This Day In Videos You Should Watch

I like the idea of calling my posts "Today In," but I don't want things to get repetitive. So I changed "today" to "this day" because for some reason I thought that was better!

Anyway, here are some videos that I've been watching lately. Mind you, I don't really watch videos that often, so the selection is kind of slim pickin's. (Do people use that phrase? I feel a little strange using it.)

Trololololo

This is a popular meme, and for good reason. It's really funny. Also, the song is so catchy; it's always stuck in my head. ALWAYS. ._. I think the best part of this is his face when he's singing. I'm pretty sure he's lip-syncing, because his mouth doesn't move at ALL. AT ALL! Watch it! It won't move!

Pacey-Con with Joshua Jackson

Pacey-Con with Joshua Jackson from Joshua Jackson

Pacey was the best character in Dawson's Creek, hands down, even if he was a little frightening and was the one that I'd vote "Most Likely to Murder the Other Characters in Their Sleep." So it wouldn't surprise me if there actually WAS a Pacey-Con. Sadly, there isn't, but Joshua Jackson tries his darnedest to start one. We should get this guy in some comedies. He has the "Clueless Egotist" part down pat.

30 Rock, Therapy with Jack and Tracy

An oldie but a goodie. This is the single greatest scene from 30 Rock. It's from the episode "Rosemary's Baby," which is in season 2 (the single greatest season of 30 Rock :D). The episode is pretty forgettable until you get to this scene. It cements the already-obvious fact that JACK DONAGHY IS ONE OF THE GREATEST CHARACTERS IN TV HISTORY. EVER.

 Justin Bieber in "The Great Escape"

That's my title for it, at least. Basically Biebs tries to flee from a mob of pubescent girls with raging hormones who are willing to do absolutely anything for him on a Segway. Is it just me or does J. Biebs have some funky priorities? He's willing to call some chick who doesn't even like him, apparently, his "baby, baby, baby, ooh" and tell her "one time that [he] loves [her]" but then when he actually meets girls that are interested in him, he flees! Makes you wonder.

"World News" by Local Natives

This is one of my favorite songs on their album, Gorilla Manor. Well, actually, I like all of the songs. "Cards and Quarters" and "Cubism Dream" are my least favorites, but even those I like. Anyway, this is one really, really weird video! But watching that little kid lip-sync to the song is enjoyable.

Auto-Tune the News: Bed Intruder Song

 

I LOVE Auto-Tune the News. Every episode of it is just awesome. (I think I'm going to rank the episodes some time. Just because I can.) Anyway, apparently this video of a guy being interviewed about some local rapist is making its rounds, and the Auto Tune the News guys (and girl) did their take on it. Obviously, it's amazing. SO CATCHY. "Hide your kids, hide your wife! Hide your kids, hide your wife!"

"Kiss" by Sandara Park Cover

Don't know who Sandara Park is? WHO CARES? This song is SERIOUSLY catchy. This is a cover that my friend did. She does dubs of different J-Pop/K-Pop, etc. songs on YouTube, so you should check out her other stuff! I JUST WANNA KISS I NEVER WANNA MISS~

So, those are my video recommendations for the day. Take them with a grain of salt because, honestly, what do I know? (Although if you don't even so much as grin at the 30 Rock video, I'd venture a guess that you have no soul.)

"More like one Yosuke and one awesome Yosuke."

What are some of the best ways to procrastinate on your AP American essay?  "Video games." "Reading comics."

Well, a comic based on Persona 4, a game with which I procrastinated so contently for hours upon hours over the last few days, combines those two methods into one extremely funny one.

"What's Persona 4 about?" you ask as you chew on your disgusting pencil, laden with bite marks, its point surprisingly sharp as the pencil waves up and down in the air while you bite. I suppose I should humor you and tell you. The Persona series is an off-shoot of the Shin Megami Tensei series.

