Fansub Review: [Chyuu] Kuma Miko – Girl Meets Bear (Episode 02)

April 21, 2016 by Dark_Sage

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

Motherfuck, Chyuu. You had an A, you just had to *not* screw up. This was supposed to be an easy get!

Release Information

Release Information

Spoiler for

Visual Review

Spoiler for

Script Review

Spoiler for

Main Script.

MDs or MD players

This line implies he’s reminiscing on something far in the past, but the event just fucking happened.

That was a awful.

First off, the line placement is shit. You can’t tell who’s speaking because the lines jump from bottom to top and then back again, almost arbitrarily. I had to fucking pause this shit to get my bearings, which should never need to happen in a competent release.

Compounding the issue is Chyuu’s inability to retain a consistent translation. In this scene, Natsu’s repeating his diss across the adjacent screens, but in Chyuu’s version they translate his first line as “What a baby!” and then change the insult to “You dummy!” right after. How the fuck’s a viewer supposed to follow along in a confusing situation when the script’s inconsistent with the dialogue?

Sounds like a direct translation that the editor took one look at, figured it’d be too much work to fix properly, and then left it as super Japanesey.

See above. Not terribly pleased.

But… Why?

Looking at Funimation’s script, a lot of Chyuu’s edits were superfluous at best. Which I guess highlights a flaw in my reviews — grades are given regardless of script complexity or editing ability. In one sense that’s fine — all an end user cares about is the final script. But it does mean you should be careful not to ascribe release quality directly to editing skill.

The following lines aren’t wrong, but I would say they’re worse than Funi’s. In a lot of these, you’re losing specificity or clarity to the shaky hand of an editor that doesn’t appear to know what they’re doing. It’s not a huge difference, and a lot of the lines are still technically correct, but there is a trade-off here that shouldn’t have to exist.

Original: “I wear my school uniform or PE clothes pretty much all the time.”

just just just just just just just

Original: “Judging from those words… it must be a heater!”

See section title. I don’t understand why you’d make this change.

Original: “If it’s a hardware store, then I don’t have to worry about what to wear!”

Nobody speaks like this. Try replacing “hardware store” with something like “grocery store” and you’ll see how awkward it flows from the tongue.

Original: “My school uniform is good enough!”

“fine” is technically a replacement for “good enough”, but it’s a trade-down in terms of dialogue quality.

Original: “Auntie Etsuko!”

I don’t wanna say it’s likely the editor has never heard the word “Auntie” before, but there’s no other rational explanation for the change.

Original: “Isn’t this going too fast?”

Not a great idea to use “always” here, since the only constant is the path.

Original: “It’s dangerous, right? So I told him to stop fishing, but he says he won’t go home until he catches something. So I’m fishing for him.”

Really, only the middle screen is the issue here. But what an issue it is. Way to dumb things down, Chyuu.

Original: “And making that sake is a violation of the Liquor Tax Law.”

How the fuck do you let Funi have better phrasing than you, guys? Christ.

Original: “Ah, maybe I’ll buy something, too, like a pair of jeans.”

The “, too” in Chyuu’s version carries a subtle implication that someone else is buying jeans. You can read around it to get to the right interpretation, but the point of editing is to clearly get across the concept, not to leave it to the viewers to read past bad writing.

Original: “Well, I wish you had told me that from the start!”

Infuriating. Let’s move onto something less so for a sec:

Oh My Miko

<dabbing_sweat.jpg>

Spoiler for

Results

Watchability: Watchable.

Visual grade: B+

Script grade: B- (Though don’t take this as an endorsement of the editing.)

Overall grade: B

All in all, I would say this release is the top pick for Kuma Miko. However, questionable script decisions, a slow release schedule, and a passable alternative all mean I’m not so bullish on saying everyone should choose this release over Funimation/HorribleSubs. I expected better from you, Chyuu.

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35 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [Chyuu] Kuma Miko – Girl Meets Bear (Episode 02)”

LotusGG

April 22, 2016 at 12:19 am

Overall grade: Saved from funi
Reply
- rsc-pl
  
  April 24, 2016 at 6:28 am
  
  Yeah, I see comments like this when commie is picking up something. Well. “Official” subs are not always worse than fansubs, especially when groups like commie are “translating” (or rather muricanizing) something.
  The same situation is with Flying Witch. CR subs are whole universe better and MUCH closer to original than shitty DameDesuYo which is basically commie 2.0, but people are commenting “saved from CR”. It’s dumb.
  Reply
  - Dark_Sage
    
    April 24, 2016 at 9:17 am
    
    DDY did troll the series, but what problem did you have with their actual script?
    Reply
Kamica

April 22, 2016 at 12:45 am

Just saw episode 2 and gotta say that this is easily one of the best shows this season. Thanks for hyping it up in your previews, Dark_Sage.
Reply
- Dark_Sage
  
  April 22, 2016 at 7:29 am
  
  Glad you like it. I’m absolutely loving the thing — it’s a legitimate 10/10 for me. And they haven’t even gotten to the onee-san yet? Oh baby, I’m not sure my body will be able to take it.
  Reply
  - bossK
    
    April 23, 2016 at 6:20 am
    
    What do you like more: this or RE: Zero?
    
