Fansub Review: [Underwater-FFF] No Game No Life (Episode 06)

May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 by Dark_Sage

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

Eotens is a cancer that can’t be killed.

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (609 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics. “Nii” as “Bro”.

English style: American English.

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/66sgvFRt

Speed: Quick (<48 hours)

Translation style: Crunchyedit.

External links.

Group website: http://underwater.nyaatorrents.org/ http://fffansubs.org

IRC channel: #[email protected] #[email protected]

Visual Review

Karaoke.

Opening. It’s just like ChihiroDesuYo’s kara, but without a special effect for the Engrish bit.

Rating: Good.

Ending. This isn’t terrible, but… not being terrible isn’t exactly something worthy of praise, regardless of what the school system says.

Rating: Okay-.

Typesetting.

Spoiler for

Avg.+

Script Review

Why can’t I hold all these Eotens?

Preface: Jibril likes peppering her language with English. Underwater-FFF thought the best way to show this was by translating all her Engrish into various different languages.

But much like Commie’s doomed attempt to translate “kyojin” as “eotens” instead of “titans” in Attack on Titan, the result is more cringeworthy to witness than it is enjoyable.

Couldn’t even get the Spanish part right. Wouldn’t be surprised if the rest was wrong too. Wouldn’t know though. I only speak American and Taco Bell.

If you’re going to localize this script harder than a 4kids executive with jelly donuts on the mind, make sure your fucking references work. What’s the pop culture icon that’s supposed to be brought to mind here?

Perhaps some amazing talk show host from the 80’s? A politician from the 70’s? Date yourself, cuz I’m sure no one else will.

Not even consistent. She says “game” in English here.

And this whole line is in English. What changed, Underwater-FFF? I thought you were gonna localize this show right. You know, show us dirty plebs how real experts of translation handle series! (Don’t worry, I’ll ignore how the script was just a Crunchyedit.)

Shiritori/Whateves

The wordplay generally worked well (thanks more to Crunchyroll’s original script than anything UW-FFF did), but there were a couple instances where it faltered.

Here’s the first problem. “Mantle” and “Crust” are static — can’t really change that shit. But the middle line is completely off. How does a moth saying “Let’s be together!” make it an “eccentric comic”?

The only way to handle this is to change the line to something an eccentric comic would say (by going with a comedian’s catch phrase), or changing the word completely. Let’s do the latter since references suck.

We have to work with a moth that has the four suits on its back and is saying something. And because we have to come up with something that starts with “e” and ends with “c”, we’re pretty much stuck with a three-worder.

Too much text. Have a grinning Jibril. — Too much text. Let’s break it up with a grinning Jibril.

“Expressive moth skeptic” would suffice if you had the line as “I don’t believe you!” or something. You’re kind of stuck here since there aren’t many nouns that end in “c”, and none of them play too nicely with “moth”, since at first blush you’d want to read this shit as “skeptic that’s skeptical of moths” or “comic that’s about moths”, depending on whether you’re looking at UW-FFF’s line or mine.

So then, our next option is changing “crust” to something else. I suggest “terra firma”. This allows for change from a three-worder to a two-worder. “Eccentric insect” would work pretty well. (Yes, moths are insects.)

You’d have to rewrite everything that comes after it, but that wouldn’t be too much trouble.

Going off the last section, these could be “atomic clock”, “klutzy monster”, and “radiant signal”, as lazy examples.

“Lanterned mall” is certainly a no-go, even coming off “extraterrestrial”. “Light signal” would work fine. Whatever you go with, it has to end with “l” though.

Because of this.

And here’s the last bit I’m gonna comment on for the shiritori: this should be “remaining atmosphere” instead. Way too mouthy as-is.

Main Script.

not exaggerating -> no exaggeration

What the honest fuck? Even a dishonest fuck would be confused.

Yes, that’s totally something a person who’s never even heard the word “Earth” would say. Great localization effort, Underwater-FFF!

What is that supposed to mean?

Try matching your typesets better next time.

For your consideration: word variation.

curious of it. Or “intrigued by it” if you’re feeling sagey.

“That’s why you crippled my wings by removing the Spirit Circuits.”

“This is”? It’s.

Results

Watchability: Watchable.

Visual grade: B

Script grade: C-

Overall grade: C

If tryhard, pseudo-memetic garbage is your fetish, then UW-FFF’s release is your best bet.

But if you don’t get off on watching fansubbers fail at localization, you might want to look elsewhere for this show.

