#I only know the Japanese version of all trigun media

[halfcarrotikemen]

So I finally found a way to watch tristamp in English dub (I only ever watched the series in Japanese). I haven’t done any deeper thoughts and analysis, and I’m only halfway through the series but here’s my impression so far:

- I love English dub Vash, especially his gibberish noises, such a chaotic dumbass (affectionate), and although some of his jokes and mannerism didn’t translate as well as I hoped, they did a very good job. They deserved two dozen donuts. (although if you hold me at gunpoint and ask me to choose English or Japanese Vash I will choose the Japanese version with a thin margin because I have personal bias towards Matsuoka Yoshitsugu [he’s from where I live lol, and I’m a big fan])

- I’m also in love with how they play Legato and Roberto, especially Legato, I was surprised by the lack of the feeling out of place (Is that the right word? sorry my brain suddenly stopped working in English) that you usually have when you hear a show dubbed in another language you’re not used to hearing. So smooth. And they nailed the drunkle speech with Roberto.

- I honestly was disappointed with the lack of accent in Wolfwood’s speech (maybe I just didn’t hear it correctly? Idk) because he speaks in heavy Kansai dialect in Japanese, even when he was a child (also casting Hosoya Yoshimasa really emphasized the accent). A huge missed opportunity on the English dub, in my opinion. I was expecting Wolfwood with a heavy Southern accent or something. And on that note they also missed the chance to add some dialect for the worm hunters on episode 4.

- English dub Meryl feels mature and a lot more pulled together to me compared to the Japanese version, which sounds very pristine and innocent until she starts learning about the world. It makes her a little… out of place for me who’s used to Meryl speaking in a very polite formal Japanese to everyone (even when she’s yelling in rage or when she’s cursing people). I think it suits Meryl from ‘98 anime more than tristamp Meryl. Probably because you can’t really translate her distinct way of speaking accurately, it’s not anyone’s fault, just a matter of different language. But I guess I like the Japanese version better for Meryl. I just love the way she speaks, shame there’s no English equivalent to her speech style.

- I don’t like English dub Nai. I’m 100% going with the Japanese version in this. Not the performance, though, I know translations are really hard and I do think the English VA did a great job, but as someone who’s used to how Nai speak in Japanese, the dub just… didn’t feel right. In Japanese Nai speaks in a relatively rougher manner compared to Vash (in how he chooses his words, also the subtle but different way he talks to humans and to Vash) and it didn’t show as much in the English dub. And his pretentious speech that sounds like some people from the church near my house doesn’t get carried to the English dub, I guess. In English he just sounds like a scary villain to me, while in Japanese I can feel his emotions and (warped) love towards Vash just from his words. I saw someone pointing out that Nai refers to the dependent plants with feminine pronouns, and it’s even more prominent and emphasized in the Japanese version. They’re not wrong. Maybe in English it can come across as a bit misogynistic(?), I don’t know, but I like how he does this in Japanese, because to me it feels like he’s always trying to refer to them as “persons” and not “things”, although his treatment towards them is contradictory.

This ended up longer than I expected but overall I enjoyed the English dub and I love analyzing different languages. I wanna know how it feels for people who know absolutely zero Japanese watching the series in English dub and in Japanese with English subtitles. I know that there were differences in the subtitles and the dub but for me I can’t compare English sub and dub because I’d just go with my Japanese interpretation if I watch the subbed version (or I’d rather just ditch the subtitle altogether because sometimes it’s making my brain confused when I speak both languages).

Also to people who write Trigun fanfics in English, where do you base the character speech from? I don’t know how to translate Japanese dialects, so Wolfwood, for example, is very difficult for me to write in English.

[why-its-kai]

autism taking over. filled with need to buy every single home media release of trigun 98 to fully document them instead of relying on trying to find what are usually broken old webpages on wayback machine and squinting at low quality images and running things through google translate hoping to scrounge one iota of information i'm looking for. this is like the least interesting aspect of the series and i really dont need more than 1 release even tho i own 2 different english version releases on dvd and an incomplete set of the original japanese laserdiscs (with no player to watch them on) & 1 original japanese vhs release. and then there's also the japanese rental video series (vhs&dvd) then the victor dvd release which is harder to find much info on in english. and then flyingdog did a new release of the dvds in a set when badlands came out in 2010. not sure they did any more releases after that bc language barrier and i dont keep up with current things any more. and still trying to find concrete info about pioneer english sub tapes bc they stop being mentioned on the archived webpages for pioneer/geneon once the company name changed--only the dub tapes show up. so thats 2 sets of pioneer english tapes. then the pioneer english dvds and then there was a box set release of those. then a rerelease of the dvds as geneon in the signature series. some weird 4 volumes of a combo release with gungrave & hellsing. a single umd volume with eps 1&2. and then the remix dvds which i own. then funimation i believe they've done 2 complete series dvd sets, i've got the og 2010 one but also that one seems to have been scrubbed from existence i cannot find any archived mentions of it on thier official site while i own the set it's hard to find direct source info it drives me nuts. and this is not even looking into the releases in other regions i know of the australian madman ones and the spain spanish set by selecta vision but i know theres def more. and this isnt even getting badlands in the picture. would love to get the limited edition first release dvd bluray whatever it was from japan. and other regions got more bonuses and nice features vs funimations bare minimum bonus feature disc (boooooo). also the first funi dvd that's what i got. would like a blu ray of badlands at least for the better picture quality bc that was theatrical film so actually animated in higher definition would love to see the detail of the world better than the dvd picture bc you all know im a weirdo who loves looking close at insignificant details. but yea there ig o rambling a wall of text about something no one cares about bu tme lol

[lady-of-disdain]

Inuyasha isn't children's media dipshit. Inuyasha has blood and gore and aired on toonami/adult swim. Grow the fuck up. Its a fucking anime. Learn to tell the differences between fiction and reality. Please develop a fucking brain.

