Officialsubs Review: [Daisuki] Stella no Mahou (Episode 02)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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Nobody’s been dumb enough to translate like this in… Christ, I think it’s been five years since I’ve seen a TL this amateur.

 

Table of Contents

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

 

 

Release Information

stella_no_mahou_01

Spoiler:

Episode details.

Release format:

  • MKV (864 MB, 8-bit)
  • MKV (567 MB, 8-bit)
  • MKV (338 MB, 8-bit)

…but why?

Japanesiness: Western name order, honorifics mutilated.

English style: American English.

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/9LjKcyPd

Speed: Simulcast.

Translation style: First job right out of community college.

 

External links.

Website: https://www.daisuki.net/

The thing I like most about Daisuki’s site is that it will auto-play shitty PVs if you visit. And even if you pause the first video that starts playing, less than a minute later, another shitvid will automatically start up.

Sure is some kind of design.

 

 

Visual Review

stella_no_mahou_03

Spoiler:

Karaoke.

Opening.

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Rating: N/A. Because of course.

 

Ending.

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Rating: N/A. ^_^

 

 

Typesetting.

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I think my mistake was having low expectations when instead I should have had none.

 

 

Script Review

stella_no_mahou_04

Spoiler:

On Honorifics.

There are two primary ways in which honorifics are commonly handled in translated Japanese media:

  • Liberal: Ignore the honorifics for common terms (-chan, -san, -kun), and leave only the character names (e.g. Naruto-san -> Naruto)
  • Literal: Retain the honorifics

Lots of wiggle room within those two camps, but those are the general thought processes.

 

Daisuki, however, handles things in their own way. For example, this is how they dealt with the honorific –chan:

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When you finish dry-heaving, just think how bad this show would be if there were boys in it, allowing –kun to be used. Make sure to wipe up afterward.

 

 

Main Script.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_00-34_2016-10-23_11-25-04

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Every piece of blonde-orange’s dialogue is as painful to read as it is painful to acknowledge that someone was paid for this “translation”.

Almost every piece of dialogue associated with her in this release is unnatural and forced. Certainly no living human being speaks like this characterization Daisuki has created. If they did, I’m relatively certain they’d have been beaten to death already.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_00-39_2016-10-23_11-26-43 horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_08-17_2016-10-23_11-45-33

Short phrases like “hai” and “ano” are left untranslated. Sad.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_00-45_2016-10-23_11-26-56

“heh” is an interesting translation for “ehh~”

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_18-56_2016-10-23_12-15-11

Similarly, presented is Daisuki’s translation for “oya”. This is the kinda shit you get when the TL can’t speak English or Japanese natively.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_00-50_2016-10-23_11-27-43

Awkward transliterations dispense with meaning in favor of a dictionary-based approach.

“Aren’t you riding a bike, though?”

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_06-08_2016-10-23_11-35-27 horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_06-11_2016-10-23_11-35-37

Speaking of based, welcome to the opposite.

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Dialogue gets weird. Like, there are appropriate times to use juicy. Mainly in Keijo!!!!!!!!.

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Just because you can use a semicolon doesn’t mean you should.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_09-07_2016-10-23_12-00-37

If you have the need for a pause, you don’t need to always use commas. Ellipses are the safe bet.

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Dialogue differentiation is inconsistent.

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I’m fine with respecting your pronouns, but this is a tad extreme.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_11-38_2016-10-23_12-05-07

I can appreciate the idea of writing how you speak, but if you have a speech impediment, maybe that’s not the best idea.

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MFW.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_15-08_2016-10-23_12-10-51

Excuse me.

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_23-29_2016-10-23_12-21-08

?

horriblesubs-stella-no-mahou-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_15-12_2016-10-23_11-22-38

Presented without commentary.

 

 

Results

stella_no_mahou_02

Watchability: Ehh, guess it’s watchable.

Overall grade: Low pass.

This show is understandable even with an incompetent at the helm of the script, but that’s only because the show is just as stupid. Daisuki sucks.

As for your only alternative, [GamerGirl] released a v5 as a v2 and couldn’t even close the tags on the CRC. And if you wanna know what their subs look like…

gamer-girl-stella-no-mahou-01v2-f2adb9b1_001_353

Yeah, best to just drop this show. This is what happens when you leave a scene to idiots.

 

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21 thoughts on “Officialsubs Review: [Daisuki] Stella no Mahou (Episode 02)”

  1. Low pass? Watchable?! I bet the people at Daisuki are having a party at this news, considering they’re basically the Hadena (is that a reference people will still get now?) of the prosub community.

    Reply
    • I never want to do a Daisuki simulcast ever again. It’s literally aids. I thought funi was bad until I did one show from them.

      Reply
    • Please continue, your subs were absolutely fine, definitely leagues better than this atrocity.

      Meanwhile, I’ll probably do a bit of the manga.

      Reply
  2. You should review Tales of Zestiria from previous season. Even Funi was vastly superior to that Daisuki crap. It would be funny review, cuz Daisuki’s translator doesn’t know japanese. Funimation scripts were totally different.

    Quick example from episode 05:

    Daisuki: This is all it took to bring them down?
    Funi: It got chipped from just that? This thing sure is dull.

    :DDD

    Reply
  3. >fansubs died for this

    You thought reviewing fansubs wasn’t necessary any longer but now you have to review official subs instead, quite sad…

    Reply
  4. > Christ, I think it’s been five years since I’ve seen a TL this amateur.

    Does this refer to anything in particular? Got me curious.

    Reply
    • I have seen this style of translation in the past, but I couldn’t remember where, so I just chose a number that seemed about right. No further reading here, I’m afraid.

      Reply
  5. How did this get a (low) pass? I tried to watch the first episode and had to stop the video several times to figure out what the “translation” is supposed to mean. The typesetting is just as bad and makes the dialogue even harder to read.
    The only reason why it’s somehow possible to understand the show is because the pacing is slow. If it were like Occultic;Nine, I wouldn’t have made it past the first five minutes.

    Also, “doujin game” -> “homemade game”. Seriously?

    Reply
    • D-tier: Low Pass.
      C-tier/B-tier: Pass.
      A-tier: High Pass.

      If you can technically watch the show and get the general gist, I’m not gonna consider it a pure Fail. You are correct that if this translator had to do anything more complex than generic moeblob whatever, their script would be untouchable. But I have to admit you can still watch this trash and get through the show, however many scrapes and bruises you get in the process.

      Reply
  6. I am not so sure. When I can toggle the subs off and still have the same level of comprehension of what is going on as if they were on they are pretty bad. Now obviously they could be worse to the point where turning them off is actually better than having them on but if there is no difference between having them on or off I am not sure if you can call this a pass.

    Reply
    • As D_S explained to me, the point is it is possible to understand the show with the subs. If you have no knowledge of japanese at all, you can still understand the dialogue.
      If there were any meaningful conversations that need proper translation to understand, this would be a fail.

      Well, unlike D_S I still think of it as a fail, because the translation makes me mad. The sentence(?) “Shore be sorry I’s late!” should NOT be allowed to exist. Almost every line where Main Character-chan speaks in her accent is translated in a way that is just painful to read. And I didn’t even watch the second episode where they mutilate honorifics yet.

      Reply

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