90 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [PM] Pokemon XY (Episode 07)”

1. Next you’ll be telling me they translated jelly doughnuts as onigiri or some other such nonsense.

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   • If they went that far I don’t think I’d have been able to complete the release.

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2. > “You can’t fucking name a Pokemon “Erik”. It’s against the rules.”

   You got something against that name? Wow, racist!

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3. In other news, that’s Fennekin, not Blaziken (not like it redeems this release in any way).

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   • All right, lemme take to Google images and check out the difference.

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     • …Why does everyone want to fuck Blaziken?

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       • One of life’s greatest mysteries.

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       • Because it has op stats. With the event Torchic in XY it’s even more op with its hidden ability (Speed Boost). Oh, it also has a mega evolution. Blaziken is broken.

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4. First of all Kalos is the region there in like kanto and johto and they’re using the japanese names for the pokemon and characters according to bulbapedia ashs name in japanese is satoshi and rhydons name is Sihorn

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   • Well according to my nostalgia, they’re wrong.

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     • Were you listening to the dialogue at all? They clearly say satoshi. You sir, should not watch the Japanese version. You’re right. You should wait for the English release.

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   • Leaving Kalos untranslated is fine but everything else is inexcusable.

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     • Worst part? Kalos is the official name EVERYWHERE. But I bet they don’t even know it…

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5. This is the first time I agree with you D_S.

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6. The worst thing to me was the font used actively hurt my eyes. It was unpleasant reading it, regardless of content.

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   • Should’ve just used the narrator font (or whatever it’s for: http://www.crymore.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PMPocket_Monsters_XY_007_Leave_it_All_to_Serena_The_Wild_Sihorn_RaceH264_720PBB977276.mkv_snapshot_00.09_2013.11.28_00.51.27.jpg)

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7. This is unrelated to the topic at hand, but if you ever get some free time (hue) you should try reviewing Kamen Rider Gaim subs (main groups are Aesir, TV-N and NDA).

   There is a pretty stupid shitstorm going on about them and I’d sure love to know which one a ~cool pro~ like D_S-san-oppa-hyung-sensei-sama would regard as the best.

   Also, fucking Sihorn? My god.

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   • If there’s drama, I may be interested. More details, please.

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     • The group that most people normally use for toku shows (O-T subs) decided they weren’t going to pick up Gaim for whatever reason, so Aesir started subbing it.

       Aesir’s translator (Magenta) loves adding some flavor to the characters and is also quite fond of localizing stuff. As examples, the mechanism used by the heroes to transform is originally called Sengoku Driver and was translated as Wärring Driver; or changing the name of Kamen Rider Gridon (pun on donguri or some shit) to KR Ornac (well, acorn)to try and localize the joke.

       That and some other stuff started a trolling shitstorm on /m/ about the subs sucking (I don’t really think they do thou) and some guy that works alone decided to pick up the show, mostly to give people more options/shut them up. His subs lack the flavor of the other group, but some people are lauding it as being the best one…and that of course caused yet another shitstorm.

       And TV-N is TV-N. Since you did that Go-Busters review you probably know what I mean by that.

       To sum it up: localized subs vs weeaboo subs vs literal subs + “fandom” trolling. It’s all pretty dumb to be honest, but the initial shitstorm was glorious.

       P.S.: I apologize for the bad English, I’m sleepy as fuck

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       • Oh god, a completely new fansub was spawned just because of the Ornac drama? Wow.

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         • https://archive.foolz.us/m/thread/9932140/#9932140

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       • The team doing Æsir’s Gaim is nearly identical to the team doing Over-Time’s Ultraman Ginga/Retsuden (with the adition of Caphi from gg). It’s basically an O-T show by another name.

         Heat (O-T’s main translator) decided not to do Gaim because Magenta (their secondary TL) was doing it under Æsir.

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         • Well yeah, but most people on /m/ don’t really care about that. Only thing they care about is that the translator is Mägëntä.

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         • Read “most people” as “those 4 guys that keep shitposting about it”.

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           • It’s pretty great how Æsir’s episode 7 still got ~5× the downloads as NDA’s and seems to have gotten more downloads than TV-N, consistently, despite all the rage.

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             • Well, people might shitpost and complain all the time but in the end it’s hard to deny that Magenta is a damn good translator.

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8. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t translate Pikachu’s voice. He’s kind of an important character.”

   I just realized how funny this would be.

   But dang, the XY anime actually seems rather awesome in all honesty.

   Shame the subs are so poor. There are English names to use! The only exception would be anime original towns, but god, just go with the Japanese name then I guess. No idea how one could possibly think this is a good release.

