What's their problem?

[AkihaTohno]

This is not a rant against Lunar, I love em to bits, I just want to know why all these people are attacking them on their own boards! Why is it that people feel like fan sub groups OWE them something? It's so childish.
And now people are telling them to drop the project? Like, WTF?

I think it's so unfair of what's going on, and so what if Lunar are having problems right now in regards to Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. Why do these lamers have to be so disrespectful to Lunar, when they're pretty much providing people with free fan subs? I'm DISGUSTED.

Sorry, I ranted. hehe.

[Killerattacks]

you know, this thread wont get anywhere. It's the same story like it was with AJ (People liking them /people disliking them and both posting their opinions thousands of times).
So this time it is lunar? Well tomorrow it will be ^_^ and the day after tomorrow another group...
And nobody will change his mind and nothing will come out of this.

The basic point is: There are groups which make more mistakes than others do. Some people dont mind, some do. And theres your argument... and it will go on forever.

[AkihaTohno]

I know this won't change anything, and it's not about Lunar at all. It's about the mentality of certain people thinking fansubbers owe them the anime ON TIME.

It just makes me mad.

[Shii]

Tell me about it. Hurr hurr hurr, AnimeCo is going to take their time subbing Hale Guu Final, so that means we can threaten to watch the AJ subs instead. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT JAROD?? PUNK??

Guys, if you want to watch crappy speedsubs, that's your choice. Don't whine about fansubs not being released double time.

[durrem]

I like Daphne. I hope they don't drop it.

[TronDD]

I just read that thread today, I went to check for a status on Daphne. A guess people get antsy in groups.

I can understand the fans' frustration. Sucks to only get half of a good thing. I'm kinda annoyed by it too. However, I agree that I'm lucky to have gotten what I did from Lunar. I don't think anyone has a right to harass them about their release schedule. It's enough to let them know you're waiting on it so they can guage whether or not there is a reason to release something. Then it's up to them to decide if and when they do it.

I'm surprised groups even have forums. They are just inviting the negetivity. You can't please everyone and the displeased like te bitch about it.

[Master Ran]

Originally Posted by AkihaTohno

I know this won't change anything, and it's not about Lunar at all. It's about the mentality of certain people thinking fansubbers owe them the anime ON TIME.

and WITH PERFECT/NEAR PERFECT TRANSLATIONS.

And rather than giving some help or even a bit of encouragement, some kids throw BS to these subbers who i might add do it for free and for love of anime.

tsk...tsk...

Master Ran

[PdPablo]

I think I complained once...but after I learned all the trouble it is to do everything they do and the time and effort it takes I just STFU and gratefully took it whenever they released it.
And it is very true, they really dont owe anybody anything specially fans who just want an episode RIGHT now.
I never insulted anybody though, I think insulting a group and attacking them is out of line, but then again so is any kind of bitching and complaining.

[drvtech]

I must say that with the advent of digital fansubs, the expectation levels have been rising and that the general level of patience has dwindled down to nothing. Not that I'm against digital fansubbing, I think it's a great advent with just some horrible side-effects. But most people out there do not know the intricacies of a fansub group. I admit that I didn't know either but now after two years of doing this, I have a good feel but I'm still improving.

I don't know for most groups, but the groups I'm with usually follow this pattern:

1) The raw getter obtains the raw (usually within 24 hours after airing in Japan and note that most anime airs around the 11pm to 2am time slot. So if an anime airs 4/11 in Japan, you can probably obtain a raw by 4/12 12pm EST (GMT-5). Or earlier if you know how to use special programs and type Japanese.
2) Then send to the translator to translate. The translators I work with usually do two passes of translations. First time to hit the easier lines and to transcribe the harder lines. IE- How are you? could be easily translated but lines like "The quantum phase shift of the destabilized neutrino could cause a doppler-like effect and destroy the universe."
3) They are then sent to another translator who checks over the 1st translator's translation and ensure the the correct subject/objects were heard etc.
4) Then you have timing
5) Then at least one -> three rounds of editing
6) Typeset the signs and the fonts
7) Encode
8) QC -> re-encode if necessary or disto
9) Release

I know I cut off the work description after timing, but that's because it is the jobs people are more familiar with.

If this was just a simple one dimensional group, just knowing and doing your jobs, then there'd be no problems. But most of the fansubbers have work, have school, have homework. Yes, I'm sure they could spend the 2-8 hours doing this and skipping studying for exams, doing their homework...but if you were in their shoes, would you, especially if you knew you had an exam in 8 hours?
Another factor is group dynamics...most groups usually have people working together who don't know each other or very familiar with each other. How do you motivate your translator to translate when they're being lazy? Do you say, translate or find another group? How about the encoder being really picky on the raws, do you tell them to just shove it and use the first raw available? Etc. Last but not least...the people who bring you anime are "fan"subbers. Why should they be "forced" to sub an anime that they are not a "fan" of? I bring this up because I hear many people flame Lunar for saying that they're not doing Daphne but three new shows. It could be possible that they have four translators and the one that liked Daphne is busy (maybe with the GRE, MCATs...who knows) and the other three don't like Daphne. Are you going to tell them that they "have" to translate that show because YOU want it? I guess it'd be the same as saying you are majoring in business but because your roommate's teacher want his differential equation's homework that you have to do it.

