No problem. I enjoy occasional debates about views on anime, and I can't blame you for thinking it was purely my choice. Translators do have 100% control over series in some smaller groups, and it's not like we talk much about what's happening in the "fansub scene" to viewers ^^;
And okay, theory disproven for anime compatibility. I see over 60% compatibility with some guy who reviewed 8/10 too...
It certainly doesn't mean we'll have the same view on individual shows, but I think it's possible to distinguish between casual viewers and critics...
What I like most about Denpa is its character development where we slowly find out more about each character (and maybe come to like them), and I'm a sucker for series where the main character set out to do something to change their dull lives, to find new challenges. Being someone who likes to quantify everything, I thought Seishun Point was a nice concept too. I agree there's little to the "story" in that series. It's more of a slice of life, so there isn't a real plot, so if you're watch anime for sophisticated stories, it's already not a series for you. There's also the quirkiness that's hit or miss. I also liked the presentation of that series and SHAFT's ability to make create memorable scenes, but that's pretty subjective. I see why you said it had tropes that were irrelevant though... What we did with the reference note was practically explaining the joke, so it lost the meaning and possibly the joy of discovery.
I agree the convenience of storywriting is a major flaw in Accel World right now, and it bothered me a bit too. On the other hand, I try to not think too much about the setting because the whole point of anime and other TV shows/movies is about things that can't happen in real life. I'm more concerned about how the story develops with a given setting. Plot holes like why Silver Crow didn't beat up Ash Roller after he was knocked to the ground are things that bother me, not the initial character relationship. I'm mainly liking Accel World for its near-future technology and their ramifications, and another thing that's really important for me is presentation. How dramatic scenes are handled, the ability to create an interesting atmosphere with background art, and pacing. Those are the only tools I have to determine whether I would continue to like the show after watching only Ep1, and that's the main criteria for choosing which series to sub for me. I also liked the fact that the author/studio had the audacity to use an unattractive fat MC who stood out like a sore thumb. Those willing to take risks like that probably aren't afraid to try something new.
As for fansubbing... I generally don't do simulcast shows unless they have crappy prosubs. By that, I mean I don't sub the CR lineup, because we fansubbers don't really consider Viz and Funi to be real distributors. Only one of our UTW staff members can even see the Viz rip due to country IP blocking, and even then, Hulu video quality is crap plus they don't really market or announce their anime in advance. Funi tend to delay broadcast and their subtitle quality is really erratic (so we can actually improve the subs instead of simply wasting our time). So there goes about half of the available choices for me each season.
Then I have to make sure at least one staff member for every required position is interested or at least doesn't absolutely hate the show to work on it. Sometimes we don't always agree.
For this season, I originally wanted to translate Hyouka (just judging by cover, studio name, and PV) with UTW, but there are so much crap going on internally that made it unrealistic. First, Mazui has also expressed interest, so the group leader wasn't very willing to compete with a "sister group". Second, I haven't translated anything with UTW for 2 seasons, and I didn't want a last-minute CR announcement that would extend that to 3 seasons, making me a lazy guy who does nothing but translate songs for the group. Third, it airs on the same day as Tasogare Amnesia, so some staff would have to work on 2 shows in the same day. I'm still planning to sub that show with gg even though our audience and sub style is totally off for this show, because my editor is really excited about it now, and I really didn't do anything for them last season either.
There may be different factors that prevent me from subbing shows I had best first impression with.
In reality, translators don't have the power to choose series, but we do have the veto power when our groups choose. I'm not really crazy about Accel World, but I do like it enough to be willing to translate for the group.
I think I'm getting trolled, but I'll respond anyway.
I thought you were one of those butthurt fan who got mad what you considered to be a masterpiece voted lower than one you didn't like, but it seems your issues are far more serious than that.
First of all, I don't even know why you're criticizing the taste of someone who has 68.9% shared anime compatibility. This figure might be a bit off because I haven't been updating new anime here and the sample size is limited, but it's a high similarity nonetheless. That alone should already tell you that I don't simply value "sexually enticing" anime over others (I don't even understand how you got to that, because Cowboy Bebop had a revealing character too, and it's not like there's any non-simulcast show that doesn't have sexually enticing characters).
