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IncendiaryLemon said:
The Heroic Legend of Arslan-Episodes 20-22

So is Etiol actually a girl or just a cute guy with long hair? I don't think they actually said either way...
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She's definitely a girl, just dressed up as a guy because she has an agenda. I think it was covered in an earlier episode but it has been a while!

R
 
Outlaw Star episodes 18 - 24 (COMPLETE)
Outlaw Star Specials episodes 1-2 (COMPLETE)
Very interesting watch - Sunrise remain as one of my favourite studios

Planetes episodes 4 - 6
 
Fullmetal Alchemist ep 21 - 31
Psycho Pass 2 ep 1 - 4
Yakitate Japan ep 28 - 29
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju ep 1 - 2
Masamune-kun's Revenge ep 1
Akiba's Trip ep 1
 
Gintama - Episodes 01-11

I've started watching this, and I don't really have all that much to say. I'm enjoying it, I wish it were either funnier or more dramatic, but I hear it will get there.

I do however have serious questions about Crunchyroll's subtitles. To begin with, I kind of get the impression the subtitles aren't all that close to the original Japanese. There are occasional moments where characters will give fairly long sentences, or even a couple of sentences, and only a single short sentence has been translated. It's not a massive issue, and I don't doubt the subtitles are perfectly valid translations of the sentences at hand, but something just feels slightly off about them.

It also seems very obvious that the subtitles are struggling to translate quite a few jokes. The most notable example for me, was I think in episode 09. There's a repeated gag where the Shinsengumi are looking for a "Silver-haired Samurai" (Gintoki), and they keep finding other samurai who don't possess silver hair and obviously aren't their target. Maybe it's me, but some of the dialogue seemed to be implying that the mistake was more consistent and logical than just the surface descriptions of the samurai they were finding would imply I was wondering if it was maybe wordplay based, but I don't know. However, the subtitles were very much pitching it as random and inexplicable (which, to be fair, it might very have been given the rest of the show.)

Some of it also is also relying on references I don't know, which doesn't help. There was a line in the last episode I watched, "No way are you Ayano! If that's your name then 'battleship' would come before it!". Which obviously is kind of a non-sequitur in English, but having googled it, is apparently because Ayano is a name that implies peace and tranquillity and adding "space battleship" to the beginning more accurately represents her personality.

I don't want to be rude, as it's clear translating is an incredibly difficult job and Gintama looks to be an incredibly hard show to translate, but unfortunately I don't know that these subtitles hold up to the high standards Crunchyroll has set for itself recently. Given they now have home video for the series too, this is a kind of precarious position for the show to be in.
 
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Buzz201 said:
Gintama - Episodes 01-11

It also seems very obvious that the subtitles are struggling to translate quite a few jokes. The most notable example for me, was I think in episode 09. There's a repeated gag where the Shinsengumi are looking for a "Silver-haired Samurai" (Gintoki), and they keep finding other samurai who don't possess silver hair and obviously aren't their target. Maybe it's me, but some of the dialogue seemed to be implying that the mistake was more consistent and logical than just the surface descriptions of the samurai they were finding would imply I was wondering if it was maybe wordplay based, but I don't know. However, the subtitles were very much pitching it as random and inexplicable (which, to be fair, it might very have been given the rest of the show.)
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I skimmed the episode as it's been ages since I watched the start of the series and the reason the other samurai were all wrong was just wordplay; things that sound like 'silver-haired samurai' in Japanese in various comical ways. It's kind of not funny literally translated as it just comes off as random nonsense so your complaint makes perfect sense. The translation does get a lot better later on (and also looks a lot better, because the quality on those early episodes is pretty ropey by today's standards - it was one of the very first titles to be added to the service way back before anyone knew what they were doing). The scripting is also why I feel the series may struggle with a UK release since the Japanese wordplay and cultural references are a steep barrier to some skits; the manga was cancelled as the translation failed to pick up a solid following in the west and the original anime release from Sentai failed too. I need the Crunchyroll version to be a success ;_;

Personally I do think the series takes a little while to hit its stride (this may be because I started out with the manga but for me the most side-splittingly hilarious stuff is during Fujita's reign as director - which may not be a coincidence given the other comedy series I'm been obsessed with these days...)

R
 
Rui said:
I skimmed the episode as it's been ages since I watched the start of the series and the reason the other samurai were all wrong was just wordplay; things that sound like 'silver-haired samurai' in Japanese in various comical ways. It's kind of not funny literally translated as it just comes off as random nonsense so your complaint makes perfect sense. The translation does get a lot better later on (and also looks a lot better, because the quality on those early episodes is pretty ropey by today's standards - it was one of the very first titles to be added to the service way back before anyone knew what they were doing). The scripting is also why I feel the series may struggle with a UK release since the Japanese wordplay and cultural references are a steep barrier to some skits; the manga was cancelled as the translation failed to pick up a solid following in the west and the original anime release from Sentai failed too. I need the Crunchyroll version to be a success ;_;

Personally I do think the series takes a little while to hit its stride (this may be because I started out with the manga but for me the most side-splittingly hilarious stuff is during Fujita's reign as director - which may not be a coincidence given the other comedy series I'm been obsessed with these days...)

R
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Thanks for that, your input on my complete lack of Japanese language knowledge is always appreciated. :D I was trying to be careful with my wording, as it would be grotesque to inappropriately criticise someone else's translation, when I myself could barely even translate half a sentence.

Weirdly, given it's reasonably broad in it's comedy, I do feel like Gintama would probably benefit more from 'bespoke' subtitling and translation notes (of the kind Sentai seems to have been doing lately :() than the more highbrow series that will probably get it. It's a shame that the sheer length of the series probably prohibits any length of time being given to translating it.

