Fun Japanese Things

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We once roamed the vast forums of Corona Coming Attractions. Some of us had been around from The Before Times, in the Days of Excelsior, while others of us had only recently begun our trek. When our home became filled with much evil, including the villainous Cannot-Post-in-This-Browser and the dreaded Cannot-Log-In, we flounced away most huffily to this new home away from home. We follow the flag of Jubboiter and talk about movies, life, the universe, and everything, often in a most vulgar fashion. All are welcome here, so long as they do not take offense to our particular idiom.
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Dalty
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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My Asian gf informs me categorically that the Japanese are perverts and into "sick sex".

My response - looking for a flight to Japan on my iPad - was apparently not acceptable.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Dalty wrote:My Asian gf informs me categorically that the Japanese are perverts and into "sick sex".

My response - looking for a flight to Japan on my iPad - was apparently not acceptable.
:lol:

They are a respectful, dignified, generally-reserved people.

With often-perverse sexual appetites. And creative imaginations.

When you say "Asian gf," what part of Asia is she or her forebears from?
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Vietnam. From Dong Nai about 2 hours North of Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon. She was in Saigon working on that fateful night we met over street food when I was travelling.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Very nice. That's like a story out of an internationally-produced romantic film. :)
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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A happy ending means something very different from that corner of the world! :D
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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It's essentially a fappy ending.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Five dollah?
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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I'm sure this will only interest Mal, but tonight I scored for cheap the 1st deluxe volume (950+ pages) of The Rose of Versailles.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Nice!

It's not like I could read it, though. :)
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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You could read it easy Mal. Stickman. Countryside gate. Smaller gate, this time on fire. Stickman with new Elvis haircut. Badly arranged cutlery set. Japanese is easy.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Dalty wrote:My Asian gf informs me categorically that the Japanese are perverts and into "sick sex".

My response - looking for a flight to Japan on my iPad - was apparently not acceptable.
I have a buddy coming home this summer after 12 years in Japan. With his Japanese wife. I'm really happy to see him again. And awkwardly excited to me the wife. Just something.......... :shock:
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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I'm watching The Rose of Versailles and sort-of following along in the manga (both have things not in the other). The manga has some fun angry faces:
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Haha, the manga looks a lot goofier than the show. I think the show usually just played it straight.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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The manga did show some incredibly gruesome shots of the dying/dead Louis XV which were not in the anime.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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Still watching The Rose of Versailles. I have about ten episodes left. Really really like it.

So much so, that I'm looking at the DVDs, which meant I also looked up the German edition. And so discovered that the theme song of the German dub sounds like the total opposite of the Japanese one...

German:



Japanese:

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Re: Fun Japanese Things

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Mal showed me the first couple episodes. He also showed me the first few episodes of Cowboy Bebop and Hellsing and Trigun. He stopped showing me stuff when he started dating Pre-Vespa from the Before Times.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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I also stopped showing you stuff when you started nodding off during Cowboy Bebop and Rose of Versailles. How boring do these shows need to be to put an insomniac to sleep! :(
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

If they'd really been boring, I would have straight up gone to sleep. Instead, I just nodded off a bit. That means I was at least somewhat engaged.

I do the same thing with things Jubbers shows me. It seems to be a thing I do with new shows and with driving long distances if I'm only averaging two-three hours of sleep a night.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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I've been wanting to write about the two theme songs for a while now, so I'm glad Jubbers kicked off the conversation. It motivated me to finally sit down and type this out.

I grew up listening to the German theme, so I'm still very fond of it, but when I heard the Japanese theme for the first time (probably my second or third year in college), I immediately fell in love with it. I think it's just a better song, overall. There is an early-70s feel to it (a bit of a Streisand-esque vibe), which is not surprising considering the show came out in the 70s. The best thing about it is that it actually feels like a real song while the German theme sounds very much like a theme song.

