Defective or Disappointing UK Anime Discs

Also, I wanted to ask something about the entry for Steins;Gate in the DVD list. It says One commentary track missing. The included commentaries are for episodes 12 (Part 1 disc 2), 19 (Part 2 disc 1) and 24 (Part 2 disc2). There is no commentary on Part 1 disc 1 (containing eps 1–6), so is that where a commentary is missing compared to the BD version?

Lastly, I know we've dealt with the dubious Steins;Gate DVD subs already, but I couldn't resist sharing a few more of my favourite examples.


CONTAINS POTENTIAL SPOILERS!!!

Episode 5. The gang are reading aloud the Jellyman Report on their computer, and one of the names mentioned is subtitled as "Rinda Hiru". This is so clearly just a Japanese rendering of Linda Hill, so why wasn't it subbed as that?

Episode 7. Okabe reveals his plan to test D-mail by winning Lotto 6, and the subtitles have Mayuri saying Mayushii is happy. Yep, somehow the translator has confused the Japanese kanashii (sad) with ureshii (happy). Oh, dear.

Episode 11. Daru enters the lab. This time the translator has misheard Mayuri's line Daru-kun! as Dareka? (meaning something like "Is there someone there?") and has subtitled it as Who is it? This would suggest that the subs were prepared without access to a copy of the Japanese script.

Episode 17. Okabe ponders Did the world's timeline change when I sent the message to alter Suzuha's gender?
What?! It's Luka who's part of that particular storyline, not Suzuha. This comes completely out of the blue and has nothing to do with events at the time. I think the translator failed to follow the story, if you ask me.

Episode 18. During preparations for Okabe's "date", Daru makes reference to dating sims and says Dating means an erotic bed, right?
Ehhhhh?!? He says erotic event, not "bed". What the hell was the translator even thinking?
Well, I say translator but, with all the different spellings of Kurisu/Kris/Chris, maybe there was more than one translator, hence the general inconsistency.
 
Neil.T said:
Episode 18. During preparations for Okabe's "date", Daru makes reference to dating sims and says Dating means an erotic bed, right?
Ehhhhh?!? He says erotic event, not "bed". What the hell was the translator even thinking?
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I'm going to hazard a guess that they misheard エロイベント as エロイベッド (all katakana to highlight the similarity as standard rendering makes it too obvious). Understandable as mishearings go, especially with Daru's muddy way of speaking - except that it makes no sense in or out of context whereas the alternative is common geek-speak.

Regrettably I don't know the answer to the other question without some in-depth digging as the source got eaten :/

I'll get to work on all of these updates!

R
 
Neil.T said:
Sorry for the work, Rui! If you've any queries about absolutely any of it, please don't hesitate to ask. :)
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As a matter of fact I do :)

The DVD correction for VoaDS; is that for the DVDs in the new AL release or specific to the old ADV set?

R
 
The DVD list correction for Voices...

Voices of a Distant Star (ADV):No signs-only subtitle track; especially problematic given the plot. Main Japanese audio out of sync with picture; Alternate (Shinkai scratch vocal) audio track is unaffected. Subtitles are out of sync with picture. Short film "She and Her Cat" included in extras has mistake in a chapter number shown in on-screen caption.

... is specifically for ADV's DVD release.


Whereas the Blu-ray list one...

Place Promised in Our Early Days, The / Voices of a distant Star (Anime Limited): Voices of a Distant Star (DVD disc): Error in audio options: selecting "English 5.1 with song subtitles" plays film with Japanese audio and SIGN-ONLY subtitles, as song subs only appear on the full-subtitles track. The short film "She and Her Cat" included in extras has error in on-screen caption (shifted to bottom of screen in tiny font size) on BD only; DVD is unaffected. Also has mistake in a chapter number shown in on-screen caption from ADV DVD version; applies to both BD and DVD).

... applies to the Anime Limited DVD included in their Place Promised/Voices BD+DVD twin pack.

Hope that helps. :)
 
@Rui: Sorry to be a pest again. These are the final corrections from me for the list. I've added some detail to two of the recent new entries. I've also corrected them in my original post and have already set the text below to link to it. Hopefully that should make it an easy copy/paste job. :)


DVD list:

End of Evangelion (Manga UK): One piece of bad translation in important explanatory dialogue (applies to subtitles and dub).

Evangelion 1.11 (Manga UK): One faulty subtitle reads "The remains unchanged" instead of "The plan remains unchanged" [source: Evangelion 1.01 bonus DVD included in Manga's DVD Collector's Edition has correct subtitle]. *Cannot verify Manga's BD version


Edit: Thanks, Rui! ;)
 
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Here's a few more tweaks for the main list.


AMENDMENTS

I've copy/pasted these entries from the main list and added some new bits to them:

DVD list

Accel World (MVM): The character artwork extras from the US releases are not included. Signs omitted for on-screen text in episode 6 (disc 1).

[@Rui: Also, one of the things listed for the BD version of Accel World (The shorts are missing too.) would also apply to the DVD version.]​

Buso Renkin (Manga UK): Part 2 Disc 1 has mistimed subtitles in episode 16. Manga-strip epilogue of episode 26 is not translated (Part 2 disc 3).


ADDITIONS

These are my last new entries for the list, I think:

DVD list

Gantz (MVM): Preview for episode 12 has last subtitle missing (disc 3). Missing subtitle on DVD extra "Interview with creator Hiroya Oku and actress Chiaki Kuriyama" (disc 4).

Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (Manga UK): Subtitles are copied from the original GitS and do not reflect the Puppet Master's gender change between versions. *Cannot verify BD version

New Dominion Tank Police (Manga UK): Dubtitles.

Spriggan (ADV): Substandard audio mix on Japanese audio track: dialogue often drowned out (English dub is fine).

[@Rui: This may just be down to the original master audio for Spriggan, so maybe this doesn't qualify. It is poor, though.]​
 
There's also this belated last instalment of "Steins;Gate DVD subtitle gaffes" for anyone who fancies a chuckle.

CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS

Okabe leans over Kurisu, who's lying on the roof of the Radio Hall, gazing up into the sky. Koko datta ka, he says. This should be So HERE you are or So THIS is where you've been. What do the subtitles say? "I think it was here." *sigh*

Okabe is secretly watching Kurisu from the shadows and ponders to himself Yonde iru no wa...
She's standing reading some kind of report, so this must be What's that she's reading?
The subs, though, read "Who is she calling?" The reason is that the Japanese verbs yomu (to read) and yobu (to call) both become yonde in the "current" tense. You'd think that the fact she's clearly reading something would've been enough of a clue for the translator, though. Obviously not.

There's absolutely nothing at all to criticise about the subtitles on this episode. They're great. I take it that this OVA must've been translated separately, then.

I'm almost surprised they didn't translate the phrase Steins;Gate no sentaku (the choice of Steins;Gate) as "Steins;Gate's laundry". The words sound alike in Japanese. :p
 
Escaflowne Blu-ray Anime Limited.

Episode 9, Disc 3 (the reissued disc) Audio dropout in Japanese track for about a tenth of a second at 8:39 into disc. Note that the audio is fine on the Bandai DVD.
 
This is an old one, but I don't see this specific issue listed under it so here it is. I recall the Angel Beats Blu-ray (possibly the same on the DVD too) has a major subtitle clusterfuck on the final scene of the last episode. Basically it starts playing music in the background whilst both characters are talking to each other, and the result is that it translates both the character text and the music at the bottom of the screen in the same colour, so text literally obscures half of the entire screen and becomes difficult to read because the music and the dialogue are the same colour. It just kills the enjoyment of that entire scene.

Oh and the DVD of Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack has so many grammatical and translation errors in its subs I lost count. It's not a great film, but I thought I'd mention it because I watched it today and it was the most horribly translated anime I've ever watched.
 
Lord Bacchus said:
Oh and the DVD of Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack has so many grammatical and translation errors in its subs I lost count. It's not a great film, but I thought I'd mention it because I watched it today and it was the most horribly translated anime I've ever watched.
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My eternal sympathies to you for suffering through that hideous pile of irredeemable garbage.

In a certain light, the DVD's awfulness is entertaining. Besides the translation gaffes, even the notes in the extras are terrible. If I recall correctly, there's a text interview with the director where it devolves into the rantings of a madman as he goes on about how great the Beatles were.

But the most hilarious, laugh-out-loud gaffe has to be the super prissy translation of the girl explaining why her foot hurts when one of the guys she's having a three way with knocks it. My god. I laughed so hard I actually injured myself.

Some folks say GYO is so bad it's good. It really isn't.
 
HdE said:
Some folks say GYO is so bad it's good. It really isn't.
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You have got that right. It might actually be the worst anime I've ever seen. I feel like I was tricked because on paper, an anime done by Ufotable and directed by the guy who directed the best Kara no Kyoukai movie sounds like it can't go wrong. The amazon review page is scary as well. It's full of five star reviews! I swear those people must all be suffering from head trauma, or we watched completely different movies.
 
Lord Bacchus said:
The amazon review page is scary as well. It's full of five star reviews! I swear those people must all be suffering from head trauma, or we watched completely different movies.
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Eh. I think that just comes down to the fact that folks have different ideas about entertainment and what they expect of it. Some things really truthfully ARE objectively terrible, in that they disregard all the tenets of their medium and simply can't pull their different strands together into a satisfying package.

But some people don't care about that. Fair play to 'em, I say.
 
HdE said:
But the most hilarious, laugh-out-loud gaffe has to be the super prissy translation of the girl explaining why her foot hurts when one of the guys she's having a three way with knocks it. My god. I laughed so hard I actually injured myself.
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I actually rewatched Gyo yesterday just to see that again. :D

Yeah, the subtitles really aren't great, are they? "Hey, treat me gently as I was injured," she supposedly says. That really is hilarious. The line is Chotto! Kega shite 'ru n' da kara yasashiku shite yo!, so something like Hey! I'm injured, you know. Be gentle, damn it! would've carried the tone better.

Another bit that made me laugh was the subtitle for that line in the professor's video when his nephew asks him Hontou ni kega wa... daijoubu?
I'd have that as Your injuries... Are you sure you're okay? But, brilliantly, the subs mistranslate it as "Are you sure you are injured?" What the hell?! Of course he's injured: the guy's lost an arm, for **** sake!


Fun fact: The film's director, Takayuki Hirao, said in an interview with NEO magazine (issue 103):
I can be nothing but happy with the unexpected number of "gross" and "I never want to see it again" responses.
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Mission accomplished, then.
 
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