Okay, show of hands. Who actually thought this release would be decent?

Table of Contents

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (440 MB, 10-bit), MKV (456 MB, 8-bit), LQ MP4 incoming (so far it’s been between 260 and 340 MB)

Japanesiness: Honorifics. But no, this isn’t as Japanesey as some of you might suspect.

English style: American English.

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/w35PtKPi

Speed: Slow (>48 hours)

Note: The chapters are off.

 

External links.

Group website: http://www.hatsuyuki-fansubs.com/   http://hybrid-subs.me/

IRC channel: #[email protected]    #[email protected]

SubCompare screenshot comparisons: http://www.subcompare.com/vividred_operation/

 

Visual Review

Karaoke.

Opening. What am I looking at? Whatever it is, I don’t want to see anymore.

The English text is way too stretched at the bottom of the screen — this should have been done over two parts. The karaoke effect is bad because in its strive for attention, it takes over the space of the other syllables. And I don’t know what you guys were thinking with the colors.

What, you really thought the opening needed more black and white? Even a newspaper would tell you guys to fuck off.

Rating: Bad.

 

Ending. What’s the point of karaoke? If your answer is “to feed the kfxer’s ego”, then I suppose you’re on the right track. But if the goal is to allow people to sing along/enjoy the opening with a translation, then I’m not so sure you really hit the right note here.

Taking away syllables with the k-timing is one of the main things I’d recommend NOT doing in karaoke as it makes it pretty much impossible to memorize/learn the song. And that kfx effect you had is way too fucking bright — much too hard to read what syllable the song’s on.

Rating: Bad.

 

(Oh, and did anyone else get some seriously Renai Circulation vibes from the ED?)

 

 

Typesetting.

Thanks for at least attempting to match the Japanese sign. It really… shows.

on->in

Easy-mode’d this shit. Lame.

Some of the typesetting could have been better, but it’s not altogether bad. The main issue is that despite the relative lack of signs in this release, the TSer got lazy when it mattered (the sections when text appeared on the monitors).

 

 

Script Review

Main Script.

If these sentences are supposed to be linked, you did a pretty piss-poor job of it. You should know how to use ellipses by now.

“Don’t think about your buttpain. Feel your buttpain!”

That’s some pretty ass advice there, Hatsuyuki-Hybrid.

You didn’t use anything to indicate that second line is showcasing the most beautiful aspect of the facility. I’d change the first line’s “most” into an “only” to prevent that from being an issue.

She hates things that power up? Something seems off about that line.

Better than Mami. (Fight me.)

I’m not even gonna look these terms up to see if they check out. I’m trusting you on this one, Hatsuyuki-Hybrid.

 

 

The Good Points

Well, something clicked with this joint and the subs actually turned out pretty damn good. The show’s pretty light on the dialogue front, but here are some examples of what H-H did with it:

I’m generally wap enough to prefer seeing common words like “kotatsu” in Japanese. (I have some weird preferences, sue me.) But I dunno, this flowed extremely well, and the “heated” part here brings a better sense of environment to the viewer than sticking with “kotatsu” would.

Beyond that, the language use is relatively spot-on (the second screen matches the dismissive tone used by yellow-chan) and to the point.

I wouldn’t say the characterization is this release’s strongest suit. However, they did come up with a few good lines for the characters, like these.

I probably liked H-H’s terms the best of the groups (for these comparisons, note that H-H used “Manifestation Engine” for the engine’s name).

Those of you with good memories may have noticed they changed their translation from the Celestial Engine deal they had in episode 2. Good call because “Celestial Engine” was a shit name.

Commie: streamer plant // Manifestor Engine

CR: rectification plant // Manifestation Engine

JK: outflow plant // Incarnate Engine

 

 

Fansubber Reactions

 

Looks like green-chan is taken. :X

 

 

Results

Watchability: Watchable.

Visual grade: C

Script grade: A-

Overall grade: B

Simply because the karaoke in this release is so shit, JK is your best choice. But assuming visuals aren’t a factor, Hatsuyuki-Hybrid is a surprisingly decent pick. (If your TL Party results swung you significantly in either direction, and you don’t care about visuals, here is a great place to use them.)
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