Wednesday, August 19, 2009

[Update] Doctor, Doctor!

Goodday all.

I've spent the last week or so trying to get something completed. Namely the "Waraimeshi's Hero Show" episode. However while trying to translate it, I found myself just not being able to get through it. This is probably due to the amount of times I had to watch it while I was struggling through my software setup. I'm pretty sure I wound up watching the episode 10-15 times while trying to get both video, audio and the subtitles to work right. I wound up getting maybe 15-20% of the way into it before I just couldn't go on anymore. (Yes, that's only about 5 minutes) I just couldn't even watch it again. Maybe it just really isn't as epic as I thought I was when I put it on the forecast.

So I put on my imaginary doctor's outfit and tried to figure out why I can't get through it. The diagnosis: a minor case of Gaki Burnout! *Dun dun DUNNN!*

Okay, it's not just Gaki Burnout. It's life burnout.

{Beginning of long, boring story/excuse, which you can hit the "Read More!" button if you want to read}

This entire Spring and Summer, I'd been working an internship with a company, and near the end was told that I'd have to train an international team over in India as one of the projects I was working on was moved over there for maintenance. So, I'd been scrambling frantically, trying to create lesson plans and make sure that I explain everything clearly in the 2 hours a day where we can hold teleconferences together with them. So that's been quite the time-consumer and mind-wracker.

Some of you may remember that I mentioned a Japanese exchange student moving in down the hall from me. Well, at the end of Summer, they had to move everyone into different buildings for the new year so they can let new incoming students have spots in the dorms. Well, the exchange student wasn't assigned a new housing assignment. So they started sending him a long chain of correspondence containing an absurd amount words that were too long for him to understand when they just could have said "Go to building A on date B and talk to C." Not understanding what the letters said, he came over to my room, handed me the letter and said "Does this mean I will be homeless?" My person-in-need sensors, which I have a hard time ignoring, went off and I offered to help him sort out whether he would be without place of residence. Luckily it didn't, but it said that he had to go talk to all sorts of staff and faculty and take papers around to each one. So, I had to accompany him to quite a few of these meetings with faculty to serve as a horrible translator. (When I started learning Japanese, I thought that one day I might want to be a translator. At the moment, this experience has convinced me that I probably don't.)

After all that he was placed in a university-owned building off-campus about 4 miles away, much to his disliking as he would have rather stayed on-campus and doesn't have a car. However, luckily for him, I got assigned to the same building, so we spent Saturday packing, and Sunday renting a moving van to get to where we needed to go. Then I spent Monday on a flights back to my hometown for two weeks before classes start again, and then spent Tuesday unpacking and adjusting to jet-lag.

On the plane ride and downtime at the airport, I skipped ahead to the next video on the list "Matsumoto and Eri, II". I actually managed to start subbing it and am already nearly halfway through it. It looks like my Gaki Burnout was caused a lot by stress of just having to get through that lame episode.

{end of long, boring story/excuse}

So, due to some upcoming free time, I'm going to sub videos that come "naturally" to me instead of forcing through the ones that I no longer care for. I will probably also get around to putting up the manzai talk segments that I always say I'm going to put up but never have. You know, my usual "I'm going to wait until I put up the talk before I rate the episode" or my "I'll put up the talk portion soon" crap. Yeah, I'll get those up when I can.

However due to limited, slow, internet access where I'm at, these postings probably won't be on the "Wednesday-Sunday" schedule that I try to achieve. They'll probably go up whenever I get the time to hop over to the local coffee shop and bum off of their wireless for a while. Here's hoping I can shake off this case of GB! This is either going to help it or just make it worse. Anyways, thanks for reading and see you soon!

~David Read more!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Poll Results and Update!

Your votes have been cast, and we've found a winner for your favorite recurring episode theme! (Well, kinda. Not all the recurring themes were listed, and I'm pretty sure the real fan favorite would be the big New Year Batsu games.)

