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Answerman - Nobody Loves The Weeaboo


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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:19 am Reply with quote
Now that Cinedigm dipped its toe in the "art house" anime world with its DVD release of Mononoke, maybe they should consider licensing Monster. Marketing, however, will be a bear. The show is so old now that it no longer has a built-in audience. I blame Viz for most of this. They mishandled the license from the beginning investing in a needless dub and taking so long to release the show it had fallen off the viewers' radar screens.

It is a shame that when I make anime recommendations I cannot point people to a legal version of one of my top-ten anime shows of all time, and indeed one of my top-ten television shows of any kind.
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kamanashi



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:21 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Normal people who are into Japanese stuff might get lumped in with them initially, but if you're actually a socially functional person I'm sure you can find ways of overcoming the stereotype.


That is extremely true. Back in middle school and high school there was a group like that. I pretty much just acted normal and no one associated me with them even though I did watch anime. Every so often someone would genuinely be interested in what I watched or why I watched it, but I never would go overboard with it.

So long as you can have a real discussion with a human being, the majority of people will probably ignore it or not even realize you watch anime.
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here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1529
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:41 am Reply with quote
As a follow-up to the Monster question...

If, let's say years down the road, a niche US licensor decides to release Monster, would it be hard to get the dub too? It seems like the majority of license rescues are able to secure the rights to dubs, but I'm guessing this is a murky area?
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sonnets



Joined: 22 Aug 2014
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:49 am Reply with quote
Weaboos also tend to be racist towards individuals of other Asian countries and comparing them to Japan. They are disrespectful to real human beings saying things like "I want to see real gay boys making out" or thinks it's okay to sexually harass Japanese women because they're supposed to be all like AV Idols. To be honest, there's such a thing as Koreaboo, too. They suck, too.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 871
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:51 am Reply with quote
yuna49 wrote:
Now that Cinedigm dipped its toe in the "art house" anime world with its DVD release of Mononoke, maybe they should consider licensing Monster. Marketing, however, will be a bear. The show is so old now that it no longer has a built-in audience. I blame Viz for most of this. They mishandled the license from the beginning investing in a needless dub and taking so long to release the show it had fallen off the viewers' radar screens.

It is a shame that when I make anime recommendations I cannot point people to a legal version of one of my top-ten anime shows of all time, and indeed one of my top-ten television shows of any kind.


I could see someone licensing it when they finally decide to go through with the live action series.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:52 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Nobody cares if you're into Japanese culture, Korean dramas or Bollywood movies.

Why I am seeing an image of Godzilla in my mind?
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Brand



Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 1029
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:58 am Reply with quote
There have been tons of questionable video game translations. And games with lots of text tend to be the ones that suffer the most because that is where the most expense is. With the Alice game it sounds like the case was not only a non-native English speaker working on it, but different people working on the different paths. So, the quality of each varies a lot. Also, no one editing it at the end to make it sound cohesive.

----

yuna49 wrote:
They mishandled the license from the beginning investing in a needless dub and taking so long to release the show it had fallen off the viewers' radar screens.


This is just a guess, but the think the parent company really wanted it dubbed. And if Viz wasn't going to dub it they were not going to get to release it. And at the time I highly doubt any other companies at the time were willing to risk that kind of investment.

----

On the Weeaboo topic. My friends and I joke about it with each other a lot. Who's the biggest Weeaboo and what not. But we do belong to an 18+ anime club and we have had the discussion of where the line is. Those who can have normal conversions with "muggles" and those who can't seem to talk to people outside of their own interests.

It doesn't have to be just anime, I knew a woman who was super obsessed with Buffy. It's all she ever talked about and pretty much watched for years on end. We hang out and she would want to watch reruns of Buffy. One time she wanted me to show her how to torrent so she could download a season of the show so she could watch before the box set of that season came out as a celebration. Needless to say she drove everyone nuts.
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Cerceaux



Joined: 02 Oct 2011
Posts: 180
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:01 pm Reply with quote
I was tardy to the party and only got through half of Monster before it got taken off the steaming sites, which I'm still super bummed about because it was really good.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4158
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:02 pm Reply with quote
Fronzel wrote:
Quote:
Nobody cares if you're into Japanese culture, Korean dramas or Bollywood movies.

