Translation Review: [Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II – 01v0

This post was written by kokujin-kun. He is not Dark_Sage.


Let’s see if their sacrifice of quality over speed was worth it.

Table of Contents

Release Information

Translation

Other Observations

Final Grade

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (435MB, 8-bit)

Translation: Original

Wap Level: Full Wap

English style: American English.

Speed: Quick (<48 hours)

 

External links.

Group website: http://www.hiryuufansubs.com/

IRC channel: #[email protected]

 

Translation

Karaoke.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_22.59_[2014.07.06_18.29.11]

ED. At least they’re on par with Crunchyroll when it comes to translating lyrics.

Main Script.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_00.58_[2014.07.06_16.58.22]

Luckily for us, Hiryuu actually reads the novels/watches the actual show.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_00.36_[2014.07.06_20.36.16]

Of course haijin is a slang term that means people who are addicted to vidya games, but Hiryuu went even further and took a swipe at all you hard-core competitive gamers out there. Nice job.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_03.35_[2014.07.06_17.08.44]

Line was timed wrong.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_04.13_[2014.07.06_17.10.19]

I liked how they handled his abunai naa (Crunchyroll just had, “That’s dangerous.”)

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_04.48_[2014.07.06_17.11.25]

Supposed to be, “Well we’ve been meeting each other like this for a year…”

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_05.30_[2014.07.06_17.13.52]

More like “standalone” or “dedicated”  instead of “peculiar.”

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_06.34_[2014.07.06_17.16.56]

This should be, “Not for games, but for creating a man-machine interface that replaces the current FullDive technology.”

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_09.18_[2014.07.06_17.47.01]

All you mincing Francophone/Francophile smartasses may point and laugh.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_10.25_[2014.07.06_17.54.51]

Last time they had a location ending in a -ku (Chiyoda-ku), they translated it into “Chiyoda City.” Here they leave Nakano-ku just the way it sounds.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_10.42_[2014.07.06_17.55.36]

Just “lying on the bed” would have sufficed.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_13.15_[2014.07.06_17.59.26]

Here’s a danger of leaving things untranslated. The uninitiated might actually think this is a real name instead of a weird screen name (“Lightly Salted  Roe”).

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_16.36_[2014.07.06_18.10.26]

“Pickiness” or another similar word would be better for kodawari.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_17.47_[2014.07.06_18.14.21]

More like, “why don’t we compensate you and call it an investigation collaboration fee?”

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_18.09_[2014.07.06_18.16.20]

“We want to get to the bottom of this matter before those in power seek to use it as an excuse to put restrictions on [the FullDive technology].”

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_18.22_[2014.07.06_18.20.12]

A case of blind translator syndrome on the part of Hiryuu.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_18.42_[2014.07.06_18.21.07]

I would have went with, “That’s why if we’re going to get to the truth of the matter,” but I guess this line passes the smell test.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_19.51_[2014.07.06_18.23.30]

The original line had it along the lines of “[the castle that] doesn’t exist anymore,” but they went in this direction, which I like.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_21.40_[2014.07.06_18.25.44]

She actually says “Distance of  1,500…” in this line, which should’ve been part of the previous line.

 

 

Other Observations

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_23.38_[2014.07.06_18.29.26]

None of the signs were translated in any form in this release. Hell, here they didn’t even bother to make a subtitle when Kirito audibly says the title of the next episode.

[Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_01.54_[2014.07.06_17.05.16][Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_00.27_[2014.07.06_16.43.47][Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_17.15_[2014.07.06_18.11.18][Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II - 01v0 [720p H264 AAC][CED85EB0].mkv_snapshot_18.06_[2014.07.06_18.15.27]

Just a few things a QC might have caught.

Final Grade: C-

It’s quick, it’s messy, but if you’re one of those leechers who take the first thing that’s released, then this release gets the job done all right. However, even if the dialogue script is totally accurate (which was in the B range anyway), this will never compete with Crunchyroll/Horrible subs in terms of quality. CR translates (almost) all their signs while Hiryuu, for some strange reason, didn’t care to even {/an8} any of the signs and call it a day. So for that reason alone, it’s an inferior release to CR. However, they say they will release a better version, so don’t consider this their final score.

Watching Kirito talk out of his hymen two times in the same weekend is more than enough for me, so I’ll look at the other releases later on.

