#bagyon kulimlim

[secretswansong]

nothing to see here, just Trese Tagalog dub superiority

On a more serious note, I'm writing about some of the language differences between the Tagalog and English dubs which make the Tagalog dub better for me.

Yes, the komiks were published in English, but it's set in the Philippines. Why wouldn't you want to watch the show with the Tagalog dub? Have you never seen a dubbed cartoon, anime, or film before? Dubbing makes foreign media such as movies and anime more accessible to Filipinos!

Apparently some people are saying that for the English dub, the Filipino accents sounded more Latinx? Or that the Filipino accent was unnecessary? Come on over to the Tagalog dub! But seriously, this is unfair for the Tagalog/Filipino speakers working on the show, particularly the English VAs. They expressed that it was great, not having to hide their accent or being Filipino.

The Tagalog VAs deserve more love, and by love I mean appreciation from viewers and more opportunities and compensation in the industry. Voice acting isn't sisiw next to live (?) acting, but voice actors are so underrated in the Philippines.

The Kambal say "hoy" instead of "hey" and I love to hear it.

The cursing is A+ (and A++ in Tagalog). Curse words/phrases in your first language are always sharper than in English (it's okay, native English speakers).

Friendly reminder that Tagalog-Maynila isn't the only dialect of Tagalog! There are regional and generational variations in languages. These variations (how formal or how deep a character's Tagalog is) give nuance to the characters, particularly their age, species (human or supernatural), and place of origin (in or outside Manila).

For example, Alexandra's more formal Tagalog makes sense because (1) she grew up in the province of Laguna, so there's a regional difference and (2) she deals with high-ranking and/or ancient supernatural characters who also speak more formally.

Meanwhile, Hannah, Ammie, Basilio, and Crispin are wonderfully conyo in the Tagalog dub! Nothing beats "Kapit ka na sa bangs mo" and "Pa'no ba 'to mag-work?" [God bless Simon dela Cruz.]

More under the cut + minor spoilers:

This is pedantic/prescriptive, but: "Pakibuksan ang pintuan" is both confusing and interesting. Translation: "(Please) Open the doorway." Pintuan means doorway, or the space (given the suffix -an), and not the door (pinto), so it might confuse some Tagalog speakers. The prefix paki- makes the verb buksan (open) polite, which is interesting, as the scene makes Alexandra come off as respectfully making a request and builds up to the cool, cordial interaction between Alexandra and the Emissary of Ibu.

In general, the incantations just sound better in Tagalog because, you know, the VAs are native Tagalog speakers who don't need to spend extra time working on diction and accent.

The Tagalog "nanlaban [siya]" hits closer to home than the English "[he] fought back," in the context of extrajudicial killings, the failed war on drugs, and police brutality in the Philippines. Cops play the flimsy "they fought back" card to justify the countless people they've shot and killed, and they're enabled by the current President.

Raul's English lines would've been more natural and nuanced if "quota" was used instead of "statistics" (although this also goes for the Tagalog dub). Cpt. Guerrero already used "quota" earlier in the episode and it would've been great if Raul also got to say it. The word refers to the police's system of making a certain number of arrests per day/week, and this hasn't gotten better under the current regime's failed war on drugs.

(P.S. Trese does the good cop / nacab narrative and I'm saving that for another post)

"Harbinger of creation and destruction" and "this is how it was, this is how it will always be" (non-verbatim) sound pretty cliché and meant for a Western audience. Also, the use of "magic" sounds better in English but more awkward in Tagalog as "mahika" because there's a different concept of magic in the Philippines. (Salamangka is cooler but loaned from Spanish, and kulam refers more to curses or black magic. I think there are more words/terms in other Filipino languages.)

(The whole scene is more telling of the show's problems with pacing and buildup to the revelation and confrontation in the final episode, but I'll save that for another post.)

God, it would be so cool to get dubs in other Filipino languages like Bisaya, Cebuano, Waray, Kapampangan, Ilokano, Tausug, Hiligaynon, Chavacano, etc.

Bonus - here's what I really liked about the English dub VAs:

Dante Basco as Bagyon Kulimlim, lightning-made-flesh. That's it. I wish he hadn't gotten a one-off character, but I'm just living for the irony in casting the guy who voiced Prince Zuko. Bagyon Kulimlim's just gloating "there's no one who can protect you now" and indiscriminately hurling lightning bolts; Princess Azula would, at the very least, do a double-take.

