Went from conjunction-of-crows to knightlycrow, and now my art blog is @conjunction-of-crows! I plan on posting art directly to there instead of here from now on, and will keep this blog for all of my reblogging nonsense.
We (somewhat rightly) mock the 2000’s era fansub translation notes for their otaku fixations and privileging of trivia over the media, but they should be understood as serving their purpose for a bit of a different era in the anime fandom. Take this classic:
Like, its so obvious, right? Just say “pervert”, you don’t need the note! Which is true, for like a ‘normie’ audience member who just wants to watch A TV Show - but no one watching, uh *quick google* “Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne” in 1999 is that person. The audience is weebs, and for them the fact that show is Japanese is a huge selling point. They want it to feel as 'anime’ as possible; and in the west language was one of the core signifiers of anime-ness. 2004 con-goers calling their friends “-kun” and throwing in “nani?” into conversations was the way this was done, and alongside that a lexicon of western anime fandom terminology was born. Seeing “ecchi” on the screen is, to this person, a better viewing experience - it enhances their connection to otaku identity the show is providing, and reinforces their shared cultural lexicon (Ecchi is now a term one 'expects’ anime fans to know - a truth that translator notes like this simultaneously created and reflected).
But of course your audiences have different levels of otaku-dom, and so you can’t just say 'ecchi’ and call it a day - so for those who are only Level 2 on their anime journey, you give them a translation note. Most of the translation notes of the era are like this - terms the fansubber thought the audience might know well enough that they would understand it and want that pure Japanese cultural experience, but that not all of them would know, so you have to hedge. The Lucky Star one I posted is a great example of that:
Its Lucky Star, the otaku-crown of anime! You desperately want the core text to preserve as much anime vocab as possible, to give off that feeling, but you can’t assume everyone knows what a GALGE is - doing both is the only way to solve that dilemma.
This is often a good guideline when looking at old memetically bad fansubs by the way:
This isn’t real, no fansub had this - it was a meme that was posted on a wiki forum in 2007. Which makes sense, right? “Plan” isn’t a Japanese cultural or otaku term, so there is no reason not to translate it, it doesn’t deepen the ~otaku connection~.
Which, I know, I’m explaining the joke right now, but over time I think many have grown to believe that this (and others like it) is a real fansub, and that these sort of arbitrary untranslations just peppered fansub works of the time? It happened, sure, but they would be equally mocked back then as missteps - or were jokes themselves. Some groups even had a reputation for inserting jokes into their works, imo Commie Subs was most notable for this; part of the competitive & casual environment of the time. But they weren’t serious, they are not examples of “bad fansubs” in the same way.
This all faded for a bunch of reasons - primarily that the market for anime expanded dramatically. First, that lead to professionally released translations by centralized agencies that had universal standards for their subs and accountability to the original creators of the show. Second, the far larger audience is far less invested in anime-as-identity; they like it, but its not special the way its special when you are a bullied internet recluse in 2004. They just want to watch the show, and would find “caring” about translation nuances to be cringe. And since these centralized agencies release their product infinitely faster and more accessibly than fansubs ever did, their copies now dominate the space (including being the versions ripped to all illegal streaming sites), so fansubs died.
Though not totally - a lot of those fansub groups are still around! Commie Subs is still kicking for example. They either do the weird nuance stuff, or fansub unreleased-in-the-west old or niche anime, or even have pivoted to non-anime Japanese content that never gets international release. But they used to be the taste-makers of the community; now they are the fringe devotees in a culture that has moved beyond them. So fansubs remain something of a joke of the 90’s and 2000’s in the eyes of the anime culture of today, in a way that maybe they don’t deserve.
