3. My two cents on the whole Prison School, Gamergate thing.

My two cents on the whole Prison School, Gamergate thing.

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    So first off, just for disclosure, I am a supporter of gamergate, take that as you will.

    Was the reaction overblown? Yes. I don't really think Funimation deserved the response it got, and if it decides to go forward and release the dub as is, that's fine. Anyone who didn't like the dub can just not buy the dvd/BD.

    I don't really agree with the people who are canceling there subscriptions, as funimation hasn't actually done anything wrong. they released a dub which expressed a political viewpoint which I, and many others wholeheartedly disagree with, and that's fine.

    I say all this, so that when I begin criticizing this dub, as I am about to do, you know I am not being some reactionary, who doesn't want to be exposed to any view points that I disagree with, or upset me.

    First problem with the dub is the lack of faithfulness to the original content. "You should respect your seniors" in no way translates to "What are you, some gamergate creep show"
    You could use the localization argument if she had brought up some Japanese equivalent of gamergate, but that wasn't the case.

    Second problem is the arbitrary political agenda. Again, if this series shared any parallels or affiliation with gamergate, that line would be fine. But to my knowledge, that line is only in there because the writer for the dub personally didn't like gamergate.
    At that point, the dub becomes no better than some mediocre youtube abridged anime.
    This is not that writers own original work. He should not be including entirely new content unless the wording just doesn't translate well, or is to obscure. He didn't change some Japanese poetry to edger Allen Poe, he changed the fundamental meaning of a line.

    Thirdly, as many have pointed out, this dates the show horribly. Who, in ten, or even five years time is going to know what the f*** gamergate is. Hell, I would be willing to bet most gamergaters will have all but forgotten about it. It's an incredibly obscure reference, which you probably wont get unless you're directly in support of, or opposed to the movement, leaving most of the viewers extremely confused.

    For a little more context, I generally prefer Subs, but I'm not a puritan. I can appreciate a good Dub when I find one. 'Durarara' 'A woman called Fujico Mine' and 'Panty and stalking with garter belt' are all amazing dubs, and they all change things to make the dialogue flow more smoothly. But to my knowledge, they never changed the fundamentals of the meaning of what the characters were saying, or the political view points of the original creator.

    To put a long story short, if I wanted this kind of Dub, I would be watching Yu Gi Oh abridged or something, not an official production from funimation of all places.

    And to anyone who just went by the fact that I'm a part of gamergate to disagree with me, instead of addressing or debating my actual points, I'm not going to reply to you.

    Cheers.

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  • Moderators

    Hi there.

    You do bring up some good points and I appreciate you sharing your opinions, but for the forums' sake, we already have one topic thread about this very subject. Please feel free to post in that topic instead of creating a brand new thread about the same thing. This will help consolidate things and keep clutter down on the forums. For that reason, I'm going to close this one. You can feel free to copy and paste this post in that thread, if you like. :)

    Also, please don't drop F-bombs on the forums. Thanks.

    Here's a direct link to the original thread: http://www.funimation.com/forum/showthread.php?8806-The-GamerGate-quip-in-Episode-7-isn-t-gonna-fly-too-well

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  • Moderators

    Considering every single crazy response I've seen on this whole subject for probably the past week or so let me at the very least say that you're extremely rational and I honestly give you props. I kind of like how you're not trying to claim to boycott Funimation or saying the solution is to pirate the Prison School anime as a way to stick it to them! I've seen crazy people think that, and it's literally one of the dumbest solutions. If anything you could just buy the Japanese Blu-Rays or the manga licensed by Yen Press if you want to support the title but not the Funimation dub. Resorting to pirating as a way to show your support is about as counterproductive as you can get.

    I also legitimately appreciate how you're not going the full "THIS IS EXACTLY WHY SUBS ARE BETTER" argument I've been seeing for the past week or not even completely shitting on the foundation of localization entirely, just that you feel the GamerGate line itself was dated and kind of out of place, and to that I can agree. Like at this point the issue is now and done with. The line was done, the writer was told it was best not to do any more mentioning of GamerGate in any future dubs, and whether the line itself stays or not will ultimately depend on the final materials for the DVD/Blu-Ray release.

    Even though I was never particularly upset with the line itself I think ultimately I agree with many of your points, and appreciate you not resorting to shouting at Funimation for "pushing agendas" when they never really had anything to do with this decision itself, nor getting on a high horse and shouting how SUBS ARE SUPERIOR to dubs. Either way, I have nothing against your post or your points. They're all pretty fair and rational while also ultimately just getting your point out. So thank you for that.

    However, just to kind of keep this whole thing slightly contained could I possibly ask any future discussion of this to the already created topic over here. http://www.funimation.com/forum/showthread.php?8806-The-GamerGate-quip-in-Episode-7-isn-t-gonna-fly-too-well&p=67843#post67843

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