Dubs have always been good

One thing that annoys me as a Fan of Anime Dubs is when an apparent ally in that cause says something to imply it’s only modern Dubs they’re really defending.  When they talk about Dub haters being stuck in the past and not respecting how they have “gotten better”.

First of all given the growing overlap between vocal Dub Haters and the Gamer Gate Style Neoreactionaries of the Anime Community I think these people might be underestimating how many of those hating on current Anime Dubs like old ones, they’re Nostalgic for when Localizers sometimes made Anime less Politically Correct like the infamous Ghost Stories Dub.  Not to mention plenty of these people are also Vic supporters.

But let's leave that aside for the moment.

Even in the 90s and early 00s there were plenty of Dubs that didn’t Censor all gender non conforming stuff and try to pretend the show wasn’t set in Japan.  Plenty of Classic Dubs for Tenchi Muyo and Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain are still what those characters sound like in the heads of a generation of Western Anime fans.

Maybe some of you will dismiss that as Nostalgia Blindness, people will like what they saw as a kid no matter what.  Well the three specific examples I just listed I didn’t watch till within the last decade when I was already well past 25, and I will actively defend them against any haters as vigorously as those with Nostalgia for them.  Meanwhile with Sailor Moon I have fond Childhood memories of the old DiC localization but have no illusions about how wrong some of those voices sounded.  Once the Viz Dub became available all of its Voice Actors were able to override the old ones in my mind.  Meanwhile with Detective Conan and Fate/ and UC Gundam we have characters with multiple voice casts who I like enough that they can coexist. 

And even with the “Hack Dubs” I can consider a Dub good if I like the Voice Acting, maybe not great and certainly not perfect but good enough.  I can tolerate the cringiest of localization changes if I like listening to the voices.  I principally feel this way about the 4Kids Pokémon Dub, those performances still hold up so I still love that Dub, Jelly Donuts and all.

There are old Dubs with voices I don’t like, the worst of them usually aren’t in Kids Show Hack Dubs but edgy OVAs released directly to the bargain bin.  And voices I don’t like still exist, though it’s usually actors I do like being cast incorrectly.

But looking at issues other than voice acting.   I have my own reasons for preferring a lot of older Dubs to newer ones.  It kind of feels like Dubs including Honorifics have become less common in recent years.  And I can’t imagine a Dub made with 90s Nerds in mind refusing to use the word Paladin.

There is a duality to my personal localization philosophy.  When it comes to Honorifics and the use of Otaku Lingo I want the Dubs to just use the same words they’re using in the Japanese.  But as far as writing the full script goes I’m fine with creative liberties and feel like modern Dubs don’t take enough actually, they play it too safe.  I also like when they incorporate Meme references like "Sus" and wish there was even more of that.

Update May 20th: Not long after I made this the Toonami Rewind announcement happened and people hating the VizDub out of their Nostalgia for the DiC Dub came out of the woodwork.  Which proves some of the points I made above considering they accuse the Viz cast of not being good Voice Actors which is absurd.

Dubbing Old Anime

It used to be the most current Anime wasn't the only stuff getting Dubbed, in fact in the mid 2000s probably most of what you'd see on the New Release shelf was stuff that was at least 5 years old in Japan.

A pretty large percentage, maybe even the majority, of 90s Anime that has a Dub wasn't Dubbed while it was still the 90s.  Not even all of Sailor Moon, the Cloverway Dub of S started airing in 2000.  From Gundam Wing to Wedding Peach, a lot of Anime that's 90s in Japan is really 00s Nostalgia for Western Otaku.  Heck even some 80s OVAs got Dubbed in the 2000s.

The market has changed since then, and while I love that a dozen shows are getting Simuldubbed every season, that does mean less resources for finding time to Dub old Gems that got passed over at the time.

It's still fairly normal for something that doesn't get Simuldubbed to take like two years to get a Dub.  But once something is three years old it seems like there is no hope.  Stuff from early this decade like Dog Days and Daybreak Illusion already feel like if they're not Dubbed already they never will be.  Re:Creators was big enough that it'll probably get a Dub in 2019, but if it doesn't by the end of that year then it probably won't.