The results were surprising, to me at least, and I'll talk more about them after the jump, but first I'll talk about the updates! Whoo! Updating!
  • Posted this week's BBB, Bondage Angels, and last Sunday's episode that I forgot to post up, Kiki Nattou. Sorry about the neglect. Poor blog. *pets blogs softly to assuage the deep emotional scars*

  • Fixed my "Heya to Y-shatsu to Watashi" translation in my Everyone has a Song!" post to be more. . . um. . . translated. "Y-shirts" isn't actually a real word. It's more of a slang term or abbreviation for "white shirts". The "whi" part of "white" sounds like the letter "Y". So, I've changed that part of the translation, since that may not be common knowledge. Yeah.

  • Answered some neglected comments and did some clean up on the General Request Post.

  • Cleaned up the "Labels" section of the blog by removing labels for individual Gottsu Ee Kanji players. At least for now. I may add them back once they get some more substantial articles about them written here.

  • Fixed the subtitles and review for Ice Coffee Limit Check YET AGAIN to correct a misspelling of Vivian Hsu's name. It's correctly romanized as "Hsu", and not "Su" like I had it.

  • Got off my butt once again to actually create a review for the Ittsuji Shopping! episode.


Without further adieu, Ill get down to the result of the poll and my general reaction.

So over 200 people voted, and the results are in!

Your favorite recurring episode theme is: The Absolutely Tasty Series!

Here's a full list of the results and their vote count:

1.) Absolutely Tasty Series - 105 votes (47%)
2.) Matusmoto's Challenge - 83 votes (37%)
3.) Matsumoto Team vs Hamada Team - 67 votes (30%)
4.) Kiki series - 65 votes (29%)
5.) Shichihenge - 59 votes (26%)
6.) Cosplay Bus Tours - 47 votes (21%)
7.) Heipo's Dates - 38 votes (17%)
8.) Gaki Team vs Tennensouzai Team - 36 votes (16%)
9.) Genkai Series - 35 votes (15%)
10.) Itao's interruptions - 34 votes (14%)
11.) Goodbye, Yamazaki! series - 29 votes (13%)
12.) Regular Cast Member Auditions - 25 votes (11%)
13.) Yamazaki Vs. Moriman series - 21 votes (9%)
14.) Suga's Nostalgia series - 19 votes (8%)
15.) High Tension Series - 18 votes (8%)
16.) Yamaquest - 11 votes (5%)
17.) Member Chases - 7 votes (3%)
17.) Fishing Competitions - 7 votes (3%)
19.) Celebrity Baseball - 6 votes (2%)
20.) Picadilly Umeda series - 4 votes (1%)


I was fairly surprised at some of the results, but for the most part, I think there's not a lot to be shocked at here. The five I thought would make up the top five were the "Matsumoto Team vs Hamada Team", "Gaki Team vs Tennensouzai Team", "Shichihenge", "Yamazaki Vs. Moriman series" and the "Kiki series", since they are what brought Gaki to widespread internet fame. I was right on three of them, and ones I was wrong about weren't too bad.

Another bright spot, was the relatively low ranking of Yamaquest. At least I know that you guys don't see the something pertaining to Yamazaki and jump all over it. Although, I will admit that I do like these episodes. Although they are branded with Yamazaki's name, there's very little Yamazaki in them. "Try new Diet Gaki No Tsukai - Now with less Yama-chan!"

As far as surprises go, the biggest for me was the difference between the "Matsumoto Team vs Hamada Team" and "Gaki Team vs Tennensouzai Team" episodes in the poll. I mean, they are practically the same thing. They both use the same 10 people and they do pretty much similar evernts each time. The only real difference between the two is the arrangement of teams. I don't see what would be so different to make around 31 people vote for one but not the other.