But also when Bagyon Kulimlim screamed... THAT'S ALSO ZUKO YELLING IN "Zuko Alone" and it gave me life

God bless Dante Basco

Also, s/o to Jon Jon Briones! I've only seen him in Miss Saigon and AHS but he's a great theater/musical actor. He's wonderful as Hank Sparrow! Hank is an absolute tito.

Also God bless Manny Jacinto, who voiced the tikbalang prince Maliksi. He doesn't play the himbo in this show (s/o to Crispin and Basilio!), but I don't love him any less!

[heymayday]

im fucking stupid

[tresekomiks]

trese | episode 2 “that’s the problem with you men - you always think it’s about money. but it’s about power. and the power i’m looking for... you can’t give me.”

[ubecakes]

[mangoesandstuff]

Hearing Bagyon Kulimlim’s voice like

Plus he is also an angsty teenager so it checks out

[mangleschmidt]

A Random Filipino Teenager rants about Trese Netflix Original

 As someone who watched the whole Trese Netflix Original.

I have to admit. Even with the Japanese Audio for my own personal enjoyment, even though I almost forgot everything because it’s been so long since I have read the comics, that didn’t save me from having negative opinions about it.

It has a lot of problems and I’m going to address the problems only because everyone has been praising about it since “PINOY PRIDE!!!!!!!” and nice scenery I guess. It looks like a photo of manila being put in a filter lmao.

Spoilers for both the Show and the Comics

• Out of Character

The character with a lot of this problem is Talagbusao

His motives and actions are confusing.

In the comics, all suicide bombers were singing the National Anthem and bombing public places with a lot of people, causing obvious chaos and disruption. Very straightforward. Cause chaos like he wanted. The man just fights. War gives him energy and strength. He’s literally the God of War.

In the show, the suicide bombers were saying something in latin (which I highly doubt that a filipino god of war living in the Philippines know) and bombed places from the Tribes and Jobert’s place to divide the tribes from Trese and to have Trese fulfill the “prophesy” for “the destruction of the rebirth of the world”

How the hell Trese is going to cause chaos exactly? Powers? The end of the world from the Revelations?

Why the fuck is he bombing some Ghost kid’s place just to divide the tribes? He’s not part of a tribe nor he’s a unique kind of mythical creature. It even hurts because Jeremy the Dragon was in his place for the Tiyanak episode and his father (also a dragon) own the mall.

What really grinds my gears is that he just... keep on talking.

Talagbusao monologue and talking about Trese past (that’s never been a part in the comics) instead of fighting like a God of War supposed to and this goes on and on and on in the whole episode. He fought for like a few minutes and then he just talks until it clearly visible in the background that the sun is setting because he talks too much. Unbelievable.

It makes your audience bored if you just talk and show flashbacks in a supposedly action packed episode. We never get to experience this said “past” that we’ll probably never experience.

Trese even asked why she should trust Talagbusao and he just keeps talking, obviously ignoring her and Trese just ate it up. I,,, okay bro?????? I mean, he did show it in some smoke but I don’t know why Trese doesn’t doubt him for not answering her question. He could fabricated it like come on Trese.

The Dragon’s Gate was never established being able to bring someone who didn’t drink the blood with you. It’s just a form of transportation. What happened to him anyway? He never came back from the comics. He just got sent into the shadow realm.

The way he gets defeated in comics is way way more interesting and better. Trese tricks him into drinking her blood that contains the dragon’s blood and he enters the Dragon’s Gate. The guy got trapped in a video game, with the help of Jobert (who actually appears here in An Act of War), with the Dragon’s Gate so the God of War can forever have his war and thirst for blood while players of the game get to fight and kick his ass. Which makes sense with the whole dragon’s gate thing.

• Combination Episodes

Each episode have two cases from the comics. Some episodes have it combined (The tiyanak episode has the combination of characters and plot from Case 5: A Little Known Murder in Studio 4 and Case 7: Embrace of the Unwanted ) and some two cases in one episode but somehow, for the two cases in one episode, they make it feel lacking. An example for it is the Bagyo and Tikbalang episode (I forgot what episodes there are I’m sorry)

Trese was supposed to visit Livewell village to investigate but instead was casted aside cuz Bagyon Kulimlim just shows up anyway. It was interesting to know about the citizens and why there are people dying. We never know why that happened. It got treated like a side quest instead of the main thing.

