Officialsubs Review: [Funimation] Yurikuma Arashi (Episode 02)

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This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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Poll up soon. For now, have some Funi.

Table of Contents

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

 

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: 720p MKV (453 MB, 8-bit), 480p MKV (198 MB, 8-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics. Western name order.

English style: American English.

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/659Bc4wz

Speed: Quick (<48 hours, “simulcast”)

 

External links.

Website: http://www.funimation.com/videos/simulcasts

 

 

Visual Review

Karaoke.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_02.35_[2015.01.13_12.45.09]

Funimation did the right thing here by not subbing the karaoke. Can you imagine how hideous they would have made it? I, for one, ain’t interested in errant dashes or periods getting between me and my lesbians.

 

 

Typesetting.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_04.26_[2015.01.13_12.57.52]

Funimation doesn’t like to concern themselves with such plebeian ideals as creating readable subtitles.

Spoiler for

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_01.58_[2015.01.13_12.36.56] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_02.03_[2015.01.13_12.37.11] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_03.48_[2015.01.13_12.53.04] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_03.55_[2015.01.13_12.53.16] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_04.10_[2015.01.13_12.56.50]  [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_04.41_[2015.01.13_12.58.14] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_05.21_[2015.01.13_12.59.22] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_08.37_[2015.01.13_13.08.39] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_13.52_[2015.01.13_13.19.03] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_15.41_[2015.01.13_13.21.46] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_15.58_[2015.01.13_13.23.00] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_16.18_[2015.01.13_13.23.31] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_17.54_[2015.01.13_13.25.17] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_17.58_[2015.01.13_13.25.25] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_18.00_[2015.01.13_13.25.32] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_18.12_[2015.01.13_13.25.54] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_18.18_[2015.01.13_13.26.16] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_18.48_[2015.01.13_13.27.01]

 

 

Other.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_00.49_[2015.01.13_12.34.25]
Like most Funimation releases, you get blurry, broken visuals…
Like most Funimation releases, you get blurry visuals, along with 30+ seconds of logos before the show starts. Hope your time is valueless.
…along with 30+ seconds of logos before the show starts. Hope your time is valueless.

 

 

Script Review

Main Script.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_01.40_[2015.01.13_12.36.34]

Why the fuck would you use three chomps here? The bears are going “gari-gari, gori-gori”, meaning you should have either two chomps or four if you want to keep up the slightest pretense of matching the Japanese script.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_04.00_[2015.01.13_12.53.26]

Funimation a stupid company.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_06.26_[2015.01.13_13.00.33]

–Learn what an em-dash is.

–Learn how to style.

–Learn how to describe, because “vermin” is about the least applicable pejorative you could use here.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_06.45_[2015.01.13_13.01.32]

Christ, Funimation. I get that the only time y’all encounter teenage girls is when they’re stumbling out of your VAs’ hotel rooms at cons, but this is a little much.

Asenshi had: “Even though you act cool, your happy trail‘s raging like a wild animal’s!”, which is… okay, that’s a whole lot worse. But I’m sure Watashi’s will be decent.

…please let Watashi’s be decent.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_07.17_[2015.01.13_13.04.36]

Witness testimony is direct evidence, but that doesn’t make it hard evidence. Hard evidence would be something physical that ties the mahou osos to the crime, or a shot of my crotch while watching this show.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_08.15_[2015.01.13_13.08.12]

…you mean “herd mentality”?

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_10.12_[2015.01.13_13.11.55]

Well what does a treat fucking taste like, Funimation? Fix your adjective game.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_12.25_[2015.01.13_13.17.04]

If you have as much trouble seducing others as I don’t, you may wanna try “You smell” as your next pick-up line. According to Funi, it’ll work wonders.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_13.37_[2015.01.13_13.18.44]

Google results for “was quick retreat”: 1

Google results for “was a quick retreat”: 834,000

While Funi gets alternative credit for their non-conformity, being different doesn’t make them right.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_16.55_[2015.01.13_13.24.13]

What, like financially? Ain’t saying I wouldn’t watch that anime, but y’all might wanna come up with something a little more topical for the scene right before blondie starts trying to blow brown bear-chan’s head off.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_22.19_[2015.01.13_13.41.44]

We Willy Wonka now? Invisible isn’t normally considered a flavor.

 

 

Translation Clarity

In order to “get” Funi’s subs, you need to do research beforehand as their translation will not stand on its own. While that may be fine to you, all it does is provide my little brother an excuse to only watch Tokyo Ghoul and Durarara this season. You know how bad it feels having casuals in the family when you’re otaku royalty?

Feels this bad.
Feels about this bad.

 

Funimation never explains what “yuri” means,

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_15.48_[2015.01.13_13.22.01]
…this awkward attempt is only to explain why when they’re looking at a bunch of lilies, they use the term “yuri” to describe them.
yet they think it’s a good idea to keep it untranslated. Why? I doubt having Japgrish lines in a “professional” release makes it any easier on the TL’s blood pressure.

Is "Yuri" supposed to mean something here? Because it doesn't.
Is “Yuri” supposed to mean something here? Because it doesn’t.

