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Jun. 7th, 2009 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonfareI took Beau to the vet yesterday. Poor guy, he's been feeling bad for a while now, but we ignored him because he wasn't in pain (or so we thought) and we had Itso's last days on our mind. However, we did notice that Beau was spending about 90% of his time sleeping, and the rest of it sitting by the waterbowls. So I took him in, fearing the worst. Ha. His arthritis is bad (whose isn't?) and he's got a bad ear infection (he's prone to those), but otherwise he's fine. So I have stuff to stick in his ears (he loves that - NOT), and another idea for his arthritis. I was trying daily Cosequin powder, but it was impossible to get it down him. Believe me, I tried everything. Even when I mixed it with fish oil and rubbed it on his paws, he went to the other cats to get it licked off. *sigh* However, 1/2 a baby aspirin twice a week will help him, according to my vet, and I can shove pills down his throat. So I hope in a few weeks he'll be livelier.
I spent the rest of yesterday working on the name change for AL. I'm a bit startled at how many places the name had to be changed, and, of course, now my lovely image from Sher for the main page is useless. I "patched" it, since it'll be a while before I can replace it. :( All her logos will probably be useless, too. If I had thought of that before, I might not have changed the name! I'm not sorry I changed it, however. At least now, before I tell someone about the site, I don't have to explain that it's not exactly what it sounds. Tonight I will have to upload 5000+ files, not counting images from the updates, since the title is in the header of every page.
I recently bought the director's cut of the Kenshin OVAs and watched it this week. What a stupid title "Samurai X" is. I suppose you could say that Kenshin was a samurai, since he took on a last name during the time he was Battousai, but that's stretching it a bit. And Samurai X sounds like science fiction or something. Feh. "Trust and Betrayal", now, that's a good subtitle.
I actually watched it twice, first dub, then sub. My strong advice to everyone is, watch the sub. The dub leaves out or changes some really significant things! I don't normally watch the sub, but I always do for a story I'm writing, and let me tell you, the changes in translation for Cowboy Bebop aren't all that great, but in this one...! Jeez, they even changed the scene which explained why Tomoe cut Kenshin's cheek, leaving that a mystery!
Otherwise, it left me feeling pretty much the same as the first time I watched it. I am sorry, but to me, Tomoe is a drip. I understand her place in Kenshin's life, much better now than I did before, and I don't dislike her, but the girl had NO personality. Nada, zip, none. Compared to her, even Kenshin, who was pretty much shut away in his shell, came across as more human. Heck, maybe that's the reason they leeched her personality away, so that she would highlight Kenshin without distracting from him.
I had a lot more fun watching the historical aspects this time, especially the Shinsengumi, after Peacemaker and having seen the RK series so recently. That's another place the dub screwed up, a quick but significant exchange between Saitoh and Okita. While fighting Kenshin, Okita coughed up blood, and Saitoh stepped in. In the dub, he essentially says, "You can't handle a man with this much blood on his hands", whereas in the sub, he says he could smell blood (what Okita coughed up) and knew Okita was hampered by his illness. Very different! Another thing I realized this time that I did not last time I saw this OVA, is why Saitoh and Kenshin met many times without ever killing each other. Duh, Kat, it was after Kenshin quit being an assassin, and killing wasn't his primary purpose. That explains a lot about Saitoh (and Kenshin's reaction to him) at the beginning of the Kyoto arc.
I still do not understand the infatuation this OVA's fans have with the art. Yes, the animation is superb, and the fight scenes are amazing. But the actual artwork, while good, is not outstanding IMO, and I loathe the character designs. Nearly all the characters look alike - in the dark, Kenshin and Tomoe were interchangeable, and the members of the clans looked so much alike that I needed the uniforms to tell them apart, including twins for Kondo and Katsura. Sheesh.
Of course, the reason I watched it was for Hiko, and I will admit that I liked the dub's "I have thrown my pupil to the wolves" better than the sub. And that reminds me of another dub screw-up - in the dub, Kenshin tells Tomoe she was the only person who ever wanted him for himself, rather than what he could do for them, and in the sub, that is not there. Good thing, since the ghosts of Kenshin's parents would probably object, as would Hiko (with less reason, I'm sure), and I'd have to throw out all my Hikaru stories or consider Kenshin a real ingrate. So... don't watch the dub, folks.
