Quick facts:
* Avatar: Kento Miura from Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season
* General About Me: I'm just your average thirtysomething underemployed basement-dwelling hardcore anime nerd, who seeks shelter from the terrible job market in the informal economy / family business. No benefits, but plenty of free time for anime watching, discussion, and subbing. I'm active in the fringes of the fansubbing scene, mainly working on re-releases as ReDone-Subs, Magical Girl anime as Pretty Cure Splash Subs, and some miscellaneous work on DVD/Blu-Ray specials for other groups and old/obscure OVAs.
The first anime I "knew was anime" was Sailor Moon when it aired on US TV in the late 90s, and while I didn't get into the fandom until 2003, SM has left me predisposed to enjoy anime outside of my target age and gender range ever since. Love Hina was the first anime I got into while "in the fandom," and was also the my first manga.
(a little more about me)
As my education consists of a BA in Spanish with a minor in English (with some misbegotten/incomplete graduate school following), languages are perhaps my best skill, and I started picking up Japanese from anime. Combined with some actual study materials, I managed to become a reasonably good translator, at least for the kinds of anime I choose to work on.
Political beliefs:
I'm a liberal in a (thankfully) non-crazy conservative state. I support candidates and policies in favor of:
Science and evidence-based decision-making,
Limiting the influence of moneyed and religious interests in our laws and society
Upholding a woman's right to control her reproductive life
Reducing economic inequality and improving the work conditions and standards of living for the lowest-paid workers (note: this is not the same as advocating full equality)
Reasonable and multilateral engagements and actions with the international community, without unnecessary antipathy-building wars
Providing equality under the law and equal opportunity to achieve merit-based results, regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation
Taxation to encourage responsible investment in labor and the productive economy, as well as adequate funding for education, infrastructure, regulatory oversight, and other government services
* Anime-Related Things I Believe:
** Those who claim to love anime should support the global anime industry by purchasing or watching legitimate streams of at least some of the titles they like. Though as a fansub producer and consumer I cannot morally condemn piracy, I have backed up my pro-industry standpoint through my collection.
** English dubs are not "evil," and while there are a few with overly bad acting or extreme censorship, most are pretty much the same show in a different language. It is not wrong to prefer them, though exclusively limiting oneself to dubs means missing out on many undubbed titles both old and new.
** Liberal subs (and dubs) are more enjoyable than literal translations that seek to preserve every little facet of the Japanese original. Cutting out verbal chaff, changing names to "you" (where expected in English), and re-ordering elements will make English translations flow better in, well, English. If something can be translated concisely and non-lamely, it should be translated, not given the "TL note: Keikaku means plan" treatment. Honorifics and other titles can be retained in an otherwise liberal script with no ill effects.
** Anime from nearly any era have something to offer; if you avoid a given title based on an arbitrary age cutoff, you are needlessly limiting yourself and missing out, particularly if you don't like the types of anime currently being made. Any technical/display issues with older anime can be solved by obtaining an old 4:3 screen as a backup viewing device.
** While I enjoy many genres of anime, I appreciate and defend modern trends of anime such as moe, slice-of-life, general cuteness, fanservice, and harems. Given that many Western viewers decided go on "anime welfare" and allow Japanese otakus' purchases to subsidize their illegitimate anime consumption, there should be no complaints that studios have moved to cater to Japanese fans' tastes. There are plenty of older anime that do not follow modern trends; it's viewers' own fault if they avoid these older titles based on arbitrary age cutoffs.
** While I do not subscribe to the "3D = pig disgusting" mindset, I generally prefer 2D girls. Due to my employment/living situation and insufficient romantic experience, I feel that actual relationships with 3D women are just as impossible as relationships with 2D women. Given that equivalency, why not 2D?
** I do add hentai to my list. This isn't a dating site, and I'm not looking to impress or avoid offending women by maintaining some illusion of purity. Besides, if anyone's going to judge an adult heterosexual male for having interest in representations of sex and female nudity, I don't really care about their opinion anyway. I know I am not a "creep" (whatever that means these days), and I do not flirt with, hit on, sexually harass, or stalk women IRL or online. (Why do that when I've got 2D?)
Maximum score given to hentai is 8.
As this graph will attest, I don't believe in Sturgeon's Law -- why should one elitist/unpleasable hater with a scary-fish-sounding name get to decide that 90% of everything is junk? I also don't believe, as certain reviewers do, that there has to be a gulf between things I like and things I dislike. Rather, I believe in a spectrum of quality distributed across a somewhat skewed Bell Curve.
Any other questions? Feel free to comment or send a PM.
I'll put my answer here so I don't go off-topic on the thread.
If I want to support, for example, Parasyte as much as possible, then I'd have to not watch anything else and/or make more accounts where I would only watch Parasyte. In return, I'd get nothing for the bother.
Streams should be an online replacement to TV, while digital downloads should be an online replacement to physical copies.
The money that the user pays to Crunchyroll is distributed per views, just like for TV. And if you want to get a copy and support the series directly, then buying a digital copy should be the way to do so, just like it's mostly the point of the DVDs/BDs now.
You've certainly watched a lot of Anime, but I noticed you've never seen "Uchuusen Sagittarius" yet. You have to check it out sometime, as it's truly one of the greatest hidden gems out there. There's quite a lot of character development in it.
I like your profile picture. Kent almost rubbed me the wrong way in the anime but in the manga he is such a good character. Its simply because the story is further along and we get to see what he is really like in my opinion.
Were you involved with the subs for the Prefectural Earth Defense Force OVA?
The sub track says 'Thanks Zalis' and I remembered seeing your name on MAL before.
Yeah, I think a 4:3 CRT via component would still be better for SD 16:9 content. The black letterboxing bars really don't bother me, as you tend to forget they're there after a while.
All Comments (44) Comments
I'll put my answer here so I don't go off-topic on the thread.
If I want to support, for example, Parasyte as much as possible, then I'd have to not watch anything else and/or make more accounts where I would only watch Parasyte. In return, I'd get nothing for the bother.
Streams should be an online replacement to TV, while digital downloads should be an online replacement to physical copies.
The money that the user pays to Crunchyroll is distributed per views, just like for TV. And if you want to get a copy and support the series directly, then buying a digital copy should be the way to do so, just like it's mostly the point of the DVDs/BDs now.
Cheers,
Tomislav
The sub track says 'Thanks Zalis' and I remembered seeing your name on MAL before.
If you were, thanks for your efforts!
I can't find it anywhere online -_-
I thank you
Are you the anime master