Daijoubu

Now that a week has gone by since I went to NYAF, I thought I’d present some of my musings about various anime-related issues almost in a stream of consciousness kind of way. Therefore, don’t expect much polish in this post! :) The place to start is with that Art of reviewing anime panel. Now the guy who was the Anime World Order podcaster (NOT the answerman) said he will occasionally mention seiyuu that he likes in a review. But the people on the panel also stressed that in reviewing anime you need to give a fair-minded hearing to both the sub and dub versions of a release. They also said ridiculous stuff about how sometimes the Japanese dub itself can be bad. This is a pointless observation because even a presumed badly voiced Japanese version is better than any English dub. Why? Because it is ORIGINAL (in the sense that it reflects the original creators’ intentions AND the cultural milieu in which and for which it was created).

Basically, I’m with Ask John over at animenation on this who has frequently noted (I’m too lazy to look up specific links) that as few changes and edits as possible are the best. The logical extension of this is: If the source material has some bad acting, well damn it, that’s a part of the VERY ESSENCE of what that program is! Why try to “improve it”? Shouldn’t the objective of true fans be to have an experience as close to the original as possible? Now foreigners can never quite replicate the socio-cultural conditions experienced by the primary audience in Japan, but say there’s a show that Japanese fans are laughing at because of bad acting (does anyone know of such an example?), I WANT TO BE PART OF THAT AS WELL! Let’s all laugh, rather than get some different thing that separates us from the otaku of anime’s motherland! In the past such barriers were inevitable, but as the world grows smaller, we will end up with a single trans-national fandom that needs no middlemen or alterations!

I know the kids like their dubs, but (again Ask john has noted this) dubs should really only be a crutch on the way to appreciating the original language. And I almost wish I could say to the reviewers,”You are in a position to put aside your usual reviews, which anyway typically read like they are no different than the blurbs and official copy on the DVDs!, and take on a better role of EDUCATING the fans. Talk about the original seiyuu as well as the English voice actors; write about the new seasons of anime in Japan, the various genres and creators and memes and all of it. Don’t pander to Narutards, but try to at least inspire some of them to broaden their horizons!!!” I mean, if there is ever to be any kind of real-time synchronization between Japan and America, or Japan and anywhere, we need to have more fans interested in legit ways of getting the latest stuff. That means we need more educated fans! I want to go to an American con and see more than just one fan creted reference to nice boats, and I want more than a mere handful who even know what it means!

Now, I imagine the most elite of fans could be those that go right to the raws. As for subs, I know that tj han wrote a while back on what’s the point of subtitles if you can’t understand Japanese anyway (again I’m too lazy to look up the old link). Well, besides the fact that the human brain has an amazing capacity to read subtitles and process it as though they have actually heard it, there is a lot a non-Japanese speaker can get in terms of intonation, and anyone whose watched a little bit is going to pick up names and that basic Japanese vocab that, when endlessly repeated, becomes the mark of the weaboo. In any event, the distinctive voice of Fuuko in Clannad, or the amazing performance of Aya-sama as Konata, particularly when she does that back and forth thing between Konata and Haruhi, well these show that a complete knowledge of Japanese does not prevent an awe-inspired respect for a seiyuu’s vocal talents!

And it seems to me that the expectations for seiyuu have changed dramatically since I first got into anime. Think back to vocal albums, like the Tenchi and Fushigi Yuugi collections I was into like 10 years or more ago. They were good, but the vocal talents of the actors varied considerably in terms of singing. Now I get the impression seiyuu pretty much have to do it all and singing and performing on stage are often essential. And the skill level now amazingly is high. Think of those Lucky star endings or Mikurun-run. They can sing, but are equally able to perfectly emulate BAD singing that’s out-of-tune, ear-piercing, but a hell of a lot of fun all the same. We have to appreciate the Japanese language acting a least a little, or we miss out on the important spin-off products and the intoxicating taste they give us of the otaku heartland. Like, imagine only seeing the Star Wars movies, but never knowing about the action figures, the fast-food restaurant product tie-ins, the fan-made videos, the parodies, the Halloween costumes, etc.

So yea, an amazing chansu for these media people to EDUCATE. Now, I think it was jp who said something about anime being mere disposable background entertainment on Japanese TV. Let’s really think about this a moment… Except for the little bit of (DUBBEDDDDD) anime on US TV, we are expected to buy these shows, totally unseen, on expensive DVDs. Now, this has been noted before, but think of it this way: There are in fact releases like this in Japan that are called OAVs. But when a Japanese otaku buys such a release (which are not doing so well now in general since their 90s heyday and are usually at least based on a pre-existing title that the fans already know they’re interested in), that otaku expects better-than-usual quality! But in a way, almost Every Anime Release in America is Treated Like an OAV, from the the crappiest TV show to most impressive artsy Film with a capital ef! If Japan went over to the exclusive production of OAVs and no TV shows except maybe Naruto, do you think their industry would still exist a year later? So journalists, please EDUCATE EDUCATE EDUCATE! Save the souls of some FullMetalNaruBleach-tards and earn your salaries! OK, so I have no idea what I’m going on about…. It’s 2:30 AM……