What do you want to see on Crymore?

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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So you may have noticed I’ve been pumping through the reviews right quick. Hell, I think I’ll finish off this season by the end of the week. So you might be asking “What’s coming up next?” which leaves me respond with “What do you want to see?”

Yes, I already have shit planned, but screw that. I want to know what you want. This includes both what you want to see after this season’s reviews conclude as well as what you want to see during the upcoming season. Fuck, let’s make it include what you wanted to see in the past too. I will go back in time for you.

 

And if you don’t have anything you particularly want to see, just treat this as a general feedback thread.

 

Edit:

Umm, hmm, this is a lot of comments. I think I’m gonna go through the comments and add a bit of color to indicate what I agree upon/declined. Feel free to suggest something that’s already been suggested. I don’t expect you to read through 100-200 comments.

177 thoughts on “What do you want to see on Crymore?”

  1. I’ll try to come up with a serious answer tomorrow and make a suggestion or two, too tired to think that much right now, but one thing I’d like to see in the short term is a quick answer about what’s going on with getting the old articles back up? Not a big deal just wondering do you have access to them and just haven’t put them up, or were they lost in the move, or what. The review summary page looks lonely with all those empty categories!

    Agreed. In progress.

    Reply
    • Oh, they’re still here on the site. I just need to spend a few hours updating all the posts to get them to show up in the Review Summary.

      I intend to move the site over to a new host sometime this week (which will allow me to put plugins like the Poll back up) so I plan to do it after that.

      Reply
      • Oh sweet, the poll will be back before the new season starts, good to know! Even though the shows I’m interested in always seem to be well down in the popular vote.

        Reply
  2. I’ll second both being too tired to think of much and looking forward to seeing the archives restored after the host shift. Some of the old ones remain good reads (as well as being relevant for new viewers I guess).

    Agreed. In progress.

    Beyond that, a bit of variety along with the standard reviews always improves the mix. An entry on sub comments (ala Commie vs. MMM vs. Nutbladder) during the upcoming season could be fun for example, or with whiners.pro you did some stuff like impressions of other blogs during that silly tourney.

    Agreed. Sub comments will be in most reviews.

    Oh and when the meguca release happens (in 2014 wwww) give it an entry despite being old.

    Remind me when it comes out. ~_~

    Really though your main challenge is figuring out how to continue to use your immense powers for Justice.

    Declined

    Reply
    • Based on the Gyrozetter review feedback, fansubber comments will be a regular part of the reviews when it’s called for (when the comments are entertaining/it won’t make the review too long/etc.).

      Reply
    • I bought a blu-ray drive for this very purpose (well, and actually watching the shows I own). You’ll see some for the “A Very Merry Crymore Christmas Special”.

      Edit: I just realized you probably meant for groups, not official subs. I’m interested in what shows you’d recommend be reviewed since most BD groups just utilize TV scripts (that I’ve probably already reviewed).

      Reply
      • Coalgirls sometimes “edits” the scripts, though it’s usually limited to spellcheck and/or adding in honorifics and flipping around names.
        Kira-Fansub actually does QC the scripts, sometimes quite extensively.
        Apart from those two it’s just groups correcting errors from their TV version if they also do the BDs. Sometimes.

        Or Shaved could’ve meant movies/OVAs.

        Reply
      • I meant official- and fan- subs alike.

        Some BD groups modify the TV scripts from time to time (Colagirls and Kira for example) and then there are the movies.

        Reply
  3. Maybe you should make an article called “Top 5 worst fansub releases I have ever reviewed”. Doesn’t need to be anything elaborate. Just write one paragraph recapping why you thought it sucked.

    Reply
  4. More translation parties! and yeah, having the poll back would be nice too… How about a having a section for plot reviews, if it’s not asking for too much? ^_^

    Reply
      • I can make them a regular thing. What do you two (and others reading) enjoy about the format? Anything you want to see changed? I do them so infrequently that I’m afraid they aren’t as thought-out as the reviews are when it comes to format and content.

        Reply
        • How about some mixing on a groups number in the choices? so that people will have less bias and more difficulty identifying which group is which unless they check it. An example of an easy way to do this, I think: group A would have choice #1 for lines 1-4, then #2 for 5-8, #3 for 9-12 and so on. Then group B will have #2 for 1-4, #3 for 5-8… you get the point.

