This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.
Muteki does Poyopoyo.
Release format: MKV (38 MB, 8-bit)
Japanesiness: Honorifics.
Group website: http://muteki-subs.com/
Note: This show is only three minutes long.
8thsin’s translation critique: N/A
Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: N/A
Karaoke.
Opening. It actually felt like a karaoke instead of a regular dialogue font, so I liked it a lot better than WhyNot’s.
Typesetting.
The sign was moving, which is why they did this.
The biggest problem with the typesetting here is that the script actually gets in the way a lot. Other than that, it’s generally fine.
Script.
More like “It’s the neighbor’s cat, Kurobe-chan.”
To be fair, they did have a TL Note on their site. To be more fair, that’s fucking useless because no one visits their site.
Watchability: Quite watchable.
Overall grade: Pass
Muteki’s karaoke was better than WhyNot’s. The typesetting would have been better hands-down, but the script obscures it way more than it should — looks like someone didn’t QC this. The scripts are about even in quality.
It’s a three-minute show, so I’m less worried about the script than in most cases. In typesetting and karaoke, I prefer Muteki, so I’m gonna recommend them over WhyNot. But you’ll be fine with either group, no problem.
SS finally released Zero no Tsukaima F. /
Cool story. What does it have to do with Muteki’s Fat Cat release?
http://www.crymore.net/review_queue-2/
What is “dsf”? (At the beginning of the post)
dsf shows up when you slap keybord with your cock. or something. It means nothing at all, not to be surprised when three minute anime about homosexual cats is reviewed :P What should one say? I have no idea, dsf seems fitting. It’s probably possible to find deeper meaning in these three letters but it would require decent amount of liquor.
Probably.
Poyo ftw, it’s second only to Nichibros this season.
Oh, that. Yeah, I put in placeholders like “dsf” at the beginning of my reviews when I’m writing them, so I know I still have something to put there before I actually make the post. Usually they get changed from the placeholder, but sometimes they don’t.
The reason, in this case, is because I made the post right after I made Hiryuu’s. I figured I’d post it the next night, but I just went “fuck it” and fell asleep. Figuring I ought to post the damn thing anyway, I clicked the Post button on my phone at work.
Editing posts is impossible on my phone, so I was unable to change the placeholder. That’s why you got the “dsf”. I’ll go change it to something generic and boring.
Hi there.
It is unfair that you pointed out the “Reverse Hikaru Genji Plan” as a demerit, as it would simply not visibly fit on the screen. Would you care to try to put the translation note in without filling up the video? Would it have been better if they wrote “Refer to the TL note on blog?”
I think you should consider the alternatives to which they could have done and state your opinion with constructive criticism than just to say “that’s fucking useless.” Crunchy Roll did the same thing as them, and they’re lead by professional paid workers so it clearly wouldn’t hold much of a case for a demerit.
Also for “More like “It’s the neighbor’s cat, Kurobe-chan.”” It’s not technically incorrect to state a creature by its name, rather than what it is. Of course it’s a cat, we all assume it is, what else would it be? We have a video and can clearly recognize the things on screen; we don’t need to be told that it’s a cat. Talk about stating the obvious. If I held up a cat and said, “This is a cat, its name is Kurobe,” the former be unnecessary, unless you couldn’t tell what it was. The dialogue doesn’t state a “cat” either so obviously they assumed that the audience knew the subject was a cat (unless someone like you found it confusing), therefore, why put something which isn’t there in the first place? I think you’re trying to pick at an argument which isn’t even there. Give Muteki a break.
This is a sentence to thank for you time, thank you Dark Sage for your time.
What? It’s not that the viewer would be confused about the cat part. It’s that it’s not even close to something a human would say.
“It’s the neighbor’s Fluffy.”
“It’s the neighbor’s Sparkles.”
“It’s the neighbor’s Captain Snugglepuss von Ruffles III.”
We don’t say that shit. At all.
Let me drag this away from the pets to make it more clear. The Smiths have a kid called James. We good on this?
“It’s the Smiths’ James.” is absolutely forbidden.
