This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.
Ayako’s release is… the best? I’m… confused. But congrats, Ayako.
Release format: MKV (405 MB, 8-bit)
Japanesiness: No honorifics. Japanese name order.
Colors: Text is color-coded to characters.
Insert karaoke: Optional. You can watch the subs with the karaoke turned off if you want.
Group website: http://ayakofansubs.blogspot.com/
8thsin’s translation critique: http://8ths.in/winter-2011-anime-subtitle-comparison/#Symphogear
Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: http://www.ji-hi.net/wi11/symphogear/
Karaoke.
Opening. Why include the Japanese if you’re going to make it so hard to read? The Japanese gets quite obscured depending on the background of the scene it’s included in.
Insert #1.
Insert #2.
Prelude. None of the groups have these fully TL’d.
Insert #3.
Insert #4. As you’ve realized by now, all the inserts are the same. Lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy.
Ending. Black text on a dark background. Brilliant. And by “brilliant”, I mean “fucking retarded”.
Typesetting.
It only gets lazier… Also, this is poorly written, but I don’t feel like correcting it. Fuck essays.
Heaven’s Wzath. Yes, I know it says Wrath, but the font doesn’t make it seem that way.
Wow. I mean, really?
~_~
Goddamn, Ayako’s typesetting is lazy. The notes that popped up at the top of the screen did appear professional, but they’re practically just fancy looking TL Notes. :/
Script.
When I saw this Engrish watermark at the top, I knew I was gonna have a load of fun with the script. (Un?)fortunately, Ayako did such a good job with the English that I didn’t feel the need to comment on anything. Did I just say that? Yes, when it comes to the script, Ayako is A-tier. Jaws off the floor, though. Let’s clear up the Engrish:
“By fans for fans. Not For commercial use.
Please support official products when it’s available in your region.”
->
“By fans, for fans. Not for commercial use.
Please support official products when they’re available in your region.”
Who thought transparent font was a good idea?
Watchability: Quite watchable.
Overall grade: B+
Surprisingly, Ayako had the absolute best script of any of the groups. Their no-effort typesetting and at-times unreadable karaoke/font did hurt their release’s quality, but I’m going to have to recommend their release as the best. Yes, Ayako did better than Commie, FFFPeeps, GotWoot, and Underwater. I’m as surprised as you are.
As you said on Hiryuu’s Brave10, you can’t always judge a group by its reputation. Either that, or something has gone terribly wrong and the world as we know it is ending.
Unless it’s Hadena, of course.
Groupname is not reliable, the main factors are actually translators and editors.
Yes but when a group gets consistent low grades, it is usually safe to assume that they lack good editors and translators.
To me, this grade is a measure of how experienced the team’s support. Dark_sage points out different issues he see. It’s indeed a good reference. A C grade means the group is careless. Lower than that is a sign that the editor hasn’t finished his tasks.
Wow, B+! So my 20 bucks worked?! I should bribe 8thsin, too.
I saw the typeset error 5min after the release, but I didn’t correct it. I wanted to at least include the Hibiki song updated for a v2. (We couldn’t hear it well till episode 5) There are other things that I want to change, too.
http://www.crymore.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Ayako-Senki-Zesshou-Symphogear-03-720pH264AE6FDFC6.mkv_snapshot_23.00_2012.02.10_15.27.26.jpg
It’s softsub; you can actually see the white background if you don’t skip.
Although blend-in typesetting could be awesome sometimes, it’s effort and effort is bad. The saved time was used for more important tasks like QC, anime, MMO… etc.
(I dislike blend-in typesetting, but we may have a future project doing those blend-in typesetting because some members like it)
The transparency is a bad idea here, because of the type of background in this episode. But we’ve used that for 2 episodes and we have to keep doing it for consistency. I tried setting 1c but it didn’t look exactly better.
Color text and transparency are not recommended generally, since it’s very easy to make mistakes. I actually forgot to put 4 lines with transparency in episode 1.
SPAM: Ayako is recruiting GOOD translators for Jewelpet sunshine and probably more.
Why still recruit when Ayako’s pretty much dead without spigel around?
Ayako is only a name; Spiegel is only an encoder. A group doesn’t die without an encoder, you know.
The problem now is that our translators are busy, so we need more good translators.
If something is wrong/bad, then it’s a terrible idea to continue with it just for consistency with previous episodes. Make a v2 batch at the end and fix the others if it bothers you that much.
>Ayako is the best for this show.
*speechless*
I tried watching Ayako’s 01 when it came out. The “typesetting” and constantly changing subtitle styles (transparent font, wtf?) made it unwatchable. Seeing these things, I was surprised the script was so good. If they stuck with one color and actually typeset the signs, it would be a good release.
Are you from gotwoot?
The colors and transparency were old methods. I think no group does that anymore. Nowaday, people use Italic instead. Our releases have compatibility subtitle tracks with signs removed, reduced effect and colors.
But you know, people watch gotwoot or commie anyway. It’s more like we do it for ourselves.
I am from GotWoot, but that’s irrelevant to my post. And there’s a reason nobody does it anymore.
ayako better than gotwoot and underwater?… I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Wow. Congratulations.
lol @ fgghjjkll trying to show his epeen over and over again. Why? I’ll never know since no one cares. Tsk tsk tsk.