which_chick | (no subject)

Why do I like Anime-Otaku's subtitles for PoT better than the other ones? In addition to being able to spell and punctuate and navigate thickets of they're, there, their with aplomb, they provide cultural footnotes. For example, in episode 148, where we see Atobe's flaming tennis serve thing*, which he calls The Tannhauser Serve (there's an umlaut over the second A in the subtitle but I am not cool enough to make an umlaut appear here, so just pretend it's there), there is a surtitle that says [Tannhauser is the title role in an opera by Richard Wagner. Its name alone conjures up an image of wealth for the Japanese audience.]. Now, I know Tannhauser. I'm up to speed on my opera. I do not need a surtitle telling me this but I am still somehow pleased that my subtitlers are aware of Wagner's operas and are willing to provide me with this sort of information, just in case I might not be up to speed, to enhance and extend my enjoyment of a tennis cartoon (allegedly) aimed at preteen persons of the opposite gender on the other side of the world. I gotta say, though, doesn't this sort of thing make you wonder how many preteen Japanese boys are aware of Wagner's operas? Truly, it is a foreign land.

*Each of the tennis players (and there are a gazillion of them) has his own unique move or moves. These moves have names. The names are incredibly dorky, so very dorky that I have trouble admitting that I know the names of the moves and which moves belong to which players. Just let me state for the record that The Tannhauser Serve isn't at all out of line. It's actually one of the better names out there.