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9. How could they screw up the most flamboyant version of the Team Rocket intro sequence?

   And they think they’re Pokemon fans, omg.

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10. The only thing wrong with this post is that the linked article about Rhyhorns (sic) pluralises a Pokémon name with an s, which is incorrect.

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11. What did they fucking do to Pokemon? What the fuck with this chara-design? When did it get that horrible? I stopped Pokemon after Battle Frontier. Looks like I made a good choice.

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12. I played Pokemon Blue so I can vouch for Dark_Sage’s review. Communist Japan has taken one of my favorite childhood cartoons and tried to moe-ify it. They even went as far as to change the names to avoid copyright.
    How could 4kids let Japan get away with this??

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    • >Japan
      >communist

      http://puu.sh/5w7vA.jpg

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      • Sorry, I meant Nazi Japan. Neither of them are superior American Capitalism, so they might as well be the same.

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13. There’s always a shitstorm when discussing jap vs eng names in pokémon. You’ll find a lot of people that prefer the japanese names over the english names. The weird thing is they like the pokémon moves in english but names of people and places in japanese, even if they have official localised versions. It’s more retarded when some of them say it’s a 4kids localisation.
    There were a lot of discussions about this when Pokémon The Origin aired…I’m pretty sure EveTaku’s version has an alternative track with jap terms.
    PM is fucking disgusting.

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    • Fucking weeaboos making me make a whole ‘nother ts track each episode. I hate them. Some people wanted Japanese everything but names and moves with tl notes, some wanted English everything but with honorifics, and some wanted just Japanese everything with tl notes. We decided to just make a single wap track that had everything using JP shit. We didn’t include tl notes because 1. those are fucking retarded and 2. we weren’t gonna hold their damn hand. We even back translated poke flute for the hell of it. We were toying with the idea of making a track in full romaji but decided it was too much effort for a joke or something like that. I didn’t like doing it but did it to make everyone happy (also because I was told to :<)

      It seems people (or at least some. There were a fair amount of people who were just weeaboos and thought Japanese was a sacred language that mustn't be altered) wanted JP stuff because not everyone played the games or watched the anime in English as Pokemon's popular and localized in other countries of the world in their own native language.

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      • I’m sad Neibs gave in and made a wap track. At least I didn’t have to do anything for it.

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      • The romaji track can still make it for the final versions. I’m like halfway through romaji-ing episode 4.

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14. Right in the childhood.

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15. Psst, D_S, it’s Jessie. Not Jesse.

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    • Oh fuck me.

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      • “Last I checked, Jesse and James aren’t black”
        Forgot another one.

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16. I remembered when I trimmed a part of their release and uploaded it to youtube, and they got so fucking mad telling me it’s against the rules or something. They even tried reporting me to youtube. Memories~

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17. >I mean fuck, have you faggots ever watched Pokemon before?

    I’ve never watched the Pokemon anime before and I still would have picked up that the Team Rocket intro sequence was horribly wrong.

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18. With a show like this it wouldn’t be hard to slap on a 2nd subtitle track with English names. Easily get the TLer to note down names and then get one of the top five editors to replace.
    Also that font hadena level

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19. “Did someone use the Extra Chromosome Stone on one?”
    I nearly got Mars bar ice cream down the nose because of that one, fuck you.

    On a separate note, I hope all fansubs groups everywhere pick up that beautiful yellow colour. It didn’t give me the urge to kill at all.

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20. lol

    (grammar fuckups acknowledged, though. That goddamn “that’s” sticks out like a sore thumb)

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21. I’m guessing the Nazi symbol was a photoshop. I don’t think even Japan would be that stupid…

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    • Hellsing?

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    • http://puu.sh/5w7vA.jpg

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    • MSPaint, actually.

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22. Then why did you review this when you said you wouldn’t review Ippo because you haven’t watched the other seasons before?

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    • He did say it was “non-canon.” Not to put words in the Sage’s mouth, but my guess is that his quality standards would usually include an understanding of the show, but this release was so terrible that he couldn’t resist poking at the obvious flaws that can be seen even by someone who knows nothing about the series. And it’s not as though he’s never seen any of the series before or knows nothing at all about Pokemon, as evidenced by multiple notes of differences from the official dub.

      Also, I haven’t seen Ippo either, but I imagine it’s more story-based than Pokemon. Pokemon has very little by the way of a persistent story thread you have to follow as it’s mostly repeating the same thing over and over again (unless it’s changed significantly since I stopped watching years ago).

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      • Yeah, I usually try to watch all prior episodes to the reviewed one to ensure I have some idea of what I’m talking about.