    Also, have you ever thought about doing your top 10 list? Would be cool.
    Reply
    - moozooh
      
      April 23, 2016 at 10:03 am
      
      You can just check this out, btw:
      http://myanimelist.net/animelist/DarkSageRK?status=2&order=4&order2=0
      
      (On a sidenote, I’m not sure whether it’s more impressive or sad that my user registration on MAL precedes DS’s by a full year. I think I’m going to go with “meh”.)
      Reply
      - Dark_Sage
        
        April 23, 2016 at 10:26 am
        
        That thing is way inaccurate. You can tell because it doesn’t have Naruto in my top five.
        Reply
        
        moozooh
        
        April 23, 2016 at 11:07 am
        
        I was going to ask whether 10s for Plot Hole: The Anime (Death Note, Code Geass R2) and a 9 for Overdramatic Gratuitous Violence (aka Elfen Lied) were also inaccurate, but together with Filler: The Filler in top five that would probably be expected. :p
        
        That said, it’s always good to see someone who appreciates Puni Puni Poemi and Kyo no Go no Ni. Quite underrated comedy OVAs, those.
        Reply
        
        Dark_Sage
        
        April 23, 2016 at 11:10 am
        
        Elfen Lied would get a 6 if I rewatched it, so I won’t.
        Reply
    - Dark_Sage
      
      April 23, 2016 at 10:07 am
      
      Kuma for sure. Zero is like a 9. This show is *perfect*.
      
      A top ten from me would be… Actually that could be kind of fun.
      Reply
Korokun

April 22, 2016 at 11:02 pm

I enjoy your reviews! Keep it up!
Reply
Lapan

April 26, 2016 at 6:03 pm

I wish this show had more than a single joke. “This girl is a hick and also sexual harassment” isn’t enough to keep me interested.
Reply
Kristen

April 28, 2016 at 6:43 pm

“While cute in the karaoke, Chyuu pulled this out for a portion of the main dialogue in the show. Very distracting.

Chyuu (and fansubbers in general), please stop trying to make anime about you. Have your fun when you have a captive audience, sure, but if you pull this bullshit when people have a choice, don’t be surprised when your downloads begin to reflect your true relevance.”

THIS. TOTALLY THIS.

Chihiro’s Aria AA did this so much that when I was fixing their self-advertisements and attention drawing text effects, I honestly thought that Kanade must be rolling in his grave right now.

I don’t get what’s so hard about making a no-nonsense sub that accurately portrays the plot of an anime.
Reply
- TotallyNotGovna
  
  May 15, 2016 at 9:16 pm
  
  You say that like subbers should not have fun on shows they work on.
  Reply
  - Kristen
    
    May 16, 2016 at 5:00 am
    
    If you’re not having fun because of the process or because of the show, and need to make jokesubs to have fun, you really should stop subbing and find something else to entertain you.
    Reply
    - TotallyNotGovna
      
      May 16, 2016 at 8:51 am
      
      Or I could keep doing what I’m doing. Who really cares what you think, anyway.
      Reply
      - Kristen
        
        May 16, 2016 at 3:16 pm
        
        You do, apparently. :)
        Reply
    - rascal
      
      May 16, 2016 at 10:23 am
      
      OMG, so true. There is enough trollsubs around. Just write a book or do your own show if you want to do something ‘funny’.
      Reply
- Anon
  
  May 16, 2016 at 6:22 pm
  
  Yeah dude same I saw that minor text effect and I got so fucking triggered I dropped the entire show and stopped watching anime for a month!!!!1 xD
  
  But seriously, quit trying to force your retarded whiny drama into everything.
  Reply
- Lenmaer
  
  May 18, 2016 at 6:00 am
  
  Smartass, why don’t you sub it yourself rather than stealing groups’ scripts and then whining like a baby whose pacifier dropped?
  Oh right, you can’t because you’re too busy being a drama queen all day, but also telling people they’re lapdogs and thus should shut up and do as ordered.
  
  Right, in all your delusional posts, you conveniently forgot to mention it and that this was the reason the staff evicted you by unanimous vote.
  
