Monday, July 19, 2004

Fansubs

I wish someone competent was subbing Touch.  There are two groups, "Crossfade" and "Genbu & Meisei", and neither of them is particularly good.
 
There was one really embarrassing moment in the Genbu/Meisei sub of episode 16--embarrassing for me, watching, because it's such a stupid mistake on the part of the fansubbers.  Minami has caught a cold/flu, so Tatsuya brings her some lemons (apparently lemons make you well?  I don't know).  Minami says,  「レモンじゃない!」 ("remon ja nai!") .  Genbu/Meisei translated it as, "These aren't lemons!"
 
Now, technically, that is what she said.  "ja nai" is a way of saying "is not".  But this structure is common in feminine speech (slang, if you will) for adding emphasis to a statement without being direct.  It's akin to saying, "Aren't those lemons?" or "Those are lemons, aren't they!"  In other words, it's a rhetorical question whose answer is patently obvious.  (Men use this structure too, but they tend to say "jan" instead of "ja nai", from what I've noticed.  For example, when someone impresses him in tennis, Ryoma might say, "yaru jan".  I think we can assume here that the "yaru" means "to play [a game/sport]"; most of the time Anime-Otakus [who I highly respect as fansubbers] translate it as "not bad".)
 
Given that the phrase can technically mean (with different intonation) "These aren't lemons," the phrase Tatsuya says next, which Genbu/Meisei translated as "What, do they look like pumpkins to you?" makes sense...but Minami's line doesn't, because they are obviously lemons.  Meanwhile, Crossfade, which had Minami say, "Lemons!", didn't bother translating Tatsuya's line at all.  It looks like rather than taking the time to do it right, both fansub groups conveniently omitted things that made the conversation complicated.
 
On the whole, I guess I would trust Genbu/Meisei over Crossfade, though.  From the easy stuff Crossfade's  getting wrong--"ice milk" as "ice cream"?  "Straight" as "strike"?--I have to wonder how much of the story I'm missing.  I may as well be watching it raw.  Don't even get me started on how the umpire is somehow the "crossbreeder"(!).  Unfortunately, Genbu/Meisei seem to have stopped at 16, while Crossfade is up to episode 22.
 
The story is one of those wacky love triangles--this time involving two twin brothers and their next-door neighbor--but it's serious, too.  I really enjoy it, despite the horrid subbing.  I doubt it will ever be licensed, because it, like other quality shows--Miyuki, Yawara--is pretty old.  The animation is outdated and not flashy enough for today's core anime crowd.  Plus, there are no giant robots, and the T&A is pretty tame (gee, a girl in a leotard--and her body is actually human proportions, too).  Good story isn't enough to get something released in the US...yet.
 
And so that's why I want someone else to fansub it.  Or for Genbu/Meisei to catch up--because at least they use a nice big font that I can actually read.  I was trying to screencap some of the latest Crossfade release to demonstrate how terrible it is, but unfortunately I can't seem to do so.  Just believe me when I say that they picked the most swirly, serif font they possibly could, and then made it about three pixels high ;P

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In response to your comments about Genbu's Touch episode 16: I was the editor for Genbu's Touch, and for that episode in particular, and I am responsible for the line you call to question.

Let me state first and foremost that I understood the rhetorical nature of the line quite well. Yes, the line could have been translated as "These are lemons, aren't they?" or perhaps "Why, aren't these lemons?" -- but as you can see for yourself, both of these sound pretty damn awful. The decision was really to go with a line that made a little less sense, but would be clarified with Tatsuya's response, or with a line that made Minami sound like a total moron. I decided to go with the less clear, more "direct" translation in this case.

Was it the best decision? Maybe, maybe not. I think I'd try to come up with something else if I had to re-edit the episode, but I'd still go with what I put over "My, aren't these lemons?" Perhaps you disagree with my call on that line, and you do make a legitimate point that it isn't as good as I would like for it to be -- which is true. But if it can be called a "mistake," it is at worst a mistake of judgement, not of ignorance.

I believe BakaMX/Genbu/Meisei episodes 1-16 of Touch are the best versions of the series available on the internet or elsewhere, and I don't think it's very fair to us to call us 'incompetent' based on a single error.

We have, however, dropped the series after episode 16. If you want to see the rest, I highly recommend you watch Central Anime's version, as they're rapidly approaching the conclusion of the series.

And is it a little weird to reply to a post more than half a year late? Well... yes. But better late than never.

Thanks,

Elepsis
Ex-Genbu Editor/Typesetter