we're finally notdotq anymore

Ok so you’re pissed about Utawarerumono being renamed Shadow Warrior Chronicles by ADV. I just spent twelve days not reading anime blogs. Drm convinces me to start reading again today, and I do so, as it’s something I needed to do in order to stay on top of things. Running a podcast and the anime blogging community’s IRC channel has some requirements.

And you know what?

Truth be told, the only posts out of those I’ve read so far (400 or so of the 600 I missed) that were worth my time or made me feel anything redeeming were Drm’s. Posts that inform, amuse, entertain, and are satisfying yet short all at once. They weren’t Jason Miao’s paragraph on Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu being licensed and they most certainly were not his cover-up post. They weren’t the long-winded unintelligent rants of Yuricon fans discovering Simoun. They weren’t posts about how Strawberry Panic 18 sucked hard but the show is still good (btw, sucking hard is an understatement and the show was never good).

And above all else, it was not mindless rage at the new name for Utawarerumono.

You know what I’m pissed about? Seeing so many posts, both blog and forum, occupied with moaning about the new name. So, it’s “Shadow Warrior Chronicles”, eh? Is that so bad? I read one forum post on ANN by some bitcher who was like “and I thought Rumbling Hearts was bad” – let’s clear this up! No comparison! None at all! SWC isn’t a string of words in any way related to Utawara whereas Rumbling Hearts MOST DEFINITELY is related to Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. Shit, I don’t know what purpose it serves in the game, but it’s definitely the best-placed and most appropriate song in the anime. At the time of KGNE’s renaming, I didn’t notice any hubbub (maybe wasn’t too observant at the time) so I was shocked when I noticed posts all over the place mentioning Rumbling Hearts in the context of bad anime renamings.

Setting that aside we move right along to skipping over my convention report and addressing something important from said con. Don’t worry, the report will come sooner or later. But I feel the pressing need to get this out there and the report can wait while I spoil its contents.

“Create That Anime”, the contest run by Mr. Savage of 7th Sanctum. He’s done it before. You don’t need to have been at AOD to know what it is. The titles… Dynamo Knight Unit Lambda 5? Planetary Thunder Saori? Energized Agent Trinity? Mmmhm. And Shadow Warrior Chronicles is bad. Mmmmmmhm.

For one thing, all you people complaining “why don’t they just translate it”, just translating it would not be such a vast improvement. You say you want “the ones being sung”? Because it sounds “mystical”? No. Ask yourselves again. Why do you want “the ones being sung”?

I’ll tell you why. It’s the same reason you hate dubs. It’s because your pitifully obsessed Japanophiles who have no sense for the language which is spoken in the country in which ADV licensed Utawarerumono. Licensors need to be TRUE to the original title or something? Because the Japanese word is superior to our SWC? No. There IS one thing that the Japanese word is superior to, though. And that’s it’s direct translation.

Keep in mind that languages are not perfect translations of eachother. Words that are translated to others from, say, English to Japanese, would not necessarily be synonyms if the two languages were superimposed upon eachother. Languages don’t roll like that. The whole idea of translation is a rather shaky one- one group using different sounds to compare to the sounds of another group’s vocal communication. But do these sounds really have the same *meaning*? Is “Utawarerumono” “the ones being sung” ?

No. It’s a single word in Japanese, an idea in a single word that we this side of the pond can’t even try to put into a single word. Part of the supposed “beauty” and “mysticism” in the title is how wordy it is while being concise. How it expresses an idea to us that’s complex, and four words long. But guess what? It’s a single word. A single idea, and a simple one at that. “Translating” it won’t bring its meaning across.

There’s an easy way to show this.

When I think of anime series I know, I think of them in the language they work in best for me. Titles that translate easily and work, word for word, like The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, I think of in English. I have never once thought of Utawarerumono, in casual referential thought, as “The ones being sung”. It’s like how I don’t think of Mai-HiME as “Dance Princess” or someshit. It’s like how you don’t translate Da Capo into the literal english interpretation of its musical significance.

So, yeah, Shadow Warrior Chronicles is a bit lame on a couple of levels. It uses “Shadow” and “Warrior” and “Chronicles” (in effect, bringing nothing to the proverbial table of anime titles) but yet, it does in a way describe the show. It’s a title American fans will be able to remember easily and talk about amongst themselves. We can call it Utawareruwhatever. We can call it Underwater Ray Romano. We can call it whatever the shit we want, just like how I can call SHnY Suzumiya_3’s Bad Period. If you don’t like SWC, don’t use it. If you live in America and were planning on buying it upon licensing, will you let SWC turn you off? You’ll see it if you look at the front cover of the DVD, and you’ll see it when you pop that sucker into your drive. And seriously, if it offends your eyes so much just put a hand over the damn thing.

If you have a problem with the title that’s cool.

Just like how I hope it’s cool that I’m of the opinion that you who moaned about this suck at blogging.

But come on- comparing it to Rumbling Hearts? Bitching about keeping the original title? Don’t do stupid shit like that. It’s seriously the most retarded thing I’ve seen outside Jason Miao’s blog in a long time, this damn argument. The posts in the ANN forum thread.

And the sad thing is that it isn’t even an argument.

It’s just a bunch of lamers who want to sound important while dissing a huge company with a lot on its hands- ADV- because it makes them feel good about themselves. If the American releases were being entitled “The Ones Being Sung”, people would bitch about not keeping the title in Japanese. If it were kept in Japanese, they’d bitch about some other title. Or they’d pay more attention to Jason’s post about SHnY being licensed.

I’m disappointed, guys. I spend a couple hours of my life speeding up to date, only to trudge through post after post whining about SWC! I’d have better spent my time rummaging through the now-Englishified Danbooru tags!

It’s a sad, sad day.

Of course, it’s been like this before, I’m sure. People who bitch are people who bitch. But some people (like Drm) bitch about intelligent things with style unlike others (like Jason) who bitch about stupid things (not enough Mikuru in episode 0X of SHnY, eh?) in the most utterly lame ways. No, using Jason as an example is an insult to his factual self. I apologize for that. He doesn’t deserve to be compared to someone (a person whose native language is English, no less!) who thinks that “translating” Utawara’s title upon licensing would be a better alternative to renaming it with stock titlage.