Translation Review (Pass/Fail): [FFF] Sword Art Online II – 02

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This post was written by kokujin-kun. He is not Dark_Sage.


MAL sez this is the best release. Don’t prove me wrong.

Table of Contents

Release Information

Translation

Other Observations

Final Grade

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (371MB, 10-bit)

Translation: CR Edit

Wap Level: Full Wap

English style: American English.

Speed: Quick (<48 hours)

 

External links.

Group website: http://fffansubs.org

IRC channel: #[email protected]

 

Translation

As with all CR edits, they will either be a pass if they manage to add no mistakes to the original script (or pass with flying colors if they improve the script), or they’ll fail if they add more mistakes to the original script.

Karaoke.

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_02.18_[2014.07.19_22.06.47]

OP. English lyrics are more literal than I would have liked, but they are nice and serviceable.

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_22.48_[2014.07.19_23.03.26]

ED. More of the same that I described with the OP.

 

Main Script.

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_04.52_[2014.07.19_22.12.10]

The correct word for taijin could be found if you’d just looked.

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_05.57_[2014.07.19_22.30.14]

Should have been “go grab some tea” or something similar.

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_06.10_[2014.07.19_22.30.32]

At least here they have the words “in real life,” unlike Crunchy, Commie, and the other rippers. Still would have preferred “IRL.”

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_06.51_[2014.07.19_22.31.37]

“One, two, three, four, five, six… seven?”

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_05.34_[2014.07.20_13.05.46][FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_05.40_[2014.07.20_13.05.58]

These are much better lines than what Crunchy had (something about buying her sixty seconds so she can hide and reset the enemy’s ID information?)

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_13.45_[2014.07.19_22.50.39]

They actually decided to use “macho.”

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_14.03_[2014.07.19_22.51.10]

You could see the guy is called “Arashi” in all the menu screens, but then again in the first episode I chose to have the name “Lightly Salted Tarako” be translated because it’s such a weird name. But I don’t think “Arashi” is a weird enough name to deserve to be translated, unless you plan to translate the name “Jin” into “Human” or some shit.

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_20.28_[2014.07.19_22.59.21]

They also managed to translate a regional battle cry into an English word.

 

…Seriously, why the fuck would she say “chest” here?

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_21.12_[2014.07.19_23.00.30]

I would have preferred “That’s not right,” for keshikaran.

 

Other Observations

[FFF] Sword Art Online II - 02 [88D98288].mkv_snapshot_20.17_[2014.07.20_00.21.00]

Montara Gothic? Shitbirds.

 

Final Grade: Pass

As far as script quality and visuals go, I’d say they are tied with Commie right now. There were one or two dings, but they weren’t that distracting in any case, so this is a nice choice if you’re looking to get your daily dose of Kirito-chan.

 

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67 thoughts on “Translation Review (Pass/Fail): [FFF] Sword Art Online II – 02”

    • CR, in most cases, does have decent (and even great) scripts. When editing is an option, why not? But of course you are the expert, so editing CR must be bad.

      Reply

      • This is actually true. It’s not uncommon for an original translation (especially when it’s a newer translator) doing a worse job than CR. Despite CR’s poor video quality and lack of typesetting, their scripts are generally pretty good.

        Reply

        • You have two options. You either do an original TL or you edit an official script. Now, if the official script is good enough, what’s wrong in using it?

          Then again, your reply doesn’t really make sense. There are shows with no official release, hence the impossibility of actually editing a script. In such cases, you DO NOT have the option to edit an official script. Now, is that clearer?

          Reply

      • I’m not a fan of trading quality over speed, and editing CR is no different than using another fansub’s script.
        It’s just… not right. It’s better not doing it at all than editing someone’s translation and making it worse more than makes it better(read as riping off all honorics and trying to be fun inserting a meme in a line or another).

        Reply

        • False dichotomy.

          If doing an original translation means you take longer to release a worse product than the simulcast, why bother?

          Reply

          • I didn’t say I watch from HS/CR, though.
            I just don’t like the idea of trying to keep up with them using their own script.

            Reply

                    • they aren’t selling anything?
                      if they were selling CR edits then i’d agree but what they are doing is making shit better for free(or at least trying to in some fansubs cases)….for those of us who have active CR subscriptions i don’t even see what the problem is? why should we suffer with passable subs when we can have great subs? Are you a masochist that gets off on waiting that 1 extra week for fansubs that are probably going to be worse than CR-edits.

                    • I don’t know which script is Xythar’s and which is not. I don’t really pay attention.
                      I was talking CR edits and how they look almost the same as HS. Yes, we cannot generalize. There are bad and good edits(mostly bad edits, though.)

                      P.S.: I was not talking particularly about you, so I’m sorry if you misunderstood. I only speak english as second language, so expressing myself well in foreign language is sometimes a challenge.

                    • It doesn’t really matter who they’re by anyway. My point is you can’t make a blanket statement that CR edits are pointless, or only change 20% of the script, or whatever else, because that’s clearly not true in all cases.

                      Counting the changes in the script is also an oversimplification because it doesn’t take into account any of the other aspects of a fansub (timing, typesetting, encode, songs) and how they factor into the experience. That’s why I reacted derisively to your 20% figure before – it doesn’t actually mean anything.

                      It also doesn’t take into account the quality of edits. I’d much rather watch a release that makes solid changes to 20% of the script than one which makes pointless or incorrect changes to 80% of the script – or, for that matter, a 100% original translation that ends up being far worse. Take Doki’s Akame ga Kill, for example.