I'll be interested to see how it gets dubbed. Lots of people have said the show is undubable, but I think that depends. If you sacrificed literal accuracy for tonal accuracy you could probably get a very successful and very funny show out of it, but based on their comments, I don't think Gintama fans would be willing to accept that.

To be fair, the direction of Mr. Osomatsu is fantastic, it's not necessarily Fujita's fault everyone in it is an insufferable arse and it doesn't match my (perhaps unusual) sense of humour. That said, I think Osomatsu was clearly influenced to an extent by Gintama. If it had chosen to pursue a continuing narrative, and pursued the emotional lives of it's character more, like it did in the penultimate episode and in the way Gintama is seemingly hinting at doing, I might have forgiven their unlikeability. Though, as I type that I realise, I'm basically just asking for it's take on South Park's You're Getting Old/Ass Burgers episodes, which manage to mix the series' usual crude comedy up with serious character drama and perhaps some meta-commentary about the series and it's creators Matt Stone & Trey Parker.
 
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A Certain Magical Index s1 ep 1-6. Pretty decent for this type of show so far, it's nice to see that the characters are more complex than they initially seem.
 
Buzz201 said:
Weirdly, given it's reasonably broad in it's comedy, I do feel like Gintama would probably benefit more from 'bespoke' subtitling and translation notes (of the kind Sentai seems to have been doing lately :() than the more highbrow series that will probably get it. It's a shame that the sheer length of the series probably prohibits any length of time being given to translating it.
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I know some people say that comedy is ruined by too much explanation but I really did appreciate the way that these 'very Japanese' comedies were sold back in the old days, when companies would really go the extra mile to try to help bridge any cultural gaps so that fans could enjoy the wordplay gags as much as the more visual humour. Translating for punchy flow then including detailed notes explaining the real gags properly is nice. The partial UK release of Urusei Yatsura on VHS from Anime Projects (which was itself a copy of AnimEigo's US release) was extremely important to me as a young fan since it included reams of detailed notes printed in a tiny font which were probably the most boring things in the universe to those who just wanted the show to flow. Personally though, I would spend a lot of time meticulously committing the details to memory before watching and rewatching, and it made the series feel all that more interesting and precious to me. It also made the gougingly expensive £20 four-episode tapes of a 70s sitcom feel less like a rip off. With the notes being printed, they were also handy as a reference while watching (Nozomi's on-disc notes aren't anywhere near as useful).

Going back to Gintama, I would probably hate the dub (ok let's be honest, I would definitely hate the dub) but as trying to ape the Japanese would be almost impossible anyway, a looser, sillier localisation would probably be a necessity. It looks as though the (relatively serious) first movie was dubbed; even though I have it I haven't ever switched audio tracks but I wonder how that turned out? Never heard a word about it.

R
 
Little Witch Academia

Been a while since I've seen this, I feel as though I've probably cooled a bit on it over time but it's still an enjoyable enough Movie that has it's entertaining moments.

Ghost Stories, Episode 1 - 4

Rewatching this in the Japanese Version and it's just as I was expecting, very unremarkable, the main issue is the show takes it's self too seriously to an unbearable degree, if I hadn't seen the English Version before and watched this one first I probably would have stopped watching!
 
KonoSuba-Episodes 4 and 5

That cage episode was pretty hilarious.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan-Episodes 23-25 (Complete)

Review coming soon for Part 2.

Fuuka-Episode 1

Pretty decent start. Perhaps a little more ecchi than I was expecting, but it wasn't overbearing. I like that Fuuka is a bit of a tomboy, it's not something you tend to see in romance leads.

Bleach-Episode 322
 
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Feels like ages since I've actually watched something, it's been at least a month if we exclude my rewatch of Princess Mononoke so I have plenty to catch up on (well, plenty by my standards).

KonoSuba - Episodes 6 & 7 - Yup I still love this show and Megumin is still my favourite. I may push to actually finish this tonight.

Drifters - Episode 9 - Not much to say really, I liked it well enough.

Tiger & Bunny: The Rising - This was a rewatch, I had the urge for Tiger & Bunny but haven't really got the time to rewatch the series right now (although that is on the cards soon for sure) so this will do as a stop gap.
 
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (Sukeroku Futatabi-hen) ep1

Well, the season has been saved. An absolutely first class return of a great show.

I'm not saying anything about the other stuff I watched today as the trauma of FOREST FAIRY FIVE has left me emotionally fragile.

R
 
Finished Mushi-shi: Next passage, a couple of great episodes to end it on.

Started up One Punch Man directly afterwards and watched the first 2 episodes. Some very funny parts withing. Looking forward to working through this, most likely will binge watch it this weekend.
 
Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club episode 1
Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga episode 1
Schoolgirl Strikers episode 1
Fuuka episode 1

A great start to the new season and looking forward to next weeks episodes ^_^
 
Tanya the Evil ep1

Eh. This was not as crazy as I was hoping, given the freakish facial expressions in the promo art. I don't mind it being more serious, but the setting doesn't sit well with me at the moment. If they're trying to stage an alternative version of world war one, it would be nice to have a bit more insight into why Not Germany is apparently being invaded by everyone under the sun, considering that the well documented political manoeuvring and misadventures which lead to the real war seem like they would make writing an interesting setup fairly easy.

It's early days I suppose, and, considering that Tanya herself seems interested in finding that out, presumably this will be better explained down the line, but I'm far from sold on this one yet.
 
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