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42 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [Underwater-FFF] No Game No Life (Episode 06)”

VVKing

May 21, 2014 at 6:40 pm

The French is wrong. It should be “les nouveaux roi et reine”, because there’s two of them.
Reply
- sangofe
  
  May 22, 2014 at 2:28 am
  
  Your french is fail, VVKing. It should be “les nouveaux rois et reines” if you’re trying to write this in plural.
  Reply
  - Anonymous
    
    May 22, 2014 at 3:47 am
    
    That would be “the new kings and queens”.
    Reply
  - VVKing
    
    May 22, 2014 at 3:51 am
    
    Actually, no. There’s only one king and one queen, so you shouldn’t write them in plural, but they’re both new, so you should write nouveaux in plural.
    Reply
csb

May 21, 2014 at 6:44 pm

D_S, please, moths are RL Pokémon.
Reply
- csb
  
  May 21, 2014 at 6:48 pm
  
  Oh and they got that ‘Qué’ right, actually. It only lacked one question mark, the ¿.
  
  Fuck that sentence looks disgusting…
  Reply
  - Dark_Sage
    
    May 21, 2014 at 7:53 pm
    
    It’s wrong because it lacks the question mark, yes. Good job for noticing.
    Reply
    - csb
      
      May 21, 2014 at 9:03 pm
      
      Thanks. Spanish can be tricky sometimes.
      Reply
begna112

May 21, 2014 at 7:04 pm

Doesn’t really help them much if at all, but the celebrity-speaking-pattern and the moth are references according to our TLC:

This would be a reference to Loo Ooshiba who is known for his Loo Language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF4SUdqjlys

So for the moth, CDY had “Eloo Ooshibo” which referenced that. But then, CDY almost completely rewrote the shiritori game so it fit better as well.
Reply
- Xythar
  
  May 21, 2014 at 7:52 pm
  
  I felt like each group had parts of the shiritori that worked and parts that didn’t. For example, CDY didn’t do anything about “eye fuel” and had a few others that kinda missed the mark like “Eternal Arvo”.
  
  Main issue I’d like to fix here (probably for batch) is the whole crust / outer core thing. The rest pretty much works as is.
  Reply
- Dark_Sage
  
  May 21, 2014 at 7:54 pm
  
  Yeah, that doesn’t help at all unless they had a TL Note. Otherwise, the reference matters not a bit to the English viewers.
  Reply
conkerer

May 21, 2014 at 7:10 pm

>But much like Commie’s doomed attempt to translate “shingeki” as “eotens” instead of “titans” in Attack on Titan

They translated “kyojin” as “eotens”, not “shingeki”
Reply
- Dark_Sage
  
  May 21, 2014 at 7:54 pm
  
  Fix’d
  Reply
Lucci

May 21, 2014 at 7:33 pm

I was confused about the “someone famous” and moth bit too, but I found an explaination with EveTaku-Hiryuu release post. For those too lazy to look:

Just gonna explain the whole “certain celebrity” and “Lou Oshi-moth” business here…

So there’s this Japanese comedian called Lou Oshiba who likes to speak in what he called “choiglish,” which is basically what you hear Jibril speaking.
Nonstandard English—as opposed to commonly used loan words—randomly inserted into Japanese sentences. Yep.
The moth thing was named after the guy, with the “ba” changed to the “ga” for “moth”.
The “Let’s do together.” line is a catchphrase of his.
Reply
FalseDawn

May 21, 2014 at 7:43 pm

What I don’t get is why these groups trying to combat the engrish sections by subbing into different languages don’t just put the Japanese equivalent?

Like “Nani” when she says “what?” Hell, if you wanna go all out, do it in kanji :D
Reply
- Xythar
  
  May 21, 2014 at 7:51 pm
  
  The fact that she doesn’t know Japanese is brought up as a specific plot point, so it’d be kinda weird.
  
  In any case, she drops it a few minutes into the episode.
  Reply
  - FalseDawn
    
    May 21, 2014 at 7:56 pm
    
    So what is she speaking the rest of the time? :S
    Reply
    - Xythar
      
      May 21, 2014 at 7:59 pm
      
      That is a very good question!
      
      It might just be that the Imanity’s spoken language is identical to Japanese but their writing system is different, or the usual “it’s actually a fantasy language in real life converted to Japanese for the viewer’s convenience” trope, but I suspect the author probably doesn’t intend for us to think too hard about it.
      Reply
      - FalseDawn
        
        May 21, 2014 at 8:05 pm
        
        Yeah, that gets used a lot. It also amuses me in English movies/tv shows when characters start talking to each other in another language and then change to English for the bit that’s meant to be dramatic :D
        
        I think you’d get away with it anyway because saying the odd word of Japanese here and there isn’t the same as knowing it – just like her use of Engrish shows that she doesn’t know English.
        Reply
        
        FalseDawn
        
        May 21, 2014 at 8:07 pm
        
        So maybe this isn’t the best example for it, but maybe fansub groups could adopt it for future shows that do it if they’re going to go with the whole changing foreign languages shtick.
        
        I could see it making people laugh, if nothing else :D
        Reply
  - nakkinyan
    
    May 22, 2014 at 1:29 am
    
    She seems to know all the languages of the books in that library, including Imanity. Thankfully in EP1 they made it clear the Imanity is really Japanese when spoken, this is how Shiro figured it out so quickly. So she was speaking Imanity(Japanese) and English or at least assumed English, because Japanese learn it in school, since that is likely why her switching to it didn’t confuse him.
    
