I'm Not A "Real" Fan

[MrsEclipse]

I think it was on Hulu, when I was thinking of watching Death Note and I found it there but it was only the subs. A few people left comments "nice, but I wish it was the dub" to which they were viciously ripped apart by purists saying what boiled down to, "there is no reason- NO GOOD REASON- to want to watch this show dubbed! THIS SHOW IS PERFECT AND CHANGING EVEN ONE TINY LITTLE THING WILL DIMINISH IT, AND YOU ARE AN IDIOT AND A NEANDERTHAL FOR THINKING OTHERWISE." People then did post reasons, and I wish I'd copied down the responses because they were priceless. It was really amazing how many different ways they found to say, "Your preferences are wrong and you are wrong for having them."

My problem is, I don't watch cartoons. I listen. You can't hear subtitles. Or, as I put it in my show, "I don't do subtitles for the same reason I don't do motion comics. I like to watch my cartoons and read my comic books, not the other way around."

I also laugh every time a new Ghibli movie comes out in theaters and people get pissy because they're releasing a dub instead of the movie in Japanese because "dubs always change and ruin everything." Never mind that Ghibli is notorious these days for insisting that the dubs be as exact as humanly possible. The online dork brigade insisted that four-year-olds would still go to see Ponyo in Japanese because "kids will watch anything." I also saw on two separate occasions people blasting the Ponyo theme song remix solely for having stupid lyrics. "Munch 'n' munch, kiss and hug" is so different from "paku-paku chu-gyu." Which is onomatopoeia for "gobbling something, kissy-noise, squeeze!"



In other news, there's a pretty funny bit of elitism for certain circles of diehard Disney Parks fans. You're only a "true fan" if you've been a fan longer than everyone else, or if you visited the parks as a child, been a park fan your whole life, and so on. You can't be a "true fan" if your first visit was at age 15, 26, or- god forbid- just last year. Not to mention there are certain attractions, now defunct, that all "true fans" must have actually experienced (not just watched the Martins Vids) and enjoyed. The cutoff date varies by person, but is generally accepted to have been sometime before you got into the fandom.

*A true fan loved The Extra TERRORestrial Alien Encounter and hates Stitch's Great Escape.
*A true fan wants them to tear down Journey into Imagination with Figment and replace it with an exact replica of the original, complete with Dreamfinder. They are not allowed to speak of Journey into YOUR Imagination, Heaven forbid actually have enjoyed it even a little.
*A true fan is still mad that they closed down Mr. Toad's Wild Ride after lying about it for a year
*A true fan has ridden every single ride. If you don't like steep drops so you haven't toughed out the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror or even Splash Mountain, you will never be a True Fan.
*A true fan shells out the money to join D23.
*A true fan will never defend any of the Disney Channel tie-ins in the park.
*A true fan has been to Disneyland, not just Disney World (or vice versa, though generally Disneyland because it's the only park Walt had a hand in)


I say, if we're going by who's a "true fan" based on who's seen what before it went where, I'll go ahead and say you're not a "true fan" if you weren't at the 1964 World's Fair.

[AdminAssistant]

I saw Ponyo dubbed and loved it.....Liam Freakin' Neeson isn't good enough for them?

[MrsEclipse]

I saw Ponyo dubbed and loved it.....Liam Freakin' Neeson isn't good enough for them?

They were fine with Liam Neeson. They were upset at the use of a Jonas and a Cyrus as the main characters, just because their older siblings were Disney franchises. Honestly, though, I thought Frankie Jonas was excellent as Sosuke and the only problem with Noah was she sounded like a nine-year-old trying to sound like a four-year-old rather than just sounding like a little kid. But since Sosuke did the bulk of the talking, it worked out nicely.

Of course it gets in on the whole "celebrity dub" issue where "they only hire them to do the dub because they're a celebrity, so it's less faithful." That's another facet of the "real fans don't do dubs." What, Japan doesn't hire celebrities to be in their movies? They always cast relative unknowns who are just perfect for the character?

[Nekojin]

...Ponyo...

So far, Ponyo has been the most disappointing Ghibli film I've ever seen (and the only one I haven't seen yet is Arietty). There was far too much time spent on character development, and the actual plot ended up being a whirlwind in the last 20 minutes of the movie. The animation was spectacular, as always, and the American voice acting was just fine. I just didn't care for the movie itself.

...diehard Disney Parks fans...

As a child, I used E tickets.

[AdminAssistant]

As I said earlier, one of my favorite series (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood used female actors to voice the teenage male protagonists (Alphonse and Edward Elric). It sounds weird. Granted, Alphonse is voiced by an actress in the American dub as well, but he's younger and...a walking suit of armor...so it doesn't matter as much. But Edward is, what, 15? 16?

ETA: I was mistaken about Gurren Lagann. Simon is voiced by a male in both versions.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well, apparently in the cartoon business, you can't use actual teenage boys to do teenage boy voices cuz their voices will eventually deepen and change, whereas a woman's voice won't. Especially if you want your cartoon/anime series to go on for years; a good example of this is The Simpsons, where an adult woman voices Bart Simpson and several of the other boys in the show.

[AdminAssistant]

Yes, but Edward is ~16. At that age, his voice has probably changed. Bart is, what, 10? Big difference there.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Maybe so, but I'm just explaining why it makes sense to makers of cartoons.

[mikoyan29]

But it's not just anime people that are like that though. I think anyone who likes foreign films prefer the subtitles to the dubbed versions. At least in the subtitled versions you can hear the different levels of the voices. Although a decent dubbing would accomplish that as well.

[Hyena Dandy]

Yes, but foreign films have less mass-market appeal, and thus, less chance to attract fans who are competitive about how 'real' they are (which is where I think a lot of this 'not a real fan' thing comes from.)

And honestly, I see someone as pretty snobby if they say they like "Foreign" films as if "Not made in English" is actually a genre of movie.

[Gravekeeper]

But Edward is, what, 15? 16?

15, but the show flashes back quite a bit to him when he was 10-11 too. Romi Park does better teenage voices than teenagers though. Her range is insane. It may simply be that she was the best actor for the part.

As for sub vs dub. I was always in the sub camp simply because the acting and casting on dubs has historically be mediocre to god damn awful. Plus they've always had that bad habit of editing the hell out of shows and Americanizing them.

I've only ever seen a few exceptions. Chobits for one. Fruits Basket for another ( Frankly its better in English weirdly enough. ).

Samurai Pizza Cats definately. Though that doesn't really count. The original SPC in Japanese is an AWFUL show. Awful, awful. It's played completely straight as a kids show. The English version, they handed a bunch of Canadians the footage and told them to write a script for it. Thats why its so delightfully fucked up and full of random references only the parents of its audience would get.

I mean really, there was one episode where they were using the Pizza Cats greatest weaknesses against them. One of them was suppose to be a Japanese table with a heater underneath for your legs, as thats how you sit at a table in Japan. But they rewrote it as "A radio playing Barry Manalow glued to the bottom of a card table".

Loved that show, ehe.

[Lace Neil Singer]

XD Yeah, I see Samurai Pizza Cats as an underrated classic. I used to love watching it; hmm, wonder if it's on youtube?

[lordlundar]

XD Yeah, I see Samurai Pizza Cats as an underrated classic. I used to love watching it; hmm, wonder if it's on youtube?

But how much do you really know about Samurai Pizza Cats?

[Beckpatton]

I get the "not a real fan" bit when I tell people that I support the same team as Fiance. People often say, "Oh, I get it. You support Spurs just cuz he does," which is really offensive.

Wait.. you and your fiance have stuff in common? Who'd have thunk it!