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Answerman - How Are Simulcast Subtitles Made So Fast?


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Amara Tenoh



Joined: 22 Mar 2014
Posts: 333
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:00 pm Reply with quote
They're as fast as my comments. Wink
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Ashtur



Joined: 04 Dec 2015
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:04 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for answering!

I kind of had a feeling that the last few episodes would be as difficult and rushed as you said, but wanted to see if my expectations met reality.
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AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:08 pm Reply with quote
Didn't we have a similar question/answer some time ago? Well, whatever, thanks for the info!
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:17 pm Reply with quote
Remember when ANN leaked the 2nd episode of Oreimo? Pepperidge Farm remembers. That's how I learned episodes are sent out in advanced.

Not too sure about other streamers, but Crunchyroll is good about going back and correcting mistakes in the subs.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:41 pm Reply with quote
Then why not just set the time of the simulcast a few hours later? 2-4 hours would pe plenty as a buffer, I belive.
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omoikane



Joined: 03 Oct 2005
Posts: 494
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:48 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
Then why not just set the time of the simulcast a few hours later? 2-4 hours would pe plenty as a buffer, I belive.


Simulcasts are usually much later, anywhere from 4 to 36 hours later, for CR. Longer for some other companies. But none of that prevent the Japanese side from being late unless you move it back much more than a few hours.

A lot of the ground work to translating a TV series happen early on, this is when you can get specialized terms and names that persist throughout the show over with, get them approved; stuff like songs that gets used repeatedly, etc. Ideally by the end all that had to happen would be plain dialog... lol.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:48 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
Then why not just set the time of the simulcast a few hours later? 2-4 hours would pe plenty as a buffer, I belive.


Then people would complain about the delays.
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purplepolecat



Joined: 15 Feb 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 12:58 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
DmonHiro wrote:
Then why not just set the time of the simulcast a few hours later? 2-4 hours would pe plenty as a buffer, I belive.


Then people would complain about the delays.


More to the point, the legit streamers still have to maintain their edge over the fansubbers.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:00 pm Reply with quote
I was under the impression that foreign streaming services received the episode 1-3 hours after it aired in Japan. Then the video went to the translator, who watched the video and came up with a translation in 2-3 hours. And finally the video technician added subtitles.

What Justin describes is much more complex. I am very thankful that we have subtitled episodes in just hours after airing in Japan.
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:04 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
Then people would complain about the delays.


I think that's the lesser of two evils. If the choice was between "episode was posted a few hours after its Japanese premiere, but had a good sub quality" to "episode was posted early, but had missing lines, and/or badly translated ones," I would choose the former.

Answerman wrote:
and last-minute delivery endemic to the anime industustry.


It happens...
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Ashtur



Joined: 04 Dec 2015
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:05 pm Reply with quote
I feel sorry for the people who get to translate oddball stuff.

Especially I feel for the ones who had to translate the various seasons of Saki.

"Wait? Wait? What is that utterly bizarre mahjongg combination called? What's that mean?"

You would almost need to find a fairly serious player to do the translation...
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AtoMan



Joined: 17 Sep 2012
Posts: 161
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Thank God for Shirobako, once again. Now everyone knows that the final episodes could arrive at the TV stations's broadcasting facility mere hours before the airing.

That's Japan, though. Normally the show gets recorded way ahead of broadcast schedule and given to translators early - for example, as a translator i had access to all 26 episodes of Iron Man Armored Adventures 1st season when only 5 or 6 has aired worldwide. Sometimes the early, unfinished versions are provided - Doctor Who season 8 had a leak of those workprint versions; they were black&white, with most of special effects done roughly, some ADR missing (hardsubbed on the screen), and such.

angelmcazares wrote:
I was under the impression that foreign streaming services received the episode 1-3 hours after it aired in Japan. Then the video went to the translator, who watched the video and came up with a translation in 2-3 hours. And finally the video technician added subtitles.


The translation process is usually much longer than 2-3 hours, assuming you don't need an approval for certain terms. Sometimes you have to do some research about the topic on your own, check the facts (God bless Wikipedia!), do the subtitle timing etc.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:18 pm Reply with quote
Luckily, CR and perhaps other sites will sometimes go back and update the subtitles to correct errors in simulcast subs. Though the "cascading delays" phenomenon still doesn't explain cases like Charlotte and Nou-rin where the official subs were lousy right out of the gate.

purplepolecat wrote:
More to the point, the legit streamers still have to maintain their edge over the fansubbers.
True, but today's "fansubbers" are primarily fan-simulcast-subtitle-editors, so even if simulcasts got delayed, they still wouldn't be able to translate and time an episode from scratch without the official scripts to lean on. Though even the teams in the heyday of fansubbing needed at least 6-12 hours after airing to produce good-quality work, IIRC. And they often had staff scattered across the globe that could exploit time-zone differences to their advantage, too.
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Ashtur



Joined: 04 Dec 2015
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:29 pm Reply with quote
AtoMan wrote:
Thank God for Shirobako, once again. Now everyone knows that the final episodes could arrive at the TV stations's broadcasting facility mere hours before the airing.



It was actually Shirobako that got me wondering about this. Now I'm just not sure how exaggerated it is. (and I'm still wondering if Our Lady of the Speed of Sound had a special deal with the police to let her get back to the wrap party in time.)
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:33 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
Not too sure about other streamers, but Crunchyroll is good about going back and correcting mistakes in the subs.

Neat! I look forward to when Ishikui's name in Ushio and Tora gets corrected! Razz Now to get serial.
The article wrote:
By the final few episodes, the video is probably only being delivered several hours or a day before it's supposed to post. Sometimes this means the translator has to wake up in the middle of the night to rush out a quick translation and forward it along. Whoever's editing and timing will then have to wake up and speed through the episode. This is when translation quality really begins to suffer, not to mention grammar and editing. There's simply no time to proof-read, get approvals, ask questions or even do much research.

Wow that is bad, have the simulcasters considered using temporary assistant editors for proof reading? Those would help with quality control.
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