The Salty Anime Challenge Day 19: Least Favorite -dere Character

Oh the possibilities with this one. Since it’s just -dere and there’s around a billion -dere types, I decided to split this into two entries: One for tsundere and another for yandere.

Yandere – Mayo from Fushigi Yuugi Eikoden

I forgot about her.

I wish I still forgot about her.

For today’s entry, I wanted to be accurate, so I looked up a list of tsun and yanderes on TV Tropes and lookee who I found! One of the world’s biggest irredeemable bitches in animation.

Fushigi Yuugi Eikoden is animated fanfiction. That is not a lie.

Mayo is a whiny little brat who devolves into a massive, malicious, malignant tumor of a person. She starts off the series whining about nearly everything in her life, treats everyone who cares about her like garbage and believes she’s entitled to Taka, the reincarnation of Tamahome and now husband of Miaka, because she had a crush on him for three years.

She hates Miaka because they got together, and she uses the book of the Universe of the Four Gods to become the new priestess of Suzaku, grant her wish of forcing Taka into loving her, magically steals Miaka’s baby from her womb, causes Miaka to go into a coma and doesn’t give a crap about her life, gives zero shits about the danger within the book because the Suzaku Seven protect the priestess and she gives even fewer shits about their lives, sans Taka, threatens to kill Miaka and Taka’s unborn child if Taka doesn’t love her and do what she says—I cannot go through the entirety of all the bullshit she pulls over the course of the four episodes of the OVA.

All that was from ONE EPISODE.

See here for a complete collection of Mayo’s Horribitch moments. Be warned, though – this review is old so the writing’s kinda iffy. Facts are facts, though.

Let me just say….While Yuka from 11Eyes is indeed terrible, Mayo’s on a different level. I can’t believe I forgot Mayo this whole time. I must’ve been subconsciously blocking her from my memory to avoid having a massive rage-induced coronary.

“But wait!” you say “How can she be a yandere where there’s no ‘dere’ side?”

Well, near the end, she pulls a 180 and acts all damaged and sweet and apologetic. And, even though she did some incredibly terrible, horrible, evil things, the other characters all up and forgive her without a thought or a doubt. She’s completely redeemed, ends up helping Miaka save the day and becomes besties with everyone.

Fuck. Off.

I’M CHEATING! 😀 Tsundere – Naru from Love Hina

Ah, Love Hina – one of the most well-known and treasured harem romcom anime. Love Hina was surprisingly popular back in the early 2000s, and it was one of those shows that was everywhere, but moreso in the AMV community. It was always a part of collabs somehow, and nearly every love song, comedy or otherwise, has been put to it.

Why is this entry cheating? I’ve never actually watched Love Hina.

Why am I putting Naru on this entry if I’ve never seen Love Hina? She’s the reason I’ve never watched Love Hina.

I was a part of the AMV scene back in its glory days. I made ‘em, I watched ‘em a lot – it was a fun expression of the fandom. Because of this, I saw a lot of Love Hina clips and learned the basic gist of the series.

The basic gist is that Naru hits Keitaro a lot, usually for no reason. But they’re totally in love and junk.

This series is basically famous for how much Naru hits Keitaro. She’s an OG tsundere.

A clip from AMV Hell 7 sums it up quite nicely. Naru and the others are questioning Shinobu (a young, shy girl) about something. She cries just because they’re insinuating that she might maybe know something about it. Naru, out of friggin’ nowhere, yells ‘Keitaro, this is all your fault!’ and punches him, sending him flying nearly off the porch. Then Keitaro says ‘What did I do!?’ and this sound clip plays.

Seriously, what the hell is her problem? Everything I read about her makes me not want to watch this series even more.

Here are some other stupid highlights brought to you by TV Tropes.

– Once she walks in on Keitaro changing and she punches him anyway! Naru justifies herself saying it was “a reflex”.

– One time, she tries to hit Keitaro on the grounds that he must be thinking something perverted.