"Um, that doesn't help," you say in a mocking way, exploding into laughter so obnoxious that it takes every ounce of self-restraint in my wee body to keep myself from punching you (lightly) in your face. Fine then. The SMT series is, as a whole, a dungeon-crawling RPG where you play as teenage characters (usually) and try and convince demons to work with you so that you can destroy other demons. The Persona series is only marginally like that. The first one was, but no one likes it.

The 3rd and 4th ones are probably the most popular; they're at least the most accessible. Both are for the PS2, which means that millions of people have access to playing them. So Persona 3 started the new trend where you play as a silent high school protagonist who has the unique ability to awaken several different Personas (as a Latin student, or as I call us, Latineer, I'm trying not to correct this and write "Personae" but I digress). Then you meet other people who also can awaken a Persona (but not more than one like you can! Losers) and you can become friends with them. Befriending people, in your party or otherwise, helps you advance your social links, which in turn helps you make better Personas.

Get it now? Good.

The comic is by someone named Peachi, who posts it on her livejournal, which is called hiimdaisy. Most people refer to her as hiimdaisy, as such, because most people thought that other most people named their LJ accounts after what they like to be called on the Internet, but apparently not! Click the link now, please, for Part 1. And make sure you open it in a new tab because I'm not done talking yet!

Basically Peachi is a huge fan of Persona and other games that I love, because who isn't? She makes fun of the game while also celebrating its sheer hilarity. While the game is mostly serious, it does have a ton of really funny moments that she sends up so well. The characters are really well-defined in the Persona games, and so it makes it really easy for her to completely parody them.

Because Peachi's work is so well-done -- well-written, well-drawn -- it's made its way around the Internet to people who have played and loved the game as well as people who haven't played it, but have played their fair share of RPGs to get the humor.

The comic is pretty spoilerific, so I must admit that I've only read as far as I've gotten to in the game, which admittedly is only up to the summer vacation part. (That's about 15 hours into the game, heh.) Some of the foreshadowing is really hilarious though, like in the part to your left, after the guy goes away, Chie (the obligatory tomboyish character and possible love interest; best friend of the much lusted after Yuki, seen trying not to freak here) just says something like, "Good thing we'll never see him again!" Of course, that means we will see him again. I'm really dreading that part. Look at him. LOOK AT HIM. He's so creepy.

Yeah. Well, in a very awkward transition, this comic has gotten so big that there are even very funny dubs of it on Youtube. The voice acting is unbelievably good, as is the editing. Check it out, it really conveys the comics well:

And that's just Part 1, kiddies!

I hope you enjoy the comic/dubs of the comic, because if you do, you get a really shiny gold star. And you can continue to be my friend. Because you're ALL my friends! Even you, obnoxious laughing one. Your obnoxious laughing is an endearing character trait. (Haha, that's a reference, guys! You totally get it, right? ...Guys?)

You know, on a side note, it's very hard for me to eloquently and humorously gush about the things I enjoy. It's a problem. If anyone can help me through this troubling issue that I must live with every day, it would be much appreciated. TEACH ME HOW TO BE FUNNY WHILE ALSO POSITIVE. D:

Things That Are Excrutiating

(That is probably not the best title for a blog that you are trying to get people to read, but, um, oh well?)

So. Hi. How are you? Yeah, okay, I don't care that much.

Let's talk about dubs. But first, a preface. I like a lot of things (hence the relative lack of focus in this blog), but two things I really like are video games and anime. YES. VIDEO GAMES AND ANIME. This may seem weird to you, but really, it isn't. I grew up during the height of the "anime with video game tie-ins" craze. People in the 80s had the anime "secretly" selling toys one, and we 90s kids had the anime secretly selling video games, toys, and, um, school buses one.

A lot of fellow video game and anime fans, albeit much more grotesque and irritating ones (yes, there are indeed people more irritating than me!), whine about English dubs. Dubs are, of course, dubbing or translating from one language into another, and since most anime and video games (at least, video games that whiny anime fans play) are Japanese, they have to be dubbed into English. A lot of these fans think that the Japanese or original dub is "lyke sooooo much better desu." Personally, I like a lot of English dubs, or at least tolerate them. But the following examples would probably sound better in their original language.