Viz Media is still doing their Redub of Sailor Moon, but that's it as far as dubbing Old Anime goes.  I'm mostly not gonna be requesting Redubs however, I'm fine with even the Dubs of Utena and Higurashi and when it comes to Pokemon I'm the biggest 4Kids apologist you'll ever meet.  Sailor Moon was the one that needed a do over for the sake of HaruMi and Zoiscite.  Now that that's being taken care of any time spent dubbing Classics into English should be devoted to works that have no existing English audio track.

I feel like it ought to be possible to make room for more old Dubs.  As a pretty big Dub enthusiast I don't really think JoJo is worth spending money to Dub, people only really like JoJo for the Memes of how the Japanese Actors sound.  So maybe Funimation should give up on that and find some skipped over classic instead?

I don't hate on Sentai Dubs the way many do, but their one attempt at a Simuldub I watched didn't turn out well, maybe they inherently do better Dubbing stuff after the fact and so maybe they should give up on Simuldubs and and try to Dub some of the old stuff they have access to, like Gunbuster or classic LOTGH, or Kampfer.

And maybe this is another place Netflix could be our savior, since they want to only do Binge releases, maybe they should stop hogging the rights to recent shows and zero in on some classics.  Stranger Things shows their target audience includes a lot of people looking for Nostalgia trips.

I'm willing to watch stuff Subbed, but I do so fairly rarely (besides PreCure which I've given up any hope on getting Dubbed in a reasonable manner), I sometimes wonder if I might have mild undiagnosed Dyslexia or ADD since it's sometimes flat out hard to follow when I have to read while I'm watching it.  Which is why I probably can't get into Monogatari either way, as it was originally Animated it's constantly throwing text on the screen, I watched the first 3 or 4 episodes and have no idea what was going on.  For whatever reason I tend to do best with Cute Girls doing Cute Things shows.

So there are so many old Anime that interest me, where the lack of a Dub has certainly delayed my impulse to dive in.  (Meanwhile most stuff I've enjoyed Subbed I want to hear what my favorite Dub VAs could do with it.)  And there are still a lot of people less willing to watch stuff Subbed then I am, lots of people who could be potential fans of great not yet Dubbed classics.

There is a lot of stuff that is still long over due for a Dub.  Rose of Versailles still having no English Dub is a travesty,(meanwhile from what I hear it's French Dub could use a do over).  Not to mention the Green Jacket Lupin III series, and what's left of Red Jacket, and the TV specials that were skipped over like Episode 0.

Now that Dubbers have gained more faith in Yuri titles, how about Strawberry Panic and Yuru Yuri?  And with Traps being more a trend then ever maybe Stop! Hibari-Kun.

And with the Magical Girl Market growing I'd say it's about time Saint Tail and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and the rest of the Nanoha franchise got dubbed, as well as the Pretty Sammy shows since Tenchi still has a fan-base.  And whoever has that Dub that was made for Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pichi, please drop it on Crunchyroll, it's literally free money.

Also Aniplex, for the love of God dub Kara No Kyoukai.

Well those are some examples of what I personally wanna see. Feel free to comment with what you wanna see get Dubbed.

I want to defend Pokemon localization.

I've read a lot of stuff on the Dogasu's Backpack website.  It's a great site if you want to see all the differences between the American and Japanese versions of the early season of the Anime documented.  However I can't always agree with their opinions on the matter.

People like Dogasu are often people who were already Otaku before Pokemon came to the West, which they say as much when talking about the Polygon episode.  So my perspective is different, I'm a part of a generation who grew up on the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon, for whom Pokemon, Sailor Moon and DBZ were our first exposure to Japanimation.  Pokemon was I think the first one I knew wasn't an American Cartoon because I was a Nintendo fan first and so knew all about the N coming from Japan.

For most westerners this month is the 20th Anniversary of Pokemon not back when GO launched, though I personally was a year late, my 20th Anniversary with the franchise will be a year from now.  Literally the first episodes of the series I saw the day they first aired on Kids WB were Clarify Tales and Battle for The Badge on September 25th 1999.  So I certainly can't relate to already being aware of Pocket Monsters before Sting fought Hollywood Hogan at Starcade.

