Pixels 30 – The Three Bananas


On this episode we discuss:

  • Bungie’s missteps
  • Nintendo’s results
  • Blizzard corner
  • And more…

More info on the show:

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Comments

  1. I was listening to Pixels on my way into work and just wanted to throw my two cents in on the Sub vs Dub discussion you were having.

    I personally prefer dubbed animes, I completely understand when you say it takes away from the art form. The original Japanese voice actors probably take the medium more seriously and treat it like a real actor would, as opposed to voicing it like a Saturday morning cartoon.

    You likened it to a painting where someone takes one color and drastically changes it, thus redefining the whole piece. But imagine it from a point of view of a non Japanese speaker. You’re colorblind to that original color altogether, and instead forced to read the description of the piece. Instead of enjoying the art for what it is, you have to spend time looking away from the art to read a description of part of it.

    When I watch shows in English dub I get to fully experience the visual aspect of the show, and still partially enjoy the dialogue and tone if it is conveyed well. If I watch a subbed version, I miss out on ~50% of the visuals, and really miss the inflection and tone because I don’t speak the language anyway.

    Just my two bananas on the subject.

    • Heh, that topic has sparked a lot of discussion… It’s really interesting to try and define it, and I’m not sure anyone has really managed to do it perfectly, but this one kind of gets close. I still believe that the original version is the superior one (no matter the media or language), but I can understand that in the case of a visual art you don’t want to be stuck reading some stupid tiny text at the bottom of the screen.
      Just learn Japanese then you’ll be fine! 😀

      • English and Spanish down, German next. Then Japanese. after that I promise to only watch subbed animes lol.

  2. Oh my, did you know that that N64 Controller was a real thing ?
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mnqHoYcfhMU/S7VDDQ3N2zI/AAAAAAAABCY/BOjtEQR3WuI/s1600/DKController001sm.jpg

    A limited edition for the DK64 Release.
    BTW, I loved that controller. Pressing that Z button felt like pressing a trigger.
    I kind of miss Perfect Dark nights 🙂

  3. Marlon "guyfromTrinidad" Thompson says:

    I wasn’t going to write on this but you said to yell at you so here goes. I will start easy and save my hardcore yelling for the end.

    First off dub vs sub…whatever. As usual Patrick you made a blanket statement when nuance might have been better, Some actors sub better than others and sometimes even in the same show. You mentioned Naruto so here is a sample and to my ears that doesn’t understand Japanese, some of the English voice acting sounds better and in some cases its the Japanese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NK7EqaBWG8 but at the end of the day its all subjective. So sub or dub, its up to you. One thing though on dissing Avatar’s voice acting, a show, that includes the fantastic talents of the late Mako, dude i’ll have to sic a Scott Johnson on you, not cool 🙂

    Now for what I really want to yell about, XCOM. Did you play XCOM enemy unknown and its very decent expansion Enemy within? I got it as a bonus for preordering Bioshock Infinite and initially didn’t want to play it. But after a few missions I realised how awesome this game is. The story is nothing great but the action, the strategy, the upgrades, the customisation, Patrick by this game when its on sale, trust me. You begin to care about your teams and I would often have them speak in their own language. I had my Alpha team of heavy hitters, but also my all female Valkyrie team who could be trusted to wipe out the enemy without busting a sweat. Unless you play you will never know the awesome feeling of suddenly being out numbered by the enemy 10 to 6 and triumph with a perfectly placed rocket here, a mind control there and some precision snipes from avenging angel sniper who is floating above it all in her upgraded armour, Its the type of game where you get to create your own internal stories and from what I have seen of XCOM 2 that aspect has gotten even better http://kotaku.com/xcom-2-the-kotaku-review-1757343867 and moment of badassness are greater http://kotaku.com/xcom-2s-ambushes-are-so-badass-1759305399 I will definetely be picking up my copy shortly, you should too.

    • > As usual […]

      I love that you’re making a blanket statement about me making a blanket statement. I’m sure you did it on purpose. 🙂
      I’m sorry that we disagree, but there are really two different things at play here:
      First the cultural integrity of a piece of art, which, in my opinion, is irrevocably altered if you change something as important as the language. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can be moved from that. And it’s not about the Japanese language itself, it’s the same for any language and I would be as adamant if we were talking about stuff in English or French or Spanish or Russian or Chinese. If I can, I’ll always go for the closest I can get to the “real” version. So subbed is often my preferred version.
      Second, the quality of the acting in those cartoons. Again, I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s *good* acting. At best, it’s not bad, including in Avatar or Korra. Those are both fantastic shows, but it doesn’t mean everything is perfect in them. I have to say, I adore the Avatar series (incl. Korra), but I really dislike how geek icons are untouchable in the eyes of some people. Say something bad about Avatar, and… well, anyway.
      So I’m glad you’re enjoying English versions. But I listened to that video you linked, and I’m sorry to say, Saturday morning cartoon acting still sounds like Saturday morning cartoon acting to me. It’s very different from “actual” acting (movies or good TV shows). It’s actors tailoring their speech to children. Not quite as much as we do it on the playground, but audibly. You can hear it in the intonations, the inflections, the accentuations… It’s simply not a natural way of speaking (unless you’re speaking to a child), and in that sense I don’t love it.

      Ultimately though I agree with you: “sub or dub, its up to you”. I just think the order of quality decreases when you go from “speaking the language” to “reading the subtitles” to “listening to the dubbed version”. So to me, the last option is the least good one; kind of like choosing to eat a microwaved hotpocket instead of a delicious oven baked pizza… 🙂

      The argument I understand a bit more though is the one that Garrett made about wanting to look at the actual art rather than reading the dialogue. That I can understand…. So you see, I’m not *completely* unreasonable!

      > XCom

      I’m going to make you even angrier: I actually own the first one. I got it during a Steam sale. I played a couple of missions but couldn’t get into it (keeping in mind I’m not a big fan of strategy games to begin with – even Invisible Inc, which is supposedly super easy and noob friendly, didn’t manage to grab me). But it’s good to hear things like that (and you’re not th only person singing its praises to me); I totally understand that some games, like most things in life, often require you to make an effort to appreciate them, and some of the things I love the most today I initially did not like at all… So I promise I’ll keep an open mind, and maybe I’ll give it another go at some point.

      Thanks for the comment, Mr. From Trinidad!

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