Please note that this isn't directed towards the Daphne fans, but fans who think along these lines in general, it just happened that Daphne was a show that I heard recently but this same thing has happened before.

Instead of flaming your friendly or unfriendly fansubbing group, try doing these instead:
1) See what the group is having problems with and see if you can help out in a way.
2) Wait patiently for their problems to solve.
3) Approach another group and see if they have the time and the manpower to complete your project of choice.
4) Form your own group and finish subbing the show. <---this may be a bit extreme, but I had to put it down as an option.

[Tellu54]

Usually when people get like that, I tell them that raws are easily available and that they can sub it themselves if they want it that bad. Usually they don't have the guts to tell me to my face that I *NEED* to work on it for them.

[dojoo]

approxmately how long does it take to translate like a single 30 min (24min) episode?

2-3hours??

Idon't really want to be slow at this....

[JOJOS'STAR]

hmm the question would be more like "Whats your problem". Not realising this is historic human behaviour is none-sense. For as long as I know for every recognition theres a way to say otherwise, and take an entirely opposite point of view. For every lovers theres haters. You should know about this, especialy comming from a forum like this one.

BTW I love Lunar too. ^________^

[Tellu54]

On a average, by which I mean about 250-300 line episode, it takes about an hour and a half for a simple ep... its just a function of typing speed and whether you're doing other stuff at the same time..

But its FAR better to be good than fast, so if you need to take longer, do so.

[Lucier]

Translating takes me between 90 minutes and ~6 hours, depending on difficulty...

Hard series take a lot longer... involve many dictionary refrences, and questions to those who are more knowledgeable than myself on difficult lines....

Easy series don't take long... just listen and type, with the occasional dictionary refrence...

And as for Daphne, expect episode 7 this week sometime...

[Gold_Rogers]

Yeah from experience I can tell you TL takes around an hour (this is fast) to 6-7 hours if you're referencing dictionaries, manuals, websites, etc. I like to work slowly though, so I can listen to each line 3-4 times to make sure I'm not screwing up. Then again, I'm not very experienced (nor am I currently affiliated with any major fansubbing groups).

[K_R]

Takes me about 2-3 hours to translate (and do an initial edit on) Midori episodes. Although I translate with 2 Japanese friends, their English is not the best, so we can get bogged down trying to communicate the idea into English. (They're great for explaining cultural stuff such as the counting to 100 thing, though)

[ichido reichan]

Originally Posted by K_R

Takes me about 2-3 hours to translate (and do an initial edit on) Midori episodes. Although I translate with 2 Japanese friends, their English is not the best, so we can get bogged down trying to communicate the idea into English. (They're great for explaining cultural stuff such as the counting to 100 thing, though)

I wouldnt even complain, even if this were a joke... that the groups are taking too long or they are not doing their job right, this generation of kids just get to the pc, click on the BT and they dig in 30 minutes what took you 6 hours of work.

Translators of anime deserves more than just thanks, if you have a problem that your episode or movie is being release too late, you can do it yourself and there is paid translators for it, check out the price of my translator when I asked about the 90 min. movie GUILSTEIN (gotta pay 'cause I dont know any "free"translators)

"If there's just as much dialogue as a normal anime episode, $200, but
if
there's half the dialogue, $100, and if there's 3/4 the dialogue,
$150...
Since I can't tell how much dialogue there is until I translate it, I
would ask for $100 up front, then after I translate $100 worth of it, I
would calculate how much the rest of the movie would cost. (I doubt it
would cost any less than $100"

there you go...enjoy

[LordBrian]

Seems like kind of a shady way of billing someone. What if you start translating only to find that it's jam-packed full of dialogue, and determine that $100 worth is 10% of the show? Do you then jack the price way up, and if they refuse to pay then leave them with 10% of the script after taking the $100?

[Secca]

$100 for a translation? fansub? It just doesn't sound right when people take advantage of unlicensed animes and start making money.

[exedore]

Originally Posted by LordBrian

Seems like kind of a shady way of billing someone. What if you start translating only to find that it's jam-packed full of dialogue, and determine that $100 worth is 10% of the show? Do you then jack the price way up, and if they refuse to pay then leave them with 10% of the script after taking the $100?

The translators I used for Sexy Commando and a few eps of LoGH would set a base price ($50 for a 25 min episode) and would take deposit with the source material. They'd then watch through the material and warn you up front if they felt it would be extra difficult (and therefore extra expensive) and offer to drop it and send you back your money if you didn't want to pay extra.

We may have only gotten four episodes of LoGH from them, but damn if they weren't some of the best I've seen for the show.

Truth be told, I wonder what would happen if more digisubbers had to pay for translators...I bet a lot more oldskool would get done as the excuse of the translator not wanting to watch it pretty much goes out the window when there's a financial incentive. On the other hand, finding a way of inspiring sponsorship could become increasingly difficult as well...offering an SVHS just doesn't have the weight that it used to.