Gundam 00 — Nyoro~n Translation Errors

250 Responses to Gundam 00 — Nyoro~n Translation Errors

1. Marek says:

   October 23, 2007 at 4:28 am

   *laughs* I knew it was a good thing I avoided those silly speedsubbers…

   I still think that name should be Leif, though ;)
2. Enzer Miliard says:

   October 23, 2007 at 5:09 am

   I’m too lazy to use bit torrent so I just direct download gundam 00, of course the site I get them from just picks up whatever it can first…. so I have 2 from gundamsnet and the newest one from nyoro~n sadly enough…….. but I’ll end up watching it in english when it comes out anyway…… hopefully they’ll get it right 8Þ
3. Anonymous says:

   October 23, 2007 at 5:25 am

   hey look, it’s a menclave troll criticizing Nyoro~n! How novel.
4. Anonymous says:

   October 23, 2007 at 5:26 am

   Hmm, another menclave troll trolling nyoro~n. I love you guys.
5. kassatsu says:

   October 23, 2007 at 5:41 am

   hi lolfang.
6. Person A says:

   October 23, 2007 at 5:59 am

   My japanese isn’t great but there were also errors all through out episode 2 I could pick up, insults in places where they shouldn’t be and such, quite annoying to watch.
7. Link says:

   October 23, 2007 at 6:15 am

   I’m happy to see some things never change.
8. silverfire says:

   October 23, 2007 at 6:20 am

   @Lolfang: Dude get it right. Menclave is our good side. Clavemen is our trolling side.
9. sagematt says:

   October 23, 2007 at 6:35 am

   This just in:

   Nyoro~n teams up with Doremi just to spite DarkMirage. News at 10.
10. PrincessRydiamon says:

    October 23, 2007 at 6:46 am

    Wow… Just wow….

    I’m a fluent Japanese speaker and part of a fansub group myself, so I’m not very versed in what other groups do…

    I can’t believe this type of garbage a fansub group will put out just to be ‘first on the block’… I had no reason to download subs of other series… but now I may just to laugh at the mistakes the low quality ones make.

    – PrincessRydiamon/LNF Nuku-Nuku
11. DarkMirage says:

    October 23, 2007 at 6:57 am

    Marek: You are right. It is Leif.

    Anonymous: Attacking the person doesn’t make the message any less true. At least this troll speaks the truth. :)
12. DarkMirage says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:11 am

    BTW here’s what the translator has to say:

    Please limit your posts to 1 per topic, I can see your ip dude you’re not fooling anyone. I’ve encountered this guy’s before, he’s not too good with Japanese, and a professional troll for Mendoi, you can’t take what he says for much.

    To the rest of you, I hope you weren’t discouraged by this guy, and know my subs are just fine.

    -Lolfang

    Taken from Nyoro~n’s blog. Some guy spammed this page there and he wasn’t too happy about it. But it wasn’t me. I guess there are a lot of pissed-off people out there.

    Strangely, I don’t think I know this guy. I do feel kind of sad that he accuses me of being “not too good with Japanese“. :(
13. JediNight says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:26 am

    I don’t see how he can try to claim you are lying or trolling — you posted the original Japanese along with their translation.

    I’ve only watched Ep3 raw, and I can see the inaccuracies myself. The energy transfer TO Ptolemae-whatever is in “plain Japanese”, and I thought the sentence about the Flag pilot being able to tell the CB pilot was young based on his movements was also pretty obvious.

    (I’m certainly not totally fluent, but I can spit out a fairly accurate TL in around 6hrs … I tend to be anal about checking against my dictionary for everything to make sure I get it correct)
14. flou says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:57 am

    I quickly glanced over at Nyoro~n subs earlier (since I’m not that familiar with Gundam terminology) and noticed they translated “sister” as “mother, Anne.” WTH, Nyoro~n?!
15. Vin says:

    October 23, 2007 at 8:01 am

    Oh wow. Thanks so much for the insight into the wrong translations. I actually had downloaded Nyoro~n and was going to watch it when I came across this blog. After reading this, I would’ve have definitely had a wrong perception of some of the bigger points of the plotline in this series (i.e., Gundams giving energy, not the need to be recharged). Just, wow. Unfortunately, since I do not speak Japanese, I need to rely on subbers. But now that you have brought this up, I’m going to have to be careful on which groups I download from.
16. ggg says:

    October 23, 2007 at 8:26 am

    Nyoro~n does speedsubs.
    Your group does slow, methodical, higher quality work.