Case 8: The Association Dues of Livewell Village Bagyon Kulimlim had a bit more personality and screentime in comics, since he is behind the deaths. It was even explained why the deaths even happened. It is revealed that the deaths happened because the people who died were sacrifices. People outside of town were being offered as sacrifices because if the townspeople don’t offer any sacrifces, Bagyong Kulimlim would take one of their lives instead as offering. The townspeople were in debt to the prince because they had no electricity and suffering, storms are hitting them I believe. The town people smiled when the electrician died, because they get to live another day and another blessing. When he died while battling with Trese, the townspeople suffered again.

The comics has a lot of content. It has 13 unique cases from three volumes that the show was based on and yet they somehow manage to make it feel so short. 

The flashbacks (not the damn episode 6) are feel even lesser. They didn’t even show when the Twins protecting Trese when they were kids and more about what happened to Ramona, their mother. The tiyanak episode can stay though. The only time I can say that this is better than the original since it was hella anti abortion.

I’m not expecting the adaptation to be faithful but if you’re gonna combine two cases only for it to feel like something’s missing despite the shit load of content, I think you’re doing something wrong.

• Fight scenes and animation

The animations is.. eh. Fine I guess.

But my biggest gripe and suffering is watching the fight scenes. The animation isn’t snappy. It isn’t fast and action packed. There’s some parts just like the gid above but then the rest is just,,,,,,

???????????

It looks like it took like too many frames for a supposedly fast movement like a kick or flying in the air for a swift attack. The camera work isn’t helping.

I feel like they also lack something called in betweens or a smudge. It’s painful to watch. I’m being serious. This is not a “in my opinion” because I tried my hardest to like it from episode 1, I tried so hard that I forgive it and expect better. The only thing that was fast was the Tikbalang and the cars I guess and I was expecting the same speed but no. It’s so obvious it makes me want to cry and feel ashamed that my father wants to watch and saw me watch trash.

This is far from anime. Even with jp audio. (It’s more similar to DC type of animation, why you lie to me?)

A real nitpick but why are they passing few bills in a jeepney ride instead of coins? Jeepney isn’t expensive. There’s no 1 peso bill. This isn’t America.

• Characters (personal nitpick at the beginning)

Where is my boy Jeremy the dragon? Where????? I hate you for this. This could have explained how they get Dragon’s blood. He’s funny.

They really downgraded Bagyong Lektro.

In the comics, he looks like a DILF, lightning hot papa, actor level hotness if you will but now he looks like your everyday fat politician. (I personally don’t simp him but I’m just stating facts here)

What a downgrade man

I forgot about the five men on the Trials while watching so I didn’t understand why they’re there. They’re Trese’s brothers. I’m somewhat baffled. If I, someone who read the comics, didn’t know about them, how more if it’s a new viewer? They would be so confused, you can’t just put characters there without explanation, especially when they’re connected to the protagonist.

Ok maybe this is somewhat forgiven. Maybe we’ll see them in a hypothetical Season 2 or something. But a “Trese’s brothers are also there” would be good enough, ya know?

• Colorism (a bit controversial but fuck you I will talk about it)

The bad guys in the Captain Guerrero’s team were brown. Talagbusao is brown in color. The most of the good guys were pale. I think we can see the problem here.

I can understand about Trese and the Twin being in the paler side (to compliment their goth aesthetic and it fits very well), but it’s pretty bad to have them brown, especially with the problem today’s of racism and colorism.

We already have problems with having the whitening skin products and people around me belittle themselves and comparing their skin to mine my pale af and “fair” skin. Unrelated note, but some people keep on asking about my skin routine and I’m like “why are you asking that do i look like a person who takes care of themselves”

• Episode 6

I fucking hate you Episode 6. The only cool thing was the Payday machine gun Kambal.

The whole thing felt like everyone didn’t do anything.

The twins hold Trese down for the whole monologue and yeah that’s it I guess. Trese just break free, I guess. It makes me feel like “okay” instead of cheering for her. It’s not getting me off my seat, shaking my boots, feel sad for her and be happy when she and the twins breaks free.

