Forum for Geeks

Sun, 10 October 2010
Hope Of All Trades 3 DRAGON*CON

In this episode of Hope of All Trades, Hope discusses her time at Dragon*Con. She met Mike Bailey, Shag, and others in her time there. She discusses the panels she saw and was on, as well as jokes she heard. With music in between, this should be an entertaining episode! I have to apologize. My mic was doing some funny things in this episode.

Great episode, Hope. After listening to a lot of podcasts, I would really like to try and make it to a con like Dragon*Con, but family life would tend to hinder that for me a bit. I think the panel that Shag took you to was something that NeedCoffee and The Unique Geek put on. It sounded like a blast all around.

As for the Marry/Kill/Fuck question, I would have to go with Jabba, Emo Anakin, and Jar Jar, in that order. Hear me out on this...Marry Jabba for all the wealth and power he has. You don't really have to have sex with him, because he's got the entire harum of Twi'Leks to service him. Just stay committed and use Vick's Vap-O-Rub under your nose, like in The Silence of the Lambs, when you have to spend time with him. Kill Emo Anakin...well, not only are you ridding the galaxy of the future Darth Vader, but you are ridding the galaxy of another emo kid (go straight to Hell, My Chemical Romance!). And finally, fuck Jar Jar. The irony would be so delicious, because every time I see him on screen, I feel like I am getting fucked.

Joe -- And you could probably deliver an actual, un-ironic "donkey punch" to him during the sex act... -- Anthrax

I love Panic!'s first album. It's so political and very out there. They have some awesome songs on there. But then they sold out, made some bad music, and broke up. That's how it goes I guess.

p.s.
Weezer is awesome too.

Nice show, I was lucky enough to go to dragon con, and wow, it was good. My first ever con. Really enjoyed the panels, just out of interest, the marvel guy you talk about, it wasn't Neal Adams or Stan Lee? (They were both there)

After a hiatus for school, Hope of all Trades is back! Now that she is an official college graduate, Hope is back and ready to bring you the Nerdy 411 from a girl’s point of view. In today’s episode, she talks about the story of Star Wars Katie, a young girl bullied for loving Star Wars. Hope even includes a personal message of her own to this young lady. Afterward, she goes into discussing her issues about American versions of four of her favorite shows: Pokemon, Digimon, Sailormoon, and Cardcaptor Sakura. From these four examples, American dubbers must think children are idiots.
Songs include:
S.I.N.G. by My Chemical Romance

The Dog Days Are Over (Glee Version) by Florence and the Machines

The Pokemon Theme [Movie 1 Version]

Awake and Alive by Skillet.

I don't think you can blame the companies that are doing the localization for the edits that are made in the shows. You can lay that squarely on the American stations that want to broadcast said shows, especially in regards to violence. The guidelines for "children's" television are ridiculous. And its not the kids that are stupid and sensitive, its the adults.

Oh, I totally agree. Adults are way too sensitive. They need to have more trust in children and what a kid can handle. Television today is dumbed down because they think kids can't handle deeper things. This totally isn't true.

I agree, its a fine line for most studios though, especially when the bottom line for them is, "How much money can we make off this as?" vs "How can we make as much money off of this as possible." And lets not kid ourselves, Eastern Culture vs Western Culture is so radically different that I can also understand why a lot of localizations aim for the path of least resistance with an adaptation.

Hope, I normally don't listen to your show, but since it dealt with a subject dear to my heart -- dubbing -- I decided to give it a listen. I don't watch much anime, and never have, but I do love tokusatsu, so I know where you are coming from.

