Bad placement of subtitles
Dear Fansubbers,

I appreciate all the hard work that you put into subbing anime and other international titles not available in the English language.

But for the love of god! Please use common sense when you decide to get creative and place text on random spots of the fucking screen. While I don't have a problem with a line of text appearing occasionally on top to translate signs or to briefly explain certain phrases unique to that language, I don't however want a whole freaken paragraph that covers up half of the characters' faces, while at the same time translating their dialogue at the bottom of the screen.

If you must write a full explanation for a particular idiom, or a particular event in the story, please DO so at the beginning of the episode before the actual opening credits start. Do you have ANY idea how it annoying it is to see a paragraph of text over a character's face JUST to be able explain a reference that you noticed early on? It's not only distracting, but if I'm reading a paragraph of text on the screen, I'm not seeing the action that's taking place, nor reading the dialogue that's being said. I can notice events for myself without you having to point them out to me, and if I missed a reference to something, it's very unlikely that I'll give a damn. I just want to watch the damned show.

Another thing bothers me: please, please, PLEASE! Keep the subtitles at the bottom of the screen? I don't think it's asking too much to not want my eyes to have to follow a trail of text appearing on different sides of the screen at random times. That's also really annoying and really distracting. I'd like to be able to focus as much on the action as possible rather than the actual text thank you.

Sincerely,

A Lover of Foreign Entertainment

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sablemouse
2009-01-05 02:45 pm UTC (link)

While I like having stuff explained to me with SHORT sentences at the top of the screen, I would prefer any detailed explanations to be in the release notes or something. I hate it when I have to pause the screen to read the notes - why can't they make it appear for just that bit longer so I can read the dialogue and the notes before they disappear?

To be honest, professional subbing isn't that good either. I managed to watch Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in the cinemas and the subs were very hard to read. Day Watch had some creative subbing, but luckily it was sparingly used and added to the movie. Any more and it would have become annoying.

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	scifantasy 2009-01-05 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	Huh. The fansub I have of Eva 1.0 I found very good...and there was a whole second "release notes" video, three minutes long, that explained references. I'm still waiting eagerly for the official subbed release (FUNimation, sometime 2009, eh?) but...disappointing. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sablemouse 2009-01-06 02:09 pm UTC (link)
	Wow, that's a lot of effort put into a fansub. Pity you can't really say the same for a professional subbing job. I get that it's supposed to be laymen friendly, but sometimes the approximate translation doesn't give the original justice. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ceadsearc 2009-01-05 05:04 pm UTC (link)
	You mean Day Watch didn't have the English dub? Oh, I gotta go get it! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bride_of_lister 2009-01-06 12:10 am UTC (link)
	Wait? Night Watch has an English dub? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ceadsearc 2009-01-06 07:58 am UTC (link)
	Yes, that's how I first saw it: English dub, Hungarian subtitles. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bride_of_lister 2009-01-06 11:55 am UTC (link)
	Really? I saw it in the Russian with English subtitles and that's the version you can buy it in in any store in Australia. They were really well done subtitles too. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

sablemouse
2009-01-06 02:05 pm UTC (link)

I liked the subtitles for those two movies - it looked like they put a lot of effort into making them blend with the action. I didn't even know about the English dub - and I'm not sure I want to.

Any professional subtitling is going to be forever compared to SBS's yellow with black outline lol. Now there's subs I never had any problems seeing *glares at those that insist on using white with faint outlines/shadows*

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	chibikaijuu 2009-01-13 08:56 pm UTC (link)
	There's a dub? I saw it in Russian, English subtitles (in the US). I didn't actually care for it that much, though, but the subbing seemed alright. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bemysty 2009-01-05 05:46 pm UTC (link)
	Huh. Are these hardsubs or softsubs? If it's softsubs (especially .mkv and occasionally .ass used with .avi), it might be a problem with the player, not the file. (Reply to this)(Thread)

aeka
2009-01-05 09:15 pm UTC (link)

Nope, it was how they placed the text on the screen. For example if there are characters singing they'll place the text on the left next to one character's face, they'll then place on the right side of another character's face, if the character is thinking while they're singing, they'll have the singing text on the far right corner with their thoughts at the bottom and so on and so forth. It's got nothing to do with my player at all.

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	furiosity 2009-01-06 04:50 am UTC (link)
	I... just pause to read and then move on. It's a little like reading manga! >.> Though it would be annoying if it happened more than once per episode. (Reply to this)

	dawnswalker 2009-01-06 04:59 am UTC (link)
	The best part is when the translation/cultural note/e-penis waving is something that anyone who's seen anime before, ever (or has even just a passing knowledge of how Japan or Japanese works) already knows. "-SAN" IS THE GENERALLY-USED HONOURIFIC FOR PEOPLE OLDER OR MORE EXPERIENCED THAN THE SPEAKER, FANSUBBER? THAT IS A VERY OBSCURE AND INTERESTING CULTURAL TIDBIT, THANK YOU! (Reply to this)

belafarinrod
2009-01-06 05:23 pm UTC (link)

I share your rage.

More things the idiot fansubbers do:
- Add in every little font-picker-person and not even translate the director or main production staff. YOU FAIL!
- Add random swearwords to show that a character is "intense" when it's OOC for that character to swear
- Use twentyeleven different fonts for different things with the result that half of them are unreadable.

Sign translations in a scene = OK, great!

Long notes explaning shit in a scene = u fail

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	kylenne 2009-01-07 10:22 am UTC (link)
	Oh, co-signed on the font thing. Subtitles are meant to be clear and legible. I have a 42" TV that I watch my downloaded anime on due to the wonders of the DVI-to-HDMI cable and I really do not want to have to molest that poor LCD just because some douchey fansubber decided to use a 6 point version of the Buffy font in dark red. (Reply to this)(Parent)