Blu-ray & DVD Localization

[Reichu]

Hey Chaz, do you think you'd be able to translate Mari's phone dialogue into "real" English? I've been wanting to see that for a while.

[Shogo-Kun]

Ah, this is somehow OT, but what is the general consensus about the official subtitles? Are they better than old fansubs? Should we use them as reference subtitles like in the case of the Platinum ones?

Any official translation is better than a fan translation IMO.

[Reichu]

Any official translation is better than a fan translation IMO.

It would probably be wiser to determine such things on a case by case basis... (c.f. The End of Evangelion )

[Shogo-Kun]

^Hmm, true. I just happen to place more faith in a translation done by a professional as opposed to a fan.

[Nonoriri]

Yeah those "professional" crunchyroll subs sure are better than fansubs.

Oh wait.

[Reichu]

And when I was watching Fullmetal Alchemist off some old bootleg CD-Rs that were lying around, the fansub was so painful that I bothered to get a hold of the official Funi release.

I was expecting something that my eyes could flow over without thinking, "Goddamn, this is one stilted translation." If there was any improvement, I think it escaped my notice.

[Mr. Tines]

Yeah those "professional" crunchyroll subs sure are better than fansubs.

Those are just ex-fansubbers anyway. If you want bad subs from people who should have better resources, look no further than the alleged translation on the Disney release of Laputa and its dubtitles. Those just fail in a different direction to EVEN ELECTRONIC BRAIN PANCAKE CRYSTAL ELDERLY.

[Hyper Shinchan]

It would probably be wiser to determine such things on a case by case basis... (c.f. The End of Evangelion )

So I suppose that there's no official stance on this matter for now.

[Reichu]

So I suppose that there's no official stance on this matter for now.

Well, to be honest, I haven't popped my Funimation DVD into the Blu-Ray player yet... But I suppose others could offer their opinions.

So long as they're not basing it on one of the earlier, super-shitty versions of the EGF subtitles.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Regarding fansubs, I think Thora does a pretty good job for 1.11 and 2.22 (our EGF translation for 2.22 proper was good too, but it involved A LOT of tweaking and reworking to get it right).

Funimation's was pretty good for 1.11 and 2.22, but I do recall preferring fansub translations in a few spots and Funi's translation in others. Since I don't own those DVDs anymore, I can't recall exactly what.

[JoeD80]

I think the subtitles for 2.22 work just fine. Funimation took more liberties with the dub than the sub in changing phrases and adding swearing as noted above with Mari particularly (unless I missed some Japanese). The swearing doesn't show up in the subtitles. Also Kaji and Mari's English is subtitled exactly as the Japanese voice actors said them whether they made complete sense or not. Some of the other English phrases are changed in the dub as well ("what in the hell is unit 05 doing" in the dub is still subtitled "get unit 05 to do something" as heard on the original Japanese track for example).

[Dr. Nick]

It would probably be wiser to determine such things on a case by case basis... (c.f. The End of Evangelion )

This. There's no guarantee that official subs are done by trained professionals (and conversely, there are trained professionals who are also fansubbers). And even if the subbers are trained and competent, not all companies are willing to pay them enough in order to ensure good quality. I'm telling you this as a professional who's been reduced to producing McTranslations.

[JoeD80]

Here is one I caught that was changed in the dub to a more general statement of feeling lost but was kept intact in the US subtitles - Kaji is trying to find his way around and says he feels like Urashima Taro.