You are a Stand User, wielding the uncanny powers of
an amazing, almost magical entity called a Stand. You are seeking after a mysterious enemy, and a friend's survival hangs in the balance. You and your fellow Stand Users must hunt
down this enigmatic foe in a vast, unknown wasteland, and your time is
running out... and not all Stand Users are necessarily on your side.
What sets JoJo's apart from run-of-the-mill anime, besides the unusual visual design style, is the plot's emphasi
s upon problem-solving, the sense of a puzzle or mystery that is often
associated with American-style thrillers. Though not as thorough in this approach as a film like the Patlabor Movie 2, JoJo's transcends the formulaic quest or pointless battle of muc
h anime.--Gerald Leung
Joseph Joestar: The leader, though not the most powerful, of the Stand Users.
Abdul: Cautious but dependable Magician Red Stand user.
Kakyouin: The User of the Emerald Stand.
Polnareff: The clown of the group, User of Chariot Stand
Iggy: User of the Stand of The Fool.
--Charley Lu
Captain "Steroids" Yanagisawa: Captain of the Karate Team. HeÕs the only one on the Karate team who is willing to practice with Natsuki.
Takaoka "Ken" Rina: A transfer student who has class with Natsuki. Her past has left her many bitter memories.
Akira Kandori (a.k.a. Madame Bison): Her voice actress is Tsuru Hiromi, yes the same as Ayukawa.
Hondou: His only purpose in this anime is to say something sexist, then get the crap built out of him. (If only we could do the same with CAA officers!)
I recently got to talk to a very good fan-translator, who ended up doing a few pieces of professional work for AnimEigo. He noted that being a good translator required fluency in two languages: Japanese and English. Many people, don't realize that super b English ability is necessary to do a good translation. What you are doing is understanding the nuance and possible artistry in Japanese, and then rendering it in English. For example, a fifth year Italian student could probably read and understand Dan te's Inferno. But more likely than not, he couldn't translate it very well.
Culture is another issue in translation. A language is often tied to a culture, and a full translation is not possible into a different language (culture). Different vocabulary, different ettiquette, different ritualized phrases, and different values ar e all very important. For example, how do you differentiate in English between, Ranma, Ranma-kun, Ranma-san, Ranma-sama? Quick Japanese lesson, for those of you not familiar with honorifics in the example. Ranma is just a name I'm using. The suffixes - kun, -san, and -sama are honorifics, indicating different kinds of repsect and relationship. -kun is usually between male friends, and is informal. -san indicates respect, and -sama indicates very high respect. You use -san and -sama when addressing pe ople of higher rank than yourself. Actually, there are several subtle connotations in each of these suffices. For example, if you meet someone for the first time who is your superior, using -san might actually be considered inappropriate. (I'm far from being fully versed in honorifics, but I think it's inappropriate because often -san is only after you become familiar with each other. Someone out there, correct me if I'm wrong.)
Complicated isn't it? So how would you translate honorifics? Many fans have opted to not translate them. So many fan-subtitles just leave in the honorifics. In one of our Konshuu articles, we'll have a listing of honorifics and short descriptions of h ow they are used.
I won't even bother to go into Japanese and genlock do? Not only must a genlock convert computer graphics (usually an RGB signal) into a normal TV signal (composite, NTSC), it must change the frame rate. Usually this is done by digitizing the computer sig nal as it comes in, and sending it out at the new frame rate. It is then covnerted into normal video and combined with the video from the anime. Armed with a genlock, one must tell the computer when to draw text so that the subtitles are synchronized with the speech of anime characters. This process is called "timing." There are roughly four ways to time subtitles (plus tons of variations):
1. The most popular method is called "hit spacebar." In this procedure, the subtitler plays the anime and simply hits keys on his computer whenever someone talks. The computer records the times.
2. Another method is calld Òpause the VCR.Ó Here the subtitler uses the genlock to draw a clock on the screen and records a copy of the anime, with the clock. He or she then plays back the tape, and whenever someone talks, the subtitler hits pause on the VCR and reads the time. Then the time can be typed into the computer.
3. A variation of "pause the VCR" is to pause the LD player. Some LD players can display a frame count, so you pause the LD player and type the frame number into the computer.
