i hate the cold...
So yeah I'm sick and sitting home since I have the day off work today. Nothing much to update really. Hung out with Keaton over at Easton since he was in town. Saturday, my cousin Harmon was in town for a video game tournament over at Momo's. Decided to meet up with him and met up with a lot of old friends there as well. I haven't seen him for so long. I miss some of my cousins. Then by Sunday, I got sick... Monday I went home early... Tuesday night I also went home early... today is Wednesday... for some reason everyone wants to text me today @_@
I finished Fated to Love You (tw-drama). It was slow at first but it picked up. Unfortunately the fansubber decided not to release the last 4-5 episodes because of the same reason why most fansubbers HATE streaming media... but for some reason they uploaded the last episodes on YouTube O.o *scratches head*
Waiting for Jonnie to get online so we can watch Kamen Rider Kiva. Since I've been sick, I really haven't been online much so we haven't even watched episode 36 yet. Episode 37 was just released this morning.
Next is a really long rant about fansubbing so if you're not interested in fansubs or fansubbing, this would probably be a really boring read.
So this was posted on Henshin Justice Unlimited and so I decided to take a look. I guess some guy decided he wanted to make a "documentary" on fansubs or whatever. So I sit through all 5 parts of it and just couldn't help but bitch about it.
A few of the things that really stood out was his stance in honorifics, karaoke, notes, and credits.
Let's start with the whole honorifics thing. I rather my subtitles include -chan, -kun, -san, -sama, -sensei. I also rather my subs include "onee-san" or "onii-chan." He argues that if you're gonna be a translator, everything should be translated so the sentence is complete and can be read flawlessly. However I don't see how "What are we gonna do, big brother?" sounds natural at all? In English, we tend to use given first names and we call our siblings in a casual manner. Japanese people take politeness to a different level. They don't call their big sis or big bro by their given name so how are we fansubbers suppose to do this? Put in their first name even though it's not there? Also for honorifics... such as -chan, -sama, etc. these are meant to be understood almost as like a feeling. Adding -chan to a name could mean for a girl or kinda stating that person is a close friend. Same with -sama. It shows respect. However would you use Mr.? Mrs.? Lord? Master? I dunno... How can someone convey such a feeling in plain english?
He then talks about notes. Of course I think he goes way overboard when he did this so-called piece of crap. I swear he tried to find the worse he could find and slapped it all together. Some notes are needed but he argues that since the Japanese people don't need a note, no one else needs a note either. I rather have a note than not have a note. I rather not sit there and wonder what the heck they're talking about. As long as the font doesn't take up half the screen, I don't see a problem with it.
He also criticized how onscreens are translated and text is put next to the Japanese onscreen text. If it is essential, why not? Okay so he doesn't like onscreen text, but it's essential so the next thing that could be done is to make it a note. Oh wait... he doesn't like notes because since the Japanese people don't need it, we don't either... even though the original text is in Japanese and us Americans can't read it. Yadda yadda yadda.
He talks about how fansubbers are going overboard with credits and stuff. So yes, some of the examples he gave were pretty overboard but I haven't run into any animes in the past 2 years that have done stuff like that. More than anything I think anime fansubbers are actually getting a bit more professional by integrating their credits around the original so as not to distract the viewers from the opening sequence.
Karaoke... so he likes karaoke (and subtitles in general) to be black and white or yellow and black with absolutely no movement. Look... I've been into fansubs since the mid-90s and I know some people who have been watching even longer. Back when fansubs were distributed on VHS tapes. They're not made like they are now - digital distro and production. We are moving along with time, we're not stuck in the past. So what if there is karaoke? If it's not distracting and it works with the colors on screen, there is no harm. But to him it is. He believes that it is pretty much defacing the artwork, blah blah blah. Is he telling me that a darn subtitle on the bottom of the screen is NOT defacing the artwork?
There was also a few examples of onscreen subtitle effects and that surely reminds me of a lot of subtitled tokusatsu these days especially with effects work by say zeldAIS. He's totally excellent at what he does and the effects match up with the special moves. But to this guy, it is totally not necessary. Give him black and yellow font any day.
This guy has no right to criticize. While his video consisted of anime clips, it was pretty much aimed at all fansubbers. Fansubs are made by fans for fans. It is an amateur piece of work. There are so many fansubbing groups out there and each has a slightly different target audience, I'm sure. We are not trying to show our work to "new" fans. We fansub for those are already watching something from that genre or community. Him trying to say that fansubbers leave in too much Japanese and so forth... we don't expect the mass public to go on animesuki or d-addicts and all of a sudden download fansubbed anime or live action drama. The target audience is those that already kinda know what to expect. There's stuff that are not universal. Some anime, toku, dramas... only those people in those parts of the country where the media originated from will understand it. People can't expect translators to turn a sentence completely around so it fits an English-speaking audience. Then you can say that translator isn't literally translating... the meaning is lost somehow.
The whole "For fans by fans"... I swear it has lost its meaning. Anime used to be very underground. Back then it was for fans of anime and Japanese culture - if you weren't into Japanese culture or even curious about it, you probably didn't know about anime in the first place. Now it's so mainstream that "for fans by fans" has a whole different meaning. "For fans" of anime could be those that have no interest in Japanese culture, those that are learning through anime, or those that are hardcore into the culture. It almost feels like us fansubbers need to define our target audience these days or else we get beaten down with a wooden stick.
I can understand some of his points and where he's coming from. He's a professional translator and I'm sure he translates for an English-speaking audience who may not know anything about a culture. He'd translate everything so everything is in English. However, fansubbers are still fansubbing for those who embrace the culture. Fansubbers are not aiming to draw in a public audience (well duh, fansubbing IS illegal). I say for those that don't like it, stop watching it. Go buy the American release. As for me, give me fansubs anyday.