Episode 16: Kirara the Ice Fairy Sheds Rainbow Colored Tears
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Thursday, November 28, 2024
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Sunday, November 17, 2024
[LonelyChaser-Inka] Tongari Boushi no Memoru 05
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Oishinbo Episode 55
Episode 55: The Wonder of Soy Sauce
Fun fact, this episode was never re-aired because it claimed that harmful chemicals are used on imported soybeans, among other things.
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Friday, November 8, 2024
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Mellowlink vs Merowlink
The spelling of the main character of this show has been a contentious issue, even within the staff team working on the show. The translator has chosen to die on the hill of spelling it "Merowlink" (which I personally think looks dumb), and has given these Japanese resources to back up his spelling:
As we all know, no Japanese resource has ever misspelled an English word. Never. The translator claims the only reason the show is called "Mellowlink" is because of early semi-pro English coverage of the show, specifically this 1988 article from Animag.
This is despite the official English website that Sunrise maintains also spelling it "Mellowlink", making it the official English spelling.
30 years of precedent and common spelling mean nothing when you ask the translator. All that matters is that one person 30 years ago may have spelled it wrong, and that "wrong" spelling has been blindly accepted ever since by you utter idiots, including myself. If you would like to argue with him, be my guest, but I argued with him for 2 hours and got nowhere. As a compromise, each release has two sub tracks. The first, and default, uses "Merowlink", while the second spells it "Mellowlink".
The translator did do a write-up on why he thinks he is correct, which I will reproduce below.
Armor Hunter Marshmallow Is Out!
1983’s Armored Trooper VOTOMS is a legitimate classic. While Mobile Suit Gundam steals most of the thunder as being the premiere mecha franchise from Sunrise, VOTOMS sits on the throne for real robot sci-fi anime. Gritty and kind of ugly, its small-scale battle robots with their rotating triple lens camera eyes are iconic. VOTOMS spawned a number of OVA side stories covering the previous and further adventures of protagonist Chirico Cuvie, and pretty much all of the franchise has gotten an official English-language release.
All but one: a 12-episode spin-off series that was released in 1988. Due to Sunrise’s often perplexing licensing rules, it’s not considered part of VOTOMS itself, and so it wasn’t included when Sentai Filmworks licensed the franchise for physical media release. The show has suffered over the years from both terrible Japanese DVD releases and a fansub that dated back to VHS days and which left much to be desired for translation accuracy. And so, I decided that it was time to fill in this last gap for VOTOMS fans here. With a shiny new blu-ray release providing the video source, and a few weeks of effort, I finally completed my translation of the show. And now, we can all at last enjoy a quality release of Armor Hunter Merowlink.
Already, I can hear thousands-- hundreds-- Okay, a few dozen people who are familiar with this show already tapping away at their keyboards to loudly protest this obvious mistake on my part. What the hell is up with that spelling? It’s Armor Hunter Mellowlink. I mean, if you Google it, it shows up everywhere as that title. Since when has the main character’s name been spelled that way?
Well, it’s been spelled that way since before the show was even released. Since I’m old and never throw anything away, let me first refer you to the December 1988 issue of Animedia magazine, wherein they announce Merowlink as an upcoming series and helpfully print the main character’s name in English.
Ah, but that’s just one magazine. Surely it’s a fluke. Except it’s not. Spelling the main character as “Merowlink” has been remarkably consistent for over 35 years. It shows up everywhere.
On the laserdisc release…
The music collection albums…
The DVD release…
The occasional toy…
On the official Sunrise VOTOMS.net web site…
In the animation itself… (Scene 1, episode 1)
Actually, in every single episode of the anime. There’s a dog tag in the background of the title card in the opening credits. It’s a little hard to make out, but that’s Merow’s dog tag, right there. 
And there it is again in every eyecatch.
Enhance!
So, here’s the thing: The creators of the show have clearly wanted this main character’s name spelled “Merowlink” from the get-go. It’s in the show, and it’s on every piece of licensed video, music, and toy merchandise. The question isn’t “Why are you spelling it Merowlink?” but rather “Where did Mellowlink come from in the first place?” And how did it come to be the standard way to translate this character’s name in English language sources? Surely that’s a question lost to time, never to have a clear answer-- Oh, wait. It’s actually really easy to answer.
Back in 1988, English-speaking anime fans didn’t exactly have easy or instant access to Japanese information sources. There was no “world wide web”; the best most of us could manage were Usenet forums or local bulletin board systems (And boy, could I write you an article on how annoying those were to use.) Information on new shows was spread by word of mouth, physical newsletters that had to actually be mailed to you, and the occasional attempt at doing an anime magazine. One of the earliest attempts to do a pro anime zine was Animag, whose staff went on to mainly form the long-running Viz Media publication Animerica. Anyway, issue 5 of 1988’s volume one of Animag contained a few news items of upcoming anime. 
And there it is: the origin of “Mellowlink”. With no English language sources to guide the translator (Because how could you expect them to also have the December 1988 issue of Animedia?), they had to make a choice of how to render メロウリンク in English. When this happens, it all boils down to the personal aesthetics of the translator, and they went for all “l’s” in this one. And here’s the thing: once something is published in English in an information-poor environment like American anime fandom in the 1980’s, it becomes a primary source.
And so local fan newsletters and amateur press associations also reported on this show “Mellowlink”. People who put together episode synopsis guides (Because that’s what you used in the days before subtitling became cheap and fairly easy) also used that name. It spread and spread and spread, and since most of the time we were watching the show on low-resolution VHS tapes, we simply couldn’t see how the guy’s name was written in the anime itself.
Let the process repeat unimpeded for several decades, and you end up in the current situation, where the official name spelling from the people who made the show is practically unknown to most American fans. If you enter 機甲猟兵メロウリンク into Google Translate, out will come “Armored Hunter Mellowlink”, because that’s what the A.I. sees most of the time in English sources related to mentions of this show in Japanese. That’s probably the cause of the one piece of evidence that some might use to refute the spelling as being correct in English: The official Sunrise International website, which lists the show in English as “Armored Hunter Mellowlink”. The thing is, as soon as you navigate away into the official votoms.net site, the show’s back to being called “Leechers Army Merowlink” in English. Considering that the Sunrise International site lists the VOTOMS OVA “The Roots of Ambition” as “The Root Ambition”, I’m gonna say that whoever was editing the English language text wasn’t 100% reliable.
So, that’s the story of why this sub release is using Merowlink as the spelling for the main character. However, you might have noticed something about the official merch and may be wondering something else:
What the hell is a “Leechers Army”?*
Anyway, that’s the whole story of why Mellowlink is now Merowlink here. This actually caused quite a stir with the other staff working on this release, and so that’s why there’s an alternate subtitle track for those of you who simply can’t bear to watch it spelled the official way. Either way, it’s a great series and I was happy to finally get this done.
Enjoy!
*If you want to know the deal about Leechers Army, just go here and read the entry on Merowlink. It explains the whole thing.
Armor Hunter Merowlink (Mellowlink) 1-4 Batch
Episodes 1-4 of the classic 1988 OVA set in the VOTOMS universe. One man, one anti-AT rifle, one mission - to kill the men responsible for sending the rest of Mellowlink Arity's platoon to their deaths.
But we spelled his name wrong, right? It's Mellowlink, right? Read more here, and weep. (TL;DR - the translator insists, INSISTS on it being spelled Merowlink, and will not budge.)
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Episode 1: Wilderness
Episode 2: Colosseum
Episode 3: Jungle
Episode 4: Leaning Tower
Episode 2: Colosseum
Episode 3: Jungle
Episode 4: Leaning Tower
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