More Nyarlko.

Release format: MKV (342 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics. I think their fans hate them for it, though.

English style: American English.

Group website: http://underwater.nyaatorrents.org/?nav=blog http://rorisubs.com/

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

8thsin’s translation critique: N/A

Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: N/A

 

Table of Contents

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Timing

Results

Visual Quality

Karaoke.

 

Opening. This is good in a lot of ways. The font is great, the colors are good, there are occasional “fun” things happening as you can see in the second picture, and the bumpiness of the letters fits the bumpiness of the song. There’s one thing missing though — matching the tone of the song. What you have in Nyarlko’s OP is J-pop sung with an irreverently cute voice that is punctuated by Engrish and “nyas” all over the place. In short, it’s FUN. Crazy, crazy fun. I didn’t particularly get that from this OP. If it were k-timed I’m sure I would be all “OMG this is super awesome desu”, but it’s not.

It’s still competent — good, even — but it doesn’t match the fun of the song.

Ending. The ending is fucking perfect. I have no complaints with it. That white outline matches the theme presented in the beginning of the episode and colors change often, yet don’t clash with the video. The concept is unique and and the words are easy to read. And the tone matches the ending just right. Again, no complaints. This is exactly the kind of thing I want to see when I watch karaoke.

 

Typesetting.

“Young Lady Confusion Chaos”

If you thought I had problems with Commie’s “Maiden Chaos”, this is nothing compared to it. (I’d like to mention that when I complain about translations/English/whatever, even though it’s in the visual section, my complaints are being applied to the “Script” portion of the review.)

“Young Lady of”

“Confusion & Chaos”

Am I the only one who cares about the English viewer? :(

Why does everyone insist on “Good-bye” these days? Am I the only one who thinks it should be “Goodbye”?

 

Script Quality

Karaoke.

“If you see them strange with bodies going wiggle wiggle” (Did you mean “If you find them to be strange with their bodies going wiggle wiggle”?)

“You and I in the flaming sun on a huge date.” (You mean “big date”?)

“The darkness is way more free!” (How can darkness be free?)

I do have my complaints with this OP script, but it did seem to make more sense than Commie’s did.

 

As for the ending? It rhymes.

Rhymes in karaoke are fucking awesome and I fucking appreciate it when groups take the effort to make things work.

 

Main Script.

Like Commie’s release, there are moments in here where UW-rori show off their editing skills. Compare this to “We can round them all up at the same time.” in Commie’s release.

…Well, that’s what I’d like to say. True, UW-rori have their moments, but I’m almost positive this is based on a misinterpretation. She’s not really talking about defeating enemies here; I believe the joke is that she wants to round up all the contraband she just talked about because she’s a huge otaku. The biggest hint that this is the case? His sigh afterward. It’s illogical for him to sigh after hearing that she planned to defeat lots of enemies at once; this was HIS plan! Rather, he’s sighing because it’s a running joke that she just wants anime merch from Earth and she thinks she might get some for free here.

This doesn’t jive right with me. Why not “They’re other guests.”? When I think of the phrase “other passengers” I think other people on the same vessel. This read as “They’re other passengers on other Dagons” which isn’t a very cool line.

This could read “Like the others, the Arkham Haunted House has a two-hour wait.” I fucking hate ambiguity when it’s not intentional.

“Look! The Arkham Haunted House only has a two-hour wait!” gets across what they wanted to with this line.

I like the use of “dark auction” here as opposed to “black auction” (which is in Commie’s release). I know the intent behind “black auction” is to relate it to the black market. But honestly, dark auction just sounds cooler. I mean, Black_Sage or Dark_Sage? I think you know which is better.

“They’re as annoying as always.” is what Commie had, but as you can see, this flows a lot better. I keep comparing this release to Commie’s because I’ve already seen theirs so I’m constantly trying to determine which release is best as I’m watching UW-rori’s version.

Another improvement over Commie’s version. Instead of calling Nyarlko a circus, she’s calling Nyarlko a circus acrobat. Slight difference~

Nice and concise. Well, it would be nice if this line weren’t three syllables compared to a Japanese line that comes in at 15. Both Commie and UW-rori had some issues with matching text to the sound, but this is the absolute worst example of it I’ve seen. If I have to wait three seconds for a two-word line to finish, I’m not going to be a happy viewer. This takes away from the experience.

Italicizing the name of a text? Aww, you guys~ <3

Ugh, way to ruin the joke. The original line was “Come with me, Nyarlko, to the edge of the Milky Way!” We were supposed to get the joke the “come” sounds exactly the same as “cum”. Humor is about subtlety; not throwing out “Haha, we said cum! Please laugh!”

If you want a GOOD way to phrase this, make it

“Come with me, Nyarlko, until we hit the Milky Way!”

Wordy garbage.

“I haven’t even revealed my true form yet.” (The seriousness is implied by her serious face so you don’t need to waste line space on it.)

This is in response to “You… pissed me off!” followed by Nyarlko charging Cthugha. rori chose to make the response in regards to Nyarlko’s “You pissed me off!” statement. As in, “But how did I piss you off? I love you so much!”

I’m pretty sure it makes more sense to have this line in response to Nyarlko’s attack. As in, “Why are you attacking me? I love you so much!”

“Why are you doing this? I love you so much!”

Isn’t the joke that she’s only worried about his chastity?

“Is everything still intact?”

“I’m talking about your chastity.”

Keep in mind that if I have to interpret your joke differently to have it make comedic sense, you’re probably doing something wrong. This is sort of important in a fucking comedy anime.

This is even worse than Commie’s shitty phrasing for the line.

“It’s based on a comic made for girls from Earth.”

Would you like to have me first?
Or would you rather do me?
Or… do you actually want me?

Would you like to start with me?
Or would you prefer me first?
Or maybe you’d like… me?

The second version is Commie’s. You can tell because it doesn’t sound like shit.

 

Timing Review

Incoming. When “Timing Critique” is added as a category, you’ll know this part is done.

Results.

Watchability: Watchable.

Timing Grade: 

Visual grade: A-

Script grade: C

Overall grade (timing results not factored in): B-

The main difference between Commie’s release and Underwater-rori’s is that Commie had a better sense of what the anime was going for and matched its pace. Commie definitely did a better job on the script.

Hatsuyuki and Ahodomo will be reviewed next, but I don’t want to watch episode 2 four times in a row so I think I’m gonna review another show before I continue with Nyarlko.