demon corps still. first few episodes are more about developing human character relationships with each other, with conflict coming from tk not trusting ken, sparking a bad rift between him and yolei, which peters down four episodes in (tk dials down the distrust so they can work together, also wormmon hatches - this face turn is not laid out super well in the outline haha). this does allow for davis and ken to have heart-to-hearts about darkness and such. the queen kari thing is also focused on in another episode. anyway the kids spend a lot of time trying to find out about the demon corps and also gennai (who came out of the woodwork after ken stopped being the digimon emperor) tells them the barriers between the worlds are being eroded. like six episodes in we start finding out this is because mummymon and arukenimon are corrupting the destiny stones (while working alongside oikawa). there’s a bunch of stuff about kari getting nightmares and headaches and being depressed, and the first time they see arukenimon and mummymon it’s just her and ken and she freezes, and when this comes out later (after she’s lied about nothing happening) a rift opens between her and tk (which opens the door for her and yolei to have a heart-to-heart). jogress digivolutions start happening. there’s also a bit where cody’s family goes to visit his dad’s grave and oikawa runs into them (grandpa doesn’t like him but details are not explained yet). they figure out the demon corps is probably after ken’s dark spore (from the video game backstory). arukenimon and mummymon end up opening portal to human world by corrupting enough destiny stones (originally i had them making some kind of devices that could manipulate the world borders, which could foreshadow oikawa’s involvement, but also i don’t think i had that as a secret and it seemed silly to include this whole new thing and never bring up the destiny stones). the remaining demon corps members take advantage of them opening the portal to invade the human world themselves, while arukenimon and mummymon are killed by silphymon and blackwargreymon (who’s done a fair amount of soul searching off screen and has decided to not kill ken while there’s bigger threats around). so now we’re dealing with a full invasion of the human world, there’s lots about the kids dealing with their families, the older kids are also involved. oikawa’s connection to cody’s dad is explained by his grandpa, and oikawa tries to convince cody to join him (it doesn’t work). there’s a wizardmon cameo. portals are opening up all over the city and there’s a handful happening internationally, the kids stay in tokyo and take care of all the portals they can reach, international portals get taken care of international digidestined on their own (including mimi in new york, which is her first actual appearance in the story ahhaha), but closing the portals is only a short-term solution. we do a week timeskip where portals are still occasionally opening up, gennai’s trying to fix dimension rips, and there’s two members of the demon corps left. they finally find ladydevimon but oikawa gets the dark spore during the fight, he eats it and gets unpossessed by malomyotismon. demon and malomyotismon end up fighting each other (???? cannot remember why now), oikawa’s still connected to malomyotismon so kari ends up purifying the dark spore out of him, which weakens malomyotismon enough that blackwargreymon (randomly showing up) is able to kill him. then he and demon fight and demon kills him, then takes the dark spore from ken and opens up an unexpected portal to the dark ocean, gets killed by a hand of darkness from the portal. kari gets kidnapped into the dark ocean and the newbie gang go after her. (you can see why i think this could theoretically be split into two arcs, but like, where)

