This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.
“Ow My Balls” the anime is fucking hilarious and tremendously underrated. Oh, and Commie’s version is significantly better than CR’s, so if you’re watching it on CR you should really switch over.
Table of Contents
Release Information
Episode details.
Release format: MKV (213 MB, 10-bit)
Japanesiness: No honorifics.
English style: American English.
Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/JWvVh0CN
Speed: Who cares? This is the only Ixion release.
External links.
Group website: http://commiesubs.com/
IRC channel: #[email protected]
SubCompare screenshot comparisons: http://www.subcompare.com/ixion_saga_DT/
Commie’s fansub reviews: N/A
Visual Review
Karaoke.
Opening. The Japanese is hardsubbed because this is an anime for children. (Some kid is gonna get his mind fucking blown if he comes back to this show when he’s older.)
Commie’s shit matches the Japanese here and I guess that’s all ya really need to worry about.
Rating: Good.
Ending. They could have easily avoided running into the credits here. Colors matched the hardsub kara and the “Give me some balls!” part was appropriately handled.
Rating: Good.
Note on both karas: If you don’t speak Japanese, both karas will probably seem pretty generic as you watch them. But apparently the actual lyrics are balls-out crazy. If you’re watching the show, you need to give a translated version of the OP/ED a chance.
Typesetting.
Crunchyroll cuts this part out of their releases. Not cool.
I assume Commie explained “DT” in an earlier episode. I actually watched CR up to this point and they didn’t really explain that it was another word for virginity, but I got it after a bit.
Script Review
Karaoke.
Felt the karaoke could have used more innuendo. If I was informed correctly, the “()” parts are supposed to be sexually suggestive, but “DT” doesn’t make any sense to someone unfamiliar with what that exact phrase means. Just TL it as virginity in the parentheses and take that style across the karaoke if you have to. The goal is to translate the thing, not dwell on the Japanese jokes.
Main Script.
He’s not asking what the conversation is, but rather why it got so messed up.
“What the hell is with this conversation?!”
“I’m merely a poor boy who was dragged kicking and screaming from his home!”
Gotta make sure your tenses make sense.
CR: My body is male, but in my heart I am a delicate girl. // But my chest is already done.
If you’re gonna jazz it up, do it right. Second line should follow the first, and since you made the first all kawaii, it wouldn’t hurt to let the second play off the first.
“But my chest is already blooming.”
CR had “Stupid” in both lines. I’m not sure why Commie changed it, since the original lines were better.
Awkward generitranslation. You’d be better off with something like “How can they be so casual about that?!” {In reference to the guys still hitting on Marian after learning she has testicles.}
CR: Why Marian gave up being a man.
“manhood” is generally taken to mean “penis”, so this is pretty inaccurate because Marian still has hers, along with her testicles.
Poorly timed.
“Please stand, Brother.” Capitalization required.
The script has quite a few issues with varying the beginning of adjacent sentences. Often you’ll run into the exact same word or phrase opening each, which is not very good from a script-writing perspective.
Good edits
The most important part of a comedy anime is the humor. And Commie did a fantastic job with it.
CR: but you were so silly.
CR: Oh, I am so sorry!
In both cases, Commie took each line’s direct meaning and switched it up, making the lines funnier. “Well, excuse me!” is a more comical exaggeration than what CR had and “Such a silly goose.” adds in a comical statement where there originally was none. This is a comedy, so these were good moves.
Complete Rehauls
Compare that amazing conversation to Crunchyroll’s:
Excuse me, you’re so cute.
With you around even the sun pales in comparison.
Is the goddess of the sea taking a rest on the beach?
Would you like to have tea with us?
Commie blew it outta the fucking water here.
Compare, again, to Crunchyroll’s lines:
I don’t want to be the only one who’s uncomfortable.
That’s my super “drag you down with me” tactic!
You rotten virgin!
It’s almost hard to believe they’re based on the same translation, but that’s what good editing will get you.
Fix’d
CR: Now, now, miss, I mean, mister who looks like a miss.
CR: I’m the protagonist, but I’m totally left alone.
CR: Even the girls are with her?
In all three scenes, CR’s awkward, weird lines were revamped into human English.
Bear My Children
CR: Her meat dishes are especially exceptional.
CR: A beauty with balls?
We’re only 8 minutes in, so I could keep going, but I think you get the idea here. Commie did fucking well with these edits.
Results
Watchability: Quite watchable.
Visual grade: B+
Script grade: B+
Overall grade: B+
I wanted to give the script a higher grade, but in good conscience I couldn’t. There were simply far too many errors here for me to put it at that level. It only even reached B+ through the good graces of tons of extra credit. And that’s a damn shame, because if Commie had a QC on this release, an A+ would not be off the table.
However, I still must praise Commie for the great job they did here. They fixed so much shit that was wrong with the script and contributed positively to the overall comedy of the show with their intelligent editing choices. This is what I’d consider to be an A-tier edit, and it deserves a lot more love than facerolling into an A-tier script by running spellcheck on a near-perfect Crunchyroll script.
Bottom line:
Unless you know Japanese, you’ll miss out on the series joke that is the OP/ED. And you’ll also miss out on some of the sponsor screen jokes if you go with Crunchy. Factor in that Commie’s script is better in almost every way than Crunchyroll’s and it becomes pretty obvious that you’ll be missing out on some of the show’s entertainment if you skip Commie’s release.
If you like western-style humor (read: ball jokes), don’t miss out on this show, and definitely don’t short yourself by missing Commie’s version. It’s pretty fucking great.
Thanks! The bits in parentheses are actually just because the end of the line is repeated in the vocals. When I was writing the OP lyrics (can’t take credit for the main script, but the OP is mine) I tried to incorporate the alternate furigana “readings” into the line so that everything sort of made sense together.
The OP isn’t really explicit about what “DT” means, but I figured it should be pretty obvious from the “lose my DT” phrasing and how it’s used in the show itself.
To be honest, I thought parentheses were pretty standard for backing vocals repeating a lyric? I’ve seen it a few times – well, when a group doesn’t dick about and stick the vocals all over the screen (seen that done a lot too).
That’s what they usually were. If they were the parts within 「these」, the translated lines would be in “quotes”, since that’s what 「these」 are.
Source: Grandma Ako, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_typographic_symbols#Brackets_and_quotation_marks
You could have gone for the pun and done something like “lose my version: DT” :P
At a glance, this show looks like it’d be more fun to fansub, or to watch while wasted, but I’ll give your subs a shot.
DT in the title is, from what I understand, short for Dimensional Transfer. When the main character gets the nickname DT, it’s short for ‘dotei’, Japanese slang for a male virgin. All of that is implied, though, so I guess it isn’t necessary to explain.
I thought it was Dark Templar, too much StarCraft I suppose.
I lol’d just from reading these subs. I definitely need to watch this show, and the script looks fucking fantastic, so I’m actually pretty excited to pick this up.
I would say that I can’t believe this is intended for kids, but then again, Japan.
Usually I think your taste in anime is pretty terrible, DS, but you are dead on balls accurate with this one. Great show!