Best online game I've played since... the invention of the internet.

All the ladies, self-proclaimed or not, you must play this.

You must perfect the art of elegant feminine conflict.

(Hat tip Pau.)

How could I not b-rant-log as a fansub watcher? If you have no idea what it is about yet, a pro translator,  Paul "OtaKing" Johnson, made a video about the rise and fall of fansubs. Here's the first part:


(There are 5 parts in total, just go to the next in the related videos section.)

Now, be sure to watch through the whole thing. There are parts where I just wanted to stop because I found it a waste of time (and the snobby British accent annoyed me), but in other parts he makes good points I whole-heartedly agree with. First off, I'm in line with most of the comments fans have made at the Random Curiosity blog (where I first found about the "documentary") and at the Animesuki forums (for a more fansubber oriented view--OtaKing responded in the thread, which leads to quite an interesting read).

Of it all, my disagreement with his views can be summarized as this: he's painting with too wide a brush.

Now if you want my full rant, read on.

There are nightmare to superb fansubs. I got my favorites and there are ones I scowl at the sight of the group name. Favorites groups like Live-Evil for their consistent superb work and subbing of lesser known great anime, and Rumbel for how they handled Gintama--Ayu too, in the department of gag anime, for keeping Gyagu Manga Biyori watchable and still funny, a considerable feat. Then Your-Mom is the worse one I've ever had the misfortune to watch--I'm lucky that it's the only really bad group I've ever encountered (not only to do they skip lines, mistranslate, they also apparently haven't watched episodes closely enough to even guess by context).

I personally would even settle with a mediocre speed sub as long as it coherent and pretty accurate in it's translation. While I'm not passing in Japanese, I've gotten enough listening practice, and cultural knowledge, to know what's being said even without subs. And so, there's nothing more annoying than reading a translation that's way off on simple sentences even I know--this is my biggest gripe with subs in general.    

His video selects some of the worst offenders (I don't follow the One Piece anime, so wow, some of those examples of flashy text were surprisingly horrendous) and some I find unjustified for his complaints (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was one I really had to give kudos to the fansubbers--and for the person for invented the pause button). The stuff about fansub credits overpowering the original ones is a real problem, as is for too flashy text and way too much on-screen notes that could have been put at the end (a lot of subs I've watched put notes at the end, but I'm fine with short ones on screen as long as they aren't spoilers, sheesh). You can tell I'm fine with notes by my style of writing (with my many, many, many usage of parentheses--amazingly, I also speak the same way, with my bad habit of interrupting others and even injecting my own sentences with a random tangent).

Other stuff, I disagree with him. Like the switching firstname-lastname for the simple reason that it's jarring to clearly hear someone say "Kurosaki Ichigo" but read it as "Ichigo Kurosaki" (unless you're watching on mute). It's a pet peeve of mine in manga, but obviously manga won't create that audio-visual conflict so it's not so bad (oh, I will tie in this rant to manga translations, just you wait). Same for honorifics. While it's unfortunate there's no way to keep in the many "I" variations in an English text without making it incomprehensible, honorifics aren't that hard to learn and accept. And it really does show character relationships much more clearly--I certainly wish there were equivalents in English other than the few we have.

I even enjoy honorifics in Indonesian: I really like being called "cici" by my little sister ("onee-san", if we were Japanese-- maybe more fitting would be "onee-chan" since "cici" is a familiar term rather than formal) and had always wished I'd been addressed with a "Kak" honorific by an overly-enthusiastic but endearing underclassman (when used in a school setting, "Kak-" would be the equivalent of a "-sempai" honorific in Japanese). A good friend of mine actually addresses me as "Ann-san" during high school, and I got a few "Ann-sempai"s and "Ann-sama"s in my years among fellow anime/manga fans (and a couple of "Ann-chaaaaaan~<3"s by a certain Papi and group of girls which I would punch shortly after)--let me tell you, I love honorifics, no matter the language.

