In the latest case of a localizer boasting over their successful bastardizing of an original Japanese work, industry, YouTuber Brendan ‘JelloApocalypse’ Blaber was recently caught bragging about his his work turning the English-language dub of Lovely Complex into the “transi-est English anime dub in existence.”
The freelance localizer bragged about his about his work injecting his own ideology into Aya Nakahara’s original story in a now-deleted post shared to his personal Patreon account.
Titled Marissa and I Wrote an Anime Dub, the post in question saw Blaber reveal that not only did he and Lovely Complex English dub head writer Marissa Lenti not actually like the series, but also did their best to ‘correct’ what they saw as its ‘transphobic’ content.
“Marissa told me she was annoyed about having to localize the scripts for this show because she had just watched through the show and didn’t really like the characters,” he recalled in kicking off to his long blog post. “I thought this would be a good opportunity to get some experience writing localization scripts in case I ever wanted to write a dub so I volunteered to help out.”
“The two of us spent many, many hours across many, many days slogging through LoveCom episodes, and while Marissa thought she sorta hated LoveCom‘s original writing, I came to the conclusion that I definitely hated Lovely Complex,” he recalled. “It turns out, there were quite a few storylines that didn’t make it into the anime. So, what was the deal? Was this one of those FullMetal Alchemist situations where the original anime comes out a little too early and they don’t want to spoil the manga so they make their own ending? Nope!”
“It turns out, the story arcs they left out of the manga… all f–king sucked!,” he continued. “And frankly, I respect the Toei staff for deciding to cut those! Like the arc where an adult woman is hired to seduce Otani, a teenage boy. Or the other arc where an adult woman tries to seduce Otani, a teenage boy. Or the two entire arcs and several prominent running gags about f–king transphobia.”
To this end, Blaber then revealed that he and his fellow LoveCom localization team members disagreed with the series’ featuring of a cross-dressing character – Seiko Kotobuki – as they felt the character should have been portrayed as transgender.
“The Seiko introductory episode is about Seiko’s gender identity, so it’s not like we could write it out entirely,” he claimed. “But we changed a lot of things to take the edge off. Nobuko’s initial dislike of Seiko was changed from ‘Idk I don’t like her, my trans radar is going off’ to being jealous there’s another cute girl on campus and not wanting to lose out to a freshman.”
“In the sub, Otani and Risa’s end-of-episode reactions could generously be called ‘Confused, but they got the spirit’ about the whole thing,” noted Blaber. “We rewrote those to be a lot more supportive of Seiko, especially Otani’s dialogue, which made it pretty clear he was still kind of disgusted by her.”
Following this rewriting of the script, Blaber said the aforementioned Lenti “passed the episode and its script by multiple trans sensitivity readers and not only made sure to cast a trans person as Seiko, but also to cast as many of the trans actors who auditioned for her as possible.”
“I don’t have an exact number,” he added. “but I think the LoveCom dub has something like 20 trans/nb actors in it? It’s one of the trans-iest anime dubs in existence, if not THE trans-iest. Trans rights.”
Next, Blaber boasted about having made changes to the series’ very canon, revealing that because they felt the character of Risa Koizumi was “unsalvageable”
Following his trans declaration, Blaber to boasted about the canonical changes to protagonist Risa who he and Marissa Leti “wrote and directed Risa as a psychopath who doesn’t understand empathy and Otani being in a cycle of abuse without realizing it. Because that’s the only way their highly inconsistent actions make any kind of sense!”
“Fun fact!” he exclaimed. “We canonically wrote and directed Risa as a psychopath who doesn’t understand empathy and Otani being in a cycle of abuse without realizing it. Because that’s the only way their highly inconsistent actions make any kind of sense!”
“At one point Otani literally tells Risa he, quote, ‘Bought a gift for her in preparation for the next time she got mad at him, which is what resolves their current tiff,'” the localizer exclaimed. “Thaaaat’s a trauma response! And it’s in the sub! Uh oh, sisters!!!”
Then fully letting their mask slip, Blaber declared, “Frankly, having the dub come out this good in the end is a little frustrating. Anyone who watched this show as a kid and has fond memories of it and revisits the dub will think ‘Wow! It’s just as good as I remembered!’ No it isn’t. We made it good. This show SUCKED!!!”
