Explaining the canon of Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card (anime), connection to the second film

Sakura is not amused by your ignorance!

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card marks the return of my all-time favorite magical girl, Kinomoto Sakura (and magical boy, looking at you Syaoran!) into the world of Japanese animation, starting off the 2018 year on a good note. And I’ve returned from the dead to explain some very common misconceptions about the series that has plaguing the minds of fans since the animated version of this amazing sequel started.

Because not knowing may needlessly hamper your enjoyment of the series, when it doesn’t really have to!

Fanime 2016 – Experience and Haul

Rider Henshin!

This post is coming a bit… sorta… uh, this post came too late. Fanime was over a month ago, and unlike other years, Fanime 2016 was kind of meh for me. Being surrounded by anime is always a pretty cool deal and the gaming room is always fun, but nothing really amazingly notable happened this year. For one, I didn’t manage to get Matsukaze Masaya’s autograph two days in a row, which was really disappointing, especially because I brought my Shenmue II box specifically for that. Last year I managed to get Nonaka Ai’s autograph! I didn’t particularly care much for the featured Japanese musical guest nor the dub voice actors/actresses enough to go to their autograph sessions.

The con was pretty anal about security this year. Maybe it’s a pervert control problem, I dunno. But unlike other years, they closed pretty much the entire convention center to outsiders besides the first floor/entrance (where it’s just cosplayers and high-as-fuck misfits gathering) and the hotels. Which sucks, because a lot of the fun shenanigans happened when my other friends who are too cheap to buy badges of their own mess come to hang out and mess around the con, and sometimes lending badges to friends who wanted to go into the dealer’s hall/arcade/whatever without inconveniencing everyone else. Another thing to note is the new issuing of “trigger warnings” for the con. Completely idiotic – apparently my generation of morons don’t know how PTSD actually works.

Also, of course, the year where we decide to get our badges directly at the convention center is the year where it decides to be fucking LineCon again. Last few years we’ve been getting our badges at the DoubleTree, which takes (at the most) 15 to 20 minutes, leaving the rest of Thursday for us to do whatever the hell wed want. All of those years, badge pickup at the convention center has purportedly been snappy as fuck. What even happened this year?

I guess one notable event that happened was outside the con on Sunday night, where two of my friends got shitfaced (one more than the other), and being the most sober out of the group, I had to make sure we all got back to the hotel room safely. We met some cool strangers that night, was pretty cool. Anyways, given how much of a downgrade Fanime 2016 was compared to Fanime 2015 overall, I suppose the obvious choices next year are either giving the con another chance or going to Anime Expo instead, depending on how tight my budget is.

I didn’t buy much this year, but I did get some pretty sweet stuff. And the cosplays are always cool, there seemed to be less Shingeki no Kyoujin and Kill la Kill cosplays this year compared to [insert random schoolgirl character] cosplay. I ain’t complaining. I took a ton of photos, but of course I’ll only share some.

「Localization Decisions For Literal Dummies」 Shirou doesn’t care if his body is made of swords

Alright, let’s talk about English dubs.

I don’t talk about dubs much, mostly because I haven’t seriously watched one since Samurai Champloo‘s (amazing) dub. I don’t even bother playing Japanese video games with English audio either (nowadays I don’t really play localized JRPG’s that lack a dual audio option). I do like a few of them, but in general… I just don’t really care for them. Unless they veer into alternate adaptation territory (which hasn’t happened that much after the 90’s), it’s not like I have a deep hatred for them or anything. I just tend to find the typical voice performances and overall Japanese-to-English script mediocre. But I do get curious every now and then and check them out for kicks.

「Localization Decisions For Literal Dummies」 Akiba’s Trip 2 and “weaboos”

Marvelous USA (a.k.a. XSEED) is one of the only localization companies I trust nowadays when it comes to Japanese video games. I particularly commend them for respecting the target audience of the niche games they bring over and paying no heed to our western culture’s increasingly incessant need for political correctness.

Their localization of Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed was far from perfect (considering the use of internet slang/memes in Potsuri/Pitter, the game’s parody of 2ch, it’s understandable), but it’s good at getting the point across for the most part. When the game was released in NA during the later part of 2014, many overly-sensitive Politically Correct Babies criticized one Pitter user’s use of the word “trap”, which was used in place of the Japanese version’s use of the slang “nekama” – net okama, which is essentially a guy pretending to be a girl online. I swear, humanity as a species of primates are losing their backbones just as we lost our tails – if fictional insults (if even considered one, really) used by a fictional internet asshole are to become a source of massive controversy and offense, I’m worried about where millennials will take our society next. We already had that one asswipe causing a shitstorm over a white woman’s hand being featured on Super Mario Maker. Freakin’ putrid.

