Darklord Rooke

Recovery of an MMO Junkie: Moriko Morioka x Yuta Sakurai. The romantic tale of an "elite neet" finding love in an MMO.

What he said. Too lazy to write my own stuff.

look at this old man complaining about old anime. I would never complain about a remake of a beloved old anime.

(please look forward to me complaining about a remake of a beloved old anime in the near future)

Is inferior in almost every way to the 2003 original. I am so seriously disappointed by this lacklustre remake. The ways in which it doesn't live up are too numerous to count.
Firstly 2003 Kino is introspective. It's thoughtful, it's philosophical. It takes the viewer on a ride through the world and encourages them to think about what's going on. 2017 Kino succumbs to the urge of telling you what's going on. Thanks for taking a lot of the atmosphere out of the show.
Secondly when I talk about writing I usually talk about how genre fiction encourages the use of what I call "invisible prose", or prose that likes to get out of the way of the story. That way the reader doesn't notice it and is drawn into the story. 2017 uses the art/graphical (I dunno what it's called) equivalent of invisible prose, it looks good, it shows the background, it gets out of the way, it does a job without people pointing and laughing. Contrast this to 2003 Kino, which loves to use many techniques to draw attention to the style and then uses that style to get the viewer to think more on the themes and message. From the use of colours and blurred pictures, to the manipulation of sounds, to the soundless moments on the screen that pop up with the last pieces of dialogue. It's more dangerous - call attention to style and muck it up and it's so much more noticeable (because you're obviously calling attention to it), but it serves the philosophical and thoughtful nature of the show well.
And of course it would be more artistic. Directed by the legendary man who create Serial Experiments Lain, how could it not? That talent was missing from 2017, and boy did it show.
Story choice was poor, although that's what happens when you leave things up to a vote. Mobocracy is not a good method of making creative decisions. What we got was a focus on the "cool aspects" of the show, and a lessening of what actually makes Kino's Journey so damn great. The more action in a show of limited time, the less time there is for everything else, and when the show isn't really an action show that often becomes a detriment. It doesn't help when the powers that be decides to cut critical context out of the show which changes the character and leaves the audience a bit befuzzled.
Kino's character has always been a bit bland, but 2017 focuses more on that character whereas in 2003 she's more of an observer. She conveys to you the world, whereas in 2017 she's more interpreting it.
I'm not going to make this a long post so I'll stop there. I'm rewatching Kino's Journey 2003 and man it's so good. Rest in peace Ryutaro Nakamura, you were a genius and you died far too young.

Two I'm expecting good things from are Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii and Piano no Mori. Both based off excellent manga, so my expectations are pretty high here. Hinamatsuri is also extremely well regarded (manga) but I could never get into it - Superpowered girl falls into the lap of Yakuza member who has to take care of her, hilarity ensues. Not really my sort of thing. Looking forward to the Persona 5 anime, but I've already played the game so I doubt it'd really interest me too much.
Two I'm curious about are Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori and Shiyan Pin Jiating. Seriously, mad scientist parents who genetically modified their children into "creatures" will either be hilarious fun, or so over-the-top and cliche that I'll find it boring. I'm wondering which it's going to be.
The rest are continuations. Amanchu is good if you're looking for an Aria substitute, but it isn't as good (and Aria is a good substitute for never getting a YKK anime, but it's also not as good ...) Full Metal Panic is going to be awesome going by the light novels, but unfortunately it's about the time it's going to get serious and I'll miss the light hearted humour. It's not so good when you wait a decade between anime seasons, you'll almost have to target an entirely new demographic which is hard when they likely haven't seen the original. 
Let's see, what else is there. Stuff. Things. Ew, Boruto. I STILL NEED TO WATCH RAKUGO!!! Oh yeah, Yowamushi Pedal. As a cycling fan I could never get into Yowamushi, it was awfully superficial and it continuously shattered my suspension of disbelief. I think I read in the manga or something how hill climbs were some kind of test of stamina or endurance or something stupid, and I immediately chucked my laptop out the window. Then I had to explain to the unjustifiably angry man on the street why he almost died via plummeting Toshiba. With the newest season apparently plumbing new depths of shittyness, I'm kinda smug for dropping it early. This is my smug face -> :3
 

I'm looking forward to more High School DxD *smiles evilly)
But seriously... this season looks to be a fairly boring one, overall.  Last season wasn't great, either... Grancrest is continuing, but I really wish they'd just continued Death March instead, because it was just starting to go somewhere other than in circles.

So, this winter's Season of Fluff is ending and the spring Season of Sequels has begun! I have a bit of a problem with this one, as it mostly full of continuations of shows I haven't seen yet or ones I don't really care about anymore (looking at your HighschoolDxD...). So, what you guys are looking forward to?

I couldn't find a good avatar so I ended up just using a mirror.

Conclusive evidence that many here are closet masochists.

It's the internet. Girls are guys and children are 40+ year old men. Guys however can be girls. It's properly safest to just use "it" instead of "him" or "her"

Yuru Camp is great for anyone looking for a good Iyashikei anime. Has similar vibes to Aria and YKK. Also teaches you camping shit, I never knew you could set fire to a table set up your campfire on a table, that's fantastic. Not when one of your camping mates has leg spasms, then it's less than ideal, but otherwise fantastic! It meanders though, unlike The Great Passage whose plot always marches onwards (what plot there is, anyway).
As for Kino no Tabi 2017 ... man do I miss Ryutaro Nakamura  

If anyone's curious about it, it led to roughly 17%+ activity on the forums compared to other recent sundays. 

i will miss the wonderful character "no valid string, make a ticket"

It causes a disruption in the Force, generating much teeth-gnashing and angst amongst those sensitive to its flow.
Oh, you meant to you.  The game becomes a little less enjoyable than it would've been to read in Japanese, but usually much more enjoyable than the alternative: watching a slideshow accompanied by streams of cryptic runes and arbitrary grunts.

