Re-Encode Review: [Commie] Aldnoah Zero (Episode 01)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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Commie’s just as good at fansubbing as HorribleSubs, so I don’t see why they’re so stigmatized. Come on y’all, the wait for their ever-fantastic localizations is clearly worth it!

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Explanation, for the uninitiated:

Spoiler:

jean-chan-san-senpai
The details:

The what?

Re-encode reviews are different from my normal fansub reviews in that they cover low-effort re-releases of an official sub release or another group’s subs. I will cover all, or most, of the relevant changes made in these posts, and explain whether or not I think the re-encodes are worth waiting for. Usually they won’t be, but perhaps your time is worth less than mine.

Feel free to take whatever you want from my posts. I’m not gonna force you at gunpoint to follow my recommendations, though I would if I could.

 

 

Things to note:

All images are hyperlinked to their larger-sized equivalents. So if you want to see a larger version of an image, open it up in a new tab or something. All encode comparisons are done in PNG, while all other images are in JPG.

 

CR/Crunchyroll refers to Crunchyroll.com, a North American anime streaming service that licenses shows to stream.

Funi/Funimation refers to Funimation.com, a North American anime streaming service that licenses shows to stream, and translates them with garbage, gibberish English.

HS/HorribleSubs refers to HorribleSubs a Native American subtitle-releasing group that takes whatever official sub providers stream and releases that shit on torrents.

Time cost (episode #): x hours, x minutes. | This is how long it took the re-encoders to release their version, as compared to when the original version was released.

 

 

“You’re wrong, but I’m too afraid to comment on it, so I’m just gonna whine about you on /r/4chan/, that’ll show you!”

As always, if you have any complaints or questions about my reviews, post in the fucking comments section. I let every dumbass with an internet connection post, including fansubbers. Make a game of it if you want: you win if you make me admit I’m wrong on anything. Feel free to use any logical fallacies you can think of, I’ve seen them all on this site. But if you don’t entertain me, I’ll just ignore you, and then you lose.

Come, play for my attention.

 

 

Is it truly a re-encode?

Yes.
Yes.

 

 

Change log:

  • English
    • Some edits
  • Visuals
    • Encode
    • Typesetting
    • Karaoke

 

The English

There were a few lines Commie made better than their officialsub equivalent, but on the whole, the “changes” were along the lines of what I’m gonna point out here.

 

Character rewrites.

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
Apparently in Commie land, all dialogue is informal. Fuck formalities; those are for people with jobs and a future.

So they took all of the Princess’s words that could be contracted and did so. Good thing she isn’t a princess, for whom formality would be an important character trait, or that would be an awful decision.

 

 

Dumb it down. No, dumber.

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
Apparently whenever Commie comes across a word they can’t understand without a dictionary, they get rid of it. Speaks a lot for who their target audience is.

 

 

Dialogue re-pacing. For some reason.

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
I don’t understand what they were going for here. Maybe they thought “Barely.” couldn’t function as a sentence? (It can.)

Commie’s change isn’t “wrong”, mind you. But by messing with the line’s delivery, it takes the heft out of it, making it worse.

 

 

A plurality is not enough.

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
“Those kids’ throat”? What, they all share the same one? This some kinda human-centipede type of metaphor?

 

 

Stupid is as stupid subs.

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
Crunchyroll put it awkwardly, but Commie made it wrong. He’s saying it’s been 15 years since the knights have seen any action, not that it’s a tradition for knights to spend 15 years in a castle.

He’s war-mongering here, you stupid shits. Even if you didn’t get CR’s line, you should have figured out what to put from the goddamn context of the show. The show’s Diet Geass — it’s not hard to understand.

 

 

Phrasage

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
This change isn’t bad, but for a group that tries so hard to appear American, it’s always funny to see when Commie edits out common phrases that they’ve never seen before. “‘We’? But that’s not the subject of the sentence! Better fix it!”

