How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers • Hacker News Board

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#41

Post by kbenson » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 3:38 PM UTC

aaggarwal wrote: post #19

cjslep wrote: post #15

I enjoy watching various anime but am by no means into Japanese culture, nor the American culture that is into Japanese culture. However, when I was first introduced to anime by a friend (minus Spirited Away) which was Naruto, I was introduced to the English-subbed versions even though English dubs were available. After watching a few episodes of listening to Japanese and reading the subs, I thought it would be a goo…

I agree some of english dubbing in anime is very poor. I normally watch subbed versions of anime. Though, I like the orignal English dubbing and music (Funimation version) of DragonBall Z more than the Japanese version :)

I highly recommend Dragon Ball Z Abridged[1] to anyone who has watched the original. Comedy gold.

1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6EC7B047181AD013

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#42

Post by towelguy » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 3:51 PM UTC

marrs wrote: post #29

aaggarwal wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree some of english dubbing in anime is very poor. I normally watch subbed versions of anime. Though, I like the orignal English dubbing and music (Funimation version) of DragonBall Z more than the Japanese version :)

I thought the actress who played Mima in the US dub of Perfect Blue did an amazing job. I can happily watch that film in English. On a slightly different note, whilst trying without success to find the actress's name on IMDB, I just found out that the film's director Satoshi Kon tragically died of cancer 5 years ago. We lost a film making genius.

Satoshi Kon is one of my favorite anime directors. I wonder if his last work, Dreaming Machine, will ever see the light of day.

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#43

Post by aaggarwal » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 3:55 PM UTC

marrs wrote: post #29

aaggarwal wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree some of english dubbing in anime is very poor. I normally watch subbed versions of anime. Though, I like the orignal English dubbing and music (Funimation version) of DragonBall Z more than the Japanese version :)

I thought the actress who played Mima in the US dub of Perfect Blue did an amazing job. I can happily watch that film in English. On a slightly different note, whilst trying without success to find the actress's name on IMDB, I just found out that the film's director Satoshi Kon tragically died of cancer 5 years ago. We lost a film making genius.

Yes, all of his movies are absolutely brilliant. Big fan of his work, especially, Millennium Actress and Paprika. He is one of the best anime movie directors of all time. It's sad that he died at a young age.

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#44

Post by Glyptodon » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 3:56 PM UTC

Kalium wrote: post #35

cjslep wrote: post #15

I enjoy watching various anime but am by no means into Japanese culture, nor the American culture that is into Japanese culture. However, when I was first introduced to anime by a friend (minus Spirited Away) which was Naruto, I was introduced to the English-subbed versions even though English dubs were available. After watching a few episodes of listening to Japanese and reading the subs, I thought it would be a goo…

> In the case of Ergo Proxy, the additional notes in the fansubbing really helped understand the bigger dialogue. Without it I probably would not have held that particular show in has high of a regard. Ergo Proxy in particular sticks out to me as a case where the fansubs were superior to the commercial release. The DVDs didn't have any of those notes, and they added a lot to the show.

I've seen Ergo Proxy with 3 different versions of subtitles (regular, and at least two fansubs) and I've always dreamed of combining the scripts used because none of them quite voiced things perfectly alone, but snag a few conventions from one or another of the versions and use them throughout and suddenly the whole show would just be so much more accessible and clear.

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#45

Post by aaggarwal » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 3:56 PM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #41

aaggarwal wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree some of english dubbing in anime is very poor. I normally watch subbed versions of anime. Though, I like the orignal English dubbing and music (Funimation version) of DragonBall Z more than the Japanese version :)

I highly recommend Dragon Ball Z Abridged[1] to anyone who has watched the original. Comedy gold. 1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6EC7B047181AD013

Thanks for sharing. It is hilarious :)

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#46

Post by towelguy » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 3:59 PM UTC

jzelinskie wrote: post #40

Kalium wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the case of Ergo Proxy, the additional notes in the fansubbing really helped understand the bigger dialogue. Without it I probably would not have held that particular show in has high of a regard. Ergo Proxy in particular sticks out to me as a case where the fansubs were superior to the commercial release. The DVDs didn't have any of those notes, and they added a lot to the show.

Fansubs are almost always better than the commercial releases, because if the show is even relatively popular (and shows that get official releases usually are), a group will edit the official release's script. You honestly can't beat the time and passion fans will put in. Most of translators working for places like CrunchyRoll get paid per release, so they have no incentive to spend more time on a release and give i…

One problem with commercial releases is overlocalization. Watchers too have background knowledge (Japan mythology or food for example) and sometimes there's a dissonance in what you hear and what they mean. Pokemon calling rice balls donuts[0] comes to mind.

[0] http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Rice_ball

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#47

Post by stonemetal » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 4:42 PM UTC

cjslep wrote: post #15

I enjoy watching various anime but am by no means into Japanese culture, nor the American culture that is into Japanese culture. However, when I was first introduced to anime by a friend (minus Spirited Away) which was Naruto, I was introduced to the English-subbed versions even though English dubs were available. After watching a few episodes of listening to Japanese and reading the subs, I thought it would be a goo…

Maybe it is because it isn't fan-subs but when it comes to watching anime on Netflix, I much prefer the dubs. The subtitles maybe closer to what they said originally but the English is usually stilted and hard to follow.

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#48

Post by emodendroket » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 4:56 PM UTC

Translation is an overcrowded and not very generously paying field, especially in media. It's cool these guys can do it for a living but I gave up on it, personally.

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#49

Post by emodendroket » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 4:58 PM UTC

lmm wrote: post #5

digi_owl wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One example of impressive fansubbing i have seen was where the subs were color matched to the speakers hair, and contained cultural/historic/contextual info.

Matching the speakers' hair is useful, but too often notes end up as showing off. A good translation is supposed to replicate the experience of watching something in its original language, not explain every reference.

I agree with you, but in general the fansubbers' audience demands the style that's being used and will go nuts if they don't see one of the handful of Japanese words they know somehow reflected in the subs directly.

Re: How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons into Careers

#50

Post by kelbesque » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 5:30 PM UTC

kevingadd wrote: post #30

I have paid subscriptions to the legal streaming services and own a handful of the anime series I watch on DVD/Bluray. I still almost always download releases off of websites - some of which are actually just the legal streaming release repackaged into a form you can watch offline. I'd be happy if the services I paid for gave me a reason not to hit the shady fansub services. Why? * There are specific fansubbing group…

I'm not always the most attentive viewer, could you give me an example of the colorspace problem? I'm really interested to see the issue side-by-side.