Fucking just translate it as “lily”. There’s enough symbolism behind the English name that viewers won’t miss anything essential. And if they want more meaning, they can do their own research. But it shouldn’t be a fucking pre-req.

What is "yuri approved"?
Who the shit approved this yuruyuri translation? Jesus Crisco.

 

The puns (kuma = bear) make no sense, because Funi just transcribes them.

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_00.49_[2015.01.13_12.34.30]
Word association time. Name the first thing that springs to mind when you think Kumalia. Oh what, it’s Somalia? Way to kill the mood, guys. Try Kumaria if you refuse to translate the pun, Funi.

 

And for the “Invisible Storm”…

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_18.34_[2015.01.13_13.26.42]

[HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_22.19_[2015.01.13_13.41.44] [HorribleSubs] Yuri Kuma Arashi - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_22.28_[2015.01.13_13.41.59]

I think it’s pretty fucking clear that “Hidden” is the term you should be using here. Hell, you could even have some fun and go with ethereal — that’s a word! You don’t need to pay me for future translation possibilities — you could just use a thesaurus. There are quite a few free options online, I hear.

 

 

 

Results

Watchability: Watchable.

Visual grade: N/A, since official releases refuse to acknowledge that visuals matter.

Script grade: C

Overall grade: C

From a translation perspective, the whole release is simultaneously ham-fisted and low-effort. That being said, translation style is a rather subjective issue (and translation parties take care of that), so I’m not gonna drop Funi’s score too much. …even after tearing them apart about it.

While I wouldn’t recommend this release on principle alone (Yurikuma Arashi deserves care paid toward the visuals, and a more interesting translation), assuming you want to watch Yurikuma quickly and can deal with the issues on display, you would be adequately served by going the Funi route. She’s not the best girl, but she is the easiest.

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35 thoughts on “Officialsubs Review: [Funimation] Yurikuma Arashi (Episode 02)”

  1. Maybe Funi decided not to explain yuri because they figured anyone actually watching this show already knows what it means.

    …Or maybe they were just too lazy to. Whichever.

    Reply

  2. Regarding the “hard evidence”: I presume what they were going for is “hardly evidence”. It seems to me that she would like to act, but can’t report her findings because well, the lack of hard evidence.

    Not that I knew Japanese, but that way it’d make sense in the given context.

    Reply

  3. Ehh, I wouldn’t slam them for translating it as “Invisible Storm”… especially with how metaphorical and poetic the show is trying to be. I’d imagine that it was a smart call not to stray too far from the original terminology given that it’s basically guaranteed that it’s going to be some sort of wordplay or symbolic thing.

    Reply

    • We already got one of the meanings though — it’s used to describe bears who are in human form. “Invisible” doesn’t make a lick of sense there.

      Reply

          • Maybe the “Concealing Storm”? I don’t know if that would still match with the Japanese expression, but it would make sense, right?

            Reply

          • I can’t. The problem is, you don’t know what Ikuhara wants to say by “toumei” (it usually means transparent). You don’t actually know that it’s about concealment. It could just as well be death, or social alienation, or being repressed, or any sort of thing that can be metaphorically described as a “storm” (a storm of emotion, a storm of racism, a literary movement, etc.) When you have an ambiguous term like this, your best bet is doing a direct translation.

            Also, when did they use that to describe human bears anyway?

            Reply

            • Contextual inference. Judge-kun says the bears can become “invisible” if they want. We’ve seen that bears can turn into girls and vice-versa. The girl who’s dead at the end of the episode is stated to be “invisible”.

              If the girl who’s eaten at the end of the episode turns out to be mousey-chan, I’ll be right.

              Reply

  5. Scripts and TS aside, Funi’s video is not so bad. The video is designed for their player, so it is not their fault that you watch pirated version. MadVR can easily switch to pc range with one click.
    Your screenshot: http://www.crymore.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/HorribleSubs-Yuri-Kuma-Arashi-02-720p.mkv_snapshot_06.26_2015.01.13_13.00.33.jpg
    MadVR: http://i.imgbox.com/Se2NvzPz.png
    When you see pure black color in the dark scenes (50-90% of the screen) there are actual details.
    I’m sorry, but I can’t understand how you can complain for 1 line that will appear on the screen for 2sec and ignore the fact that you will watch half of your screen black/white for 24minetes, because you throw madVR in the Recycle Bin…
    Even if this “sub Review”, as long as you post screenshots they should at least have correct colors.

    Reply

    • A. I have a Funimation subscription (and a Crunchyroll one too), but it’s a bitch to grab screens from streams, so I use the HorribleSubs releases whenever I can.

      B. I only use whatever the CCCP suite gives me. That’s my reviewing setup, and I’ve been operating with it since 2011. I believe we’ve had this exact same conversation before.

      C. That particular screen had nothing to do with their encode and everything to do with their stupid fucking decision to double-dash lines when multiple people are speaking. Their subs are hardsubbed; there’s no excuse for why they can’t differentiate via color. And similarly, there’s no excuse for not using actual em-dashes.

