For Earth Day this year, since Anime Club is also on Thursdays, we decided to watch Origins: Spirits of the Past. It's a pretty good movie but what sort of ruined it for me was the incredibly cheesy lines peppered throughout. It's the short of cheesy you either snort at or bark laughter. I've been noticing these incredibly cheesy lines in other things too, like Odin Sphere (videogame).
Anyway, I got to thinking about what exactly makes something cheesy? I mean, besides poor writing (no offense, anyone). But I really don't think that poor writing is the whole thing here. I think it's partially an auditory response. Let me ellaborate.
If you watch an anime in your native language, you pay a lot closer attention to what people are saying because...well you have to know what's going on, unless you've got subtitles going on or something. So what characters are saying in such and such words is very clear to you. Now, if you are watching an anime that is subbed, in a different language that your native one, that auditory response is gone and you are now relying entirely on visual communication. There is a disconnect between what you are hearing and what you are seeing. The words are direct but to some extent, there isn't much of a auditory context, except maybe the tone of voice. Likewise, the tone of voice is all you've got to listen to but the words might as well be gibberish. Therefore, since there is a disconnect between auditory and visual, dialogue sounds and appears less tacky than it would appear if both were in a native tongue.
Ung, I don't know if this is making any sense. I'm rambling. Give me a shout out if this is still confusing and I'll try to be more clear when I add more to this argument.
