Tuesday, August 23, 2005

anou.... un!
(Umm... yeah!)


Hello, everyone. I have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard I try, I can't make the posts shorter. So... bear with the rambling.

I have all my school books in my book bag (Hagaren!) and that is where they are staying. I am not touching them until I'm forced to. XD I tried to look through them, and realized that I only have 6 full days until classes start, and suddenly got a bad case of 'I'm-not-doing-anything-until-I-have-to' syndrome. So... no school for me until the 29th.

I have discovered Death Note manga scans. Very good. I would be reading more of it, but since it is now 3 a.m. I may have to quit soon... Darn.

Does anyone know any other good/mostly unlicensed series, that I could download research on the computer besides BLEACH and Death Note. Preferably something that's currently popular. I appreciate any feedback. ^^

I am now turning into a downloading maniac. XD I downloaded eps 4-6 of BLEACH, and 15 chapters of Spiral manga. And have the Death Note manga translation site on my favorites. All from just today. I of course have no way of saving the episodes to my computer. The site won’t let me… And I want to know more series!!

*completely forgets about the Hagaren obsession that she should be having in order to arrange all the ideas in her scrambled mind*

Oh well, that problem should be solved when my manga comes in… September. Grr at September. Why must everything I order be backordered?

Also, anyone know of any good doujinshi? Or good sites with Japanese fanart sites? I don’t care what series it’s of. Can you tell I plan on going on an internet rampage? ^^;; heh, heh….

Alright, I feel another, “I-think-that-I-may-know-too-much-Japanese-for-me-to-be-able-to-stand-english-version” rantish type thing beginning. If you don’t wanna read, just go to the end of the post…. ^^;;

Okay, I really think that it my mostly be my knowledge of the Japanese language (which really isn’t that much, by the way) that makes english versions all the tougher for me to stand. I mean there’s different speech patterns for male and female speech, and then there’s the almost infinite levels of politeness. And there is no way to translate those subtleties into english. And it doesn’t help when they add american slang into it either.

It seems to me, that when the Japanese present/make anime, they do it as an art form. It may very well be the intention of the english versions also, but I have yet to see an english version that actually does so. Except for Cowboy Bebop. Best. Dub. Ever. I (of all people) could actually switch back and forth between the original Japanese and the dub, for this series.

But anyway, I’m getting myself totally and completely off topic… what topic? What I meant to say, is that knowing all those little details about how the language works, makes it frustrating for me to watch the english version, where those details are either changed into some awkward sounding american slang, or left out all together.

Another thing is with the difference between male and female speech. For example, if there’s a girl that uses mostly or exclusively male speech patterns, there’s quite an effect in Japanese. Speech patterns say a lot about the personality of a character. But, when translated into english, that entire aspect of the character’s personality would be lost.

And then there’s the problem of literally translating everything…

For example, in Hagaren, in the Japanese, Aru rarely uses Edo’s actual name, he instead uses “Niisan”, a polite way of referring to one’s older brother. But when they translate it into english, having Aru say “brother” when talking to Edo seems a little… unnatural. (at least it did to me) In my opinion they may have been better off with just having Aru refer to Edo like everyone else, as Edo. But then, there most likely would have been complaints that they weren’t translating it accurately… *sigh* I know that having the translation as accurate as possible is important, but it’s just as important for the dialogue coming out of the characters mouths to sound natural in whatever language they’re speaking.

But, I do find it nice to have very thorough, almost word for word translations for subtitles. It makes it easier to learn/study Japanese, among other things. And there have been too many episodes that I have been watching, and a character yells out “Omae!”=”You!” and the subtitle reads, “Damn” or something of the like. I mean, what do they think? That americans would rather read the word “Damn” across the bottom of their screen, than what the character was actually saying?

I know that some people like and even prefer english versions,(it iseasier to understand, to hear the characters speak in the language you can understand, and it may be more enjoyable for some, I can even see the point that some may have and I’m fine with that. As long as they’re open to hearing the Japanese version. (I knew someone, and she wouldn’t even listen to the character’s Japanese voices.) I mean, anime did come from Japan, and it was originally created/intended to be watched/read in Japanese, so I think that people should at least give the Japanese version that much credit. (I give the english versions credit for introducing me to the series.) I have no problem with people liking/preferring english versions. And if the only version is available to you is the dub…. that’s how it was for me for quite a long while. I’m only asking people to at least watch the original version and then make up their mind about which version they like better.

Okay that’s the end of my long rant of nothingness #2245674 XD

Sorry you guys, I’ll try and stop that. I just started typing my post and suddenly felt the need to rant. It wasn’t directed at anyone of you guys. Don’t worry. ^^ I really hope that no one thinks that I was using this to yell at anyone…

Sorry the post was so long. I should try and make them shorter. But as I’ve said, that’s not gonna happen. XD

Thanks to all who read and comment.



~Kanau


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