      Reply

      • >I only use whatever the CCCP suite gives me
        Out of interest, why don’t you use KCP rather? MadVR is the best thing since sliced bread.

        >Their subs are hardsubbed; there’s no excuse for why they can’t differentiate via color.
        This is actually an interesting point. Considering their subs are hardsubbed, they could actually go all-out with typesetting without being held back by the limitation of flash player and subtitle rendering on stream. Not that they ever will, but they have literally no excuse at all to still be using \an8 (who am I kidding, they probably aren’t even using Aegisub!). At least CR tries to typeset a little bit.

        Reply

        • My goal is to emulate the most typical end user experience. So if most people watch their anime with CCCP, I’ll go that route.

          I determine which codec pack has the largest market share by fansub group support. Last I checked, most fansub groups will recommend CCCP. While they may offer additional tips and tweaks, I believe the end user only cares about getting their anime to play, so getting CCCP downloaded and installed is the most they’ll do.

          It’s a philosophy I apply to various other aspects of the review process. For example, I try to avoid installing extra fonts so I can see when groups miss muxing them in (as has already happened this season). And I only review releases that have been officially released (so if a group releases a patch for a release only on their website, I’ll review the unpatched version because that’s what most people will have).

          Reply

        • “Considering their subs are hardsubbed, they could actually go all-out with typesetting without being held back by the limitation of flash player and subtitle rendering on stream. Not that they ever will, but they have literally no excuse at all to still be using \an8 (who am I kidding, they probably aren’t even using Aegisub!). At least CR tries to typeset a little bit.”

          Hardsubbing does remove one barrier to good typesetting for Funi, but there’s still two more. First of all, they probably still have to contend with font licensing issues, so their choice of fonts will be limited, meaning they won’t be able to match on-screen text as well as the dirty, dirty pirates.

          Secondly, they just don’t give a shit. People will come to them in droves even if their releases are utter garbage. If their scripts can be so terrible and people still give them money, slacking on the typesetting is a no-brainer. Why put the extra effort into turning out a better product when the shitty one still sells?

          Reply

          • Just license one good font and go with that, why is that so hard? I’m thinking of something generic like Linux Biolinum (or Libertine, whichever was the better one for subtitles). Their current font is terrible. They could have the most beautiful encode on the scene, I’d still skip them for a raw just because of the subtitle font.

            Reply

            • That would work for dialog, sure, but you can’t just use one font for all your typesetting if the intention is to have typesetting that actually matches anything on-screen.

              Reply

    • But if HS is a direct rip from Funi, then Funi’s original video has the wrong colors. Yes, it can be easily fixed in madvr, but the point is that they’re wrong to begin with.

      Reply

      • Anon, the colors are not wrong. The video is encoded in PC range (0-255).
        If there is no tag however, the player will assume TV range (Y 16-235 Cb,Cr16-240 IIRC) and expand it to (0-255). I don’t thing that they care about HS’s fans experience to tag the video when it is fine in their player.

        Reply

        • As an encoder you should know that this statement is incorrect. H.264 streams are TV range by default, so if you want to use PC range, you are to set the appropriate VUI flag in the SPS. Alas, this is not the case for Funi streams, so the “colors” are in fact wrong. Having broken bitstreams and a broken player doesn’t make the whole implementation correct.

          Reply

          • It works on their player you know the only place where that video is suppose to be played, but they are wrong because pirates don’t get to watch it with the right color range by default.
            You’re a retard.

            Reply

      • I remember reading that it’s more like Horriblesubs’ fault. Something about them needing to flag something or other for it to display correctly in a video player that isn’t Funi’s webplayer.

        Reply

    • Well, there’s a number of things I dislike about the phrasing, but it’s “happy trail” that bugs me the most. Yes, I’ve usually only heard that term in reference to males’ pubic hair, but even if that wasn’t the case, it is so completely out of step with the rest of the show that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. …and hair. Like, a show going for “symbolism is so deep desu, and all these lesbian shenanigans are only heavily implied” is going to come out and say “Wow, girl, your pubic hair smells fucking delicious”?

      Are you sure you heard it right? I checked the German, French, Italian, and Spanish translations and they’re all going the “wild animal” route.

      Edit: Watashi went with “wild animal” too. Ain’t saying a consensus makes it “true”, but if there’s a bunch of arrows pointing one direction, I’m gonna need good reason to go the other.

      Reply

        • …Jesus Christ. I hope there’s something I’m missing here because that goes completely against the show’s tone.

          Well, I’ll take it you’re right on this one. Would’ve thought you’d euphemize it, but I take it that doesn’t fit your translation philosophy for the show?

          Reply

          • Like you said, I don’t think putting “Even though you’re cool, your pubic hair’s like a wild animal’s!” would really fit all that well. Maybe it’s all part of Ikuhara’s plan to show that the bears are free from society’s/men’s limitations on what “yuri” should be, since the bears appear to be representative of real lesbians. We’ll know a bit more after it’s all over.

            Reply

            • Bear enough. I’m on the side of euphemizing it and euthanizing the scriptwriter, but your reasoning makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

              Reply

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