“The amount of rough edges we shaved off of this are entirely invisible,” he then claimed. “Unless you buy the blu-ray and turn on the dub while also keeping the Japanese subtitles on, which allows you to listen to our edits in real time.”
Continuing to crap on the work of the original Japanese production team, Blaber asserted, “The dub cast genuinely deserves a lot of praise for this. Amber and Howard really elevate Risa and Otani. Risa is so unlikeable that Amber’s natural comedic timing is necessary to make her into something watchable.”
“Howard’s performance completely blows the original Japanese seiyuu’s out of the water,” he added. “I don’t normally explicitly dunk on an acting performance, but Otani’s sub actor just sucks, plain and simple. Seriously one of the most snot-nosed performances I’ve ever heard. You can’t help but wonder why so many girls are interested him. The VA has basically no other acting credits either, so it’s not much of a surprise.”
Eventually proceeding to wind down their post, Blaber patted himself on the back, “Anyways, all of that is to say, Lenti and I spent a long time on this dub. I’m very, very proud of the work we did. I think we turned an unremarkable and frustrating 3/10 show into a pretty funny and mostly watchable 7/10.”
Next seeking to assure fans that despite his work on the series he definitely did not endorse its contents, the localizer performatively lamented, “I want to show off what we did! However, I don’t really want to recommend that people watch LoveCom in order to see it.”
“Listen, I’m not telling you not to get the blu-ray,” he whined. “There’s a lot of good bits in this show that aren’t in the above compilation. There’s also a sizeable blooper reel on there made by Piph that’s blu-ray exclusive, and I’m a snob for blooper reels and I think it’s actually good. But! Hopefully after reading this explanation you can tell why I’m so :/ hmmmm about this franchise, if you know what I mean.”
Turning his condescension towards the series author, Blaber then pompously insulted, “This is one of those series that was written by a very strange person, kinda like 50 Shades of Grey, and it just gets stranger and stranger the longer you look into it.”
“The way all the characters talk and interact is wrong,” he stated. “The way Risa is painted as the good guy despite makes exclusively bad decisions makes everything feel like it’s written by a woman with ‘I HATE drama!!!’ in her Twitter bio and then five separate callout tweets right below it. You get the sense the author sees the world the same way Risa Koizumi does, and Risa Koizumi as a character only makes sense if she is a psychopath who does not understand human empathy.”
Putting a cherry on-top of his entire self-aggrandizing, Blaber ultimately revealed, “Of note: The mangaka also makes a cameo in the final episode of the anime. She shows up as a fashion designer and everybody praises how pretty and talented she is. She then tells Risa ‘It’s my job to make you look good!'”
“I think you failed, ma’am,” he turned up his nose. “Lenti was the head writer on this and all their decisions were final, but I did tell them that if we didn’t cut the characters praising the mangaka out of that episode in our dub, I would quit the co-writing position on the spot.”
But in a surprising twist, despite such boasting being par for the course from Western localizers, Blaber’s blatant disregard for Lovely Complex‘s source material earned him an immediate pink slipping from Discotek.
“We are aware of the comments made by the contractor that worked on Lovely Complex,” acknowledged company owner Justin Sevakis in a now-deleted follow-up tweet. “The English version was made with the supervision and approval of the show’s original producers. Dubs commonly punch up the comedy and smooth over rough patches so that the end product aligns with the show’s intended audience and provokes the intended response, and there will always be shades of grey when adapting a work. Anyone expecting exact fealty to the Japanese dialogue should be watching the subtitles, which Discotek has always presented with as little alteration as possible when translating from a different language.”
As noted above, shortly after its publication, Sevakis’ tweet was deleted without explanation.
Offering transparency as to this move February 16th, Servakis informed the public, “For those wondering why an earlier statement about Lovely Complex was removed, we need to coordinate some stuff [behind-the-scenes], will hopefully have more to say at a later date. For now, 🤐, sorry, but that’s the pro world for ya”
“For those still side-eyeing us, we hear you, and we understand,” he added. “But honestly, look at us. We not only released the two of the most offensive anime ever made, Violence Jack and Angel Cop uncut, we RESTORED THEM FROM 35MM. You know what we stand for, and it sure ain’t censorship.”
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