fourth arc! the classic ‘the dark ocean was criminally underutilized in the original show’ arc. kari ends up in a cell with gatomon, the other kids start on the shore and walk into the ocean (which is breathable. they specifically do not think about this in case it only works when they don’t question it). they come across a creepy temple and everyone gets separated as they walk along. they all get to deal with individualized nightmares - yolei deals with her feeling of powerlessness in the face of the threats she’s faced (breaks the illusion when she fights back against an illusion of myotismon, cuz she’s been dealing with the fallout from the odaiba fog incident this whole time), davis deals with his loneliness from growing up having no friends (which i probably made up but i like it because it gives a good reason for him to dislike tk at the beginning - he’s afraid he’ll take away his first close friend) (anyway he breaks through the illusion when he deals with lingering doubts about the dark digivolution and he remembers that his friends have his back), ken gets stuck in illusions lambasting him for his actions as the digimon emperor including sam kicking him when he’s down (breaks through when an illusion of blackwargreymon talks him through the guilt and forgives him), cody gets to hang out with his dad and gets mad at armadillomon when he tells cody it’s an illusion (he breaks through the illusions when he opens up to armadillomon and actually talks about his feelings which he feel like he can’t do with his family because he had to be strong when his dad died), tk gets hounded by visions of all the enemies he’s fought in the digital world including like piedmon and devimon and breaks when he relives patamon’s death in adventure (gets broken out when davis finds him), meanwhile kari gets out of her cell but runs into dagomon cultists who can overload her with darkness and make her pass out, yolei ends up finding them carting the unconscious kari somewhere and follows them, end up in like creepy altar space, dagomon shows up and kari wakes up, he wants to steal kari’s light powers but she denies him, shurimon and yolei get her out, everyone finally meets up, cultists chasing yolei and kari find them and there’s fighting, dagomon joins and does an epic smackdown, final episode the kids won’t give up, tk gives a rallying speech to kari (so she can have her own moment of facing her insecurities in this arc haha) which inspires her to focus her light powers, this allows all three jogress ultimates to digivolve to mega, being filled with light means they can actually hurt dagomon to the point where he retreats (threatening to return when they let their guard down), they wish themselves home and end up at the school, close the portal, and we get an epilogue that just jumps, like, one year later explaining how inter-world interactions are going (since they couldn’t actually shut the two worlds away from each other this time) and one last scene of the new kids hanging out.

whew

so yeah, there’s stuff i’d need to work on, like i don’t think i like tk’s arc (he starts the story as basically a confident war vet being pulled back in and he slowly becomes more bitter and hateful as things go on because he never actually processed things like patamon’s death or puppetmon, he just shifted all those dark feelings onto hating dark digimon), and the second arc is a mess, and the demon corp really are around for too long, and.... well, yeah, i could go on forever

i did give a decent amount of time to each of the jogress pairs developing their relationships before jogress is even an option, and i did my best to integrate the older kids throughout without overshadowing the new kids (although there was a subplot with sora during the human world invasion that i didn’t even mention in this summary that i would definitely want to rework i think), and i’m glad i just. shank malomyotismon, hahaha, that’s a good moment, and oikawa’s involvement with cody’s dad is much more foreshadowed

i also like how i changed up the dark emperor arc, with a gap between the digimon emperor ending and ken joining the team, feels more realistic (oh also there was gonna be a thing where the kids all think the digimon emperor is, you know, a digimon, so when yolei runs into ken she doesn’t think anything of it)

i dunno, i appreciate the work i put into this all, and i think it has potential... but it would take a lot more work to make it workable, so i think i’m just glad to have typed all this out here so the concepts can be known

[lucidpantone]

I don't want to contribute to the discussion in a bad way, but I want to share my perspective fron the situation, being someone from LATAM.

I don't think the anon that say the part of it feelings that what Omar already can do isn't enough for some people is wrong, but I think is not just a thing with Omar work.

All that about the neutral accent, more fluently speaking and that are things that aren't requested to play the role of someone from Latin America or Spain... when your first language is english.

I think a example of that is the BrBa and BCS universe, it's pretty obvious who can speak spanish fluently and who doesn't and which dialogues were written by someone who knows spanish.

On the other hand, the neutral language is more a thing in dub industry that acting, and even then when actors are doing their own dubbing you can sometimes hear their own accent. Some people don't like it, but some like the representation on that. It's complicated. But I don't think it is impossible to succeed with a not neutral accent, and that could be really great.

The accent in "Betty la fea" isn't neutral or Mexican, and is a huge success in all LATAM, but "Encanto" dub was controversial, although I say is more the translation fault than the accent in the dub. Diego Luna in Andor is dubbing himself and you can actually notice his accent against the rest of the dub, but I think it still counts as "Mexican accent" although I can confirm that isn't close to be the only one but I digress.

So I think he don't need to get rid of his accent, specially since you can hear its a LATAM one and that could be great, and I can confirm that his spanish is mostly fine. But I see your point, just, is unfair that for some people the work requested is twice than for others and I can see why people are mad for it. I feel that too.