“It’s the Smiths’ kid, James.” is exactly how we’d state this.
Sorry if this is discriminating against your group. This wouldn’t be a problem if your editor actually spoke English.
I touched on the “Hikaru” point down below in the FalseDawn thread.
Why would you tl note Hikaru Genji? Have viewers lost the ability to google things they don’t understand? :D
I already knew who Genji was (there was that anime series about him if you remember) so that probably helped. I suppose if you wanted to localize it, you could say “He’s doing the Reverse Casanova~” heh.
Subs that force you to go off and google the punchline to a joke are not doing their job. sage did this as well with the latest episode of Nichibros and it pissed me off.
TL notes are also pretty dumb though so either try and localise it however you can or just throw up your hands and declare It Can’t Be Helped, I suppose
Xythar, try localizing “Reverse Hikari Genji Plan” in a plausible and recognisable format, so that we don’t have to go off and google the punch line, will you? I think that the line is too obscure to localize and the reference is too complex to convey in a manner of a TL note which doesn’t fill the screen.
In retrospect, what would you have put? You mentioned that “Subs that force you to go off and google the punch line to a joke are not doing their job” – which implies that you believe that there should have a TL note.
I would like to see you fit one on there.
Also, I find it amusing that you think that by not having a translation note or any localization “forces you to go off and google.” No-one is forcing anything; it is utterly up to the viewer’s discretion to whether they want to know more about the subject. Much like, if you’re reading a text which has a word which you don’t comprehend, you don’t BLAME the BOOK for not EXPLAINING it, but you go FIND the answer yourself, as the writer ASSUMES you’re Japanese, not some American. Although it is the job of the subbing group to try to convey the meanings, I think Muteki chose the right thing to NOT put a TL note for the reasons I mentioned above.
Thanks for your time.
Nope, I’m not your editor. I also have no idea what a “Reverse Hikari Genji Plan” is, nor does the explanation at http://muteki-subs.com/?p=160 even make any sense to me. I would suggest anyone in a situation similar to this should talk to their TL about it in order to properly understand the essence of the joke and then use their own creativity to write something that would have equivalent meaning for an English speaker. I’m not a supporter of TL notes under any circumstances; the entire practice is pretty much a joke at this point.
Please don’t CAPITALISE random WORDS in your SENTENCES because it makes YOU look OVERLY mad and kind of UNDERMINES any intention you MIGHT have had for PEOPLE to take you SERIOUSLY. Thanks for your time!
Are you talking about Ken-sama? It was explained in release post. OK, most of people don’t even know that subs are done by people and simply dl from nyaa/TT but imo it should be common sense (at least for aware fans) to read release posts before watching episodes, unless stated otherwise (spoilers warning). Personally, I haven’t used TT for… four months already? I’ve just bookmarked ~20 groups and check their sites, more often when anticipated episode should be released. No offense, just stating my thoughts, I do understand that others prefer visiting less number of sites.
I wouldn’t mind TL note though – e.g. “TL note: check our site/wikipedia”.
No, I was talking about the Hideyo Noguchi one.
With regards to the Ken-sama thing, I didn’t notice it when I was watching the episode and I’m still not sure what it’s referring to, so that one kind of went over my head I guess.
Expecting people to visit an external website to understand your subs is unreasonable and in-line TL notes look dumb. Adding a few pages of explanatory notes to the end of your episode like GotWoot did for Denpa Onna (or a.f.k. did for Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) is acceptable and sometimes the best solution, though I can understand it’s difficult to do with softsubs.
I’m not a huge fan of adding notes during ending because I almost always skip eds if they aren’t good enough (I’m only watching eds of Nichibros, PapaKiki and Rinne this seaoson, still much better than Fall 2011).
Oh, I don’t remember Noguchi line. Well, it’s Gintama-like show, it’s bound to have some very niche references, I probably ignore few of them knowing that I won’t be able to enjoy it as much as Japanese people no matter how much I/fansubbers want to. Ken-sama thing in episode wasn’t amusing for me, but DAT linked thread… hilarious altering of copypasta.
