Fansub Review: [gg] Binbougami ga! (Episode 01)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

Twitter    


Good friend Xythar edited this. Let’s see how well he did.

Table of Contents

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (346 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics.

English style: American English.

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/3L4ym3QT

Speed: Quick (<48 hours)

 

External links.

Group website: http://ggkthx.org/

IRC channel: #[email protected]

8thsin’s translation critique: N/A

Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: N/A

SubCompare screenshot comparisons: N/A

Commie’s fansub reviews: N/A

 

Review

Karaoke.

Opening. Wow, you put the English at the top, almost as if that’s what I’m supposed to read instead of the Japanese. Novel concept. The color usually fit but there were a number of opportunities to use better colors throughout the various screens. I also wasn’t a big fan of how they handled the Engrish at the bottom. Well, looks like gg didn’t have a choice. Shit was hardsubbed. So I can’t exactly blame them for working with what they had.

Rating: Okay.

Ending. This color choice is terrible. Absolutely terrible. What were they thinking?

Rating: I said it’s fucking terrible.

 

Edit: gg didn’t have a choice, so I can’t bitch too much.

Rating: Okay, but fuck Japan.

 

Typesetting.

Didn’t you already establish that there are multiple gods of misfortune? So don’t use the definite article “the” here; it makes it seem like there’s only one. Replace both “the”s with “a”.

I will accept that you can argue your way out of this one if you find the right angle, so I’m not gonna say this is an error, but my change is definitely better for consistency purposes.

This release lacks typesetting to blur. :(

You can bet your huge tits you’re fucking classy.

I think she’s referencing Romeo Tanaka here, who’s a dude, so the line’s legit.

The typesetting (or lack thereof) is the issue here.

When gg finally gathers together enough competency to translate a sign, they fucking an8 it. Wow.

Yes, I could really tell.

Hah.

 

 

Other.

I commend gg for their font choice here. It’s readable and agreeable.

Dat encode.

 

Script Quality

Karaoke.

There’s a line in the karaoke here that gg didn’t sub.

 

Looks like it was subbed, it just didn’t go through to here because the hardsubs didn’t.

“Atop the rails someone else follows you saw happiness far away; what would it be like?”

What the hell does this even mean?

A good 20 seconds of the ED are left unsubbed.

Why is there an article here? It’s usually just “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

You use question marks elsewhere in the karaoke, so use one here.

 

Main Script.

Hot damn, this is my kinda language. Even if this release isn’t good (no clue yet because I’m writing this as I go), at least it will be fun.

 

One thing you’re gonna notice about this release is that they have no concept of matching script length to Japanese voice length.

Pretty much the best way to sub it.

This is a terrible insult. I’m embarrassed for whoever is responsible for this line because it’s fucking shit.

While some may think this leads into the next joke, it actually detracts from it because the entire set-up is that all these girls are saying mean things about MC-chan and she’s supposed to feel all sad and cry, but she laughs instead. Wow, what a character revelation! Instead, we get a terrible line that makes her laughing justified. That makes the entire scene worse.

I fucking like this.

The entire point of the show is that she’s had nothing but good luck since the day she was born. There’s no place to go “back” to. Drop “back” from the sentence and it will read right.

If you’re not using this as part of their title or something, it shouldn’t be capitalized. This is a common issue in the script, but I’m gonna write it off as a stylistic choice.

Momiji, God of Misfortune, is a god of misfortune. {Goddess would be more correct, but it just wouldn’t have the same flow}

Either go with “I’ve come to make you a normal person.” or “I’ve come to turn you into a normal person.”

You can’t jam them together and hope for the best.

Are you fucking me? You have a fucking chick with a fucking scouter on, you have power levels, you have two different Dragon Ball Z pictures in the next screens and you don’t fucking sub “unusually high” as “over 9000”? You play it straight?

You had one job and you fucked it up. You fucking suck at localizing, holy shit.

First line: “Fortune Level: Over 9000”

Second line: “Misfortune Level: Also over 9000”

Simple. Everyone’s happy except for the oldfags whining about how a widely accepted meme could ever turn up in a fansub. And they don’t matter because they never mattered.

Great line. It’s hobolicious.

I’m always down for some sugar.

Nice. You guys can be clever when you try.

lol’d. Previous screen included a tidal wave of cats.

Fuck

Now, if you’ve heard anything about this release, you know that gg shoved a metric fuckton of, well, fuck into their script.

Despite all the fucking in the script, this part of the show was the first to use “fuck” intelligently. Considering that it starts 17 minutes in, that doesn’t say much good about the previous lines. But it doesn’t say anything necessarily BAD about it either. There were a bunch of lines with swearing but they didn’t bring much attention to themselves and that’s all right.

While some people cared enough to make their own torrents devoid of “fuck”, I didn’t find it worth noting except as a response to all the drama over it. So yeah, get over it. gg’s swearing neither especially hindered nor benefited the show.

