Scorching Scotch

COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!

crunchyroll is getting rid of typesetting in their subs. they're going from the good, modern subbing standard (aegisub/ass) - which lets you position, motion-track, and color code text anywhere on the screen - to one worse than what they had 16 years ago (back when their renderer couldn't handle anything fancier than 9-position placement and overlapping text). the one they're moving to (ttml) doesn't let you do any special formatting, just plain text at the top or bottom of the screen. they're doing it because a) they have exclusive licensing rights to a lot of anime, so there's no competition b) they want to make money off of sublicensing to netflix and amazon, but netflix and amazon use the garbage subbing standard c) sony bought crunchyroll a while back and put funimation in charge, and funimation has never given a shit about anime

for a while they were paying their subbers to convert their good subs to the netflix/amazon shitty ones, but they have decided that instead of paying to make good quality subs for their own platform and shitty ones for netflix/amazon (or demanding that netflix/amazon update their subbing standards in order to sublicense the shows, so that everyone has the good ones), they're just going to stop bothering to make the quality subs at all. worse, it seems like they're going through their backlog and converting shows that used to have good subs over to the bad ones.

the article has a TON of examples of shows that would be seriously impacted by this change. two of my faves it mentions are kill la kill (which makes HEAVY use of onscreen text for its punchiness and humor) and komi-san can't communicate (have you tried watching the netflix subs of this? they make the show literally unwatchable. the whole premise of the show is that komi has selective mutism and talks by writing things down, and the netflix subs just... didn't bother subbing any of the text. whole entire key conversations become extended shots of characters scribbling back and forth while you have no way to know what they're saying). some others it doesn't mention that i immediately thought of were shoujo kageki revue starlight (color-coded subs along both the side and the bottom come in clutch for tracking the revue duets simultaneously with the duet dialog) and yuuki yuuna wa yuusha de aru (you need motion-tracked subs for any on-screen group chat conversation to be readable, and yuyuyu has a bunch). and the article's got a bunch more examples from shows i don't know as much about. probably you can think of some of your own faves that this would ruin worst of all, the english fansubbing community has cratered since crunchyroll came on the scene. there's a lot more anime coming out each season, and audiences are used to day-of simulcast, and most of the really good fansubbers went pro or retired and not a lot of new ones have stepped up. so even torrenting or streaming bootlegs won't be viable for getting the speed, quality, and coverage of subs we're used to these days.

the article exhorts you to kick up a fuss - spread the word, complain on social media - and to cancel your crunchyroll account and give "subtitle quality" as your reason. it cites how back in 2017, crunchyroll tried to reduce their video quality, got slammed by their users, and rolled back the change. unfortunately, the sony/funimation takeover happened since then and that leadership doesn't seem to care at all about the quality of their product or what the fans think, so i don't expect them to respond to anything but a credible threat to their bottom line. so, maybe, if we can make a big enough dent in their subscription numbers, then they'll pay attention

and the article doesn't say this, but i'd add: complain to netflix and amazon, as well. any anime you see on those platforms, report the subs and say the quality makes the show unwatchable. consider canceling your subscriptions to those platforms as well, and citing the awful subtitle quality in your reasons, if the main thing you use them for is anime

this kind of policing is why ao3 was created

remember, kids, the three laws of fandom are:

- don’t like; don’t read

- your kink is not my kink

I am relieved that I'd left my room tidy

From a 9th century Irish manuscript, the phrase ‘massive hangover’ (Latheirt) written in the ancient Irish text Ogham. The monk must have been having a very rough day…..

Someone asked F1nn why it was that on her larger branded social media accounts she still listed herself as a femboy in some places while in more intracommunity spaces she more readily and comfortably identified as transfem.

Now, depending on who you ask that kind of question to you'll probably get a meandering answer on the complexities of how one defines their own identity. But instead F1nn gave a very quick and simple answer.

yknow when you wake up in the middle of the night & anxiously check on the person next to you to make sure they didn't randomly die in their sleep

I work in an obstetrician and gynaecologist’s office. we have to tell patients on a regular basis that they are binge drinking weekly when they think they are simply consuming a normal amount of alcohol on the weekends.

having more than 3 drinks in a single sitting if you have an estrogen based endocrine system is a binge that is medically significant.

having more than 5 in a sitting is a medically significant binge for someone with a testosterone based endocrine system.

every time you do this, it significantly impacts your risk of getting breast cancer, and damages your liver. it takes time to recover from that liver damage. if you’re having a 3-5 or more drink binge on a weekly basis, you are an alcoholic, medically speaking, and your liver is not recovering.

again: the bar for what binge drinking is, medically, is so much lower than what you think it is.

alcohol is a really toxic substance and not something you should fuck around with.

again: if you have an estrogenized hormone system (common for most women), then 3 drinks is a binge. if you have a testosteronized hormone system (common for most men), then 5 drinks is a binge.

anything above that number, consumed as frequently as weekly or more, and you’re medically a binge drinking alcoholic.

also, if you’re drinking any quantity of alcohol 6 days a week or more, that’s another threshold at which, medically speaking, you meet the definition of alcoholism. your liver needs more days without alcohol in your system than just one a week to recover and be healthy.

I don’t say any of this to shame anyone—to me, alcoholism or substance use disorders aren’t a sign of weakness or moral failing. and most of us genuinely don’t know this stuff.

information is key. you don’t have to stop drinking, but the utter lack of education on alcohol + the normalization of binge drinking in current society leads to many people drinking without any idea of what it’s doing to their bodies.

Because a vodka shot is not the same as (idk, some low alcohol percentage alcohol.)

Didn't think anything of it. But people started to notice. Someone would stop and pick up a rock and say, "What the hell?"

One day at an employer/employee meeting, one of the supervisors walked in with one of the owners, and they had a bucket full of numbered rocks. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! IF YOU GUYS HAVE TIME TO DO THIS THEN WE NEED TO GIVE YOU MORE WORK! WHOEVER IS DOING THIS, WE'LL FIND OUT AND YOUR ASS IS FIRED!"

No one knew it was me. I quit doing it because I didn't want guys getting more work due to my fun. Worked there about 10 years, and became a foreman. I got fed up with the owners giving workers more work but no raises, and eventually quit.

The owner begged me to stay because I knew a lot of things and always got jobs done ahead of schedule, but I told him these guys deserved more pay. He said, "These dudes only work hard because you are a good foreman. They used to be lazy asses that walked around numbering rocks, remember?"

I looked him in the eye and asked him if he thought I was a lazy ass. "Well, no! That's why I want you to stay!"

I said, "Ted, there was only one lazy ass writing on those rocks and it was me. Those guys out there have always worked hard and deserve to be treated better. You are a rich man and are that way because your crews do good work and deliver but you're too damned selfish to part with a few more bucks to pay them what they are worth. Goodbye." His jaw was on the floor.

A few weeks later, one of my buddies from the company bumped into me and asked me what I'd said to the owner. I said 'Not much. Why?'

"Dude, he gave us all a big raise and gives us more break times. He even apologized to us at a meeting for how he'd been kinda shitty to us at times."

I was like, 'Well, cool. Glad to hear things are better.'