And as many people have pointed out, fansubs are usually geared towards fans and not a general audience. Most of these fans would have known about, and prefer, the original Japanese honorifics. The audience would eventually dictate the process, which is why we have the flashy karaoke and instances where certain terms aren't translated (One Piece and the whole "nakama" thing, as is "shinigami" for Bleach. I personally can live with those two translated--though I prefer shinigami the way it is in Bleach translations--but stuff like "genin/jounin/chuunin/whatevernin" that was translated in Viz's Naruto manga was unbearable. Thank goodness they're back.)

The typesetting translations into the art complaint is just nit-picking something that's actually a nice feature. Sure, there are badly done ones, but then there are non-intrusive examples that work better than a "*blabla*" somewhere that might mess with dialog text. The few instances when I watched the Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo dub on CN, I really missed seeing translations of the japanese text like what there were in the fansubs (one example is still an ongoing joke between me and Jes for a few years now... it's the part where a box of cookies is dropped then started squirming with an arrow and text going "Cookies?"-- Jes and I would go "Cookiiiiiiies??" for any unidentifiable food-stuff when appropriate).

Sometimes it's impossible to not translate, on-screen, certain signs and words without losing some of effect--particularly true for comedy. And his point about "why would a Japanese whateverwhatever have an English name right next to it?" is stupid and frankly condescending in that it implies a viewer wouldn't get that it wasn't there in the original Japanese video. Unless he meant it as a joke, which would then mean he's for typesetting translations into the art? Man, I need an editor's note for his video.

And localization... you all know that I hate localization unless it's absolutely needed and well-done. Maybe it's because I can be considered a senior reader/watcher and so the Japanese jokes and cultural style isn't so foreign. Or maybe it's just that sometimes there is so much re-writing that a sub/dub/manga trans is no longer a work of the original and can be considered an adaptation. "More flowing English," "familiar jokes/puns/terms," yeah yeah, but not when it comes to point you instinctively know there's no way the original said something that way.

Cursing is a great example where I find translators of all kinds (fans or pros) tend to go overboard. A particular dislike is when the curse "Jesus Christ" (aaarrrghh) is used in a translation. What the hell? Seriously, what the hell, Translator Person? And guess what? I've seen this used not only in mangascans, but in the Dark Horse version of Blade of the Immortal--a professional, legal, U.S. version. What makes the usage of my Lord's name as a curse even more ridiculous in this example is that BOTI is set in feudal Japan. See, even professional translators can be complete morons in attempts to localize. If you need me to explain why similar usages of "Jesus Christ" as a curse in manga/anime translations is stupid (unless they used the exact same thing in the original--which unfortunately does happen), then please look elsewhere because I will hurt you.

Oh, I recently finished reading Viz's version of Ultra Maniac. My goodness, I never wanted to white-out whole speech bubbles and write my own in before. It's a complete train-wreck. The script was re-written to sound like all readers were incredibly dumb teenagers that need emphasis on the important words so they won't miss it. It's like everyone is drunk by the way their speech fluctuates up and down--is that it? Is everyone high or drunk?? (This is typical in American comics I observed--I still don't know why and if this is common pratice.) And the localization of honorifics... "Ayu-chan" was translated as "Ayu dear"--URG. Yes, it's totally natural that high-schoolers call each other with the suffix "dear", even in Japan, apparently. I can go on and on about this travesty.

Gosh, I don't read much of the US version manga, but I hope this isn't wide spread. So far, my favorite publisher is Del Ray for their policy of keeping in honorifics, original sfx, and original jokes/terms/cultural stuff with nice notes at the end of the books.

I'm abruptly stopping here because I'm hungry and I've forgotten all the other things I want to say because the post went on too long.

*shuffles off*

Jes just graduated yesterday! Well, not really, but she did finally walk and get her BFA diploma while we (her family, my mom, and me) watched from far away. It was pretty cool, and I get to preview what my own graduation might be like--though, I had planned from the start to just be done with school and skip the ceremony (my parents might not like that...).

When Jessy's name was called, I think I might had accidentally video-taped her friend instead... stupid grainy zoom lens and dim-lit stadium hall... Anyway, she's going to continue to get her MFA, so I'll reserve the 15-point flashing text of "CONGRATULATIONS" till then.

As for me, I'm done with the semester. Then, after the short summer semester as I take my last required graphic design class (Typography 2), I'm going to spend my last year in a tailored program of agony. After meeting up with my department's director, he okay-ed me to take classes more suitable to what I'm going to be doing professionally, which is working with Brethren on visual development in gaming.