Keep it up and we real Americans won’t even let you in on a tourist visa~

 

 

 

The Visuals

Encode.

There’s no notable difference between the two encodes.

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
 As a note, Commie only offers their release in 720p, whereas Crunchyroll/HorribleSubs offer 480p and 1080p as well.

 

Typesetting.

Commie soundly beat HorribleSubs/Crunchyroll at the only sign CR did.

[HorribleSubs]
[HorribleSubs]
[Commie]
[Commie]
 The following, Crunchyroll didn’t touch, but Commie did:

[Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_03.51_[2014.07.06_11.42.54] [Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_04.09_[2014.07.06_11.43.57] [Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_04.04_[2014.07.06_11.43.43] [Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_04.01_[2014.07.06_11.43.27] [Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_03.58_[2014.07.06_11.43.16]

The following, Commie touched too hard:

[Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_04.14_[2014.07.06_11.44.11]

 

 

Karaoke.

[Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_22.45_[2014.07.06_11.40.57] [Commie] Aldnoah.Zero - 01 [F1217DE7].mkv_snapshot_22.48_[2014.07.06_11.41.05]

It’s translated, it just doesn’t make sense. That’s not Commie’s fault though, of course. Don’t you know how tough it is to fansub? Blood, sweat, and tears! Sympathize with these people, they’re just trying to make an honest living off ad money and donations!

 

 

 

..

Time cost (episode 1): 11 hours, 32 minutes.

Worth waiting for?: lol no.

Compared to the Crunchy script, the Commie script is worse than it is better, making it impossible to recommend. Stick with HorribleSubs or wait for an actual fansub release.

75 thoughts on “Re-Encode Review: [Commie] Aldnoah Zero (Episode 01)”

    • Us Commie defenders one day hope Commie will pull their head out of their ass. If I have to check every one of their releases I download just to make sure it’s not piss, what’s the point in having a name? One day it’ll be different again… A boy can dream…

      Reply
  1. The funny thing about Commie defenders is that they are nearly all fansubbers who are in some way associated with Commie or other cartel groups. The people complaining about them tend to be the consumers.

    Reply
      • I like their original translation(Monogatari Series, Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou, etc).
        But not their CR edits. Most of them are trash.

        Reply
    • Ah, by the way, the same “consumers” that trash Vivid because of their members? Such “consumers” only deserve Hadena-quality Chinese cartoons.

      Reply
  2. On what grounds are you classifying this release as a re-encode? Because it’s encoded from a web stream. How is that any different from encoding a transport stream, anyway? And more importantly, why did you end up not reviewing the encode at all?

    Reply
    • D_S likes using incorrect terminology to troll people who know what they’re talking about. I gave up trying to argue about this particular term some time ago.

      Reply
      • Except NT doesn’t call them re-encodes, but remakes.

        Re-encodes are also remakes, but not all remakes are re-encodes.

        Reply
        • While you may say that, an average person does not read it as such. For instance, after you marked my Monogatari S2 as a remake, I got a number of comments on my site like “Is this a re-encode? Nyaa lists it as such. Why would you do that?”

          Nyaa needs to either make remakes be JUST for re-encodes like 8-bit re-encodes, remuxes using similar sources, or mp4 stuff, or make a separate category for borrowed content, or these confusions will continue to happen.

          Reply
          • >or make a separate category for borrowed content

            But then Commie would have to mark all their torrents red as well. The Nyaa staff aren’t going to mark their own releases as anything other than A+.

            Reply
            • Eh, not exactly. It’s a little loophole that Nyaa designed.

              See, Xythar was able to make up some false reports about people complaining that CGi’s Hanasaku Iroha movie was the Underwater BD on a different encode and should be marked red. When I asked him why THORA’s Time of Eve wasn’t marked red for the same reason, as it used Southrop’s release for the subs, and Southrop released a BD, he said “A+ overrides remake”.

              So they could theoretically still mark their own releases as A+ and make a new category.

