Nangbaby is boycotting Sailor Moon for crimes against humanity wait, wait, no, sorry, that was me listening to the language, not the message. Sorry, Viz is doing a redub with the cast's original names.

To quote Nangbaby so I don't misrepresent her:

I promised that I would leave the fandom if this happened and I will. As much as I would like to make it an immediate exit, please note that I have spent a significant chunk of my life loving Serena as Sailor Moon, Alan, Ann, Lita, Game Machine Man, Bertie, and Malachite (just like the sword in Ogre Battle). Forgive the dramatic death throes.

For those of you who think I’m overreacting, let me make this clear. Viz has essentially announced that the Sailor Moon loved by millions, the girl named Serena whose opening theme proclaims she fights evil by moonlight and wins love by daylight. is no more. She has been erased from continuity Sonja Belmont-style.

Now, I grew up with Sailor Moon like any red-blooded nineties Canadian, but I'm not sure quite sure what she's getting at. But she goes on to say:

Now imagine if George Lucas has in addition to making those changes, stated Chewbacca was actually canonically a lesbian and changed the scenes to make that very obvious, as well as claimed the Jedi’s goal was to oversee the development of humanity according to the Force and lead them into the light through taking over the Empire.

Now, this may have unfortunate implications with the fact the redub re-adds two original canon gay couples, but I'm also pretty sure Lucas did that anyway and we just moved on.

I mean, we all remember the makeout scene after Leia says she'd rather kiss a Wookie, right? And the interview with Chewbacca's new dub voice, Tilda Swinton, where she says she's proud to play Chewbacca as he was always meant to be - a proud queer woman covered head to toe in fur. She even did the interview in the Chewbacca costume, despite her height and the fact she actually did the whole role from a recording booth.

Sorry, I've deviated.

She knows who to blame, and she's darn well gonna do it.

As a normal person*, I have no powers against this blatant disenfranchisement and marginalization except that of my limited wallet, and I will say this. From this day forward I will not pay for an official piece of Sailor Moon material released from this date forward. I am boycotting Sailor Moon for the actions of Naoko Takeuchi — make no mistake Viz and Toei Animation are culpable as well, but in their defense, they are transparent in that they make the real culprit clear — the woman who authored the manga that inspired the anime and now has taken over the inspired creation.

She understands it's going to be a hard path, but she will face that path. And she's doing it because god help you if you call Sailor Moon Usagi.

I know my action alone is meaningless, but I encourage others to not pay and not give anything official any more time. It’s not enough to complain. We have to take the power away from them that we gave them to redress this wrong.

Sailor Moon CX will no longer update. As much as I would love to finish the story in a “Take That” no one reads it and no one cares, so I am abandoning it. I won’t burden people with my presence much longer.

To conclude, Viz is a monster, Naoko Takeuchi is a monster, and she's not posting her fanfic anymore.

Also there's a site!

The post concludes:

Edit: I’m back.

*blatant lie

Dearest, beloved, Fandom Wank.

I know you were looking forward to great excitement today. Some of you said words to me that indicated you anticipated fiery 'judgement' upon those who remained fresh and dewey white, those you call n00bs.

Anyway, you got today instead.

Stop anticipating things, we'll just break your hearts.

Sincerely,

Sepia P. Magpie, Esq.



PS: Use this post to reflect on how you could be better people. Or just fuck around in the comments.

In case you haven't heard, Funimation is re-releasing Dragon Ball Z on DVD in season sets. Under the tagline "The way it was meant to be seen!", they're going all out; re-mastering the footage, re-dubbing the audio for consistent voices throughout, and making Dragon Ball Z widescreen for the very first time. You might say one of these was not a popular decision.

Over at AnimeOnDVD.com back in December, one of many threads is started on the topic, in this case by FUNiRepBlue, one of Funimation's official reps on the AoD boards. She posts an FAQ detailing what's going into the new season sets, including the decision to change the aspect ratio for the release.

Reactions are mixed, with most complaining about the change, some excited about the upcoming set, and pretty much everyone settling on a "wait and see" attitude. Fast forward to last week, when the first of the new box sets began to ship.

( So *that's* what it looks like when a wank goes Super Saiyan. )

So, who's up for season 2?

Apparently the Digimon fandom has decided, in some odd spurt of contrariness, that September is the month to wank more openly and publicly than usual. It starts innocently enough in the digimon community on lj with tryxkittie's post asking for opinions in comparing each season of the dub and how others think it rates with other dubs. ryosato starts the ball rolling by opening their comment with a statement that they hate the dub along with how much most dubs suck and that older ones are better (...). Okay! ajora starts poking them for it and it gets really amusing really fast. Unfortunately (or fortunately for us), ryosato had to go and post in their own damn community about how they're tired of being called an elitist blahblahblah and generally trying to make themselves look good (and failing). Small wank, but very rewarding in the amusement factor.

