Found in Translation – A Discussion on Accessibility in Media

We’ve ALL Heard the Sub VS Dub Debate…

When it comes to anime, the conversation surrounding accessibility in the community is a weirdly contentious one. I don’t just mean the usual sub VS dub debate either, as the conversation goes well outside that but for several reasons, supposed “fans” of the medium are quick to dismiss these ideas all too often. The weird thing though, it’s not really an issue in live-action media. That’s why I’d like to take a moment to talk about two recent things I watched:  Amazon Prime’s Cinderella and Netflix’s Squid Game. What do these two experiences have in common when it comes to accessibility, and why anime licensors and distributors should be taking a page from their books? Well, you’ll have to read on to find that one out.

#Anitwitwatches Season 14 – RahXephon & Announcement

Welcome to the Fourteenth #Anitwitwatches!

It’s pretty safe to say that Astra Lost in Space, the 13th season of the #Anitwitwatches project was one of the most successful watches we’ve had since the project started! Everyone seemed to have an absolute blast and I appreciate everyone who participated in that one. However, it’s now time to say goodbye and welcome in our season 14 winner:  RahXephon.

Below you’ll find information on what the watch is as well as the schedule for the fourteenth season of #anitwitwatches. Thank you to everybody who has participated in the past and all of you who will be joining for the first time with this series!

What is #Anitwitwatches?

This is a weekly community event meant to bring folks together to revisit old favorites and discover new shows. It’s meant to be something you can get as involved in as you want, there is no pressure to participate every week or every watch, but we’d love to have you to share in the experience and discuss the shows we are watching all the same!

I was inspired to do this after seeing the “rewatches” that people do over at Reddit in the r/anime sub. Since I interact with a lot of you guys on Twitter, I thought it would be the perfect place to do something similar! That said, even if you do not have a Twitter you can still join in by posting any content via WordPress, YouTube, or whatever suits your fancy. If you do, be sure to send me an email at jonspencerreviews@gmail.com so I can share your wonderful creations!

For everyone else, simply watch the episodes for the week based on the schedule below. Make sure to use the hashtag, #anitwitwatches when you do, and that’s it! Discuss with the other folks participating, create content, and generally just have a fun time!

This next show was chosen based on YOUR votes, so let’s get to the watch schedule.

RahXephon Schedule

We will only be taking our usual one week break for this one, so meet back at the end of August to get started. Be sure to save the schedule so you can stay up to date with all the conversation.

If you have not done so, you can see where you can watch RahXephon for free, and legally, by using reelgood.com. Unfortunately, I cannot realistically check all regions but I aimed to make this as accessible as possible. That said, I won’t stop you from doing what you need to in order to participate. The more the merrier!

Here are the dates (all Mondays) and the episodes for each:

That’ll make this watch 11 weeks long. Note some weeks are three episode weeks, so feel free to spread out your watching or do some early viewing and post your discussion notes later. I hope you’re excited to watch this one and I look forward to all the excellent discussion!

#Anitwitwatches Season 8 – The Princess and the Pilot

Welcome to the Eighth #Anitwitwatches!

We’ll be doing something a little different for this season of the watch so please be sure to read this full article for all the relevant information. To start, we are going to be watching a film that was suggested by patron yon.nyan called The Princess and the Pilot thanks to your votes. I don’t know much about it but it seems like it’ll be a pretty fun film!

Below you’ll find information on what the watch is as well as the schedule for the eighth season of #anitwitwatches. Thank you to everybody who has participated in the past and all of you who will be joining for the first time with this series!

What is #Anitwitwatches?

This is a weekly community event meant to bring folks together to revisit old favorites and discover new shows. It’s meant to be something you can get as involved in as you want, there is no pressure to participate every week or every watch, but we’d love to have you to share in the experience and discuss the shows we are watching all the same!

I was inspired to do this after seeing the “rewatches” that people do over at Reddit in the r/anime sub. Since I interact with a lot of you guys on Twitter, I thought it would be the perfect place to do something similar! That said, even if you do not have a Twitter you can still join in by posting any content via WordPress, YouTube, or whatever suits your fancy. If you do, be sure to send me an email at jonspencerreviews@gmail.com so I can share your wonderful creations!

For everyone else, simply watch the episodes for the week based on the schedule below. Make sure to use the hashtag, #anitwitwatches when you do, and that’s it! Discuss with the other folks participating, create content, and generally just have a fun time!

This next show was chosen based on YOUR votes, so let’s get to the watch schedule.

The Princess and the Pilot Schedule

We will be taking a 2 week break, meaning that we will NOT be watching anything for the week of 8/31/20 OR 9/7/20. This is to give me time to properly prepare for hosting the watch and give everybody else a little break before starting something new. We will be keeping the Monday time slot for this watch after careful consideration and feedback.

To offer more clarification beyond the usual speech, I want to further clarify why we are taking a two week break and the plans for the next watch. I happened to get asked in for jury duty so I need to take an additional week off, plus Labor Day is one of the days we’d normally watch. Therefore, it just made sense to give an extra two weeks. However, the biggest reason by far is my plans for the season 9 watch. I won’t say what I have planned exactly, but you better get ready for some spooky fun 😉

If you have not done so, you can see where you can watch The Princess and the Pilot for free, and legally, by using because.moe. Unfortunately, I cannot realistically check all regions but I aimed to make this as accessible as possible. That said, I won’t stop you from doing what you need to in order to participate. The more the merrier!

Here’s the super easy schedule for the film, it’s exactly one day:

Since this is a film, we’ll only be having the one watch date so nice and simple. I hope you’re excited to watch this one and I look forward to all the excellent discussion!