Another mild surpise was. . . the winner. The Absolutely Tasty series? Really? I'm sure it belonged in the top half somewhere, but first place? What is it about it that makes it so good? I know it is pretty funny, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Watching them make foods that they know no one will ever want to eat and then having to choke it down themselves is hilarious. But I'd think things like "Yamazaki vs Moriman" or the "Cosplay Bus Tours" would be above it on the list. Is it because it's fairly easy to understand without subtitling?

As for the one in last place, Picadilly Umeda's shows, I would have thought it would have been above the absolutely boring episodes like the fishing and baseball episodes. Is it because you haven't seen an episode of it yet? Picadilly's really cool despite being really creepy when he takes his dentures out. He just walks up to ladies and starts fondling them. I think I've got an episode of Picadilly coming up on the list. I'd be interested in hearing your feelings and reactions after the episode goes up.

Overall, I might use this when preparing my episode plans. I wonder if some of these results are because of lack of exposure to some types of episodes. I might do this again later once I've had some of all of these episodes up. Other than that, if you'd like to enlighten me on your reasoning behind your choices, feel free. Thanks for participating in the poll and thanks for reading.
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Kiki Nattou!

Well, it's time for another BB-- Wait. . . this is a whole episode.

Ah, right. This is the episode I'd planned on putting up on Sunday, but was still getting used all the buttons and stuff on my new video editing and subtitling programs. Okay, I won't call them my "new" ones, since I'm so not impressed that I'm undoubtedly going back to my previous methods due to sheer ease.

Anyways, this episode is Gaki's 23rd entry in the Kiki series. This time's subject of taste-testing is nattou. For those of you who know what the Kiki series is all about, just skip ahead to the videos. For those that don't know, the Kiki series is a long running series on Gaki No Tsukai, where each member is assigned a brand of product, chosen by the other 4 members. They then have to try that brand blindfolded, and then go through the table full of various brands and try to find their mystery brand. You can only choose one at a time, and if you think it's not the one, you throw it in the trash. If you think it's right, you come to the center stage and say that you think you've found it! If you get say the wrong brand is correct, or you throw away the correct brand, you get a penalty. Penalties on Gaki No Tsukai will almost always involve pain. Today it's in the scrotal area.



We open up the episode with the usual introduction of the rules of Kiki, and the introduction of the topic. Today, it's nattou. Nattou is definitely an odd-looking food. It's fermented soybeans, so they start to make a little juice and it gets all sticky and stringy. Tanaka doesn't eat nattou much and doesn't care for it, so he's at a huge disadvantage. Which is exactly why they make him go first. Poor Tanaka.

And let me take this time to say: "DAAA~MN, son! That punisment is messed up!"

Next is Yamazaki, who does the usual "I know what I'm doing" act, and generally overdoes all the lame jokes that aren't getting laughs. If anyone out there doesn't understand why I don't like Yamazaki, please take a look at this episode. He was the reason I had trouble dividing the episode. I couldn't find a good place to cut the video, because he's constantly being lame and/or screaming. So yes, this section ends in a fairly odd place. Blame Yamazaki for that.



Then we pick up right were we left off. Yamazaki is confused. I want to kill him, and speed up translation. You guys have no idea how hard it was for me to get through his section because he's just that lame. The only part I care about is him getting hit in the nuts. Hopefully he will never contribute to the gene pool ever again.

Next up is Hamada. Hamada does a Tanaka and gets out on the first brand. After that is Endou's turn. I really feel sorry for Endou, being in the social position that he is. His role in his comedy duo is the tsukkomi, who pretty much puts down stupid people in his presence. However as far as Gaki No Tsukai goes, he's one of the youngest and least experienced in the industry, so he has to be polite with everyone, except Tanaka. You can see that he REALLY wanted to sling some insults during this episode, but had to hold himself back due to social order. Poor Endou.

Anyway, he finds out that the one that he's been assigned is not one that he normally eats so he goes by process of elimination. Can I take a moment to say that his hair looks good and bad at the same time? Anyone else feel that way? Those little feathered parts in the back make it look like he's got a mini-mullet that hasn't grown into a big-boy mullet yet. Anyways, enough of the follicle-check. After he's done, we're on to Matsumoto's attempt.



