The Bunny-Bushido On RAW Anime Watching/Blogging
April 26th, 2008 usagijen
While this topic has been argued to no end, a recent issue just sparked me to post my thoughts on this.
First off, let me ask you this, will you watch an anime raw, and even go to the extent of blogging it, if you didn’t understand much of what’s being said in the episode(s)? This is not quite a problem with regards to bloggers who openly admit that they don’t understand the raw episode they’re watching, especially for those who put disclaimer in each post like “Feel free to correct me blah blah because I watched this raw”, “From what I understood…”, “I didn’t quite understand… but I think”, and all that, to highlight the lack of certainty. Not to boast (because it’s not really worth boasting about), but I did this when I first started out in blogging, pointing out how confused I was with Touka Gettan, for example, where I even put (?) in parts of the summary I was uncertain about, etc. FYI, that post sucks butt. The problem comes in when the blogger starts stating things in a matter-of-fact tone, when in fact, it’s far from the truth.
Call it being egotistic or what, but I don’t think both my conscience and pride will allow me to blog about something I don’t really understand, and deceive people into believing the ’facts’ that I say. Perhaps there would be times in which you’d think that you understood the episode, when in fact you didn’t, in which cases counter-check will always help (more on this later). Not having a good grasp of Japanese isn’t supposed to be an excuse to just leave things as misunderstood as it is, and to post your thoughts about something you didn’t understand just makes you lose credibility over all. It’s to the detriment of both you and the readers as well… 
If you loved the anime so much, wouldn’t you go out of your way and actually find some means to understand it better, or to at least check whether you understood it correctly? If you find it difficult to grasp the episode because you think your Japanese knowledge is not enough, there are a number of ways which can help you in understanding the raw episode. And no, it’s not a matter of taking up formal Japanese classes or attaining a JLPT level or what have you. It can be as easy as accepting that your skills are not enough, and that you need additional help, either from other people or other sources/materials (or better yet, the English subs itself!).
Mind you, despite being JLPT2-certified, I do know for a fact that my Japanese knowledge is more often that not, insufficient for many of the animes I watch. Hence, I rely on Chinese/English subs and other materials from time to time. This is especially the case for mecha animes and complicated sci-fi flicks which I really need subs for. Though Himitsu is quite an exception to this, because the chunk of the stories in this show is actually more on the dramatic emotional/moral side of the story. And I’m diverting from my point!
More on Himitsu in another post, and back to the topic. To the raw watchers/bloggers out there (or potential raw watcher / blogger) who are having difficulty understanding stuff, here are some pointers which might help you out:
1. Rely on your ears, consult a dictionary.
If you’re taking learning Japanese through raw watching seriously, you’d want to have a dictionary in hand. Otherwise there’s also the ever reliable ALC and dictionary.goo.ne.jp for the newer colloquial terms. But of course you’d need ultra sensitive hearing skillz for this, so you might want to skip this and read the next set of tips if you find it too tedious (this will, after all, require that you pause ever so often, and repeat the lines being said, just to understand the dialogues).
I actually consider myself a n00b raw watcher, except when it comes to ‘ordinary’ slice-of-life doramas and romance animes, hence I do this more often than not. When I blogged Kaze no Stigma, for example, I had to watch each episode two or three times (or more? I can’t really remember anymore), then pause in between dialogues to get what they’re saying. I’d like to think that even BADASS raw watchers do this too, on a much lesser scale of course.
2. Make the most out of friendly/lively forums.
In active forums (AnimeSuki forums, among others), there will most likely be a couple of raw watcher members who post their thoughts on the episode(s) right after watching it. Now if they misinterpreted something in the episode, other members in the forum will most likely correct it. You can either lurk and watch all this happen, or you can be more active and actually post questions about what you didn’t understand in the episode! Then, a friendly member will most likely answer, given that there are such people in the forum (or the particular thread).
3. Check out the original source of the anime adaptation, if any.
For animes adapted from an existing manga, novel, game, etc., you might want to check out these original sources to have a better grasp of the anime as a whole, especially if the anime follows the source material quite well. If the anime is popular enough, you’ll most likely find scanlations of the manga. Or if not, get the Japanese or Chinese raws of it. Being able to read the dialogues will definitely help in looking up their meaning, than having to listen to them in the anime itself.