    You are a tremendous faggot.
17. silverfire says:

    October 23, 2007 at 8:35 am

    @ggg: I understand that they’re speedsubbers, but when you’re putting opposite meanings in your subs, it’s closer to the realm of jokesubbing than speedsubbing.
18. Beowulf Lee says:

    October 23, 2007 at 8:45 am

    There’s a minimum quality to speed subs, and as DM demonstrated, this guy definitely does not meet that standard.

    I don’t understand this “well he’s doing it for free” and “why don’t you help out instead of complaining” argument. If something is bad, it’s bad. There’s really nothing personal to it.

    There’s also a difference between criticism and bitching, and DM clearly had done the former.
19. Francis says:

    October 23, 2007 at 8:52 am

    I agree with “ggg” in saying that they are speedsubs.. But even if your a speedsub group, i think the only difference should be the quality of the language interpreted,

    So i wouldn’t be expecting intricate jargon that ties it in (which Nyoro~n try to incorporate).

    I think if they tone down the language, they might be looking at a more accurate translation,

    Then again i have no idea about translating from Japanese, i just hav picked up a couple phrases here and there.

    But i reckon the importance of translation, specially in a show that has technical explanations, and also a political view that it needs to convey, is pretty important, u not only misunderstand the plot line but the whole experiences of what the writer is trying to put across to the audience is lost, because in reality we get Nyoro~n’s Gundam 00…

    For a couple of years now i have been following DBs Speedsubs for Naruto and Bleach, and for the life of me i have no idea if there subs are accurate or not. So once i downloaded another groups to compare the releases, and it didn’t flow as nice.. I guess really i could be in the same situation, the subs just flow well for DB or are the accurate o_0” No idea

    my 2 cents worth in the bowl, mix it up, hop out the kitchen when it gets hot cause too many cooks spoil the broth, and there’s no point crying over spilt milk since all roads lead to Rome and it wasn’t built in a day, and if you change horses midstream you’ll be up the creek without a paddle, and we’ll be talking bout this till the cows come home.
20. Anonymous says:

    October 23, 2007 at 9:09 am

    Nyoro~n didn’t just do a speedsub. They did a joke/troll/shit sub. Nyoro~n definitely know it’s wrong but they’ll defend because obviously each group has its sheep that’ll believe them. They get a kick out of it. Unfortunately, bad for the community. DarkMirage did a great service to all the English viewers.
21. Epi says:

    October 23, 2007 at 9:38 am

    Looks like Anime-Junkies is back!
22. Freddie says:

    October 23, 2007 at 9:55 am

    This is a real problem with bad speedsubbers, to see it in perspective, let’s see numbers:

    Downloads of Nyoro~n version as of now: 26922
    Downloads of Mendoi-Conclave version as of now: 10679

    So, the QUALITY fansubs of Nyoro~n have a market share of 71%!! 71% of english fans who use fansubbers think that Graham Acre grasps his shortcomings!!

    I see this post as a great service for the anime fandom around the world, as speedsubbers have the advantage of “first post” and a lot of people don’t care or even know the “speedsubbers” term. One will hope Nyoro~n will receive this as a good thing and use it to be better, but it seems is “cooler” to be part of the Anonymous Groupthinking (Even with 4chan dead).

    Great work, DM
23. fag says:

    October 23, 2007 at 10:28 am

    This is why I prefer zero-presence fansubbing.
    There is no “market” – its piracy.

    Fred, explain how “Anonymous Groupthinking” has anything to do with shitty subs. You are very ‘hip’ to internet developments. I gained a great deal of respect for you. Perhaps the next time I encounter your selectively portrayed internet-persona I will hold your opinion in higher regard than I would the opinion of a stranger. Yes sir you made an internet friend today. Relax, allow me to caress you e-peen, now, and in the future.
24. dudeman74 says:

    October 23, 2007 at 10:52 am

    How does Anonymous group compare to Conclave Mendoi’s?
25. Winny says:

    October 23, 2007 at 11:16 am

    If people are so concerned with the accuracy of the translations they should just go learn japanese, downloading something for free will always have its risks, including dodgy translations. Although i must say some of the mistakes are quite shocking, what use is it to list all their mistakes and insult them?

    And um, soulshift, Bigpond is kind of known for it’s high prices, i’m with iiNet’s plan of $70($90SGD)/month 60gb cap.

