It Is Imperative to Buy Physical Media

By now, readers are probably aware of the outrage over the soon-to-be published Bowdlerizations of the works of both Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming. Two very different authors, the first is the writer of several well-known children’s books, especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the second is the author of the James Bond novels.

To make perfectly clear where I personally stand, I detest the work of both these men. James Bond is a disgusting pig of a character; I have hated every Bond movie I’ve seen, and when I read Casino Royale to give Bond one more chance to entertain me, I found it boring as well as disgusting. And as for Dahl, I have always found him too mean-spirited for a children’s author.

But that isn’t the point. Disliking these men’s work does not give me or anyone else the right to change what they wrote. Trying to eliminate “offensive” content from them would utterly change the character of their books: If Dahl is no longer allowed to call anyone fat and ugly, and if Fleming is no longer allowed to write about a drunken, philandering misogynist, then all of their novels will be reduced to about two pages in length.

The jackbooted censors who are in charge of the new, bloodless editions of these men’s work have their excuses, of course. They always have excuses. Puffin (Dahl’s publisher) has pointed out that Dahl himself revised his work over the course of his life, but that is obviously a motte-and-bailey argument: The censors are destroying the man’s work on the thin excuse that he himself sometimes revised it. Given his importance in the history of children’s literature, it is obvious that what they ought to do is release critical editions comparing and contrasting the changes Dahl made, not release a censored edition in which they make further changes themselves.

The excuse for altering Fleming’s work is even thinner: The first American edition of Casino Royale was censored, so we might as well turn around and censor everything else, right? That argument is too stupid even to rebut.

Notably, the tabloid Daily Mail discovered that the chief censor working on the Dahl books describes herself as a “non-binary, asexual, polyamorous relationship anarchist who is on the autism spectrum.” That is enough to demonstrate that the alterations to Dahl’s work were not done innocently without ideological motivation. Note especially the pairing of asexual and polyamorous: The English language is allegedly this woman’s job, but she has no concern with the actual meaning of words.

And as for Fleming, the Telegraph reveals some of the alterations. In Live and Let Die, Bond visits a strip club, giving Fleming occasion to write:

Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry.

The new version instead reads:

Bond could sense the electric tension in the room.

Whatever one thinks of Bond, the new version is nerveless and clichéd. This is why you don’t mess with other people’s books. And what exactly is the reason for this change? What exactly offended the “sensitivity reader”? I thought feminists liked to call men pigs, and Bond is especially deserving of such an epithet, so what is the problem here? The answer is that there is no answer: “Non-binary, asexual, polyamorous relationship anarchists” do not have actual principles; their offendedness is as random as their self-descriptions are.

We can say this, at least: Things are not yet as bad as they are going to get, so there is still time, but the time is growing short. Right now, the censoring of two famous authors is enough to cause widespread outrage, but it should also provoke some questions: How many other, lesser-known authors have been similarly censored without outrage? How many more authors will be censored? How long until the outrage peters out and the censors can march forward unimpeded?

We must buy physical books. We must build ourselves collections of the works we want to preserve. Every one of us must become an archivist. And it is not important only to save literature. We must save older dictionaries and grammar books as well because these same censors are working to corrupt the language, and they have been wildly successful. Get dictionaries and grammar books from 1989 or before; that seems to be the cut-off point after which the institutions were captured.

And as for older copies of now-censored books or books out of print, my opinion on this matter is rapidly changing: I once opposed any violation of copyright, but I now suspect that some copyright-holders do not have a moral right to the properties they own. So now I am tempted to say, scan and share the banned Dr. Seuss books. Scan and share your Roald Dahl novels, your James Bond novels. Bit-torrent the despecialized editions of the original Star Wars movies. And thumb your nose at the copyright holders.

I am not quite there yet. But I am rapidly approaching.