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34 thoughts on “Translation Review: [Hiryuu] Sword Art Online II – 01v0”

  1. “v1 will have a new encode from a new source (read: there won’t be a patch, sorry), more editing, timing tweaks, typesetting, and actual QC.” – Hiryuu
    why would you review the v0?

    Reply
      • From what I know, the tl was tired of having to wait on slow people to do their jobs. He didn’t like that the stuff he tled just hours or so after airing was held up for days at something he had no control over but still had worry about. It was originally planned that there would be nothing but a release with tl, edit, and timed to a raw for a wicked fast release but apparently it was decided last minute or something that there’d be a release with tsing and stuff. I heard the editor fell asleep for this ep so the v0 wasn’t edited or edited by the usual guy or wasn’t edited completely by the usual guy. Something like that. Don’t take my word for it, though. That’s just as I remember it. I could still be wrong about some things.

        Reply
    • >why would you review the v0?

      Because they released it, basically.

      That’s the score they got for this release, but I will review a final release later on the road.

      Reply
    • This isn’t an editing review, it’s a translation review. Editing and QC should not affect the accuracy of a translation.

      Reply
  2. you suffered from blind reviewer syndrome this time, because the v0 was supposed to be the bare minimum translation, the v1 will probably have the quality i expect from hiryuu

    Reply
  3. The French one was funny :D I wonder why they decided that the French words needed capitalising though – is it standard Hiryuu practice to capitalise all Foreign Words(TM)?

    Reply
    • Original line was 今後出現する火器は、装備要求ストレングスも、命中精度もどんどん上がっていきますよ。 The “mo” particle and the comma between “sutorengusu (strength)” and “meichuu seido (accuracy)” suggests that they are two separate items, and the preceding “soubi youkyuu” (loosely translated as “required”) only describes the “strength” and not the accuracy, so Crunchyroll seems to be more accurate in this regard.

      Reply
  4. Thanks for the review, koku. Nothing excuses the errors, but if anyone wants to know how this came about…

    For what it’s worth, this translation was done and timed off of an audio recording from Anime Expo’s advance screening the night before.

    The translator was exhausted and was nodding off the entire time while translating, doing it overnight. The editor fell asleep after 10 lines, and I took over thereafter, even though I was also tired and had to wait on the translation, which mostly came after 7 am. So scriptwork was pretty much done by two guys who hadn’t slept all night and who were working without the video. Hence you see the blind translator syndrome and lack of even \an8 signs.

    The release was about 110 minutes after airing or so, literally cap -> encode -> shift timing to video -> release as fast as possible (which ended up not being that fast because the capper’s internet and the timer’s internet).

    Take it as part joke, part experiment, and part adventure gone wrong. If we do further v0s, they’ll obviously have to be with the video and probably will be on nonzero sleep.

    Reply
    • One has to wonder what you get out of doing that. Are beating HS download numbers that important to people? :S

      Reply
        • Seems like a waste of time to me. I mean, sure, we all want decent download numbers (that’s why we release episodes to the outside world) but the reason I want more people to watch the subs I help produce is because I want more people to witness the gloriousness of our subs. If subs are released that are substandard by your own admission, what exactly do you get out of it?

          Maybe I’m too long in the tooth to understand it…

          Reply
      • Trying to be faster than HS’s release was a thing this week, sure. It was also about a change of pace and trying something new for a team that’s been fairly slow of late, not having to wait on TS (understaffed there), and some other things. Anyway, it wasn’t my idea, and maybe I can’t quite articulate the motivations properly. I was just up for being along for the ride.

        Competing with HS simulcast (latecast 2 hours) download numbers on a show like this is pretty much impossible.

        Honestly, not that many people check the websites for admittedly smaller and less active groups, so having some kind of release out early is an announcement or advertisement that we’re still alive and actually doing something. We were inactive two seasons ago and did a release under a joint tag last season, which of course causes some people to not realize who is involved. Of course, any concerns about viewer counts and so on are secondary at best.

        Reply
        • “so having some kind of release out early is an announcement or advertisement that we’re still alive and actually doing something.” – Twinkle

          And to prove that your staff will be seriously take that show.

          Reply
          • That’s one way to intemperate things.
            The main reason why we do this is because it’s fun. Fansubbing as a hobby can be tiring and tedious; it’s good to switch things up a bit and have some fun.

            See NGNL episode 03v0. We were did a speed release of that. We did it because it’s fun. While this isn’t our primary motive, it’s also a satisfying feeling when you get 1UP against CR in terms of speed.

            Reply

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