This is probably the main catalyst as to why I resorted to reading the original source(s) for the animes I blog (Seleria also did this for Ookiku Furikabutte, with the same mindset), and what caused me to churn out all those deep frying posts I have. For KnS, I knew well that I will not be able to fully grasp the dialogues in the anime (I barely passed the listening portion of my JLPT2 exam, thank you). I can already foresee that it will be a huge pain in the butt. Hence, I searched for the original novels where it was based from, even before the anime aired. Luckily, the novels were popular enough to be available for download, and I read it hand in hand with the anime (and I bought them all soon afterwards). The novels provided much help in making me have a clear grasp of the episodes that air (on top of the help I get from Chinese subs), considering how much detailed it was compared to the butchered anime. It was a great counter-check tool, so to speak. And from there, the deep frying phenomenon was born! \o/
Perhaps it’s now a force of habit that I find myself doing this before the new anime season starts. Like how I read the Wagaya no Oinari sama manga, the Toshokan Sensou novels and manga (to the extent of buying the actual Toshokan Sensou novels itself), and the Kure-nai novel and manga, months or weeks before the anime air date. I did this for purposes of an in-depth research about what to expect in the anime, and to help out in understanding the anime, as what I’ve also mentioned. Because well, I’m a paranoid person (or a perfectionist), and would want to ascertain that I understood things correctly, as much as possible.
4. Check out other sites who post episode summaries, starting with Japanese blogs.
This is but common sense for raw watchers, but I just like to stress that you might want to check Japanese blogs first, especially if there are few or less to none who actually post episodic summaries in English. There are a number of Japanese bloggers out there who even post bits of the actual dialogues in the episode, so you can just look up the sentences with ease. Just go a search like
While it’s common sense to recommend taking a visit to English blogs posting summaries of the episodes, non-native Japanese speakers who blog episodes are pretty much prone to mistakes too. Unless you trust the blogger so much that you’ll go on believing what he/she says, then I’ll leave you with that. If you believe what I say here, for example, then thank you for your trust! Rest assured that I will do my best to not betray that. Or so I hope.
5. Go Totali-ism
And finally, you can also go do the Totali-ism way of raw watching/blogging, which he mentioned in Kabitzin’s interview months back.
Cheers! Blog Integrity FTW \o/
Feel free to add more to this list, please. It’s for the benefit of all of us!
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12 Comments Add your own
1. Owen S
| April 26th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Whoa, serious work ethic you’ve got there. *salute* This is exactly why I’ve never ever watched raws, and never will, not until I can understand it fully. Anime bloggers with principles and/or standards aren’t exactly common, sadly. Selling out, in my blogosphere? It’s more likely than you think!
I should bring this up before anyone else mentions it, but the common arguments used to ignore posts like this would be “It’s my blog, I can do what I want!” and “People do it for the blog traffic” — irrelevant to the fact that inaccuracy is being promoted as a culture, and something I feel I should mention as a pre-emptive. Freedom of speech is no excuse for rampant misinformation, and for it to happen at the beginning of a season is unforgivable.
2. issa-sa
| April 26th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Them Toshokan Sensou novels are expensive! (but worth it I suppose :P). It’s no wonder I always find it worth checking out the summaries on Scrumptious when I forced myself to watch raws (Ookiku/Saiunkoku. Wish you’d do Toshokan Sensou though :P) since that much effort is put into them! But I suppose checking out Japanese blogs too would be a good idea, since pausing to check a dictionary while watching anime makes it feel like doing a homework assignment… (and is really not an option when watching TV… hence the internet :P)
3. Impz
| April 26th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Major random rant ahead about blog integrity.
I think that to state that inaccuracy as promoted as a culture is a major hyperbole. Nonetheless, it is downright concerning when bloggers make big mistakes that clearly shows their lack of understanding of an episode. It makes me wonder a lot whether bloggers no longer bother to proofread their sources and understanding before writing.
