| The subs I prefer and the ones I produce can be described as "liberal but unlocalized." Retaining common honorifics, titles, and Eastern name order, but using flowing and natural English for the bulk of the writing. Keep TL notes to a minimum; jokes aren't funny if they have to be explained. Some little rewrites for the lolz are okay, but they have to have some grounding in the original dialogue. OP/ED and relevant insert songs should at least be translated: if the Japanese viewers understood them, why shouldn't we? CyberAnimeLover said: Hell i'm okay with any subs as long as they are understandable,one thing i don't get is what is all the hate behind yellow subs ? I think they look gorgeous I'm convinced that it's a case of "anything official releases do is bad." Fansubs that use yellow don't get nearly as much hate, and for as much love as "white with black outlines" is getting here, you can look at the votes for Funimation rips (which feature white with black outlines) and see tons of complaints about "eyecancer," whatever that is. |
on 
| Keep the original honorifics and forms of address, also some important or relevant words like nakama of one piece or shiroyasha of gintama. Use fonts with colors that contrast the image (i hate when the subs are all white and the image is bright) Karaoke for OP/ED (it's not necessary but it looks pretty good, more if is combine with the style of the video) |
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| Same as yourself. Except the thing that bugs me is that subtitles sometime leave certain japanese words in there and I'm not sure if they just couldn't find a translation or they did it on purpose? Either way, a whole sentence gets thrown off because of that one word I didn't understand. |
Touniouk said: -Keep the original honorifics and forms of address -Make them white with black outline, I don't want them in a colour that's hard to see and I sure as hell don't want them in a fucking black box. -Use readable fonts This pretty much sums it up. Hate seeing things like "Mr." and "Ms.", like just keep the original one. |
 ♔ caught in the wonder ♔ |
| In English, makes it easier for me to understand. |
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| I like the honourifics being kept. It's odd to see a student calling another student miss or ms. |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| When I'm watching subbed anime, I like the subtitles to be in English. |
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| I prefer seeing names as san instead of Mr. or Ms. (I don't think I've seen a lot of animes where people address each other that way anyway) I hate it when they localize stuff. I prefer OPs and EDs having both English translations and Romaji subtitles. I prefer white subtitles though yellow is tolerable, I'm not a fan of bold fonts. I hate it when someone does the font in comic sans, like seriously? It's rare I come across that though. Some of the weirdest subtitles I ever saw were for Megazone 23, they had a white or black boarder but were transparent in the middle, it didn't really bother me, it was just weird. I think they were probably the original subtitles from the 80's or 90's or when ever the subtitled version was released. I also hate it when they don't translate the text in animes, I like it when they translate the text, seriously? I don't get why all subtitles don't do that, even if you watch a dubbed version you will still often have this issue. |
| I dont like it when its localised and I'm glad I'm seeing more subbers aren't doing that. I prefer the same as OP. I also like those lil messages where the translator gives a small description of suttin and describing what it means like a new move or Sumthin written on a board or what it means to use honorifics or suttin. Op n ed English and romanji subs are nice and makes em look real official, especially when they got all those nice effects with em, UTW do that well like with Kyoukai No Kanata. Looked REAL nice! I dont like it when they add all those cuss words like Im talkin like a shit ton. It just feels off. Every now n then is okay but using all the time make the show feel....not as smart and more childish. I absolutely hate bolded fonts. Like seriously dude, I can see it and I don't need it to be bolded, too distracting and in a way, makes it harder to read, like I'm seeing the font border more than the actual test. |
TheNoseOfDeathMay 30, 2016 1:11 AM
| My Manga List My Anime List Shabada shabadabadaba I am DjG545 aka Dj Fo Fo aka The Mutha Fkn Name I'm Usin Now |
| 1. in english. i've had the awful experience of watching an anime that has a serious character from the military force using a slang word in my native language subtitles. like srsly dude wtf!?!? 2. OP and EP subtitles don't bother me much. i tend to skip those parts anyway. 3. black outlined letters. |