I knew if I waited a night this would explode. ANN links a press statement from Bandai that warns fansubbers not to fansub the new Ghost in the Shell: SOLID STATE SOCIETY. Of course, the ANN forum discusses the topic of fansubs in a mature and intelligent manner. It's growing.


Steventheeunuch: Moreso we hate self-righteous morons with entitlement-complexes who potentially hurt the industry that supplies us with our interests.

...

Pleroma: Lol @ internet police. Really now, the RIAA witchunt was by far the most massive anti-piracy effort of the last decade and its effects are barely even noticeable nowadays (I've yet to fail to download any song I've wanted) so a company like Bandai with only a tiny portion of the RIAA's resources wont get jack shit done.

THe future of the internet will encompass many subnets of absolute annonimity, as it should be. Badai et all can keep blowing all the hot air their want but it won't change a damn thing.

PS: I don't like GITS, but intellectual property nazis make me laugh.

Josh7289: So if you're just trying to defend your own product which you have the sole legal right to sell, you suddenly become a Nazi? Wow, maybe you should mull this one over a little more -- your viewpoint on this subject is way out of whack.

jsevakis: This comment is very indicative of this new breed of what I call "techno-communism" that I'm seeing more and more in places like Slashdot and the communities around anime. Since pretty much all media can now be broken down into information, and these techno-communists are married to the idea that "information wants to be free" (logic is apparently under lock-and-key if the data on my HD now has a will of its own).

...

nagashi: I for one will be downloading the fansub, without guilt. I will never buy more of their dubtitled, close captions for subs, non-backup-able, drm'ed crap.

If they provide it at a very low cost in an open format (divx/xvid or some such format) that I can easily move around between computers, they stand a chance at making $1 (and probaby not more than $1) off me.

Down with Copyright!
Down with Licensors!
Down with voice 'talent'!
Down with Localization!

Up with free media, fair use, and privacy!

Culture in it's various forms are the property of the people, and we will do with it what we wish: rip, subtitle, scanlate, make amvs of, and distribute with impunity.

Long live fansubs!

zac: You're an idiot.

nagashi: Always good to know that the fine fine editors of this site reduce themselves to name calling. Go you!

zac: But you are. You are clearly of reduced mental function. Why should I have to stop short of saying the truth simply because I work here? I shouldn't. You're allowed to come into my forums and say whatever garbage you like, which means I'm allowed to call you on it in whatever manner I choose.

So there's an anime comedy series called "Super Gals", which is basically about a kogal named Ran and her friends. (If you're scratching your head over "kogal", here's a helpful link.)

I know it's hard to believe, but this zany comedy series aimed at ten year old girls failed to make a huge splash when landing here. Only the first twenty-six episodes were brought over, even though it's a fifty-two episode series. Hell, even in Japan, the second season was never released on DVD. Nevertheless, there is a hardcore contingent of fans who mostly seem to hang out on the Anime on DVD forums.

While up until now the original licensor had been noncommittal about the future of the series, an announcement was made at Anime Expo that the second half had been picked up by a different company.

( Only problem? Since this is a super-super niche title, there will be no dub. )

Open a debate of Fan subs vs. Offcial Subs on any public forum and you're guarnteed wank. However things really don't start to heat up until page two.

Someone just has to bring up ambigious legal staus of fansubbing, and starts the wank.

You're an ungrateful bastard for not paying for anime!, posted by the OP, who at first was tolerant of fansubbing. Wank changes people fast.

It appears fansubbing's legality is open to interpetation.

"End of argument" if only.

Its Illegal!, no its not, and in fact they are often of good quality.

On page four we are subjected to a rousing legal debate where our wankers clearly use all of their education to argue whether or not its legal to translate a Japanese cartoon for hobby reasons. I love the internet.

Oh no! I'm being threatened!

Anime is NOT a fad!, wank spawns more wank.


Jack Thompson comparsion is called up. That guy needs his own law, he's getting as popular as Hitler in arguments nowadays.

Put a spork in me, I'm done!

Within one column, Anime News Network has succeeded in poking just about every sore spot in the anime fandom's side. Presented today for your delight: Gay Porn is teh Gross, Piracy is teh Communism, and Naruto Fans are teh Idiots. Of all of these, which do you suppose got the biggest response and which was almost ignored?

For those who aren't familiar with the site, Anime News Network, bastion of "Trusted Anime News," runs a column titled Answerman. The idea is that confused anime fans can write in to Answerman (or, if Answerman is gone for a two-year hiatus, Mrs. Answerman) and get answers to their burning questions, which range from "Why do superheroes come in groups of five?" to "When's the second season of Fruits Basket coming out?"

