Translation Review: [SubDESU] High School DxD Hero – 01

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


Don’t worry, you won’t see any boobies. This is a family website.

Table of Contents

Release Information

Translation

Other Observations

Final Grade

Release Information

Episode details.

Release format: MKV (325MB, 10-bit)

Translation: Original

Wap Level: Half wap (Uses “Miss” in some places, -chan, -neesama in others)

English style: American English.

Speed: Fast (released within 48 hours of broadcast)

 

External links.

Group website: http://www.subdesu.org/

IRC channel: [email protected]

I’ll go back to reviewing shitty professional subs in a minute, but first I would like to focus on Subdesu for about three entries. Amazingly, they are one of the few groups from the Golden Era to survive the great purge of the fansub scene.

However, they have mostly abandoned broadcast series and have concentrated on shamelessly monetizing their hentai subs. I will save one of those hentais for last, but for now I’ll focus on the currently airing ecchi anime they’re working on.

Translation

Karaoke.

OP

The mimicopy of the Japanese lyrics is pretty much all spot on. The only major error is this line, which is apparently supposed to be furetara kyori wa zero ne (a touch will bring us closer than ever?).

However, the English lyrics are filled with a bunch of nonsense phrases, such as this one or “I will protect tomorrow’s you.”

ED

As far as my tin ears can tell (lyrics not officially released yet) the mimicopy is once again solid. One of a few nitpicks is here where I heard saenai (loser) instead of taenai (irritating). But once again, the English translations give me a migraine (“My ever-swung heart”).

Main Script.

MAJOR ERROR

Full line is Juggernaut Drive de kezurarete shimatta senpai no jumyou wa senjutsu no chiryou wo kurikaesu koto de sukoshi zutsu kaifuku shiteiku shika nain desu (ジャガーノートドライブで削られてしまった先輩の寿命は仙術の治療を繰り返すことで少しずつ回復していくしかないんです)

Apparently the translator misheard senjutsu (life-force magic or whatever the hell the in-universe term is) with senjitsu (the other day, translated wrongly here as “yesterday”). However, even if we DO keep the “yesterday” part intact, the translator completely ignored how the kaifuku shiteiku (progressively recover) is not past tense, as well as the shika nai part (have no choice but [to recover through ecchi magic]).

So the line is supposed to be, “Because your life force was used up by the Juggernaut Drive, we have no choice but to gradually restore you through multiple mage treatment sessions.” Because the two did not go through with the treatment, I judge that the information conveyed in this line will play a major role in either this or future episodes. Those who take Subdesu’s line as canon will be left with a completely wrong impression that will affect their understanding of the story if this issue does come up again.

ERROR

私の眷属が揃ったことを報告に、全員でグレモリー領に挨拶に行きます。

“We all need to go to the House of Gremory to report that my peerage has been assembled.”

Operative part is watashi no kenzoku ga sorotta koto wo houkoku ni. The watashi no kenzoku ga sorotta koto component (the fact that I have assembled my retainers) is actually the noun phrase identified by the wo object particle. That is the thing to be “reported” (houkoku). Plus the zen’in de ikimasu (all go) part in the latter half is self explanatory.

ERROR

ロスヴァイセさんは教育事業に関心がお有りだとか “I’ve heard that you have become interested in the education trade, Miss Rossweisse.”

Translator misheard kanshin (interest) for kanshi (supervision, 監視), and oari (お有り, respectful term for “to be”) for owari (終わり, to be finished).

NITPICK

Rossweisse said she’s the one who’s going to set up a magic school, and she herself will train Valkyries from demons (Valkyries wo haishutsu shite mitai).

ERROR

居住区の方にサーゼクスが戻っている The modoteiru part is present progressive, suggesting that Sirzechs is already at the residence, so the line should be  “Sirzechs has returned to the residential area.”

The second line extends the same mistake.

ERROR

They also repeat this mistake even as Sirzechs is right there on the screen. The original Japanese (こちらにお帰りになられていると伺ったものですから) and the fact that okaeri ni narareteiru literally means “you have become returned” does not leave room for mistake.

MAJOR NITPICK

This line strongly suggests that Man Mountain is already the head of the household, when in fact he said jiki toushu (次期当主, succeeding head of the household). Maybe those familiar with the franchise will recognize that he has not attained that title yet, but a total noob like me was confused.

ERROR

では、私の前で若手ナンバーワンの拳と赤龍帝の拳見せて貰おうか  Subdesu translated wakate number one no kobushi as “greenest fist” when it’s supposed to be “Number One fist among the youths.”

ERROR

Gyokusai kakugo de iku ze means “Time to go for broke!”

NITPICK

He says 篭手 (kote, gauntlet) here.

NITPICK

Issei says onaji sedai, meaning it should be the “same generation” as those other trust-fund demons, not “same league.”

ERROR

あまりにも極端過ぎて興味が湧くぞ “[His destructive force] is so extreme that it interests me.”

How they got “transparent” from 極端 is beyond me.

ERROR

All Issei said in this line is rook no bougyoryoku de (“by the rook’s defensive power”) which modifies the line that follows it (nantoka taete, “I must hold on!”).

ERROR

彼と相対すると軽い手合わせでも戦意を喪失する者も居る

The translator misheard aitai (相対, confrontation) with aetai (会えたい, want to meet), so the line should be “There are people who engage with him who lose the will to fight even in light duels.”

MAJOR ERROR

確かに、部長が卒業してしまったら、もう部長って呼べなくなってしまうんだ。でも本当は一度でもいい、こう呼んでみたいよ、「リアス」。

The mistake is given away by the “one more time” contained in the fourth and fifth line, which leaves no doubt that the translator thought Issei wanted to call the Prez by her title again.

However, Issei is actually saying that he wants to call Rias by her given name, meaning he wants to take their relationship further. To mess up what may have been a turning-point line is a cardinal sin. Maybe viewers may be able to figure out what Issei meant by these lines, but an error is still an error.

ERROR

あなたが居ない間寂しいわ。以前に比べたらこれでも随分マシになったのよ。だから今は少しだけならあなたの顔が見られなくても耐えられるようになったわ

Even if you don’t speak Japanese, how do these lines make sense? Anyways, the last one is supposed to be “Which is why I’ll be able to stand not seeing your face for a little while.”

 

Other Observations

“Take care kiss” is how you translate itterasshai no kisu? Go fuck yourselves, Subdesu. Anyhoo, that’s how janky the editing is.

I don’t remember them crediting that Korean raw group in any official media.

Final Grade: D+

D+, for High School DxD, or double-dees, geddit? Anyways, there is a fuckton of mistakes, including some that undermines the understanding of the arc-based story. If this is the competition, the streaming sites were right to wipe out all the fansub groups. Next I’ll review their Mujaki no Rakuen release in a few days.

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7 thoughts on “Translation Review: [SubDESU] High School DxD Hero – 01”

      • That episode 01 from ohys on April 10th is actually 00. It’s a special recap episode. SubDESU originally named their first release as 01 but it was actually 00 and I think they later removed it and renamed it 00. There’s a note on their Nyaa torrent about the filename. The reuploaded fixed filename of 00 was released April 13th. Not sure what happened to the original torrent but it was at least before then.

        Later, ohys realized they fucked up and started naming future episode as x(y) where x is the number continuing from their first release and y is the actual episode numbering.

        Reply

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