Yo! KW here. The "II" is due to the fact that there was some mismanaging of cookies, but I'm back on top, so to speak. Mmm, cookies...
Anyways, stuff about me... I like a lot of different things, things one might find usually oppose each other. Let's see. I like both Western Animation and Anime, Manga and Comics; things can extrapolate from there, but of course, I don't like EVERYTHING. I like Spider-Man, but I don't never got into Daredevil. I watched the whole DCAU but found The Batman to be not so heinous, even enjoyable. All in all, I think I'm a pretty accepting guy. At least I try to be and hope I am.
I do have some pet peeves though, which may or may not drive me to downvote certain youtube comments. Things like irrational hatred of English versions of anime. Everyone entitled to enjoy a show in whatever language they want, but making false accusations about the dubbing process, the people who work on them, or just wanting to spit vitriol without caring to learn the facts first are all quite irksome to me. They may even be irksome to whoever deigns to read this. If they are, you have additional sympathies from myself.
As an example, many accusations are hurled at English V As for "not being able to act" or "not getting the right emotion". Plainly put this is a two-fold issue. In the very early days, when anime was first being imported, in an effort to have appeal, localization companies farmed out voice work to radio hosts, believing that a "good voice" meant a "good performance". They were sadly mistaken, and the perception of acting talent was colored a dark shade of... puce. The bruise colour. However, that's no longer an issue, because whether the work is sent to the east coast or the west coast, we now have talented actors who can perform and convey characters and their emotions being relied upon wholeheartedly for their skills where they're needed. (I have nothing against radio people. It's just a different skillset, and in this case it was misapplied.)
From Vancouver down to California, east to Texas and on to New York and even Toronto nowadays, the actors we have are all trying their best and they really don't deserve the hate they receive for their perceived "failures". Which brings me to the second part of my example soap box, the difference in conveying meaning between Japanese and English. Both of these languages are very rich and full of idiosyncracies, but they are also very different in their delivery of a conversation. Both types change their pitch and tone, but they do it in different ways and thus give off very different impressions when heard. In Japanese, the way a word is said, even though it may sound very similar to another word, a slight difference in pitch or timing can turn it into something else. Added to that, Japanese has many more modifications of single word than English does, resulting in very different uses depending on the context. Use of a particular word provides a greater context compared to tone of voice. Some people may find spoken Japanese to sound flat as a result. English, on the other hand, puts much more emphasis on the tone or stress of a word. Careful observation indicates that moving the point of stress on to any other word in the chain of a sentence can change its meaning completely. Also, English is full of more direct turns of phrase, which sound different from Japanese wording but are no less efficient in getting a universal point across. Universal is the key word. Woolseyisms then come into play to convey an equivalent meaning to something which is more readily expressed in the original culture, but for which the changes are then to be made in order to get across a similar point of reference through which the audience can then more easily receive such an experience as was intended for the original audience. eg: Shinigami equates to Grim Reaper in the public consciousness. In the case of Bleach, the term was translated across the Pacific as Soul Reaper, clearly pointing to our grim pal. As it turns out, the term Soul Reaper is actually closer to what author Kubo was aiming for, as opposed to "death god". :)
Whew, I'm glad I got that off my chest. Yeah, this is supposed to be a contributor page, so I guess I was hoping to contribute something to the hive mind for consumption and food for thought... I don't know, maybe I'm just too soft? Though in my situation, kindness is a welcome attitude in any aspect of my life. Maybe I can get into this whole informational tidbit thing. I may not be perfectly correct, and I'm bound to make mistakes, but at the very least sharing something interesting in a kind way is almost as fun as a barrel of monkeys!
PS: I'm a writer. This site has helped me so much its so not funny it passes right back into being funny... or maybe happy? Either or... :)
