Subtitle Comparison: [Die Hot vs. Netflix] Great Pretender (1-2)

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

Twitter    


Much like Freddie Mercury, Netflix’s release sucks AIDS-infested dick.

 

Willing to Dream Forever~

Options:

  • [Die Hot] Fan translation
  • [Netflix] Official translation (I used the Erai-Raws rip for the purposes of this review)

[Die Hot] is just a pop-up brand created for this film, staffed by leftovers who for some reason want to remain anonymous. No fucking idea why, but nu-gen isn’t exactly known for their skillful plays.

If you’re just spooked by Netflix lawyers, you might want to cut your tags out of the script.

 

 

Visuals – Typesetting / Karaoke

Spoiler:

Typesetting

Die Hot:

This is how their typesetting looks in MPC^

Versus how they intended it to look:

You’d think that in the 5 years since CCCP kicked the bucket, the fansubbing scene would have settled on a video player standard. Maybe the bare minimum is too much to expect, though.

Might work with your setup, dear readers, but don’t count 100% on it. Should look pretty enough if it does!

Netflix:

Still, I’d rather ignore Die Hot’s blur-spam than try to ignore Netflix’s all-caps garbage.

 

Karaoke

The OP is instrumental and the ED is in English (literally just Freddie Mercury singing the Great Pretender). No real need for karaoke, but it’s nice to have.

Die Hot:

Netflix:

N/A

 

Overall: Pretty obvious Die Hot wins this one. No point dwelling on it.

 

 

Script – Die Hot

I can theoretically appreciate the commitment to the joke, but in this case, familiarity breeds contempt. You can’t even watch the releases in order this way.

Although the Die Hot naming scheme pissed me off, I can’t say these subs are bad. Perfect, though? That’s a reach.

Spoiler:

Simple Fixes:

it -> them

the->they

 

Inconsistencies:

C’mon, this should be easy. \N is there for a reason.

 

Tryhard Nonsense:

The script can get so over-engineered at times that the intent of the lines is obfuscated. Wordy writing is not necessarily good writing.

 

 

Script – Netflix

TFW no ambiguously brown gf.

Spoiler:

English, Engrish, and sometimes even literal Japanese remains unsubtitled in the Netflix release. Unfortunately, there’s enough occurrences of this – and the quality of the Japanese voice acting is bad enough – that subtitles there actually do provide significant benefit to the viewers.

Watching the Netflix release is likely to knock you out of the story as you try to parse what these “professional” voice actors are saying.

 

In related news, there was very little editing consistency across the episodes, or even in the lines themselves.

He speaks Spanish here, “Hola amigos, ¿qué tal?”, but they only translate the second half of the line. What fucking audience is this aimed at?

 

The translation as a whole is very… immature. While the word-to-word translations pass a dictionary test, as soon as you bring cultural context into the picture, everything falls apart.

Just because you can translate oba-san to grandma, doesn’t mean you should.

Again, even though you heard “5,000”, doesn’t mean you have to cypher it over to English like you’re the last line of defense against the zodiac killer.

 

Here’s more professionally translated gibberish:

Might as well what? You might as well swindler? You hardly even know her.

“So I might as well be one for real.”

Whoever sold this translation to Netflix is a top scammo.

Motherfuck, this translation is shit.

 

You might be convinced which release is better already, but I think the next section should seal the deal. And I mean that sexually.

 

 

Script – Die Hot vs. Netflix

It’s not a clean sweep for Die Hot in the head-to-head, but Netflix’s failures are definitely more pronounced.

Spoiler:

Die Hot:

Netflix:

Not sure in what world Netflix’s line would be considered English, but it sure as hell ain’t this one.

 

Die Hot:

Netflix:

The point of this scene is he wants to bring Abs along to bait the “doctor” back. Netflix is explicit about this, while Die Hot seemed to translate the line in a vacuum.

I’m willing to bet the Die Hot TL used the Japanese subtitle script as a crutch and figured they could save some time by not watching the show.

 

Die Hot:

Netflix:

“Confidence men” (literally spoken in English) is much easier to mistake for “condensed milk” than “con artists” is.

 

Die Hot:

Netflix:

Goof translation, Netflix.

 

Die Hot:

Netflix:

The point that needs to get across in this scene is that the substance which Leonardo shook out of MC-kun’s pen was a fake.

Netflix was wrong in that there was nothing on the pen. (How the fuck would even work?)