  Now I was the fool here, to have listened to you, rather than the staff’s desperate call, but you crossed the line last summer and that more than once.
  
  Anyway, this will be my only post here, I’ve better things to do.
  
  PS: pro-tip, get a good fuck once in a while, dammit. Perhaps you’d be less of a tight ass.
  Reply
  - Kristen
    
    May 19, 2016 at 5:08 pm
    
    Good job misrepresenting everything I said and lying about events, just like begna did. Especially that I said that The_Pretender is YOUR lapdog and does everything YOU order him to do.
    
    Nor was there any vote to evict me. A good number of people in the staff I was friendly with and had good times with. I quit the group, you removed my permissions after deceiving me into believing that you were for a joint, and that was that. Stop pretending that anything else happened.
    
    You are simply put far too controlling, too stubborn, and too power-hungry for all I care. The fact that you even went to an IRCop to try to force him to change the channel owner of #Chihiro is proof enough to this point.
    
    What’s funny though is how I told him I would if you stopped having such a stick in your ass, but you never have – instead vying to try and underhandedly insult me in your blog posts.
    Reply
    - Anon
      
      May 19, 2016 at 7:47 pm
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf5GlbRkRys
      Reply
    - Chhotu_uttam
      
      May 19, 2016 at 9:52 pm
      
      http://puu.sh/oYjSW.png
      guess where the SS is from?
      Reply
      - Chhotu_uttam
        
        May 19, 2016 at 9:57 pm
        
        Also, this http://puu.sh/oYkbv.png
        Reply
        
        Kristen
        
        May 20, 2016 at 4:32 am
        
        Love is putting in more effort to make dialogue smoother, research the background, and do that piece of typesetting that requires a bit more effort.
        
        Love is not adding in jokes, self references, and obtrusive text effects because you’re bored.
        Reply
        
        rsc-pl
        
        May 20, 2016 at 5:22 am
        
        Well said. But smoothering dialogues too much is bad too ;) It’s better to have some “stiff” lines, but more acurate, than smooth with changed tone of dialogue.
        Reply
        
        TotallyNotGovna
        
        May 21, 2016 at 9:30 am
        
        Yeah. Love is releasing Elfen Lied, Fractale, Bakemono, Hyakko, Koichoco… in the state that they are.
        Reply
        
        Kristen
        
        May 21, 2016 at 10:43 am
        
        2 shows I didn’t even do, 2 shows that I completely revised because I wasn’t happy with what I had put out, and 1 show from 7 years ago that I did for some quick lulz. Not to mention of the ones I did do that you mentioned, 2 of the 3 I’ve never seen a criticism of.
        
        Seriously, you can do better than that to find a horrible release from me. There was one in particular that I did an absolute horrendous job on and the only reason I haven’t fixed it is I didn’t care much for the show about 3/4 of the way through.
        
        Because believe it or not, I don’t love all the shows I do. I like them all at the start (even Twin Angel), but that changes based on how good they are.
        Reply
        
        TotallyNotGovna
        
        May 21, 2016 at 11:40 am
        
        Just look how much you love your groups. In both of them, you never even care enough to be fully involved, pushing out stuff you haven’t even looked over.
        
        So what’s worse. Background TS, or pushing out incredibly shitty releases.
        I bet I can guess.
        Reply
        
        Kristen
        
        May 21, 2016 at 11:56 am
        
        Meh, doesn’t matter, because my releases aren’t shitty to a neutral viewer. :)
        
        TotallyNotGovna
        
        May 21, 2016 at 12:03 pm
        
        You can say that all you want, but it doesn’t make it any more true. Just because leechers don’t know what a scenebleed is, how to see shitty shifting, or have seen the source subs to see what terrible changes you made, doesn’t make the changes any less terrible.
        
        It just means you’re cheating your leechers out of a good release.
        
        Kristen
        
        May 21, 2016 at 12:05 pm
        
        It actually just means that you are judging based off of evidence from years ago in order to troll. :)
Anon

May 16, 2016 at 3:28 pm

I recall the summer of 204812. Chyuu finally released episode 3 of Kuma Miko. Good year.
Reply
- Shinny
  
  May 18, 2016 at 1:02 am
  
  Ironically, they just released it.
  Reply

Fansub Review: [Chyuu] Kuma Miko – Girl Meets Bear (Episode 02)

Table of Contents

Release Information

Episode details.

External links.

Visual Review

Karaoke.

Opening.

Webm link (Yeah, still trying to fix these damn things. Gomen.)

Ending.

Webm link

Typesetting.

Other.

Script Review

Main Script.

But… Why?

Oh My Miko

Results

35 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [Chyuu] Kuma Miko – Girl Meets Bear (Episode 02)”

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