        However, the reason this review is non-canon is because I’m mostly just fucking around here. While I do disagree with PM’s translation philosophy, it’s not something that I think should really affect the final score. If PM’s aiming for a different market than me, then more power to ’em. I’m self-aware (self-obsessed, really) enough to recognize that I’m throwing a tizzy fit over nostalgia more than anything. So while my nostalgia-blind, sagey self may think this is a failure of a release, in keeping with my review standards, I can’t release this as an “official” review.

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        • Yeah, we’re definitely aiming for a different market, and it’s absolutely understandable that people who are looking for a release that’s like the dub they remember (or still watch) are going to dislike the lack of English names, well-known quotes from the dub, and… well, everything that’s different in the dub (we did keep in that “Science is incredible” catchphrase from the English games, though).

          But hey, the dub is like 3 months behind Japan or so now. If people like the dub and want the dub, it’s mostly right there for them to watch. If they want to watch the fansubs of those few episodes that haven’t been dubbed yet, cool. But the target audience of those fansubs IS “people who like the Japanese version of the series and follow that”, not “people who just want to watch the episode before the dub comes out”. The dub fans are certainly free to dislike that, but it’s not going to have any input on the way we’re doing these releases.

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          • Agreeable, but the translations do need some fixing. Some of the problems Sage pointed out are valid. For example, Erriketru or whatever should be translated as “Elektil” since エレキテル’s エレキ is as close as you can get to Elect from Electricity, not “Erik.” Get what I mean? Also, Rocket Gang is a wrong translation. The 団 of ロケット団 is considered more of a “group or organization” than a “gang.” Therefore, translating it as “Team Rocket” is a lot more accurate than “Rocket Gang.”

            Am I getting this right?

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            • Erikiteru is a portmanteau of “erimaki” and “elekiter”, and has nothing to do with the English word “electricity” (and it’s also エリキテル, not エレキテル). We initially had it as “Erikiter”, but switched to the official romaji “Erikiteru” when we learned of that. All Japanese Pokemon names have an official romanization, and we try to stick to these as best as possible.

              As for “Rocket Gang”… I don’t necessarily disagree, but let me just quote an old post on that subject:

              “As for the non-translation of 図鑑 and the translation of the suffix 団 as “Gang”, though… well.
              This group has been around for about 10 years now. 10 years ago… EVERYONE said “zukan” and “Rocket Gang” or “Rocket-dan” when they talked about the Japanese version. They were THE terms to use. Yes, 図鑑 should arguably be “Encyclopedia” (which is how it’s officially translated in Japanese stuff that uses English term, too), and yes, “Team Rocket” isn’t any less accurate than “Rocket Gang”, but these terms have been around forever, man. We’ve released over 250 straight subs that translate these terms this way, everyone are used to seeing these terms in Japanese Pokemon material, we REALLY can’t change them now. At this point, people know them so well they can easily substitute them for their preferred term in their heads.”

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              • Japanese often make mistakes with their romanization, but if that’s the official version not much you can do about it…

                But “we’ve always done things this way” isn’t really a persuasive argument for… anything, if you’re acknowledging that you’re doing things the wrong way. You can toss a TL Note in and from then on you don’t have to force yourself to be wrong.

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                • It doesn’t sound like “we’ve always done things this way”. It sounds like “when we started doing things, everyone liked things this way”.

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                  • It sounds like both, but I’m not interested in arguing that point with anyone who thinks it’s worth arguing against. It would just be nice of the group to have in their faq a mention that “we use the original japanese names for characters and pokemon” and then a list or link that shows other terms that are different from the localized English version. It would be educational for some people and save other people the bandwidth, disk space, and/or time they would have wasted watching the show and hating it because it’s not what they expected.

                    Well, I don’t dislike a group knowing its target audience and catering to them instead of trying to be accessible to everyone. Just let people know that’s what you’re going for and you spare yourself some drama. :)

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                • There’s no “mistake” in the romaji here. The name is erimaki + elekiter, Erikiteru is a perfectly logical spelling. Sure you can argue whether than last u should be there or not, but the only actual MISTAKE here is Switch-kun’s laughable “Elektil” suggestion, which doesn’t even take into account how the name is spelled/pronounced, let alone what it’s supposed to mean.