          Will do my first translation party like this as a test to see if people like it.

          Reply
          • I would gladly do that IF I had a system that allowed you to vote on each image and then automatically calculated the scores for you. That would be great.

            But if I implemented that now and forced you all to record your answer to every question and then check back at the results to calculate a final score? That seems messy and not fun at all. (I’m ADD when it comes to articles so I know I’d personally skip over every TL Party if the system made it difficult for me.)

            Reply
            • It would probably be possible to write a plugin that lets you include radio buttons (or maybe checkboxes for the indecisive) next to each option, and then add a “calculate score” button at the bottom of the page which calculates a score based on the selected options and reveals which group was behind which version of each line. What plugins are you using at the moment?

              Maybe if Behold writes it. <3[/color]

              Reply
        • Translation Parties are the best; I really liked the way the Kokoro Connect article was done and it helped me choose which subs I liked the best better than any other article I’ve seen so far. Being able to see the lines side-by-side without knowing whose they are is really helpful imo.

          As for the whole scoring thing, I can record my answers myself and add ’em up, that’s really not a big deal at all.

          Reply
      • You should assemble staff to review every episode of every show ctrlk1,1and become the very anime blogs you once hatedctrlk.
        Agreed.
        While you’re expanding, you should get someone to do translation reviews.
        Agreed.
        And fansubber interviews.
        Agreed.
        And a booru.
        Agreed.
        And an annual fansubbing vidya-off on LoL or whatever it is kids play these days.
        Agreed.
        And branch into manga scanlation and chapter reviews. There isn’t much manga out there, you can handle it.
        Agreed.
        And Facebook integration.
        Agreed. In progress.

        Reply
          • I’d like to add that Youtube Let’s Watches, a podcast, a monthly “who’s in my mouth” game, and hundreds of “Donate to Child’s Play” (Because video games are more important than telling cancer to fuck off) buttons across the site are also in the works.

            Reply
  5. Well, since you asked, to finish up this present season, I’d like to see how Chihiro did in comparison to Commie’s release of Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun. Along with Anime-Koi’s version of Code:Breaker.

    Now for the coming future season, the ones I would like to see are: Savanna Game, Mondai-Ji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?, Sasami-san at Ganbaranai, Cuticle Tantei Inaba, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, Yama no Susume, Amnesia, and Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun. Not sure who’ll pick up what, but I’ll leave it to you to pick out the best of the best for those series.

    As for past seasons, I would like to see who did the best for Tari Tari between Hatsuyuki, Commie, and AnimeTL-Broken. And since A-Destiny is the only one I know of who picked up Kingdom, I’d like to know if they did a decent enough translation to even bother watching it?

    I leave it to you if you want to bother with anything I’ve requested. Thanks for reading.

    Reply
    • Chihiro and FFF both declined to edit their Tonari releases so I’m afraid I can’t review there’s. And it looks like Anime-Koi dropped Breaker after the first episode, so that’s out as well.

      Coming season, yes I’ll review those. In what order, I’ll leave up to the poll.

      Oooh, past seasons. Not my favorite thing to do. And to give A-Destiny a review, in accordance with my personal standards (which I don’t really talk about), I’d have to do it from a newer release… and they’re up to episode 27. So that one’s not gonna happen. But for Tari Tari… I might actually have those reviews around here somewhere. I know I did Commie’s, but I also have screenshots for AnimeTL-Broken’s. The post itself may have gotten lost in the domain change so I’ll look around for it when we move hosts this week.

      Reply
      • Gotcha. I’ll stick with Commie’s release then for Tonari. And actually, Anime-Koi is up to episode 8 of Code:Breaker and is doing the series as a joint with sage. Not sure where you heard it was dropped from.

        And that’s fine. Kingdom was something I was curious about, but since I don’t know the A-Destiny group I wasn’t sure if it was worth watching. And if you do happen to find Tari Tari’s reviews somewhere that would be wonderful. No rush though. Thanks again.

        Reply
  6. To jump on the ‘I will go back in time for you,’ how about reviewing shows from prior seasons? Maybe a couple series a season from however long ago you find interesting.

    I don’t want to but so many people do… :(

    Hmm, or maybe offer to review anime movies? Though there is probably only one group that subs it, perhaps there will be notable differences. Or something.

    Perhaps.

