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F-ZeroOne

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  1. F-ZeroOne
    Hasbro actually had to rename a "Transformers" toy in the UK because of this issue; thats how I became aware of it in the first place. However, similarly, though I've heard the word used several times in US media (most infamously, by Frank Millers "All-Star Batman"), I hadn't previously been aware that "retarded" has similar connatations in the US; I think when its used here in the UK its intended in a generally milder manner and probably because its something people have picked up from imported TV without realising. Anyway, back to the Time Lord... Regards all the speculation about casting, I very much think that - ahem - whoever is it, its going to be a similar situation to the last three choices i.e. someone who has done some previous work in TV/film, possibly even critically acclaimed work, but not someone who is generally known to the public.
  2. F-ZeroOne
    Just a piece of advice, considering we are talking about a UK-originating show, that last word has a different and much more insulting meaning in the UK than I believe it does in the US.
  3. F-ZeroOne
    Slyia Stingrays Mercedes "Gullwing" from "Bubblegum Crisis"?
  4. F-ZeroOne
    Regards the Iranian drones armament - they appear to be not so much missiles as unguided rockets; I believe the Russian RPG-series have "pop-out" fins which only unfold after launch (now I think of it, so does the TOW missile, but thats obviously launched from a tube) which probably explains the lack of fins. Theres some video of this thing taking off - it looked distinctly wobbly, like an overgrown R/C aircraft. I think they have a little while to go before its as stable as our future robot aerial murder-machine cyborg overlords...
  5. F-ZeroOne
    The Latin suggestion isn't a bad idea - reminds me of how "Lupin" become "Wolf" due to copyright issues, actually - but what happens when people start asking why it isn't Gundam LXXXIII then...?
  6. F-ZeroOne
    The other irony, of course, is that we're discussing changing a characters name from the Japanese original in a thread about the accuracy of translation... I'm also not really sure what else would be similar in meaning whilst not sounding so... odd in English. "Full On"...? "All Out"...? "In Yer FACE!"...?
  7. F-ZeroOne
    While to an extent I agree that "Full Frontal" is a pretty silly name for a character, especially in a future war drama, on the other hand its little oddities like that that form part of the charm of watching anime in the first place.
  8. F-ZeroOne
    Its a conundrum thats probably never going to be completely solved. There are times when its obvious - even when I was eight I realised that Jupiter probably didn't have blue skies and horse racing when I was watching "Battle of the Planets", but its also probably reasonably fair to say that many fans simply do not have the language skills to fairly criticise a particular translation unless it is pretty blatant. Its also arguable, as mentioned earlier, that the mere act of translation is creative in some ways - I've mentioned the Discworld Compendium, where Terry Pratchett (the creator of the series!) states that he was told some people think that "Reaper Man" is better in German, which as he points out is obviously some sort of triumph for the translator. I think the best we can hope for is what we have mostly seemed to have got, which is a reasonable middle ground for most fans with a number of exceptions on either side of the "good/bad" margins.
  9. F-ZeroOne
    For the record, yes, I was being tongue in cheek and while I've only seen a couple of episodes of X I did actually like it.
  10. F-ZeroOne
    You see? You're the reason why I can't have Turn-A Blu-Rays.
  11. F-ZeroOne
    sketchley - just to say thanks for the insight until how your students react to the "true" intent behind some of the Harry Potter examples given; its something I've often wondered about.
  12. F-ZeroOne
    Its Yukikaze, it will be shirtless everything.
  13. F-ZeroOne
    When I used to attend anime cons, you didn't go into certain video rooms if you liked dubs... Actually, I'm kidding, but until DVD more-or-less made the issue irrelevant, dub vs sub was one of the burning issues in anime fandom. It didn't help that before a pool of established Western voice actors was created (the increasing use of voice-acting in videogames has probably helped in this regard), some early dubs were pretty awful, combined with what I will generously call liberties sometimes taken with source material by some companies (you think the altered backing music track on the Gunbuster DVD set was a crime? You should have seen the Kiseki UK DVD release! ). Add the tendency for fandom to get a little excited about certain issues, maybe newer fans who may have more passion than perspective [1] and less understanding of the production side of things, and strong opinions are sometimes inevitable. Theres also the "Kobayashi Maru" problem - my favourite example of this is that in one volume of the manga version of Maigister Negi Magi Negima, a caption refers to "The Welsh Mountains, England". This may already be raising amused eyebrows among natives... It could be a genuine translation error, or it may have been an error in the original work - in which case the translator is now damned. Do they translate literally, in which case teh interwebs will attack them for a geography schoolboy error, or do they correct the error, in which case teh interwebz attacks them for not being accurate to the source material? Frankly, I'd rather take my chances in The Neutral Zone! Another way is to look at things from the "other side of the hill". "Harry Potter" is hugely popular in Japan. In the books, one of his friends supports the "West Ham" football - sorry, soccer - team. The mere fact that it is "West Ham" is automatically amusing to a British person. It is unlikely the same reaction will arise in a Japanese person, so do you translate literally "West Ham", or do you subsititue something with a similar effect but which is more culturally relevant - "The Nippon Ham Fighters", for example? [1] I used to feel a similar way about CGI animation, until I watched "The Incredibles" extras and realised, hey, CGI is hard too.
