[UTW]’s Fate/Apocrypha (All Episodes) is a Masterwork of Idiocy

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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With Fate/Extra Last Encore coming out soon, you should thank god that UTW’s practically disbanded. I’d rather watch the raws than their guesslated cancer. (go kill yourself, raze)

Kept you waiting, huh?

 

 

Table of Contents

When everyone is allowed a voice, the idiots speak loudest.

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

 

 

Release Information

Spoiler:

Episode details.

Release format: “1280 x 720 is the resolution of the future.”

Japanesiness: “Let’s convert all the honorifics to first names instead; that’s a whole lot easier than actually translating.”

English style: Faux-American English. Pretty sure one of the script devs was an import.

Encoding details: “Will it blend?” (Spoiler alert: it does, but not nicely)

Translation style: Shitting the bed.

 

External links.

Group website: https://utw.me/

IRC channel: Nobody uses IRC anymore. Hell, even I let my name and channel lapse. Anything else I should throw here? Twitter tags?

 

 

Visual Review

Spoiler:

Karaoke.

OP1 / OP2 / ED1 / ED2

One screen is enough. They all look the fucking same.

Rating: I can’t remember a more forgettable karaoke.

 

Typesetting.

It’s fine. For those who want to point out that this should be Träumerei, uhh, you’re wrong. This is clearly Spanish, not German. UTW is fansubbing’s greatest group; they wouldn’t get something that fucking simple wrong.

 

Encode.

gj Naine.

 

Timing.

The timing is just a tad off in every episode. Which, I get it, timing is easily the hardest position in fansubbing to master. I mean, you have to ensure lines appear on the screen at the right time, and… well, that’s it. But it’s super tough, I promise!

 

 

Script Review

Hold onto your genitals.

Main Script – An Episode 05 Case Study

This is the more traditional episode-based script review. More blatant stupidity awaits in the other one.

Spoiler:

UTW’s characterization doesn’t make sense. Take the line above: would an incredibly educated (and haughtily so) scientist use phrasing reserved for the backwoods where this editor’s aunt and uncle conceived him?

This shit ain’t hard — if someone’s speaking formally, you should ensure their dialogue comes across similarly. Editors cannot rely on their poor writing to be overcome simply by the seiyuus. A script should never get in the way of the show.

 

Contractions are haphazardly (and painfully) bandied about…

So formal!

…voiced dialogue doesn’t match the length of written dialogue…

…and the phrasing is about as disconcerting as a feminist’s hygiene habits.

“I am Editor Idiot.”

 

On top of that trash heap, you have the awful phrasing:

This is the oversized graphic tee + khaki shorts of English.

 

Basic issues with the editing aside, episode 5 must have had no QC whatsoever.

What kind of grammar is this? No… nor?

And then we get “neither… or”? The gods were cruel to this editor.

She’s not talking to Saber, though.

“We lost Saber, our strongest Servant!”

-or-

“We lost our strongest Servant: Saber!”

Though I’m not as big a fan of the latter, cuz colons are really only useful for fucking these days.

Now what the fuck is this retardation? Yeah, you should’ve done something. You should’ve gone to school.

This isn’t how you semicolon.

I’m more worried for the people who have to interact with this editor on a regular basis.

Yeah, I doubt that.

 

Ready for more? It only gets worse.

 

 

Main Script – Episode 14+

I know my title promised all the episodes, but I’m not fucking rewatching Apocrypha. Though I promise I’ll do a deep dive on the OVAs if we get a Mordred v. Semiramis oil wrestling match.

Spoiler:

cleanse. However close you get to being correct, you’re still wrong. Also, I’m sorry you have to work with a retarded encoder, but at least you make a good fit.

It’s not wrong to pull words out of utterances, but they generally have to correlate with the surrounding sentences. This literally makes no sense.

You can’t “negate” a wound, as a wound -by nature- already fucking exists.

More like “You’re taking the lead?”

The only thing worse than racism is this editor’s writing.

You can be cute, but it has to fit the character’s vocal patterns, otherwise you’re just masturbating a micro-penis.

own volition

Who writes a line like this and then thinks it looks good?

The only thing I need is another drink.

Damage doesn’t grow, it spreads.

Sorry editor-kun, I don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon.

Pray tell, how does worst come to worst? It’s like going from 0 to 0. Now, technically this isn’t wrong. worst -> worst is the original expression, after all. But in modern usage, worse -> worst is far preferred.

This is a legitimate issue pervasive through UTW’s release — you’ll get a lot of lines that technically pass, but only with grounded colors. Nobody would call this writing good, not even the editor’s chromosome-generous mother.

UTW often gets their tenses confused in Fate/Apocrypha. The second line should be “Yeah, I wish it would never end.” because they’re still in the fucking ‘dream’.

What in the literal what is this supposed to mean? Like, I get the point, but what the fuck are they on about?

Instead of laws, shackles would make both sex and this line so much better. Don’t read too much into that.

As far what as possible? Away? Then fucking say that you limp-dicked lardfucks.

The perfect translation for “onegaishimasu”. Who could think of 30 other nonmemetic translations for that which would have worked? Certainly not me, and certainly not raze.

I know Christianity is kind of an obscure religion, and English is kind of an obscure language, but with the magic of the internet I’m sure you could find someone to consult who could get the grammar right here.

If only they had a term for someone who acts like a clown in a story. I bet if they did, it’d be something crazy like “comic relief”. Alas.

Sto-mash, huh?

Not with that attitude.

The Sword in the Stone’s never been called that before, but okay.

Sometimes I try and put myself into the editor’s mindset to see what they might’ve been thinking when they wrote the stupid lines they wrote.

I tried that for this one and now I need to clean my brain with bleach.

There are times when you capitalize earth, and others when you don’t. Guess which occasion this is.

You could go with jester or fool, but you chose clown.

Previously established.

If you have to reread a line multiple times to figure out what exactly it’s supposed to mean, it’s not a good line.

1 promise = 1 cry

Try imagining a rewrite of this fucking shit.

“heir” is not pronounced “hair”.

QC is a state of mind.

The only thing clear about this writing is that the editor needs to quit.

Me, editor. Me Engrish.

This line reads like doing a u-turn on a one-way.

UTW with that gap-toothed a e s t  h e t i c.

Not yet.

Scratch that.

alongside and along are different words with different meanings.

My only wish is for this editor to fulfill his life’s purpose and dive headfirst into a meat grinder. Actually, let’s make that feetfirst.

And current_gen UTW is a pathetic imitation of what they once were (not that they were ever great). I’m done.

 

 

 

Results

Insufficient.

Watchability: Watchable.

Visual grade: C-tier

Script grade: C-tier

Overall grade: C-tier

I cannot happily recommend these subs, though it’s not like you have much choice for this series, considering APEX somehow managed to be even worse.

Oh wait, there’s Netflix, isn’t there?

 

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32 thoughts on “[UTW]’s Fate/Apocrypha (All Episodes) is a Masterwork of Idiocy”

  1. Those things happen when there aren’t CR scripts to edit and an original TL has to be made like the good ol’ days; minus the sometimes nonexistent QC.

    Reply
  2. Wait, is Raze russian? Because to my editor and I this looks like this was either:

    a) Translated from russian extremely literally.
    b) Translated by a russian who thinks they know english.

    Reply
  3. >go kill yourself, raze

    Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. It’s been, what, three or four years since he left? And fwiw the last UTW show you reviewed (Chuuni2) got an A-.

    Every so often I kinda miss QCing… until I remember how much time I had to spend each episode.

    Reply

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