                  As for mentioning shit in the FAQ… come on, both the episode filenames AND the release posts are full of Japanese names. If people aren’t even reading those, why would they be looking around the FAQ before downloading anything? Seriously now, this group has been around longer than practically ever other currently active fansub group, we’ve been subbing every episode of the weekly series for over 5 years straight now… if you actually had an interest in these releases in the first place, chances are you know how they’re worded. Pokemon has ALWAYS been subbed this way. You might as well suggest UTW make it clear in their FAQ that their releases have English subtitles instead of English voices so people who don’t know what a fansub is won’t be disappointed.

                  Honestly now, I found D_S’s “review”/reaction post amusing, it was obvious he was just fucking around in it, and it’s an understandable reaction from someone who just downloads a random episode on a whim, but this commentary section has been mostly people complaining about how a release the didn’t watch by a group they haven’t heard of for a show they have no intent of following is being subbed in the way everyone who DO follow the series would be aware of and expecting. The majority of you who aren’t aware of this is the same majority of you who wouldn’t be going to our site to download Pokemon fansubs in the first place.
                  Aiming your releases at the people who actually download them isn’t really a negative.

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              • Interesting logic, guess you’re right. Considering how the majority of us aren’t aware of your group’s “logic” and “ways,” perhaps putting a notice and a link that brings viewers to a special FAQ page on your website may change their views about your group.

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          • I’ve never followed PocketMonster subs until Pokemon XY came out, and the ONLY reason I decided to use their subs was because of me being excited ever since the games release. It’s to be expected that people will follow your subs (since the dubs are behind,) and I still don’t understand your logic of using Japanese names for Pokemon… I bet that 99% of the people who even watch the subs refer to the names in English, even though JP names are being used.

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            • Also, the changing of font colors in the subs is so bad. Are you trying to be the next Hadena?

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              • We need a new Hadena review. I agree.

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                • I believe that Hadena is on a hiatus mode for at least one season…

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              • Font color changing is awesome, though.

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                • Also, Adamant is right about everything.

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            • Referring to the characters and the Pokemon by their original names is reasonably common in the Pokemon anime fan community, yes. They’re the names they constantly hear in the series, week in and week out, so they’re the names they familiarize themselves with.
              As I said, this is how the series has always been subbed. This is the way people who watch the series subbed are used to seeing it. You’re coming in hundreds of episodes into the series and complaining about the way everyone knows it’s being subbed. How long are you planning to keep watching? 20 episodes? 100? What about the older stuff that’s out there? Not trying to pull the “true fan” card or anything, just… realize that this thing has been running for ages, it has a fanbase that’s been following it for years. In Japanese. Translated this way. Is it really a bad thing that we’re aiming these subs at those people, the ones who actually watch the series, instead of the people who just decide to check out what the series is like nowadays, watch a handful of episodes, and are done with it? If older fans just want to check out there series again, why download a fansub of the newest episode and get angry at the lack of dub names when they can download a dub encode and get something equally representative of the current era?

              It made sense to sub The Origin with English names, it was its own thing with 4 short episodes everyone were planning on watching until the end, and it got a lot of attention from “normal” anime fans who didn’t follow the regular TV series, but the Pokemon TV series has mostly had its own separate fanbase without that much crossover from people who tend to watch the stuff other groups sub.

              There’s a new Sailor Moon series coming out soon, are you going to declare the subs for it to be horrible if they don’t use the dub names you grew up with? If you download a fansub for Digimon, Yugioh, Beyblade or whatever, are you going to expect English names in the subtitles? Do you think Detective Conan fansubs use the official English names of the characters? Are they terrible weeb shit for not doing so?

              Serious question: Why is this apparently ONLY a problem with Pokemon fansubs?

              (also, we’ve been around for about three times as long as Hadena has. Not trying to become “the next” anything)

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              • Yes, Dark_Sage’s review was funny.

                Your subs are great as they are.

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              • You’re taking this review/site way too serious…

                As far as localization policies go, yours is 100% legitimate. The “names you read = names you hear” argument is sufficient. [Everyone has the right to their own opinion though, and that’s why we usually have different grups doing stuff their own way]

                If there was demand for it, someone would probably just demux the subs out of your release and use Notepad (or write some simple script) to substitute the names for their English equivalents.

                Having said that, it’s still true that your release has some obvious quality issues.

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                • No, I know the “review” was more of a reaction post than a review, and I already said I found it an entertaining read. I’m not taking issues with it or anything. The comments I’ve been writing here aren’t aimed at Sage, or responses to the review itself, they’re replies to specific posts and posters in the comment section, attempting to explain why things are being done the way they are.

                  I am aware that there were quality issues with this release, and the ones D_S pointed out are certainly legit (the mismatched color in the anniversary splash should be fixed, check the episode 8 release), and if you have anything beyond those to address, we’re definitely open for criticism. The comments have just all been centered around “Japanese names = terrible release” (and Switch-kun being an idiot), so that’s what I’ve been responding to.