– Another time, Tama-chan the turtle has gone missing, and Naru and Keitaro are looking for it. Shinobu has just got home and is changing her clothes, when she is scared by Tama-chan and comes running up to them clad only in her camisole, grabbing Keitaro in panic. He’s too busy trying not to choke to notice her, yet Naru still hits him “just in case”.

– Once ridiculed Keitaro’s hopes of getting with his promise girl on the basis that he’s a spineless dork. Keitaro retaliated by saying that Naru could never get with her promise guy because she’s violent. Instead of realizing how mean she was being, Naru just bursts into tears, making Keitaro feel guilty for something she started.

I’m not sure how much -dere there even is to her. I’ve seen some ‘sweet’ clips of her and Keitaro, but according to what I’ve read, she’s rarely ever nice and stagnates in character development regarding accepting her feelings for Keitaro and refraining from being violent until the very end of the series.

Non-Cheat Entry – Tsundere: Kagome from Inuyasha

Kagome’s not a big tsundere. She’s usually nice, but it is insanely common for her and Inuyasha to get into shouting matches. Plus, there’s the staple of the series in her ‘SIT BOY!’ ability, which creates the physical abuse.

Admittedly, the SIT BOY thing is funnier than the average punches and kicks, considering he’s a dog demon and all, but she’s still slamming the guy into the ground for offenses that are frequently just him putting his foot in his mouth. It was originally meant to keep him in line in terms of stealing the jewel or doing particularly bad things – it wasn’t meant to punish him for not liking a part of the lunch she made for him.

I’ve always found Kagome to be very grating. She screeches a lot, she screams a lot, she’s always yelling Inuyasha’s name and getting into danger so Inuyasha can save her.

I’ve learned to give her more leeway because she’s a teenager girl thrust into a dangerous world. Sango was born and raised a demon slayer, that’s why she’s so badass, and Kikyo was similarly brought up to be a powerful priestess. But Kagome still had plenty of time to get more useful in battle or to become a more interesting character. She does get some moments where her bow and arrow save the day, but it’s almost all Inuyasha and the others.

For the most part, she’s defined by her relationship with Inuyasha. We never learn what she really wants to be in the future or what she likes outside of typical modern day amenities. The only thing she strives to be is a person who stays by Inuyasha’s side, and she becomes Inuyasha’s wife in the end, leaving the present day world behind her. I would ask how that doesn’t massively change the ‘present day’ or her existence, but Back to the Future Part III has taught me that that doesn’t matter.

Sailor Moon (DiC) Episode 3 (2 For the Dub) Sub/Dub Comparison

Coming up next, the sweet sultry sounds of your death and destruction followed by Taylor Swift’s new single.

Plot: Jadeite is behind a creepy late-night romantic love radio show, and its listeners are succumbing to symptoms of sleeping sickness. Can Sailor Moon figure out what’s going on before everyone’s lost in an eternal slumber?

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Title Change: Mysterious Sleeping Sickness: Protect the Girls in Love is changed to Talk Radio

Entire Series Edit: Before every episode, we have a brief preview of the episode we’re watching today. The original is left raw while the dub includes a 90’s-esque Sailor Moon border.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

The first conversation with Usagi’s mom and dad starts with her dad seeing something in the paper about a sleeping illness going around. Her dad says he wishes he’d get that so he could get some rest. Her mother scolds him for wishing that misfortune, and he responds by saying he was kidding. After all, if he was asleep, he’d miss out on her great cooking.

In the dub, he asks why she circled the date in red magic marker and she gets slightly angry before he says he knows it’s their anniversary.

During that same scene, as Usagi is waking up, they edit out Usagi running down the stairs.

The same gist is kept in the next scene, however, when Umino first appears, he says it’s unusual for Haruna-sensei to be late, not that thing about yellow earth worms.

Name Change: Motoki is changed to Andy.

In the original, Luna’s worried that Motoki heard her talking. Motoki recognizes Luna because they ‘met’ in the last episode. Luna relaxes since it doesn’t seem like Motoki heard her talking. Then he goes in to get some milk for her. Luna gets gushy eyes because he’s treating her so nicely and then stews that Usagi never treats her like that.

