Fansub Review: [Commie] Hyouka (Episode 02v2)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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Next up is Commie’s version of Hyouka. Gotta love this Hyouka fun.

Release format: MKV (299 MB, 10-bit)

Japanesiness: No honorifics.

English style: American English.

Group website: http://commiesubs.com/

Encoding details: http://pastebin.com/21xpVrkB

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. Bland karaoke. About on par with Mazui’s. gg did a far better job than both groups here.

Ending. Commie can have decent karaoke when they want to. They definitely have the best version for the ED.

 

Typesetting.

Hey, herkz. I think this needs more blur and less shitty typesetting.

FYI, it’s “high school”, not “highschool”.

Commie was the only group that typeset this scene.

Again, Commie was the only group to typeset this scene.

Commie was the only group to put any effort into typesetting this show. This screen comes from a lengthy series of signs that needed to be typeset and Commie was the only group to attempt this.

Ironically, even though Commie did a bunch of typesetting for the one section, they skipped out on the “book returns” sign.

Nice.

That is some shit capitalization. The typesetting’s also terrible.

 

Other.

Forget that the script overlaps the Japanese here. A bigger problem is that the italics on this font look like shit. Fucking hard to read.

No line differentiation? Come on…

Script Quality

Karaoke.

The OP/ED were handled just fine. No major complaints here.

 

Main Script.

Why is there a double space after “Dear”?

Oh, they plan to to, do they?

What in the name of shitting dicknipples did I just read? The fuck is a “stage of your sister’s youth”?

This sorta works, which is more than can be said for gg’s and Mazui’s Engrish at this part. Thanks for actually trying, Commie.

Ah, British English, we meet again.

Yeah “costings” doesn’t really have a place in American English, so I had to look it up. Shit checks out though. But I’m watching you, Commie…

Well, to be more specific, I’m watching your subs. But you get the gist.

Someone just got told.

This isn’t a complaint; it’s an observation of good writing.

Nice timing.

Mazui and gg have these as “Manga Club” and “Sewing Club”. Not saying Commie has it wrong here, but I am heavily implying that I think gg/Mazui have a better localization of these. Especially because “manga” doesn’t usually translate into “book”.

It’s learning time.

You generally use “in a meeting” if the person is presently busy and in a location relatively close. “at a meeting” is used when the person is away from the location.

“Where’s Johnson?”

“He’s in a meeting right now.”

“Oh, so he’s getting dome from the secretary? Nice.”

“Fuck yeah, bro.”

vs.

“Where’s Johnson?”

“He’s at a meeting in Hawaii.”

“Oh, so he’s getting his pineapple juiced by some foxy native? Nice.”

“Fuck yeah, bro.”

Context is important.

All three groups had a similar line, but I’m gonna include it in each review. Why? Fap/schlick material. I’m cool like that.

Commie phrased this best.

Mazui: “It’s about a loved book given no love.”

gg: “It’s the story of an unpopular popular book.”

Good, natural phrasing.

Shit repetition. There are phrases you could use besides “Take a look”. “Check this out, Oreki!” would work just fine.

Clever phrasing. Slightly better than Mazui’s because Commie’s was wittier, but they were both better than gg’s choice of words.

gg: “At any rate, it makes me very curious!” // “Not me.”

Mazui: “Anyway, I’m curious!” // “I’m not.”

Make the tenses match.

“there’s a decent chance they’d all be girls.”

Doesn’t really seem natural for a high-class place. Way too Japanese in flavor here.

“Thank you for gracing our establishment.”

“Firstly” and “first of all” mean the same fucking thing. Redundancy sucks. Your subs suck. Your redundant subs suck.

Just drop the “First of all,” from the second line and you’ll be good to go.

1. Why is “Art” capitalized?

2. Why is this phrased so poorly?

“Classes 2-D, 2-E, and 2-F take art together, so those pictures could be theirs.”

Like Mazui’s script (and they fucking said the word in English too), this should be “motif” instead of model. It makes more sense.

 

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-

Commie’s release was better than gg’s in both visuals and script. However, it still wasn’t all that good. These groups are speedsubbing and a result, they tend to fuck things up for the holy cause of releasing first. It’s a damn shame because I’m sure were one of these groups to try, they could do an excellent job.

0 thoughts on “Fansub Review: [Commie] Hyouka (Episode 02v2)”

  1. Thanks for the review. A couple of things (as per usual :P)

    The double space is because there was a commented-out word on the pad and I forgot the spaces on each side would both show up in the actual subtitles. I’ll take more care to avoid this in the future.

    The book actually is meant to say “high school” as separate words, but the spacing is a bit messed up.

    The “What do you think?” is a timing error, the below line wasn’t meant to begin until the first had finished. Oops.

    I interpreted “stage of your sister’s youth” as being “the place where your sister’s youth took place”. You’re right though, it’s a bit of a translator-ism and I should have come up with something else.

    “Book Club” was more of a TL error than an intentional localisation. We’ll fix it for the batch with the other stuff here.

    Art is capitalised because it’s the name of the subject. You’d capitalise English, and Japanese, and Geography, and Science, and Classic Literature, so I don’t see why Art should be treated any differently.

    I meant “model” for the last part as in, they were using it as a model to draw that part of the picture from. Now that I think about it, “motif” would make sense as well if the idea is that they were all basing their pictures with that same book as the theme, but I think both make sense. To me, anyway.

    Anyway, thanks for those and the other points. I usually end up editing this in somewhat of a rush but I’ll do what I can to keep an eye out for repetition and weird phrasing in the future.

    Reply
    • Unless it’s different in British English, we don’t capitalize the names of classes unless they’d be capitalized for other reasons.

      “I’m going to Japanese class.”
      “I’m going to math class.”

      Reply
  2. >It’s a damn shame because I’m sure were one of these groups to try, they could do an excellent job.

    Yeah, but I fucking hate this show.

    Reply
  3. Spring has sprung and irony is in the air. I’m not even going to bother comparing the releases anymore. There’s really no clear-cut, best release. This show is only worth watching for the visuals(if u know what i mean), anyway.

    Reply
    • There _is_ a clear-cut best release, but you don’t care because the release _you_ wanted wasn’t validated by Dark_Sage. (Note: This sums up all past, present, and future criticisms against fansub reviews and arguments in general.)

      Reply
      • Begging your pardon, sir. The irony tidbit is meant to be understood solely by me. Forgive me for not explaining the silly, intricate thoughts my brain processes. I’m going with Commie’s release. Surely you don’t think I’m biased, brain-kun~ I mean, I’m one of Commie’s biggest fans. If you need any more proof, I’ve adopted a new motto: when in doubt, go with Commie.

        Reply

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