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              • Pokemon is an on-going series, therefore, everyone that has watched Pokemon at least in the English community has watched it in English first. Honestly, do you think people watched Pokemon in subs first? (At least for our generation). No, I doubt that. All of us have grown to watch it/see it in its English terms.

                Yes, your argument is valid that you don’t want to localize names from the English version, but most people do. Are you trying to attract a small fan-base, or a large one?

                Despite what I say, you’re entitled to your own opinion but I’m giving my two-cents here. Also, as others have said, it’s not just the lack of localization that D_S didn’t like, it’s the quality issues in your release that also irk people.

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                • >most people do
                  Gentlemen, we have a winner. MOST PEOPLE consider themselves the majority and thus endeth the discussion.

                  Aside from using lame arguments like that one, what exactly is your issue with PM appealing to a small yet well-defined target group?

                  [As per the recent 8th’s music industry analogy:] You wouldn’t approach a niche band having their own dedicated fanbase and tell them they’re doing it wrong and should do mainstream music instead…

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                  • My problem with them targeting a small group of people? Nothing. I just don’t like how they decide to use every last Japanese thing w/ zero localization. Hell, even the Team rocket them is better in dub.

                    Like Sage said, “I mean fuck, have you faggots ever watched Pokemon before?”

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23. While reading Adamant’s comments on this page, I was surprised to see that Adamant was attacking me even though I apologized.

    When I re-read my reply to his reply, I realized the way I worded my sentence was more of an insult than an apology.

    I’d like to apologize if this post: /comment-page-1/#comment-121975 was insulting. What I meant was, I thought your logic and the idea behind the way you release your subs were interesting. I haven’t really thought about doing things differently for a different audience at the time of writing, therefore I apologize for misunderstanding. Assuming you don’t know me, I’m not very good at conveying things properly, I can not always tell the difference between sarcasm and actuality, and I am prone to silly mistakes (i.e. Reading エリキテル as エレキテル).

    I hope you understanding. I mean no harm. ._.

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    • lolno, I was just making fun of your ridiculous suggestion to change the completely logical “Erikiteru” to the horrendously wrong “Elektil”, and the implication that this would improve the translations.

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24. Oh man, Dear Dark_Sage.

    The Japanese voice is different than the English dub.
    They are translating what they are hearing from the Jap series.

    You can’t review them for what you hear from English dub, moreover can you review other anime like this?

    Review about this review.

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    • I realize that. You may have missed the point of the review.

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      • Hmm, are you saying that you reviewed the Jap series not the translation of this team?

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        • No, I’m saying you missed the point. Most everything I complained about can be summed up as “wrong because of my nostalgia”. If you think that is honestly the kind of reasoning I would present in a review to justify any kind of score, then you missed the point because you underestimated my brain skills. Always bet on Sage, sasuke-kun.

          This review is non-canon for a reason.

          That doesn’t mean I liked what PM did (yes I would prefer a dubglish release), but I’m not about to honestly drop a group’s score due solely to fucking nostalgia.

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25. Can someone tell me, if there is, a better version by another team?

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    • In order to get the point from this article, you need to understand English at a semi-native level. I was being semi-serious here.

      I wouldn’t say this is a bad translation; it’s just minimally localized (which due to my stupid nostalgia glasses means it’s not entirely what I’d want to go for). If you’re looking for a more localized release, you may want to wait for the dub, since I don’t think there’s another group subbing this show.

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26. cant tell if its a troll review or just plain entertaiment for the internet. hmmm..

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27. You are seriously a cunt. PM does a damn good job at subbing Pokemon. They use the correct method of subbing rather than using dub terms and names. This is how fansubbing should be.

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    • No, you’re a cunt. And also racist. So there.

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      • Dark Sage, grow up. Stop complaining about a good subbing group that is doing the job correctly. Sakura is right, you are a cunt. A stuck up childish cunt. If you love the English names so bad go watch the TPCi dub with actors who have no idea what they are doing.

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        • So if the voice actors are bad, the dub script and official professional translation is automatically also bad? I know who’s the weeabo cunt and probably a member from the group that did such a destruction with that nomenclature now.

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        • While I appreciate your love on a theoretical level, Shaman, I think you and Sakura would be better off eating a bag of dicks rather than demonstrate your illiteracy for the world to see.

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      • Fess up, D_S: you’re playing safe here with that brush-off because, like me, you’re not sure if he’s trolling or just stupid.

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        • Caught me like a wild pidgey.

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