Birdy - the Decipher
I've just spent a few hours editing and remuxing a copy of Birdy the Mighty - the Cipher OVA. I got a copy of it when it first came out on dvd, but it wasn't subbed until a week ago. Unfortunately, while I'm thankful for the work vicious put into it, there were several deficiencies which kept me from complete enjoyment. In decreasing order of importance, they were: the rather loose translation including two or three lines which I feel like he just guessed at the meaning; the lack of subs for the opening sequence; and the generally poorer video quality.
The last two issues were easy enough to remedy, as I had a higher quality raw video and someone else's subs for the OP, but for me to try fixing translations is invitation to all sorts of hubris. Nevertheless, that's what I did. I listened to the offending lines, wrote them as best I could in romaji, then plugged the results into Jeffrey's Japanese to English Dictionary Server which I've found to be a reliable and fairly comprehensive resource for translating from romaji. Naturally, my experience listening to Japanese helped me pick out likely phonemes and context helped me determine the more likely meanings. The dictionary is pretty useless for grammar, but I know a bit from school and guessed the rest from context. I don't know that my alterations are more accurate, but I'm pretty sure they are. Of course, there may be (probably are) more errors, but if I can't tell from listening, I'm not going to check it.
While I was fiddling around, I also added honorifics to the names (when existing) and adjusted other titles to fit better my taste. I also adjusted the subtitle styling and reinserted chapter breaks.
Overall, I'm pleased with the results.
The last two issues were easy enough to remedy, as I had a higher quality raw video and someone else's subs for the OP, but for me to try fixing translations is invitation to all sorts of hubris. Nevertheless, that's what I did. I listened to the offending lines, wrote them as best I could in romaji, then plugged the results into Jeffrey's Japanese to English Dictionary Server which I've found to be a reliable and fairly comprehensive resource for translating from romaji. Naturally, my experience listening to Japanese helped me pick out likely phonemes and context helped me determine the more likely meanings. The dictionary is pretty useless for grammar, but I know a bit from school and guessed the rest from context. I don't know that my alterations are more accurate, but I'm pretty sure they are. Of course, there may be (probably are) more errors, but if I can't tell from listening, I'm not going to check it.
While I was fiddling around, I also added honorifics to the names (when existing) and adjusted other titles to fit better my taste. I also adjusted the subtitle styling and reinserted chapter breaks.
Overall, I'm pleased with the results.