Fansub Review: [WhyNot] Zetman (Episode 02)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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More Zetman. What should I do next? Tell me, kthx. This weekend will be filled with reviews.

Release format: MKV (324 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics. “Oba-san” as “Auntie”. Japanese name order.

English style: American English.

Group website: http://whynotsubs.com/

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/1G9B9ZXS

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

Ji-hi’s screenshot comparisons: N/A

 

Table of Contents

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Timing

Results

Visual Quality

Karaoke.

Opening. The font changes places depending on what part of the OP it is. As a whole, the OP is pretty unimpressive, though.

Ending. WhyNot gets bonus points for not putting rainbows in this shit like they usually do. Good job, WhyNot. As for the karaoke before the bonus points kick in? It’s just a decent font with whiteish color. I think it really fits well in that second screenshot, but it isn’t as cool as it could be in the first screenshot. Maybe a different outline other than black in the black scenes would help.

 

Typesetting.

If this is the name of the hospital from episode 1, I get the feeling that it’s probably important enough to typeset.

…On second thought, maybe you guys shouldn’t be typesetting.

 

Other.

Why couldn’t this be placed right above the scrolling text? The text is small and it wouldn’t be hard to position the text right above it. I mean, it’s not as easy as {an8}, but it’d only take you like 10 seconds to create a font style that’s placed slightly higher than your usual one.

The two lines here should be distinguishable because they’re being said by two different people. Change the color of the top line to something other than the default.

Script Quality

Karaoke.

Call me out on this if I’m acting crazy here, but “dot dot dot dot Dead, lines!” doesn’t make much sense. SFW’s “dot dot dot dotted lines” actually does.

How did “Another hollow beat” (or some other Engrish phrasing) turn into “Your line.”? They’re not even close.

This OP is stupid in so many ways.

As for the ending…

“Even if I stop walking at Fifth Avenue, I won’t be able to obtain this love.”

What the fuck is this supposed to mean?

I mean, the rest of it is okay, but when you have stupid stuff like that, it throws doubt into the whole process.

 

Main Script.

This is actually a legitimate line; not a troll reference to Aquarian EVOL. The group he’s referring to is actually called EVOL. The capitalization here is a bit questionable, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s right in this context. The “Laws of EVOL” appear to be codified into the EVOL organization, so we’re gonna call it good.

As it reads, this is a “police and fire” department. But the idea here is supposed to be that there is a police department and a fire department — they’re separate entities. So this line should read:

“According to a joint investigation by the police and fire departments.” (Both “departments” and “joint” make it clear the departments are separated)

He starts off the line (in Japanese) with “Hai”. However, “Yes” would be a very shitty way to start this sentence, so WhyNot went with “By the way”. Good call.

I prefer WhyNot’s “Auntie” monicker over SFW’s “lady”. The latter is just way too informal considering she’s basically his adoptive mother.

Classic Engrish.

He says something like “Yapa, nankakuseika.” Pretty sure it would come up as something like “Something’s wrong after all” in a generitranslation. This is not a generitranslation though.

Edit: tits mentioned I might be wrong. So ignore my praise.

Not watched the episode, and not willing to guess the entire line based on what you thought you heard, but I’d bet a great deal this fellow said “kusai” here, which DOES mean “stinking”, and which DOES make this a straight and generic translation.

This already exists. It’s called fire-retardant gel. If you don’t really wanna use that word, it should still be fixed by making the line “Fire-resistant gel.” because “fire-resistant” describes what the gel is.

This is too long for the allotted time. There should only be one thought here.

“This scent…” works just fine on its own.

This shit doesn’t need to be capitalized and it definitely isn’t called that. “Anaerobic extinguisher” doesn’t even make any fucking sense. A fire extinguisher is something that extinguishes fires. An anareobic extinguisher is something that extinguishes… a lack of oxygen? What the fuck?

Take five seconds and do a google search on this shit, guys. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_firefighting_equipment

Anaerobic Extinguisher -> CO2 extinguisher

I guess this line technically works if the idea is “Hold the hand of one other person.” But I think it’s closer to “Everybody, hold hands.” because that just seems more sensible.

“Hold onto one another as tightly as you can.” (Maybe he says “hand” in Japanese, but I feel this gets the situation across a lot better.)