| i like my subs with Date(engrish) spelling, with ever other world being incomprehensibly misspelled. |
| I like my subtitles normal. How about you, @yehart? |
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| proper honorifics, white font with black outline, not too big or too small and not pixelated or blurry. |
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| I prefer my subtitles in English, usually. |
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TheKillerAngel said: People have different tastes when it comes to how they like things translated. Here are mine: 1. I prefer seeing names with honorifics as opposed to their English equivalent (e.g. I prefer Kousaka-san over Ms. Kousaka) 2. Forms of address or salutations with no English equivalent (e.g. Onee-sama, Yahello!) should be preserved rather than localized. OMG they dropped a -senpai !!!! World's gonna end now. Seriously, I can't respond to this other than harshly, since I am so tired to hear these annoying bickerings, typically coming from folks who have no bloody clue about translating. Or who maybe want to feel so special insiders because they know how to understand this -senpai or that nee-nee. here is my advice, free of charge : Turn on the bloody sound!, then you can HEAR all them -san, -chan and whatnots. So how on earth are you loosing out if they don't make it into the subs ? Finally, for fan!subs - show some respect, or even gratitude. It really is work. If you are so unhappy about them "missing" -sama, become translator for free yourself. And then learn to face all the bickering you'll inevitably get, about the least important bits. ------------------ I lately particularly enjoyed some qualities in a German fansub for Hataraku Maou-sama, I could notice how they had taken real care with their translation, and you know what - I have no idea no more if they had the honorifics in the sub or not. But I remember hearing them. *cooling off* -Maz said: Another giant pet peeve of mine is when they don't bother separating multiple conversations that are happening concurrently. Have one conversation at the top of the screen and the second at the bottom. Don't lump them all together because it quickly becomes confusing trying to figure out who the fuck is saying what, and to whom they're replying. Having to read much at top and bottom hardly lets me focus on the picture anymore. So I prefer different colours/ fonts for this, but both bottom-ish - one dialogue at the very bottom, the other one slightly above. Which brings me to my pet peeve : hardsubs, those baked into the picture itself. Aaargh. Atm. I am watching one series that I could only find in a version with French hardsubs, that are not that good to begin with, but more annoyingly they used a font in like smallprint. I was hesitant for a while, since the video is low in resolution, but am now cotinuing with downloaded English subs at the top, additionally to the French smallprint ones at the bottom. :| ---------------------------------------- Big thanks to those russian folks at subs.com.ru, they have an impressive collection of English subtitle files. That has helped me a LOT. What I would really wish for : a place where you could download Romagi subs. That'd be nice. Zalis said: Keep TL notes to a minimum; jokes aren't funny if they have to be explained. Thank you. |
BannoBunka_snorkMay 30, 2016 4:35 PM
| *darn, using my right hand is off-limits for a while. Typing with my left hand only is ... eww.* |
| I hate when the words fly away as they are being sang. |
| - White font, small and NOT COMIC SANS ugh please no zwz. - Well I like watching anime in English subs rather than my mother language... - Plus points if the subs has some "sophisticate" words that I may not understand (I like learning new words zwz" - Usage of honourifics would be ideal. - I find it less distracting when words are spelled the "british way" e.g realized --> realised ( lol i know i'm asking for too much but It's just the way I'm used to)... Nonetheless I don't mind the american spelling. - No slang <-< - Accurate translation.... That's it. |
| I like my subs to be as Americanised and filled with as much memes as possible. jk jk TheKillerAngel said: People have different tastes when it comes to how they like things translated. Here are mine: 1. I prefer seeing names with honorifics as opposed to their English equivalent (e.g. I prefer Kousaka-san over Ms. Kousaka) 2. Forms of address or salutations with no English equivalent (e.g. Onee-sama, Yahello!) should be preserved rather than localized. 3. I prefer OPs and EDs having both English translations and Romaji subtitles. 4. I'm not very picky with typefaces but I don't like bold fonts and have a slight preference for sans-serif typefaces. 