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May 28th, 2000

Got a new editorial up, check it out.  Also, I've deleted the link to TMAL at the bottom of the front page because the site is now shutting down.  Oh well.

Well, some more American pokemon names have been released and officialized, so they're up on my English-Japanese Pokemon page.  I think the worst name as of yet is Igglybuff.  Oh well...

And I've got a much better write-up for Super Smash Brothers, so check it out in the Video Games section.

You know how the first movie's soundtrack had such groups as N'SYNC, 98 Degrees, and Britteney Spears?  Well, who's going to be on the second movie's soundtrack has been announced.  Someone on a mailing list I'm on heard the list on the radio, and one name he remembered was Weird Al Yankovic!  Very strange...Run away!  Don't expect the second movie, due out in just over two months, to be dubbed any better (it'll probably be done worse) than the first movie.

And here's something that isn't good:  I was watching DBZ today and a bad dub quote of the month popped up.  "OK, I'll use that for my site."  Then another one popped up.  Then another.  Then another.  And they wouldn't stop coming!  So I had to choose from a bunch of quotes for the one that appears on the front page.  Kind of sad when you think about it.

May 21st, 2000

I've finished the summary of the Pokemon Zensho manga.  ALL OF IT!!!  Now all that remains is for me to get a scanner...

I WANTED to get the Japanese Pokemon Rap up this weekend, but a friend of mine has the book with the lyrics and the CD it's on.  Basically, when I romanize a song, I take the lyrics book that comes with the CD the song's on, type out the romanization (for I know hiragana and katakana!  Wheeee!).  Then I check what I've typed by listening to the song several times.  I've caught a lot of errors this way.  When I'm satisfied, I post it.  But since I don't have the lyrics book or CD at the moment, I can't romanize it (and I won't steal somebody else's romanization).  Also the thing keeping that song from being posted is the fact that it's such a long song and will therefore take much longer to type up.

Bandai announced they'll have a new anime on Cartoon Network, Blue Submarine #6.  I guess it'll air after Tenchi Muyo starts (which may not start until July...).  Also, Escaflowne HAS been confirmed for airing on Fox Kids, so it's no longer a rumor.  And you know what?  Brian Drummond, who did Vegeta in Seasons 1 and 2 of DBZ and Zechs in Gundam Wing, is going to do Amano-senpai (Captain Amano in the dub) and Allen Schezar.  Realistically, most of the dubbed Gundam Wing cast will probably be doing voices for Escaflowne.  Relena's VA doing Hitomi?  Treize's doing Folken (which wouldn't be that bad...)?  Only time will tell.

Oh, and will someone please tell Cartoon Network that Batman and the Powerpuff Girls are NOT anime!?!  They've changed their "Rising Sun" block by cutting Gundam Wing from an hour to half an hour in favor of a Batman episode, and cut out Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors) and replaced it with Powerpuff Girls.  But doesn't the title "Rising Sun" suggest that all the programs should be from Japan?  Especially since all the commercials say "the most anime on Saturday mornings (outside Japan)"?

Anyway, the new dubbed thing of the week is from the newly-released Dragon Ball Z videos.  These episodes will air in September.  I can already tell King Cold's voice will get on my nerves...and Trunks's voice isn't that great either...

May 19th, 2000

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been sick.  Sick as in "if I get out of my bed I'll throw up" sick.  But I'm much better now, so I can do an update!  Except it's really just a bunch of news...gomen gomen!  But now that I'm done with my AP Chemistry exam (it was hard!) I can get the Japanese pokemon rap lyrics up.

Nintendo's recently released the dubbed names for four of the new pokemon in Gold/Silver.  Check out Lugia, Chikorita, Hinoarashi, and Waninoko in the Pokemon English-Japanese section (hint:  two of them kept their Japanese names).

I finally have a Japanese tankobon of the Dengeki Pikachu manga (it's volume three).  It's neat, and it's the first time I've gotten to see Toshihiro's UNCENSORED manga.  Yes, there's quite a bit of artwork tampered with by Viz, I just need a scanner... Anyway, I also have on reserve Pokemon Special #1, so as soon as I get a scanner I'll be all set!  But first I need to get data out of my over-stuffed hard drive before I put any more into it.

"Maboroshi no Pokemon Lugia Bakutan" will be called "The Power of One" in the US.  Is there no end to the madness!?

Pokemon Gold/Silver will be released in the US on October 16th (2000, of course).  Also, for those of you interested, the second Zelda game on the N64 will come over here on November 20th, and the Playstation 2 will come out over here on October 26th and will run for about $299.