I truly am obsessed with how Knives Out was like. Hello Daniel Craig, man who has spent the past two decades of his career being alternately beaten up and objectified playing an action hero with no personality. Would you like to please put on a shirt and an incomprehensible vaguely Texan accent and flex your character acting dark comedy muscles as well as your pecs for a while. And he’s like BOY WOULD I and they made a work of art. Also love that they put Chris Evans in sweaters. Get your beefcakes then dress them nice make them soft and give them some bonkers character work to do it’s what cinema needs more of
I love that several people have responded to this with “op I forgive you cause you’re Scottish but that’s not a Texan accent” which is fair thank you I appreciate it but no two people have agreed on what accent it is which is also Absolutely fair and hilarious as a reaction to this film
Cannot stress enough that I do not know what the fuck a foghorn leghorn is but literally a hundred people have said it to me so far so I’m assuming it’s important to, like, Americans
The idea that Foghorn Leghorn,
The Rhode Island rooster from Looney Toons, is one of the Elder Gods of America, is honestly fascinating from a theological and folkloric viewpoint
Pardon me, but he is a LEGHORN, not a RIR. It’s in his NAME. Leghorns are an Italian breed. And yes, he is an elder god.
According to Foghorn’s Tvtropes page:
Presumably, it’s less that Foghorn Leghorn is a Rhode Island Rooster and more that he’s a Rooster who lives in Rhode Island, possibly a Central Virginian Leghorn Rooster living in Rhode Island, though that implies a complicated and interesting life story that took him from Central Virginia all the way to Rhode Island
I would not rely on TV Tropes as an unbiased source. Wikipedia simple says his species is officially “rooster” and mentions a Leghorn being a breed of chicken. TV Tropes probably thinks the Cornflakes chicken is a RIR too.
I am potentially willing to concede he is a “barnyard mix” (cross between breeds) and his father, Harold Leghorn, was a leghorn and his unnamed mother was a RIR or other dark variety.
I love this site.
Sometimes it’s 1:30 am and you own chickens and you’re drinking whiskey in the bath tub and accuracy about iconic fictional chickens is the hill to die on, ok, and that’s why I love Tumblr.
This is just a reminder to everyone out there who gets annoyed by safety laws. They exist for a reason, and if you don’t want to follow them at least make sure to have the decency to only hurt yourself.
hate when couples say ‘we’re pregnant!!!’ both of you? prove it
his and hers matching pregancies
THIS ISNT ABT ‘cis’ mpreg ITS ABT TRANS MEN BE QUIET
My friend who has a gyno dad tells the best story about a couple (cis woman-trans man) who both tried in vitro fertilization and the guy got pregnant, and they were talking about it in the lobby when a cishet couple started getting weird abt it and said sth about it being “unnatural”. Her dad heard and was like, “UNNATURAL? EVERYTHING WE DO HERE IS UNNATURAL, God didn’t wanna give you guys a kid as much as he didn’t want to give one to this couple! And you all came to me for the same thing! WE ONLY DO UNNATURAL!!! IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT YOU CAN LEAVE!” and to this day I’ve never respected a doctor more.
Do you want a mainstream animated movie that is EXPLICITLY QUEER and not Disney coward background queer?
Do you want a movie where queer characters literally say they’re in love and kiss on screen?
Do you want a movie that’s visually stylish, hilariously and charmingly animated, with a mix of modern and medieval fantasy tropes?
Do you want a movie created by a trans person that is an OVERT TRANS ALLEGORY that also deals with themes of STATE PROPAGANDA, ANARCHY, and INHERITED/GENERATIONAL PRIVILEGE as well as the OTHERING AND DEMONISATION OF MINORITIES and CLASSISM all packaged in a PG all ages film about a pink teen what turns into a shark?
Then please watch NIMONA when it comes out on Netflix on June 30! You will not regret it.
I feel like people forget that Toon Link is, canonically, the only Link aside from maybe the original NES one to permanently kill Ganondorf.
Like in all of Toon Link’s games (at least the ones following Wind Waker) he never fights Ganon again. He kills him once and for all.
This dumbass
I just find that funny
he wasn’t even the chosen one or anything he just woke up one day, got his sister kidnapped, made the gods acknowledge him, and killed ganon
Literally searched the entire ocean to put the triforce of courage back together and rebuilt the master sword almost from scratch.
Also side note ganon is the most cunning and dangerous in this game of them all since he, again, got rid of the triforce and master sword before the game even began.
If he didn’t kidnap links sister he would have won
It’s my personal headcanon that the reason windwaker’s sequels are so weird in terms of villains, is because this little bastard ENDED demise’s curse. Like the curse was that Demise would return with the hero and zelda over and over, and since this kid WASN’T a reincarnation of the hero he ended the curse by breaking the cycle through sheer big brother energy
