Otakus


to "Ranma 1/2" <ranma@ML.usagi.org>
from "Don Wang" <dwang@hmc.edu>
subject Otakus
date Tue, 10 Oct 2000 11:57:28 -0700
    I've been thinking about this some time, and I think I dislike those who
are *otakus* (not limited to just Anime, though) more than those that are
just stupid.  Most people in my college's anime club can be considered as
otakus.  So we watch some fansubbed anime, say Kare-Kano.  Now if you've
done any amount of fansubing you know the quality is horrendous.  What shows
up on the screen does not even have to be related to what's going on.  But
what annoys me is that otakus are always so busy making fun of the bad
translation, even if they don't know what it's supposed to be!  Last week's
Kare-Kano, someone actually wanted to know what the dialogue was supposed to
be, but all he got was fellow otakus saying how bad the subtitles are, even
though none of them knew what it was (I think it's "I will use my deduction
skills that earned me #1 on the midterm!"  I know this because I've seen the
manga in Chinese already).  Ask them about any translation issues and
they'll tell you how the US translations suck because they're handled by
monkeys in Africa (this I don't necessarily disagree ^_^), but ask them to
actually translate?  No way, they never have the time.  It took me 6 months
to get the lyrics of Radical Dreamers translated from a friend, and most of
it I can already infer by just the tone of the song (Mitsuda is such a
brilliant composer, Noriko Mitose is the perfect VA for Kid too).   Yeah
it's true the version online that's been floating around doesn't even
resemble standard English.  Heck, just look at the various incarnations of
Radical Dreamers, The Unstealable Gem.  We got The Unstolen Gem
(gramatically incorrect), Without Taking the Jewel (literal translation),
The Forbidden Treasure (Le Tresor Interdit, the OFFICIAL translation, which
is wrong!), and probably a few more weird variations.  Why is the
translations so bad?  It's because all your hotshot otakus are either too
busy, or in most cases, they don't even possess the ability to translate any
better than what's out there, and yet they still complain.  I myself am
guilty of this, I'm sure, being a translation nazi and whatnot.  But at
least I try to find an accurate translation of whatever I don't like so that
I'll know what it ought to be.

    I really dislike otakus.  It seems like it's a habit to laugh at the FBI
warning for not illegal reproduction and whatnot that goes on any video
tape.  No I don't feel guilty looking at a fansub or a public showing of
something that's supposed to be private (then again, showing a movie
publicly, say in a dorm activity, should be illegal too), but copyright laws
isn't something you mock just because it simply cannot be enforced all the
time.  Someone actually told me to get fansubs as opposed to download them
because they're more legal.  Last time I checked, fansubs are inherently
illegal because you're supposed to pay the original guys for distribution
rights.

    Or let's talk about voice acting.  Oh, I don't think English VAs are
great, but they're not bums off the street that everyone thinks they are,
either.  Japanese VAs are not some kind of gods.  Perhaps in the Anime
field, where distribution is limited, American companies can't afford to
hire decent voice actors, but this is not so in a more lucrative field, say
the American video game industry.  Metal Gear Solid comes into mind.  I've
not seem the Japanese version but I doubt it can be better, if even on par,
with the American quality.  Besides some of the earlier really bad dubbing
jobs (Castlevania, Symphony of the Night comes to mind) and perhaps Grandia
(One can't help but to wonder who did the dubbing for this game...), I find
PSX games in general to have passable to excellent dubbing.  And yet otakus
will always say the original is better even though it's always that same old
10 or so people with most probably the same generic tone you've heard a
gazillion times (e.g. the Megumi Hayashibara voice, the Inoue Kikuko voice,
etc...)  Actually, it seems like to the Otaku, Japan is associated with the
realm of the Gods.  Everything is possible in Japan, like getting Leo to
join your party, revive Aeris, or whatever.  America is always inferior.
And it's just not true.  I got Valkyrie Profile and so far the only
character I found annoying is Ashton's voice reincarnate, Llewyn, and only
when he says "I got to try harder or else..." (you've to have played Star
Ocean 2 to understand why this is bad).  I find all the female voices
passable despite the fact that out of the party I have, at least one out of
Nanami and Jalenda would, by the law of Japanese VAing, have to have the
'annoying princess voice' (well, Jalenda is the 'annoying princess'
prototype), but they actually sound okay in English.  Lenneth Valkyrie has a
superb voice acting, as do most of the characters I've so far, like Jun,
Belanus, Angrim, Nanami, and so on.  It's not that I don't respect the
talent of Japanese VA, but it's certainly not something that American
counterparts can never hope to bridge.  Frankly, I think American VA have
long caught up to them in the field of video game VAing, where there's
actually enough profit to warrant paying more than minimum wage to your
local bum to do the VA.

    I don't ever identify myself as an otaku, even though most people
consider me as such.  I mean, it's not supposed to be a good thing!

Don, who thinks the whining Amazons deserve to have the bow bug slapped in
their face.  They were balanced with everyone else (Bars are a lost cause)
and they now want to do 3 times more damage than everyone else so they can
become the 2nd Bar class.  No way.
"It shall be engraved upon your soul!  Divine assault, (dramatic pause),
Nibulung Valesti!"
Lenneth Valkyrie, Valkyrie Profile


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