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Anime News Nina! - 2009-02-25

Uh oh, this is turning into Chicks on Anime -- Fansubs Pt 3

I find it almost darkly amusing how nerds get so up in arms over a COMIC that's meant to EXAGGERATE aspects of an INCREDIBLY geeky culture...you don't see people complaining about the jabs some humorists take at Star Wars geeks for example

I hate being sick, I missed this comic =(

This was excellent. I laughed out loud. Laughing

I think that everyone has missed the most important thing here, being that this strip contains spoilers for the Shin Daisuke DX ~TERmINuS: Aurora of Five Years Later movie.

After Daisuke's sister Mari went into a coma from the toxic cleaning fumes in episode 45 and found that her consciousness had somehow been transferred into their dog Cucumber, we were left hanging as to whether she could escape from the obedience school in time to stop him from throwing away his mop and joining the Slovenly Seven because he blamed himself for her condition.

At least you didn't show anything after their first confrontation, but for those who haven't seen the movie and don't know about spoiler[Daisuke's newfound hatred of dogs after his defeat by the Hounds of Hygiene at the end of the First Janitorial Tournament, which prevented him from winning the money they needed for Mari's surgery, ] it could be jarring to see him turn his back on Cucumber that way.

It was a good strip, but please try to avoid spoilers in the future.

There are many mediocre fansub works out there, some too flashy, some badly timed, some badly translated. There are many different groups subbing most series though, and finding the best among them is not that hard a task if you are an elitist about sub/typesetting quality.

The difference between a plain yellow vob sub treatment and a good fansub work for me is abysmal...

styled subs are very handy for a number of situations, such as:

People speaking at the same time

Signs: 1,2

Crazy multitasking gang bangs (SHAFT, I'm looking at you... Anime cry

)

And they come in all sizes, flavors, colors and preferences. From plain serious white subs to ridiculous styled incomprehensible fonts.

Also, many fansubs lately introduce softsubs, many times with a second srt sub stream. That way, you can change them to your personal liking. Can't get much better than this imo, (if you disregard of course legality, ease of use and technology limit issues)... Wink

The strip was hilarious btw, loved the bouncing ball part... Anime hyper

Of course I have no problem with translator's notes that take up half the screen! If anything, they'd probably encourage people to buy the official DVDs just so they can actually see what's going on Cool

But seriously, I have found some fansubber's notes to be quite helpful/informative when used in the right way (ie explaining cultural elements/jargons/historical figures etc) and sometimes I wish the official versions of certain anime would have something like that. Translator's notes that can be switched on/off screen would be very nice indeed. Or notes that appear the end of each episode (like the end notes in manga). I remember when I watched Ergo Proxy before it was licensed the fansub group I went with did something like that with all the names and references mentioned in the show and when I watch my official DVDs nowadays I wish the notes are there so I don't have to spend hours on end searching through wikipedia.

Am I correct in assuming translator's notes on a DVD would exist combined with the dialogue on a separate subtitle track to the standard one?
I so, I'd have to manually change my player's automatic settings if I wanted to see the notes, but since they're usually unnecessary I'd be happy to do that.

Good to hear other fansubbers do that Tofu, I was merely speaking from experience and out of all the subs I've seen (which is a lot...) that was the only time I can recall that happening.

Well lets me say a few things here

Liked the comic, found it funny, had a chuckle.

With that said let me move to what has been discussed here

Fansub groups, like Dattebayo, while they may not have "flashy" text as some describe they do something that could be called arrogance. To sum it up "Wow! Dattebayo Fansubs must be really important, they appear above the director!" meaning they find themselves more important than the people who actually worked on the show, or at least imply it.

As to leaving in honorifics, it is a translators job to translate, you can get the relationship and tone beyond words. Also if you find every way to say brother, sister, mother, father, etc. important then why not I and you too? They also show different levels of respect and meaning as well, so why then is it okay to translate them, but leave the honorific in?

Chinese also has honorifics, but when watching the Iron Monkey subbed they don't leave them in, they translate it. French has masculine and feminine words, but in Amelie those distinctions are left out of the subtitles.

As to translation notes, Excel Saga and more recently Nerima Daikon Brothers, have them but they are not a viewing option in the same way like dubs or subs are, they are considered an extra, like a commentary. But definetely not the first or original way it's consumed. As a joke explained isn't funny, and there are things that either we aren't suppossed to know/doesn't matter or find out later.

Thank you Zac for your informative and objective analysis of my post. I see you've decided to grace us with another of your witty one-liners when you have nothing better to say. I have well and truly been put in my place as a "fansub dork" because I didn't think the topic at hand was the subject of humour.

As to Twilightmaster, if I'm right in thinking that

"ADVnotes" were also included in Paniponi Dash. They were very helpful but not a cure-all. Sometimes almost the entire screen would be covered with "bubbles" full of text, virtually obscuring what was going on (cultural references were coming fast and furious). Often just giving a basic explanation of what was happening, like "this was a scene from so-and-so (a manga I'd never heard of) written by so-and-so (a person I'd never heard of)" would take up so much time and space that there wasn't any left to explain why it was appropriate, which kind of defeated the purpose. Still, seeing that a show includes these is a definite plus for me.

Man, yesterday I expressed my honest opinion, pointing out both some good and bad points of fansubs, I might add, and I almost got my head bitten off! It's like those series where you can sometimes see a purple aura of hatred hanging over a character.

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Forum - View topicAnime News Nina! - 2009-02-25

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Anime News Nina! - 2009-02-25