The first thing I want to point out is Nintendo made the decision to change various names for localization just as they do for all their other franchises.  In North America the Anime started a few weeks before the games were released, but I'm certain the Games localization was much longer in the making.  So like when people mock the Ninja Gym Leader's name being changed from one Japanese name to a different one, know that Nintendo not 4Kids should be given the Credit/Blame for that.  Other Nintendo franchises don't have such a vocal crowd of Japanese purists because they never made such a mark in the Anime community.

Now de Nipponizing a game who's map directly mimics Kanto can seem more inherently wrong then one named after an Italian Plumber, or a Tolkeneisque Fantasy. But lots of creatures in the Mario games had Japanese names originally.  And at the end of the day Pokemon Kanto isn't real world Kanto anymore then Westeros is England, Tokyo for example is split into two separate cities one of which is walled off.  And the Anime never cared about following the Games map to begin with, having our heroes encounter lots of non Japanese places.  So really when Purists talk like the show is literally set in Japan I can't help but roll my eyes. Thing is I'm sometimes unsure how serious Dogasu is being in the outrage they express, a good example is the Hollywood rant when discussing Mewoth's origin story episode, they can't possibly really be that offended by adding the word California?

Also one thing many people overlook is most of the Censorship decisions were made by the network/distributor, Warner Bros, not 4Kids.  They decide which episodes to skips because they had to much gun-play or fake boobs.

A lot of Dogasu's complaints are things about Anime dubs in general, that Cartoon Cipher and Explanation Point have been doing YouTube videos on. Mother's Basement also has a video defending 4Kids.

I am also unusual in that I love Pun based Humor, every single Pun associated with the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon I love.

Every time Kami is translated something other then "god" people talk about it like it's more censorship.  When it comes to the discussion of "God" in the First Movie I agree.  However I also know many actual linguists think it's problematic when Kami is nearly universally translated as "god".  Yes the word is used of the Judeo-Christian God as well as Beings analogous to the Olympians.  But it's also used of spirits more analogous to the Nymphs.  The Pokemon Anime at some points used Kami even of the first Gen's Legendary Birds, but in my opinion no Legendaries are truly godlike, even in the Polytheistic sense, till the third Generation.

Much of the crux of hating on the Pokemon Dub revolves around the first two movies.  I don't quite care about Pokemon 2000 enough talk about it.  But I have a lot to say about the first movie, since it is the only one I have seen in Japanese.

First of all, Dogasu's page on Mewtwo Strikes back actually confuses me on if they're under the common misconception that the Ambertwo sequence was originally part of the movie in Japan.  It's consistency added to the film in Japan for all TV broadcasts and Home Video releases, but as Bulbapedia makes clear it was not in the original theatrical release.  And that I'm pretty sure is why it wasn't in the American release, 4Kids clearly wasn't afraid to Dub it since they did for the Mewtwo Returns DVD.  But the fact that this sequence would consistently be in any bootleged Fansub has caused people like the late Jewario when he joined Suede and Linkara's review to think it was part of the original release.

A similar issue exists with Hypno's Naptime, the Dogasu page on that is unaware that originally in Japan it flashed back to the Beach Episode, but rebroadcasts changed it, 4Kids was given the original, they didn't change anything.

Dogasu is under the impression that in the Dub Mewtwo remembers Ambertwo.  I think this is because of the "was it all just a dream" line.  But I always saw that as being Mewtwo having vague memories of the life of the Mew he was cloned from.

Now I agree that the more nuanced dialog script of the original Japanese is better, and I would not oppose a Redub someday following it more closely.

But the thing is, the impression I got of Mewtwo's character when I first watched the film in 1999 was not that different from how people like Dogasu describe Japanese Mewtwo.  Yet these massive critics of the 4Kids Dub act like they turned Mewtwo into a mustache twirling Super Villain.  Watching a Dub with the intent of over-analyzing every difference kind of hurts the ability to just experience what a Normie sees watching it.  And in the rest of the franchise this is by no means the only time Dub haters describe a Dub character as one note simply for not being identical to what they wanted.  Marina in Legend of Thunder is described as having "no redeeming qualities" in the Dub which I find odd since she has no qualities I dislike.