 

Results

Watchability: Watchable.

Visual grade: C-

Script grade: B

Overall grade: C+

Most of the signs in this release weren’t typeset, and this is a sign-heavy show.  Combine that with a mediocre kara and you have a solid script that’s being weighed down by a lazy effort from the group. The main script’s pretty damn good, but I’m not sure if I’d recommend a group that can’t typeset for this show.

0 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [gg] Binbougami ga! (Episode 01)”

  1. We are currently looking for a typesetter, yeah.

    The colour choices for the kara weren’t up to me; the kanji line was hardsubbed by the animation company.

    Reply
  2. Line to voice length really isn’t as important as you seem to stress, bro. It’s something to consider, but you always call it out at the weirdest times.

    Reply
  3. Fucken memes.

    I think you’ve got the wrong screenshot for the “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

    Also, you say that they left 20 seconds of the ED subbed… isn’t that what usually happens?

    Reply
    • I think he meant unsubbed. The intro doesn’t really have any actual words, and there’s one part in each of the OP and ED where the hardsubbed kara disappears before the line actually finishes. So basically I could either have the other lyrics disappear at the same time or keep them onscreen while the kanji disappeared for no apparent reason – I just went with the former option.

      Reply
      • You’re in quite a few groups with decent typesetters and no one can find you a matching Jap font so you could keep kanji onscreen? You must be kidding.

        Reply
  4. Oh yeah, also – the an8 is intentional for Teddy’s signs as they essentially replace dialogue for that character. If we typeset straight onto the signs they wouldn’t be very readable.

    Same thing happened with Kore wa Zombie. In the Commie release, Eu’s signs were done in alternative dialogue style instead of typesetting them, since they serve the same purpose as dialogue for her. Hadena typeset the few in a pretty hard-to-read manner then just an8’d the rest when they realised it was dumb.

    I’d pretty much do this in any case where a character regularly uses signs to communicate.

    Reply
  5. @ the “over 9000” thing:

    Aren’t there actual numbers in that screenshot? Her “Fortune level” is 900,009,850. (Incidentally, height: 157, three sizes: 78-58-79)

    Reply
    • Yeah, we only included what was above the line. You can’t see it in the screenshot but the number below is constantly rising throughout the whole scene, which makes it kind of hard to typeset.

      Reply
      • Although, looking at it again, it doesn’t actually say “unusually high”. The text above the line just reads “Fortune energy”, albeit with a funky kanji wordplay.

        Reply
        • The white text, you mean? I got ‘Extremely rare’ from the translator, which I put as ‘unusually high’ because ‘rare’ isn’t a quantity.

          Reply
          • I had to google it to figure it out (得名 is not a valid kanji compound, which had me confused for a while). The meaning of the kanji don’t matter, as it turns out; it’s a play on the kanji readings.

            得(e)名(na)示威(jii) = energy

            Reply
  6. I was pleasantly surprised with this release. I thought it would be worse – honestly, if typesetting and karaoke are the biggest problems, that’s fine by me. I generally thought the script was very good. Glad someone is at least doing this show.

    Reply
    • “the [actual important part] is good, but the [frivolous extras] are crap, so the whole thing’s crap” – dark_sage

      Reply
      • A C+ makes it average (because I’m nice and overrate things). I would argue that typesetting in a sign-heavy show is relatively important. You wouldn’t release Acchi Kocchi Baka Test untypeset, would you? That’s why the visual score dragged the final score down.

        If you only care about the main script, then I think you got the right takeaway from it. But I think typesetting is important to providing a quality (overall) release of this show.

        Reply
  7. It seems someone’s been busy. I take a break and find 6 reviews on my RSS, nice. Interesting show, will pick it up.

    Reply
  8. gg and CR are the only ones subbing this show, so I didn’t have a choice. Not like I was looking forward to watching this show, but these subs made it fun to watch! Hope they’ll typeset in the future.

    Reply
  9. Using “fuck” in a release isn’t a big deal. However, overusing it can dilute its effect.

    If a character goes 17 minutes without swearing and then suddenly snaps and starts cussing someone out, it stands out a lot more than if they were just tossing out “fuck” every three words and then suddenly started cussing someone out. In the latter case, there isn’t a significant change in behavior, so there isn’t the same level of emotional intensity when you would really want to drop a “fuck”.

    I haven’t watched this particular release yet, but that’s an observation based on other fuck-happy releases I’ve seen.

    Reply
    • There was actually a lot more cursing in the unedited script but I toned it down a bit for the reason you stated. The ones that we use are there for comedic effect.

      Reply
  10. I’m the translator. The lines you mentioned (the magnifying glass, the traffic lights, the Japanese politician) are all literal translations. Most lines are literal translations. The only changes we made were editing (to make it flow better in English), the occasional pun, and throwing in “fuck” when appropriate.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to FalseDawn Cancel reply