Also the industry in LATAM, both in music and acting, is white washed. Bad Bunny for example is considered as someone with white passing. And in general art industry isn't really supported in a big part of LATAM, at least in Mexico there are many obstacles on it. People want to represent their country and culture from the US industry for that.

So, while I want him to succeed in LATAM, of course, and I see why that could be a good market, I don't think is crazy to want him to succeed in the US as fast as he can, conserving his hereditary characteristics (is that the term?).

Sorry if I wrote something wrong, and hope I don't mind you, have a good day.

Firstly maybe its because I live in NYC but bad bunny looks like every Puerto Rican I have ever met. I mean i think am slightly tanner then him but not by much and i dont think am white passing. I dont think he is either, he looks like the million of other puerto ricans in nyc. I dont know if i saw him on a train and I would be like "thats a puerto rican" like idk maybe am just super use to their features being around so many.

"Betty la fea" which one? they are two. The original or the american one? because the original cast are basically all colombians. The american one makes sense because its like an adaptation for a much wider audience.

Also my last anon sorta of explains my pov of view on the possible acting routes omar could take so I am gonna refer you to that anon so I dont need to type all that info out again.

[bucky-barnes-diaries]

Body of Christ

Pairing || Beefy!CatholicPriest!Bucky x Inexperienced!Innocent!Virgin!Female!Reader

Summary || There’s a new young priest in town, and there’s something very unholy about him…

Word Count || 2600

Contents & Warnings || Angst, Smut, Dark/Taboo Themes — NSFW, 18+ Only, Minors DNI, dub-con/non-con, religious themes, blasphemy of religion, sacrilegious acts, catholic mass, biblical references, sexual content involving a catholic priest, strict/religious parents, explicit content/language, age-gap (reader is early 20’s, Bucky is early/mid 30’s), sexual thoughts and acts, size kink, corruption kink, authority kink, masturbation (female), mention of bodily fluids.

Authors Note || For months now I’ve been wanting to write for Priest!Bucky and it’s finally here :D Feedback/reblogs are much appreciated, and it lets me know that you want more writing for Priest!Bucky and my writing in general :)

Disclaimer || English is not my first language so I apologise for any mistakes or misunderstandings!

Priest!Bucky Masterlist

I don’t do taglists anymore so please follow @bucky-barnes-diaries-library and turn on notifications to never miss out on my writing!

While your alarm clock chimed in that it was time to wake up, you slowly regained consciousness. It was Sunday, and it was early wake-up time to get ready for church.

You let it ring for a minute, and when it hit 07:27 AM, you pressed snooze to try and squeeze a few more minutes of sleep in before it was time to wake, but the light creeping through the window, hitting your face, wouldn't allow you to get a few more moments of peace, and neither would your mother it seamed. She burst through your bedroom door, trying to put her earrings in while ushering you to get out of bed.

“Honey, what are you still doing in bed? We have to leave in 20 minutes!”

“I'm getting up, mother,” you said in the sweetest tone, like the sweetheart your mother knew you were. When she left, you exhaled in annoyance and rolled your eyes. You usually loved to go to church, but today was one of those days where all you wanted was to lay in bed. The only way to stay home was to fake being sick, which you had done a few times in your life, but you knew the Lord wouldn't be pleased with you for lying.

A minute or two went by before the alarm rang once more. You let it ring for a few seconds before you pressed the off button and headed to the bathroom. As you step into the bathroom, you hop in the shower for a quick five-minute rinse to get the sleep off you and freshen up.

With your white cotton panties and matching bra on your body, you walk to your closet to find something to wear. Since it's rather hot outside, you decide on a lovely summer dress. The dress goes below your knees, stopping halfway on your shins. The neckline is open and square but still doesn't give too much away, while the shoulders have a little puff to them. The arms are open and bare.

You look at yourself in the full-length mirror in your bedroom, adoring the lovely flower patterns on your dress. This would do. You do your face the bare minimum—filling in your eyebrows, putting on some mascara and applying a thin coat of lipgloss.

“Honey! Are you ready? We have to leave!”

“Coming!”

