Other Random question of the day

It absolutely is. As someone with a degree in English, I took several ESOL classes and it was really eye opening. You never know if English isn't someone's first language, if they have a reading or writing disability, or if they had any disadvantages growing up that kept them from being able to learn effectively.

It's not your job, your place, or your business to correct anyone else on their grammar or spelling.
As someone who doesn't have english as their first language, I'd love if people corrected me online. I personally didn't know that the possessive form of it was "its" and not "it's" for a really long time, which kind of bothers me now.
Random question of the day #2:

Do you bear resemblance to a celebrity? If so, which one?
Multiple people have jokingly called me MaxMoeFoe on separate occasions. I was bewildered because multiple people came to the conclusion that I looked like him themselves, not as a group joke or anything. It's weird because I watched that specific group of youtubers a lot, y'know Filthy Frank, Idubbbz, etc. but I never thought about the similarity because it was only me and one other guy who knew them at my old school.
 
Do you think it was neccessary for Saban to try and Americanize Japanese shows such as Kamen Rider and Sailor Moon?

I'm not sure. I did see anime as a kid (though at the time, I couldn't tell them apart from regular cartoons), and I'm sure there were some adapted elements, but I can't recall enough to have a positive or negative outlook on that.

However, speaking of the modern practice, I do think it has a point in dubs at least. In my eyes, the distinct aspects of Japanese culture are pretty much what defines anime as a medium within animation, what makes anime unique versus a western cartoon. As such, there is always a loss to the story's depth in americanizing it. That said, while more experience anime viewers do gradually catch on to more and more of the meaning, any new viewers or simply less experienced ones may not be able to grasp the point of a scene, the conflict of characters etc... without a degree of adaptation. This is especially true for jokes, as not only are the languages very distinct in vocabulary and grammatical terms, but in fact even the approach to humor is very different (for instance, I once read that Japanese humor has in general a lot more sexual focus than western humor, for historical reasons, albeit I don't remember the article all to well anymore...).

One big example is honorifics. Western languages do have titles, but there is an implicit meaning in things like having honorifics, and what honorifics those are. You may call someone "sir" or "ma'am" or "teacher", but that won't carry the same meaning of respect and reverence that "-sama" and "-sensei" carry. Even what name someone is referred to carries a lot of meaning, with a common plot point being a character getting another to call them by their first name, an implicit sign of a much closer relationship. Not just plot, but character can be shown just by how a character refers to other people. So a certain adaptation of the concept must be made, if one wants to convey the same meaning to an audience which may be less familiar, or lacking the benefit of honorifics.

All of this said... there is a growing trend of dubs inserting american politics onto anime, and americanizing in a way that detracts from the scene AND the meaning of it, or so I hear at least (I don't normally watch dubs so I wouldn't be familiar with the subject). That isn't making a product more accessible, that is hijacking someone else's work for your own agenda.

So, for positive "americanizing" or any other similar form of adaptation:
> All changes must be made exclusively in such a way as to facilitate the understanding of the story and characters, not inventing new meaning or characters unless that is unavoidable.
> Avoid americanizing more niche shows, focus on the more mainstream for that. Niche shows are more likely to only be watched by anime viewers who are already familiar with the medium, and thus more familiar with the ideas and mindset that anime contain. The adaptation is, for them, simply a loss of actual content.
 
Does the dark age dub of one piece count? Replacing knives and I believe cigarettes with nonsensical rubber or unrelated equivalents, [If I had to, I'd at least replace sanji's cig with a toothpick. Since it's never used offensively, I'd guess it wouldn't matter.] removal or ignorance of entire story arcs, and following something akin to the regressive "get rid of this, so the kids can see and I don't have to do anything!". Most being caused by some heretical fiend refusing to research the material. For all they could of known, "one piece" could of been a Playboy product. Oh the horror. The excruciating, slow-binary reading out, soulcrushing horror... Also, pokèmon's donut fiasco/debacle/incident. [Whichever one you like better.]

Being someone with a preference of dubbing, and usually doing something else to be reading subtitles, I notice a whole lot wrong with some of these in comparison to the original cut, and being a bit of a hyper scholar, noticing differences of THAT with it's own original source material. Also I'm not literally a tech priest, yet... There is literally some subs with an action scene and talking, which goes so fast that there isn't a point trying to decrypt the enigma unfolding before my meaty eyes. And when some scenes of an anime get dragged on like a parody to talk about safety, or guns are wrong, and not contributing to any level of story progression, I recoil from the chaotic forces presenting this upon my holy screen. A full ten minutes at times of content being curbstomped, merely to provide something I already get spammed with by conventional advertising. Saturdays being the usually only time I watch TV more recently, but I would watch the network and OG toonami even, when that used to be the only conventional and ease-of-access, that was immensely painful. Though at some point I saw something akin to that in I think sailor moon, but I was alright with that.