Why are the lamang lupa and the duwende teaming up with Talagbusao again? Why? they literally have no motives. If they mentioned it in the show, well fuck man, I didn’t hear anything. In the comics, Amang Paso said that Talagbusao destroyed their duwende tunnels when they trapped him in there. I don’t think they want to help the guy.

The addition lore is painful. Like I said, Talagbusao just fucking talks about it and what’s worse, I think I don’t see any clues about this revelation. Why did you do this? Because hehe hoho plot fucking twist? Because we want that “Your life is a life” drama?

A bit of addition is that the comics makes Trese smarter with the sending Talagbusao to a video game since they actually prepared for it and it shows, it gives us hints. Also, Guerrero died cuz he has to a heroic death since he said it in the Zombie Episode, am I right fellas????? I didn’t feel sad and I feel bad. It wasn’t as emotional. That’s also a problem since I should feel sad for such an amazing character.

This is the longest case (Case 13: An Act of War) of the entire series which means a lot of content for Episode and Show!Talagbusao really said “I’m going to have my sons pin Trese done and I’m going to talk for almost the entire episode so that she joins my side until she and my sons unexpectedly break free”. He committed more sin than Comic!Talagbusao.

----

Conclusion:

This really show how much they cut corners and miss many opportunities with Trese. Merged storylines and missing stuff, cut out characters, adding something new that doesn’t exactly fit in, imo. I might even compare this to the dreaded and dumpster fire that is called The Promised Neverland Season 2 since it reminds me too much about it. I understand that this is a Netflix Original but I have expectations since I like Trese comics.

I definitely don’t recommend this to my international friends. I told them that maybe you’ll like for the filipino lifestyle, the culture and maaaaybe the the mythical creatures. But if you’re here for the plot and animation, don’t bother. Though if you want, I highly recommend that you give your own opinion and watch it yourself. So yeah, that’s my big hot take.

I can’t really deny that, this may make way for more Southeast Asian/Filipino stuff in mainstream media, especially with the “Raya and the Last Dragon” and other stuff so there’s one of the positives. Since the problems I have talked about ended up are the like the animation, plot, Talagbusao and what not.

You may like the show, maybe you don’t. I actually did like the show and I like aspects of it but it’s really hard not to point out the flaws. Especially Episode 6-

[book2sims]

Kambal

The Kambal - Crispin & Basilio

Like and reblog or Bagyon Kulimlim will come for you ✌️

Character from Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo

Screencap from the Netflix animation where I get the inspo from below the cut.

More Trese here.

[danielsingzonart]

Bagyon Kulimlim.

[twistymistywitch]

oKAY SO I'VE BEEN WATCHING TRESE IN TAGALOG BUT WITH ENG SUBS JUST FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES. AND NONE OF Y'ALL. NONE. OF. YOU. TOLD ME THAT DANTE BASCO THE MF ZUKO VOICED BAGYON KULIMLIM SPARKY SPARKY BOOM BITCH????

[love-amihan]

Parang dried mango na ate brain ko. Wala nang juice HAHAHAHAHA im savoring the last few days of freedom kasi pasok na uli shsjansh also tbh ate di ko rin alam tong mga detective stuff HAHAHAHA okay last na to-

Nawala yung ilaw habang sinusulat ko to ate ang bastos ah mamaya ko nalang i send basta

Na lss ako sa song na next to me by imagine dragons kasi gusto ko ng pain with fluff HAHAHAHHA kahit sino pwede naman pero bet si tsukki or maybe oikawa no? Listen mo ate if you want HAHAHAHAH

Also ate ikaw na bumubuhay sakin🤧 mwah mwah kit por u😚😚😚❤️

-kei😎

Bat ang juicy pa rin kahit na wala ng juice? 😔 sodndk makikiiyak na ko sainyo soon!! Miss ko na magbreakdown dahil sa peta 🤧✊ bat ako naeexcite mastress?!! HAHAHAHA ang hirap maging tambay skl 😩

Bas2s din electricity provider niyo, smh bagyon lektro (or si kulimlim? basta isa sakanila) ipatawag ko team trese sayo eh 😤😤😤

Sige noted bb, add ko yan~ with fluff, okay with fluff bsksndkd mimi hindi angst lang, with fluff okay pero sige, papakinggan ko siya while writing it. Surprise na lang kung sino 😏😏😏