4. A "new" method is somewhat more radical. ItÕs called "audio capture." In this method, one digizites the entire soundtrack onto oneÕs hard disk. One can then use a sound-editor and locate precisely where in the waveform, a character begins to talk. The times are then typed into a word processor. For a 2 hour movie, you'll need about 160 megs of free hard drive space. A lot, but not out of the question with hard drive prices dropping like a rock.
Each method has different strengths and weaknesses. For example, "hit spacebar" is clearly the fastest method. However, it is the least accurate for the beginner, and therefore requires the most training to achieve high accuracy. Audio capture is highly a ccurate, but is rather time consuming, as well as taking up a lot of disk space. So how accurate should a subtitle be? According to one fan subtitler, one should be within about 0.1 seconds of when the talking begins. Any more accurate that that, and mos t people won't notice. With video at 30 frames per second, that means about 3 frames.
AD Vision will release Cutey Honey volume 4 in January, 1996. This 60-minute video is listed at $29.95. Along with Cutey Honey, AD Vision will release Go Nagai's Shuten Dojii: The Start Hand Kid. This 50-minute video is priced at $19.95. Both releases are for mature audiences only.
Pioneer will continue its release of the Tenchi Muyo series. For January, 1996, Pioneer will release Tenchi Muyo 12 and 13. The dubbed video is priced at $24.88; the subtitled video is priced at $29.98.
Ranma Fan-Fiction Poll
People are conducting a favorite Ranma fanfic poll on the Internet. The voting begins on November 16th, 1995 and ends on December 15th, 1995. For more information, please refer to the newsgroup rec.arts.anime.info or finger for copy of the rules at kyou @komodo.hacks.arizona.edu. Votes should be emailed to the same email address above.
--Compiled by David Zeng
A few months ago, I had the chance to purchase a copy of Matsumoto's Shin
Kimagure Orange Road. As IÕd anticipated reading the much-heralded
story, I was disappointed after going through it. My main qualm about
the plot was that it didn't exist.
It dealt more with what characters thought than with what they did. After reading selections from several classical Japanese works, I realized that Shin Kimagure Orange Road is not unique; it is part of a larger, Japanese literary tradition, one basically
different from the western style we have become accustomed to. This, of course, lead to the question as to how Orange Road would differ, were it written by a famous Occidental author. Take, for instance, the quintessential Orange Road scene:
Ayukawa, mad at Kyosuke, kicks him out of her house. Turning to leave, our clumsy protagonist trips on a rubber duck Kazuya dropped sometime before, and (surprise) falls on Ayukawa as his hands, groping for something to slow his fall, land on (surprise
) her breasts. They lie on the floor, he on her, essentially frozen in each otherÕs stares, until...
Ayukawa: Kasuga-kun! Kyosuke: A...Ayukawa! The ire that a moment ago could have melted the tiles on the underside of the space shuttle is now gone. Their lips are about to meet. A Wada Kanako song fades in. All of a sudden... Hikaru (jumping into scene): Daaaaaaaarling! What are you doing with Madoka-san? Kyosuke and Ayukawa immediately break their embrace, pretending that nothing had happened. Kyosuke (hand behind head): Aha...aha...ahahaha!
Had this been written by a Western writer...
Charles Dickens: A delightful and comedic chapter which finds our hapless Kasuga stumbling upon an ill-placed rubber duck and tumbling to the ground, his hands finding a most improper purchase upon the feminine form of a young lady of his acquainta nce. What a strange comeuppance had fate dealt to the indecisive Kasuga. A yellow, rubber duck of not altogether inconsiderable proportions that had been placed heretofore upon the floor by his young nephew Kazuya proved itself the culprit of this awkwa rd and embarrassing happenstance.
Arthur Conan Doyle: One rainy morn I chanced to pass by the residence of 21b Baker Street, so resolved to pay a visit to my good friend Kasuga. My knock meeting with no reply, I pursued an alternative entry by my own means, and trying the door kno b found it unlocked. As I opened the door, I was startled to see none other than Kasuga himself atop a prostrate Ayukawa, his hands upon her breasts in a most incriminating fashion. "By, jove, Kasuga, I exclaimed, what manner of tom-foolery is this? No, wait, I see at once from her breasts that Ayukawa has family in Coventry and that she likes kippers with her tea."