                    • I had to redo it to make it readable, since you left the timecodes in:
                      http://www.diffchecker.com/1n2alvsi

                      It’s all right. I like their edit to 154/155 since the original line didn’t really make sense. On the other hand, I think removing “solo player” from 46/47 makes the line less funny and “in a pinch” is not something that should ever be added to a script.

                      On the whole, though, I’d call it an improvement. And also more than 20% different, I should think.

        • because crunchyroll don’t even watch the show they translate in almost all the shows they make up their own terminology for a bunch of things which makes it barely watchable for those of us that were fans of the series before it got licensed. in the last year or so their quality has gone way up…but they do it for a job they aim speed above everything else and don’t fix their mistakes, there’s no reason to start from scratch when CR subs are at least watchable(some times even great). also karaoke :).

          Reply

            • Gotta agree on this. I remember this getting a lot of debate time when Attack on Titan came out due to every group going for different terms (and most agreeing that the scanlated manga terms were shite) – and on MAL, someone downvoted us on the OVAs for not using Abnormal, which as far as I can tell was a term Hatsuyuki used (We went for Aberrant in line with the CR terms from the series).

              It makes you wonder about the mental state of some leechers, that’s for sure.

              Reply

              • Man I really loved your version of Attack on Titan. It was awesome. It’s a shame you dropped the TV version. BD plans maybe? :D

                Reply

                • Nah, we won’t do the series, but we plan to do the third OAD and maybe the recap movies when they come out, if we think they’re worth the :effort: ^__^

                  Reply

              • when you’ve read 9 volumes of the light novel of something and suddenly “elementalers” gets tossed in your face I object, i’m sorry i trust auto-correct on these things if it has a red line under it CR is engrishing us…

                Reply

                • 9 volumes *scanlated* – from what I can tell, elementalers is about as real a word as elementalists, so what’s the difference? And considering CR are the official licensors, I’d imagine that ‘translation’ probably came from the studio itself, i.e. the people who made the show.

                  Reply

                  • I’m not saying they aren’t the official subs(although i would like you to explain Funimation subs now….please….also i’m sure Funimation tokyo ghoul is exactly the way studios wanted it to be too.)
                    also…don’t tell me you find “elementalers” not even slightly engrishy, at least “elementalists” sounds like english. (even if it isn’t my bad :P)

                    Reply

                    • I’d probably prefer elementalist (to match mentalist, I guess?), but if the studio have said to use elementalers, they can’t really go against it. And you only have to look at Sailor Moon Crystal to see what studios are like when they get involved with the English market (the fact that all official sources have the same sub for it suggests the studio had a big hand in the English subs). Or Attack on Titan: a nonsensical title in English compared to the Japanese title, but used nonetheless (in the title screen, no less).

                      When it comes to terminology, a lot of it is either dictated by Japan or it can be dictated by what’s already been translated into English by official sources (such as manga released in America) – so you can’t really class it as being “wrong” when what you really mean is “different from the scanlations I’ve read.”

                    • Well yes, basically. It could be the studio, or CR might just be making up a new word just to be unique. At the end of the day it’s just because of things like this that i’m glad fansubs still exist.

                      Also i do understand where your coming from. and in some cases, that shit just shouldn’t be allowed to be classified as a fansub(introduce fakesub highlighting in nyaa now please.)

            • Because I said so. Why does it matter to you why i like the consistency.prime example is “Blade dance of Elementalers” sorry but i’m not going to watch that.

              Reply

        • There are good edits and bad edits. A good fansub group will be able to change the script where required to improve the flow of the dialogues as as well as manage to catch any mistakes the original script may have.

          You are generalising too much, as if all CR/etc. edits were bad.

          Reply

          • Maybe I am.
            I’m talking about this one in particular.
            Funi edits are usually a thousand times better, and there are releases with so many edits that it doesn’t even seems like an edit.
            What REALLY makes me sad in releases like this are memes, dehonorified names and translated names.

            Reply

            • From what I remember, FFF actually retained the honorifics for SAO, Commie didn’t ─ and they never do ─ of course . Then again, regarding the translation of certain names, I can agree with that.

              I don’t see any random memes thrown in this script though.

              Reply

                • I don’t see what’s natural about them at all. Honorifics don’t actually belong in the English language, so, if anything, including honorifics is rather unnatural.

                  Reply

                    • I was just pointing out that there is no way you can say honorifics are natural in English subs. Of course, subbing honorifics in is easier for fansubbers than localizing the differing titles and notions of formality that go along with them, so that’s why people do it.

                  • I think the slight weirdness of honorifics dropped straight into English is better than either making up nicknames that feel similar in English for each level of honorific or ignoring the significance of a change in honorific use by a certain character toward another (using an overly familiar honorific or no honorific at all as an insult or a change in honorific or from last name to first name as an indicator of the development of a relationship). And, as Darkseid says below, it’s weird to hear honorifics or someone’s last name and only see the first name all the time.

                    Reply

                    • There are very adequate ways to localize instances of honorifics. Don’t get me wrong; honorifics have their place in subs. They are frequently used and they make editing those sorts of subtle things incredibly easy. But complaining about a lack of honorifics when they are localized in some way is just retarded.

                      Like fnord said, you really shouldn’t care about something so insignificant.

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