In terms of referring to people's titles or humor, it is understandable. Some could fly right over people even if they understood the context. This a default, and retaining any verbal power or feel would be exterminated regardless. Not everybody would know, but could understand the context through visualization, which is what Anime and Manga tends to be better at anyway. Besides a few exceptions... Some edits however, appear like the West's equivalent of engrish. Highly suspect when first heard or read, and eye widening for some of the bigger failures. In one odd example, a subtitler appeared to have a stroke. Funny to think about now, but at the time I was audibly and visually discombobulated. Quite literally, when first seeing the first then follow up examples, I was initially confused just a bit. But the follow up that was actually comprehensive and not xeno gibberish, in terms visually, I recoiled or essentially rapidly leaned back in my chair from a semi-forwards upright position with wide eyes. My problem with that one being it looked solely like gibberish, yet everything about it was actually as depicted and accurate. I thought 'what the fuck' and carried on a bit later. I'd only face this exact same instance when first watching JJBA:BT. Ironically in comparison to my action, it's one of my favs.

Don't even get me started on the more agenda sections, where varying from sometimes to all the bloody time, any cultural references are mercilessly butchered to appear as if it was a sole American creation. This being a trend that also affected other mediums, and one of the reasons we got them closet heretics that either recoil at the thought of it not being invented in America, or the types that pretend not to watch it, but if you catch them in the act, they react as if you caught them in the act of procreation or having the selfy dance of which without pants, and profusely rejects the notion of ever watching it or Binary-God forbid, enjoying it. But on the part of dubbers and their "Black ops clean up crews", it really butchers the experience. Like if you were to go to a museum, and they say Poland invented mechs in 1923, and mercilessly stomped out a world war by itself. Or if you went to a western themed cafe, and the waiters and waitresses were dressed up in 404 error signs, and spoke purely with thick accent a hybridization of Spanish and Binary. Though, I could argue the trope can better it, if say you watched a dubbed show of a Japanese warrior princess, but edits last minute threw in something like a OG BSG cylon to replace the appearance of the hostile forces. It'd butcher the time period if some sort of new dub-only explanation didn't appear, or if the setting wasn't involving either magic or following a genre like dieselpunk. Where in the latter and with that look, you could achieve it even if it was low tier/low steampunk.

Barring stuffing predatory political agenda, cultural masking, and the rare scene or whole arc removal or replacement, I'm cool with all of that. But if America takes or makes the HMS Hood, or the Akagi in Americanized ship person anime, and it ends up being a tig biddy pushover seductress, with an alcohol addiction, no understanding of modesty, and disregarding the ship's history and the personality crafted from those events, or even states America is a indestructible God and the USS Texas can smite all of Japan, Italy, and Germany by itself, as well as tanking every fire, ammo detonation, and torpedo like a imperator Titan with void shields, I and the big assed city of a fabricator general is gonna "get our asses to Earth", and turn all these meatbags into servo-slaves to build me new cyborg T-800s and HK-47s in a manufactorum. The spares will build the shovels for our shovel korps of krieg, then soon we will have God Engine cybernetic shovel knights known as the Shovelinator.

Now if you excuse me, I have a big bootay, gothic, militaristic, rust red robed, titan, cyborg, Terminator, übergril, hyper flamboyantly sexualized, psychotic, scien-bookworm, hyper futa, scary, dominator of the four gods, rp ending, fedora loving, blood for the red queening, master of every fighting technique, suspiciously overly submissive, seductress, meme queen disaster, mega bitch, lovable diva, aristocratic, doomsday prepping, conspiracy living, questionably loyal, in-your-face-like-a-bag-of-mace-all-over-the-place, oh-my-what-merciful-god-would-let-this-exist, toaster, to maintain, pray, and be fearful to, and so I'll be taking my leave. *Tips sentient fedora* "m'lady". [Please don't kill me for mocking that archetype of a remote, more likely foreign liquid masquerading in a human fleshsuit, of a person. This is merely a joke and this fearful disclaimer is totally 110.9% legit, and not having a giggle poke to another archetype. Have a nice day.]
 
Do child stars that end up going crazy show a good example of the dark side of Hollywood?
Well, this doesn't seem like a loaded question at all...

Sarcasm aside, I think it shows the dark side of an overabundance of attention, and other things that may carry from fame. Adults have a hard time not letting it go to their heads, but a child is much more susceptible to adopting a worldview in which those things are "normal".
 
It shows what happens when you introduce a child to something they clearly are not ready for and unfortunately Hollywood has a dark side that's just not even talked about.
 
Do child stars that end up going crazy show a good example of the dark side of Hollywood?
I highly recommend Mara Wilson's write-up on the subject (she's the little girl who played Matilda in the 90s). It covers a lot of the underlying reasons why many child stars don't always end up well-adjusted.


Some people may not like format Cracked articles follow but I found it be quite a good read. Bear in mind, there is some selection bias there. You don't hear about the kids who go on to have normal lives away from the spotlight. Beyond that, you have a bunch of reasons:
  • exposure to fame and money before they are mature enough to handle it
  • lack of socialization with their peers
  • pressure to grow up too quickly
  • pressure to keep a squeaky-clean image for the public
  • overbearing stage parents
  • or no parental control at all
  • an ambiguous power dynamic with their parents
  • sexual exploitation within the industry
  • pressure to conform to higher beauty standards
  • failure to make the transition to adult acting roles
 
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Think it's more a parental guidance and sometimes desperation mixed with peer pressure, but that's none of my business.
 
Hmm there were quite a few celebrities I liked but can't say any of them were my role model. I simply didn't delve into their life enough and I was aware their public image might be different from who they are.
 
Nope. Maybe I missed something but I only got nuggets, fries, and the occasional burger so looking up to see all of those products they sold at one time makes me glad I only stuck with the other things though they are definitely not the greatest.
 

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