PreCure Dream Stars Stu-PIAK! Letter

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

Firstly, I would like to apologise for this set of subtitles. Out of a two-men team (the other person is EQ who did some of the timing and writing), I was the lead person of this "bad sub" as its so called, and ultimately it was my intention to entertain more than to be accurate. Known as StuPIAK-Subtitles, this was to be my own foray into the fansubbing scene with this first release. Unfortunately, as we can all see, it didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to.

Secondly, I would like to explain how all this amalgamation of dialogue, name changes, everything came into being. Despite aiming to be ADV's phenomenal Ghost Stories dub (which I highly recommend) with its improvisation, the one thing that it needed was direction - which I only implemented halfway into the movie. We built exposition based on Itchy (Ichika)'s scene where she talks about her dream, which the whole joke was that no one would talk about that kind of thing on the street. Hell, no one even gathers their friends anymore to talk on the street. But what do I know? I make a lot of acquaintances, but I uphold my high standards for friends.

Not intending to get off track, we decided to make jokes based on what we saw and what we understood. For instance, the name "Cure Whip" became puns on the word "whip", hence a celebrity getting whipped and the mention of whipping boys. "Shizuku", translated as "Drop", lead to puns of the word "drop". "Sakura" was Cheryl (which lead to a Cardcaptor Sakura joke in Sakuragahara changed to Aokigahara), "Himari" was "Mary", "Aoi" was "Alloy" (yes, the metal), "Yukari" was "Atari" and "Akira" was "Kira". Interestingly, we only learned the villain's name late into the movie, so we just said his name was "Goldman" (yes, from the House of the Dead games). Looking back, I think we really failed to pay attention to the dialogue mainly because we barely understood it. We just went by what we saw. As big Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fans, we decided to insert jokes based on Diamond is Unbreakable's mistranslation, now famously known as the "Duwang translation". For more specific references, do ask about it. I'd be very happy to explain it to you.

Thirdly, I would like to explain our whole intent. This wasn't actually supposed to be bad, but looking at how the audience reacted to it, I'm sad to say I failed completely. This was supposed to be entertaining in its own right targeted at adults who would understand the references, memetic lines (a parody of bad translations seen in media like "Star War Part III: Backstroke of the West"), but ultimately it ended up falling flat on its face. Even the good things I once considered to be that way (the decision to have the dialogue sync with the lip movements) became a bad thing.

In conclusion, I am really upset that I disappointed the fandom of Pretty Cure who expected an accentuation of tried-and-true Japanese ideals. After all, I am, too, a fan of it with HappinessCharge being my favourite series (and having it stack up against Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Welcome to the NHK). Please feel free to direct your hatred towards this set of subtitles and myself through my Discord (@natural_hype#0373), for I admit truthfully that these subs were a badly made joke just like myself. If Cheryl herself performed her so-called "seppuku" on me (an actual revelation of the villain's name), that would be honourable to all my family and acquaintances who did and did not know about this absolute travesty. Just like Cheryl (Sakura) said in the movie, "Don't make the same mistakes I ever did".

But who am I kidding, she didn't really say that.

Yours sincerely,
StuPIAK-Subtitles

P.S. Do keep it on the site and in existence, though - at least when I'm very happy I can show myself how I have no reason to feel that way.