First off, I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts. They brought a smile to my face.
I am SO GLAD that I posted my SS in time. I haven't received mine yet, but I'm a patient person (unless it's with myself). It's sure to be worth the wait. Besides, I've been late with SS gifts before. Maybe it's karma.
So! Now to talk about my birthday party. We did what any family who doesn't want to cook on Christmas would do: go to a Chinese restaurant. We had some delicious dim sum and the best tofu EVARR.
I guess I'll talk about the loot that I got-- but only the interesting stuff. First, one of my aunts gave me money to buy a year's worth of Netflix. I know there anime section is dwindling, but at least I can FINALLY watch The Seven Deadly Sins. I've heard Netflix has a lot of good cartoons, too. A friend of mine has been urging me to watch My Little Pony.
Another really cool thing is that my parents are planning to help me with next year's ACen costs. What I really want is a hotel room so that I don't have to keep driving up and back every day. I hope I can actually get one.
Finally, my brother and his girlfriend got me something that I was not expecting at all: Pokemon Sun. My brother knows my Pokemon habits, and that I tend to stretch out each game as long as possible. He also knows that I haven't played a game since Gen II. He said it was OK if I didn't want it, and that I could return it, because we both know it would consume my life.
My dilemma is this: should I keep it? I'm weighing the pros and cons, but I don't know what to make of it. If I do keep it, I feel like I should also get the Gen VI games to "pick up where I left off" with the Gen III remakes. Do the even make those anymore?
Well, I guess that wraps up (get it? I was talking about presents) this post. Even though it's late at night (or tomorrow, depending on your location), I still want to wish you guys a merry Christmas. If you don't celebrate, I wish you a happy Hanukkah. If you don't celebrate that either, tell me what you do celebrate so that I can wish you that. If you don't celebrate anything today, I just hope you have a great day.
First order of business: I successfully activated the glitch in Pokemon Yellow (on my first try!) and caught Mew. I haven't actually used my new Mew in battle yet. But she is adorable. And I love her. I know Mew is a Pokemon of unknown gender, but MINE IS A GIRL.
Second order of business: I registered for ACen. Yay! I'll have to patch up my Fluffy Vest, and maybe invest in something to... um... flatten me. I really should have hit the gym more than I have in order to prepare for my cosplay. At least I'll be on a liquid diet after my surgery, so I'm sure to shed a few pounds.
Third order of business: I went down to the pre-op clinic last Monday to prepare for my upcoming surgery on April 8. But that's not the actual thing I want to talk about. This is about my drive there. Actually, my mom was driving and I was looking out the window. Then something caught my eye. It was a car covered in stickers of things like Hello Kitty, the Triforce, and Poke Balls. The license plate displayed the word "OTAKU". I thought that was the funniest thing in the world.
Ever since the announcement of the re-dubbing of Sailor Moon, I've been thinking a bit about the days when anime characters received westernized dub names. Most English speakers knew Usagi as Serena. Likewise, Satoshi from Pokemon became Ash and Taichi from Digimon was Tai. I'm sure there are other series that gave characters westernized names, but I'm not as aware of them as I am of these three examples. If you know of any others, please comment and tell me.
Nowadays, dubbing companies want to preserve characters' original Japanese names. But what if they didn't? Think of an anime set in modern-day Japan. Think of the characters. What would those characters' names be if the dub changed them?
I have often wondered this, especially in the case of the anime, Azumanga Daioh. Chiyo would likely have a "cute" name like "Christie", Sakaki would have a more masculine name like "Morgan", and Osaka's nickname would be "Alabama". Even after all those name changes, there are so many gags and cultural references that they'd have to cut or change to make the show make sense for western audiences. Basically, the show would be butchered. Kind of like the original Sailor Moon dub.
My final thought on the subject regards anime in which the characters' names are clearly western to begin with. When I mentioned Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan to my dad for the first time, he had to cut me off to tell me that Eren's name should be Japanese. I tried to defend myself by telling my dad about Mikasa, but I purposely neglected to mention that her last name is "Ackerman".
I guess the east is as interested in western culture as the west is with eastern culture. At least, that makes things a bit easier to translate.