These classes are heavy. As in, full-time job heavy.

For instance, he warned me outright (and I heard horror stories) about how time consuming the Intro to Visual Development class would be. It's definitely a class I want and need to take, but it's already scaring the lazy-bum life out of me from a couple semesters away. Looking at this Fall semester's classes (Clothed Figure Drawing 3, Illustration 3, and Advanced Perspective for Illustration, Film & Games), I tell myself it's impossible and suicidal.

Well, I told myself that a couple of times already, and manage somewhat easily, but this time I'm seriously foreseeing a string of sleepless nights and Cs. Noooooo! If I can survive this, I can survive work! Go for it, me!

Last year! Last year! I was planning to get a Masters but I'm sick of school so this will be the last!

In anime news, my favorite so far of the season is Nijuu Mensou no Musume. Strong and capable young female character and likable support ones. It's great fun to watch how the heroine reasons her way through problems in a show more about cunning than brawns. Not to mention the surprising turning point in episode #6 that I really didn't see coming so quick and.... thorough.

Soul Eater is another one I'm watching because I'm following the manga. I love the manga btw, as it has a pretty unique look (very stylized and grafitti-ish--some illustrations reminded me greatly of Gorillaz's look) and a fun story with fun characters. The plot has recently gotten really interesting as well. My only and greatest complaint is the fan-service. WHYYYY. It'd be perfect (for me) otherwise. Argh.

As for anime comments, looking good as is expected of BONES, but I agree with a lot of the fans that Maka's seiyuu needs acting lessons. Her tone fits the character to a T, but the lifeless acting had made me go "that can't possibly be intentional..." even before I found out they used a complete amateur for her seiyuu (she's a teen idol with no acting experience). It's really painful in the first episodes, but it has improved recently. All the best for her!

Other than those two, I'm not really following any of the other new anime. Vampire Knight, Special A, and Itazura na Kiss are all ones that I follow manga-wise, but after watching the first episodes for the first two, I think I'm gonna sit out on them. Ouran Koukou Host Club is probably the only recent shoujo manga adaptation I felt had outdone itself. (Honey & Clover and Nodame Cantabile are also notable examples, but on a whole, shoujo adaptations fare worse than the shonen ones IMHO.)

Oh wait, I'm following the Golgo 13 anime too. My goodness, I knew this already, but Golgo is so GAR. I hadn't realized just how GAR he was since I never really read the manga even if I knew quite a bit about it. The old-school anime look fits so well and it's all so unbelievably masculine. The amount of testosterone in each episode is--and I don't use this term lightly--sick. Berserk would had come close if it wasn't for Griffith's girlyness and all those non-throwaway female characters, ha.

This is probably because I grew up reading old-school shonen manga, but even as a girl, I find Golgo 13 pretty entertaining even with the killings, the sleeping with hot-babe-of-the-week, and the "..." stares. This is the type of anime you'd watch and laugh at the sheer manly awesomeness. Or maybe I'm just weird.

Random manga news... Mx0 ended quite abruptly. I'm a bit disappointed yet not surprised, Kano-sensei seems to have his work cut short frequently (it does get draggy  to the point no amount of fan-service could save). Inuyasha seems to be ending! Finally argh! I haven't cared much about Inuyasha since... well, since it seems it'll go on forever. Now if Meitantei Conan could do the same... although the current Shinichi case is somewhat interesting. And the recent School Rumble chapter... *cries* Ka-Karasuma-kun! Noooo.... (Though, being of the Flag Faction, I'm happy for the Harima x Eri moments).

As for newly published series I like, Double Arts is the current one I really think has a lot of potential. Interesting premise and nice art (but why do I keep on getting Kingdom Hearts vibes?) as well as a sense of unpredictability I haven't felt in a while in shonen manga.