Matsumoto does bring the funny this entire episode, getting a good crack in at pretty much everybody and making funny observations ("We don't know what you're imagining", "you slow mudtortoise", "You think a girl likes it when you fondle her? Well you're wrong.", and "This explains the drop in birth rates") so it's nice to see him in the hotseat at times like these. And boy, does Matsumoto put on a show taking it down to the last two brands. Will Matsumoto be the only one to get his badge for the Kiki Nattou?! *cliffhanger and suspenseful music*

As usual for the Kiki episode, there's lots of suspense and lots of good points. However, there were a lot of bad parts (read as "Yamazaki's there"). I'd give this one a 6. It should probably only get a 5 but Matsumoto REALLY saves this episode with his wit. Tanaka was reeling too bad from getting knocked out on the first brand, Yamazaki's just annoying, I couldn't take my eyes off of Endou's magically disappearing and reappearing mullet, and Hamada didn't really seem to be on his A-game. Congrats Matsumoto. We'll credit you with a "save" on this one. Of course points and stats don't really matter.
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The Bondage Angels!

Ah, espionage. What a beautiful word.

Ever since there's been great amounts of mistrust between countries, there's been spies. The most ever since there's been Hollywood to exploit concepts, there's been the "Secret Agent". And since Hollywood found out the T&A sell, we've had vixens in skimpy outfits running around on our movies screens.

This week's BBB is from the Dream Match that happens pretty much every year. It's a competition/special where the hottest comedy groups switch and work with different people. It's kinda similar to the All-Star basketball game, for people here in the States. You get to see all the big stars all playing on the same court, some working together, some against each other.

In this episode of the Dream Match, the comedy groups were broken into Boke and Tsukkomi teams. The all-female group, Harisenbon (which means "puffer fish"/"porcupine fish"/"balloon fish"/"whatever-the-hell-you-call-it-in-your-area fish"), doesn't have strongly designated Boke or Tsukkomi, so they were placed as a group on the Tsukkomi team. Most times it is Haruna, the chubby one, playing the role of tsukkomi and Haruka, the skinny one, as the boke. This mean that whoever was selected to team with them would be part of the Dream Match's first ever trio. Teams for that year were formed "Feeling Couple" style, meaning that everybody chose one person from the other team that they wanted to work with, and if they felt the same way back, you're a new team. Harisenbon and Ryou Tamura coupled up pretty quickly to bring you this BBB!





I was kinda sad that they didn't win that year's competition. Most of the other acts were pretty "meh...". But in things like this, if you don't really put on a much better performance than the veteran performers, they give the prize to them.

You guys may remember Harisenbon for their role as the two hospital patrons in the Hospital Batsu game. Haruka, the skinny one, and Haruna, the chubby one, play all sorts of games with the Gaki Nurses since they decided to enter their room as they pleased.


I must say, that I loves me some Harisenbon. They are just so awkward looking that you know they are funny beyond all belief. If Japanese students are anywhere as mean as they can be here, you need a good sense of humor to come out with your head held high sometimes. The photo below shows pretty much why I love them so much. Despite their little gut and their crooked teeth, Harisenbon isn't afraid to get out there and show themselves off. Haruna, the chubby one, even proudly proclaims that she's a virgin because she's just too fat to get laid. I mean she's not THAT bad-looking. *shrug* It's okay. She's only 26. Maybe she's waiting. I dunno, but I'd hit either one of those two. *pushes male instincts back under the bed* Ahem, sorry about that.


It's come to my attention recently that Haruka, the member of Harisenbon on the right, had been diagnosed with tuberculosis in April. She was forced into the hospital where she was supposed to stay for two months. I haven't heard anything about them after that. Here's hoping they are both okay, since it can spread with repeated, close contact which I assume they have being comedy partners and all.


Haruna, you should know better than to take a picture of you about to eat ice cream. c.c
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