Fansub Review: [Mazui] Hyouka (Episode 02)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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Hyouka reviews: complete. Woo-hoo!

Release format: MKV (321 MB, 10-bit), MP4 (152 MB)

Japanesiness: Honorifics.

English style: American English.

Group website: http://mazuisubs.com/

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/srQ4zieW

8thsin’s translation critique: http://8ths.in/spring-2012-fansub-comparison-reviews#Hyouka

Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: http://www.ji-hi.net/sp12/hyouka/

 

Table of Contents

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Timing

Results

Visual Quality

Karaoke.

Opening. Slightly better than Commie’s, but definitely worse than gg’s. Don’t be fooled by that first screenshot; only two lines in the opening had any color in them. The rest were ordinary white.

Ending. It’s okayish, but extravagantly dull.

 

Typesetting.

It’s beautiful.

Astounding color choice.

More like “That’s huge.” The guy’s whole schtick is that he never wastes energy. Why would he use an extra syllable if he doesn’t have to?

Mazui was the only group to not typeset this sign.

This was part of the lengthy sequence I talked about in Commie’s review. But they typeset significantly less compared to Commie. Better than gg though; they didn’t even try.

Rather pathetic effort compared to gg/Commie.

….And right after I said “pathetic effort”. They were the only group to attempt this part.

I disagree.

 

Other.

Fucking… C’mon, people! You just need to slightly change the outline of your overlap font. It’s not fucking hard.

Script Quality

Karaoke.

I liked Mazui’s scripts for the songs the best. The songs made sense. So yeah, no real complaints here.

 

Main Script.

Great “joke”. Like gg’s, this didn’t really make much sense. They just translated a Japanese pun straight and it didn’t work well in English.

Overuse of “and”. Just drop the first one and the sentence will read better. Make the ending flow better too.

“We have funds in our budget for an anthology, and our supervisor asked us to make one too.”

No. ^_^

Please don’t tell me fotc approved this. This is stupid “‘Hai’ always means yes” translation that ignores any sense of flow from one line to another. gg and Commie got it right at least.

gg: “Great!”

Commie: “Thanks!”

“Everyone” is treated as a singular word in the English language.

“Everyone at the Manga Society calls it that, too.”

Use “in a meeting” if the person is presently busy and in a location relatively close. “at a meeting” is used for when the person is relatively far away from where they’d normally meet. I go further into depth on this in Commie’s review.

<3

Not such great phrasing.

“When I come in on Fridays, I always see the same book in the return pile.”

Stupid repetition. Though “it looks” and “it seems” are technically different words, they are functionally the same here.

“This looks like a normal school history to me.”

“But it’s kind of difficult to read.”

“But regardless” does work in some contexts, but not here.

“Regardless, this book gets returned every week.”

No!

Fucking transliteral shitsubs. There is not a goddamn English-speaking person who would respond “Yes…” after being told “Keep it down…”

Try something natural. “Sure.” “My bad.” “Okay.” “Sorry.”

Good phrasing for once. Nice job, Mazui.

You can’t fulfill a use. You can fulfill a purpose though.

“That’s right. There must be some purpose that only this book can fulfill.”

Just saying, but this is good English. This is something a high schooler would say. Hell, it’s something an English speaker in general would say.

You wouldn’t really say “I’m in second year.”

“The common link is that they’re all girls, and all second-years, but in different classes.”

Clever phrasing for Clever-chan.

gg: “Fuku and I were thinking about it for a long… time…”

Commie: “Fuku spent ages thinking about it as well… as…”

Mazui’s cut-off was a lot more precise and their sentence is clearer. They win this match-up.

 

Timing Review

Incoming. When “Timing Critique” is added as a category, you’ll know this part is done.

Results.

Watchability: Watchable.

Timing Grade:

Visual grade: C+

Script grade: B-

Overall grade (timing results not factored in): B-

Rankings: Commie > Mazui > gg

After looking over all the reviews and taking into account my experiences with each release, I found Commie’s version to the best. All three groups had times where they had stand-out lines — clear moments when they did better than the other groups by noticeable margins. However, they all had problems too. Commie had slightly better error management and slightly better visuals than Mazui did, so I’m going to recommend their release as the go-to for Hyouka. Unfortunately, because all the groups were so close, I can’t say *definitively* that Commie’s release is always going to be the best. Hell, any one of them could do something to set themselves ahead of the pack in the future.

All three groups pretty much sucked it. I suggest Commie, but you’re free to pick your poison and not feel too bad about it. You’re getting a mediocre experience no matter what.

10 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [Mazui] Hyouka (Episode 02)”

  1. hm… off to re-leeching then… started with 8th’s/GG release simple because… well… yeah…
    anyway, i have yet to check the video quality of these releases… GG’s looked decent, any comment on the other two?

    Reply
    • hm… scrap that comment, not enough diffrence for me to consider switching groups, and the quotationmarks/apostrophes issue doesn’t bother me THAT much, and is easily fixed if i ever feel the need to do it…

      actually, i liked this one better than commie’s and, this may be a prejudice of mine, but i always have the feeling that, while their typesetting is quite decent, their video/encoding quality is… inconsisten across their releases

      Reply
  2. “I’ll do it, okay?” “Yes!”
    While “Yes!” isn’t the best choice it definitely fits. It is being used in the celebratory sense. She had a victory over Oreki, kind of like how someone might win a game and say “Yes!” accompanied with a fist pump. Except instead of a fist pump she gives a cute smile.

    Reply
    • A “Yes!” in the fist pump sense doesn’t seem applicable here. She’s not celebrating; she’s just happy. Her character, and the way she phrased her line (it wasn’t a short, forceful “Hai”) makes “Hai” in the sense of “thank you” the best option.

      Reply
    • Just because you can quickly rationalize the context to make the word usage work doesn’t mean it’s a good choice.

      Reply

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