In the dub, Andy recognizes Luna for no given reason. One can assume that he might’ve heard of Luna from Serena since she goes to the arcade so often, but dub viewers would never know that. Luna says that Andy is the boy Serena likes so much. How? Why? She never mentions him, and dub viewers have never seen him before this episode. Andy then says he has to go instead of getting Luna a bowl of milk. Luna also doesn’t gush over Andy, leaving the sparkly eyes out of the dub, and then says it’s a good place to use a communications base since it’s so close to Serena’s school.

 

The next scene is also different. In the original, the possibility of a sleeping sickness is already established. In the dub, it’s like that theory is just as passing musing. Instead, the focus is on staying up too late to listen to the Love Line program on the radio.

After that, Usagi mentions that a sleeping sickness where you never wake up would be nice, which is why her friends freak out. She then explains that getting to stay in your dreams forever would be great.

Serena basically asks what the big deal is and there was no need to call the medics. Then Molly and Melvin freak out….for some reason. I guess maybe because that was a fairly insensitive remark since something could be very wrong with them. Then she says that at least school is canceled.

They cut out a few seconds at the start of the next scene. It’s just the guy setting down the letters.

Okay so this one took me a little bit to figure out. In the original, as Naru and Usagi walk down the street, they pass three guys around a car. In the dub, the shot zooms in really quickly on Molly and Serena, and I couldn’t figure out why until I paused the shot and realized the guy in the car has an unlit cigarette in his mouth. I figured the zoom was a work around to censoring the shot, but I managed to catch the first frame of the scene in the dub, and they did paint the cigarette away. I suppose the jarring zoom in was so they wouldn’t have to paint any other frames.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Sorry for the wonky quality on Molly. It was a motion shot.

Zoomage:

Serena: “You’re a creep Darien!” ….I’m almost positive we haven’t established his name. Even in the original, we haven’t gotten his name yet.

They edit out Serena plopping her head down on the desk and giving up.

They edit out Serena blushing with a little thought bubble that has a little cartoon of herself dancing around.

In the original, Usagi transforms into a “pretty newscaster.” In the dub, Serena turns into a “sophisticated talent agent.” Wouldn’t a newscaster be more suited for entering a radio station?

So Jadeite isn’t deterred by Sailor Moon’s attacks, but he’s deterred by a random rose thrown at him from nowhere?

They edit out Usagi gushing over Tuxedo Mask with heart eyes.

An outside shot of the radio station is removed.

Coming up next, Usagi and her friends are obsessed with weight loss. Jadeite takes advantage of the insecurities of humans, especially younger girls, to use a gym as a front for stealing energy.

…Previous Episode

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Sailor Moon (DiC) Episode 1 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Usagi is an ordinary junior high school student. She’s the type to goof off and get bad grades while she daydreams all day. Until, however, a talking cat named Luna informed her that she is really Sailor Moon and that she has to use her magical moon powers to help save the world. Usagi’s friend Naru gets attacked by an enemy as Usagi learns of this. Can she save her friend or will her inexperience prove to be her downfall?

———————————–

Title Change: Crybaby Usagi’s Beautiful Transformation is changed to A Moon Star is Born.

The opening has been replaced. However, the song in the dub keeps the melody from the original song. It’s redone slightly, mostly the inclusion of electric guitar, but it still retains the original melody.

That being said, the clips in the background are different, and the lyrics aren’t translations of the original lyrics. The new lyrics basically explain what the show is about. Sailor Moon fights evil, she’s in love, she has friends who also fight evil, here are their names, you’re watching Sailor Moon. Cliche-type lyrics, but it’s certainly an ear worm. That can be credited to using the original melody, though.

Also, the dub opening has the words “From a far away place and time, earth’s greatest adventure is about to begin,” in a Star Wars-like text crawl before the theme appears.

The dubbed opener has all of the Sailor Scouts (Well, at least the ones introduced in this series.) included whereas the original’s, for this season anyway, has only Usagi, Ami and Rei.

