*Takes you by the shoulders* I ADORE character profiles and character trivia and likes and dislikes sections. I love knowing this ruthless, heartless, cruel man of a character has a childish dislike for mandarin oranges. I believe in the inherent beauty of making all characters, no matter the background or moral stance, being made fundamentally human by assigning them insignificant culinary preferences. I stand by the supremacy of humanizing villains by giving them relatable tastes and trivial interests and ordinary hobbies. I treasure the hidden reminders that everyone is inherently human even when everything else we know about a character might suggest the contrary.
my version of teniwoha's villain mv, featuring fictional transgender (as decided by me) footballer, michael kaiser! notes and credits under the cut:
original music: teniwoha
original illustration: nekoko
lyric translation and video art: me :3
check out ado's cover of the song! it rocks.
link to a google doc with all the sources for the photos used!
some translator's notes:
- i put the word "villain" in parentheses next to "corrupted" because they're homophones in japanese.
- speaking of which, a lot of translations use "inflamed," but corrupted is another translation, and i wanted to lean into commonly heard anti-lgbtq language (in american english, at least) for the translation, to convey more of the vibes of the original song.
- on that note, for "lifestyles (genders)," the word used there, does literally mean gender or sex, but can also mean nature or way of life. i chose lifestyles for the reason above.
- you'll notice some of the same lines are translated differently between the first and last chorus. the lines themselves were somewhat vague and could be translated both ways, so the switch is to convey the more triumphant turn the song takes.
- the lyrics say "dr duran duran" but the wiki says it's a reference to durand durand, the villain in the movie barbarella, who created a world destroying weapon. his name is pronounced duran duran in the japanese version.
-the song mentions edogawa ranpo, the japanese author, was also known for his interest in queer histiography and his friend's, iwata jun'ichi's, research on the history of homosexuality in japan (from his wikipedia article)
anyway michael kaiser is transgender in my heart of hearts. if you've read this far, thank you :]
"Here are your tortured poets. All from Mahmoud Darwish to Dr. Refat Alareer to Khaled Juma, these are tortured poets. Tortured by longing for a home they can never return to, tortured by the world they were born to for BEING BORN. Palestine, home to the tortured poets department." [@/folkoftheshelf on X. April 20th, 2024.]