Part of that is probably also due to the lyrics. The Japanese lyrics obviously have a connection to the show by emphasizing the theme of the rose, but they refer to Oscar in an abstract fashion. The flower is used as a metaphor for the character and gives the song a bit more of a poetic feel. By contrast, the German song is much more direct in telling the listener about the character. It starts with the military drums to evoke the main character's status as an officer and it keeps repeating her name (10 times in total in a minute and a half) and talking about everything she can do and how great she is.

Code: Select all

Japanese											 German
----------										  ----------
Flowers without names							Wild rose, proud and free
Blooming in the field							Always only true to herself
Can just sway in the wind.	    			Lady Oscar, Lady Oscar...
										   			Like a man she can fight
But I was born with a destiny of roses	 She can fence and ride
Born to live in glory and passion.		  She makes miracles happen
														Can survive any danger
Roses, roses...									And still always remains a woman.
They bloom in dignity.
Roses, roses...									Lady Oscar...
They scatter in beauty.						 Always waiting for a new adventure
														Willing to dare it all
														Lady Oscar...
														All alone she walks through gloom and fire
														Without hesitation
														Lady Oscar...
														What she seeks is always truth and justice
														Lady Oscar...
														For the weak and the poor she would give her life

														Lady Oscar, Lady Oscar...
														With the wind of great freedom in her open hair
														Lady Oscar, Lady Oscar...
														Like an angel who frees the world from fear and hatred
														Ready for any battle
														And still she always remains lady-like.
The weird thing is that the German theme is oddly sexist in a couple of places when it switches from talking about how awesome Oscar is to throwing in lines about her "still" being a woman and lady-like (the latter isn't even true, really, within the context of the show), as if that's somehow at odds with everything that was listed before. I do like the sound of the "angel who frees the world" line in German, but it's also the emotional climax of the song, so it's easy to like that line.

Anyway, even though I still like the German version, it has started to appear to me in a new light as I've gotten older.

As a bonus, I'll leave you with an embarrassing recording of me and my sister attempting to sing the Japanese theme song using the English translation. It's not pretty.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

Post by Jubbers »

You guys have great laughs :D

I really love the Japanese theme. It's been stuck in my head ever since I started watching the show. If roses appear on the Japanese Language Test this year, especially in a beautifully scattering context, I'll be all set :D

I'm generally very fond of the enka-like songs appearing in the anime of the 1970s. Galaxy Express 999 also has some beautiful ones.
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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There seems to be a pattern, at least with German versions of anime theme songs, to change the melodies to be more upbeat and to make the lyrics revolve more around the protagonist of the show. It makes sense, I suppose, if you're trying to make it easier for viewers to jump into a show without having watched it from the beginning. The intro gives you a quick summary of the character's background and sort of catches you up on things you need to know. It's the TMNT or Darkwing Duck approach to theme songs.

Below is another example of an anime I used to watch in Germany and then rewatched in my late teens or early twenties. It's called Attack, No. 1 (German title: Mila Superstar), and it's what got me interested in volleyball when I was a kid.





The vocalist in the German version sounds a lot like the vocalist in the Lady Oscar theme. The song itself is all right - it's kind of cheesy but catchy. When I heard the Japanese theme for the first time, though, I was just blown away. There is a sentimentality and pathos to it that instantly spoke to me. I also like the 60s-style music - you know, the brass interjections and the touches of surf rock in the guitar parts. All that combined with the slow build-up from the quiet introduction to the culmination in the emphatic chant "ataaku ataaku nambaa wan" makes for an awesome song.

Back in the post-Napster days of Kazaa, LimeWire, and eMule, I came across a cover version of the Japanese song by a band called Go!Go!7188. While I was looking for videos of the Japanese opening theme on YouTube, I actually came across a recording of a live performance of that version!



I think I'm in love. *swoon*
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

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They still haven't apologised!!!
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Re: Fun Japanese Things

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Who? The former Axis Powers?

The Italians gave us Roberto Benigni. I think maybe they thought that was something like an apology.
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