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larkawolfgirl · 2 years

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Birthday Dance (Ristelle)

Rating: General Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: F/F Fandom: Tales of Vesperia Relationship: Estellise Sidos Heurassein/Rita Mordio Characters: Rita Mordio, Estellise Sidos Heurassein, Judith, Yuri Lowell, Repede

Summary: Rita has only ever seen her in a fairly casual pink dress, and she's always been cute, but now in her current ballgown, she's gorgeous. It's sheer and elegant and a shade of sky blue that makes her skin look smoother than usual. Her hair is twisted up in a french braid and silver earrings dangle from her ears. Rita can feel affection bubbling up in her throat and she's terrified she'll throw it all up if she talks to her now.

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Rita is entirely out of her comfort zone. She may have traveled the world with everyone, but she would much rather stay at home and learn about the world rather than see it. She isn't the best at socializing, especially in formal settings like this. She's surrounded by prim and proper strangers, and under normal circumstances, she would run back home, but she is here for Estelle. It has been half a year since she has seen the princess. Estelle had written to her numerous times asking her to visit, but Rita had thought better of it. Estelle had been adjusting to her new home and Rita had been readjusting to her quiet life of solitude. It had been harder than she had thought it would be. She missed the companionship and bickering. Of it all, she missed seeing Estelle. It had taken time to get back into her groove, so once she found it she immersed herself fully in it. She had less time to feel lonely this way. It also made six months pass before she knew it. It had been an awkwardly-long raincheck at that point. But now it’s Estelle’s birthday party. She wasn’t going to pass on a special occasion, especially when she really does want to see her. More than she should.

So, Rita is now standing awkwardly by the buffet table scanning the room for the princess. Eventually, she spots her across the room crouched down by Repede. She is trying unsuccessfully to shake his paw. Rita has only ever seen her in a fairly casual pink dress, and she's always been cute, but now in her current ballgown, she's gorgeous. It's sheer and elegant and a shade of sky blue that makes her skin look smoother than usual. Her hair is twisted up in a french braid and silver earrings dangle from her ears. Rita can feel affection bubbling up in her throat and she's terrified she'll throw it all up if she talks to her now.

"Hello," says a familiar voice.

"Oh." Rita turns to see Judith. Unsurprisingly, she is wearing a provocative but still elegant gown.

"You look nice today."

Rita blushes and glances down at her own yellow dress. It's plain compared to all everyone else's but it is the only dress she owns. "Thanks, so do you."

"Thank you. I noticed you think Estelle is the prettiest one here, though."

"What? No. Why would you say that."

"Oh?" She put a hand to her chin. "Am I mistaken? Is there another reason you were staring at her so intently?"

"I...I was looking at Repede."

"If that is the case, then why don't you just go say hi?"

She hates that she can't think of a good cover-up.

Judith laughs. "It's okay, Rita. You don't need to be embarrassed. You're feeling shy, aren't you? That's adorable."

"N-no, I'm not. I can totally go talk to her."

"Really? Well then," she raises her hand in the air and yells across the room, "Estelle! Over here!"

Immediately, Estelle stands up and starts rushing toward them. Rita swallows, having a mild panic attack.

"Rita! Judith! It's been such a long time." She pulls them both into a hug. She smells like lilacs and Rita has to force herself not to sigh at the scent. When Estelle pulls back, she takes Rita's hands into her hands.

"It's so good to see you both. Why did you never visit, Rita? I sent you so many invitations."

Rita speaks slowly, considering each word carefully. "I meant to. I just got caught up in my research. I made a breakthrough and had to keep going."

"That's wonderful. What were you researching?"

"A way to reproduce the raw energy of lighting using a chemical formula."

“That’s fascinating. So you succeeded?”

“For the most part. There are still a few kinks to work out, but with some tweaking, it should work.”

"That is great to hear, Rita,” Judith said. “Happy birthday, Estelle. I think I will go find Yuri and let the two of you catch up."

Estelle frowns at her. "But Judith-"

"Don't worry about it. I want to find out what he's been up to. I'll make sure to find you again before I leave. Promise." She winks at Rita before leaving.

Now they are alone and Estelle's full attention is on her. "Uh, so what have you been up to?"

"I've read every book in the library in Halure. Have you ever read Sleeping Beauty?"

" No, but I know how it goes . "

"Isn’t it so romantic that they found each other again in the woods as if it was destiny?"

"I guess so."

"And then they dance. Oh." She croons. "Speaking of dancing, would you dance with me, Rita?"

"W-what...you want me to dance with you? Not Yuri?"

She tilts her head adorably. "Why would I want to dance with him instead of you?"

Because he is a guy? Rita thinks. Because you should dance with someone you . Aloud, she says, "I'm not a good dancer."

Estelle giggles. "I don't care. Here, I'll lead."