Name Change: Usagi Tsukino is changed to Serena Tsukino in the dub. This is a bit disappointing because her name actually has meaning. Usagi Tsukino essentially translates to “Rabbit of the moon” This is poking at an ancient legend, Usagi’s hairstyle, nickname and role as Sailor Moon all at once.

Serena is actually an ironic name for her to have, in my opinion. Serena essentially means peaceful, serene, calm, and Usagi is anything BUT that. The only reason I can see for this is because oooOOOoohhhspoilersoooohhhhHHH, she’s actually Princess Serenity’s reincarnation. The problem is that Princess Serenity has a completely different personality from Usagi. I’m not denying that Usagi can’t shed her hyper crybaby dumplingheadedness when the time calls for it, but it’s not a very good representation of her actual personality the rest of the time.

The episode starts out with showing Usagi sleeping for a bit as she tells us her name and characteristics in narration. She does this at the opening of every episode with the addition of her Sailor Moon identity explanation. Then she wakes up and goes downstairs.

In the dub, we get the entire backstory to the series, skip Serena’s intro and just jump straight to her waking up and going downstairs. I especially love this little story because it spoils so much.

The opener spoils enough in terms of who the other Scouts will be, but this story shows us Artemis, the rest of the Sailor Scouts including MAYBE Sailor Neptune? She’s in the picture with Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion, I think. Queen Serenity, the identities of Princess Serenity and also Prince Endymion (Kinda makes the plot point of finding the moon princess moot when you know that it’s Serena. Of course it’s also obvious in the original, but not as much. Only way it could be MORE obvious is if DiC changed Endymion’s name to Darien. Ahahahahahahahaha……..But they’d never be that dumb, right?)

The opening narration is also skipped in all subsequent episodes.

DiC adds a glow effect to Luna’s crescent mark as Serena takes the bandage off.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They edit out where Usagi and Luna stare at each for a bit. They also edit out a front shot of Luna as she walks towards Usagi. They also add inner monologue coming from Luna. They also edit out the school bell. They also say I say ‘they also’ too much.

Entire Series Edit: They add in a lot of transitions where there aren’t any in the original. The transitions are usually cutting away to Sailor Moon’s tiara or flip transitioning in Queen Beryl’s crystal ball. They’re also EXTREMELY 90s-esque.

They skip showing the sign of Usagi’s school as well as her complaining that she’s forced to stand in the hall because she was late. She looks around the hall for a bit before deciding to eat because she missed breakfast.

In the dub, they cut straight to her about to eat. This is made even weirder because they add in dialogue like she’s talking to someone asking if they’ve seen the new Sailor V video game. She’s alone in the hallway, why couldn’t they have just made her say she was hungry?

Name Change: Naru, Usagi’s best friend, is changed to Molly. Also, they gave her one of the worst English dubbed voices in history. It sounds like Harley Quinn going through a blender.

Name Change: Umino is changed to Melvin because that’s what all nerdy kids need to be named.

This next scene is a mess. In the original, Usagi doesn’t know anything about Sailor V. When Naru tells her that Sailor V appeared again and saved a jewelry store from being robbed, Usagi gushes, but then wonders who she’s talking about. Naru yells at her for getting excited if she doesn’t know who Sailor V is. Umino pops up and explains that Sailor V is a heroine who has been popping up lately to stop crime in the area. Sailor V then pops up on screen three times as ‘Sailor V’ is said in the background. Then Usagi and Naru gush about gems. Umino also doesn’t realize that Usagi failed the test until Naru brings it up.

In the dub, Molly never yells at Serena, Sailor V is never brought up, Melvin already knows Serena failed her test and offers to be her tutor while Molly makes the suggestion of going shopping until Serena’s mom forgets about the test even though the dub teacher says her mom needs to sign it and bring it back in. Also, they add in way too much dialogue on Melvin in the final shot of that scene. He only says “Usagi-chan” in the original, but they make him say a whole sentence in the dub. He only makes one lip flap and yet they make him babble on.

Entire Series Edit: They add weird plasma ball effects to Beryl’s staff.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They add a picture of the city to Beryl’s staff after Jadeite shows up.