              Reply
              • you know, i’m really not a fan of the recently enforced changes to the remake rule’ interpretation, but don’t you think it’s a little ironic that those changes are totally in line with what you were asking for in that bbt rule changes thread?

                Reply
                • I’m against pretending that releases don’t even exist when the group put forth hours of effort on them – which is what bakabt is doing. I am for listing BDs by secondary groups as exactly what they are – remakes.

                  I think the nyaa tiered system should work like this:

                  Blue Release – Current A+ system
                  Green Release – Trusted Users. Trusted Users should mean exactly that – verified that the release is real. It shouldn’t mean “you’re new, or you talk bad about us, so you don’t get to be here”.
                  White Release – Unverified releases, or releases not related to a group
                  Yellow Release – Rips from official source, such as Horriblesubs
                  Orange Release – Remakes with attention paid to encode and subs. Thora, FFF, CGi, and many other groups would fall into this category.
                  Red Release – Flat re-encode or remux of a release to a share raw. Something like Deadfish or Nakamasubs would be included here.

                  This way, groups like CGi who spend close to 20 hours per episode of Monogatari aren’t grouped together with groups like Deadfish who do a 30-minute megui mp4 pass.

                  Reply
                    • Oh, of course it is. Their current system favors their groups in every way, allowing them to hide groups they don’t like via filtering, and promote their friends to A+ ranks via inconsistent standards to artificially inflate download counts. Which, btw, are artificially inflated anyways, seeing how some torrents I listed had 60 downloads on them before I had even seeded 1 complete download.

                    • If that’s what you believe, then there should have been no reason to mark CGi’s Monogatari as a remake. It just goes to show the whole hypocricy of nyaa’s supposed “unbias”.

                    • You used their typesetting AFTER they released their own BD version. You should’ve used node/R1/typeset yourself to avoid getting red.

                    • Yes archdeco, it’s a very convenient excuse that nyaa made up to get what they wanted. If they had spent 30 seconds looking at my release, it’d be very obvious that hardly any of the their typesetting remained the same, seeing how font, motion, and colors all changed. In addition, I used their TV releases typesetting for exactly this reason.

                      Further, this was the first time that red had been given out to a release for using 5% of a group’s TV typesetting, and the first time this “released after a group released their own BD version” rule had come into play. So don’t act like there was a precedent.

                    • It doesn’t matter if you use 100% or 5% of someone’s release. What matters is whether you release first volume before that someone makes a BD release using their own subs. Is it that hard to understand?

                    • Yes archdeco, to nyaa, because of this rule that you made up for the sole purpose of creating drama and attempting to hide CGi’s release via nyaa’s filtering system, it doesn’t matter. To everyone else with half a brain who understands that there’s a big difference between a 15 minute megui mp4 encode and a 20 hour per episode release that completely changes everything, it does.

                    • That rule existed for quite some time already, but nobody really cared about remakes. Blame Tenshi for wasting his time with HanaIro movie.

                    • archdeco, there is no evidence of it ever existing prior to you deciding on a whim “lol, let’s troll Kristen and mark the release red for barely using something from Commie”. Especially considering that episodes 9+ didn’t even have a Commie BD out yet. Or are you going to tell me that if I released episodes 14-17 right now on Nyaa they’d be marked a “remake”. And if so, a remake of what exactly?

                      BTW – HanaIro does not come into this discussion as that was a 100% remux. This isn’t the same script, the same typesetting, or anything close to Commie’s release.

                    • Did you even bother to read what i wrote earlier?
                      >What matters is whether you release first volume before that someone makes a BD release using their own subs.

                    • Yes archdeco, I did. And frankly, it’s retarded and only designed for the sole purpose of marking CGi’s Monogatari as a remake.

                      Did you read my post yourself? Tell me, if I were to release episodes 14-17 right now, what exactly am I remaking?

