Those clever, rotten bastards.

THAT'S RIGHT, I SCREENCAPPED IT. They made the speedo so tight that it shows part of Itsuki's buttcheeks! That is how far down this show has spiraled into madness... all the way down to ITSUKI'S BUTTCHEEKS.

Not that I'm seriously complaining. After all, I now have the opportunity to make wonderful things such as:

OR....

Worst Fansub Ever.

(Just wanna first mention that I went to a show at The Second City last night, and it was quite excellent. I particularly enjoyed the part where the actors interrupted a skit to do a fake marriage proposal in a very real-seeming way. Which devolved into the actors pretend-arguing with each other onstage and being unable to perform the "original" skit.)

Since I'm in my "oh no Initial D is over D:" phase, I'm currently watching the live-action Hong Kong Initial D movie. (The one with Jay Chou. :P) Thought it would be good Mandarin listening practice too, since I suck at it horribly.

I currently have about half an hour left... and though the fansub I'm watching had mediocre subs since the start, the quality of the translation suddenly took a nosedive a little past the halfway point of the movie. It's as if the translator suddenly said, "Screw it, I don't feel like translating the rest of this!" and finished the rest of the movie using the subtitle equivalent of Babelfish or something.

It's literally like: as you can reading words here. There is not an exaggeration; English really this is bad! Particular when complex car jargon saying, understand is too impossible for brain. Picture for example you can yourself seeing.

Bad captiontitles make feel me I wanna to die also. =_=;;

IT'S OVER!

FINALLY. I think this makes up for the torture KyoAni has put us through the past few weeks. Couldn't have thought of a better ending myself!

Fangirl Fishing.

Oh man, I am such a sucker. LOL

As I've made my way through Fourth Stage of Initial D, in the back of my mind, I've been aware of the fact that Keisuke's character design had gradually changed from first stage to fourth. I mostly chalked this up to better animation, since 1999 animation was very different from 2004 animation. (And seriously, the only things that didn't look fug in first stage were the cars)

So out of curiosity, I rewatched some older episodes, and when I saw Keisuke and made a direct comparison, my eyes sort of did this: o_o

WHAT THE HELL, he looks completely different! It makes me crack up b/c it's so stupidly obvious what the character designer was thinking when he did the fourth stage designs: Oh no, Keisuke is a more important character this season. Must make him hotter! Bring in larger female audience! I mean, even his clothes are noticeably more designer-looking! xD

And of course, the funniest thing of all is that I, too, did not fangirl over Keisuke hardcore until fourth stage rolled along. I tip my hat off to you, Character Designer-san. You really got me, hook, line, and sinker. Oh Japan, you bring out the superficial in me!

Eurobeat! :D

Initial D has such a fun OST. It's probably the only anime OST I would actually consider buying... I even made an Initial D playlist on my iPod yesterday to use at the gym. :)

The really special thing is, from what I can tell, a lot of the music actually is Eurobeat and not just J-Pop that sounds like Eurobeat. (Though a lot of J-Pop songs are originally composed by Europeans anyway. xD) And thus, the show uses a reallllly wide variety of songs; it's unusual hearing a song repeat even once throughout the series' entire run. I don't know if I'll ever encounter another sports anime that makes me want to jump on my bed and dance every episode. :D

Here are a few of my favorites so far:

I Believe in Lovin' You
The Final Countdown
Revolution
On My Wings

I wanted to find a video that demonstrates how unexpectedly effective this type of music is at punctuating the mood of the anime, esp. the races, and was forced to delve into MAD territory. (B/c unlike 75% of AMV makers, Japanese fans don't disappoint. :P)

This particular MAD focuses on the Takahashi brothers. ...Because I have SUCH an anime crush on Keisuke right now. He's actually buff, you guys! A bishounen! Who's muscular! In an attractive way, not the gross Coney Island way. AND HE WEARS TIGHT-FITTING SHIRTS. And has a gorgeous car!

As a bonus, you also get to hear the melodious voices of Tomokazu Seki & Koyasu Takehito. :3