You examine yourself one last time in the mirror-giving yourself a nod of approval. You look pretty and presentable for church.

As you walk down the stairs, your parents are waiting for you at the foot of them. There's a disapproving expression on your dad's face at your chosen attire; for him, it's too much exposure and make-up. He shakes his head once you reach the bottom, arm crossed over the other.

“I don't like what you're wearing,” he voices sternly.

“I-I'm sorry, daddy.” You looked down in shame. It wasn't that bad, but with your dad being the town's police chief and highly conservative and religious, he always wanted his family to be on their best presentation and behaviour.

“There is no time for you to change now, so let's go, but this will have some repercussions, young lady,” he says in the same tone of voice.

“Yes, daddy.”

Your mom doesn't say a thing, as she knows that no matter what she tells him, your dad's opinion will never change.

With shame and guilt, you walk to the car and sit in the back, hugging yourself and giving yourself comfort on the five-minute car journey to the church.

——

Once you arrive, you see that almost everyone in your small town is attending church today. Which was unusual, but there was a reason for that, and you had almost completely forgotten that today was somewhat of a particular day. For a few weeks now, there's been talks and gossip in the community about a new young priest, Father James, that would be holding his first mass today. He would be taking over for Father Jacob, who was becoming old, frail and more and more creepy and senseless with the years. A fresh start with a new and sharp priest was needed for your small town.

There was a bit of a queue up to the church doors. Everyone stopped in the doorway to greet Father James and wish him luck. You stood on your tiptoes to try and get a glimpse of him, but there were too many people in your way. You could hear his voice over the chatter as you and your parents inched closer to him.

The sound of his voice was alluring and heavenly, warm and likeable, and you knew that he would have everyone captivated during the sermon while standing at the altar. You could get used to that voice, listening to him preach about God, listening to him talk about life and everything with it, having him whisper in your ear about…

“Honey?” Your mom shook your shoulder.

You inhale a slight gasp as you get snapped back into reality from the daydream you had escaped into, not even realising that you had gone into your world within.

“W-what?” Your voice was trembling and unsteady.

“Aren't you going to greet Father James?”

“Huh?” You peered at your mother, slightly confused and disoriented. She gives you an encouraging nod and a smile.

“I'm really sorry, Father, my daughters rather shy at times,” she laughs sweetly.

You hadn't even realised that you'd moved up the stairs and that it was your turn to meet the new priest. You take a second to get your bearings in order and finally look up at Father James for the first time, and upon looking at him, you are so glad that you didn’t decide to stay in bed today.

He displays a sweet and beautiful smile that lights up his gorgeous face. A wave of unknown feelings and emotions hits your chest as you take him in, all of him.

He was Godly handsome. He looks like one of those men you secretly dream and have unholy thoughts about late in the night, which you know is a great sin, but you couldn't help yourself at times.

He has semi-long hair that stops just above his shoulders, which looks so soft and silky. You wonder how it would be to run your hands through it. Your fingertips twitch in need and desperation to feel it.

His beard is starting to come through, making him look very rugged, which is a very unusual feature on a priest. You wonder how it would feel against your bare skin.

His beautiful blue eyes were to drown in. You wanted to get lost in them and never get out, but you could see a hint of darkness and mystery in them. It excited and terrified you at the same time.

Something about him that wasn't hard to miss was how huge and broad he was, practically towering over you, making you feel small and fragile. His chest was firm and puffed out, making his black shirt cling to him tight. The buttons on his shirt struggled to keep the material closed, and there was just something about his white clerical collar than tied his looks so perfectly together.

You must have gone into your own world again because your mother was calling your name once more.

“I'm really sorry, Father; she usually isn't like this.”

“No problem at all. It can be quite intimidating meeting new people. Hello, I'm Father James.” He gives you his hand, which was unusual for you since Father Jacob never offered his hand to the women and children, only to the men.

“O-oh, sorry. Hello, Father; it's a pleasure to meet you.” With slight hesitance, you placed your smaller hand into his bigger one. His hand practically swallowed yours wholly. It felt nice having his soft touch on you. His upper arm looked like it would burst through the material of his shirt at any moment as he gave you a light squeeze. You wondered what abilities those magnificent hands and arms possessed.

