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NEWS: SGT Frog Invades ADVFilms.com

biliano wrote:

On the contrary, I'm looking forward to this series. I don't download anime so I haven't seen Sgt. Frog yet. I don't know how many Gundam references are contained in this series, and frankly I don't care (being that I'm not a Gundam fan to begin with). The Gundam references are irrelevant in my view.

Here's the thing. About 90% of all the referencial humor in Keroro Gunsou consists of Gundam and other Bandai anime references (or at least it has in the dozen or so episodes I've seen). Hell, the red frog, Giroro, is the epitome of every hard-boiled Zeon ace that ever existed (Ramba Ral, Norris Packard, Shin Matsunaga, et al). The show really wouldn't be half as funny as it is if you didn't know at least the basics of Gundam; to have a diminutive, megalomaniacal frog shout "even my own father didn't hit me!" just is not funny at all unless you know it's lifted from a certain scene in the original Gundam series with a certain slap-happy captain. And those sort of references occur several times in an episode. Yes, Keroro does cook up some original comedic material, but easily about 25-50% of the humor contained within requires a good working knowledge of Bandai mech anime, especially Gundam.

And with ADV getting three Gundam references wrong to every one they got right in past liner notes and Vid Notes, yes, I'm dreading this release. Not merely as a Gundam otaku, but as a Keroro fan who knows the comedy just doesn't work if the company handling it doesn't know jack about what they're translating. This isn't Gundam fanboy rantings; given the very core nature of the show's comedy, ADV's obvious cluelessness about Gundam WILL sorely hurt the quality of this release.

ADV will give us a Japanese track. Hopefully it'll be set up right so we can view the Japanese subtitles along with the English track(unlike a Saiyuki disk or 2 that I have) so one can see the difs. Keep your fansubs if you like, although I find it interesting someone on another board was complaining they found 5 different Death Note ep 1 versions out there all with what the poster felt were substantial difs in the translation. Maybe ADV will mess up the refs if they do any liner notes, but if you already know, then you don't need the liner note.

The thing is that linear notes and Vid Notes are extras. As such aren't really subject to the same QC as say the sub or dub script. They rely on people with knowledge of Japan and pop culture to find those references. And they'll miss some. And miss will mean sometimes not see them, and sometimes get them wrong. As ubiquitous as Gundam is, not everyone who is very familier with Japanese pop culture will be knowledgeable about Gundam. So yes, they will get some things wrong.

Now if Sgt. Frog has mostly Gundum references, then hopefully they'll get someone who knows a lot about Gundam. But ultimately these are extras. If seeing them incorrect is that annoying, one can always turn Vid Notes off and see how many you'll get without them.

Its not butchering the show. Its merely getting the cultural referances wrong or missing some. That happens. Hopefully it will be better in Sgt Frog, but its understandable in a show like Excell Saga where a broad knowledge of Japan would be better than someone who was super knowledgeable in just 1 genre. Hell, a few years ago some friends and I had a couple of Japanese exchange students over at my place because they heard I had some Anime. They immediately grabbed Excell Saga from the shelf since they had seen it. And were, frankly, amazed at how many things they had missed from it originally when they saw it in Japan.

And its not like ADV gets notes from the license holder on these things. They typically get the show, the language and Background music tracks, and sometimes a script. The problem even with the script is that often is not a working copy, but an original copy which often as not is a fairly useless thing since the dialog typically gets a number of changes. So often they have to start from scratch. Same deal with catching parodies. Scratch.

Personally I'm going to cut ADV some slack because right now I dont know how they're going to handle it. And even if they get some of it wrong, I'm still watching it for the show. I know enough about Gundam that it probably wont matter to me. I'll just keep the Vid Notes off, or else keep em on and laugh even more when they get it wrong. Hell, its a parody, nothing wrong with extra laughter.

dormcat wrote:

Emerje wrote: I was really hoping Bandai would get it. I wonder why they didn't. Having Bandai licensed it would save a lot of trouble, for Keroro Gunso is produced by Sunrise and full of Gundam in-jokes.

But, I want those translation notes. So I'm happy that ADV has it. It's AD-Vid notes time again.

Afro Gunso. Afro Gunso. Afro. Yow!

Mihara wrote:

"SGT Frog"? Why are they using that translation?

Because they can. And probably because the manga did.

Another thing: I thought this was licensed a long time ago.

Sgt Frog is a fairly obvious choice. It's what the title translates to. Sgt Kerero sounds half-baked. People watching in Japan probably view the name in that light (Sgt Frog) rather than Sgt Kerero just as any show we watch-like Major Major Major.

"Frog" definitely will garner more familiarity than "Kero", and will deifinitely grab a casual passerby's attention much easier as well.
"A Frog... that's a sargeant? *takes off shelf*

Or it will make them say, "What is this? Some stupid Japanese take on the muppets in anime form?" Then they walk on by. Seriously, I doubt that TP has sold many (if any) manga based soley on the title being Sgt. Frog.

I wasn't aware the possibility of a few botched Gundam references fell under "hack job,"

Yes, Keroro does cook up some original comedic material, but easily about 25-50% of the humor contained within requires a good working knowledge of Bandai mech anime, especially Gundam.

And with ADV getting three Gundam references wrong to every one they got right in past liner notes and Vid Notes, yes, I'm dreading this release. Not merely as a Gundam otaku, but as a Keroro fan who knows the comedy just doesn't work if the company handling it doesn't know jack about what they're translating. This isn't Gundam fanboy rantings; given the very core nature of the show's comedy, ADV's obvious cluelessness about Gundam WILL sorely hurt the quality of this release.

The whole point of Keroro Gunsou was to be a nudge-nudge-wink-wink kinda series from Bandai to their fans, poking fun at themselves while at the same time concocting a whole new marketing scheme in the way of mass amounts of KeroKero merchandise.

Sgt Frog is a fairly obvious choice. It's what the title translates to. Sgt Kerero sounds half-baked. People watching in Japan probably view the name in that light (Sgt Frog) rather than Sgt Kerero just as any show we watch-like Major Major Major.