They all do. They don't just employ someone without knowing if what they translate is accurate or not. Even with our fan translations we test the translators and editors to make sure they're doing a job up to our standard. That doesn't translate (pardon the pun) into them always creating good works in the real world.  Translation is an art form, not a science, and there are two main ways to get a good translation - either the translator themselves knows the language itself well and is a writer in their own right and can produce something that is polished from their first pass and only really needs proofreading, OR the translator knows the language itself well and produces something relatively literal and stilted but has a superb editor who is a writer in their own right and is masterful at massaging a stilted translation into a polished written work. Either way, the translator MUST know the language they're translating from very well, AND the last person to put stylistic touches to the work is a writer themselves. The finest novels always get this treatment, and some of the most popular novels have had multiple translations that people debate about which version is the best. The movie world is mixed, with high profile film getting good translators but kids movies, animation etc. getting wildly variable treatment. In the low budget world of VNs there may well be people who know the language well through study, experience, and exposure, but it's unlikely these translators are writers. It's even less likely the localisation companies will find and employ a high quality editor who's also a writer. However the VNs were clearly written by people with writing skills (at least the better ones.) I'm currently working on a new fan project that I happily subjected myself to a translation test for since it's a high profile work and even I wasn't sure if my translation was good enough to do the work justice.
 
To answer the OP's question - in short the quality of work you're reading simply doesn't match what was written. Translation is a lossy process and the worse the translation and editing is, the more is lost. If it starts out a masterpiece in its native language, you want the localisation to be one, but a masterpiece may end up coming across as a mediocre read. A decent work could end up being substandard, and an average work could end up being unreadable trash. In the worst case scenario, with the most lossy translation process, a masterpiece ends up being unreadable trash.

Also Bible Black (both anime and VN.) An oldie, but if outlandish themes is what is wanted, then it's hard to pass over it.

The majority of Japanese-made otome games seem to have heroines in high school...I mean, okay, high school is kind of seen through rose-lenses there, but ffs, the majority of otome game players in JP (and here now) are older now. I want older heroines. College is acceptable, but workspace otome romances are also very much welcome. 
(this is why I'm designing my own game)
Voltage has some pretty good ones, as well as Solmare, but those haven't really made the transition from mobile to CPU yet. (then again, the majority of casual gamers don't really play on computer...)

That's why the original True Love '95 was such a legendary game - on a perfect playthrough you got to date every girl, save the idol from being kidnapped, discovered the catgirl, helped her ascend to heaven, fucked them all and still ended up with the best girl.

Also Bible Black (both anime and VN.) An oldie, but if outlandish themes is what is wanted, then it's hard to pass over it.

1: I mean, you will be losing out on the original intent of the writer, and great aspects of the work. This is pretty self explanitory, really.
2: A great translation is both accurate, and reads nice and fluently in the language it was translated into. When you're reading a good translation, you should feel like what you're reading could just as well have been written natively in the language it was translated into. You should not "feel" the source language lingering in the line. (Something you will see lots of when the translation is very literal.)
3: In terms of textual accuracy, it becomes impossible for people without Japanese knowledge to know when a translation is bad. You can't gauge the accuracy of a translation if you don't understand the source material, after all. In cases where there are big issues with accuracy, (like If my heart had wings,) you'll generally see a big outrage on any kind of VN related forum/ website, so just scanning Fuwanovel or similar sites will be enough to find out if TLs are "bad" in that regard.
As for translations that are technically accurate, but are just bad in terms of English writing/ have incredibly literal translations that create a hot mess of crap, (Libra,) you should be able to tell yourself, really.
Like, just read some of these examples from Libra. It should be fairly obvious that this is a bad translation. Example 1, example 2, example 3.

Check out this video if you want a feel of the anime community's angst with 4kids:
 

Flashbacks, done in such a way, effectively kill the story for me. Why don't the writers pepper in backstory so it weaves naturally with the story? It seems like people are way more forgiving of writing faux pas (god, what's the plural form of faux pas?) in VNs/games than an actual novel. 

Hello, everyone!
I'm Fin and I'm a writer by trade, but currently stepping away from writing for the foreseeable future, to work on my childhood dream, which is working on video games  
I live near Shanghai, but I'm moving to Ho Chi Minh at the end of June and then I'm off to Taipei in December, hopefully for a while. (My SO is an international school teacher, so we kind of wander around the world like pirates)
I'm a big fan of otome games, my first one being Angelique on the GBA...(haha, I can't believe how old I am). I used to be a console player, but have recently gotten into computer VNs and otome games. 
Anyways, I'm really glad to be here and I hope to get along with everyone! 

Completely agree  And the info-dumping doesn't stop there. The mystery of a character in part 1 was completely destroyed by a big-arse flashback sequence which pretty much tells the reader her entire backstory, which had the added bonus of bringing the plot to a grounding halt to accommodate this. 
I honestly don't get why it's so popular.

I tried playing fault - milestone one and jesus, it was SO BORING. The art was fine, but all the explanation about the magic system was dumped in the beginning of the game and it drove me bonkers. I couldn't even make out of the prologue. (and i have the sequel too, ffs)
All that info dump would've never been allowed if I sent it off to my editor =_=;;;;