Pet’s Commitment to Presentation

Pet was Disappointing

I don’t think that stating this should come to a surprise to anyone who’s watched it. What looked to be a show that was going to borrow on ideas present in Inception and Paprika was instead a fairly muddy story about interpersonal drama and abusive relationships. While Pet ultimately has some interesting things to say, it simply doesn’t deliver on expectations for a variety of reasons. However, one place it doesn’t compromise on is in its presentation, and the reason I stuck with the anime for all 13 episodes.

Girls’ Last Tour – Thoughts for a Dying World

Hope in the Midst of Hopelessness

A concept that is often explored in media is the resiliency of humankind. No matter how bleak or hopeless a situation appears, people always find a way to survive and carry on. In some ways Girls’ Last Tour echoes this message while depicting a surreal, lonely, dying world. As long as we have each other, we can enjoy the end of the world together, right?

After School Dice Club – Mini Review

Finally, An Anime About Board Games!

Since A Sister’s All You Need first premiered back in 2017, I’ve been convinced that an anime about people playing board games could work well. Apparently a 2013 manga, later turned anime, was a head of the curve though with After School Dice Club. While this series took its time to finally put my money where my mouth was, there’s just one logical question to ask:  Does the show actually work?

Left to right:  Midori, Aya, Emilia, and Miki

To get the show off the ground, because you can’t just have some cute girls randomly playing board games with no context, there’s Miki, a shy girl with no friends. How sad. Then she learns about board games, and wouldn’t you know it, she gets some friends which gives a boost to her self-confidence. Along the way, her newfound friends have their own trials and tribulations as well.

While there is that story going on, the focus is obviously the board games. Not your typical anime off-brand stuff, real board games that you can go out and get today. If you didn’t know, I am pretty well-versed when it comes to board games and I was generally impressed with the selection they showed off in After School Dice Club.

Nearly all the games featured are entry-level, meaning they are quick to pick up, learn, and teach. This allows the show to legitimately teach you how to play whatever the game happens to be in their entirety. It’s one of the biggest strengths the show has.

The other positive point this anime has is showing off the creative process for making a good game. That plot is easily the best one as it allows you to appreciate the games more while giving some basic insight into the industry. Having made a game myself, I appreciated it at least.

Midori’s arc is where the show unfortunately peaks from a story perspective

Unfortunately, the show holds itself back by trying to include so many narrative elements. The board game sections are great, but they had to be tied into the story, which is the problem. While I respect the mix of traditional Japanese games and great modern games, having to deal with random drama between them caused them to lose some impact along the way.

You can really feel this in the final episode where Miki sits on a bench bullying herself because she realizes she might not be able to spend every waking minute of her life with her friends. What should be an emotionally climatic moment, where she does eventually learn she has true friends, is instead accidentally really hilarious.

No trailer today as they are not subbed, instead enjoy a clip from the show

I’ve seen it said that After School Dice Club fails as a show as it just “makes you want to play board games yourself”, but I can’t help but see that as a positive. That’s kind of the whole point of the show. If you are looking for a decent story that breaks down toward the end, but does feature solid game recommendations and tutorials, this will absolutely work for you. It’s just comfy enough to recommend, but I feel like this kind of show could have done a lot better.

---

How about you? Did After School Dice Club live up to your expectations? Let me know in the comments! If you like the work I’m doing here, please consider becoming a Patron or making a one-time donation via the buttons below. Thanks for reading and see you again soon!

Hikaru no Go – A Rare Kind of Show

Seriously, You Should Watch This

It’s incredibly rare for a show to follow its characters over the course of several years, really letting you see how they grow and develop. That’s exactly what you get with Hikaru no Go. If I had to compare the 2001 title to anything, it would be March Comes in like a Lion, but where that show is about the game of Shogi, placing more emphasis on events outside the game, this is about the ancient game of Go with a more traditional sports anime format. Spanning 75 exciting episodes, you’ll find yourself deeply invested even if you don’t know a thing about Go itself.

Saying Goodbye to Amazon Prime with 3 Anime Mini Reviews – Re:Creators, Irozuku: The World in Colors, & Yuki Yuna is a Hero Season 2

Was Nice Having you Amazon Prime

I got a lot of use out of the couple of years I was able to afford having Amazon Prime. However, I’m practically out of money so this is one of the things I have to let go of this year (along with a lot of other things). Anyway, since I officially lost the service today, I thought we’d look back at a few shows I quickly watched before the service ran out on me. I ended up having time for 3 shows which are:  Re:Creators, Irozuku: The World in Colors, and Yuki Yuna is a Hero season 2.

These shows were chosen because they were Amazon exclusive, things that I wanted to, or in some cases, already started watching, or had some buzz about them. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time for Banana Fish but it is what it is. I’ll be reviewing the three shows I did manage to get around to just like I would normally for Mini Reviews. Enjoy!

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale – You Doing Alright, Santa?

A Horror-Comedy Christmas Film

Alright, with everybody gearing up for the holiday season, I decided to tackle a more unusual movie:  Rare Exports:  A Christmas Tale. Last year, I had the pleasure of first watching this film with a group of friends and it was a lot better than one might think for a horror-comedy Christmas film set in Finland with very little English in it. All that sure is a mouthful, but join me and see just what makes Rare Exports a hidden cult classic!

Freaky Friday 4 of 4 – Happy Sugar Life

The Best Anime of the Summer 2018 Season

I’ve held off on reviewing Happy Sugar Life for some time now and some of you may have been wondering why I hadn’t reviewed it yet, especially since I reviewed everything else I watched during the summer already. That’s right, I knew it was a good fit for Halloween reviewing so I saved the best for last. Hitting the number two spot of my favorite anime so far, here’s why you should give Happy Sugar Life a watch.