She pulls her in close. If Rita leaned up just a bit she could kiss her.

"Relax. You aren't going to dance well if you are this stiff, silly. It's just me, you know?"

That's exactly why, though. She tries to laugh it off and loosen up, but this makes her notice how soft Estelle’s shoulder is.

"See? You're doing fine." Her smile is so pretty. "Are you okay? Your face is getting red."

"I…It's just kinda hot."

"Hm, I guess it is. Do you want to stop?"

She doesn't but she also does because she doesn't know how much longer she can keep this up. "Whatever you want is fine."

"Okay, let's keep going then."

They dance in silence for a bit. Rita is actually surprised that she only steps on Estelle's feet a handful of times. But then suddenly something knocks into Rita pushing her right into Estelle and back against a wall.

"Wahh! Sorry."

Estelle gives her a strange look.

"Uh…"

“You still haven’t told me happy birthday, you know?”

“Right, sorry.” Here she was worried she would say too much and she never even told her that. “Happy birthday.”

“Do you have a present?”

She frowns. “I sort of forgot. I’m surprised I even made it here on time, to be honest.”

"You are really cute. Did you know that?"

"Huh?" She turns her face to the side. "No, you are the cute one."

A hand turns her face back toward her. "It's cute that you can't be honest."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Estelle's hand is still on her face. She strokes her cheek. "I wanted to dance with you, Rita. Only you."

"Uh-"

She puts a finger to her lip. "I know you wanted to dance with me too, and I think you want something else." She drops her hands and looks expectant.

"What do you mean?"

Estelle waits, then says, "You know what I mean."

Is she dreaming? She thinks she has to be because Estelle is a princess and they are in a very public place. There is no way she wants to kiss her for a present, right?

She must be taking too long because Estelle groans and kisses her instead. Rita stumbles back a bit but then puts her hands on her lower back to hold her close.

Estelle is grinning when they break apart. "See? Was that so bad?"

"That was...wonderful."

There is clapping behind them. Rita spins around to find Yuri, Judith, and Repede. Yuri is smirking while Judith looks completely innocent.

"We thought you two might need a push," she says. Repede barks in agreement.

"You-!"

Estelle takes her hands. "Thanks, you guys. I don't think Rita ever would have said something."

She's right, she wouldn't have.

Yuri gives a thumbs up. "Of course. We were all rooting for Ristelle."

"Ri-stelle?"

Yuri just smiles proudly.

Rita shakes her head. "Honestly."

"I think it's cute," Estelle says.

"You would."

"Now that's you finally progressed, please tell me you are going to at least her from now on," Yuri said.

Rita opens her mouth to say something about him visiting Flynn as well, but Estelle answers first.

“Of course she will. I will drag her if I need to.” It is a bit troubling how serious she looks.

“Or,” Judith says, hand on her chin thoughtfully, “you could just move to Halure as well, that way you would not need to visit.”

Rita’s breath catches and she is sure her face is red. “I-we can’t…”

Estelle smiles, strangely calm about this. “I would like that, Rita. But only if you want to. I know Aspio is your home.”

“I…” Everyone is looking at her. How embarrassing. She looks down at her tan shoes. “I wouldn’t mind that...It’s not like I have anyone I’ll miss or anything.”

“Oh, Rita.” Estelle pulls her into a hug and their friends look way too proud of themself.

“Alright, Ristelle,” Yuri says, “hit us up a bit later after you two love-birds have gotten enough of each other.” He and Judith both wave and mix into the crowd.

Which reminds Rita that they are in a public place and who knows how many people watched the two of them kissing. She makes a loud squealing noise.

“What’s wrong?”

“So not good. We just kissed in public. It’s gonna be all over the tabloids or whatever.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“But you are a princess.”

“So? I turned down the crown. Cousin Ioder said that I still have to attend select public functions, but otherwise I am free to do whatever I want. Which includes kissing you.” As if you prove her point, she presses another kiss to Rita’s lips. She’s beginning to feel like today is her birthday instead of Estelle’s.

She hugs Estelle to her and sighs. “Okay. I missed you,” she says quietly, almost a whisper.

Estelle whispers back, “I missed you too.”

#my writing #tales of vesperia #ristelle #rita x estelle #rita mordio #estellise sidos heurassein #tales #tales of #fanfic #fanfiction

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vetivervelvetviolet · 7 years

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Yuri!!! on ICE Dub Review: a Translator’s (in training) Perspective

As promised, here's my review of the Yuri!!! on ICE dub by @funimation. In case you are new to my blog (which will be 5 years old this July, yay), I'm currently in graduate school for a Master's in Japanese Translation. I've been studying Japanese since 2005, and I've been watching anime and/or reading manga for a little bit longer than that. Some of the points I’m going to make are based on translation theory and practice facts, some are educated guesses about a dubbing process I had no part in, and some are just personal opinions. Please keep this in mind.