A hack American sitcom writer:
Kasuga: Oh, I managed to fall on your breasts! (laugh track) Ayukawa: Yes, you did! (laugh track)A hack British sitcom writer:
Ayukawa: Oi! What the bluddy ell aah yew duin'? Kurumi: Onii-chan, have you been playing with my pussy? Manami: Yeah, keep your hands off of Jingoro!
A "Star Trek: The Next Generation writer":
Picard: Ayukawa's breasts entity, would you like to engage in a cultural
exchange with the federation?
Troi: Captain, I sense sexual arousal.
Worf: Sir, I recommend that we conduct a frontal assault on Ayukawa.
Her breasts may be weapons.
Wesley: Sir, I think we should reverse the polarity on the whatsaframit.
Data: This is similar to the final scenes of Kimagure Orange Road
episodes 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33 in which-
Riker: Shuttup, Data.
Data: Yes, sir. And most importantly...Douglas Adams: "Oh, I seem to have tripped on a rubber duck and accidentally grabbed your breasts," exclaimed Kasuga. "I'd gathered that," replied Ayukawa. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about Ayukawa's breasts: According to a recent report by the less-than-reputable journal of intergalactic lechery, Playbeing, Ayukawa's breasts are the third most potent sexual objects in the known universe. Legend has it that when partially exposed during a 1-second flash in KOR episode 48, so many Sirius Cybernetics Corporation system operators turned away from their work to gawk that an amateur hacker was able to access their system and use it to gain entrance into the main Galactibank computer where the major gala ctic powers stored the lion's share of their balances in unmarked accounts, and so jumble them that they could not but remedy the situation by waging bloody intergalactic war on each other for hundreds of generations. Immediately preceding Ayukawa's mamma ry glands, but far less dangerous to all life as we know it, is the much heralded left ovary of Eccentricita Galumbitz, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon Six. It is said that the mere mentioning of the words "much-heralded left ovary of Eccentricita Galumbitz" is enough to make a Vogon captain blush. It is a little-known fact that the most potent sexual object in the known universe is the cerebral cortex of the second brain of the former Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox.
I tell you, it's to torture me, your friendly neighborhood Membership Head. Do you really think I ENJOY getting new members? ItÕs just one more record I have to put into the database, one more hour I have to spend flipping through 300 sheets of paper fi ve times to discover that the reason why "conquistador@aztech.berkeley.edu" isn't working is because thereÕs no "h" in "aztec"... So why do I put up with it all? Because it's my job. Not just as Membership Head, but as the on-staff loser.
Ever notice how in every so-called "group" there's always that one person who, no matter how hard he may try to assimilate or break free, never quite belongs, who can never be part of the group, yet can't survive without it, whose pain and suffering raise s the physical, mental and spiritual satisfaction for everyone around him? Kimagure Orange Road had Yuhsaku, Marmalade Boy has Tsutomu, Ranma has Kunou... The list goes on and on. Well, not to be outdone, CAA has her own resident mis-fit, lil' ol' me.< P> So how does this relate to you? Because you, as a member, have made life all that more enjoyable for all your fellow anime fans by really sticking it to me. And the beautiful part is that it doesn't have to stop here. Next time you walk by with a non-me mber friend of yours and spot the guy sitting all by himself hugging a funny looking box and twiddling his thumbs to the beat of "I Got You Babe" you can turn to him and say, "Hey, see that dweeb over there with the stupid haircut? No, that one. Yeah... Go screw him over and buy another membership! ItÕll be fun!" Heck, even better, buy multiple memberships yourself! Nothing keeps me up late at night better than wondering why there are three "Habibi Sandwich"es signed up, one of whom voted for Marmal ade Boy, another for Conan, and a third who claimed that abstinence was the only way to be 100% safe. The possibilities are endless!
As the memberships grow, as the papers pile up, as the late night hours trying to figure out that we@waste.time.edu is really we@waste.money.gov stretch on and on and on, your appreciation of anime and of life in general will soar to new heights. And so will everyone else's around the world.
Except for me, of course. But then, thatÕs the whole point.
Your friendly neighborhood Membership Head,
Marlon Chen
Cal Animage (animage@server.berkeley.edu)