  14. F-ZeroOne
    Translation is arguably a bit more of an art than a science. Jonathan Clements has pointed out that one problem is that Japanese voice actors are often cast with a particular "style" in mind that they're known for, and are given some licence to improvise during recording sessions. This can be a nightmare for a translator. Mr. Clements has written a very good book on this, and other oddities of the international anime scene, though it does have the most-embarrassing-book-to-read-on-a-train title ever: "Schoolgirl Milky Crisis". Another good look at translation issues is in "The Discworld Compendium", which looks at the difficulties of translating such British concepts as "Morris Dancing" into other languages and trying to get the meaning of a joke across, rather than just the literal adaptation. Although I personally prefer subs, there a few dubs I'm quite fond of - the original "Project A-Ko" one, for example.
  15. F-ZeroOne
    "I don't want to go... " http://io9.com/confirmed-david-tennant-and-billie-piper-will-return-f-463886055 Incidentally, as part of the 50th Anniversary there is planned a special one-off drama based on the creation of the original "Doctor Who" series back in 1963. Its being penned by Mark Gatiss.
  16. F-ZeroOne
    Favourite Gundam? The Turn-A. Never have I been so surprised by a design that I absolutely hated when I first saw it. The RX-93 Nu-Gundam. I've always liked the colours on that one, black and white like its the UC Police coming to bust Chars... posterior. The Gundam Mk. II, espcially in Titans Colours. Always looked like a "bruiser". The Turn-X Gundam. I never really liked the design until I got the Robot Spirits toy of it and I was able to appreciate the design a lot more. Theres something almost "Halo" about it.
  17. F-ZeroOne
    Amsuingly enough, in the Citadel DLC, Kaiden is rather genre savvy...
  18. F-ZeroOne
    I enjoyed "8th MS Team", though if I had an issue with it its that I was sort of expecting "Gundampocalypse Now" from it and of course, its not really like that except in passing. The final episode is one of the best things the One Year War setting has ever done, and the other stand-out for me is that once - just once - a GM gets to be completely, totally, no-question-about-it, awesome. [1] [1] Of course, this is almost immediately mitigated by that fact that the GM is then instructed to commit a major war crime. But then, its a GM - its not allowed any breaks.
  19. F-ZeroOne
    Though I found the new "hub" area in the Citadel DLC not overly interesting [1], theres no denying that the central plot and the many, many character moments and jokes make it absolutely wonderful, especially if you've played the series from the beginning. I love the whole "Die Hard" 'Why does the same sh - stuff keep happening to me?!" attitude Shepards got going on in it...
  20. F-ZeroOne
    Indeed it is!
  21. F-ZeroOne
    March 30th, UK. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SRQu3MvRySA
  22. F-ZeroOne
    Very sad to hear this. I had a rather odd encounter with Toren Smith - I never met him in person, but he once advertised on his website that he was looking for some "Andy Capp" books ("Andy Capp" is a British newspaper cartoon strip character who appears in "The Daily Mirror"); as it happened there was a second-hand bookshop just up the road from me which I knew had a supply and I offered to pick some up and send them across the pond to him. He accepted, and sent me some "Outlanders" books and an Adam Warren signed "Dirty Pair" print thats hanging on the wall behind me still as I type... ...oh, and lets not forget his doppelgangers role as Norikos love interest in Gunbuster...!
  23. F-ZeroOne
    Thanks for the the recoorection r.e. Reccoa/Sayla. Think I was probably getting the events in the two series confused. Of course, Sayla could just like jungles anyway...
  24. F-ZeroOne
    Tomino broke one of his own Gundam Club rules with Leina... First Rule: Everybody dies. Second Rule: No-one comes back. Thrid Rule: No-one comes back. IIRC, Sayla bumped into Kei in a jungle in Zeta, so maybe she just likes jungles. (I maybe getting mixed up and thinking of ZZ after all, though... )
  25. F-ZeroOne
    Keep with it. Believe me, I felt much the same way about ZZ until I got a few episodes further in than you've reached. Its also worth noting that the first half of the series was made when Tomino was having one of his upswings in moods; before Turn-A Gundam, it was vitally important that if you wanted great Gundam, you had to have sad Tomino in the snow...
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