Now let's talk about the anti-violence message.  I find the notion that there is some inherent hypocrisy here really aggravating, ya know Linkara's "NOT LIKE THIS" meme.  The fighting in that scene IS different from normal Pokemon battles, the same way a sanctioned refereed Boxing Match is different form two people trying to kill each other in a back alley.  The Japanese was not trying to give that specific moral at this time, but I still do not consider it out of place, it certainly doesn't take away form the all life matters message.

Now Dogasu says this distinction I just discussed is implied in something Nurse Joy says but is then thrown out by some lines Brock and Misty say.  No, what Brock and Misty say don't overrule what Joy said, they are meant to be understood in the context of what Joy explained.  Honestly at this point it's like how Atheists grasp at straws to say The Bible contradicts itself.

Now I agree the execution of this in the Dub is cheesy and ham handed.  But that's kinda how a lot of dialogue in this franchise is in any language.

However my biggest area of disagreement with Dogasu is on the score.  When I did watch Mewtwo Strikes Back in Japanese, I found the score rather bland and underwhelming.  And I'm not the only person who feels that way, here are some comments from a YouTube upload of The Birth of Mewtwo from the Dub score.

Mewtwo's theme from the Dub Score is to me an iconic Theme on par with Danny Elfman's Batman theme or John Williams Superman theme.  In later movies (from the 4th through the B&W era the scores mostly weren't changed for the Dubs) the Music does get better.  But Dogasu talks about the Japanese scores of these movies like they're on par with the Music in a Ghibli film or Star Wars, but they really aren't.  What I enjoyed most musically in Pokemon Heroes is stuff Yuki Kajiura does better in the Soundtrack for Noir.

Now the Music in the Dub of the First movie can be split into two categories.  The praise in those YouTube comments is for the Score.  While those who'd laugh at the idea of defending the Dub's music are probably mainly thinking of the Pop Soundtrack.  The Pop Soundtrack only intrudes on the film when Brother my Brother plays, mostly they're used in the Pikachu's Vacation short and the end credits.

The Britney Spears song never made it into the film at all.  Soda Pop is the only song of her's I've ever listed to that isn't a Music Video, solely because of it's association with Pokemon.  It wasn't recorded for the movie like most clearly were since it was on her album released earlier in the year, and doesn't seem to fit at all.  But I in my overreaching nerdiness like to point out that in the Games you can buy a Soda Pop from the Vending Machine on the roof of the Celadon Department store, it costs 200 Yen.  Basically I do kinda like the song and so feel compelled to justify it's association with Pokemon.

So Saban is seriously doing the same thing again with Doki Doki PreCure?

All things considered I kind of enjoyed Glitter Force, mostly cause of the voice actors, they did a great job.  So I was a little disappointed when I heard they weren't gonna do the Smile Pretty Cure movie because Glitter Force didn't do well.

So Glitter Force was enough of a failure that it effected their decision making.  But they're repeating the same Americanize everything approach with Doki Doki Pretty Cure?  The Hell???

Do they just think it's Smile Pretty Cure's fault?  Well there are reasons that wasn't the best show to introduce PreCure to the west with.  Frankly I think one's introduction to PreCure should always be a season about a duo, like the original, or Suite Pretty Cure (and HeartCatch was the entry point for a lot of PreCure fans it seems, though I didn't like the art style of that one).  So Doki Doki doesn't really solve that problem, though it may be a bit more difficult to accuse it of directly copying Sailor Moon.  But regardless Smile Pretty Cure has inspired some of the best Doujins I've read, so no it's not Smile's fault.

Like I said before, the audience that might need a complete Americanization to get into it, aren't going to find it via Netflix, since kids shows isn't what Netflix is known for.  The people who care enough to pay to even be able to watch it are Weebs who are only going to be turned off by your attempts to take all the Nippon out of it.