1, 2: Yeah, subs should be as direct as possible. Leave it to a dub to make honorifics and certain phrases more closely suited to the language it's translated into. Then again, a lot of subs still use words like "baka", which has no excuse, just translate that stuff. 3. Eh, I really don't care. It's nice to know a translation to a song, but it's almost always some J-Pop nonsense, and like with most pop music, it's better to tune out and enjoy the sounds of the instruments, beat, rythm etc instead of what's being sung. Also, you can always look up lyrics and translations of them on the internet. Also, stop doing over the top karaoke effects. I like a karaoke effect good enough, sometimes it's fun to try to sing along, but when your karaoke effects distract me from the actual OP/ED, we've got a big problem. 4. A few DVD's I own use yellow subtitles. Usually the ones I've imported from the USA. What is the deal with America and yellow subtitles? It hurts my eyes. Just keep them white with a black outline. |
| Preferably turned off, so they don't block my view of the show, but I don't understand Japanese and don't pick up enough of the story to watch it raw, so I need them when I'm watching the Japanese version. Other than that: -I don't particularly care for honorifics, they can go ahead and translate them or just omit them since you can hear the characters saying them anyway. -Also if the subtitles are English than names should be displayed as they are said in the English language (Shiki Ryogi VS Ryogi Shiki) otherwise it's somewhat confusing since the naming scheme is reversed in Japan with the family name first and the given name last. |
| "Laws exist only for those who cannot live without clinging onto them." -Souske Aizen "Bleach"  |
TheKillerAngel said: People have different tastes when it comes to how they like things translated. Here are mine: 1. I prefer seeing names with honorifics as opposed to their English equivalent (e.g. I prefer Kousaka-san over Ms. Kousaka) 2. Forms of address or salutations with no English equivalent (e.g. Onee-sama, Yahello!) should be preserved rather than localized. 3. I prefer OPs and EDs having both English translations and Romaji subtitles. 4. I'm not very picky with typefaces but I don't like bold fonts and have a slight preference for sans-serif typefaces. I prefer english equivalents, It just seems lazy on the translator's part to not translate the honorifics and localization. I don't really pay attention to OPS and EDs.I do like stylized subs if they are not too distracting.I even like those old yellow subs on some of the old anime. |
BannoBunka_snork said: TheKillerAngel said: People have different tastes when it comes to how they like things translated. Here are mine: 1. I prefer seeing names with honorifics as opposed to their English equivalent (e.g. I prefer Kousaka-san over Ms. Kousaka) 2. Forms of address or salutations with no English equivalent (e.g. Onee-sama, Yahello!) should be preserved rather than localized. OMG they dropped a -senpai !!!! World's gonna end now. Seriously, I can't respond to this other than harshly, since I am so tired to hear these annoying bickerings, typically coming from folks who have no bloody clue about translating. Or who maybe want to feel so special insiders because they know how to understand this -senpai or that nee-nee. here is my advice, free of charge : Turn on the bloody sound!, then you can HEAR all them -san, -chan and whatnots. So how on earth are you loosing out if they don't make it into the subs ? Finally, for fan!subs - show some respect, or even gratitude. It really is work. If you are so unhappy about them "missing" -sama, become translator for free yourself. And then learn to face all the bickering you'll inevitably get, about the least important bits. ------------------ I lately particularly enjoyed some qualities in a German fansub for Hataraku Maou-sama, I could notice how they had taken real care with their translation, and you know what - I have no idea no more if they had the honorifics in the sub or not. But I remember hearing them. *cooling off* -Maz said: Another giant pet peeve of mine is when they don't bother separating multiple conversations that are happening concurrently. Have one conversation at the top of the screen and the second at the bottom. Don't lump them all together because it quickly becomes confusing trying to figure out who the fuck is saying what, and to whom they're replying. Having to read much at top and bottom hardly lets me focus on the picture anymore. So I prefer different colours/ fonts for this, but both bottom-ish - one dialogue at the very bottom, the other one slightly above. Which brings me to my pet peeve : hardsubs, those baked into the picture itself. Aaargh. Atm. I am watching one series that I could only find in a version with French hardsubs, that are not that good to begin with, but more annoyingly they used a font in like smallprint. I was hesitant for a while, since the video is low in resolution, but am now cotinuing with downloaded English subs at the top, additionally to the French smallprint ones at the bottom. :| ---------------------------------------- Big thanks to those russian folks at subs.com.ru, they have an impressive collection of English subtitle files. That has helped me a LOT. What I would really wish for : a place where you could download Romagi subs. That'd be nice. Zalis said: Keep TL notes to a minimum; jokes aren't funny if they have to be explained. Thank you. very rage. so anger. wow I did not expect my preferences for subtitles could stir such emotions. |