You gave him a sweet and polite smile, accompanied by a small curtsy, just like your mother had taught you to do when meeting someone new. There was a slight smirk on Father James’ face as he quickly looked you up and down.

“The pleasure is all mine.”

Again, you started to get lost in him, but luckily this time, your dad opened his mouth to usher his family inside; the queue behind was becoming impatient.

“Come on, girls, let's not keep Father James busy.”

“I'll see you, good folks, inside.” Father James bid you farewell for now.

As you went past him, you sneaked a quick peek at him through your lashes and saw that he was keeping his gaze at you as you walked past, giving you a wink. You felt yourself heat up, and you proceeded to look down at your feet so no one could see how flustered Father James had made you. All his words and gestures, what did it all mean?

As you and your parents found your seat, you tried to push it out of your head for the time being. You were in church. This was not an appropriate time to go down that rabbit hole.

“Honey, are you alright?” Your mother noticed your dissociative state and got concerned—her hand on your shoulder, giving a reassuring squeeze.

“I-I’m sorry, mother, I'm just very hot today,” you lied. You didn't feel bad about lying since it was technically the truth; it was a very hot day out.

“I'm sorry, baby; you'll feel better now that we are inside.”

“Yes, mother.”

To try and get your mind off Father James, you turned around to one of your good friends sitting behind you with her family and started chatting to her while waiting for the sermon to start.

A bell rings, and everyone in the church stands up. The sermon starts with Father James, clad in the sacred vestments, going in procession to the front, led by the altar boy carrying the cross. Father James genuflects before he walks to the altar to show his respect to God.

He officially begins mass with the sign of the cross; “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Everyone crosses themselves as he says it.

“... Amen,” all in the room say in unison.

He begins leading everyone with an opening prayer; “Let us Pray.”

“Lord Jesus Christ, Your name above every other name, we praise you. We pray that your name is blessed now and forever, in good times and in bad, from east to west. Your name is worthy of praise. Your name is powerful. Your name rules over the nations. Your glory is higher than the heavens. Your name is beautiful. Let us praise the name of the Lord together. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.”

That was a beautiful prayer, you thought. Father James’ love and respect for God was beautiful and powerful, making tears form in your eyes.

Everyone sits down as Father James is about to begin the first reading…

After a captivating and beautiful sermon led by the new priest, it was time to take Holy Communion.

You and your parents are standing in line to approach the altar to receive it—your father in front, your mother in the middle, and you behind her. The closer you get to the altar, the more nervous and excited you get, practically shaking, that you'll be in Father James’ presence once more.

Once it's your turn, you take a deep breath before taking the two steps to where he's standing. You bow in acknowledgement of Christ’s presence and look into Father James’ eyes. They're intently fixated on you. They are much darker than when you previously looked into them. A dark cloud of something wicked swims in them. It makes you swallow the lump that had formed in your throat.

“The Body of Christ,” he says while holding up the Host in front of you.

You keep looking into his eyes and say, “Amen.”

You open your mouth and stick your tongue out a little to receive the Body of Christ. Father James places the Host on the surface, and with the pad of his thumb, he caresses the tip of your wet tongue. His thumb drags down and pulls your bottom lip with it before placing his hand by his side again. A sinister smirk forms on his lips, and his tongue darts out to wet them as he takes in the sight of you.

You are entirely frozen in place. Eyes wide and doe as you stare into his ones that are now completely possessed by the Devil himself. Your heart beats a million miles per hour, and your skin tingles. You would think that you would be scared and disgusted at his actions, but no, no, you want more. You want more of what this man has to offer. You want him to do things to you, unspeakable things that not even you yourself quite understand.

The new and unknown emotions are becoming too much for you, and you must leave his powerful presence before you faint in front of everyone.

“T-thank you, F-Father.”

You bow down once more, and with shaking legs, you leave the altar, skipping the Blood of Christ. You wouldn’t have been able to do it on two standing feet.