    Oh, selecting a show at the near the end of its run, but before the new season rush, to have an update on? For example, you’ve reviewed it’s first episode & if you haven’t watched it beyond that, drop in & watch it’s 11th/23rd episode? Perhaps to explore more about the show or if subbing has or has not changed.

    Declined

    As for general feedback, I greatly enough your occasional random posts, whether they be on game systems, subbing, dramas, or what-have-you. Every time I see one, I know I’m in for a hilarious & informative article. Well, usually informative, hah hah.

    Agreed. <3[/color]

    One thing I would like to see is a more robust 'recent comments' feature, so we can see more than five new comments. Especially for times with a brand-new post obscuring anything going on with old posts. Sometimes even in the same post, since replies can be all over the place in a highly-commented post.

    [color=red]Complete.[/color]

    Looking into the future, if there ever is a time you become too busy to produce your usual posts, what do you think about having a stand-in(s) to prevent lengthy outages of crymore? Those delicious tears don't produce themselves! Or perhaps a post now & then from some of the regulars like herkz or Xythar? I believe you did it a couple times before, & I think it could be worth continuing.

    [color=red]Agreed. I'll see what I can do.[/color]

    Reply
    • You may be seeing something like this with me pitting official blu-ray releases against fansubs for the Crymore Christmas Special.

      What anime movie were you looking for reviews on? Just in general?

      “Updates” would fall into the category of “re-reviews” in my book and picking shows to re-review at whim instead of those that groups had already requested me to review… And with the assumption that re-reviews are going to generally trend higher in terms of score… That’s not exactly something I’m keen on doing.

      I’m quite concerned about being as objective as I can with the reviews (moreso with score and final recommendations than tone), so having me go around and choose which group’s scores to (in general) boost? I’m not going anywhere near that.

      Reply
    • “General feedback”, eh? Maybe I should have made that the title of the post because this is the kind of thing I was most interested in seeing.

      Don’t worry, I’ll throw more random posts your way. I like writing ’em myself (and they’re good for testing the waters of what people may be interested in seeing more of).

      Recent comments? I hadn’t put much thought into it. When I move the hosting over I’ll see if I can’t find a plugin for that (I’m sure I can). What were you looking for in terms of robustness? Seeing what people said (like on Whiners)? Displaying 10 of the most recent comments?

      I was actually thinking about grabbing another regular poster or two. (And probably not in the way you’re thinking.) Guest posts, yeah I do kinda miss those. I’ll see what I can do.

      No Fansub Review stand-ins though, as in no canon season reviews from others. I wouldn’t feel right about that.

      Reply
      • > Recent comments? I hadn’t put much thought into it. When I move the hosting over I’ll see if I can’t find a plugin for that (I’m sure I can). What were you looking for in terms of robustness? Seeing what people said (like on Whiners)? Displaying 10 of the most recent comments?

        RSS feeds for articles and comments (per article).

        Agreed. Trying to figure out how to do this.

        Reply
      • Extending the total to 10 works. I think the “recent comments” section is better without having the preview of what others said.

        Complete.

        Reply
      • In regards to anime movies, I was thinking just in general, fansubbed or official. Something that catches your fancy, by a poll, something you own, or what-have-you. I imagine it’ll be a bit looser since having to (potentially) sit through a two-hour long crymore-fest may make you want to shoot yourself, hah hah.

        Ah, I couldn’t think of how to categorize the ‘updates’ – if I realized they would be ‘re-reviews’ I would have remembered what you said about season twos & such. My bad.

        I agree with Kamica that previews aren’t really necessary, since it’ll likely be out of context anyways. Ideally, I’d like to see a drop-down or slider to allow for say, twenty or a user-selectable option. It’s mainly so I can see which older articles gain new comments, particularly if there are a few active ones at once, or where in a article the new comments are in, due to the reply feature. Cases such as a spat of popular articles or ones that gain 100+ comments with replies all over the place.

        Hmm, is there feature that highlights or marks new comments? Probably a lot more complex, though.

        However, if it can be accomplished with RSS feeds as corocoro says, I’ll just have to get me one of those~

        Also, hopefully the new host fixes what a couple others have mentioned about the right-end of the comments losing a few pixels.

        Hah hah, I started reading articles from the 71st page. It is awesome. Ah, so it was your Ayako Infinite Stratos article that started your infamy! And it was like your eighth article, too, hah hah.

