Re: Future Subtiled Episodes
Hank Wong (hankwong@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU)
Fri, 29 Jan 1999 14:31:04 -0800 (PST)
On Fri, 29 Jan 1999, Walter Amos wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Jan 1999, Isaac Alexander wrote:
>
> > Does anybody know if any Fan-Subtitling group is working on subtitling episodes 43-110 of our favorite series?
> It's not that nobody is "working" on them (though I dunno what has
> happened to Bruce C. - he seems to have dropped off the planet lately)
> but that the scripts are not available (though I believe Sue has
> translated up to 45 or something?). As with all subtitling the
> bottleneck is the script. If you have a faster way to get translations
> go for it, and they will get subbed faster.
The problem with getting LoGH scripts is that it's hard to find a
translator for LoGH. It's easy to find a random Japanese-fluent person to
translate your average magical girls anime, for example, since most of the
dialogue is at an elementary school level. But a translator of LoGH has to
not only translate fairly complicated dialogue, but has to
know military ranks, political offices, and titles of nobility in both
English and Japanese. Frankly there are not that many translators who
are good with that. Heck your average person often can't tell the
difference between a Colonel and a Colonel-General. I know one active
fansubber who has tried at least four different translators for
LoGH, all of whom couldn't handle it.
And for optimal tranlsation they have to have seen the previous episodes
so they have an idea of what's going on and can fit their translations
into the context of the previous episodes. Otherwise the translated
dislogue will kind of seem disjointed.
Another issue is LDs. It's a lot bigger investment to buy a box set of
many many LDs for a long series than it is to buy one or two single LDs
(for say a shorter series). Most anime fansub groups are poor enough as it
is, and don't have the $$$ to shell out $1500-$2000 for all the eps. :( I
know at least one fansubber who is willing to do the entire series but
cannot afford the LDs.
And to partially answer Alex's question, no active groups currently in the
"fansubbing scene" are doing LoGH. The closest one would be Anime Central,
but they've got a gadzillion other projects going on concurrently.
Not trying to sound too pessimistic, but just trying to point out some of
the factors.
-Hank
Hank Wong hankwong@soda.csua.berkeley.edu
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