Second, you don't know anything about me. I should be offended that you have generalized me as a viewer who rates just for entertainment values, but I see you're just really misguided. You probably didn't even read my Denpa review or my blog entries on Accel World, because I hardly talk about the girls in those series. Erio in Denpa is not even the main character. The whole show is about Makoto, and Erio was nothing more than a side-character in terms of screen time and #lines of dialog. I'm notorious for hating lolis and fanservice, and it's just something I have to endure because it's in practically every anime produced now. I'm also a Japanese movie and drama fan, so I tend favor series where I can sympathize with main characters and their development in the story. Cowboy Bebop being an episodic show has already lost me, since I've only ever truly enjoyed slice of life shows and Katanagatari (which had 1-hour episode, so they had much more room for development) for episodic anime, so it was already hard for me to connect with characters.
Third, your opinions are just your opinions, and any self-respecting voter/reviewers would not judge a show based on hype. I personally don't see a problem with the presence of a girl who's gone crazy and everybody thinks it's all right, because people being hikikomori and not going to school actually happens in Japan, and parents give up on them. I've seen it happen. For me, I had a bigger problem with characters in Cowboy Bebop using PROJECTILE weapons and the whole western theme even though it's SF set in distant future. What I see is everyone just trying to act cool the whole time, and it's all style over substance. I consider myself being an extremely patient viewer, having endured various Japanese movies with about 1/10 dialogs of typical anime, but pacing and development was atrociously slow in this series for my tastes, and I didn't like all the characters already, so it was impossible for me to connected with them to the end.
There are many highly acclaimed shows that I also enjoyed, but that doesn't mean my tastes are always consistent with the general public, and it's nowhere as simple as just the visual appearance of characters. In the end, my tastes are "unique" because no normal person would be fansubbing in the first place, or lived in Japan and North America like me, but that's not really important.
What I'm saying is that you can't generalize someone purely based on 1 or 2 shows. In fact, if you look at how I rated 2 seasons of K-ON! among our shared series, my distaste for fanservice is pretty apparent. Actually, I'm going to have to question your tastes for voting S2 higher, but frankly, I don't care since I know nobody is going to have exactly the same taste as me.
P.S. You have no idea how many factors are involved in selecting which show to fansub, and I have not subbed shows I ended up enjoying the most for every single season so far. I don't even know why you've concluded Accel World's "weak story" when it has only begun. I don't read manga or LNs in advance because I don't have time to waste on inferior forms of media when I can just watch them animated.
All Comments (11) Comments
And okay, theory disproven for anime compatibility. I see over 60% compatibility with some guy who reviewed 8/10 too...
What I like most about Denpa is its character development where we slowly find out more about each character (and maybe come to like them), and I'm a sucker for series where the main character set out to do something to change their dull lives, to find new challenges. Being someone who likes to quantify everything, I thought Seishun Point was a nice concept too. I agree there's little to the "story" in that series. It's more of a slice of life, so there isn't a real plot, so if you're watch anime for sophisticated stories, it's already not a series for you. There's also the quirkiness that's hit or miss. I also liked the presentation of that series and SHAFT's ability to make create memorable scenes, but that's pretty subjective. I see why you said it had tropes that were irrelevant though... What we did with the reference note was practically explaining the joke, so it lost the meaning and possibly the joy of discovery.
I agree the convenience of storywriting is a major flaw in Accel World right now, and it bothered me a bit too. On the other hand, I try to not think too much about the setting because the whole point of anime and other TV shows/movies is about things that can't happen in real life. I'm more concerned about how the story develops with a given setting. Plot holes like why Silver Crow didn't beat up Ash Roller after he was knocked to the ground are things that bother me, not the initial character relationship. I'm mainly liking Accel World for its near-future technology and their ramifications, and another thing that's really important for me is presentation. How dramatic scenes are handled, the ability to create an interesting atmosphere with background art, and pacing. Those are the only tools I have to determine whether I would continue to like the show after watching only Ep1, and that's the main criteria for choosing which series to sub for me. I also liked the fact that the author/studio had the audacity to use an unattractive fat MC who stood out like a sore thumb. Those willing to take risks like that probably aren't afraid to try something new.
As for fansubbing... I generally don't do simulcast shows unless they have crappy prosubs. By that, I mean I don't sub the CR lineup, because we fansubbers don't really consider Viz and Funi to be real distributors. Only one of our UTW staff members can even see the Viz rip due to country IP blocking, and even then, Hulu video quality is crap plus they don't really market or announce their anime in advance. Funi tend to delay broadcast and their subtitle quality is really erratic (so we can actually improve the subs instead of simply wasting our time). So there goes about half of the available choices for me each season.