It’s not even a niche reference for the intended audience though – the guy is on the Japanese 1000 yen bill, even, so it’d be like a character in an American show saying that he admired Benjamin Franklin or something. But it’s something most people outside of Japan would not get, and given that it’s the punchline to a joke it’s kind of important that the viewer gets it.
But I digress.
Just to add to this, though – a joke that requires a paragraph of text to explain why it was funny is probably not even worth making in the first place.
Legit point. Localising seems better in those cases (but you have to be prepared for downvoting on MAL…). “He’s doing the Reverse Casanova~” sounds good, definitely better than referring to external paragraph/article.
brb, dropping Ouma Shoes one more time
I work for Commie, I’m pretty used to being downvoted on MAL.
I’m with Xythar on this. I don’t mind going to sites for addendums to the show that help flesh out the universe/things that aren’t all that immediately important. We did that shit for C and Freezing and it worked just fine. But when I watch a show, I expect the subs to be self-contained. If you force me to pause the show and look up shit on the internet, I’m not going to be a happy viewer.
Note the “force” qualifier there. If your subs don’t make sense, I’m going to be forced to look that shit up. Is “preserving the sacred Japanese language” that important? Fuck no. Relate the joke to something an English speaker would understand.
Because fansubbing is all about teaching people Japanese culture… :D
Protip: Their TL note is completely wrong.
Fatcat is thought as the female because it let the blackcat suck its tits. Hikari Genji(male) raised Murasaki Ichibu(a young girl when he met her) into his ideal woman, and this is basically a reverse: Woman raising a boy into her ideal man. Practically a reverse Usagi Drop situation lulz.
It’s a fujoshi/pixiv meme.
8thSin, I wouldn’t say that their translation note is completely wrong; it could have easily been both. There is very little to support that either one is correct and it could be interpreted in both ways, although there is one specific thing which could support the current. Kurobe doesn’t live at Poyo’s house, so he regularly visits, which is faithful to the current interpretation of the wives of Hikaru visiting him, rather than vice versa, hence the “reverse”. Your interpretation suggests that Hikaru raised Murasaki, but that would require them to be living together. However for a counter argument, Kurobe does become older, thus completing the plan of courtship when one is older.
Although you make a good point 8th Sin, I can fairly say that both reasonings are valid. I hope the guys at Muteki might find what was said here to be interesting. Thanks!
Whether the interpretation works or not has nothing to do with accuracy. That’s called guessing.
You don’t just say “Hikaru Genji Keikaku” by sheer chance in Japanese. It’s a meme that doesn’t have to be straight up raising a child like Usagi Drop (here’s the definition of Non-reverse version http://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E5%85%89%E6%BA%90%E6%B0%8F%E8%A8%88%E7%94%BB). It also works for someone with not much romantic experience (like 18yr old guy/girl with a 28yr old). Basically it means training/changing the partner to the way you like.
In this case, Muteki’s interpretation doesn’t even work because because Poyo is clearly established as female in that skit with breastfeeding, and Kuro was humping Poyo. Not to mention the fact that the mother said Kuro was so little before, now all grown up. In this situation, she’s trying to say Kuro was literally “raised” by Poyo.
This kind of not-so-obvious translation mistakes are worse than blatant ones like Hadena because viewers would actually believe it.
Man, I spend tons of time on pixiv and I’ve never come across that tag before. Clearly I don’t browse enough fujoshi fanart.
…wait.
On a more relevant note, the equivalent TVTrope could have been used to retain the memetic/fandom slang factor: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WifeHusbandry
I’ve always heard it called “grooming” but that probably has the wrong undertones :D
OK, based on that explanation I’d probably just edit the line to “Looks like Poyo’s plan to raise her ideal man is a success!” or whatever the name of the perceived-as-female cat is (haven’t watched the show). You lose the meme reference but nobody watching would have gotten it anyway, so no great loss. If you want to explain to your viewers that the line was originally a fujoshi/pixiv meme and explain to them the backstory, *that* is what you include on your site as a TL note.