My redundant line is the right redundant line!

“My plan is better!”

Why the fuck is “kilometers” capitalized?

 

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: B

Script grade: B-

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

At its core, the release is fine and a perfectly valid download choice. However, though WhyNot did have some good phrasing, silly mistakes combined with silly decisions hampered this release from becoming great.

0 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [WhyNot] Zetman (Episode 02)”

  1. >Why couldn’t this be placed right above the scrolling text?

    Below is better, IMO, but that’s largely a matter of preference.

    Apparently SFW dropped everything so I guess WhyNot is probably the best remaining option.

    Reply
  2. I vote for Space Brothers and Apollon reviews next, even though there doesn’t seem to be multiple releases of these shows (not counting horriblesubs)

    Reply
  3. >My redundant line is the right redundant line!
    >“My plan is better!”

    Original would have been fine if it had some emphasis. It’s common for asshats to speak like that when they’re convinced that their way is the only correct way.

    Reply
    • It looked like spam. If you have something relevant to say, put more thought into it beyond “mediainfo is really a helpfull programm :)”

      For example, how is it helpful and why are you even telling me this in the first place?

      Reply
  4. >He says something like “Yapa, nankakuseika.” Pretty sure it would come up as something like “Something’s wrong after all” in a generitranslation. This is not a generitranslation though. (Which is a good thing.)

    Not watched the episode, and not willing to guess the entire line based on what you thought you heard, but I’d bet a great deal this fellow said “kusai” here, which DOES mean “stinking”, and which DOES make this a straight and generic translation.

    Reply
  5. >What should I do next?
    [Hiryuu] Shining Hearts, since no one doing it (yet).

    Haven’t watched their version since I’m waiting someone make a review of it, hopefully it is not as bad as their Brave 10.

    Reply
  6. [qutoe]“Anaerobic extinguisher” doesn’t even make any fucking sense.[/quote]
    Probably it’s meant to be some generic technobabble, fitting in with all the rest of his fancy ass equipment. Basically yet another in the long history of “modify the phased tachyon deflector!!” or whatever FOTW Trek came up with. Real fire extinguishers definitely don’t work anything like that thing does, and Justice-Kid there clearly wants to give it emphasis as something special (even though he’s poor I’m sure Jin knows what the fuck fire extinguishers are). That’s highlighted more explicitly in the manga but same thing, it’s special issue Batman type shit.

    So I disagree with your assertion that they should just say “it’s a fire extinguisher”, and “it’s a *magic* fire extinguisher” doesn’t really fit in a technoverse (although that’s what it is). It’s true they could have chosen some more creative babble I guess (although the manga was shining example, EG just went with “deoxygenated fire extinguisher” which sounds even worse). Ultimately it’s just a throw away though so almost anything works.

    Reply
  7. “A fire extinguisher is something that extinguishes fires. An anareobic extinguisher is something that extinguishes… a lack of oxygen?”

    I see how they ended up making the mistake, but it’s not the mistake you think they made. Here:
    Q: “What kind of extinguisher is it?”
    A1: “It’s an extinguisher that [description of purpose – puts out fires].”
    A2: “It’s an extinguisher that [description of mechanism – depriving the fire of oxygen]

    “Fire extinguisher” clearly falls into the former category; as you say, it’s an extinguisher FOR putting out fires. “Anaerobic extinguisher” was intended to fall into the latter category: an extinguisher that works BY creating a space with a deficit of oxygen. Where they REALLY went wrong is that “anaerobic” is usually used to describe a characteristic of the noun it modifies; that is, an anaerobic extinguisher is an extinguisher that ITSELF exists/functions/is without molecular oxygen, which is hopefully usually the case. What they should have used was “hypoxic extinguisher”, an extinguisher that works BY creating an oxygen-starved environment.

    Now, why not simply call it a CO2 extinguisher? Because if you go to the Wikipedia page on fire extinguishers (since you already went to the trouble of going there for a list of firefighting equipment… I mean, really?), you’d see that CO2 is just one of many different gaseous, liquid, and solid compounds that can be used to put out a fire by way of oxygen deprivation.

    But then again, it wouldn’t be the first time someone made an inaccurate translation for the sake of readability.

    Reply

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