‘Creamy Mami’ on Amazon Prime

Long-time readers know I have a “no pirating” rule, so a lot of classic anime has been closed to me. Some years ago, it came to my attention that a fan-funded DVD of the classic Magical Angel Creamy Mami had been released. Alas, I missed the window of opportunity to purchase it, so this title quickly sank back into unavailability.

I recently discovered that it has cropped up on Amazon Prime Video. This was likely announced somewhere, but I missed it. I am reminded of the odd event from some years ago in which the long-lost Harmony Gold localization of Minky Momo quietly and mysteriously appeared on Amazon streaming and then disappeared again just as mysteriously and quietly. Some other magical girls, such as Lyrical Nanoha, have also disappeared from Amazon without explanation.

That being said, I think it’s a good idea to watch Creamy Mami while it’s available. There’s no telling when it might not be.

Magical Angel Creamy Mami is probably the most famous and best-loved magical-girl title from the Studio Pierrot era. It was the first “mixed-media” magical-girl franchise and introduced the concept of the “magical girl idol,” the heroine who lives a double life as both an ordinary girl and as a pop star, a concept that has been recycled in everything from Jem and the Holograms to Hannah Montana. The show launched the musical career of its main voice actress.

First thing I’ll note about the show is that Amazon wants a hefty chunk of change for it. Since this was made in the days when anime was a more robust medium, it runs to a full fifty-two episodes, which is gigantic by today’s standards (but not even enough for syndication in the U.S. when it orginally aired). Amazon wants a cool eighty-four bucks for the “HD version,” which you don’t even get to own and keep. We must note that this is an obvious ripoff: Having been made in the early 1980s, this show cannot be in high-definition, and no amount of tweaking can make it into genuine high-definition. The SD version, however, is half the price of the HD version. Since the “HD” version shouldn’t even exist, buy the SD version instead. The price is still too high, but it’s at least not obscene.

New ‘Madoka Magica’ Movie Announced

 

There is a new trailer now available for a second sequel to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the magical-girl title from Studio Shaft that reshaped the magical-girl genre.

This new movie is entitled, deep breath, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Movie: Walpurgis no Kaiten. I assume an official English-language release, when and if it happens, will bring the title back into line with the other English-language titles (i.e., have “Puella Magi” instead of “Mahou Shoujo”).

No release date appears to be available as of this writing.

This is the fourth movie. The first two were a reshaping of the twelve-episode television series, and the third, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion was a sequel, which famously reversed the first’s already controversial themes. The creators indicated at the time that they did not consider the story complete yet, so it is possible that this fourth film, which has been a long time in coming, will be the finale to the Madoka saga.

I have to admit I have never seen Rebellion. Not only is it harder to find in the U.S. than the original series is, but I have never bothered to look for it for the same reason I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch The Godfather: Part II. The original is such a masterpiece, and so complete in itself, that I feel no need to see it continue. The fate of Madoka at the end of the original show is about as final as a character’s fate can get, so I sincerely doubt there is any way to continue her story that will not feel contrived to me.

Also, I must admit that I am ambivalent about Madoka: It is unquestionably one of the greatest magical-girl stories of all time, but what it has done to the genre has not been good: It was followed by too many imitators eager to copy its angst or its violence without understanding the purpose of either. I once naïvely hoped that Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, which openly challenged Madoka’s themes, might close out the “Madoka era,” but that was not to be.

Perhaps the true answer to Madoka has not yet been made. Princess Tutu, which was created as an answer to Revolutionary Girl Utena, successfully refuted Utena’s ideas in part because it was Utena’s artistic equal. You can set those two shows side by side and note that both, though flawed, are excellent works that stand shoulder to shoulder. However, the series that can both answer Madoka and stand beside it unembarrassed has not yet been made.

‘Sailor Moon Eternal’ Headed to Netflix

Netflix just announced that Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie (yes, that is the title) will be available worldwide on . I’m crossing my fingers that the original Japanese will be available in the U.S.