They edit out a picture of a building before they cut to the jewelry store.

They edit out a frontal shot of Jadeite and his hand absorbing the energy.

Molly: “Serena and I came to see the…”

Serena: “…Rhinestone jewelry!”

God forbid you just translate the words and try to make them fit the mouth flaps properly instead of making awkward dialogue like this.

In the original, after Usagi and Naru get mobbed at the jewelry store, Usagi says she really wants that ring since it’s 30,000 yen when it usually runs for 500,000 yen. They go back and forth about how her dad won’t pay it, especially since she failed her English test and she’s already used up her allowance.

In the dub, they talk about how Molly’s mom is acting strange. This is actually funny because Molly says “I dunno, but I’m really worried” with a giant smile on her face. Molly also gasps and says “Where are you going?” when Serena makes no indication that she’s leaving. (Also, why would that make Molly gasp?) Serena says she’s going home to take a nap.

The prices, by the way, are horribly off. In the original, the ring is usually 500,000 yen, roughly 5,700 US dollars, but she’ll lower it to 30,000 yen, roughly 350 US dollars. In the dub, she says she’ll sell the ring to her for 10 DOLLARS. That’s quite the jump, DiC.

Why did Serena throw that test away? Her teacher said she needed it back signed in the dub. You’ll get in even more trouble if you throw it away, moron.

Even though Mamoru is kinda rude to Usagi in the original, he just tells her to study harder after seeing her grade. He doesn’t call her stupid or lazy like Darien does. They also change Usagi’s nickname ‘Dumpling Head’ to ‘Meatball Head’ because America doesn’t have dumplings apparently.

They edit out a faraway shot of Mamoru as Usagi turns around. She also calls him a weirdo in the original, not ‘cute.’ Also, nice song cue on Darien. It was no secret he was Tuxedo Mask, but adding that song cue just makes it too obvious.

They edit out a repeat of Sailor V popping up on screen doing various poses.

Entire Series Edit: They edit out the commercial break eyecatch in the dub. Which is weird. They purposely add in transitions, but they can’t keep a cool eyecatch?

Usagi’s English test is changed to Algebra…..Ya know, we have English class in America too.

They edit out the shot of Usagi’s family name plate. They also add that Melvin and Serena stayed up all night studying.

They edit out the introduction of Usagi’s little brother. He kicks her in the butt, asks her if their mom locked her out again, then says he wishes he had a better sister before going in the house. Usagi then yells at him and tries to Sailor V Kick him but he shuts the door, causing her to hurt her leg. This entire scene is cut out.

They don’t include some dialogue from the original where Luna thanks Usagi for taking off that bandage. They also omit her saying that having her crescent mark being covered makes her unable to talk and lessens her abilities.

In the original, the words that trigger Usagi’s transformation are “Moon prism power, Make-up!” In the dub it’s just “Moon prism power.”

Right before Luna and Sailor Moon go after Naru, Usagi points to herself and basically says “Eh?” In the dub, they make her say “Okay,” which makes it look awkward because her words aren’t matching her facial expression.

It’s at this point that you truly realize DiC sucks at lipsyncing. They just do.

In the original, one of the mind controlled women comes after Usagi with a broken (beer?) bottle. In the dub, this is edited out and replaced by Morga attacking her instead. Because of this, the scene where Morga attacks is repeated in another scene a minute later.

Sailor Says: The dub adds this cheesy ‘message of the day’ segment to the end of each episode called “Sailor Says”. Today was all about putting your mind to something to achieve it….which is weird, because she was just handed magical powers, cried half the time, needed to be saved before just saying a line to defeat the enemy. It’s not like she put much effort into it. She was brave to at least go there and try to confront the threat, though.

Eventually they run out of ideas for this segment and just let it repeat.

The ending theme song is replaced by repeating the opening song. They also replace the ending animation and just add show clips in a picture-in-picture box.

They don’t include next episode previews in the dub.

Coming up next, a fortune-teller is taking the city by storm, but it’s really Jadeite’s demon taking people’s energy. This episode was never dubbed, but I’ll be talking about it for completion purposes.

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