Fansub Review: [Nishishi-subs] Black Rock Shooter (Episode 01)

Better than WhyNot’s.

Release format: MKV (406 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics… usually.

Note: I guess I’m technically still in this group. Didn’t do anything to help the release, though. I’m a terrible staff member.

Font: The letters merge into each other and the I’s look like l’s. Dumb.

Group website: http://nishishisubs.wordpress.com/

8thsin’s translation critique: http://8ths.in/2011/12/02/winter-2011-anime-subtitle-comparison/#Black

Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: N/A

 

Karaoke.

Insert karaoke. The karaoke stayed at the top and wasn’t obnoxious. If you wanted to read it, you could. If not, it wasn’t hard to ignore. I liked it.

Ending. Only the ending aired this episode. I loved the color changes corresponding to each Vocadroid (fuck it, I’m out of touch. I don’t know what the fuck to call these chicks). The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the text became harder to read when it overlapped a dark area on the screen. (You can see how it differs in color depending on the background.)

 

Typesetting.

Note about the capitalization here… it makes sense in the context of their subs. They basically refer to Glasses-chan as Little Bird, with the “game” part removed from her name. I’ll go into this part later.

This is a much less retarded name than “The Tiny Bird and the Colors”

The translation for this is included on Nishishi’s site:

-Tuesday, April 10th
-Notes for trying out club activities
– Be careful since cultural activity clubs and sports clubs have different teachers in charge.
– You can find the club advisers in the faculty lounge
– Club entry forms

Most difficult title to translate ever.

 

Script.

 

This exchange was better than WhyNot’s because instead of calling Glasses-chan “Little Bird Game” in the prior part of the episode, they called her “Little Bird” which actually makes sense as a nickname. However, it was still wapanese bullshit without any real explanation when you got to this part of the show.

Here’s how you fucking roll this shit:

TL Note: Kotoriasobi means “”; Takanashi means “”.

Bam! That’s fucking it! That’s enough for me to go “Oh, yes, I understand WTF they’re talking about now. Thank you for not treating me like a wapanese otakutard.” Instead, you have to sit here, grinning, while you go “Oh yes, Kotoriasobi? Haha, what a hilarious mistake Blank Head-chan made as she read that name out loud. Laugh, laugh, lol.”

Because extending the bottom line over two screens would’ve been too hard.

This release was supposed to be without honorifics. This and another line slipped past them.

“The Art Club…” or “The art club…”

Both are acceptable (I prefer the former), but you can’t mix-and-match.

 

Watchability: Watchable.

Overall grade: B

I should note that I was able to understand more things in this release than WhyNot’s, and that’s not just because I was watching it for a second time.

For example, Wheelchair-chan says in her introduction scene:

WhyNot: I got it from Yomi.

Nishishi: You know, this was all Yomi’s fault.

It’s almost like one group had a TL that knew what they were saying and the other didn’t. And yes, this is really fucking important because if you watch WhyNot’s, the meaning is “Yomi gave Wheelchair-chan a wheelchair.” (aww, what a nice person.) If you watch Nishishi’s, the meaning is “Yomi is the reason Wheelchair-chan is in a wheelchair.” (aww, there’s a tragic story behind this and Yomi has a reason to be under the thumb of Wheelchair-chan.) It’s night-and-day with the meanings here.

In general, you’ll get a better sense of the show with Nishishi. However, there are also thousands of other groups doing this show, so I can’t say who to recommend as the overall best group. I really wanna TL Party this shit (and I’m going to), just because the results are gonna be hilarious. What I can say for certain is, WhyNot’s probably not the best choice.