Why I am seeing an image of Godzilla in my mind?


False alarm; People care about Godzilla. It's when you get down to specifically naming the movie run after the Japanese era that gets you into trouble.

Or insisting on people calling him Gojira. Or claiming it's better in the original Japanese {Short answer: no... with a but}.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5528
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:09 pm Reply with quote
^I'm afraid you missed the joke

The weeaboo thing is way too true, and I believe most of us have gone through it at some point (ugh, there was this time in which I just wouldn't shut up about Bleach...). Something that drives me a little bit insane about most local anime publishers and their most devoted fans is that they have this mad weeabooish way of speaking and writing up their posts that makes me so embarrassed of belonging to the same community and attending their events.

On that note, I just came back home after half a year in Japan and I wanted to die from embarrassment when I bowed to the guy from a not-fancy-at-all restaurant. Really hoping the habit goes away sooner rather than later


Last edited by CrowLia on Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
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MetalUpa1014



Joined: 24 Aug 2013
Posts: 283
Location: USA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:16 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Or insisting on people calling him Gojira. Or claiming it's better in the original Japanese {Short answer: no... with a but}.

If you watch the original black and white Godzilla film in English, it's practically a different movie though. So yes, I'd prefer the original Japanese version. Razz

Glad to see my weeaboo question got answered. More importantly, I'm glad to know that I don't do any of those things. Smile

I'm learning the Japanese language and culture because I find it fascinating and I truly have a strong passion for it. I study every day and put my all into it. But although I love the language and culture, I'm not naive enough to pretend that Japan is heaven on Earth. Being half-Chinese, I know what they've done in the past to my race, so that's something I have to accept. Plus, I've read about the problems that are in Japan and I actively try to understand the culture.

For example, anime isn't a widespread hobby over there. It's about as niche as it is here. Sometimes Americans are the ones who take it more seriously than them even. The majority of people over there aren't otakus and all that weird Japanese stuff you see online doesn't represent the country as a whole, just a very small underground culture.

Though to be fair, I sometimes do say some things in Japanese to people I know, but that's when I want to INTENTIONALLY annoy and confuse them. So whatever happens, it's me who brought it on myself and I fully accept that. At least I'm actually saying stuff that's proper Japanese, as opposed to some broken combination of that and English. ;(

I'm about to enter my last year of high school, and while my school doesn't offer Japanese of any kind, I study it every day like I previously mentioned. This year, I plan on starting a new club called the Asian Film Society where I'd show original language Chinese, Japanese, and Korean films to people interested in joining. My goal is to show other students the beauty of Eastern culture, because it's something that most people in my 99% white suburban community aren't accustomed to. Hope I can fulfill this dream before I leave.

And once I get to college, I'm dead set on taking Japanese classes and going on exchange trips to Japan. It'd be a dream to work as a translator, or perhaps for some kind of Japanese company.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15558
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:24 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
What I cannot seem to wrap my head around is why Viz dubbed all 74 episodes if they knew that the first box set sold so poorly?
'

It's called the early 2000s anime bubble when that kind of money was flowing around a lot more than nowadays. But if Viz had released
Monster today on DVD, it'd definitely be Discotek'ed.

Quote:
I also find it suspicious that it was not that popular, since Guillermo del Toro was trying to turn the property into a live action series for HBO, and an Australaian company released the entire series on DVD only in 2013.


Guillermo del Toro liking something doesn't mean it's big. For example, Mazinger and Satoshi Kon. But you should just appreciate that it's a motivating factor in Viz bringing back the manga. Also, the reason they can put out the complete release in Oz is the fanbase there doesn't consist of a-holes who just talk about shows on forums which they'd like to see licensed, but which those fans are more likely to pirate.

Quote:
Regardless, Viz's contract is over, no distributor has US rights, and it's unlikely that will change for a while.


It's possible GDT might have the rights to the anime himself, the way Cameron allegedly does with Battle Angel.