Strengths

Overall I was truly impressed with this dub, especially given that the episodes would have been translated, subtitled, and re-recorded on relatively short notice, and that there would have been increased pressure on the actors to get their lines in a few takes since the episodes were being released on Crunchyroll only a week after they premiered in Japan. Josh Grelle was an excellent voice match for Yuuri and carried this show, Jerry Jewell's Viktor was charming and funny, and Micah Solusod did an admirable job as Yuri P., doing what I think might have been his first Russian accent (at least as far as I have seen), and generally playing the motivated little asshole part very well, once again proving that sweet guys tend to play the best douchebags.

The side characters also had very good English voices, in terms of suiting the character type. I'm in love with Joel Mcdonald's Phichit; his voice is 110% believable coming out of Phichit's mouth. Joel seems to have the "kindhearted boy voice" corner covered. JJ's voice actor was great, and conveyed the character's outrageousness over to English superbly. Lastly, I love Chris Sabat's Christophe. I love him. That is my boy right there. Sorry haters, you can't change my mind. I hope Christophe gets some more backstory next season. In all, the choices of actors in the dub were excellent.

・The Asian characters didn't have accents. This subtle decision was a very thoughtful move in terms of maintaining how Yuuri, a Japanese person, would perceive his fellow skaters in an English-dubbed environment. You know how people talk about "a director's director" as someone who makes movies that appeal to directors, this was a translator's translator’s decision.

In Japanese culture, Chinese and Korean people are not considered gaikokujin, per se, despite being foreigners from a legal standpoint. These countries and cultures have heavily intertwined histories, so it makes sense that Japan would consider them sort of in-group. In recent years, too, perhaps as a result of globalization and increased contact, this foreigner-but-not-really-a-foreigner status is also sometimes given to Southeast Asian people. Europeans, Africans, Pacific Islanders, people from the Americas, and people from the Middle East are still gaikokujin, and are seen as Other from a sociological perspective. Although I obviously wasn't in charge of translating the Japanese script, writing the English script, or hiring the actors, this is the only logical reason I can come up with for why Phichit, Guang-Hong, and Seung-Gil didn't have accents, but everyone else (save Leo who is American) does. JJ even said "eh?" and pronounced his vowels a little differently in the first episode he appeared in, just in case you didn't catch that he was from ~Canada~. Intentional or not, I was really impressed by this decision and hope it is a sign of movement towards more nuanced dubbing.

・No one's name was gravely mispronounced *is still not over the D. Gray-man dub*

・Yuri P. was adequately rude; he didn't sound toned-down or forced (like how I felt about some moments in the Attack on Titan dub)

・I think Minami sounded equally gender ambiguous in the English dub as he did in the original. Apparently his seiyuu was the protagonist in Haikyuu. I have not seen that series, but I can say from what I have seen of the art that that character is much more obviously male, and perhaps people who were familiar with Haikyuu and that actor knew right away that he was a guy, but it was not obvious to me in the the original! Minami’s character design is not terribly masculine, nor is his behavior, and if Trina Nishimura hasn't dubbed him, I honestly would have expected Greg Ayres, what with that hair, personality, and snaggle tooth.

Weaknesses

・Why did Celestino have an Italian accent? Even his Japanese Wikipedia description clearly says he's イタリア系アメリカ人, which means he is an American of Italian descent, as in, his parents/grandparents/etc. were from Italy. He is not an Italian immigrant/expat who lives in America.

・I think Stephane Lambiel's guest appearence was handled clumsily in the dub. Considering how thoughtful the American crew seemed to be in regards to dubbing just about everyone else, I couldn't understand why they didn't either 1.) Keep the original audio of Lambiel, himself, speaking his few lines, or 2.) If that wasn't possible, record someone else speaking his lines in French. There were only a few, and with no lipflap to match, it seemed doable for someone who isn't necessarily a professional voice actor, but is either French or speaks French fluently. Granted, if they had re-recorded French audio, they would have needed to overlay English subtitles around or over the already-present Japanese ones which would be visually awkward, butttt... which for some odd reason they still had in the dub??? I don’t doubt that they --the dub crew-- probably also thought that this was less than ideal, having two sets of subtitles on the screen simultaneously, but I found it supremely distracting, for one, and absolutely unnecessary in the case of the English ones, since the dub actor was already speaking in English.

・One of the international skaters (either Guang-Hong, Emil, or Leo, I can't remember which), in his first appearance, was clearly dubbed by someone using a completely different mic or recording system than the majority of the cast. I lack the proper technical terms to describe his voice for those lines, but it sounded fuzzy or clouded, not like someone was speaking to me in real life. By no means did this ruin the entire episode or something for me, and it was probably a result of the time crunch ("you can't make it in today? okay, sure, you can record from home and send it in, so long as we have it by the end of today"), but it was noticeable.

