Do you like being able to chose between AT&T or T-Mobile? Maybe Verizon? If you were born before 1982, you didn't have those choices. There was just the Phone Company. Ma Bell.
The rush towards monopolies is insane to anyone who knows history. They. Are. Bad.
In Seattle, Amazon at one point was talking about buying apartment buildings to house its workers. All I could think of was Pullman Cities... You DO NOT want your boss to be your landlord...
Monopolies are not illegal, by the way. What is illegal is "wielding monopoly power." That is the only way to take a monopoly to court for busting; to prove they wielded their power to hurt customers and crush innovation.
Amazon's strategy against monopoly busting is to always present their market as global. They are VERY CAREFUL in all external communication in showing how they are NOT dominating their market.
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Translation discourse: If you leave words in Japanese you should have a VERY FUCKING GOOD REASON. "Ni-chan" and "Ni-ni" and (sorry) "senpai" have no business being left in English. (Again, unless you have a VERY FUCKING GOOD REASON). The default should always be 100% English.
As many have said, manga and anime translation suffers from a legacy of bad translations choices. There was a time that language was used as a bar to clear to enter the fandom; you needed to learn the lingo to enjoy. That time is long gone.
Manga and anime are no longer niche fandoms. They are literally the BEST SELLING COMICS IN THE WORLD. They are being read by people who couldn't care two figs about "fandom." This is Good. This is what we all wanted all along. So past time to raise that bar on translation.
I love how TONO MONOGATARI has come together. This is a beautiful comic. @DandQ
TONO MONOGATARI is the first work we have done without Mizuki's direct involvement. This is sad, of course. But we will do our best to keep the old tales alive. Just as Mizuki would have wanted.
Almost 10 years ago Ronald Morse, the original translator of TONO MONOGATARI, mailed me a copy of Mizuki's version thinking I might want to do a translation of it some day. I wasn't a professional then, just a passionate amateur. And now.... here it is!
I got contacted by a website looking to do a manga database and they asked me who should be credited in the entry and my answer was Just. Fucking. Credit. Everyone! Why is this so hard to understand?
If I had a minimum standard for manga crediting, it would be: 1) Original artist 2) Translator (+Adaptor if used) 3) Letterer 4) Editor. Those four have the most impact on the book and should be credited in every review, every posting, everything.
If you have space, add more. Nicky Lim is the Cover Designer for the Leiji Matsumoto series from Seven Seas and deserves all the praise the world can muster. Definitely a line in a database entry.
The "too old for anime fandom" thing really gets under my craw. It is such as attempt to cage things in Western prejudice that are not there in the source material. One of the reasons why Japan has such a robust comic market is they consider it suitable for all ages. (1)
Asking "How old is too old for anime fandom?" sounds as stupid as saying "How old is too old for television?" or "How old is too old for movies?" Why do some people INSIST on putting things into boxes? On gatekeeping? Animation is a medium. There's no age limit. (2)
And yes, within the medium there are things for a broad age range. Somethings are targeted at children, some at adults... that's all fine. But the medium itself is ageless. So maybe quit asking that question? (3)
Oh, and one more vaccine thing worth mentioning. This is Pfizer. Pharma companies do not develop new medicine out of the goodness of their heart. They will expect to profit HEAVILY on this. That is the nature of the beast. (1)
In clinical trials, companies like Pfizer focus on the most profitable drugs, not the most needed. That's how we got viagra, which was initially created to lower blood pressure. Pfizer hit the jackpot with that one, entirely by mistake. (2)
In the past, when vaccines were developed by individuals, or universities, they could be altruistic. Jonas Salk famously refused to profit on the polio vaccine. Same with Edward Jenner and smallpox. But Pfizer is a pharma company. They want ROI. (3)