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Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

animebythenumbers.substack.com

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Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#51

Post by Arnavion »

forgotoldacc wrote: post #46
zdw wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crunchyroll strangely lacks Japanese subs, which seems strange as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and most others have them in addition to all the translations.

Japanese people as a whole never watch content with proper subtitles. And the subtitles that do exist in Japan for Japanese content are universally awful. It seems only foreign companies that promote being accessible have them. Unext, a Japanese company, never offers subs on Japanese content. It only have subtitles for foreign content... but it only offers subtitles if you're not watching Japanese dubs. It never, und…

>A character may say "I've missed you so much. It's been so long." The subtitles will read "Hey. Long time. " (both quotes would be Japanese)

This is standard in closed captions and is not specific to Japan. So perhaps the service you're talking about only has closed captions and is incorrectly marking them as subtitles.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#52

Post by echelon »

anigbrowl wrote: post #19
echelon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might take a few more decades, but Google will ultimately win the streaming wars. I'll be shocked if anime isn't available on YouTube. You can also interpret that as I'll be shocked if AI doesn't result in every mangaka becoming their own small studio and distributing via YouTube.

I'll be shocked if they're able to get noticed above the tide of slop and industrially automated bogus copyright claims.

Discovery has always been a problem.

You can look to the past to see what this might look like in the future:

- Publishing in the digital publishing era.

- Indie Gaming in the Steam Greenlight era.

- Indie music in the digital recording / DAW era.

- Trying to make it as an actor or musician in general.

- YouTuber careers vs. "YouTube poop"

- Trying to make it as a streamer / influencer

Novelty, self-promo, luck, preparation, right place/right time, likeability -- there are lots of things that can come together to make it work. But it's still a lot of work.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#53

Post by bonecrusher2102 »

torben-friis wrote: post #49
onoesworkacct wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many customers watch each episode of popular shows? 100k+? And we're talking a difference of ~7 hours of labor. $200 difference at most?

That person would need, besides basic computer fluency for the timestamps, knowledge of Japanese and English. Not unheard of, but probably harder than hiring for a call center, and more need to prevent high rotation due to difficulty in finding replacements. Edit: not that I disagree with your general idea, just pointing out potential issues.

It’s cheaper than you might think. Much like in gaming, there’s a lot of people who really want to work in the anime industry, even if it’s just on the localization and distribution side. This drives down salaries quite a bit.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#54

Post by vunderba »

charcircuit wrote: post #16

>see it as a cost-cutting measure to stop doing it. If only. I wish they would stop localizing it. Just give me the raw episodes. It seems like every site outside of Japan insists on ruing it by putting English on top of it. Unfortunately the economics of the situation means that sites will server the interests of tourists instead of otaku, so it's unlikely to ever change.

The most popular anime streaming site outside of Japan, Crunchyroll, hasn't had hard-subs.... in forever. You can watch any of the shows in their original Japanese or available dubs without subtitles.

I'd be willing to wager Netflix, which has a fair amount of anime, can do the same.

What site(s) are you referring to?

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#55

Post by gchamonlive »

bonecrusher2102 wrote: post #36
wk_end wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That’s why the best subs, are always fan subs! It's wild to hear someone - especially someone in the industry - say that. Fans definitely bring the most enthusiasm to their work, but fan subs are notorious for mistranslations and awkward hyperliteralism.

That’s why I said the SUBS are awesome… not the translations ;-)

Could you use fan subs to help AI models better sync your actual subs?

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#56

Post by kcexn »

makeitdouble wrote: post #32

I really wish we could have had a subs/dubs marketplace. There was no way to make it a proper business when anime was becoming popular on the net, but it would solve an infinite number of problems. Could it be done now that the distribution channels are more mature in Japan ? - Japanese distributors wouldn't need middle-men for airing their shows abroad. They'd just stop region gate it and let fans inject the transla…

My first thought here is that an open market for translations would just create lots of really bad, free translations and make discovering good translations impossible.

Ultimately, there will be a concern that it devalues the translation process, leading to translators getting paid less, not more.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#57

Post by vunderba »

Arnavion wrote: post #34
uxp100 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are referring to text localization. I’m not sure if you actually can turn the subtitle track off on the Japanese language on crunchy roll, the rights holders have long been very concerned with reverse importation.

CR rips (like SubsPlease, mentioned in the article) have jp audio and softsubs for en+signs, so I assume you can turn them off on CR's website too.

Yeah CR's mobile app supports this as well - I've accidentally turned off subs when watching anime on CR in the original Japanese dub.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#58

Post by torben-friis »

bonecrusher2102 wrote: post #53
torben-friis wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That person would need, besides basic computer fluency for the timestamps, knowledge of Japanese and English. Not unheard of, but probably harder than hiring for a call center, and more need to prevent high rotation due to difficulty in finding replacements. Edit: not that I disagree with your general idea, just pointing out potential issues.

It’s cheaper than you might think. Much like in gaming, there’s a lot of people who really want to work in the anime industry, even if it’s just on the localization and distribution side. This drives down salaries quite a bit.

Fair point, it does sound like an industry that would have a high passion/vocational factor.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#59

Post by vunderba »

SllX wrote: post #25
zdw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing about this narrative is that Crunchyroll also started out as an "informal distribution" pirate site, and had all the good things you mentioned beat out of them by successive acquisitions and corporate ownership.

They’re still just within the threshold of good enough, but I was pretty annoyed the day comments disappeared. It might have been young viewers, but I was a young viewer once and those comments went back all the way to that time. It was also one thing Crunchyroll had that other streaming sites typically don’t (except YouTube of course): community.

It's a shame but understandable from a business perspective since they had to have a moderation team to support some of the less savory comments juvenile users were leaving.

Re: Why did Crunchyroll's subtitles just get worse?

#60

Post by bavell »

SllX wrote: post #25
zdw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing about this narrative is that Crunchyroll also started out as an "informal distribution" pirate site, and had all the good things you mentioned beat out of them by successive acquisitions and corporate ownership.

They’re still just within the threshold of good enough, but I was pretty annoyed the day comments disappeared. It might have been young viewers, but I was a young viewer once and those comments went back all the way to that time. It was also one thing Crunchyroll had that other streaming sites typically don’t (except YouTube of course): community.

CR removing comments removed the soul from the product :/

Was always fun reading the top comments on big episodes. Finding those few other ppl who noticed that one small thing at timestamp 14:30, dunking on the first episode of the latest garbage isekai... etc

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