    The comment about not knowing Japanese was while reading the books on his tablet; she knew Japanese(spoken) but not hiragana/katakana/kanji.
    
    Ya, I know, TL;DR
    Reply
    - ShaRose
      
      May 23, 2014 at 5:09 am
      
      Even if it wasn’t spoken Japanese, you could easily assume Tet used magic so they could understand imanity’s language as Japanese.
      
      This IS a fantasy world, after all.
      Reply
TheUberAsian

May 21, 2014 at 8:43 pm

Not what I was expecting for this joint, but I guess that’s an alright grade… HOPEFULLY you review Eveyuu’s version soon
Reply
- Dark_Sage
  
  May 21, 2014 at 8:48 pm
  
  Just started it up. Hoping I can get through it tonight.
  Reply
lyger

May 21, 2014 at 10:33 pm

>In our business, that’s a prize!

Net catchphrase. “In our business” might be alternately translated as “In our line of work,” “In our industry,” or “In our field.” I probably would have rendered “prize” as “reward” instead.

The “industry” is a tongue in cheek way of referring to otaku or people with masochistic fetishes. The idea is, demeaning or disgusting treatment (as long as it’s by a cute girl) are considered “rewards” by such people.

Slapped in the face by a tsundere? Trod on, spat on, even pissed on? “Thank you, ma’am, please give me more!”

Well, that’s the idea. Not agreeing or disagreeing with the translation here, just giving an explanation.
Reply
Anon

May 22, 2014 at 12:17 am

Who doesn’t love epic maymays?

Ebin Daiz, simpeyl ebin.
Reply
- Xythar
  
  May 22, 2014 at 12:28 am
  
  It’s funny how the people complaining about memes are always far more obnoxious than the memes themselves (or in this case, the lack thereof).
  Reply
  - Solaristics
    
    May 22, 2014 at 1:01 am
    
    Memes aren’t even that bad, as long as they’re used right idgaf. People complain too much about it though – especially these Anon ppl.
    Reply
    - Anon
      
      May 22, 2014 at 11:25 am
      
      I literally couldn’t care less about what memes or jokes are in my Chinese cartoon sub.,
      Reply
      - Googol
        
        May 22, 2014 at 11:46 am
        
        There are many anons around, right?
        Reply
        
        Anon
        
        May 22, 2014 at 11:53 am
        
        :^)
        Reply
nakkinyan

May 22, 2014 at 1:15 am

The Shiritori this time was just a pain in the ass. You can normally make shit up to get the idea across or keep it in Japanese to see the pattern (since what they said was less important than how the game works); this time what they said had an effect in that space.

This is one of the rare cases I would have “JPword (ENword)”. Since the Japanese word (JPword) is already there just put the accurate translation (ENword) beside it.
Reply
Ryokun

May 23, 2014 at 12:09 am

I thought since this is a joint between two big names group, it’d get a better score than ChihiroDesuYo’s.

Well I guess I should be more critical and less biased from now on.
Reply
- addityo
  
  May 23, 2014 at 1:28 am
  
  DS review different episode, so…
  Reply
  - aVF
    
    May 23, 2014 at 7:36 am
    
    >excuses
    Reply
    - Passerby
      
      May 23, 2014 at 9:49 am
      
      begna112
      May 21, 2014 at 8:24 am
      “Man, D_S, gotta say you have a knack for picking our worst releases. I was right in the middle of finals week so this was a pretty sloppy release. Anyway, glad to see real reviews happening now. Would have enjoyed seeing 06 reviewed. I edited that episode.” OK!! Nice excuse DDY.
      Reply
    - addityo
      
      May 23, 2014 at 9:54 am
      
      > >excuses
      I don’t even
      Reply
- Googol
  
  May 23, 2014 at 2:10 am
  
  He reviewed episode 5 for CDY and episode 6 for UW-FFF. It’s not a straight comparison.
  Reply
LotusGG

May 23, 2014 at 11:56 am

The ‘Spanish’ part is a parody to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Vn_fvmqXE

He’s a Brazilian football couch.
There is even a parody “talk show” advertisement with him by Head and Shoulders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVFgjLn16w0
Reply
watashitachi

May 23, 2014 at 6:45 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crust_(geology)

Since the crust includes the outermost solid shell of the planet, getting rid of it after the mantle would drop the characters directly onto the planet’s core.
Reply
- Anony
  
  May 25, 2014 at 11:24 pm
  
  Not to mention getting rid of mantle would have ka-imploded the surface too. Oh, is that the death-scream of a catgirl? Good.
  Reply
twilightL

October 18, 2017 at 2:11 pm

“Not even consistent. She says “game” in English here.”

Except “gēmu” is actually a standard Japanese loanword.

Also, these subs translated “gaikaku” (outer core) as “crust”, even though the two are completely different things.
Reply