    Just a note, i’m not invovled in the fansubbing scenario at all, nor do i download english subs
26. Arctic eAgle says:

    October 23, 2007 at 11:19 am

    thanks for the corrections those Nyoro~n retards better start picking up their act
27. Winny says:

    October 23, 2007 at 11:21 am

    ^oops, forgot to add that it is 24mbps
28. Qad says:

    October 23, 2007 at 11:22 am

    Aww man…the reason I d/led from Nyoron is bcos they at least release theirs in HD avi format. Not that mycom doesnt support mkvs, I just prefer avi/mp4 over mkv…

    Any chance of M-C releasing in mp4/avi?? Else I gotta wait for Shinsen…
29. DarkMirage says:

    October 23, 2007 at 11:24 am

    Anonymous is pretty good too. If you don’t want to watch Mendoi-Conclave because you hate us or because you prefer Xvid, then I recommend Anonymous. But for the love of all that is good, stop trying to defend Nyoro~n.

    There is a minimum standard of quality even for “speed subs”. I can honestly tell you that with Nyoro~n’s misleading “translations”, you are better off watching the entire thing raw even if you don’t know a single word of Japanese. At least then you won’t be under the false impression that you know what is going on with the story. Ultimately Nyoro~n’s release does a huge disservice to the community and contributes nothing to the series.

    And judging from the Lolfang’s reaction to my accusations and those of other people before me, I find it hard to believe that he is unaware of his terrible translation. This is not a mistake, this is a deliberate attempt on his part to mislead and cheat. I find it highly despicable that he continues to defend his “translation”, especially when he knows that there are people out there who desperately want to continue to believe in Nyoro~n, who even now are trying to defend him. He is betraying their trust wilfully. I am disgusted.

    The right thing to do now is to owe up that you have been making up more than half the dialogues and apologize to the people who wasted their time on your ego-trip.

    That said, I don’t think zero-presence fansubbing has anything to do with this whole thing. Even if Lolfang had released his translations anonymously, I would still have done this comparison because I absolutely detest such forms of dishonesty in fansubbing. The only difference is that in that case we wouldn’t be able to find anyone to hold accountable for.

    Once again, I find it weird that there are always people who accuse me of “not helping”. What more can I do? Lolfang had his mistakes pointed out to him in private numerous times before. He did nothing to improve and he showed no signs of regret. Would you prefer if I didn’t make this post and kept my mouth shut instead? I simply cannot understand this line of reasoning.
30. ggg says:

    October 23, 2007 at 11:24 am

    i don’t think he’s insulting them, he’s pointing out major mistakes so that the fans don’t run into continuity issues in the future, especially with that energy transfer thing. god even i noticed when reading the sub
31. Kidd says:

    October 23, 2007 at 12:16 pm

    DM, I haven’t watched this series, but from reading your article I can already tell which person has the correct translation and all that… not gonna try fighting that in the slightest. I also appreciate that you put this up on your site, it’s great for the general fandom to get to read ^_^x

    However, I think I should point out that there is a possibility where he isn’t doing this to intentionally piss people off. Perhaps he did try his best (I sure remember my first attempts at translating, when I probably shouldn’t have even bothered thinking about it) and in the end puzzled together something he thought made sense?

    If he fought that hard, some personality types wouldn’t be able to accept to himself that his work is bad. I’m not trying to defend him here, saying that he might be morally correct… just saying that perhaps you might want to remember he might not be “just” as bad as you make him out to be.

    Again, I’ve never been interested in this show, never downloaded an episode and certainly never spoke to the guy, so I have no clue outside of this article ^_^x;
32. Phenie says:

    October 23, 2007 at 1:55 pm

    Excellent post DM, I haven’t watched any subs other than Mendoi/Conclave, but now I’m glad I didn’t.

    I do speak Japanese and fansub for certain groups and reading through the translations of Nyoron gave me a wonderful giggle, I mean everyone makes mistakes, but thats virtually changing the storyline.

33. Pingback: Menclave » DORAMA~

34. Anonymous says:

    October 23, 2007 at 2:41 pm

    “He did nothing to improve and he showed no signs of regret.”

    probably because showing regret isn’t going to help him to improve
35. Azu says:

    October 23, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    Not gonna defend nyoro~n, but from this we can conclude that

    1) only a handful of people can do quality subs
    2) only a handful of those handful of people would sub a project like Gundam

    I’m pretty sure someday I’ll get owned by some lyric translation critic, but I also want to alert people that to send the meaning across, each translator would produce a different translation. Some would do it better than others.

    It’s easy to distinguish a correct translation that one that’s not (especially from peer groups), but it’s up to the individual to choose the best one.