Once you sit down with your parents again, you clench your thighs and eyes to try and stop the aching you are experiencing in your intimate area; your cotton panties were damp with your excitement and arousal. Your bundle of pleasure is begging to be touched and caressed. This is one of the greatest sins, and you're experiencing it in a church of all things. God could not be pleased with you now, and you know that you'll need to repent for your sins later…

——

In bed that night, you just can't seem to get Father James out of your mind. You try with all your might to fall asleep and think of something else, but the events from today cloud your mind and make you pulsate down below, your panties becoming wet once more.

You know you shouldn't touch yourself. You know it's a great sin. Your parents, especially your father, have drilled into your brain repeatedly that God says it's dirty and the devil's work to touch oneself and bring pleasure upon your body, but sometimes you can't help yourself. The euphoric feeling was too extraordinary to pass upon, and you couldn't understand why God would be against a sensation that made a person feel good? Doesn't God want us, his creations, to be happy and feel satisfied? God could be very confusing at times…

This night wouldn't be the first night you'd touched yourself, but each time it did feel wrong in a way. Especially now when a priest was making your thoughts sinful and unholy, but tonight, the Devil spoke louder than God.

You start by delicately palming your breasts through the thin t-shirt you sleep in, mewling soft cries as you try to imagine big and rough hands touching you instead. Your back arches as your hand glides down your stomach and your legs spread to welcome its touches on your most intimate area. After teasing and toying with the edge of your panties, you finally insert your hand into the soft material, finding yourself slick with excitement.

“Forgive me, Father, for I'm about to sin….”

Thank you for reading 🖤 Feedback through a comment is highly appreciated! Or let me know through an anonymous ask if that feels more comfortable. As well as a reblog to share my work with other people!

[spacedoutsheepy]

Out of curiosity, what did you think was so bad about the zexal dub?

Ok I wanna preface this by saying that I am no purist, and I'm no weeb. I speak both english and japanese semi-fluently, and can tell you that for 99% of anime, the english dubs are fine, in terms of acting and general quality. I will defend the original yugioh DM dub and the GX dub until the day I die, and think that the sizeable part of the yugioh fandom that wants to discount or disregard them are plain wrong. I love them to death and think they're a valid way to watch the show and get the same story as the originals. And if you like the Zexal dub, then absolutely slay, queen. Yugioh is fun, and not something to be taken super seriously, so everything I'm about to say is gonna be pretty pedantic, and only pertains to what I like to get out of yugioh, and my personal enjoyment of the franchise. That being said, after watching the entire first half of it, the Zexal dub is just... bad.

So a lot of yugioh dubs changed some material, or story elements, even beyond normal censoring. But the Zexal dub just blatantly changed entire thematic elements and washed out whole character arcs, and the societal commentary the japanese dub made, which was shockingly based, got extremely watered down. Worse, the stuff they got to replace it just feels... stock. Like the way they translated the the dialogue, ESPECIALLY from the antagonists, made it feel generic, lacking the nuance that the Japanese version had. Like you could say similar things about the GX dub, but at least they kept the charisma of the characterization that GX is famous for, as well as the charm and humor. And also unlike GX, and least forgivable of all, the acting just isn't good.

Say what you will about 4kids, but the voice actors were pretty good at what they did. Things like Joey's brooklyn accent or yugi's big deep voice are iconic for a reason, you know? Hell the 5Ds dub is practically carried by Greg Abbey as Yusei. But zexal's actors, I mean I don't wanna be mean to them but they're just not doing a good job, man. Most of them sound cloying, forced, uncanny in the worst way. There are exceptions, Astral and Kite give pretty good performances, but the rest just grate on my ears and take me out of what little story there is left.

It's the only yugioh dub that I couldn't finish. I had to give up on it because I was not having a good time with it, and for the first time, felt like it was getting in the way of me enjoying the series.

No shade to anyone who likes it, because I can see getting attached to it if you grew up with it, and think that Zexal is a good enough series that if the dub doesn't bother you, you could get an equally good experience from watching it. And hell, the dub soundtrack lowkey slaps, and the opening is one of the best 4kids ever did! But it's a hard pass for me, fam.