Fansub Review: [Anime-Koi] Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu (Episode 06)

September 12, 2013 by Dark_Sage

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

Aww fuck, I forgot this release wasn’t a Crunchyedit, so I guess I gotta review the HorribleSubs version too. Blegh.

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (352 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: “Karila-chan-senpai”. “hina arare” as “rice puffs”. Yeah, know what we call those in America? Cheetos.

English style: American English.

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/GGC2mPXn

Speed: Slow (>48 hours) …though this release was mostly delayed due to family issues rather than an indication of general speed. With 09, for example, Anime-Koi released faster than the other groups.

External links.

Group website: http://www.anime-koi.com/

IRC channel: #[email protected]

Visual Review

Karaoke.

Opening. I liked the bumping KFX, but what was the deal with the sub placement? After the first third of the OP, it started moving around, but why didn’t you guys do that before?

Sorta-edit: It appears that the reason all the groups sucked at the karaoke for this episode and last one is because the credits actually changed up a bit here. Sasuga Japania.

Rating: Okay.

Ending. The cute gun effect was an excellent decision. Kawaii no desu. The text slide was enjoyable and the KFX disappearing as it was being shot worked quite well to give an impressive visual effect.

Related to my typical issues with karaoke rolling into the credits, I also have a problem with how the backing voice karaoke comes in. As you can see with the second screenshot, it would have been quite easy to come in just below the credits. But there’s enough they’ve got going on here other than that, that I can forgive ’em their trespasses against me, Fansubbing Jesus.

Rating: Good.

Typesetting.

Nice matching. (Yeah, I know the Japanese version’s name sucks, I’m just giving them shit.)

?????????????

No really, what is this?

Gotta love culture fest episodes. Anime-Koi got across most of what viewers would be interested in seeing translated, so they deserve praise for that at least.

Oh, and with the last screen, you’d want “to” and “an” to be in lowercase, because that’s how titles work. However, I think the rules for title capitalization are bullshit, so I’m not gonna hold it against ya.

Script Review

Main Script.

I’d go with “Then you don’t have a choice.” or “Then that’s how it’s going to be.” Gotta get across how she’s coming down with the final word in this scene.

Try “ran” or “hosted” rather than “did”.

Bold naming sense.

Okay, why? You can’t just end it there. There’s a joke in here somewhere and you can’t just translate it straight and expect people to laugh.

There are some minor issues with repetition throughout the release. Lazy writing does not particularly get my sagey juices flowing.

There’s this whole sequence where the girls start talking about their “plans” to open up a real cosplay shooting cafe. All the tenses match except for the “We’d” here. It should be “We’ll” to be in tune with the others.

If you’re throwing the reason out there, then you don’t need the “somehow”.

Results

Watchability: Watchable.

Visual grade: B+

Script grade: B

Overall grade: B

Not bad. Just by nature of visuals, I’d put Anime-Koi ahead of Vivid, but both did pretty damn well. Good choices either way.

In comparison to those two, Commie doesn’t track so highly by my standards. But if you think fansubs are supposed to mock the shows they’re included in, you won’t do poorly by picking that release. Seriously, it’s pretty solid when they aren’t trying to piss their viewers off.

Next up is HorribleSubs.

Back to top

26 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [Anime-Koi] Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu (Episode 06)”

stgmefly

September 12, 2013 at 6:33 pm

How does commie commie without commie
Reply
- csb
  
  September 12, 2013 at 6:40 pm
  
  are you high
  Reply
- ZiPe
  
  September 12, 2013 at 7:09 pm
  
  That actually sounds kinda naughty…
  Reply
thecowgoesmoo

September 12, 2013 at 6:38 pm

Setting aside “Extreme Club”, the KGB thing here kinda misses the mock(?) narcissism =/
Reply
returnity

September 12, 2013 at 7:54 pm

I edited this release, so I wanted to make one comment:

The KGB thing is merely annoying Japanese… There’s no joke in there whatsoever; KGB is the initials for ‘Extreme Club’ in Japanese. However, if you straight translate the last line in that sequence, it says “KGB is short for Extreme Club”, which makes absolutely no sense. I chose to simplify to “KGB is our club’s nicknbame” to maintain coherence. I don’t see a way of portraying this accurately, and there’s nothing lost from the original in the TL/edit here, so I hope you didn’t dock me too hard for that.