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| I prefer my subs: - With Japanese honorifics - Forms of address or salutations should be preserved - OPs and EDs should have both English translations and Romaji subtitles |
| Remember that scene in The Godfather where Michael is speaking Italian to the man he's about to assassinate and the subtitles stop as they continue speaking? They didn't show the subs partly because it didn't matter what they were talking about. Michael was focused on something else. I think subbers give too much information. I don't need big explanations every time someone says something I might not understand. I don't need lyrics with highlighted, moving words every time there's a song playing. I don't need subtitles at the top of the screen for chatter from background characters. It's distracting. Keep it faithful and relevant. |
| Okay, here's my borderline perfect guide to subtitles (we'll start with the sumarized rules and then elaborate): 1. Preserve Original Honorifics 2. Reduce Translator Notes 3. Allow it to be Easy to Follow 4. Formulate Stimulating Lyrics 5. Make a Sensible Transliteration 6. Keep the Basics in Mind 1. Keep the Japanese honorifics rather than changing them to English ones because they are used differently in their respective languages (for example, "-san" is a very general but respectful honorific but changing it to "Mr." would make it seem a lot more impersonal or respectful than what would make sense in the context of the show). Hell, some honorifics don't even have equivalents in English like "-kun" and "-chan" (which are fairly common and important to understand). If you must explain the context, use a translator note... which brings me to: 2. Keep translators notes down to a minimum. Only use them when the dialogue wouldn't make sense ANY other way when written out in the subtitles (i.e. puns). Also, obscure references to Japanese culture that is not self-explanatory would be a nice thing to explain. Even then, use brackets at the end of the subtitles with one or two words or a very brief sentence at the top. Example: [-kun = less impersonal honorific, usually used for young men]. In the case of a pun on a cooking show or something: [Onigiri = Rice Ball; Onii-chan = Big Brother] (I dunno). Finally, keep your damn jokes/dank-ass memes to yourself. 3. Please keep the more relevant dialogue at the bottom of the screen and even then, try to use a different color to clearly indicate who's talking. If someone is thinking about something or if two or more people's conversation is more audible, keep that at the bottom. 4. OPs and EDS should preferably have the direct English translation at the bottom and the Romaji with the Kana subtitles at the top. You don't have to make each Kana symbol bounce with each passing lyric or whatever but it does help a bit with learning the language. 5. Keep names of people and things exactly as they are. Write the last name out first because it reduces the disconnect between the actual dialogue and the subtitles (not to menton it helps with the placement of honorifics). Whenever engrish [sic] is used, try to preserve it but implement that in the most sensible way possible (don't change someone saying "Papa" to "Daddy" in the subtitles). To elaborate, make a more direct translation that makes sense (like when someone is addressed by name at the beginning of a sentence, try to keep their name at the beginning of the subtitles as well or how "Kuso" clearly means "Shit" or "Crap" so it should only be changed to "Damn" when it makes more sense). 6. Other than that, avoid the basic sins like subtitles that are hard to read and poorly timed subtitles. I know this seems very specific or highly demanding but I feel like I have to communicate this as clearly as possible because I want to have subtitles that compromise with newbies and people who know some of the language/culture in terms of complexity. For a perfect example of how NOT to do subtitles, watch the official subtitled version of Clannad by Sentai Filmworks. It excludes honorifics, gives paragraph-long translator notes on things that don't matter with inconsistent localization, can't keep track of who's talking, structures sentences in a weird way (even in the freaking dub!), and switches the lyrics from English to Romaji every other episode. However, anyone who follows these rules would have my graditude forever and deserves a raise (whether you work at an official distribution company or you're just a fan trying to help out). Let me know if I missed anything or wasn't clear enough on something. Sorry for the long post. |
