This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.
We’re now in the new season, so I’m just posting this for archival purposes, basically. Any reviews I didn’t get to may be considered dropped. You’re probably not missing anything as I did a LOT of reviews already. Anyway, enjoy.
30-Sai no Hoken Taiiku
SubDesu [Review Here]
Doki [Review Here]
My pick: Doki
SubDesu’s subs hardly resembled English.
A-Channel
Doki [Review Here]
Eve-Taku [Review Here]
HQ-Team [Will Not Review] (Dropped)
pwq [Review Here] (Dropped or delayed)
Saitei [Review Here]
SHiN-gx [Review Here]
My Pick: pwq
To be honest, you’d be good with any of these groups, but I thought pwq’s was slightly better.
Ano Hana
Ayako-Delight [Will Not Review] (Dropped)
Doki [Review Here]
Frozen [Review Here]
gg [Review Here]
Koharubi-Mango [Will Not Review] (Dropped)
m.3.3.w [Review Here]
Taka [Review Here]
UTW [Review Here]
My pick: UTW
Ao no Exorcist
Woodbridge [Will Not Review] (I’m in their group. You may blame the QC for any problems. Not my fault~)
gg [Review Here]
Chibisui-Subs [Will Not Review] (They seem to just rip other scripts and add nothing to them. Some guy on IRC was even talking about how they made their ripped scripts worse. Lol)
Hatsuyuki-Hadena [Review Here]
Kata-Subs [Review Here]
My pick: Woodbridge
I’m biased.
Astarotte no Omocha
Asuka-Subs [Review Here]
Ayakashi [Will Not Review] (I’m not sure if they do anything besides rip subs…)
ILMNW [Review Here] (Dropped)
pwq [Will Not Review]
Tonde [Will Not Review] (Dropped)
Underwater-Commie [Review Here]
My pick: Underwater-Commie
U-C’s edits don’t terribly suck. Great job.
Battle Girls – Time Paradox/Sengoku Otome
Akatsuki [Review Here] (Group dissolved)
HorribleSubs [Review Here]
Kyouki-Tsuki [Review Here]
My pick: HorribleSubs
Kyouki-Tsuki is waptarded and Akatsuki dissolved. HorribleSubs is the victor by default.
C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
gg [Review Here]
Doki [Review Here]
Hatsuyuki [Review Here] (Dropped)
Nutbladder [Review Here] (Dropped)
Whine-Subs [Will Not Review] (This is the whiners.pro group)
My Pick: Whine-Subs
I’m biased.
Deadman Wonderland
GotWoot [Will Not Review] (I was in this group)
HorribleSubs [Review Here] [Re-Review Incoming, cuz I heard they got worse after episode 1]
SGKK-Ruri [Review Here]
Umee [Review Here]
My pick: GotWoot
GotWoot’s slow, but I’m biased. Your best alternative is probably Umee.
Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
Doki [Review Here] [Second Look]
Mazui [Review Here] [Second Look]
Underwater-Commie [Review Here] [Second Look]
GotWoot [Will Not Review] [“Second Look”] (I was in this group)
My pick: GotWoot
Notice a theme that I tend to pick out the groups that I’m in as being the best for a given series? Alternative choice: Doki.
Dog Days
Interrobang [Review Here]
Ayako [Review Here]
Chihiro [Will Not Review] Dropped
Hina-Hiryuu [Review Here]
Ruri [Review Here]
My pick: Hina-Hiryuu
H-H did a pretty good job, but their commas…
Dororon Enma-kun Meramera
gg [Review Here]
Hanasaku Iroha
Underwater-Commie [Review Here]
Hayatsuki-Tsuki [Review Here]
Doki [Review Here]
HorribleSubs [Review Here]
SHiN-gx [Review Here]
Splazm [Will Not Review] (Splazm appears to be a straight CR re-encode group)
My Pick: Underwater-Commie
I actually liked every release listed here. The differences are minute enough that you really can’t go wrong. But the best release, in my mind, is Underwater-Commie. Their English was the best.
Hen Zemi
HiNA-Wasurenai [Review Here] [Re-Review]
Interrobang [Review Here]
WhyNot? [Review Here]
My Pick: WhyNot?
WhyNot? mixes the sensible translation of IB with the decent editing of Hina. Naisu job.
Hidan no Aria
Chihiro [Review Here]
Doki [Review Here]
gg [Will Not Review] (I watched their release. It was terrible. But gg also said they’re doing it as a troll, so I didn’t review it. Avoid~)
UTW [Review Here]
My pick: UTW
They did a nice job. But I heard their episode 1 release was shit.
