Posting at speed of sound, quickest reviews around~
Table of Contents
Release Information
Episode details.
Release format: MKV (321 MB, 10-bit)
Japanesiness: Honorifics. “Hikikomori” as “shut-in”.
English style: American English.
Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/JDWEP5Q1
Speed: Quick (<48 hours)
Translation style: Original TL.
Note: For my dear ESL readers, you may notice that a number of error explanations in this release are missing. I usually try to fit in explanations for every line that I think may require additional details, but sometimes the amount of information required to do so can really fuck with the flow of the review. And that’s the case here.
So, due apologies, but I’m going to skim over a few things that may not seem obvious to you. If you’re really mindfucked by how something like “The one teaching you things extremely to his tastes” isn’t good English, make a comment or something and I’ll save the dry discussion for then.
External links.
Group website: http://www.anime-koi.com/
IRC channel: #[email protected]
Visual Review
Karaoke.
Opening. I dunno, the kara’s fine but not impressive. How much filler text do you want?
Rating: Okay+.
Ending. The colors shift with the scenes in a somewhat-muted way. Can’t say it was a bad choice.
Rating: Okay+.
Typesetting.
Whoever A-Koi threw on this did a good job. (I’d check credits, but A-Koi’s site is down.)
Other.
Encode.
I’m not sure how well this comes across, but if you look at the very bottom layer here, it flickers from frame to frame. It’s extremely noticeable when you’re watching.
The first time it happened in the release, I attributed it to my monitor wigging out. But by this scene, I realized it was just shitty encoding.
No, I’m not much a fan of my fansubs going Electric Soldier Porygon on me.
Update: So after furzi (he’s not in Anime-Koi) looked into it, this isn’t entirely Anime-Koi’s fault. The animation company screwed up and it causes the top and bottom borders to screw up. It’s fixable by cutting off a pixel from the top and from the bottom, though.
Since it wasn’t introduced by the sub group, and the fix would also result in a loss, I’ll leave it out from the visual score tabulation. However, you should note that there is going to be flickering in the episode if you watch it from A-Koi.
Script Review
Main Script.
A simple fix would be changing “waiting” to “awaiting”.
A simpler fix would be wiping the slate clean.
This is what I was talking about in my pre-review note. This shit’s completely fucking wrong, but explaining why in a detailed fashion would be a fucking headache for anyone.
At least explaining how to fix these issues in future releases is easy:
Where do you come up with this shit? Even Japanese bands don’t English this bad.
A-Koi, this is getting a-nnoying.
troubles -> problems
No, it would be “a case of shut-in”.
Well, at least you didn’t say “How fearsome.”
“fearful” doesn’t work here, because it describes a response to the situation, rather than the situation itself. For example:
“Dark_Sage was fearful of having to witness any more brutal English-language rape, so he decided to not watch another Anime-Koi Outbreak release.”
“shut-in” is one word, half-wits.
Why can’t you just say “Sorry about this. It’s all our fault.”?
Oh, because that would require you to have more than a base knowledge of the English language? Silly me, shoulda guessed.
I know you don’t want to believe it, but these sentences are all part of the same thought. Yes, someone had to think this.
“This is what a shut-in’s room looks like.”
“I learned about it in a Japanese book.”
Mind-blowing fixes, I know. Not that there’s much to blow on Anime-Koi’s part.
You know what “grabbing distance” is in English? “reach”. As in, “Reach for a gun and pull the trigger, A-Koi. I’m getting tired of your shit.”
“I proclaim, it is the shut-in who has attained freedom that is the winner!” is the line that’s supposed to be referenced. I take it their editor had sudden-onset dyslexia for this part. You know, alongside the constant-onset retardation.
Nothing like standardized ellipses. And I don’t even wanna get started on the comma issues.
Results
Watchability: Watchable.
Visual grade: B+
Script grade: C-
Overall grade: C
With dialogue this messy, I’m really not seeing this as the go-to release. Go with HorribleSubs for the script superiority. Or if you really need typesetting and karaoke go with Doki. (Though Anime-Koi’s typesetting is far superior.)
…you know, because at this point in the season you’re still waiting with bated breath for a subgroup recommendation.
>anime-koi
Ah, I like ’em. Even if they screw up every now and then, they always try their ganbatte.
That’s some “RIP in peace” level redundancy you’ve got going there.
I got tricked into downloading anime-koi.Luckily I’m only 4 episodes in and I can easily switch. So that’s why I felt something wrong with this release..
> Japanesiness: Honorifics. “Hikkimori” as “shut-in”.
You mean “hikikomori”, right?
I guess so.
Coincidentally, what’s your favorite type of ellipsis use, and is one more correct than the others? I feel like I might suffer from changing it up a bit depending on whether it’s simply a long pause followed by a continuation of that thought (which used to be done with alpha timing) or a new thought altogether.
My preference is this right now:
Part A…
Part A… part B.
Part A… // part B.
Part A (person 1 speaking)… // …part B (person 2 speaking).
I wouldn’t say there’s any “most correct” way to do it of the common ways, just so long as you keep it the same across the release.
“…you know, because at this point in the season you’re still waiting with bated breath for a subgroup recommendation.”
At least you tried D_S, at least you tried.
A lot more than me ;_;
Should be “a lot harder than me”. You don’t try more, you try harder. When you say he “tried more”, that means he tried more times than you. What you wanted to say was that the magnitude of his efforts was greater than yours, so use “harder”. Come on, learn to speak English.
It should also be “than I”, but I’ll accept that as a colloquialism.
Also, before anyone jumps on me for it, that was supposed to be a joke …
You take jokes really far…
Jokes can hurt, you know ;_;
“a case of shut-in!” sounds fucking awful.
It sounds better than “A case of a shut-in!”
I’d think a better option for English would be “agoraphobia”, though…
“This is something only the rich can contract: a bad case of recluse!” or something would be okay, but tbh, there’s not much reason to translate hikikomori. It’s hardly an anime which requires no knowledge of Japanese otaku culture anyway.
Surely it’d be “reclusiveness” in that circumstance?