Paul “Otaking” Johnson is causing a bit of a stir with his half-hour Youtube documentary about why modern fansubbers are inferior to the older fansubs and official translations. He makes some excellent points, but I want to talk more about the translation philosophy he espouses–because it’s also been at the heart of debates over the main text I work with in translation, the Bible. Johnson’s views are a bit one-sided, even extreme, and I want to demonstrate why there needs to be a balance.

(The video above is only part 1; see parts 2, 3, 4, and 5. Also, be warned: this article is LONG, heavy on Biblical examples, and short on pictures. So for those of you who are tempted to comment as such, I’ll say it for you right now on your behalf: tl;dr.)

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Almost two weeks ago–forever in Internet time, I know–I went to a live taping of Ramen Revolution, a late-night TV show on local channel KSCI that just started. It was one of the stranger episodes in my years of fandom. (See Benu and Dancing Queen’s posts about this.)

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I finished “Blame!” yesterday and I thought it was pretty good even though the gratuitous violence and the grim atmosphere became repetitive around chapter twenty. “Blame!” is set in a dystopian world where evil silicon monstrosities prey upon technologically illiterate humans stuck in a giant enclosed space. The main character is a special agent called “Killy” who destroys bulky silicon objects in his quest to find nature. If you identify with this character then you’ve been in front of the computer for too long. Get out of the cubicle, walk to a park, and exercise.

:)

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Many of you are no doubt aware that Gainax is not actually responsible for the Evangelion Rebuild movies. Instead, an Anno-created outfit called “Studio Khara” is the actual production company. I was wondering what “Khara” actually meant…until I saw a storyboard from the production. “Khara” is actually a Greek word (this might look funny if you don’t have a Greek font):

χαρα

(The first letter is a “chi” pronounced like “k.” Normally, it’s romanized as “ch” so had they said “chara,” I would have been tipped off earlier.)

“Chara” means “joy” in Greek. Being a seminarian with a tiny bit of knowledge of New Testament Greek, I checked my lexicon to see what NT passages would contain a prominent use of this word. I found a rather famous one, actually, in Luke 2:10:

γαρ ευαγγελιζομαι υμιν χαραν μεγαλην

Or, in English,

For I bring to you good news (euangelizomai) of great joy (charan megalein).

Euangelizomai, of course, is just the verb form of “proclaiming the good news (euangelion).”

So. Guess what project Studio Khara brings out first? That’s right, Evangelion. Coincidence? I think not.

Maybe Anno’s done his homework this time after all!

HT: KT + Anime, which inspired me to look this up.

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I’ve got a blog for it now, called “Word and Spirit.” I finally found the time to design and open it up. After the last major foray into some good old fashioned systematic theology on this blog caused an unexpected stir, I’ve been plotting how I was going to do this. Now it’s finally a reality.

So save your bookmarks, those who are interested in what I do when I’m not doing anime: http://wordandspirit.imagria.com. This is the first and last time I’ll be taking up your blog aggregators about this, so act fast. You only get these kinds of posts when one of the bloggers is a seminarian!

Thanks, everyone–and now, back to anime and manga.

(PS: this will not affect Art and Soul, my religion and anime audio column. That will continue to be hosted here.)

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From ANN -

Japanese Mall Uses Gundam Figure in Olympic Tribute

A shopping center in the Japanese town of Ise has installed a 4-meter (13-foot) tall statue of the Mobile Suit Gundam anime’s RX-78-2 robotic mecha with a banner wishing good luck to Japan’s Mizuki Noguchi at the upcoming Beijing Olympics…

Ray’ s Take: …What? Gundam playing sports, maybe? Or G Gundam fighting tournament? But…this is running!!! Give  her a Jogging Gundam or something! RX-78 can’t run!

What connection?

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From ANN -

Shikabane Hime Confirmed as Gainax’s new TV Series

…confirmed that Gainax’s new television series will be Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess) this fall…

Ray’s take: I saw the manga and I wasn’t all that impressed. A little big more background on the story: Makina the heroine herself was killed by a undead and then she was “raised” by her trainer/handler the Buddhist monk guy (I forgot his name) in vengeance (don’t they all do that). The undead here aren’t necessarily zombies, and they are undead because of their left over desire. Again, I think the art in the manga was up to par, the story for some reason wasn’t all that impressive. There was a lot of gore and a lot of action. I suppose the character dynamic was good and once again, the villain wants to destroy a certain order in the world to create his own because of certain traumatizing event in his past.

Some magical Japanese style Buddhist sorcery goes on plus machine guns, swords and undead attacks and well, you get the idea. Not that I’m not recommending it, but I guess for me, it was all right.

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Naruto is in the doldrums. The storyline in Bleach is in the middle of a flashback, and the next volume of FMA won’t be released for another two weeks. With little to write about I followed the recommendation of one of my commentators to check out the series “Blame!” I’m glad I did. Despite its title “Blame!” is NOT about the Bush presidency or the consequences of the Iraq War. It is a mistranslation, onomatopoetic for a loud noise or an explosion.

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Commodity bodies galore, in this long awaited episode of Kaiba.

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What a twist!

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