( But what happens when you stop actually answering letters and start getting - real? )

Greg Ayres is a voice actor for ADV, and does a character in FMA... I think...I lied-- this has nothing to do with FMA whatsoever, but it's still wank! But this isn't about mere anime! No, in this case, Fandom really does Wank.
In the Greg Ayres fan community, a mysterious person named Melonice (journal has now been deleted) introduces herself. All is normal and ducky, even when Melonice makes another post that seems to overstate the obvious point that Greg Ayres is a Man, not a God amongst men (well, no shit). No one seems ruffled by this somewhat patronizing post, but...

...apparently Melonice was someone Greg knew all along, a close personal friend, and had been making nasty comments about his fans in locked LJ entries. This is a bit confusing (sorry, I know I promised to stop with the Confuso-Wanks) but whatever Melonice was saying in locked entries was enough to make Greg come to the defense of the rest of his fans. Greg doesn't say Melonice's Seekrit Identity, nor what Melonice said that made him so angry, so those details will be lost to history, I guess.

On his own LJ, Greg summarizes the situation somewhat more succinctly.

Over on a Wolf's Rain board, a cosplayer named DJ Toboe said that a reliable source told him about a week-long Underground Wolf's Rain convention that will be hitting all the US state capitals. The convention has all the English Voice Actors and Japanese Voice Actors there!

A few pages of excitement ensue before Nocash shows up and points out how this is a fake, and how stupid this whole idea is. Wankage ensues and someone calls Nocash a WR [Wolf's Rain] hating dork.

Then Kibasmate shows up. And it hits the fan.

( Poorly spelled words, and insane fangirl? Sign me up! )

Discussion verges off into Kibasmate's broken capslock, exactly who can ban who and why, and proper usage of the word "kawaii". (Not mentioned, not using it at all).

Then someone points out that several of the voice actors couldn't be doing this "convention" because they're not in the area, or doing other things. Kibasmate has lots more lovely wisdom about that:

( Poorly mispelled pearls of wanky wisdom, now including the word pissant! )

Finally, someone posts a screenshot of an e-mail they received from Crispin Freeman, one of the English Wolf's Rain VA's. For the time being that seems to have shut up Kibasmate.

And, dear fandom wankers, we are left with only DJ Toboe's mournful plea:

*cries* Not only am I losing friends over this, but I'm probably going to lose the respect of this entire forum.

Special thanks to Chaos2 and the Fuku People for this little wank.

First wank - I couldn't stand it anymore. Please be gentle.

This all used to be in the main Tutu release thread, but apparently the mod moved it all into it's own "debate" thread an hour or so ago. All the better.

( It starts out pretty normal, with the users on the AnimeOnDVD forums celebrating the DVD release of a pretty good show... )

And it all goes downhill from there, with accusations of trolling, dub bashing, etc.

And, the icing on the cake - apparently this is a repeat of a thread that happened back in November. This is the second time that they've wanked over the name of a girl in an animated kids' show who changes into Princess Tutu. Who also changes into a duck. Who, in girl-form, goes to ballet school where a giant cat teaches.

It just feels so surreal...but I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore.

Edit: Make that the third time.

Edit Again: Just had to post this little gem by Vicious: "You want to know why you're an 'elitist'? Because of those comments you just made. You still think all blacks need to sit in the back of the bus too? I mean why stop with dub fans? That's why you're an elitist!!!" Which, as jarhead puts it, is the "biggest non sequitur EVER."

I was going through the IMDB site because I wanted some info on a VA known as Crispin Freeman. He's the one who voiced the infamous Albel Nox from Star Ocean 3 and the nutjob Albedo in Xenosaga. According to his bio, he's a "lovely, humble person".


Seems that someone doesn't agree!

Basically, according to "Holidame", Crispin is an ass and she wanted to SPIT on him! GAH! She felt that way because Crispin allegedly talked shit about one of her favorite voice actors and he never showed up to a banquet when her friend paid SO MUCH $$$$$$$$ to sit by him. Oh, and he didn't show up for a panel either.

Obviously, people don't agree and try to explain to her the possible reasons why he didn't show up. She doesn't seem to consider that.

This wank actually started in 2003 and went on until 2004. What makes this great is that Crispin Freeman himself shows up and well, sets the record straight.

Good reading!

I'm hoping this is really wank. It is a couple of days old, dead-horse anime wank from the boards at Adult Swim. It's a mini-wank that didn't really take off. Probably because people couldn't stand the smell of decay all around it.

( The unwashed American masses can't possibly understand Ghost In the Shell SAC. )

Then - through it all, his reasoning becomes crystal clear - it isn't political intrigue, or a burning anger at the stupidity of the unwashed masses! It's just more of teh same dub vs. sub wank that just refuses to die in the anime fandom.