Addressing some issues and qualms brought up by other fans

・"Jerry Jewell's Russian accent wasn't flawless/he sounds like Gru from Despicable Me". I know next to nothing about Russian, so maybe it was horrible, but it wasn't so horrible that I could tell. But more over: TIME CONTRAINTS. Funimation had to find a veteran voice actor who could reliably get lines done in a few takes (given not just the time contraints, but the fact that Viktor speaks a lot in every episode) and could also do a passable (to Americans) Russian accent. I cannot imagine that there are too many people in the Forth Worth-Dallas area who meet both of those requirements. Second, if you can sit through the Minions, you can suck it up and deal with a just-okay Russian accent.

・Which brings us to my next point: the time element. You cannot reasonably expect something, any sort of product for consumption, to be flawless, fast, AND cheap/free. Going too fast in translation, including subtitles, almost always results in errors. Hence there were minor flaws in the subs (as @fencer-x has noted; she has better listening comprehension skills than me, and I trust her ear) , and since the dub script was not terribly different than the subbed script in this series, I'm going to guess that those errors carried over. I don’t have time to go back and analyze the places where the mistranslations occurred, though, so I am not 100% sure. They did not affect the plot or the characterization of the characters, though, so I do not consider them serious.

・Some time ago @fencer-x responded to a comment about jokes/references/lines being moved around. I don't remember what she said, but here are my two cents:

Moving around jokes/references/lines is normal in translation, especially when you need to match lipflap. There may be many reasons why, and they will vary depending on language pair, but they can all be said to be necessary to meet target culture norms, and in the the case of dubbing, meeting target culture mouth movements. Although technically up for debate in academia, I am of the persuasion that some loss of linguistic and cultural content is inevitable in translation, even in literal translation, sometimes (linguistic relativity). A good translation attempts to make up for some of that through "compensation", though. This could explain why some characters reactions or quirks (*cough*Christophe*cough*) are more extreme in the English dub than they appear to be in the original. I for one found the humor funnier in English, and the touching moments, like the ring exchange, more touching in the dub.

・I get the sense, not just from this particular dub, but from the dub vs. sub way of thinking of some fans have in general, that there is a severe misunderstanding about subtitles and their relation to translation and language. Also, that some people do not understand that what is being said, as in literal words being used, is not the same thing as what is being conveyed/what they meant by those words....

SUBTITLES =/= EXACTLY WHAT IS BEING SAID IN JAPANESE, BUT 'JUST IN ENGLISH'

Subtitles are not literal (hopefully) or "pure" translations. There are no such things as "pure" translations. Subtitles are not necessarily any closer to what is being said, or what is being conveyed in Japanese (or any source language for that matter) than dubbed scripts. Subtitles are not magic language decryption.

・For example, subtitles, like any translation, frequently make use of techniques called transposition and modulation when going from Japanese to English. Transposition is "a change of one part of speech for another (e.g. noun for verb) without changing the sense" {Introducing Translation Studies, Munday}. Modulation is a change "in the semantics and point of view of the [source language]". In many cases, when coming from a language so linguistically different from English as Japanese, using these techniques is basically mandatory if you want the resulting English to sound 'normal', or as we say in academia, unmarked. Combined with the concept of linguistic relativity, the moment you translate even quite simple sentences, phrases, or words from Japanese to English, you have irrevocably changed them. Theoretically speaking then, no matter if the subs or the dub say "My name is Meghan" or "I'm Meghan", they are both 'correct' translations, but entirely DIFFERENT THAN "メーガンです".

・Subtitles often include adaptations of what is being said in Japanese on screen. This means that cultural references, in-jokes, and the like are changed to be relevant to English-speaking audiecnes. This is an instance where what is being conveyed outweighs what is literally being said in importance. That is, if the translator or script writer didn't change them, the joke or reference would be meaningless, and thus, pointless, supposing the necessary cultural information doesn't also exist outside of Japan.

In conclusion, I was very impressed with the Yuri!!! on ICE dub. I am definitely going to buy it on DVD. As a longtime fan of anime, I appreciate quality dubs, and can relate to fans who want to see dubbed episodes as soon as possible. I am also, unfortunately, familiar with how a poorly chosen cast can ruin a show--which obviously did not happen here. However, as a translator, I am now more aware of what goes into the translating and dubbing process, and I firmly believe that the dub crew gave it their all here. I also have the firsthand experience to say that, hell yes, being rushed sets you up to make mistakes, which seem to have happened in some places in the translation process of this series. However, as I said earlier, those errors did not affect the plot overall, or the characterization, or my understanding of the story, so I can still confidently give the dub a thumbs up.

See you next level!

#yuri on ice #yuri!!! on ice #funimation #japanese translation #anime reviews #dubbing

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