    That said, you also need to know why DM is the best around. Usually a translator is either too on the literal side or the poetic side (in which I’m the latter), but DM is just about smack in the middle.
36. Red Priest Rezo says:

    October 23, 2007 at 4:08 pm

    Well, as I thouht, nyoro~n is not geting any better. It was a piece of shit when it was translating Gurren-Lagann, and it is just the same piece now.

    So, I’m really think that he (them?) is doing it on purpuse.
37. Yggdrasil says:

    October 23, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    I knew there was a reason that I’m always watching the “quality” hroup versions of a shows sub – if available.

    I don’t like the idea of speedsubbing in general (hell, the whole thing has to be translated and timed either way. Doing some QC and a proper encode is by far the least work).

    And I’m not that big fan of zero presence subbing. Because I just don’t know how good the “Anon” subbing a certain show is. You can’t even know if it’s the same Anon who subs other shows with the same name-tag.

    The only problem I have with regular groups is that they tend to become slower with their releases of a show and tend to drop them. No offense here, I can wait weeks for a proper sub. But anything beyond 2 months is cruel.

    For example “Eureka 7” by Nanashi. I guess I’m one of the 3 guys who actually watched the whole show by them and not the speedsubbers.

    But despite those peanuts I really enjoy those subs, so thanks DarkMirage and silversurfer (I know my subbers lol ;)
38. silverfire says:

    October 23, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    @Yggdrasil: Oh come on – you could have scrolled up just a few lines and found my name (and spelled it right, too!).
39. darkdestiny says:

    October 23, 2007 at 6:15 pm

    Do anyone have any idea where I can get Gundam 00 shows with good subs?
40. ScR3WiEuS says:

    October 23, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    Anyhow, here’s mendoi’s reply to this entire incident:
    http://www.mymenclave.com/
41. maxchs says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    “I am gay for u, one hot and sexy piece”

    ur kinda good with the jokes…

    Btw..I’m watching the anime from this subs

    http://www.gundams.net/index.php

    i don’t know there are good or bad but kinda quick release. just some slight problem….about the episode 3.

    Thx for helping everyone with the translation error. Maybe i would check in some other subs some how..
42. ScR3WiEuS says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:08 pm

    sadly they’re as bad as nyoron.
    if you wanna go for a non-bullshit sub, and
    for some reason you hate mendoi-conclave,
    go for anon.
43. Yggdrasil says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:25 pm

    @silverfire

    lol I really messed up this one. No idea how this happened. Never even knew anyone with the “surfer” nick. sry.
44. Serenade says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:36 pm

    Hi DarkMirage,

    I just bounced over from nyoro~n’s site, and I absolutely agree with what you said.

    As the matter of fact, the initial reason for me to go on their site was to warn them of how inaccurate their subs are.

    The argument of “we do speed-sub” is a complete pile of bull. The truth is, I used to be a translator myself. Having JLPT 1 and having done fansub myself a few years ago, I can do speed sub for this episode 3 within an hour with possibly similar quality to what Menclave did. If I can do it in a hour, someone with lower level of Japanese and a whole day to spend on subbing should have no excuse at giving us such a horrible sub.

    FYI, “Ane” means sister, Saji Crossroad does not live with his mother, that lady who works at the station is his sister, not his mom. This is the worse possible mistake that even a normal anime fan would spot…

    DarkMirage, you have my full support.
45. Kurogane says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    I’d rather watch raw than watch Nyoro~n. This ain’t the first time they’ve fucked up.

    Episode one was particularly memorable too. “Unknown unit approaching” got translated as “Fire all artillery”…. IIRC.
46. tj han says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:40 pm

    This just shows why China is going to rule the world in the next century. There are more than 10 Chinese sub groups with the translation quality of at least Anonymous and possibly Mendoi, and they release faster than the speed of Nyoron. China vs the rest of the world… and they pwned.
47. DarkMirage says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:43 pm

    Except that they have to convince the rest of the world to read Chinese subs first.
48. Yggdrasil says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:55 pm

    There could be several reasons why china has more subbers. No copyright fears (aka we’ll sue your ass), no commercial releases, more chinese people than europeans and americans together.
    On the one hand I’m a little bit envious on the other hand IMHO the general quality of animes has decreased over the last few years IMHO so it’s no wonder that the times of oversubbing like Chrono Crusade are long over.
49. Yggdrasil says:

    October 23, 2007 at 7:56 pm

    Wow I actually wrote “IMHO” and “On the other hand” twice in one sentence. Seems like I should stop writing for today…
50. Tsubaki says:

    October 23, 2007 at 8:04 pm

    YES LAH, DORAMA.

Comments are closed.