Regarding cuts for explosives, violence, etc. Remember that network Broadcasting Standards & Practices (BS&P) have very stringent rules for content. I don't know if you have ever watched Batman: The Animated Series, but for many years the producers of that show were not allowed to show realistic handguns, nor show extreme violence against humans (robots were okay, though). So in the instance of content cuts for anime, it has little to do with the dubbers than it does with the broadcast network and the American or International distributors. Network BS&P in this country, especially when it comes to children's programming, is very strict and that is not likely to change. Animated shows actually have slightly (and I do mean slightly) more leeway on some of these S&Ps than live action shows; everytokusatsu show which has made it to the States has been cut to ribbons, partly for localization but also for S&P. Best example of that is , which was cut into the show Masked Rider. Black Rx's main weapon was a lightsaber rip-off callled Ribolcane, and he would defeat his foe each week by running them through with it. Fox BS&P would not allow that, so it was changed so that the sword would shoot an energy blast instead. (Consider: various incarnations of Power Rangers were allowed to show monsters being run through with a sword, but only when giant; all of the monsters on Kamen Rider are human-sized).

Regarding cuts and changes for cultural issue, localization is a tough call. Remember that you and I are not the target audience for the shows in discussion here. Despite my love of sentai, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider, or your love for Pokemon and Digimon or whatnot, the target audience is kids (well, not so much Kamen Rider but you get my drift). So while you and I understand the culutural aspects of an Asian show, the kids really don't. They don't have the background which you or I do. You understand an onigiri just like I understand an onigiri, but changing it to "rice ball" or whatnot is a fair enough change. On Digimon for instance, I remember specifically that Mimi talked about her love for riceballs, so the idea that it's a treat is still communicated. Some shows obviously are better than this. But to me localization like that is a fair trade off so long as it is not really detrimental to the narrative.

Toho, the company which produces everything related to MY BOY Godzilla and all of his friends and foes, creates "international versions" of their films and TV shows for (surprise, surprise) international distribution, and have for decades. They create the English script, they hire the voice actors (in Hong Kong typically), and they then distribute it. This is also the method used by a lot of anime houses who do not aim for network distribution and instead sell to the direct market. I hate to say it, but I can speak from experience -- if you don't like what you get for free insofar as localized International shows and movies, pay for it. The same goes for my Italian horror films -- what was done to the classics of this genre would make you blush -- so, if you want it uncut and subbed or with a good dub, pay for it. My otaku roommate in college used to hate it when I would bust that out to stop a Toonami-directed rant of his, but he would be forced to agree.

Congratulations on graduation and good luck finding a job.

And again ljacone says what I want to say way better than I can.

Link to the show:
You can read my note about Bin Laden’s death here:
Sing it for Japan:

Quality of the sound wasn't that bad, had fun listening to this podcast. I'm a comic book guy, I don't have much in the way of Manga aside from Akira/Lone Wolf & Cub or care for much Anime besides Cowboy Bebop. Hope of all Trades is my connection to Anime/Manga. Keep up the good work!

Janson

[url]http://traffic.libsyn.com/twotruefreaks/Im_not_dead_yet.mp3
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Just musing, but every episode of this could be titled....A NEW HOPE.



Hahahaha, I kill me!

Hey Hope, glad to hear you are not dead! Also, your audio sounds great!

I have that Pokeball which James has hanging off his belt in the picture. Those were the ones from Burger King (I think?) when they did their Pokemon promotion when I was in college. It is now my dice ball.

Now then: Kamen Rider. Pretty much since Kuuga in 1999, the Hesai era of the Kamen Rider series had been mostly serious. Ryuki, for instance, had some extremely dark elements, including one Rider who was a serial killer. But the series even going back to the Showa period would vary between serious and silly, even from year to year. Kamen Rider Black, for instance, was very serious and dark, but it's direct sequel, Black RX, was much more campy and fun. The serious ones are usually pretty highly regarded but the silly ones have a lot of fans too.

By the way, "Japanese Power Rangers" would be the Super Sentai, which is what Saban edits into the Power Rangers series. One Kamen Rider series (Kamen Rider Black RX) was similarly editted into the short lived kids show Masked Rider. The latest Super Sentai, for your reference, is Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, which is currently airing with Kamen Rider Fourze, the latest in that series.

Although you did say you never get on the forums so this is all for my usage I guess.