Anime: Godzilla is better in Japanese simply because their dub tracks don't come off like Brit people talking through a megaphone.
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potatopurplexs3



Joined: 02 May 2014
Posts: 60
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:25 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
or you insist on eating spaghetti with chopsticks


Why would a weeaboo eat spaghetti in the first place? There's no way they would eat inferior western food like that!

Quote:
Nobody cares if you're into violent furry incest porn


Maybe I misread that, but I really hope you don't think all furry stuff is like that.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6378
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:29 pm Reply with quote
Oh my, I really love this week's Answerman.

Regarding the crappy translation in visual novel. Justin, have you ever been to Engrish.com. Most of the Engrish that is coming out of Asia are usually from Japan and Mainland China. I mean have a look at these from Japan:





There's more like these I can find around the web. Laughing But yeah don't be surprised if you see more visual novel get shoddy Engrish translation.

Regarding Naoki Urasawa's Monster, it's unfortunate the disc sales didn't do well in North America. I can understand why Viz Media had to drop it, that was very sad to hear. Crying or Very sad Anime cry

I don't know if Del Toro's interest to adapt Monster into live-action can bring back interest into the anime. But good luck to him.

I have nothing to add about the 3rd one because well I don't have any opinion about it.

But about weeaboo or should I say "pro-Japanese supremacist", "Japanese wannabes" or "non-Asian/white people pretending to be Japanese, when they're not". I really don't like these people. I've seen weeaboo throwing racist stuff at other Asian people that aren't Japanese (I even heard of non-Asian person that are big Japanaophile even look down and insult the country he was born/originated from), it's like when Japanese right-wing groups (ie: Zaitokukai) incite xenophobia and racism, the weeaboo would think that's cool because it makes them think they're Japanese and are not aware these right-wing groups are racist against non-Asians too.

sonnets wrote:
Weaboos also tend to be racist towards individuals of other Asian countries and comparing them to Japan. They are disrespectful to real human beings saying things like "I want to see real gay boys making out" or thinks it's okay to sexually harass Japanese women because they're supposed to be all like AV Idols. To be honest, there's such a thing as Koreaboo, too. They suck, too.


There's another type of obsessive people I don't like when it comes to Asian culture. It's the pro-Asian supremacist or white people/non-Asian that have fetish for Asian culture (ie: ProudAsian is one example).

I mean when Hollywood started to remake Asian films like The Ring, The Grudge, The Departed, and other remake you can think of. The fans of the original film which the remake was based on would downright bash it and throw in anti-Hollywood/anti-American slurs for remaking Asian films. But around 2009, the wheel started to turn, and now:

Remaking Hollywood Hits for Asian Audiences

Film Business Asia-Remake Fever: West to East

ANN-Eastwood's Unforgiven Remade as Samurai Film

Yes China, Japan, and South Korea started to remake Hollywood and European films, and here's the part where it indicate Asian favoritism and bias and Asian supremacy: The same people that complain about Hollywood remaking Asian films never criticized Asia for doing the same to Hollywood/Western films. It likes they would bash Hollywood remake but never insult Asian remake.

I've seen some people making comment praising the Asian remake and insult/bash the American original. So I hate these people. Mad Evil or Very Mad


Last edited by mdo7 on Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Fedora-san



Joined: 12 Aug 2014
Posts: 464
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:37 pm Reply with quote
Weeaboo has become a buzzword that has lost all it's meaning, even though it's meaning was stupid and not related to Japanese things at all originally. I've seen it used on forums in response to someone saying they liked a Japanese game. Pretty much any Japanese game gets called a weebgame these days. It's become a derogatory racial slur in a lot of circles for anything Japanese. You can't even say you have a preference for Japanese media anymore without it being pulled out, even on these forums I've seen. Yet all the people who are racist towards Japanese stuff never do and are never called out on it, nor do they have a convenient word to be labeled as like Ameriboo or Koreaboo which would aptly describe a lot of people.

I tend to ignore anyone who actually uses the word seriously in conversation, since it's always a resort to strawman so they pigeon hole their opponent without addressing any points.
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