Look Saban, Power Rangers works because it's Live Action and so the American parts of that adaptation of Sentai were filmed from the ground up with new Actors, the Japanese footage just cuts down the SFX budget.  And also in Live Action we notice when some Asian actors part of the American cast.  But it also works because it's a Nostalgic carry over from the 90s that wouldn't go over so well if it began now.  Same thing with Pokemon Dubs renaming Satoshi as Ash.

At this point it has to be partly the fault of the people who own Pretty Cure in Japan.  They continue to refuse to let us legally watch even the current show Subbed. Yet they keep letting their Dubs get butchered.  The Canadian dub of the original Futari wa Pretty Cure at least only changed the names and still seemed mostly like it was the same show as it was in Japan.

Maybe they think the existing Western Pretty Cure fans are all pirates and so the only people who'd pay for it are people who only watch American shows.  Well that is wrong, Western PreCure fans want to support the franchise legally, you just have to give us the opportunity.

Thing is I'm all for seeing the Pretty Cure formula adapted to a setting outside of Japan.  But that should be with a story and a team that's new from the ground up.  One that can be in continuity with all the Japanese Pretty Cure teams and so added to future Allstar movies.

I have a pitch in my head for a Live Action Pretty Cure show set in America or Canada.  It'd be a duo because again I think the formula works best as a duo.  One girl would be African American and the other of South Korean ancestry.  I originally imagined pitching it to ABC Family, but that's Freeform now.

Update Correction: Apparently Saban isn't doing Doki Doki Glitter Force.  That's weird.

Why I Approve of Dubbing

It's popular to disapprove of not just specific failures of Anime Dubbing but of the idea altogether.

Vrai Kaiser has made a Defense of Anime Dubs, they made good points.  They did say however they're against dubbing Live Action works.  I can't agree with that as much, the scenario is indeed much different, for one it tends to be very visually obvious in ways something Animated wouldn't be.  But when something is kind of campy to start with, like most of the Godzilla sequels (or Italian Sword and Sandal Films), that can add to their charm.

For the two serious Gojira films.  Godzilla King of The Monsters I consider a perfect example of an Americanization of a Foreign film done right, while Godzilla 1985 would be the ultimate example of it being done wrong.  I'll link you to SFderbis to explain why that is.

It annoys me that it's often called "Subbing Vs Dubbing", I know of no Dub defenders saying Subbing is bad, since the invention of DVDs I've always felt every release should include the subbed version regardless of if there is a Dub.  

As a student of the history of literature and mythology, I am a big fan of stories being retold in different ways.  And Dubbing works into another language I consider part of that, even when, in fact especially when, the Dub changes the story or characters in some ways.  If a Dub turns out bad, that's unfortunate but no less valid a work of art then something that was bad in it's original language, or any other poorly done adaptation.

When a Dub becomes very offensive because of it's Censorship, that's unfortunate too, but they become useful historical artifacts.  I don't think we should forget that America was once a land where Homosexual relationships were pretty much required to be censored.  And to some extent we still are in stuff made for kids.

For me personally when I'm watching something in any visual medium the ability to fully absorb myself into the story can be hindered if I have to read while watching.  But if I have no other option I can do it.  For Anime I've done it for The Rose of Versalies, El Cazador, the Attack on Titan OVAs, Engaged to The Unidentified, Kampfer, Yuri Kuma Arashi, Shoujo Sect: Innocent Lovers, many episodes of Strawberry Panic!, several episodes of the first series of Sailor Moon and most of Crystal since they went up on Hulu, and a few others I'm not sure I want to recommend just yet.  (Note, I think I recall seeing the Sailor Moon R Movie subbed a long time ago).

And outside of Anime, well the first Subtitled film I ever saw was The Passion of The Christ, I'm not as enamored with that as I used to be but it was adequate.  A number of French films like, the 60s Judex movie, and the first two 60s Fantomas movies, Nuits Rouges, the 2004 Arsene Lupin movie and the 96/97 Le Bossu movie based on Paul Feval's Novel which I highly recommend.  And some Korean and Japanese films including PGSM, several 90s and 2000s Godzilla movies, Thirst, Memento Mori, Love My Life, and a two part episode of Detectives of Seonam Girl's Highschool.  And an Israeli film called The Secrets.