Highschool of the Dead OVA
Hiryuu [Review Here]
IB [Review Here]
My pick: Hiryuu
Slightly better than IB’s.
Honto ni Atta! Reibai Sensei
Interrobang [Will Not Review] (It’s a five-minute flash animation.)
My pick: Interrobang
by default.
Hoshizora e Kakeru Hoshi
Afroman [Review Here] Dropped :(
Doki-Chihiro [Review Here]
CTSS-TZM [Will Not Review] Dropped
Hatsuyuki [Review Here]
Ryuumaru [Review Here]
My pick: Ryuumaru
Fewer errors than D-C.
Hyouge Mono
Huzzah [Review Here]
My pick: Huzzah
by default.
Kaiji Season 2
Espada [Review Here]
Nutbladder [Review Here]
Triad [Review Here]
Underwater-Commie [Review Here]
My pick: Triad
Triad does their shit serious business-like.
Maria+Holic Alive
Commie [Review Here] Dropped~
HorribleSubs [Review Here]
My pick: HorribleSubs
Morita-san wa Mukuchi
Kata-Subs [Review Here]
Moshidora
Frozy [Review Here]
gg [Review Here]
My pick: Frozy
Even though their encoding is derp, their script was better.
Nana to Kaoru
ANE [Will Not Review] (Re-encode of other subs)
Bitch-Subs [Review Here]
GotWoot [No Review Incoming] (I was a QC on this, hence, biased)
Kata-Subs [Will Not Review] (cuz fuck this anime)
SubDesu [Will Not Review] (lol, SubDesu)
My pick: GotWoot
I’m biased. GotWoot’s leader kept praising BitchSubs, so go with theirs if you want. They did a pretty good job.
Naruto Shippuden Movie 4
CSS [Review Here]
HiddenSubs [Review Here]
Tsuki [Review Here]
My pick: Tsuki
Hands down.
Nichijou
Coalgirls [Review Here]
Doki [Review Here]
HorribleSubs [Will Not Review] (Reason: U-C/Coal expands on their release)
Underwater-Commie [Review Here]
My Pick: Underwater-Commie
I made a screenshot comparison post here. It appears most people thought Doki had a worse translation.
Ore-Tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
HorribleSubs [Will Not Review] (I don’t know how they could beat Shikkaku’s release…)
Shikkaku [Review Here]
lilgh0st/MSPN [Will Not Review] (Dropped)
My pick: Shikkaku
Pretty Rhythm – Aurora Dream
FFFPeeps [Review Here]
KiteSeekers-Wasurenai [Review Here]
My pick: KiteSeekers-Wasurenai
I think they cared more about this show, even though it sucks.
Seikon no Qwaser II
CTSS [Will Not Review] (Haven’t watched first season, won’t watch second. Sorry~)
Doki [Will Not Review] (Haven’t watched first season, won’t watch second. Sorry~)
Sub-Desu [Will Not Review] (Haven’t watched first season, won’t watch second. Sorry~)
Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi
Akatsuki [Will Not Review] Group’s dead
HorribleSubs [Review Incoming]
Ryuumaru [Review Here]
Sekai [Will Not Review]
Sket Dance
HorribleSubs [Review Here]
Hatsuyki [Review Here]
My pick: Hayatsuki
They did pretty well.
Showa Monogatari
Hatsuyuki-Hadena [Review Here]
Softenni/Soft Tennis
Ayako-Nishishi [Review Here] (Note: Not reviewed by Dark_Sage, so as to ensure impartiality)
Chiki [Review Here]
FFFPeeps [Review Here]
Hiryuu [Review Here]
My Pick: Ayako-Nishishi
I’m biased. Alternative choice: Hiryuu.
Steins;Gate
Commie [Review Here] (Note: I was drinking rageahol when I reviewed this)
UTW-Mazui [Review Here] (They dropped the series)
Steins;Subs [No Review Incoming] (I took a quick look at their CR-ripped script and compared it to Commie’s. It was worse.)
HorribleSubs [No Review Incoming] (Commie edits off their release, making this inferior by default.)
Splazm [No Review Incoming] (I believe they also rip from CR without any major edits.)
HorribleSubs-Remux-NFR [No Review Incoming] (CR Re-encode)
My Pick: Commie
Uhh, your only choice is pretty much Commie. They did a pretty shit job of editing, though.
Tiger & Bunny
Commie [Review Here]
YouSmell [Will Not Review] (Hardcoded fonts as small as possible. It’s not their fault, since they just ripped the stream release, but I’d wait on Commie)
The World God Only Knows II
Chihiro [Will Not Review] (I haven’t seen the first season, so I won’t be watching subs for the second.)
