2002-04-12 - 10:58 a.m.

My Mouth Tastes Like Asprin

OK, diaryland was down when I wanted to update yesterday. Not much to say, and I can�t imagine reading my journal right now is exciting. Basically here is the approaching two month summary: ouch, ouch, I�m sleepy, don�t touch me, ouch, ouch. My dad took me to a place in Davis called Sudwerks. Good food, but I was so deadly tired. When he dropped me off at 8 PM last night I crawled into bed. My alarm woke me at 7:30 AM, and I showered, dressed, then limped to the bus.

I�m tired of this illness. I can�t stay awake. I�m sleeping over 12 hours a day. And it still hurts, though at times instead of sharp twisting pains, I now feel like I�m lugging around a softball instead of walnuts. Ha, graphic.

It was good to talk to my dad and eat dinner near a train yard.

So here is something fun � last week Redwood was over and brought Battle of the Planets on DVD. The DVD also had the original Japanese version of the same cartoon called, Gatchaman, and a different English version called, G-Force. This was a cartoon I lived on as a kid.

Childhood Smashed: G-Force Spoilers

So while watching the first episode of Battle of the Planets this crappy animated robot (who was pretty annoying at that) started introducing the G-Force. Casey "Zoinks!" Kasem was the voice for Mark, the leader of the team of � um, what are they? Kid ninjas in bird suits? Anyway that was a surprise to hear Shaggy, Bubblebee, Robin, and many other voices from my childhood coming from the same guy. I never realized it, but most Americans grew up hearing one of only a few voices. No wonder there is a monoculture.

It turns out that the little kid ninja named Keeopp (or something like that) was described by the robot, one 7-zark-7, as being a test tube child! Yeah, I was shocked that they were telling kids that one of the heroes was a test tube child. What is worse, the kid literally would say, "Bleep blooop bleep" before everything he said. They made him a retarded test tube child at that.

OK, so we watched this show we both held dearly, while I kept saying, "Zoinks!" every time Mark talked. I�m sorry. I actually like Shaggy, but just was shocked that the same voice actor (also the voice of Peter Cottontail) was everywhere. Then we watched the original Japanese version. The dorky robot 7-zark-7 was missing.

Interesting! So same episode, but in Japanese. But it was different too. When the big turtle robot started to break into the secret headquarters to steal blueprints, instead of cutting to the dork-bot, the Japanese version continued on with scenes of the robot setting on corpses (yes, dead bodies) of the scientists and guards protecting whatever it was trying to steal. Hmm, we both looked at each other and said, "They censored that out!" By the end of the episode we realized that every time American kids were watching some crappy dork-bot say, "Oh my! I hope G-Force survives!" that Japanese kids were watching the good guys murder, and I do mean murder, legions of enemy goon squads or some evil robot smashing to pieces humans. Interesting � I could go on, but you get the point.

Though I do have one that was a true shock. In one American episode the team was supposed to rescue some astronauts. They did, everybody lived happily ever after, including the retarded test tube child. In the same Japanese version, while trying to save the astronauts, the evil bad guy said, "Stop, or I�ll have these hostages killed." So the good bird ninja kids stopped, only to have the bad guy laugh, "See corpses are good for something." The astronauts were already dead.

Makes you wonder if that violence would really have turned us all into killers �

LISTENING TO: Haujobb Ninetynine remixes

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