        Reply
        • I too echo the sentiment of doing OVAs and movies (fansubbed or otherwise) as there’s a lot outside the usual barrage of CR edits that get fansubbed. Maybe it’d be nice to review groups you don’t usually review on what they do (like honobono for instance, who exclusively do stuff from the 80s and 90s). Only when you’ve got downtime between seasons, of course. Think it might be nice because it’ll also open up a new audience to what else is going on in fansubbing – in the same way that you introduced a new audience to anime blogs when the aniblog tournament was ongoing.

          (And I admit now that I’m biased because I’ve just edited an ova and in the process of editing a movie, so… take what you will from this) >.>

          Reply
            • I’m just thinking in general more than specifics. Like maybe a poll of fansub groups who aren’t putting out new stuff and see which heads the popular vote (or if anyone even votes) and then review a random show of theirs from that. I think it’d give a clearer overview of a group’s editing output rather than just on a per-show basis, because groups who aren’t speedsubbing generally don’t have as much variation in release quality as you might expect from the Commie’s and gg’s (after all, you’ve given them grades ranging from A’s down to D’s).

              Just a thought.

              Oh, and the ova I was interested in (read: edited) is Aniyoshi’s Arata Naru Sekai: Mirai-hen (though it seems like it’s only being distributed on xdcc? I’ll get onto distro about that…). Commie and a group called DeadFish have done it too, so might be nice to compare, even if it is only 30 mins long.

              Reply
  7. I’d like to see a post featuring a more comprehensive look at and comparison of active fansub groups. Stuff like different groups’ general track record, strengths and weaknesses, a description of their editing style and subbing method, a look at the individuals that the groups consist of, your general thoughts on the group, and so on. Though I realize it might be hard to do since you’d likely need a lot of insight into the internals of the groups which is not always easy to gain.

    Agreed. But not exactly as described.

    Reply
  8. A bit more detail into typesetting would be nice
    I don’t mean herkz quality reviewing, just more than the usual “x is good” sorta thing. perhaps calling out a typeset that is derped in some form, or even make note of a typeset that is done in creative ways or something like that. any additional feedback on things like that would be appreciated, I am not sure how others feel on the subject though.

    Agreed.

    Reply
  9. The return of the vacuous lifeblogging this site had in its early days.

    Kidding aside, It’d be nice to have the Review Queue and Review Summary fully functional. For some reason, the wasted space still mildly bugs me, although it’s pretty unimportant and seems to be rather difficult to get rid of, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I certainly have no complaints or criticisms about the reviews themselves.

    Reply
  10. Hey Dark_Sage, I was thinking that you should have a surprise re-review for Robotics;Notes because I’ve watched the new releases after you graded all the subs for it and their typesetting has gotten really lazy after the grading.

    Reply
  11. I’m kinda interested in what Behold said. Would be fun if you focused on one group. Probably a pain in the ass, but still <3

    Or… you could do with some more singing. Yeah, that would be good.

    Reply
  12. You could do a more in-depth analysis of a group’s releases for a series if the editor was particularly good/clever. So, say after your 1-episode reviews are done, if one release seemed exemplary, you could go back, watch the rest of the episodes from that group, and point out its strengths throughout the whole series (and hopefully encourage other editors to incorporate these practices).

    Obviously this is more time-consuming and there would have to be something worth discussing (simply saying “well this is some pretty natural English, and the grammar is good” would be meaningless), but this could help establish some common trends that distinguish good releases from great ones.

    Reply
  13. I’d like to see more reviews of official subs. Those are amusing.

    Also, maybe do some fansub reviews of older shows? Not all of us just watch current anime, yo.

    Reply
    • I’ll do it for the Crymore holiday specials, but when it comes down to new shows or old ones, I’m going to always stick with the new ones.

      Reply
  14. Obviously what you need to do to make Crymore the definitive anime blog is to take up episodic blogging. You know: summaries in case we didn’t get a chance to watch the episode ourselves, and just a little bit of opinion on what the latest episode of Sword Art Online felt like to watch. Lots of screenshots will help, of course.

    ow that actually sorta hurt to type.

    Actually, I’d just like to see more thoughts on your philosophy of fansubbing in general—what sorts of things go into a good translation, what makes for good typesetting, etc. We see a lot of specifics in the reviews, but I’d be interested in seeing more general, comprehensive stuff.