ANIME THAT SOUND LIKE PEOPLE TRYING TO DIE

One Piece is really popular in Japan. It's one of the top 3 most popular anime, in fact. It never reached that same success here in America.

This is why.

Oh. Oh, dear. That...that isn't good, is it? No. Not at all. One Piece is one of the many anime that is well-liked in its original language by weeaboo masses that was mutilated by 4Kids entertainment. Chances are, if you've ever seen an anime on TV, it was dubbed by 4Kids, and that's exactly why you hate it.

I don't care about the show in the first place, though, so it's dub is more funny to me than anything else. That doesn't mean it's not horrible, though!

Cardcaptor Sakura, on the other hand, is actually a completely awesome manga, and the anime in its original language is also ah-mazin'. However, those darn Canadians decided to turn it into a pile of worthless junk. They called it Cardcaptors. 

You probably have no idea what's going on here. I could try to explain it to you but you'd probably start laughing at me the second I said "ten year old girl," so I won't bother. All you really need to know is that this dub is horrible, but I think you and your bleeding ears get that.

There's even a whole series on YouTube dedicated to bad anime dubs! Here's one example.

Cyborg 009! Bro, I totally watched that show on Toonami back in the day! It wasn't this dub, though; thankfully, they redubbed it to make it more tolerable. But if I was 8 in 1988 and not 2001 and was watching this dub instead, I probably would be in a psych ward by now. Well, maybe not.

OMG BONUS TAIMU DESU! That's what I would say if I looked like this. But I don't, so I'm just going to show you this bonus clip without introduction. (Although it's from that 4Kids dub of One Piece. That's all.)

VIDEO GAMES THAT SOUND SIMILAR TO A VERY ILL MAN'S PUKING

I'm going to get this one out of the way first. I love Final Fantasy X. I love it so, so, so much. I played it for ~20 hours in one week, and I never do that (with any game that doesn't start with "Pokemon," anyway). It is so good that I want to go play it right now!

The one bad thing about it? This scene.

I think I like how the user called Tidus "Baboon" the most about this video. Tidus is kind of an idiot, but I still like him. Um, except for in this horrible little piece of programming. Bleh.

Chaos Wars had no chance. Sure, it actually got some surprisingly decent reviews, but it was yet another faceless tactical RPG in a sea of already extremely niche PS2 TRPGs. Its dub really doesn't help, as it might very well be the worst I've ever heard (apparently it was done by some guy who worked at the publishing company's relatives!).

I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW ANYONE CAN BE THIS BAD AT VOICE ACTING. And why does Uru sound so stereotypically gay?! "I don't really want yo' twisted love. I really don't." I MEAN, WHAT? Seriously. HORRIBLE.

Oh, wait, did I say Chaos Wars has the worst dub ever? I was wrong. This "game" does.

I could try to tell you why this is so bad, but it would either take me years or I would start frothing at the mouth in mere seconds due to my even speaking the name of this abomination. And this clip isn't even the worst of them! Any idiot who paid money for this adventure in wasting time is a sad, sad person and probably will never touch a video game ever again, which is too bad really.

I mean, technically, this isn't a dub in the same way that FFX and Chaos Wars are, but I think it's worth posting for its sheer mediocrity. Besides, the first time I saw it I thought they were dubbing it from some European language.

I'm sorry that I hurt your ears, but if it's any consolation, mine hurt even more -- I had to find these clips AND watch them all the way through AND I watched other clips in between. If you'll excuse me, there's a nice Vicodin with my name on it. (Not really! But there is a little stuffed Pikachu I can rest my head on. Good night.)

P.S. Please, remember that not all English dubs are bad. As I said before, I actually like a lot of them. But sometimes they really are undeniably horrible.