[Fish Sandwich]

Movie War 2010:

I'm not going to dwell on Decade's chunk of this movie too much, because, honestly, it's like, what do you even say about it? It's just total nonsense. Wataru was right, man, Decade doesn't have a story. So you can't think about it that way. I could try and divine some grander theme from it, or discuss why as a Kuuga fan, Decade's trivialization of Ultimate Form has never sat right with me. Maybe I could congratulate Natsumi for turning the tables and being a female Rider that kills someone instead of getting killed, or whatever else, but, far more so than usual for Decade, you just have to sit back and let it happen. Brain goes off, popcorn goes in.

Between 2010 and Core, I feel really bad for Riku Sanjou, because for two years in a row, it seems an awful lot like he was the only one trying. Begins Night is excellent and also does not gel with what's to the left or the right of it at all. Suddenly the movie becomes comprehensible, starts taking some time to breathe, and tells an engaging story with discernible human emotion about Shoutarou facing his guilt over disobeying Soukichi, reflecting on how he and Philip got where they are, and ultimately rededicating himself to carrying on in his mentor's name, which he cements by disobeying Soukichi again. What a finely crafted narrative. What a delightful little slice of an great show.

But then it stops abruptly, and Double ends up accidentally driving into Decade's ongoing nonsense climax, which was either just next door the whole time, or they were chasing that Dopant for a while. Either way, you'll want to turn your brain off again for a while and just enjoy Double fighting giant robots. Don't waste time wondering how we got here, and remember to turn your brain back on when Gackt starts playing.

In case you can't tell from that description, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this on a rewatch. I think I probably enjoyed it less than the first time, but I also don't particularly begrudge the movie or anything. The Decade stuff is a whole can of worms I might get into some other day, but I'm here for Double, and that part was great. Although to this day it weirds me out thinking that people getting into Rider through accessible shows like W end up watching this movie with zero context for Decade, who I think is more the focus of the movie. I almost feel like the best thing to do in that position is to watch the director's cut that puts Double's part first and then just stop at the cliffhanger. You got your origin story! Go back to the show now, you don't need to stay!

I feel like I'm forgetting something here, though...

Oh, right!

ダブルやディケイドの話ばっかじゃ寂しいので、今回もファイズ翻訳ミスコーナーです～！今日の翻訳ミスはこれだ！



「海堂さん、本当は木場さんのことが好きなんじゃないんですか？」

Look, I only said I'd complain about one translation error per post; I never said a thing about those posts having to involve me watching Faiz. This is an error from back in episode 10, which I brushed off at the time, but it's been bugging me so much I feel the need to set the record straight. Bear with me while I take a second to explain what's going on here.

One of the criteria I'm looking for in these segments is for the thing I'm complaining about to be an actual, honest-to-goodness mistake in the translation. Not stylistic choices, and also no typos. This one is in a weird gray area, though, because I'm pretty sure it's a typo that got way out of hand. Yuka's line here to Kaidou is quite simply "you actually like Kiba, don't you?". The line immediately following has her suggesting that despite the front he puts up, Kaidou wants to believe in humans the same way Yuuji does. This seems to have caused some confusion. There's absolutely no way even the most amateur translator would be able to mix up liking someone and being like someone in Japanese, so what I think happened is between TV-N's original subs, the redone DVD versions they did later, and then finally Agony's scrub, this line has been "fixed" several times over, resulting in it drifting totally away from what it actually means.

I figured that, much like Tsukasa, you'd still be able to "get the gist" of the scene, so it didn't matter, but considering the same episode ends with Kaidou being unable to deal a finishing blow on Yuuji when they fight, and then the next one has him expressing concern for Yuuji's well-being, in retrospect, blending this line into the next one actually is doing the narrative of the show a disservice.