Die Hot did even worse. I’m confident that they straight up guesslated their line with the few words their translator could understand and hoped no one would care.

Here’s the thing: dry ink is not a powder.

This release brought to you by the same folks who think dry wine comes in a packet saying “just add water”.

Spoilers: Dry ink and wet ink are both liquids, fuckheads. The only difference is how easily the ink flows from the pen when you use it & how quickly it dries out after you put it on a page.

Pens. How do they work?

 

Die Hot:

Netflix:

This is a tricky one to judge. The Netflix release goes by the series as it’s canonically titled in America.

However, the Die Hot release goes by their approximation of what the series would be titled in Japan, which is what MC-kun “knows them as”. The Japanese script has it as “灼熱(しゃくねつ)”:

As far as naming goes, “The Razzie Series” is not a direct parody of anything, as far as I can tell. So you can really just go with whatever you want as long as the theme of B-tier action remains.

Based on the context of the Japanese script using shakunetsu, rather than having the seiyuus Engrish up the word “razzie”, I gotta give the nod to Die Hot.

 

Die Hot:

Netflix:

Netflix is for the birds.

 

 

Results

Spoiler:

Visuals: Die Hot > Netflix

Aesthetics are beyond 200-billion-dollar companies.

Script: Die Hot > Netflix

However, this recommendation comes with a couple caveats:

If you cannot stand navel-gazing editing, Die Hot is gonna piss you off. On occasion, I would find myself so distracted by the attention whoring of the script that I would miss what was actually happening in the show.

“look at me, I’m a fansubber in 2020~!”

Even in an era where the “best” of the scene struggle to scrape together 4-digit download numbers, fansub groups still don’t seem to understand that people watch anime in spite of them, not because of them.

And if you don’t speak English natively, and are trying to use subtitles to learn the language? Forget this shit; it’ll only teach you bad habits. Go with the dub in that case.

Overall winner: Die Hot

If I had to give scores, Die Hot would probably be around “B+” with Netflix around “C-“.

 

 

Bonus Round

After this review was 95% completed, I decided to plow through the rest of what was available, so I could speak to how good the show itself was.

With 14 episodes under my belt, I must regretfully report that it is entirely mediocre. But in the process, I may have snagged pic or two from the Die Hot releases.

Spoiler:

Must be nice to live in a world where lines like this seem correct.

More cringe than a Vivid release. In case you’re wondering, this particular translation is courtesy of the snuff doujin “Mai-chan’s Daily Life”.

Not even false equivocation; “it’s awwright”/”it’s awwwright” is only used in reference to the above.

Considering what I normally fap to, the content of the reference isn’t what bothers me; it’s the masturbatory nature of the editing that’s the problem. Editors should be seen, not heard.

Clearly didn’t think too long about this one.

Die Hot had a solid line about lead showers earlier in the series. I liked it enough that I’m willing to buy them the soap to demonstrate for us.

Incorrect.

Slang route: years -> years’s   (get someone who speaks English natively to read this line and you’ll hear the inflection, if not the final s)

Normal route: years -> years has

With how sketch this editing’s been thus far, I’m not sure I’d take them up on that offer.

Bitch, I’d rather not.

Hard to stand idly by as I watch my language being tortured. :(

So, this line isn’t wrong, but it’s not right.

Logically, based on words still in use, it should be chomping. In reality, the word you’re looking for is champing. Read a book and learn something.

Now this is a new one. I’d never heard the “like fun you do” variation of “like hell you do”. This is technically correct*, but I have no idea what kind of inbreds would use this phrasing.

*Even though it’s correct, the line still sucks, lmao.

*Capisce

Just because your diet is digiorno doesn’t make you Italian.

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

You’ve activated my trap card

There are only two ways to contract and:

  • ‘n’
  • ‘n

The first is probably the most accurate one. Apostrophes are meant to stand in for the part of the word that’s being dropped, and both ends are being cut.

The second is more palatable. It just looks good. I’d go with that.

n’ by itself, though? Only villains do that.

The only thing I’d entrust to Die Hot’s hands is a heaping helping of the ‘rona.

Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

This ain’t it, chef.

Oh, and the retards subbed the ED into Japanese. It’s something.

(Honestly, I liked this because it’s fun and optional. You lose nothing by turning the subs off if you’re not into this.)