Oi

Over on 4bastards, yet another person complains about stupid anime fans that only watch corporate dubs and don't go and learn Japanese. Small, but cute and dumb.

Pfeth. Poseurs. Everyone knows the only way you're a *real* fan is if you go and tutor yourself in Japanese and never ever *ever* watch dubs. Dubs are *satan*! :O

Edit: And now, thanks to a random annonymouse, we get to see "Fanfiction Idol". Dear lord in heaven. It gets better every day, doesn't it? I can't wait to see the shit-flinging that'll cause. Better go sign up for that *nooooow*.

So evidently, FUNimation is seeking fan input on a possible anime channel, that would focus on "Uncut, English dubbed anime"

People talk about it for a bit, with differing views of the company

But then Rinoa desu! posts with And isn't "uncut dubbing" usually an oxymoron? :/, and Nekoi agrees with her.

Arronius points out that all dubbing is is replacing the audio track, which is, like, basic knowledge.

Rinoa Desu!: Not. True. Don't make me force Nekoi to tell you the oh-so-lovely Shaman King story @___@

And if you people want original anime without having to read subs, learn Japanese! >_@ Ganbatte~

Arronius: the term cut comes from editing when they cut parts out to make it conform to a time frame with corresponding commercial breaks or when they remove parts such as exceptionaly violence

Uncut is frame for frame exactly how it should look, audio tracks are a seperate matter

Rinoa Desu!: I know~~~~ what the term means, I'm not supid (despite what you all might think). The entire storyline can be changed by a tweak of the dialouge. I'm not going to argue with you people about what is and isn't cutting anymore, because no one will see my point.

And when Arronius posts again, pointing out that the 'literal meaning' of uncut that RD! and Nekoi were using is incorrect, RD! screams RAWR! *flails* Just give it up, you don't get it >_@

Yes, nothing says "Listen to me, I have valid points" quite like gratutious funny faces, does it?

The lowdown: Samurai Champloo is a new anime that's basically Cowboy Bebop set in feudal Japan with rap in place of jazz. Sexy art, sexy swordsmen, spunky lass and the scent of sunflowers. No, I don't get the last part either.

The controversy: Samurai are totally ghei! vs. It's all just a satiric stab at you idiot yaoi fangirls!

The rebuttal: I'm so totally leaving you losers! By someone who had not posted in the community at all...

The verbal seppuku: It's already been licensed before the fansubbers even got a chance to show it to the elite anime watchers! And the "death of a great anime before it's even started in Japan ::slumps head::" whilst someone chops the head off to spare them the pain of hara-kiri at the mere prospect of dubbing.


All because of the damn gay fireflies...

One Piece fans are probably aware that kaizoku-fansubs produces a better-looking, more complete sub than some commercial subbers. Sweetest_savage is here to speak up for them. Even though, you know, no one's arguing with him. Tiny, but amusing.

As a background note, if K-F is getting a lot of emails, it might be because they deleted every single post to their forums about One Piece being licensed, which only caused more people to post not knowing there were posts before.

4Kids (the company best known for unleashing Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! on American audiences) announced today that they have the rights to One Piece.

Wank, predictably, enuses.

Posters at AnimeonDVD and Anime News Network threaten bodily harm to 4Kids representatives, fear the loss of fansubs, and talk of buying bootlegs.

Over on LJ, the one_piece comm really brings the splooge, with some of the best reactions yet.

Funimation is the devil! (Despite their efforts to improve and release both flavors of Dragonball Z.)

My favorite, "I don't want all those little kids getting posessive over it." Because, y'know, it's a kids show, and God forbid children should watch and get into it.

"Won't someone think of the fanfiction?!?!"

"p433r teh legions of idiots who will join our c0mm!!11"

*waits for 4Kids to announce they have the rights to Naruto*

This one hardly comes as a surprise. Detective Conan, one of the most popular series in Japan, had just been dubbed. The first dub episode aired on Adult Swim on Monday complete with a changed title, and changed names. A dub-only fan has shown up on detective_conan and spouted fangirlisms about how hot the (dub) voices are using only the Anglicized names In this thread enjoy a rant about how stupid the name change from "Detective Conan" to "Case Closed" due to copyright issues is, and death threats for not knowing the original names.

This is followed by another new dub fan who complains about being "pelted with Japanese torrents" and then says they will do whatever they can to keep the peace.

Finally the first rabid fan decides things are too quiet, so she must remedy things by posting every new tidbit that she finds online as news The regulars somehow don't seem impressed.

EDIT: Minor update, but there's a lovely thread rebuking the elitists for their treatment of the newbies and another in which the topic of spoilers comes up and someone protests against ghettoizing the fandom.