Fansub Review: [EC] Mouretsu Space Pirates (Episode 02)

Pretty good release ignoring the shitty karaoke and some stupid editing decisions.

Release format: MKV (349 MB, 8-bit), LQ MKV (174 MB, 8-bit)

Japanesiness: Honorifics. Japanese name order.

Font: Sucks.

Group website: http://www.enigmacollective.org/

8thsin’s translation critique: N/A

Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: http://www.ji-hi.net/wi11/pirates/

 

Karaoke.

Opening. My eyes. Holy fucking shit. Isn’t there some sort of basic test that kfx’ers need to take before they’re allowed to do shit? Or am I living in a fantasy world where competency actually matters? I’ve seen some shitty karaoke, but goddamn are groups pushing the boundaries these days.

Ending. Only halfway subbed. The part where the text rolls (second image) is only half as stupid as it looks, but the part where the text overlaps (first image) is five times as stupid as it looks. Some people actually want to read that shit; not just look at lines merging like an orgy at an old people’s home.

When I’d rather watch WhyNot’s karaoke, you know you’ve fucked up.

 

Typesetting.

No, I don’t care what the name of the anime is. I’d rather know the name of the group, so thanks for that.

Considering everything else was typeset, I’m a bit confused as to why this wasn’t.

The newspaper moves horizontally, so this is about as good as you could expect.

This sign spins. Sage likey.

Can’t say it was too bad in general.

 

Script.

When each screen looks like this, maybe it’s time to choose a different font or figure out a way to pare down your lines. For example,
“As the result of the many sacrifices that had been made” -> “As the result of many sacrifices”
Cut out the fluff and get down to the basics so readers aren’t confronted with a fucking novel on each screen.

This is not how you fucking semicolon. Don’t use conjunctions with this shit.

I often refrain from highlighting the need to properly italicize your lines, but holy shit does this read poorly. Please learn how to fucking edit.

“Well, he is getting his just desserts.”

“plenty” is not a word to get amazed over unless you’re talking to a kid, in which you would only ever muster up faux amusement. Make the second line “Sounds like you’ve shown them to quite a few people…”

Was the second line an afterthought? Cuz that’s sure how it looks. The first sentence makes the line useless.

“the little cute ones”… Wow. That flows like a dam. And no, they said “kawaii”, not “chibi”. But even if they did, it would still be shit writing.

“We’ll start with the small and cute guns.”

She actually says Blah-blah-blah Beam here. If the audience hears an English word and there’s no significant value in changing it to something else (“Ray” could easily be replaced with “Beam”), then it’s a stupid move to change it.

This is a lot like hearing a Japanese say “Hello.” and going off and translating it as “Greetings.” Sure, the meaning is the same, but you still deserve to be lynched.

Now just because there were some stupid editing decisions doesn’t mean the script is garbage. These two lines, for example, were brilliantly handled. The Japanese script repeated “tama tama” and the English script repeated “happen”. But it wasn’t just happen; it was happenstance and happen, which made for better flow through intelligent wordchoice.

“Yare yare” as a basic, meaningless, out-of-place “Alright”?

Dark_Sage is confused.

He burned down a school in his confusion.

Blood’s on your hands, EC. Can’t blame this one on me.

“only one”? More like “one of the”. These are space pirates. They fucking nostalgiagasm over the original seven pirate ships. They’re not gonna be denigrating that shit like this.

So I guess your QC didn’t watch the preview?

“The tides of fate beckon this girl to a vast ocean.”

 

Watchability: Watchable.

Overall grade: B-

A lot of the problems with the script were more often due to poor phrasing than spelling/grammatical errors, which I guess is preferable to the alternative. Still, stupid editing decisions and godawful karaoke do much to bring this release down.

The  conversations which occasionally have a modicum of wit and the mostly good typesetting bring the release above WhyNot’s by a couple notches.