Oh oh, I recently read Gyo and Uzumaki (in a single sitting). Wow. I got the same feeling after the last pages as I got from finishing a Stephen King novel (which I also usually finish in one or two sittings--it took me 8 hours when I read through The Dark Half). It's really the feeling of wrong than any tangible horror. A tad bit more atmospheric and "tasteful" than Umezu-sensei's stuff which really introduced me to true horror manga (and not the shoujo kind I've been reading up till then). Gosh, I remember reading the Indonesian pirated version of Left Hand of God, Right Hand of the Devil (called "Sote" in the Indo version) and not being able to eat for hours after...

Fish-tachi news... Jes had got me a couple of new fish for my birthday! Two golden mystery snails (Snail-tachi), three peppered Corydoras (Pepper-tachi), and a pleco (Pleco-kun). The latter of which died a few weeks ago... surprising in that it survived this long. Pleco-kun had been handled quite roughly at Petsmart (nearly jumped out of the water) and was lethargic and spooked before even getting home.

Then the newcomers brought a fun two weeks of combating ich with them. Fish-tachi were the only ones infected with the parasites but they're fine now after the treatments. Pleco-kun survived throughout the treatment, but I guess it was too much. Snail-tachi and the peppered catfish are doing well though! And Fish-tachi are still their usual active selves.

My Cut-Off Project was quite a success school-work wise, but ironically it made me unable to pull all-nighters. I don't know why, but it fixed my sleeping habits so much I just couldn't stay awake straight through the morning hours anymore. For the holidays, I'll be back online more. The Cut-Off Project will resume with school.

Ah, we got a massive house-cleaning adventure to do, that will end with a huge garage sale--hopefully. Our studio room and garage is such a complete mess it'll take weeks.

I'm tired now, so I'll stop.

Awesome Stick Fight of the Moment: GhostFight Part 1. I forgot where I found this from, but it's one of the best stick fights I've seen. The best so far actually, as the effects and choreography are really well done. Heh, the sfx remind me so much of fighting games but that just makes it cooler.

Heh, day two of my Cut-Off Project and someone decides to hack TheProject. Now, I'll be staying up all night until I can get everything back up. I know what happened, so at least I an prevent this type of exploit in the future.

Funny how our plans always unravels by things out of our control...

You can check the Staff Blog for updates on it, btw.

This has been a problem I've took too lightly for too long. Lately, I'm really hating myself for being so weak at fighting procrastination, especially in regards to reading blogs/manga/news and watching youtube/anime/dorama. It's affecting my health in a way that I'm sacrificing sleep time just so I can surf the internet AND finish school projects on time.

Confession: This last Monday I ended up sleeping(read: napped) for 1 hour because I got stuck watching a series of Carameldansen videos--then moved on to a series of Kyonko ones (if you don't know what I'm talking about, four words: Gender Bender Suzumiya Haruhi)--when I had to finish 2 homework drawings for a class I need to leave for at 7 a.m. (I slept at 5, woke up at 6). The sad part is that the homework only took me about 30 minutes each. I just had to drag it on until being cornered enough to finish them at 4:45 a.m. This was really where the alarm bells started--I never did such a stupid thing on a school night. You can imagine how I felt the next day.

It's a disease.

And so, I'm going to treat it as one. Starting tomorrow, for a whole week, I'm going to impose a internet cut-off schedule not unlike in internet addiction treatments. Jes is going to help me through this by keeping my internet adapter away from me by hiding it in her room or bringing it to her office. She'll give it back to me for a set amount of hours each day. If this works (meaning I don't go crazy or my productivity suffers even more), then the experiment will be extended until I'm "cured" for good.

Here's the times I'll be allowed online:

Sat-Sun: 15.00 - 22.00
Mon-Tue & Fri: 18.00 (or whenever I get back from school) - 21.00
Wed-Thurs: 18.00 - 22.00

I predict I'll be somewhat agitated like a coffee-junkie suddenly forced off caffeine, but I need this to work. My Lord Jesus, please, I really want to make this better! Please pray for me, this isn't something I can get through by my own strength. Thanks for any support, guys!

I-Sorta-Fantasized-About-This Videos of the Moment: Mark Lives in IKEA. Every year when Jes and I go on our annual IKEA trip, I always end up fantasizing about having my own small studio apartment furnished neatly like those displays at IKEA. Well, this comedian flipped that idea around. XD Also check out his video where he visits every Starbucks in Manhattan in one day... that's 171 stores.