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Real Bout Review Edit
posted on by Christopher Macdonald
While we regularly receive e-mail disagreing with one statement or another in one of our reviews it is very rarely that we go back and change the review. 99% of the time these e-mail regard a difference in opinion (and often erroneous 'corrections') but Clark Cheng wrote us about a real mistake our reviewer made
While we regularly receive e-mail disagreing with one statement or another in one of our reviews it is very rarely that we go back and change the review. 99% of the time these e-mail regard a difference in opinion (and often erroneous 'corrections') but Clark Cheng wrote us about a real mistake our reviewer (me) made in the Real Bout review. Clark happens to know what he's talking about because as he puts it, "I did some of the ADR writing and subtitling work on Real Bout High School."
Below you can read Clark's e-mail to us, and we've of course updated the review.
Dear Christopher,
My name is Clark Cheng and I did some of the ADR writing and subtitling work on Real Bout High School. First of all, let me thank you for your kind words regarding the show. I know that everyone involved worked very hard on the project, and I hope that you continue to watch and review the series as it continues.
The reason that I am writing this letter is because I feel that a certain comment you made may be somewhat unjustified. Considering you wrote about this matter at some length, and the fact that it probably lowered your opinion of the dub, I felt that I had to bring one or two things to your attention.
In your review, you state:
> "In a few places the English script writers unnecessarily complicate certain
> lines that were very simple in the Japanese script, one particular example
> is when Ryoko is faced with her first adversary in the other world: she
> hears the beast 'flap' its wings and all she is able to say in total
> disbelief is a weak "flap?" In the English dub however her line is expanded
> to "flapping wings? what's the deal!?" In some cases changes like this may
> actually improve a script, but in this case the simpler Japanese line was
> better."
Now, keep in mind that I did the first pass on the ADR script for this episode, and I did the subtitling work for it as well. These are the three different versions of the line from the original translation, the final ADR script, and the final subtitled script:
Org. tran.: "FLAP"?? What in the world--
ADR Script: Flapping wings? Alright. What's the deal?
Sub Script: "Flap"?\What in the world?
First, it's my impression that you believed that we re-wrote one word unnecessarily into several phrases, based on a comparison between the subtitles and the dub dialogue. It should be apparent from above that this is not the case. What really happened was that in the subtitled script, I broke the "What in the world?" part off onto a separate subtitle that displayed a second later. You may not have realized that on your initial viewing, and obviously you got very thrown off by it. You can probably confirm it for yourself by playing the dub with English subtitles on and watching through that section more carefully.
Secondly, if you were referring to the change of "flap" to "flapping wings", that honestly couldn't be helped due to the number of lip flaps (no pun intended). If I had left it as "flap" and there were three lip flaps there, I don't think I'd be doing my job very well. I think you'd agree. In any case, I don't see much of a difference between the two, although I personally do agree that a simpler approach is usually better to a small degree. But you're certainly entitled to your own opinion!
In light of these two things, I hope that I've cleared up one of your misgivings about "unnecessarily complicated lines". I'd be more than happy to hear any other examples you might have. Constructive criticism is always welcome!
Thank you,
Clark Cheng
Below you can read Clark's e-mail to us, and we've of course updated the review.
Dear Christopher,
My name is Clark Cheng and I did some of the ADR writing and subtitling work on Real Bout High School. First of all, let me thank you for your kind words regarding the show. I know that everyone involved worked very hard on the project, and I hope that you continue to watch and review the series as it continues.
The reason that I am writing this letter is because I feel that a certain comment you made may be somewhat unjustified. Considering you wrote about this matter at some length, and the fact that it probably lowered your opinion of the dub, I felt that I had to bring one or two things to your attention.
In your review, you state:
> "In a few places the English script writers unnecessarily complicate certain
> lines that were very simple in the Japanese script, one particular example
> is when Ryoko is faced with her first adversary in the other world: she
> hears the beast 'flap' its wings and all she is able to say in total
> disbelief is a weak "flap?" In the English dub however her line is expanded
> to "flapping wings? what's the deal!?" In some cases changes like this may
> actually improve a script, but in this case the simpler Japanese line was
> better."
Now, keep in mind that I did the first pass on the ADR script for this episode, and I did the subtitling work for it as well. These are the three different versions of the line from the original translation, the final ADR script, and the final subtitled script:
Org. tran.: "FLAP"?? What in the world--
ADR Script: Flapping wings? Alright. What's the deal?
Sub Script: "Flap"?\What in the world?
First, it's my impression that you believed that we re-wrote one word unnecessarily into several phrases, based on a comparison between the subtitles and the dub dialogue. It should be apparent from above that this is not the case. What really happened was that in the subtitled script, I broke the "What in the world?" part off onto a separate subtitle that displayed a second later. You may not have realized that on your initial viewing, and obviously you got very thrown off by it. You can probably confirm it for yourself by playing the dub with English subtitles on and watching through that section more carefully.
Secondly, if you were referring to the change of "flap" to "flapping wings", that honestly couldn't be helped due to the number of lip flaps (no pun intended). If I had left it as "flap" and there were three lip flaps there, I don't think I'd be doing my job very well. I think you'd agree. In any case, I don't see much of a difference between the two, although I personally do agree that a simpler approach is usually better to a small degree. But you're certainly entitled to your own opinion!
In light of these two things, I hope that I've cleared up one of your misgivings about "unnecessarily complicated lines". I'd be more than happy to hear any other examples you might have. Constructive criticism is always welcome!
Thank you,
Clark Cheng
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