In the Internet, no one is the gatekeeper. This is unlike traditional media with classical roles known as the editor. Anything can go out without restrictions. That is why errors are aplenty. However, under the tag of a blogger, accuracy is being dropped aside since they are not required to be accurate. They are here for an opinion.
That is fine if bloggers are not influential. However, they are. The Internet blogging community is starting to gain more audience who depends on them for ideas, opinions and the “truth” in things. Be it anime, politics, academia or any form of blogging, this is a trend where more people are reading blogs and influenced.
You can argue that people are educated enough to decipher from fact or lie. The thing is that there are very few people who are educated and discerning enough to see the difference. Moreover, many bloggers are well trained in writing. Those that are popular are popular for a reason. They can write and sway opinions.
In that case, raw watching bloggers now have a bigger task to fulfill. First, they are always the first few who blog a series. Second, they are the ones who are popular in the episode summary genre. Third, they are likely to be seen as authoritative voices on what is good or bad. When one makes a mistake by not fully understanding an entry, it becomes problematic. What if a show is supposed to be good, but is reviewed poorly due to a lack of understanding the native language?
It is also possible that readers do not have that much time like bloggers. They do not read widely. They are likely to only follow 1-2 blogs. Hence, I feel that your entry is very important and remind us the position we are.
We might not be crazily popular. We might not be getting the number of comments such as Randomc and Memento. However, our voice do make a difference to the readers who came to our blog. Inaccuracy (unless it is warned clearly that there’s a lack of understanding) cannot be tolerated.
*pant pant*
4. Michael
| April 26th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I started writing about Ergo Proxy without even understanding any Japanese. I simply admitted that I did not understand any Japanese and that I was only going to summarize what seemed to me physically happened in the episode. For example, if I saw Re-l floating around, I was going to say that Re-l floated around. And if I assumed something, I simply said ‘it seems this happened,’ I may very well have been bullshitting, but I stated it clearly (before even blogging about it at length) that I summarized the visual occurrences of the episodes, and not their actual content. That actually got me popularity. Visual hints aren’t also as hard to decipher, so I researched on them and wrote about them. That got me hits.
Afterwards I just got tired, and then decided to write about anime in light of different things and ideas. I’ve been honest and I’ve always referred or read on what I’ve written about, and I don’t do summaries at all anymore, so the question is not as relevant to me as it was back in the past.
It’s good, though, that you have revisited this.
5. Blissmo
| April 26th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I never watch RAW. I don’t understand. And I don’t want to waste my GBs either! XD
6. Setsukyie
| April 26th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Nice post.
Just like Blissmo, I never watch raw anime either..
I was planning to, but…my japanese is BAD..
So, until I improve my japanese, I will continue watching subs..
7. usagijen
| April 27th, 2008 at 12:38 am
@Owen: it’s sad when people make a habit out of this misinformation, indifferent to the negative influence they have to readers in general =.=;
The effect of a not-so-correct yet positive remark on animes might not be as grave as a not-so-correct negative one, it’s still misinformation nonetheless. Readers just have to be critical enough to discern that, but sadly, not all of them are.
in the end, I just hope this post will influence the blogosphere positively
@issa-sa: I am soo itching to make my Toshokan Sensou posts now, but I’m still not finished D: and yeah, raw watching can be quite a LOT of work, especially if you do it the traditional and hardcore way, so you just have to be smart and look for alternatives XD
@Impz: you have pretty much voiced out the sentiments of the pro-Blog Integrity preservation, especially Sat-chan~ XD *high fives*
@Mike: wow, I never thought you blogged Ergo Proxy RAW. That must have been quite a work indeed D: It would be ok if you really plan on taking Nihongo seriously, but alas, you have other plans in mind so it’s but understandable that you’d quit that
@Blissmo: listening / remembering dialogues as you watch the fansubs is the starting point of raw watching! XD watch more and you’ll find yourself being familiarized with the language, before you know it, especially if the anime makes quite an impact in you :3
@Setsukyie: watching subs, while learning more… is all good~
8. psgels
| April 27th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Well, somehow I feel that I’m one of the people who this post is targetted at. I indeed make a lot of mistakes here and there, and I admit here that I don’t often proofread my own entries apart from the obvious spelling errors. The reason is simply laziness. ^^; Still, I feel that you raised some good points.