                    • Monogatari anime and typesetting © Commie. No copies or Nyaa fines will be issued. A “we do not take anime seriously except when we do” production.

                    • archdeco, I’ll put it like this.

                      This whole discussion has never been about whether CGi’s Monogatari is a remake according to Nyaa’s rules. It has been outright stated by staff members it is, even though those rules are not stated anywhere on nyaa’s site.

                      What it is about is how retarded the rule is, and how it obviously was only made because herkz got butthurt that I actually released the same show as him. Nyaa as a whole loses nothing by keeping it green, and CGi loses nothing by it not being green. After all, we just took the torrent down instead of being classified in the same breath as ” [DeadFish] Monogatari Series: Second Season – 26 [720p][AAC].mp4″

                      What’s funny is my whole purpose of submitting it to nyaa (for the first time in about 3 years) was to try to mend our relations and offer an olive branch of CGi’s most popular show. It’s really a shame that you had to decide trolling and aggression was better.

                    • >And frankly, it’s retarded and only designed for the sole purpose of marking CGi’s Monogatari as a remake.

                      ANE’s Koe de Oshigoto got marked as a remake about three years ago because GotWoot/Ryuumaru released their own BD versions and someone complained. The torrent was later deleted for whatever reason (I got mad probably?) so you can’t find it now but the fact remains – the rule has been there since forever and it has nothing to do with The Cartel hating Coalgirls.

                      I do agree that the rule is retarded but it can’t be helped.

                    • >You used their typesetting AFTER they released their own BD version. You should’ve used node/R1/typeset yourself to avoid getting red.

                      because reinventing the wheel and working with inferior signs that have since been fixed is good, right? right?

                      please get over yourself and the notion that you have any kinds of priority rights to any of your scripts, video, typesetting, w/e once you have released it to the public. same applies to
                      >I’m against pretending that releases don’t even exist when the group put forth hours of effort on them – which is what bakabt is doing

                    • So wait, Kristen – you took Commie’s TS from the TV release, slapped it on a BD with Commie’s subs (from their BD release), and you don’t think that’s classed as a remake/re-encode?

                      I’m dubious about the rating system on Nyaa myself, sure, but I don’t think you realise how stupid your argument sounds right now…

                    • No FalseDawn, not even close.

                      I took Commie’s subs from TV, removed all dialogue + songs, changed all their typesetting to Century to match my previous releases, changed there colorings, changed some to be less localized, repositioned it accordingly, and then added mocha so they shake.

                      Then I took Node’s subs and modified them to sound better and fit with the consistency of past seasons, and merged them with the Commie script.

                      Then I got my own songs and made my own OP/ED and placed it on a BD encode.

                      It’s not with Commie’s subs. In fact, outside of the maybe 2-3 signs in a release that I didn’t change, it’s 100% not Commie.

                    • >tp7, you used a bit of CGi’s Ore no Imouto translations in your BD, didn’t you?

                      That is possible, I don’t remember. Do you want to get the torrent marked red or something? :)

                    • No tp7, it’s just an example of inconsistency on Nyaa’s part. That and the one with the electric girl but I know we had original TLs for parts and you weren’t marked red.

                      As for the example you listed before, that was similar to Tenshi’s Hanasaku Iroha – Complete remux onto a new source. It isn’t the “Any part of it being reused = remake” of Monogatari.

                    • If you mean Denpa Onna then nope, I’ve got original TL not related to you in any way.

                      But yeah there’s inconsistency. As I understand it, this happens because most of the mods don’t like the rule themselves so they don’t enforce it until someone complains. It’s like a giant trolling button one can press when he wants.

                      Is it a bad thing? Sure, I think most people find this rule retarded and Nyaa is pretty much the only individual who likes this rule. Does this rule exist only because someone hates you? Nope.

                      As for “complete remux onto a new source” vs “any part being reused” – there’s no real difference (no one could fully reuse gotwoot because they hardsubbed the signs anyway), neither in the amount of effort spent not the quality of the end result. It all comes down to a better release being marked red because someone wants to control his stuff after it’s been released to the public.