 

What’s that? Nothing but love & admiration for this free batch QC? Why, you’re fucking welcome, Die Hot.

As a sign of friendship, I’ll even let you brats clean my cock if you ever get lucky enough to bask in my presence. <3

 

 

Whew, forgot how much fun blogging can be. Any suggestions for what to go for next?

A [Hadena] retrospective could make for a good Halloween special, but I want my reviews to have the possibility of helping people wade through multiple choices. So if y’all could be a little more targeted than “bad oldsubs” that’d be sugoi.

27 thoughts on “Subtitle Comparison: [Die Hot vs. Netflix] Great Pretender (1-2)”

  1. Fansubbing is dead, so maybe you could rate official translations for anime (Crunchyroll, Funimation, Animelab, Wanakim [Eng]) or start shitting on Manga scanlations, as that’s where all the drama and autism is at now-days. (See r/scanlationdrama)

    But yeah, a retrospective on a old group like Hadena or fansubbing in general as it was in the early-mid 2000’s would also be sugoi desu ne.

    I’m still waiting for Abigail doujins btw. I would empty my balls to those.

    Reply
    • Officialsubs are definitely on the docket. Scanlations, though… fuck. Does this mean I actually need to learn Gimp? My laziness is telling me no, but my hard-on for drama is telling me I may need to see a doctor.

      Reply
      • In terms of scanlations nowadays, everyone uses either Photoshop or paint.net. Don’t worry, you’re not expected to pay for Photoshop; everyone just uses a cracked version, because Adobe have pretty much given up trying to protect their software lmao.

        In terms of learning the basics of Photoshop scanlations, it’s best done with cute anime girls :shrug:
        https://mangadex.org/chapter/588383/1

        (BTW, if you need accounts for any of the services I mentioned, since horrible and erai usually go from what service has the faster simul-translation. Just hit me up.)

        Reply
  2. >want to remain anonymous
    >literally everyone who downloaded it knew it’s skiddiks.

    hell he even mentioned that he’s the one doing it in the comments of the netflix rip.

    Reply
    • Not the only staff member. I think the rest are simp as fuck for letting an inveterate (invertebrate?) groupie take credit for all their work, but I digress.

      Reply
      • afaik the rest of the staff were TL/TLC, a lot of who prefer staying anon for ??? reasons (probably to stop randos from DMing them asking to translate shit, but I can’t say for sure).

        Reply
  3. “You’d think that in the 5 years since CCCP kicked the bucket, the fansubbing scene would have settled on a video player standard.”

    MPC-HC died in 2017 and the fansubbing standard seems to be mpv now. Why would you watch this in a dead player?

    Reply
        • After giving it some thought… if MPV is what the scene has decided they support, then if I review anything done recently, I’ll use MPV for the video player. No point in being a stubborn cunt about this.

          Reply
  4. >I want my reviews to have the possibility of helping people wade through multiple choices. So if y’all could be a little more targeted than “bad oldsubs” that’d be sugoi.

    You want specific requests? I find new movie BDs are always good/bad for having lots of releases to compare. Something like Promare, which had me scratching my head about what to actually download.

    Reply
    • There are 22 releases for this shit? AND there’s blood and tiddies? Yes… I think this fits my mission statement. Downloads away~

      Reply
    • The only viable release is [CBM]. I’ll put the post up eventually, but seeing what the scene has come to… put me in a not-so-ideal place, and that’s not the vibe Crymore’s about, so… just gimme a sec. I need to rewrite some things.

      Reply
      • CBM has USBD subs iirc, I don’t see how that’s a viable release. Astral had the best subs iirc and Beatrice were the best raws but I don’t think anyone bothered muxing those and releasing. Mux those 2 and you’ll get an actually good version (or maybe not, I haven’t seen it myself).

        Reply
        • I said theirs is the best because everyone who touched the subs fucked them up. This was not a recommendation made with a smile.

          Where’s this Astral release? A private tracker? I see two releases on Nyaa and nothing on Tosho.

          …I hope you’re not talking about AEDNuLL’s slight edits to PDO’s camrip transcription, although if you are, that’d make sense considering your group used that garbage. I think you fixed one whole line. Felt like Zero Two herself let me down. ;_;

          Reply
          • Astral posts his subs on a discord server as attachments/batch files to be muxed in with other raws, but most of his stuff gets reuploaded to private trackers. I don’t see this one uploaded anywhere though, if you want I can mux it into Beatrice and upload it to gdrive or something.