This movie is a sequel to the troubled Sailor Moon Crystal series, which sought to hew closer to its source material than the much-beloved Nineties anime did. Poor animation and several other bad choices hindered it. The movie, at least, is likely to have a higher quality than the television series, or so we hope—I can’t help but notice that the teaser trailer is nothing but transformations and attacks, which always have the most impressive animation in a magical-girl show. So we’ll have to wait and see whether the rest of the film is as good.

As you may recall, I have previously discussed Sailor Moon Super S, which is the original anime’s interpretation of this same story arc. Fans generally consider Super S the weakest entry in the Nineties anime, so it will be interesting to see how Eternal the Movie compares. It will, at least, have a lower bar to clear than Sailor Moon Crystal did.

The Importance of Owning Physical Media: Amazon Censors Manga

Amazon has grown increasingly censorious in recent days. The online sales giant became huge by offering anything and everything, but over the past few years, it has, like the other tech giants, begun banning content.

Once a corporation gets a taste for censorship, it will steadily grow more censorious: As I previously discussed, Amazon in 2020 began banning light novels, apparently at random. Then, of course, they coordinated with Twitter, Google, and Apple to delete the microblogging platform Parler from the internet. More recently still, they banned Ryan Anderson’s book, When Harry Became Sally, because it criticized the new religion.

In recent days, I have taken to downloading manga on my Kindle because it’s convenient and cheaper than print. I have a few series I’ve followed that way. Recently, as I was looking over my digital copies of the harem manga We Never Learn, I noticed volume 3 was missing from my collection even though I had purchased and read it. So I checked the Amazon store; it is gone from Amazon entirely, both in print and digitally.

I contacted Amazon, and the tech to whom I spoke eventually told me the book was no longer available, and then he told me this gem:

Screenshot of chat conversation

I slightly regret my emotional incontinence, which I directed at a mere underpaid staffer who is not privy to the reason my property had been taken from me. He did not know why Amazon had deleted a book from my personal library without notice or explanation.

Screenshot of chat conversation

He told me that the availability of the book was up to the “author or content owner,” sidestepping the uncomfortable fact that it is also up to Amazon itself—which has considerably more power—and also sidestepping the fact that Amazon had not merely stopped selling the book but destroyed my copy.

The book, by the way, is still available on Barnes & Noble as of this writing, which indicates that this is an act of censorship on Amazon’s part. As with the previously censored light novels, we will probably never know the reason for sure, but it likely has to do with someone getting offended by the swimsuit on the cover.

We Never Learn Volume 3

This is not the first time Amazon has destroyed customers’ property. Back when the Kindle was new, Amazon revealed that it has the power to delete digital books from our possession without explanation: It famously deleted copies of 1984 right off people’s devices.

The guy I talked to didn’t know why my book had disappeared, nor is there any reason he should. The point of all this, however, is that, when you buy digital, you don’t assume the full control you have when you buy analog, especially in an age of streaming and constant internet connections, an age when our overlords want us to “own nothing and be happy.”

Had I spent the extra money for print copies of this manga, I would still have the whole series without gaps in it; Amazon can delete stuff off my device but can’t break into my house and raid my shelves—yet.

Given how censorious Amazon is becoming, buying print books is increasingly important. This little example of censorship involves a trivial work; its disappearance annoys me, but I won’t shed tears over it. There are, however, much more important and substantial books that will eventually be in our overlords’ crosshairs, and the day will come suddenly when, as with those six Dr. Seuss books, you simply won’t be able to get them at all, anywhere.

Netflix Pisses Off Pretty Much Everybody with ‘Cuties’

As you can see from the meme collage at the head of this post, the streaming service Netflix absolutely loves it some dirty, sexy kids. In the last couple of days, this fact has become apparent not just to the few edgelords talking about it on /pol/, but to everybody, as Netflix has advertised its acquisition of a French movie called Cuties, which made it big at Sundance.