But where I was originally going with this is to mention something![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coastal_spirit and I had talked about, which was that, at the end of the Kyoto arc, it seems that Hiko knew about Tomoe, as indicated in the scene at Tomoe's grave. At the end of this OVA is a scene where Hiko comes across the marker Kenshin left for Tomoe, the cross with the mantle looped over it. Although Hiko doesn't say anything, I believe that, by his expression, he was completely aware of the significance of that. And pleased. Naturally, since the only way he could teach Kenshin the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki was to be sure that Kenshin wanted to live, and that was a good sign that Kenshin was taking that path.
OK, shutting up now.
I spent the rest of yesterday working on the name change for AL. I'm a bit startled at how many places the name had to be changed, and, of course, now my lovely image from Sher for the main page is useless. I "patched" it, since it'll be a while before I can replace it. :( All her logos will probably be useless, too. If I had thought of that before, I might not have changed the name! I'm not sorry I changed it, however. At least now, before I tell someone about the site, I don't have to explain that it's not exactly what it sounds. Tonight I will have to upload 5000+ files, not counting images from the updates, since the title is in the header of every page.
I recently bought the director's cut of the Kenshin OVAs and watched it this week. What a stupid title "Samurai X" is. I suppose you could say that Kenshin was a samurai, since he took on a last name during the time he was Battousai, but that's stretching it a bit. And Samurai X sounds like science fiction or something. Feh. "Trust and Betrayal", now, that's a good subtitle.
I actually watched it twice, first dub, then sub. My strong advice to everyone is, watch the sub. The dub leaves out or changes some really significant things! I don't normally watch the sub, but I always do for a story I'm writing, and let me tell you, the changes in translation for Cowboy Bebop aren't all that great, but in this one...! Jeez, they even changed the scene which explained why Tomoe cut Kenshin's cheek, leaving that a mystery!
Otherwise, it left me feeling pretty much the same as the first time I watched it. I am sorry, but to me, Tomoe is a drip. I understand her place in Kenshin's life, much better now than I did before, and I don't dislike her, but the girl had NO personality. Nada, zip, none. Compared to her, even Kenshin, who was pretty much shut away in his shell, came across as more human. Heck, maybe that's the reason they leeched her personality away, so that she would highlight Kenshin without distracting from him.
I had a lot more fun watching the historical aspects this time, especially the Shinsengumi, after Peacemaker and having seen the RK series so recently. That's another place the dub screwed up, a quick but significant exchange between Saitoh and Okita. While fighting Kenshin, Okita coughed up blood, and Saitoh stepped in. In the dub, he essentially says, "You can't handle a man with this much blood on his hands", whereas in the sub, he says he could smell blood (what Okita coughed up) and knew Okita was hampered by his illness. Very different! Another thing I realized this time that I did not last time I saw this OVA, is why Saitoh and Kenshin met many times without ever killing each other. Duh, Kat, it was after Kenshin quit being an assassin, and killing wasn't his primary purpose. That explains a lot about Saitoh (and Kenshin's reaction to him) at the beginning of the Kyoto arc.
I still do not understand the infatuation this OVA's fans have with the art. Yes, the animation is superb, and the fight scenes are amazing. But the actual artwork, while good, is not outstanding IMO, and I loathe the character designs. Nearly all the characters look alike - in the dark, Kenshin and Tomoe were interchangeable, and the members of the clans looked so much alike that I needed the uniforms to tell them apart, including twins for Kondo and Katsura. Sheesh.
Of course, the reason I watched it was for Hiko, and I will admit that I liked the dub's "I have thrown my pupil to the wolves" better than the sub. And that reminds me of another dub screw-up - in the dub, Kenshin tells Tomoe she was the only person who ever wanted him for himself, rather than what he could do for them, and in the sub, that is not there. Good thing, since the ghosts of Kenshin's parents would probably object, as would Hiko (with less reason, I'm sure), and I'd have to throw out all my Hikaru stories or consider Kenshin a real ingrate. So... don't watch the dub, folks.
But where I was originally going with this is to mention something
coastal_spirit and I had talked about, which was that, at the end of the Kyoto arc, it seems that Hiko knew about Tomoe, as indicated in the scene at Tomoe's grave. At the end of this OVA is a scene where Hiko comes across the marker Kenshin left for Tomoe, the cross with the mantle looped over it. Although Hiko doesn't say anything, I believe that, by his expression, he was completely aware of the significance of that. And pleased. Naturally, since the only way he could teach Kenshin the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki was to be sure that Kenshin wanted to live, and that was a good sign that Kenshin was taking that path.OK, shutting up now.