I'm all for this - in principle. I don't watch Naruto or any of the other series mentioned here, but the idea is absolutely in the right direction. As soon as they start offering torrents rather than streams for things I want to see, so I can watch things where and when I like, I'm there. I don't do streaming for anything I'm really interested in, but surely there's software out there that can save streams - so why not go a step beyond that now and offer 'official torrents'?
The other thing - Sub quality. Gonzo's subs for Kurogane no Linebarrels are dreadful (disclaimer: I'm behind on this, only seen two of them so it may improve). I'll not go so far as to say this is 100% bad, but if people who do it for free do a better job than people who are paid to do it, they need to pause a minute and ask themselves what's going on. Plus, I'd far rather watch a fansub than the official stream if they're going to have a better translation.
Got to wade in on the whole translation point, though.
Cihan said: The entire point of subtitles is to translate the language, if you cant do that properly then you fail as a translator. Its only when there is absolutely no other way to convey a meaning across that you should resort to using the original language, and for some to insinuate that Japanese is such a strange langage that we constantly need romaji words, is a bit much, I think.
There are many Japanese loan words in English anyway, like tsunami, sushi, etc, but do we really need 'san' or 'oneesan'? Another point of translation is to immerse the viewer in the story so much that language is almost forgotten and only the story remains, but if you keep throwing romaji at the viewer it breaks the illusion, the flow, its really distracting.
Japanese itself constantly needs romaji words (i.e. loan words) taken from English or other languages far more than English appropriates Japanese words. Japanese really does have a hell of a lot of directly untranslatable words and inference. It's not that it's strange, it's simply very different from English. If you simplify the language so much it loses much of its implied meaning, doesn't that also mean you fail?
This is not about creating loan words, it's about understanding native words. Yes, we really need 'san' and 'oneesan', that and keigo is the key to the whole hierarchical status-derived worldview on which Japanese is built, and English has no analogue for whatsoever.
Cihan said: Final point: subtitled films rarely, very rarely, ever have romaji or suffixes and such. Anime should be no different. Some people need to stop worshipping Japan and realise any language can be translated to convey original meaning, the form may be different, but the meaning is the same. Personally I've seen more dodgy fansubbing than DVD subs, some of the translating choices fansubbers took are beyond belief.
This is why commercial subs are immeasurably worse than well-crafted fansubs. DVD sub standards in live action films are dreadful, and not a lot better for anime. The basic meaning of translations may be the same, but that's hardly the point. If you modernise and simplify the text of Shakespeare you lose most of the point of reading it - the skill of the writing lies in the richness of the detail. Not a lot of anime ought to be compared to Shakespeare, of course, but the point is the same. I want to savour the writing in as much detail as possible, just as I want to savour the detail of the art, rather than have it replaced by, say, South Park-ised versions, which might convey the idea but are hardly as enjoyable. The only way to do this is with annotated translations that preserve untranslatable components. |