It’s a fictional depiction of the internet, which is not a nice place in real life either. If people are easily offended by words in fiction without processing the context, intent, and tone of the usage, and confusing it with outright slander, they’re better off staying under the shelter of their parents’ roofs for everyone’s own good (eh, maybe not their parents’ own good).

It’s gotten to the point where it seems people value Politically Correct censorship over an accurate translation, which to be honest, the trap translation is. They could have also used something worse that actually is intentionally transphobic, like “tranny” or something. Although, it’s not like the babies will stop complaining either way. Anyways, the only big problem I had with XSEED’s localization (besides the horrid English dub that’s nullified with dual audio anyway) was this:

「Localization Decisions For Literal Dummies」 Syaoran the Bestie

When Nippon Ichi Software America released their premium edition of the Cardcaptor Sakura Blu-ray collection in 2014, I was obviously the happiest person on Earth finally being able to own the definitive viewing experience of possibly one the cutest anime series in existence, at an affordable price. And everything was almost perfect, especially the video transfer. It’s exactly the same as the Japanese release.

But there’s one thing that went wrong with this release: the subtitles. Now, it’s no secret that NISA translations are really, really bad. True to form, the subtitles are pretty iffy here and there. Naturally, it’s not a bad as Nelvana’s retool hackjob of a dub “Cardcaptors” back in the early 2000’s, which was quite frankly the devil’s incarnate. In comparison, iffy subtitles are incredibly minor and a godsend. But there’s one translation flub present in this release that is rather bothersome. And that is, Sakura calling Syaoran her “bestie”.

「Localization Decisions For Literal Dummies」 Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

Alright, I love the crap out of the Atelier series. Old school JRPG gameplay with adorable characters designed by awesome Japanese artists such as Mel and Hidari, and alchemy management with some minor VN elements thrown in here and there? I’m game, definitely better than your annual soulless first-person shooter series. And I totally appreciate the fact that more and more of the games are getting localized and that it’s becoming a trend. But holy shit, even though the localization’s been getting better ever since Koei Tecmo took over from NISA, it’s not really saying much because the quality control still leaves a lot to be desired. It’s bearable for most of the games, but a lot more noticeable with Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky, the game being riddled with mistranslations, bad typography, and inconsistencies with previous games.

Why would you censor an M-rated game?

Image Credit: Hiten from Pixiv

Happy Halloween, everybody! Ever since I’ve outgrown the tradition of dressing up in a spooky costume and going doorbell-to-doorbell asking for candy, I’ve instead made a new tradition for myself where I marathon spooky video games; my favorite among them being Japanese horror games such as Zero, better known as Fatal Frame in the west, designed by Koei Tecmo (Tecmo before the merge).

Last year’s (belated) Halloween post was about my fondness for survival horror games like Zero, expressing my wish for the newest installment of the series being localized after missing out on two games on a region locked console. To my excitement, it was due for localization this Halloween season! But unfortunately, the western publishers, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe decided it would be a good idea to censor certain costumes in this M-rated game for adults, treating them like children who can’t handle such content.

Oversensitive people shouldn’t indulge in creative media, ever

Rin’s look of disgust.

Shinji being a sicko.

The justice served by Lancer (and more).

This was from an ANN review of episode 19 of Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works, and no, I’m not going to link to it. If you really want to read that review, look it up yourself, although I suggest not to. I’m not helping these clowns get revenue by linking to them on my blog.

What, so basically “bad guys shouldn’t do bad things because bad things are bad”? Shinji, who is clearly a sicko and desires Rin, should have baked her a batch of cookies instead?

RE: Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 18 – 「Rin’s contract with Saber」

Something I forgot to mention in my original post: The difference between Ufotable’s fresh Rin!Saber and Saber’s other appearances with Ufotable’s famous blue auras is miniscule to the power surge she had in the visual novel.

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VS.

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Let me give it to you straight: I love Ufotable’s animation. With Ufotable’s talents, they could have easily showed the true extent of how much of a nightmare Saber is at her full potential the minute Rin became her source of mana, but they didn’t. Even though they’ve done quite a bit to impress me so far, they didn’t really do this scene any justice and it’s a damned shame.

Although, despite all that, they managed to do one thing right. And that is: Saber’s ponytail. Now that is excellent. (y)

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 18 – Dropping the ball

I must say… this is the first episode where I’ve been truly, utterly disappointed in Ufotable. Everything about this Unlimited Blade Works episode was just a giant step down from how awesome it could have been.

Experiencing these scenes before, only done better, probably contributed to my disappointment. But it’s not like a lot of my expectations were impossible to pull off within the medium of animation. Ufotable blew my mind with almost everything before this, and to fall short when they’re just getting into the best parts of the route is kind of depressing.