"Being kind to everyone, simply means there's no one special." - Arararagi Koyomi Onii-chan |
| If they write Oni-sama, I wanna see it and not "brother". No yellow text please And the san and kun and those i wanna see too |
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TheKillerAngel said: very rage. so anger. wow I did not expect my preferences for subtitles could stir such emotions. Of course I do not mind your or my own preferences. I do mind what I see as mindless bickering towards translators/ translations, resp. my preferences = better, so every translation should be according to my preferences. Which I now think you did not even do in the first place. I realise it must be so much of a pet peeve of mine, that I jumped to "conclusions" / misread the OP. :| |
| *darn, using my right hand is off-limits for a while. Typing with my left hand only is ... eww.* |
| I like my subs without ketchup... I like them if they use Kun, Chan, San and Dono etc. Have to be in a plain font. White with block outlines |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| Keep honorifics, don't translate things like onii-san and onee-san, and have the subs be a white, shadowed, non-blurry font. |
| >Font has to be white bubble, but not to obscure too much or be too long...should have a natural flow. >For fuck's sake don't give me Japanese words untranslated and then put a "TL Note" on top of the screen! >You can use honorifics but I really don't care one way or another. >If a character calls someone "Onii-chan" don't change it to the character's name....leave it as is. >Don't get too cute.... |
| --> Keep the English honorifics and forms of address. ---> Romanji and English subtitles in OPs and EDs --> Puns that are only understandable in Japanese should have a side note at the top so that I can understand it as well --> I like 'em bitches in white Arial font and white outline. Not too big, not too fat. --> No literal translations. ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ --> If there are more than one characters speaking at a time, don't fucking make everything in white font. Like what the fuck is that, then it becomes a paragraph. Color code that shit. ಠ_ಠ --> If there is a song that only shows for a certain scene, it does not need to be subbed. It's distracting as hell ಠ_ಠ --> No grammatical errors. Like it pisses me so much that I pause the scene and stare at the misspelled word for eternity. It's so distracting ಠ_ಠ --> There are specific characters who have an accent. While other characters might say "Yes" or "Yeah", they say "Yaa' ", for example. It's okay, but it should be subbed appropriately and still be readable. If not, then don't bother. --> Try to avoid putting untranslatable words there. Like the ones that even Google doesn't understand. It pisses me df off ಠ_ಠ It's a lot... but that's basically it lol |
ExhalantMay 31, 2016 5:56 PM
| Especially not have to have problems with grammar... |
| There are some subs that has the color of the text change based in the hair color of the character, sometimes they even have multiple colors at the same time if the characters talk at the same time, I love that type of subs so much. Openings and endings having both romaji and english translations also add up a lot to my enjoyment since I like to sing the song. |
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| Pale yellow like the color of my piss |
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| extra dank with a bit of trap flavor. |
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TheKillerAngel said: 1/2. I hate localization, which also makes me kinda feel like a weeb. I just feel like it kinda takes away from the material.People have different tastes when it comes to how they like things translated. Here are mine: 1. I prefer seeing names with honorifics as opposed to their English equivalent (e.g. I prefer Kousaka-san over Ms. Kousaka) 2. Forms of address or salutations with no English equivalent (e.g. Onee-sama, Yahello!) should be preserved rather than localized. 4. I'm not very picky with typefaces but I don't like bold fonts and have a slight preference for sans-serif typefaces. 4. I can't think of what the name of the font I like, but I enjoy the simple clean white one. |
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| Not too big. Not too small. Medium's the right size for me. I tried. |
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