I know Vivid invented a joke for KGB, but it’s entirely unrelated to the Japanese and I’m not going to engage in that degree of script-writing.
Reply
- returnity
  
  September 12, 2013 at 8:26 pm
  
  OK, minor update:
  I asked Futsuu for a second opinion about this line, and he said it’s a homophone joke off of the two versions of the word ‘kageki’.
  過激 – Radical/Extreme
  歌劇 – Opera
  
  Furthermore, the show refers to KGB as 過激な歌劇部 (Radical Opera Club, or some equivalent TL that combines both “kageki” meanings into Kagekina Kageki-bu).
  
  Vivid’s “Killer, Great & Beautiful” joke is scriptwriting beyond my comfort zone & unrelated to the japanese TL, but now at least I fully understand the [painfully lame] intentions of the Japanese writers, so I’d like to thank Futsuu-kun for indulging me.
  Reply
  - fnord
    
    September 13, 2013 at 4:05 am
    
    So you picked a line that makes no sense?
    Reply
    - returnity
      
      September 13, 2013 at 6:41 pm
      
      How exactly does it make no sense? KGB is their club nickname, I just was unable to explicate the reason for the initials in any logical way in English so I glossed over that bit.
      Vivid chose to make something random up, and I don’t know what you/your editor did, but I did my best with the TL I had and the Japanese I know. Just because I couldn’t manage to carry over the japanese homopun neither the TL nor myself was unaware of doesn’t mean the line makes no sense, but it’s admittedly suboptimal.
      Vivid staff agreed theirs wasn’t ideal either, so I suppose we should both look to you for advice.
      Reply
      - fnord
        
        September 13, 2013 at 7:01 pm
        
        “The Extreme Club, renowned for both singing and dancing!”
        “We are the KGB of Seikou High!”
        
        Makes zero sense. No logical connection between KGB, dancing and the acronym. Completely meaningless.
        
        If you’re not going to make something up to replace the Japanese, at least put a TL note. Everyone is entitled to their own taste in subtitles, but nobody is entitled to putting nonsense and calling it good.
        
        ———————————————–
        How exactly does it make no sense? KGB is their club nickname, I just was unable to explicate the reason for the initials in any logical way in English so I glossed over that bit.
        ———————————————–
        
        So basically you, the editor, didn’t even understand what was going on until someone else who knows Japanese explained it to you. How are your watchers supposed to understand these lines?
        
        I have nothing against you. I’m not trying to provoke you either. I just don’t understand your reasoning for these lines.
        Reply
        
        returnity
        
        September 14, 2013 at 6:49 pm
        
        I’m not really sure why you’re taking this so far, since the whole reason I posted a comment about it initially was to attempt to clarify the meaning of the lines.
        
        Since the KGB initials’ meaning isn’t apparent in context without knowing the japanese words (or a fabricated counterpart like Vivid’s), I chose to rely on the fact the KGB is already an extremely well-known acronym with a military connotation, and allow viewers to presume the reference was homaging the KGB intelligence agency, since dollars to donuts the original writers WERE doing exactly that:
        
        We’re the KGB of Seikou High!
        
        I really don’t see that as being shittier than making up some name to fit the initials. It’s not as if I intentionally obfuscated the lines, rather I simply did the best I could with the translation I had, which was obviously incomplete (and the TL unavailable for inquiry).
        
        Could the lines have been better? Yes. Are they incomprehensible? No. Is KGB an acronym with an established meaning I can fall back upon without script-writing? Yes.
        Reply
        
        fnord
        
        September 14, 2013 at 7:43 pm
        
        You can’t fall back upon it because it has no meaningful connection operas or extremity.
        
        This is simple fact. You can use it, sure; watchers will go “Okay?” and move on. None of them will be left with any impression whatsoever as to why these people would claim to be the KGB. Reasons are important. Reasons are more important than facts.
        
        The writers were, of course, referencing the intelligence agency. But why? What is the connection here? It’s supposed to be an amusing link. Amusing. Random information is not amusing.
        
        Your translation is so literal it loses part of the information contained in the Japanese. It loses the link between KGB, operas and extremity. This, again, is simple fact. Arguing any other way is absurd.
        
        If you really want to keep doing subs in that style, which you’re perfectly welcome to, then you have to use TL notes. How are your watchers going to understand your line otherwise?
        Reply
        
        returnity
        
        September 14, 2013 at 8:36 pm
        
        C’mon fnord… I already said this sequence of lines was incompletely translated, the connection between the meanings was made there for me to break, and TLC wasn’t available so I did my best. Dark_Sage marked it a mistake for a reason. I’ve also said myself it’s suboptimal, and I would’ve done it differently if I had the information I was able to obtain later, and I posted that info because honestly without it, nobody’s really made complete sense. It’s going to be revised in batch; standard practice.
        