And there are more I plan to in the future, any French Adaptations of Paul Feval I haven't viewed yet only cause I simply can't get my hands on them, especially Les Habits Noirs.  Same with films based on Ponson and Eugene Sue's novels.

But the fact remains for a visual Medium I want to pay very close attention to all the visuals with my eyes while my ears tell me what the characters are saying.  Because after all the original director usually did not direct the film planning on people reading subtitles.  And Anime is arguably an even more visual medium then live action.  The Artist has even more complete control over every single visual.

I'm also in general not as hard on Dubs.  Even Vrai Kaiser thinks Utena's Dub is horrible, so do many Utena fans.  But I loved it, I loved hearing Jeremiah Gutwald as Touga, I loved how Saionji sounded kinda like Vincent Price.  And Misty as the title character.... it took me awhile to put my finger on why she sounded familiar, once I did I went, WOW.  But the best is Shiori, her voice was awesome.

One thing I must say with Utena is not only must you see the series BEFORE the Movie, but as far as Sub or Dub goes you must see the Movie the same way you did the series, it being the same voices in those roles is vital for the emotional impact.  And I say this because, when I first watched it at least, Hulu had only the Dub for the series but both for the movie.  If you watched the series Dubbed because that was the only way you could legally for free, don't then watch the movie Subbed simply on some abstract moral principle, it won't connect properly.

It's not likes Subs never make mistakes.  I frankly get annoyed when the Subs I watch leave out the Honorifics, or try to translate them in ways that don't entirely work.  Some people like Subs specifically because they're a way to learn about Japanese culture, well the honorifics are part of that.  And I find the way they're utilized in Romantic works very interesting and so even wish Dubs would start keeping them in some cases.

And related to that is how the subtitles will conform the names to western naming conventions (individual name before family name) even though I can clearly hear the names being said in opposite order.  When watching fiction about Ancient Greece and Rome or The Bible, no one is confused by them not having our modern naming conventions, so why does Japan having a system very similar to Rome's seem to be something localizers think we can't figure out?

The final reason that the Anti-Dubbing attitude bugs me is that I simply am a fan of the art of acting.  In various styles, acting without speaking, and acting that's speaking only.  I defend the acting of The Star Wars Prequels because I understand that Lucas was going for an older style of acting.  I love both highly Theatrical and Operatic over acting, and much more subtle acting.  Both take talent but different kinds, some actors can do both and some only one or the other.

And I've watched enough Anime Dubs to know they have some damn good acting in them, great performances that many are missing out on because they think the very idea of dubbing is somehow disrespectful.  Some are great because they're over the top, and others because they're heart-wrenching.

So please, give Dubs a chance.

Sailor Moon S 90s Dub

I've been rewatching online lately the old Dub of Sailor Moon S.  As I said before I'm very nostalgic for the classic Dub (which we default to calling DiC even though DiC wasn't doing it anymore by the S season) in-spite of it's many problems, and S was the best season in my opinion.  And with the Viz Dub starting S soon, I figured it'd be good to freshen up on it to compare.

Besides censorship issues the biggest issue with the old Dub for S is that Amarra(Haruka)'s voice sounds very robotic.  I generally think the old Dub voice actors did pretty well, so this one really stands out like a sore thumb.

On the censorship issue.  It's interesting because S has the single most notorious change of them all, making Haruka and Michiru into Cousins as Amarra and Michelle (that was the easiest name to westernize since it is just how the Japanese spell Michelle).  But outside that it does not seem very censored at all.

In the first season anytime the Scouts costumes got ripped up revealing even more skin the Dub wouldn't show it.  All that leg is fine, but anymore skin is too much to handle it seemed.  But at the end of S Uranus and Neptune get theirs tore up and it's unaltered in the Dub.  Meanwhile it leaves the suggestive game of Twister the villains played.  But most shocking of all is Hotaru on a Cross, that is some pretty edgy stuff for a kids show.