                      In any case, any complains here will not get us anywhere.

                    • So you’ve basically taken everything wholesale from two different groups, tweaked slightly so it looks like there are some minor differences, and released it? Sounds like a remake to me >.>

                      But then, it doesn’t sound all that different from the simulrippers and they don’t get classed as remakes/re-encodes, so yeah, I see how there are double standards in the judgment.

                    • Yeah Falsedawn, if they want to dub that a remake, fine. But then every BD out there should be classified as such, outside of ones from the group that originally released it. But this will never happen because then many of FFF’s releases would have to be tagged as remakes, and archdeco is part of the nyaa staff.

                      tp7 – The rule prior to Monogatari was only used in extreme cases of subs specific to a BD being used on a BD. For instance, Koe de Oshigoto was an OVA on BD, and you put it on another BD. Hanasaku Iroha Movie, same thing. This is a BD adaptation of a TV series.

                    • Oh, I could’ve sworn I saw you as a blue name there before, my bad. OK, I’ll rephrase it. “archdeco is essentially part of the nyaa staff”.

                    • Correct. Essentially means you are in all but name, seeing how you can get any of your butt buddies to do whatever you want.

                    • What are you implying here?
                      And all I did was explain why your release was labeled as a remake. I never mentioned whether I’m in favor/against that rule.

                    • Which goes to show that you don’t read my posts and just spout your BS as you please. Pretty sure I’ve said multiple times that my complaints are about the rule that they made up for the sole purpose of trying to hide the CGi Monogatari release, not about the fact that they followed their own rule.

                    • And I told you that that rule existed before all that Monogatari drama happened but nobody really cared about it until Hanasaku Iroha movie.

                    • The rule existed and had been applied for BD to BD conversions. Never before had it been applied to a TV to BD conversion, and never would it have been if CGi released it anonymously.

                  • So new groups should automatically be trusted why? It makes sense for “trusted” to mean “uploaders who have gone ??? uploaded items with no problems”. In that sense, giving Trusted status to people you know also makes sense. Because you already trust them.

                    Reply
                  • You do know that a group account can also get the trusted status after users have marked 20 of its individual torrents as trusted, right?
                    As for the A+ status I really don’t get what’s the big deal about it. They give it to releases they believe are the best. Can’t they have an opinion? Everyone else has one lol. By the way, do you know many ppl who download releases based on A+? Most leechers just get the first available release, and the rest have already made up their minds based on their favorite groups.
                    tl;dr Get over your conspiracy theories already. Nyaa a+ or w/e status means shit to your average leecher anyway.

                    Reply
                    • Most leechers do get what’s first. The active and talkative leechers will go for A+. Personally I’d rather see low downloads that are getting feedback over lots of random people you’ll never interact with.

    • I’m just using standard terminology for releases like this. For example, no one would call a [Deadfish] release a “remake”; they’re “re-encodes”.

      Reply
      • It is standard terminology to describe encodes made from an already existing released by a third party as opposed to using an original BD/DVD/Transport Stream/Webstream source. I can’t believe i have to spell that out for you who’s such a stickler for words.

        Reply
        • From the perspective of someone with no connection to encoding, your definition makes no sense.

          I’m actually curious what re-encodes and remakes are supposed to be since people keep saying DS gets it wrong, but…

          Reply
          • How does it not make sense? If you take an already existing video out there that has not been encoded directly from TV/BD/Web and simply convert that to another format (i.e. mkv -> mp4 or h.264->DivX), then it’s a re-encode. That’s what I got from line0’s definition.

            Reply
  3. It’s good that more people are calling Nyaa out about his farce of a tracker.

    But at the end of the day, complaining won’t achieve anything, since Nyaa (as farcical as it is) is the only decent tracker in existence.

    The solution is to make something better… ;-)

    Reply

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