HorribleSubs [Will Not Review]
Time Paladin Sakura
HiNA [Review Here] [Re-Review Was Intended, but it’s too late for me to care about that]
Toriko
A-Destiny [Will Not Review] (Note: I have actually watched the episode, and it is shit.)
A-Destiny_SGKK [Review Here] [Re-Review Here]
AE-Kaen [Review Here] (Dropped)
X-Men
Commie [Review Here]
Weapon+ [Review Here]
My pick: Weapon+
They did better on error mitigation.
Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san
FFFPeeps [Review Here]
Interrobang [Review Here]
WhyNot? [Review Here]
My Pick: FFFPeeps
FFFPeeps managed to be hilarious and sensical. Good job.
Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL
Shounen Heart [Review Here]
Oni-B [Will Not Review] (same translation base as Shounen Heart, but not as shit)
My pick: Oni-B
They both sucked, but Shounen Heart’s was worse by far.
Doki dropped 30-sai. (Even though they “never drop anything”)
Commie is doing Deadman Wonderland, too (I think).
Doki finished 30sai.
Oh right, that was Sket Dance. I got confused.
Doki never even started Sket Dance.
Correct.
If you never release something that was planned, that’s called dropping. Also, Seikon no Qwaser II where?
**yaomingface**
No, that’s called “cancelling plans”.
Huh, you’re right about Commie. They musta came in late on this, then.
I was wondering about Softteni from Ayako-Nishishi. I know it isn’t dropped but you mentioned something about their TL.
I recommend Hiryuu for translation accuracy. Because I’m like totally unbiased and everything.
Hiryuu’s your only alternate choice. Their episode 10 was pretty stale, but I heard their episode 11 was much better.
I’m enjoying fffpeeps release of this show, even though they are quite slow. I hear Hiryuu is good too, although, as DS says, they may not be entirely consistent.
AE-Kaen of Toriko died (In the third episode, lol). And SGKK was droped the serie in the 10, only left A-Destiny with a REALLY POOR english.
Right, right. Forgot to update that.
According to pwq’s site, they haven’t really dropped Lotte.
Not that it really matters at this point, just saying
Noted~
This is like a gold mine for a 1337 wh1n3r like me.
I’ve seen a lot of these releases, and have a lot of difference in opinion about a lot of groups to pick, but I’ll only whine on the series I worked on, since I know all those releases very well.
“Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
My pick: Doki”
What is this? Seriously, what is this?!!! Are we being trolled?
If you can’t wait for our crap, Mazui is the one to go, hands down. Notice how group 1 and 4’s scripts are hilariously different in some scenes (often standing out against other 3, though sometimes both wrong) for “Second look”.
Yeah, Mazui’s subs may be stiff, and left out a lot of Japanese, but their accuracy is incredible given the fact that it’s a speedsub for a SHAFT series. I’m a fan of their translation.
UW-C’s subs may have been even worse than Doki in ep1, but improved significantly in 2 or 3 of their eps that I watched since.
With that said, I don’t think for a second any of their subs are better than GotWoot, simply because you’re not supposed to speedsub SHAFT or any other dialogue-driven shows lol (unless you’re gg and can do what Doki does, except localizing dialogue to hell instead of guessing)
And well, 2 week-ish lag is pretty fast for slow groups :)
My reviews are all based on the first couple episodes. The Wrap-Ups are generally copypasted from week to week, which means I have various views that only matter as the season airs. I guess speed is pretty irrelevant for an archive post, eh? Guess this means I can go ahead and rec GotWoot for everything again. Huzzah, bias!
I agree with the Mazui thing.
But…you’re a translator. Why are you watching subs?
**obamaface**
I ALWAYS watch “competitor” subs, whether it’s official subs from late licensing or fansubs. It’s the best way to improve.
I have too much pride to copy other translators, but I do use it to catch my own mistakes if it ever occurs.
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=103272
Read: “Watch and study other groups’ fansubs”
Dude, you’re taking fansubbin’ too srsly.
You SHOULD take it seriously, otherwise, you’re wasting your time for nothing.
It’s beyond my comprehension why anyone would waste their time fansubbing if they don’t at least try to do what they do well.
I do it for the incredible lulz that I get by being in groups.
I do it to get good encodings from their ftp.
I do it to piss people off.
I do it because I have too much time.
I do it because I need to slow down the speed at which I watch anime.
(Of course, it doesn’t mean my TLs are shit, but the trolls…)
You’re always wasting your time if you aren’t trying to be the best at whatever you’re doing imo
Commie dropped Maria? Never heard of that.
I don’t see a review of Astarotte no Omocha from Hatsuyuki