The Dub of R felt the need to censor Serena falling to her knees in episode 80.  Some, not even all, but some adults will read that as suggestive of something.  But the idea that it's something you need to censor from kids is ridiculous.  With S plenty of things more suggestive got past them just fine.

Sailor Moon S is the darkest season and all that darkness seemed to get past the Dubbers just fine.  But something that could have sent a positive message they had to censor. I assure you anyone who'd object to Amarra and Michelle being Gay on religious grounds would have eventually turned the show off anyway once Hotaru was on the Cross.

I also suspect the voice actors didn't much care that their supposed to be hiding that they're in a relationship.  Well Amarra sounded so emotionless that there is no way to tell, but whoever voiced Michelle was definitely thinking of herself as playing a Lover.  The dialogue may have told us they're cousins almost every episode, but the performance didn't seem to care.

I remember back when I had no idea about any of these dub change controversies.  First time I went on a Sailor Moon website I thought "who the heck is this Usagi they keep talking about".  But strangely I have no memory of ever NOT knowing Uranus and Neptune are Lesbians.

Maybe the fact that I've never agreed with there being anything wrong with relationships between cousins effected my perspective.

At any rate, let's hope the new Dub does justice to how awesome S is.

Sailor Jupiter and Gender norms

One thing I've been observing on Tumblr is Japanese Feminists getting annoyed at Western Feminists for interpreting the Magical Girl genre as Feminist when in Japan that genre is perceived as being all about reinforcing traditional gender roles.

I'd like to think this problem with the Magical Girl genre and how it's perceived now doesn't really apply to the original, Sailor Moon.  Naoko Takeuchi seems like a Feminist from what I've heard she's said.  And apparently Sailor Moon was partly inspired by Wonder Woman, which is as Feminist as you can get.

As someone who's by no means an expert on these issues, I think a key factor in this analysis is the character of Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter.  Haruka is a "Masculine" woman, but being being in a Lesbian couple kind of only makes that even more stereotypical.

Lita (I grew on the DiC dub, so while it's censoring of LGBT characters infuriates me I'm also very nostalgic for it, in a special place in my heart the character will always be known as Lita first) was always my favorite of the Sailor Scouts, but it's only fairly recently I've been able to put a finger on why.

She is an interesting mix of gender related stereotypes, she is fairly tomboyish (especially by Japanese standards) she's the one who knows how to fight before she becomes a Senshi.  But she also really likes to cook, as a guy who likes to cook a select few things (Pasta!!!) and is quite a Romantic, I identify with her the most.

I have still never read the Manga, at any rate Crystal is supposed to be more directly faithful to the Manga. Makoto's introduction episode is my favorite to re-watch in each incarnation.  That episode is one of the few I've watched Subbed.

My Nostalgia for the old Dub doesn't prevent me from liking what I've seen of the Viz Dub so far, I'm fascinated by how they've managed to give the voices a 90s vibe in spite of it being recorded now.  And the voice actors all fit their roles, but I can't help like feeling that the one voice where the DiC dub is still far better to me is Sailor Jupiter.  Does my Nostalgia cloud my judgment more with her because she's my favorite?  Maybe.... but it seems to me like Amanda simply doesn't bring the energy and enthusiasm to the role that Susan Roman did.

Comparing the old Anime to Crystal.  I like Makoto and Usagi's meet cute more in the old Anime, with her beating up those guys, compared to just saving her from getting hit by a car.  And also later getting in a fight with Zoisite.  Both episodes are good though.

What I'm a little bothered by is Makoto's introduction episode in the Live Action series PGSM.  It's good over all, and the Actress, Mew Azama, fit the role perfectly.  But I get a vibe from it that I never got in the Anime that Makoto is very uncomfortable with how boyish she's perceived as being, Usagi at one point apologizes for having called her Boyish earlier.  And her Feminine cooking is cited as a redeeming quality almost.  I hope that hasn't clouded how people since have viewed the character.

Update 12/21/2015:

Now that the Viz Dub of Crystal has started and reached this episode, I feel Amanda has improved, but still no Susan.