            Afaik PDO’s transcript is the base every softsubbed release used, including Astral. Are the official English subs better? I didn’t compare those.

            I assume you’re talking about the release I did with Judas. I don’t think I edited the dialogue at all, I just edited the typesetting. I’m not an editor so I usually don’t touch the dialogue unless it’s something like spelling mistakes or basic grammar.

            And AEDNuLL didn’t edit the transcription either, he took PDO’s edited v1.5 as a base and added typesetting.

            Reply
            • AEDNuLL is based off 1.1. It has nearly all the same errors as 1.1 had. 1.5 fixed most of these errors, and by “fixed” I mean, just became closer to what the original GKIDS script was. If AEDNuLL actually used 1.5 as base and somehow managed to recreate the same weird mistakes, I would be incredibly confused.

              Interesting to hear about Discord-exclusive releases. It’s a curiosity, but private clubs for anime have never done it for me. Glad it works for some folks. (No need to send the script over, although I appreciate the offer.)

              This is getting messy, and I’m less pensive than I was before. I’ll get the post out tonight, or Friday afternoon if a lot of rewrites are required. There is a lot of misinformation out there on how the groups acquired and developed their scripts. Here’s a low-effort diagram: https://www.crymore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/LAZY-scaled.jpg

              I’ll clean it up and indicate what groups are associated with each script in the actual post. Note also that effort does not equate to results.

              Reply
              • Oh wow, I didn’t even know that ScenikEight did a translated version, I thought PDO was the only base. Not sure why Hakata is there though, they’re not a fansub group, they just mux in subs from other groups and reencode video to HEVC. Or is this just a listing of all releases and not specifically fansub releases?

                Here’s Astral’s list of edits: https://files.catbox.moe/1t3d0e.png
                (According to him it’s based off PDO v1.5)
                I think the reason why he doesn’t post publicly is because he doesn’t have a QC and doesn’t QC himself, so he just posts it on this server for others to use for their own viewing or edit for their releases. His subs are used in other group releases, for Eg. Asakura’s release of Shield Hero used his subs, and my release of Wataten.

                Reply
                • Hmm, that’s cool. Glad his effort is being put to use somewhere then. At least, I hope to be glad… haven’t really caught anything he’s done.

                  Yes, ScenikEight did a TLC’d version of the official subs. I’m not willing to say that PDO’s v.1.1 was the base, because PDO does not earn the rights to the official translation just because he (poorly) transcribed the subs before anyone else.

                  Hakata Ramen does not edit, you are correct. But they do fuck things up. They took ZetaRebel’s script and for some godless reason changed a bunch of the words into gibberish. Like, they decided Kray’s name should be Kary… but only for one line. It’s bonkers.

                  That chart shows all the scripts I consider “unique”, which is not necessarily a good thing.

                  Reply
                  • Hm, why did Judas’ release get skipped out then o_o

                    I might do a mux of Beatrice’s encode with Astral subs, with dialogue swapped with ScenikEight. I was gonna watch this anyway so if that TL is more accurate it’s probably better to use it.

                    Reply
                    • The script wasn’t modified enough from its AEDNuLL base to consider it an original entity. Keep in mind, I’m not considering typesetting, karaoke, styling, etc. Comparing 21 scripts is already too time-consuming.

                      Here, this graph should explain it better. Again, ugly. https://www.crymore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/LAZY_v2-scaled.jpg

                      I want to emphasize that none of the releases are good; the official BD release is just the least bad from an English perspective. ScenikEight’s script needs an editor and a QC to shine.

  5. Could you do a review of Tenki no Ko (Weathering with you)? There is a gorillion of releases out there and I don’t know which one to pick up. So far, it seems there are 3 subs for it (the official ones of the US BD, Kaizoku edited subs and LonelyHikikomori). I was leaning for Kaizoku until I read your review of My Hero Academia….

    Reply
        • It’s sad but Commie is the only fansub group which is doing it. Kaizoku’s editor is probably not a native english speaker and he’s not that great at editing (as is evident in the MHA movie). LonelyHikikomori typesetting is pretty bad, and I’m pretty sure the official subs left half the signs untranslated. The best group for Shinkai’s last movie was Commie, so I assume they’ll be the best (and only) option for this one as well.

          Reply

Leave a Reply to FeminineDingus Cancel reply