Fansub Review: [DameDesuYo] Black Bullet (Episode 09)

June 12, 2014 by Dark_Sage

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

The preview image ain’t from this episode, but I would like to note that I would fuck the grease right out of her hair. Goddamn, Kisara. Such best girl.

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (404 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics. “Onii-chan” as “Brother”. “senpai” as “senior”.

English style: American English.

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/Es6HvzNV

Speed: Quick (<48 hours)

Translation style: Crunchyedit.

External links.

Group website: http://damedesuyo.us/

IRC channel: #[email protected]

Visual Review

Karaoke.

Opening. Not bad. Competent offering of font and effects.

Rating: Okay+.

Ending. I can see what they were going for with the reflection effect, but it seriously doesn’t blend as well as they think it does. Colors/effects were solid elsewise.

Rating: Okay+.

Typesetting.

Spoiler for

Everything important was typeset, and done so in a thumbs-up fashion.

Script Review

Main Script.

I have no idea what just happened, and that vague, Engrishy line isn’t really helping.

Couldn’t decide between the American English name and the British English one, huh? Way to straddle that fence, DDY. Hope the spikes don’t do any serious damage.

That may be how you introduce people in Japan, but it wouldn’t fly in America.

“This is Nagisawa Shouma, a man who’s reached the eighth rank in the Tendou Style.”

“He’s my mentor in the martial arts.”

…

Now I’d like to point out, since I have the space (it’s a short fucking review), that the suggestions I offer in my reviews are just that: suggestions. Editing should make a script flow in a cohesive manner, and as such, an editor’s preference for phrasing is more important than copying in my fixes verbatim. What you should be taking out of these lines is that the word order and phrasing/localization need work.

Additionally, I only include representative screenshots in my reviews. There are more parts in the script where “senior” is used when “mentor” would make a much better choice, for example. And there were lines that gave me pause while watching, which weren’t really worth discussing in depth, but still contributed to my overall impression of the release.

Just keep all that in mind before you freak out in the comments about some grand conspiracy I’m conducting to make DDY the most beloved fansub group ever based on the score they get. (Feel free to go through the episode yourself and point out any more mistakes if you think you can find any blatant ones. I welcome your findings.)

Results

Watchability: Def watchable.

Visual grade: B+

Script grade: A-

Overall grade: A-

Not too much to say here. This was a solid Crunchyroll edit, unlike what the competition threw up.

Unfortunately, there’s no single screenshot I can point to as a silver bullet, where I can say “Hey look, they changed line A to be slightly better than it originally was and it saved the fucking show”. That’s why this review is as short as it is. Rather, it’s a compilation of a number of small changes that add up to great effect.

Kudos to DDY on this one. If the show was worth watching, these subs are what you’d want for it.

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24 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [DameDesuYo] Black Bullet (Episode 09)”

elenrod

June 12, 2014 at 1:57 am

But senpai, mentor doesn’t always = senpai, does it?
Reply
- Dark_Sage
  
  June 12, 2014 at 2:04 am
  
  Come up with a better term for this context, then. Senior doesn’t cut it.
  Reply
  - shcboomer
    
    June 12, 2014 at 2:08 am
    
    I like the idea of mentor, it makes sense in context.
    Reply
    - begna112
      
      June 12, 2014 at 2:26 am
      
      what if he wasn’t his mentor but simply a senior student? ┐(‘～`；)┌
      Reply
      - Dark_Sage
        
        June 12, 2014 at 7:54 am
        
        Not sure where all that sexual tension in the episode came from, then.
        Reply
        
        begna112
        
        June 12, 2014 at 8:57 am
        
        Seniors are hot okay sagey?
        Reply
Dylan

June 12, 2014 at 2:59 am

Yay, a review. But I do kind of prefer senior to mentor because mentor implies a stronger connection than someone who was just a student before you. Just my opinion though
Reply
- Fuwaa
  
  June 12, 2014 at 5:42 am
  
  Generally I think a senpai in martial arts is supposed to act as a mentor to his kouhai, so the term mentor should be sufficient here. At least, that’s my experience from what I’ve seen of martial arts manga/anime involving senior and junior students, which may be off from real life martial arts but should apply here since it’s anime.
  Reply
- Dark_Sage
  
  June 12, 2014 at 8:06 am
  
  If you watch the show, they have a rather defined relationship. I wouldn’t use the term without being aware of the meanings associated with it.
  Reply
furzi

June 12, 2014 at 9:09 am

>changing ?! to !?

what
Reply
- mini-ezo
  
  June 12, 2014 at 9:15 am
  
  That’s the way it is in Japanese manga. I was completely dumbfounded when literally everyone did ?! when I got into subbing.
  Reply
  - furzi
    
    June 12, 2014 at 9:29 am
    
    I knew that already, the question is why the hell would they change it to !?
    Reply
    - Etoce
      
      June 12, 2014 at 9:34 am
      
      I think it’s in DDY’s list of commandments or whatever.
      
      ?! is usually the one used in English.
      Reply
      - begna112
        
        June 12, 2014 at 12:37 pm
        
        Correct. The founding members, myself being one of those, think it looks better and easier to read. So we decided DDY would use !?
        
        I don’t believe either ?! or !? is “technically” more correct and, as others have mentioned, it often appears as !? in signs so it makes sense to use that order.
        
        And I’m a tyrannical bastard. So there is that… :>
        Reply
        
        Etoce
        
        June 12, 2014 at 2:11 pm
        
        I think the world is better off with you guys having chosen to use !? all the time, personally, even though that’s now how I’d do it.
        
        (I use !? for sentences that are grammatically statements and ?! for sentences that are grammatically questions.)
        Reply
        
        FalseDawn
        
        June 12, 2014 at 5:14 pm
        
        Why would a statement need a question mark?!
        Reply
        
        Anonymous
        
        June 12, 2014 at 5:59 pm
        
        I don’t know. In practice, I never use !?, but that’s my internal rule in case it ever comes up.
        Reply
        
        Solaristics
        
        June 12, 2014 at 3:53 pm
        
        …Stop using !? Please.
        Reply
        
        Jark
        
        June 12, 2014 at 5:21 pm
        
        Fun fact: practically every other member of ddy thinks “!?” looks bad.
        Reply
    - Dark_Sage
      
      June 12, 2014 at 9:46 am
      
      You tend to see it in more Japanesey releases, since that’s often how Japan likes to display it. Though like some brilliant bastard (name forgotten to the sands of time) here once said, it’s the interrobang, not the banginterro. So the best practice is pretty obvious.
      Reply
      - FalseDawn
        
        June 12, 2014 at 10:46 am
        
        http://www.crymore.net/2013/08/06/dmondoki-oniai-01-bd/comment-page-1/#comment-66742
        
        Three cheers for Kokujin-kun! :D
        Reply
      - mini-ezo
        
        June 12, 2014 at 12:08 pm
        
        Let’s take the middle ground and make ‽ the new standard.
        
        Trust me, I’m an expert on this topic.
        Reply
        
        rarely_upset
        
        June 12, 2014 at 7:52 pm
        
        You know, I’m sure someone has already tried that and was horrified to discover that their dialogue font didn’t have a glyph for interrobangs. Nobody has ever used one outside of jokingly recommending the use of interrobangs.
        Reply
hayaterocks

June 13, 2014 at 8:00 am

I never found the defining line for interrobangs (I had to look it up, never knew it was a word), the way I’ve seen it most recently as !? indicating surprise, and ?! indicating yelling. Anything else is gray area, to be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Reply

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