Fansub Review: [CoalGuys] Guilty Crown (Episode 03)

I forgot how much fun reviewing was.

Release format: MKV (309 MB, 8-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics. Western name order.

 

Karaoke.

OP. Karaoke is truly the best when the font is blinding and can’t handle spacing well.

ED. It’s… okayish.

 

Typesetting.

Fantastic effort.

 

Script.

Because the only expression of surprise in the English language is “Are you for real?” And yes, needless repetition of phrases within a short time period is bad editing. That needless repetition of phrases is bad editing.

lol. Nice alphabet you’re working with there.

It wouldn’t be “that guy”; it would be “this guy”. He would refer to “that guy” if Souta was somewhere not in the vicinity, but since he has his fucking arms around Souta, I think it’s relatively obvious that it’s “this” guy he’s pointing out. But this may not be clear enough to those of you who don’t understand the difference between that and this.

“That” refers to something which is either physically or conceptually far away. “This” refers to something which is either physically or conceptually close.

Physically (Imagine a classroom where a student is sitting at a desk with a pen on it. On the other side of the classroom is the teacher’s desk with a pen on it as well.):

This pen is red. (Student referring to his/her own pen.)

That pen is blue. (Student referring to the pen on the teacher’s desk.)

Conceptually (fansub releases):

This release (Coalguys’ Guilty Crown) sucks.

That release (Hadena’s Guilty Crown) also sucks. (But I’ll be getting to that in another post~)

‘Cause you’ll hurt her feelings!

This isn’t the most necessary of changes to make to the script, but I felt it would work better this way. Segues more nicely to the next part.

If this line is right in terms of TL accuracy, 1. MC-kun is a fucking pussy who needs to stop fucking whining and 2. This line needs to be rewritten more than the Bible does.

Coming off of “He called me a retard…” {for saying something which could hurt Inori}

it should be…

“But he’s the one saying hurtful things.”

Yes, the line still feels wrong. Why? Because we don’t expect the main character in Guilty Crown (directed by the motherfuckers behind Highschool of the Dead and Death Note) to be such a prissy cunt. But at least with this phrasing he’s bitching in English, not Engrish.

 

“But Sage, that line looks okay. What’s wrong with it?”

That’s simple. Mr. Bleeding Vagina over there was the only person affected by his pal calling him a retard (and even if Pal-kun called everyone a retard, only MC-kun would be whining about it). Therefore, the “others” bit is completely wrong.

I agree that this is the best translation for the line, but you’re not writing a fucking novel here. All she says is “Inori” {for background, he called her Inori-san and she replies with “Inori.”, basically telling him to drop the honorific}, which leaves very little time to read the line. And no, you shouldn’t expect your viewers to pause at every line to read your subs.

This is going to make her seem slightly more direct, but it conveys the meaning in a manner that people can read (yes, thi
s is short enough to be read).

“Don’t be so polite.” {Alternatively use “formal” in place of “polite”}

The fuck is a smuggle route? Try “smuggling route”.

At first blush, one might think this line is right. But the “It seemed like” part is absolutely not needed and gets in the way of the core of his statement — “You were acting a bit strangely today.” There’s no reason a normal person would add “It seemed like” to this line. :/

– – is pretty much the same as – so I’m not particularly enraged. Just wanted to point it out as something that could be improved upon.

I can just imagine whoever wrote this line twirling his or her mustache, going “Haha, I’m being gender-netural and grammatically correct at the same time. I’m so awesome!” But he or she must not have realized this line looks like shit as a result. Is it easy to fix and still remain gender-neutral AND grammatically correct? Why yes, it fucking is.

“He or she goes by the name of ‘Sugar’.” {The “of” in that line is optional, but I like it better included}

Wait, “they” in reference to one person? I don’t count this as wrong since although it’s grammatically incorrect, it’s also a proper reflection of natural speech. I just find it hilarious that they fucked up the previous line, attempting to avoid using “they” and then it’s used in the next line.

Wow. What a line. Thank you, CoalGuys. You are truly a great group.

“In the event that I mess up, Hare would forgive me.” is the previous line. “I think so.” is a shitty follow-up.

The best follow up would be something along the lines of “At least, I think so.” or “… I think.” Personally, I’d go with the latter.

Ignoring the shitty positioning of text over the Japanese words, “had happened” is fucking shit writing. “Happened” already means the line is using the past tense, so why would “had happened” make it any difference? Fucking CoalGuys probably thinks there’s something like a past-past tense. “It’s more past than usual! Hardcore fansubbing!”

Worst of all, their fucking editor goes to an Ivy League school. If I knew their schools had such shit standards, I would’ve gone to Harvard and majored in “Not being a dipshit.” Woulda been fucking valedictorian.

Because splitting this across two screens would have been too hard.

 

Watchability: Watchable.

Overall grade: C+

Not altogether fantastic, but not mind-crushingly bad.

I did actually like the rampant swearing throughout their release, although a number of people won’t agree with me on that.