What’s remarkable is that, although Cuties has a handful of defenders, this is one case where almost everyone seems to be pissed off. The left-right divide, over this one film, has evaporated: Everyone is angry. For a brief moment, our fractured nation is united in mutual offendedness and outrage. Maybe now we can begin to heal.

What sparked the controversy is the poster Netflix chose to advertise the film—a poster notably different from the original French version, which Netflix apparently created on the unwise assumption that it would appeal more to American audiences. The poster has so outraged some that I have even seen an individual I admire and respect begging people not to share it, even to criticize. Because I don’t think we can talk about this without depicting, in some fashion, what we are talking about, I’ve decided to share the poster, but only after the break. Consider yourself warned.

This movie, Cuties in English and Mignonnes in French, is about a group of eleven-year-old girls who dance. That brief description sounds inoccuous, even charming, but wait until I tell you that the film achieved an NC-17 rating and will be rated TV-MA when it appears on Netflix next month. As you likely know, NC-17 is the rating that replaced X; this is an X-rated film about eleven-year-olds.

After the break comes the poster, and then I will discuss how Netflix chose to describe the movie, what people are mad about, and so forth.

Continue reading “Netflix Pisses Off Pretty Much Everybody with ‘Cuties’”

‘KissAnime’ Shuts Its Doors

The big news in weebdom is the complete shutdown of KissAnime and KissManga, two hugely popular pirate sites that fans of manga and anime have relied on to get content for free. This follows on the heels of Japan tightening its copyright laws.

Given the enormous popularity of these sites, this will have repercussions that remain to be seen.

American voice actors have been doing a lot to make themselves obnoxious lately, so they took this as another chance to show their lack of basic P.R. skills: Several took to Twitter (the internet’s home of celebrities behaving moronically) to rub salt in the wound and gloat over the fans who could no longer get their content from these sites. Of those I’ve seen, the most notable of these gloats is this one:

That’s from Alex Moore, who has done English dubs for Fire Force and Fairy Tail. To her credit, she later apologized for some of her language. Still, I think her comment is worth noting because she brings up one of the most compelling reasons to turn away from official translations and toward pirate sites and fansubs. I’ll quote it in case the tweet goes away and the image accompanying it disappears:

“But [PC culture/feminism/politics] of dubs ruins the show!”

No it doesn’t, you’re just an asshole. How many times have you heard someone yell “YOLO!” or “YEET!” Or mention a meme in a localization? It’s done to make it accessible and relevant, not be transliteral. (BTW, next liberal feminist Witch coven meeting is at BN’s.)

Notice what she’s doing here: People complain about messages that are not in the original material being wedged into that material, and her response is, first, that you’re an asshole, apparently because you disagree with her ideologically. This is a standard tactic of the Woke cult—either acquiesce to them on every last little jot and tittle or you lose your humanity card.

Second, she argues that trendy words should be wedged ham-fistedly into translations to be “relevant” and then, laughably, gives outdated examples: No one says “YOLO” anymore (thank goodness), and “yeet” is on its way out. Memes, generally, go stale within a few weeks after they appear. That’s why you shouldn’t screw around with translations this way: Because you’re dating your material, and chances are, you don’t know what the kids think is hep and happening anyway, even if you think you do.

Since she likes internet lingo so much, I’ll sum it up this way: What she writes here is Boomer-tier cringe.

She inadvertently makes the best case for piracy I’ve ever seen: “Yes, we are going to be unfaithful in our translations, and you’re going to like it, you asshole!”

To give an idea, of what she thinks is making a show “accessible” and “relevant,” this is the most infamous of altered translations, from a show called Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid:

Comparison of dub and sub of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

You can see that the dub has nothing to recommend it over the sub; it is not more comprehensible, not more “relevant” in its lingo. It is merely an example of someone thrusting a political agenda into a show that has nothing to do with it, simply because she can.