Still, what is this about being part of a “culture”? I never realized that anime blogging was such serious business.
9. Ryan A
| April 27th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Nice, lovely emphasis pictures usagijen ^^
I particularly like #1 and #3, #2 and #4 are solid, but sometimes they required the timing of others. #3 is usually the easiest, since a lot of people read manga and it becomes an adaptation at some point (not all of course).
To myself, I say, “Ryan, you need moar skillz” So I work on vocab: pronounce, remember, flashcard… Listening is a strong skill (hence the reason I usually don’t study material from lectures I sit at). Listening [and quickly remembering the sound], I find helps in so many ways (even without knowing the vocab, it makes it easier to lookup, write down, and flashcard for the week).
Raws sort of force the listening, since subs aren’t there to pay attention to. General grammar is also handy to be familiar with just to realize the “points” [even without the all vocab].
The toughest part at first is turning off that “translating” mindset and just go to flow, because really the meaning will pop-in, and even if the words are known from vocab, if they don’t pop-in, I give them more attention in phrasing/flashcards.
This is just my take. I’m no expert, AT ALL, so I study vocab, but yea doing pure audio listening conversations and reading sentences aloud helps as well, like almost immediately if you listen enough. Stock phrases never hurt nobody :3
Did I mention I study vocab? (jk) Still, even with all the emphasis on raws, only half the battle (or less) is won, since it would be nice to have fluid improvisation in speaking and writing as well. That’s what gives me inspiration to watch raws (only certain series), because there is a greater mountain to conquer, and I can’t be waiting for subs.
If it is a seriously complex series, I won’t even try raws, I’ll just wait to marathon or batch view. Some series are much easier to watch raw than others (ie Kamisama Kazoku), and some series you just don’t want to miss the information the first time around.
I definitely prefer subs, but not being on a fansubber’s schedule, gives me more time to study the language, which is the overall goal; raw watching is an enjoyable exercise though.
Sorry for the length :/ (it is one of those invigorating posts ^^)
10. Senna
| April 27th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Great entry, and I agree fully. I don’t blog raw episodes (heh, I don’t blog much at all lately), but whenever I refer to something I’ve seen in the few shows I’ve watched in raw, I give disclaimers because I know my Japanese is far from fluent and that I miss a lot (… which is why I always watch subs when they’re available). I’m definitely in support of watching raws for people learning Japanese (I feel so accomplished when I understand whole sentences and even scenes ^^), but to pretend you know what you’re talking about when you don’t is just dishonest.
11. Caitlin
| April 27th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I fully agree with your second paragraph there. I think I might be able to understand the majority of a raw, assuming it isn’t mecha or filled with technical jargon. But I don’t want to run the risk of being wrong.
(I also don’t have any idea where one would get raw files. A thick piece of paper across the bottom also does the trick, most of the time. Sacrificed picture size but oh well.)
12. usagijen
| April 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
@psgels: I should say you were ‘partially’ targeted :p You often give disclaimers about not understanding the episode in its entirety, and that’s much appreciated. As for something else I want to tell you, I think I’ll do some other means to tell that.
Now while anime blogging might be viewed as a not-so-serious business, it might become serious depending on its implications or the after-effect it poses to people. We should just be more aware of the influence we have to people, as bloggers
@Ryan: sadly I think I still have that translating mindset, brought about by the lack of understanding some dialogues in Japanese, and the lack of English knowledge to know just how to summarize what the characters said or what happened…
and yes, we might not realize it, but the more we immerse ourselves in watching raw (or listening to pure japanese audio), the more we assimilate the language as we memorize phrases, the grammar structure, etc.
the lack of subs force people to understand raws, which is both good and bad XD
@Senna: aww, it’d be great to see more fangurls blogging! But oh well XD it’s really a great feeling when you start recognizing phrases, and understand bits and pieces of the dialogues… shows that you’re actually learning! =D
@Caitlin: hehehe, I think some people I know did that ‘covering with paper’ trick… for checking :p it’s quite useful, and worth the sacrifice IMO.
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