Officialsubs Review: [Aniplex] Durarara!!x2 Shou (Episode 02)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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I’m one shot from turning Crymore into a Durarara tumblr.

...On second shot, maybe I won't.
…On second shot, maybe I won’t.

 

Table of Contents

Release Information

Visual Quality

Script Quality

Results

 

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: 1080p MKV (548 MB, 8-bit), 720p MKV (327 MB, 8-bit), 480p MKV (148 MB, 8-bit)

Japanesiness: Honorifics.

English style: American English.

Speed: Simulcast.

 

External links.

Websitehttp://www.crunchyroll.com/ -or- http://aniplexchannel.com/

 

 

Visual Review

Karaoke.

N/A.

 

 

Typesetting.

There were a number of signs that they didn’t typeset, but since I didn’t feel like taking a hundred screenshots, I thought I’d just include the ones they did.

Spoiler:

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_03.05_[2015.01.22_14.02.01] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_04.30_[2015.01.22_21.06.59] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_09.00_[2015.01.22_22.51.42] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_09.57_[2015.01.22_22.53.00] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_13.12_[2015.01.22_23.22.58] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_13.38_[2015.01.22_23.23.28] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_15.44_[2015.01.23_00.06.21] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_15.45_[2015.01.23_00.06.26] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_16.44_[2015.01.23_00.07.36] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_23.47_[2015.01.23_10.04.26]

Also didn’t think you’d wanna be subjected to more screens than that selection.

 

 

 

Script Review

Main Script.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_02.57_[2015.01.23_10.29.49] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_03.02_[2015.01.23_10.29.24]

There were more egregious abuses of English in the release, but how the goddamn do you go with this over “Are they new here?”

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_05.13_[2015.01.22_21.07.59]

The script follows translation protocols from a decade ago. Basically, “Translate each Japanese sentence independently from the others and in the order they’re said.” So we get lines like the above instead of “I couldn’t possibly bring in the Black Rider…”

What’s surprising is how rarely it gets as annoying as in the above screenshot.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_05.56_[2015.01.23_11.38.11]

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_06.00_[2015.01.22_21.30.16]

Putting quotes around gibberish doesn’t excuse you from having an awful translation.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_07.19_[2015.01.22_21.39.35]

This doesn’t quite fit. “Reliability”, like Vivid had, makes much more sense.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_08.17_[2015.01.22_22.13.01]

What?
What?

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_08.25_[2015.01.22_22.16.05]

Sex drive has an orientation? I may not be up to date on sex-ed (shut up, Jenny), but I’m not seeing the point of that last bit.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_09.50_[2015.01.22_22.53.06] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_09.52_[2015.01.22_22.53.11]

The mailing list didn’t come; the email he sent out to the mailing list came.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_15.01_[2015.01.23_14.11.19]

I’ve heard of “inside-out”, but this is a new one.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_20.27_[2015.01.23_00.11.36]

assaulted Celty -> beset Celty

Not just because of the assonance, but because that’s the right fucking word to use.

 

 

Vs. Vivid

While I’d say Vivid had the better release on the whole, there were a few parts where the officialsubs flat-out stomped them. And that’s not even saying anything about all the lines they wholesale ripped from the Aniplex script in their “original translation”.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_02.46_[2015.01.23_10.27.21] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_02.48_[2015.01.23_10.27.27]

Well, they sure were closer to petty thieves than Vivid’s “goddamn thugs”.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_12.22_[2015.01.22_23.14.21]

Though Vivid’s dialogue was more conversational than Aniplex’s in many parts, the characterization was often better in the official release.

Vivid’s “My, my. If it isn’t my former owner…” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

[HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_12.31_[2015.01.22_23.21.22] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_12.33_[2015.01.22_23.21.28] [HorribleSubs] Durarara!! X2 - 02 [720p].mkv_snapshot_12.37_[2015.01.22_23.21.36]

Taking into account that Vivid’s translator doesn’t count English or Japanese as his mother tongue (dude’s Hungarian, of all unfortunate things), and that Aniplex’s TL was working off a Japanese script, it’s no surprise that the explanatory sequences worked a lot better in the official release. Here’s what Vivid had:

Lurking within her body
is the power of Saika, the mind that whispers curses to her
and that recently began expressing even more elaborate thoughts.

Read that and try to tell me what it’s saying, cuz I still don’t quite know myself.

 

 

 

Results

Watchability: Watchable.

As I said in the Vivid review, Vivid’s release is definitely better. But this is good enough that you won’t be missing out on much if you decide to go the Aniplex route.

And since it comes out two days earlier, I’ll be going with the Aniplex subs myself. I need my twincest ASAP.

Overall grade: I dunno. Pass? The value proposition for officialsubs is so drastically different from fansubs’ that I didn’t exactly evaluate this with an eye toward a grade. Thoughts on just making official reviews pass/fail?

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6 thoughts on “Officialsubs Review: [Aniplex] Durarara!!x2 Shou (Episode 02)”

  1. If Vivid replaced the comma with a dash in that last sequence I imagine it’d help a lot.
    I guess I’ll go with Vivid until their dialogue starts annoying me, the fact that both releases have lines that make no sense at all doesn’t really help in the picking.

    Reply
  2. >Thoughts on just making official reviews pass/fail?
    I think it would be nice to know if it’s fine to want it fast, since I’m always skeptical about the quality of fast releases, although exceptions.

    Reply
  3. I think for official sub reviews pass/fail should be fine.
    And by pass/fail I mean whether it would be worth it to wait a day or two for fansubs or not.
    Like how you did in this release basically.

    Reply

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