    Then again, there are only so many variations you can give on “readable font, put some effort into the typesetting, and for fuck’s sake make sure the final result reads like actual English.”

    Reply
    • The only thing is that I’ve tried making that very article multiple times already and each time it hasn’t lived up to my expectations for what it should be, hence the article was scrapped.

      While I want to agree, I’m not sure I can make the article that the topic deserves just yet.

      Reply
    • “Editing for Imbeciles?”

      You could have an established list of general rules and proper procedures to reference in forthcoming reviews instead of having to constantly repeat yourself.

      Or at least have it as a sort of cheat sheet for those too lazy/stupid to learn how to edit properly.

      Reply
  15. >“What do you want to see?”

    Wow, that is some dangerous thinking there.

    I guess in my case, it would be to review some old fansubs, pre-softsubs mkv era, just to show we are, in face, living in a Golden Age of fagsubbing.

    Reply
      • Comparisons! That is if you’re reading into the source material of the shows you’re reviewing. You’ve favored manga (maybe light novels too?) over their adaptations before but never really gotten into why. Something extra to throw in with your regular anime reviews, or a new facet of your manga reviews, should you move forward with that.

        Reply
  16. Review subs of older anime… Although I guess that doesn’t help asking, since you’ve declined that request before.

    Sigh. If you keep asking for it…

    Reply
    • Well even if I’m not keen on doing something, if enough people request it, I will.

      That’s sort of how I started doing fansub reviews as a regular thing.

      Reply
    • I try to get bishie pics for the ladies when I can. Unfortunately there aren’t as many crotch shots in anime as you’d think.

      Reply
    • That’s up to Hadena. I’d say “encourage them” but honestly my heart would be better off without any of their releases at all.

      Reply
  17. Umm, hmm, this is a lot of comments. I think I’m gonna go through the comments and add a bit of color to indicate what I agreed upon/declined. Feel free to suggest something that’s already been suggested. I don’t expect you to read through 100-200 comments.

    Reply
  18. I’d like to see more emphasis on the “delivery” of lines in your reviews. For example, if a line is meant to be funny, was the sub line funny? If a character is supposed to be an arrogant badass, does the language reflect that? If a scene is emotional, do the subs support that?

    I know you already point out particularly good and bad translations of jokes/puns, but it’d be nice to see other types of lines pointed out as well.

    Reply
    • What the shit? That page should be Private.

      It was links to every blog that has anything to do with fansubbing (excluding groups’ sites of course). I was also going to include links to the foreign versions of Whiners/Crymore. There are two Spanish sites I know of that adopted the Crymore style and one German site.

      Reply
  19. Some sort of notification system for updates maybe. For example, if the site goes down and a new site is created. (I only found this a couple of days ago)

    Reply
  20. 1) I liked the old comment previews more :(
    Vote it out.
    2) I agree about reviewing old shows. You could make a poll of shows that are bearable.
    Agreed. Reluctantly.
    3) Random posts are fun :D
    Agreed.
    4) Whine-subs should make a comeback next season.
    Agreed.
    5) Season previews, and then at the end you could compare how close your expectations were. Which I’m guessing they won’t be…:P
    Agreed. <_<[/color]

    Reply
  21. Start reviewing manga(You only have one choice most of the time, so yay!). Mainstream stuff is a nono. I suggest reading the later (180+) chapters of Kuroko no Basuke for starters, just for the lulz. [repost]

    Reply
    • You may be the only person who enjoyed my last live blog. Thank you for having good taste.

      I wouldn’t mind doing it again, but based on the cons I have coming up in my schedule — one in Canada and Ohayocon — I think I’ll be spending quite a bit of time enjoying those with my friends, and not necessarily blogging about it on my phone.

      The liveblog I had before was only possible because I spent a bit of time on my own because my ex and I had different events we were interested in. So there was some downtime where I was bored.

      Reply
      • Was it the one with burns-the-eyes cosplaying pictures & self-aggrandizing panels? Oh, & Coke being the best thing ever at two in the morning?

        I was crushed & never looked at a con the same way again! …Although I went to FanimeCon this year, my first one ever, & it was decent…

        Reply
  22. Shit. I’m probably about a week late to post on this, but I’d love to see another preview/predictions post for an upcoming season. Those are always drama-inducing and lulzy in retrospect.

    Reply

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