        So please, what more do you want from me? I don’t see how you can drag this out any further. Though I must say it’s nice to be chatting with Team Commie again on Crymore, I’d appreciate it if you’d stop implying I’m making arguments I’m not, stop suggesting we disagree where we don’t, and stop trying to imply that we “sub in that style [of crippled, incomplete literalism]” based on a singular instance. This is kind of tiresome at this point.
        Reply
        
        fnord
        
        September 15, 2013 at 4:34 am
        
        All right. Never mind, then.
        Reply
Crotoss

September 12, 2013 at 9:03 pm

This is actually kind of disappointing for me to see, as I made the OP karaoke, and it had proper margins to begin with. Someone must have changed it along the line. Even in the opening with different credit placement, it would have overlapped.

http://puu.sh/4pSYt.png

That being said, if anyone notified me of a change in credits or OP I would have gladly fixed any overlapping issues.

“Sorta-edit: It appears that the reason all the groups sucked at the karaoke for this episode and last one is because the credits actually changed up a bit here.” Shouldn’t really matter. They edited the original which wouldn’t have ever overlapped.
Reply
- returnity
  
  September 12, 2013 at 9:07 pm
  
  Isn’t it great when that shit happens? Rem & I commented on the overlap too, but somehow it wasn’t fixed when the other kfx issues were…
  Reply
  - Crotoss
    
    September 12, 2013 at 9:13 pm
    
    Yeah, it’s an easy fix too. Wouldn’t take me longer than a minute to move a line…
    
    Also, “it wouldn’t have overlapped”*** in my third sentence. It probably shouldn’t have been changed to begin with.
    Reply
2ColouredEyes

September 12, 2013 at 10:01 pm

The comments of the people behind the release is a good read. I believe returnity always has (or most of the time ?) does this kind of thing.

But I (and the other readers?) love internet drama too. /notemphasizingthereshouldbeoneofsorthere
Reply
- returnity
  
  September 12, 2013 at 10:27 pm
  
  There’s nothing I appreciate more than feedback on my work. People who know me or work with me know that I want to hear what I did wrong (or brilliantly). I requested viewers point out my errors in SnK, which is why kind people leave notes/fixes for me every week on gg’s site release posts for the batch.
  
  Though I like civil discussions and mutual respect. I’m also like you (and, I’d like to believe, D_S) in that I also love to sit back and watch some good #feedmeyourtears drama when the butthurt factor skyrockets.
  Reply
  - Dark_Sage
    
    September 12, 2013 at 10:39 pm
    
    Many of the things I do on this site are based on the principle of “If I were a reader, would I find this interesting? If so, let’s do it.” So yeah, when the tears flow, I get wet. Valid assumption.
    Reply
    - returnity
      
      September 12, 2013 at 11:48 pm
      
      “When the tears flow, I get wet.” I smell a new official slogan!
      Reply
  - Daiz
    
    September 13, 2013 at 4:36 am
    
    Feedback is certainly easy to appreciate and comment on, especially when there’s something constructive about it.
    
    It’s a rather different thing when you get someone saying they know your group better than people who are actually in said group. Which is exactly what happened in the previous post. Someone doing that could certainly then go on to claim they did it “for the reader interest!” but it doesn’t really change the fact that the content is on the level of Kristen’s conspiracy theories.
    Reply
    - flipr
      
      September 13, 2013 at 7:05 pm
      
      Daiz_Sage, it’s weird when you argue with yourself stop it
      Reply
    - 2ColouredEyes
      
      September 13, 2013 at 7:29 pm
      
      Destructive feedback is hard to comprehend and appreciate then? Coz there’s nothing good on it. No help/suggestion is offered, just salt to the wound. Tired to think of a better way/solution so not feeding on those. Or simply ignore them. Like caring only for how hot a lady is and not for the personality?
      
      idk, I might have misunderstood it, but, maybe I need to spend more hours on LoL for more critical thinking. it’s dinner that I need, perhaps.
      Reply
Mike

September 13, 2013 at 9:13 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB
Reply
- Solaristics
  
  September 13, 2013 at 5:55 pm
  
  ( ¬‿¬)
  Reply
- Anon
  
  September 13, 2013 at 7:43 pm
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koryeo_Golden_Box
  Reply