Then I have to make sure at least one staff member for every required position is interested or at least doesn't absolutely hate the show to work on it. Sometimes we don't always agree.
For this season, I originally wanted to translate Hyouka (just judging by cover, studio name, and PV) with UTW, but there are so much crap going on internally that made it unrealistic. First, Mazui has also expressed interest, so the group leader wasn't very willing to compete with a "sister group". Second, I haven't translated anything with UTW for 2 seasons, and I didn't want a last-minute CR announcement that would extend that to 3 seasons, making me a lazy guy who does nothing but translate songs for the group. Third, it airs on the same day as Tasogare Amnesia, so some staff would have to work on 2 shows in the same day. I'm still planning to sub that show with gg even though our audience and sub style is totally off for this show, because my editor is really excited about it now, and I really didn't do anything for them last season either.
There may be different factors that prevent me from subbing shows I had best first impression with.
In reality, translators don't have the power to choose series, but we do have the veto power when our groups choose. I'm not really crazy about Accel World, but I do like it enough to be willing to translate for the group.
I thought you were one of those butthurt fan who got mad what you considered to be a masterpiece voted lower than one you didn't like, but it seems your issues are far more serious than that.
First of all, I don't even know why you're criticizing the taste of someone who has 68.9% shared anime compatibility. This figure might be a bit off because I haven't been updating new anime here and the sample size is limited, but it's a high similarity nonetheless. That alone should already tell you that I don't simply value "sexually enticing" anime over others (I don't even understand how you got to that, because Cowboy Bebop had a revealing character too, and it's not like there's any non-simulcast show that doesn't have sexually enticing characters).
Second, you don't know anything about me. I should be offended that you have generalized me as a viewer who rates just for entertainment values, but I see you're just really misguided. You probably didn't even read my Denpa review or my blog entries on Accel World, because I hardly talk about the girls in those series. Erio in Denpa is not even the main character. The whole show is about Makoto, and Erio was nothing more than a side-character in terms of screen time and #lines of dialog. I'm notorious for hating lolis and fanservice, and it's just something I have to endure because it's in practically every anime produced now. I'm also a Japanese movie and drama fan, so I tend favor series where I can sympathize with main characters and their development in the story. Cowboy Bebop being an episodic show has already lost me, since I've only ever truly enjoyed slice of life shows and Katanagatari (which had 1-hour episode, so they had much more room for development) for episodic anime, so it was already hard for me to connect with characters.
Third, your opinions are just your opinions, and any self-respecting voter/reviewers would not judge a show based on hype. I personally don't see a problem with the presence of a girl who's gone crazy and everybody thinks it's all right, because people being hikikomori and not going to school actually happens in Japan, and parents give up on them. I've seen it happen. For me, I had a bigger problem with characters in Cowboy Bebop using PROJECTILE weapons and the whole western theme even though it's SF set in distant future. What I see is everyone just trying to act cool the whole time, and it's all style over substance. I consider myself being an extremely patient viewer, having endured various Japanese movies with about 1/10 dialogs of typical anime, but pacing and development was atrociously slow in this series for my tastes, and I didn't like all the characters already, so it was impossible for me to connected with them to the end.
There are many highly acclaimed shows that I also enjoyed, but that doesn't mean my tastes are always consistent with the general public, and it's nowhere as simple as just the visual appearance of characters. In the end, my tastes are "unique" because no normal person would be fansubbing in the first place, or lived in Japan and North America like me, but that's not really important.
What I'm saying is that you can't generalize someone purely based on 1 or 2 shows. In fact, if you look at how I rated 2 seasons of K-ON! among our shared series, my distaste for fanservice is pretty apparent. Actually, I'm going to have to question your tastes for voting S2 higher, but frankly, I don't care since I know nobody is going to have exactly the same taste as me.
P.S. You have no idea how many factors are involved in selecting which show to fansub, and I have not subbed shows I ended up enjoying the most for every single season so far. I don't even know why you've concluded Accel World's "weak story" when it has only begun. I don't read manga or LNs in advance because I don't have time to waste on inferior forms of media when I can just watch them animated.
Not to mention Cowboy Bebop is a niche anime with distinctive art style, so you can't really expect everyone to like it.