I’ve previously encountered this before: I have a review expressing my suspicions that VIZ inserted identity politics into Sailor Moon R: The Movie. I have since had confirmed that my suspicions were correct—but of course I knew I was correct to begin with because, unlike VIZ (and most of Sailor Moon’s Western feminist fanbase), I can grasp the worldview in which Sailor Moon was written and recognize lines that don’t belong to it. Those lines don’t make the show more “relevant” as Miss Moore asserts; they stick out like the proverbial sore thumb.


I can’t in good conscience approve of piracy: There’s a lot of anime I want but don’t have because I can’t get it legally. Despite this being a site about magical girls, you’ll notice I don’t talk about the latest Pretty Cure series; that’s because I can’t get them. I’d love to watch Sugar Sugar Rune or the Studio Pierrot shows from the 1980s, but I can’t acquire them legally, so I go without. Asking that people purchase things legally rather than steal, and go without if they cannot purchase legally, is not normally unreasonable, especially when those things are mere entertainments—normally.

I’m not actually prepared to approve piracy. But smug voice actresses make it tempting.

Anime Maru: ‘Magical Girl Recruitment Down’

I stumbled upon this recently, a satirical article from Anime Maru reporting that talking animal mascots have had a hard time recruiting new magical girls because of the increasingly dark tone of new magical girl anime.

I repost it mostly because I myself am a little tired of the dark turn in the genre since Puella Magi Madoka Magica and am ready for earnestly made but lighter fare.

With such challenges, many magical girl recruiting mascots have been forced to turn to drastic measures. It has been reported some are even going to alternative realities for recruiting, framing the opportunities they offer as isekei.

[More …]

‘Cleopatra in Space’ Final Volume and Television Series

A few years ago, I was reading and reviewing Cleopatra in Space, a junior graphic novel from Mike Maihack. I lost track of the series after I last changed jobs and towns, but since I reviewed volume 4, Maihack has released two subsequent volumes. The most recent volume, Queen of the Nile, is apparently the finale.

Also, there is a new animated series based on it, streaming on a service called Peacock. I can say nothing about it because I had not heard of Peacock, or this show, before just now.

I admit the clunky animation and pop music in the preview don’t give me high hopes:

Amazon Disappears Light Novels and Manga

Some time back, I mentioned that Amazon had developed a draconian new policy for its advertisements, forbidding ads for any books that feature firing guns or guns held by children on the cover. At the time, I said this was clearly an attempt to go after indie creators, and that Amazon would never enforce such a policy against, say, Japanese manga.

I was wrong.

In fact, it’s worse than that: Amazon isn’t just removing ads but removing books. Whole light-novel and manga series have been deleted from the platform silently and without explanation.

Several outlets have now reported on this, including Crunchyroll, Anime News Network, AniTAY, and Comicbook.com. Several translator-publishers have likewise announced the removal of their books.

This is apparently not limited to the U.S. Amazon but affects all Amazon portals outside Japan. Some of the publishers affected are fairly big players, too, including Yen Press and Darkhorse.

As Crunchyroll reports, publishers have tried to get in contact with Amazon to get the reasons for delisting, and Amazon has been less than forthcoming:

Pinansky said that despite multiple attempts over the last few months to get in contact with anyone on a review team at Kindle through email, they rang the support phone line and requested support tickets, doing so 10 or 12 times. “Phone support has no power to override or obtain any further information from Kindle Content Review.” Though all J-Novel Club got in response from Amazon after multiple nine-day waits are a generic email …

Because Amazon is not being transparent, we are left to speculate. The most likely reason is that Amazon is going after lolicon, and while such a purge would include a few of the titles that have been removed, some other, considerably tamer books are being removed as well. Someone in my mentions (no doubt with some exaggeration) said they were removing most anything that has a cute girl on the cover.

Most of what’s being purged, being light novels, is isekai, and while I personally dislike isekai, this censorship is still troubling: If they can throw these off the platform, they can start removing content for considerably more tenuous reasons.

“They came for the lolicons, and I did not speak out because I was not a child molestor,” and so forth.