In sad news, Kaneto Shiozawa, seiyuu of Rosario from Dragon Half, Dimando (or "Diamond" in the dub) in Sailor Moon R, and Balrog (Vega) from Street Fighter, as well as many others, died May 10th, 2000.  It is speculated that he died after an accidental fall down some stairs (????).  He was born on January 28th, 1954, and was 46 years old.  Find out more about him by clicking here.

And finally, to prove some companies' stubborn attitude, here's a letter printed in a recent issue of Animerica Extra involving a Fushigi Yuugi chapter (the one where Miaka is trying to get into Kutou trying to find Yui...it's before Seiryuu no Miko is revealed...).  The letter is in black, Viz's response is in blue:

In a recent installment of FUSHIGI YÛGI, reference was made to Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, and Courtney Cox.  I think I can say with certainty that this was not in the original Japanese.  I understand that Yû Watase probably referenced three women who would be the Japanese equivalent.  I feel that you are trying to westernize the story by doing this.  You could, instead, print the original names used, and put a footnote saying "this would be equivalent to..." or something like that.  I know from talking to others that I am not alone in my view.

Juliet

The problem with footnotes is pacing.  Artists work very hard to guide you through the story-positioning panels and artwork to keep the mood and action flowing at a certain rate.  Editorial footnotes are intrusive and destroy that pace.  We'll place the footnote if it is crucial to your understanding of the story, but if it is a simple joke that will never come up in the story again, the best course of action is to replace the joke with something the western audience will easily identify (in the same spirit as the original) and move the story along.  But if you were brought up short by the western references, we failed to that attempt, and we apologize.

Footnotes a BAD thing!?  Never!  I LOVE getting Japanese puns and cultural references!  Thanks to my fansubbed Fushigi Yuugi, I now laugh when I say "shimatta!" whenever a door closes in my face.  Thanks to my subtitled DBZ World's Strongest movie, I say "Oh no!" whenever I see a brain (I know that doesn't happen very often...).  I just think they want to appeal to new fans of manga by Americanizing it as much as 4Kids, DiC, and all the others.  Their Fushigi Yuugi manga translation hasn't been the best anyway...

May 8th, 2000

Hi!  I've made a new picture for the front page, hope you like it!  I've also added a new episode comparison up, this one for the episode with Kojirou's family.  I've got a new pic for my Links section.  I've added two new CD's to my CD Guide, and I added a new song to the Lyrics Archive (To*itteru Nya).  I'm working on a spiffier layout and adding more stuff to my sections (I know I've missed a few pokemon in the popular pokemon sections, and I need to get the Japanese Pokemon raps up) so I promise I'm still working on this site dilligently.

I went to Peebles today (went shoe shopping) and saw something disturbing...there were these youth t-shirts with a Lizardon on it.  But on the top of the shirt, there was "Charizard" written out in katakana!  Cha-ri-za-a-do.  Apparently, the people who designed the shirt knew a little Japanese, and decided to be cute by putting Lizardon's American name in Japanese letters.  I was shocked and flabbergasted at this because now all these little kids will think THAT'S how you write "Charizard"'s name in Japanese!  It sickens me!

Cartoon Network took Yoroiden Samurai Troopers off and replaced it with Reboot!  Curse them!  Curse them to the deepest and darkest recesses of HFIL!

Also, the long-promised DBZ subtitled DVD should be out by the end of May or early June, but they're starting with Season 3.  So there still won't be any way to get Seasons 1 or 2 commercially subtitled.  They're keeping the US title cards (and thus the same episode titles) but the base episodes will remain faithful to the original (subbed or dubbed w/original music).  Also, I've heard Trunks's dubbed voice...it's not that bad!  Wow!  Someone offered a good explanation about why his voice is so good...when casting Goku, Piccolo, Freeza, Vegeta, and all the rest, they tried to get people who could immitate the Season 2 voices.  But with Trunks, there was no dubbed voice to try to match, just the Japanese one.  That's why Porunga's voice isn't that bad.  Of course, there are exceptions to this (like Maron) but we'll just have to see.  FUNimation's doing a whopping 75 episodes for Season 4, which should end around the end of the Cell saga.  Because they're doing 75 eps in less than a year, you can be it will be cheaply produced.  Sheesh...maybe my next website should be a DBZ one (it WAS my first anime, after all...^_^)

Oh, and Mixx is "translating" (if you can call that hack-job a translation) the Sailor Moon Stars manga.  Yes, now we can see Chibi-chibi ("Riri" in the Mixx version) and the Starlights (or "the Starlight Scouts" in Mixx's world) flipped and given corny dialogue like "Let's morph!" "I luv him cuz he's so kewl," and "Let's kick butt!"  Run away, run away...