LOL! This sounded like me when I was 12-15 and defending the “cartoons” I was watching to my friends who were too mature for animated television, and were making fun of me for watching this stuff.

“Look there’s cussing! It’s totally made for a grown-up audience!”

First of all, as someone who was an avid Adult Swim viewer back when it was first created (am I dating myself yet?) I can confirm that just because ‘Adult’ is in the name doesn't mean the programming block was actually marketed for adults. (Well yes to adults too, but we’re talking adults in the late 90′s and early 00′s that were into fart jokes. So like Beavis and Butthead alum.) Advertisements for the late-night programming would start airing between 3 to 5 PM ON CARTOON NETWORK (generally not the time most adults were tuning in), around the time that middle-schoolers and high-schoolers were home.

But even then, saying an anime aired on Adult Swim doesn’t mean the target audience of that anime were adults. Back in the late 90′s and early 00′s western tv networks were having a hard time figuring out when to air Japanese anime. Shows were generally given a “test run” on Adult Swim in their Toonami block, which aired earlier than some of the rest of their ‘spicier’ programming. According to the Toonami Wikipedia page: 

“Toonami initially ran as a weekday afternoon block on Cartoon Network until 2004, when it transitioned into a Saturday evening format until its closure four years later. Cartoon Network's block was primarily aimed at children aged 9–14.”

Other anime that aired on Toonami: Fullmetal Alchemist (TV-PG), Yu Yu Hakusho (TV-PG), Trigun (TV-14), Sailor Moon (TV-14), Voltron ‘84 (TV-Y7), Dragon Ball Z (TV-14 in its original unedited form, TV-Y7-FV in the edited version), and Gundam Wing (Not Rated but suggested 13+ in the unedited version, TV-Y7 in the edited version)

 Inuyasha 2000-2004 (TV-PG)

(These are the US television ratings listed on IMDB)

If the shows were popular enough, they were either also picked up by other networks or if they could be edited to get a younger rating would be aired earlier in the day. My little sister (who was about 9-10 at the time) and I watched Inuyasha after school, during the day. ;)

BUT WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT INUYASHA RIGHT? We’re talking about Yashahime.

IMDB doesn’t have a rating yet, but on Hulu, it’s rated TV-14. That means safe for children aged 14 and above.

Does this mean that children under the age of 14 won’t be watching it? OF COURSE NOT. Sailor Moon is rated TV-14, and I was watching Sailor Moon in 5th and 6th grade. Sailor Moon was being marketed to girls between the ages of 10-15 in the 90′s.

But marketing in the 90′s is different from today right? And Yashahime being a sequel to a show that aired in Y2K means that it’s marketed only for adults that grew up with it right? For example, my sister who watched it when she was 9, and is now an adult, with a now 9-year-old child of her own......OH WAIT!

No. Yashahime is trying to cash in on the same children’s media nostalgia trap that Pokemon struck gold in, that Disney is trying so hard to cash in on with their terrible live-action remakes, and that many other 90′s kids media sequels, remakes, and reboots are trying to do today. Not only are they trying to catch the attention of the adults that remember these properties, but more importantly adults that now have kids that are the age today that these adults were back when they watched the originals, so they can share this property they loved as kids with their own children.

And we don’t just have proof of the nostalgia marketing strategy that so many of these properties are using, and that we all KNOW they are using. We can also go off of the general marketing strategy, and air time that Yashahime has to know what age range this show is being marketed for.

In Japan, Yashahime is being aired on Yomiuri TV in the early evening instead of late at night when anime traditionally marketed for older viewers airs, and alongside other children’s/young teen programming like Detective Conan (Case Closed). In fact, both of those shows are in the perfect time bracket for both adults just off work, and children before it’s too late for bed so that the family can watch it together. (Also makes sense that Case Closed it being aired with it since that show originally aired back in the early 2000′s too I think).

So in the sense that Yashahime is being marketed, and aired with the intention that children should, can, and will watch it, yes, it is children’s media.

[why-its-kai]

so apparently hulu has an english dub transcription closed caption track for Trigun 1998 i was literally about to just drop the project for a moment when i found out but my friends urge me to keep going and then i was like wait. of course i didn't know it existed bc it is basically locked behind a paywall. my home media release of trigun has no english dub closed caption track, i was even checking older vhs copies for sale on ebay and they had no [cc] symbols on the package (i only guessed maybe that version would have cc data bc i know it aired on adult swim/us television but i reallly don't know how to go back in time and see if those airings even had closed captioning and if they did, if it was the actual dub transcript or just the japanese dialogue translation. but i hypothesized they would be more likely to contain the cc datatrack in the video if it did exist. idk). also apparently hulu's aren't like. fully correct, like mistranslations of some of the universe's units of measurements apparently. i'm not subscribing to hulu again just to check but friends with the service have offered to check things for me which is very cool of them they are all so nice and helpful to me even tho i get apeshit weird sometimes hahaa.......... so yea at this point i'm continuing the project out of spite i guess bc i hate streaming services with a passion and i hate their lackluster subtitling work and i hate accessibility locked behind paywalls. definitely not gonna be done any time soon but i'm gonna keep chipping away at it i guess since these days if you want something done right u gotta do it yourself lmao