Over-Time vs Tv-Nihon: Which one do you prefer?

[Midori Ken]

the sign in the show is the only english spelling we've seen of it, so there's nothing to say it's wrong

So there's nothing to say that things like Aile Lock are wrong. Perfectly valid English words, but homonyms are such a tricky subject for non-native speakers.

Oh, and of course the clincher:

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I call that a major faux-pas.

 

[ClimaxHeroDen-O]

I'm just talking about romanizations, not translations. besides, I've taken years of japanese classes. I'm not fully fluent, but I know a good deal of the language

and honestly, this is just in regards to extra letters, nothing else. besides, I'm not unwilling to go against what's popular, but I stick by my beliefs

as far as I go, once I pick a way to romanize something, I mostly use that spelling. the only times when I would change them are if I decide to

but I have my principles on how I think it should be done

 

[Lynxara]

besides, I've taken years of japanese classes.

If you took them in the U.S., you were taught Hepburn romanization. You talk about using macrons and that is only used in Hepburn. So you do use Hepburn romanization.

and honestly, this is just in regards to extra letters, nothing else.

You can't have been paying much attention in those Japanese classes of yours, or maybe they are only high school level? The double letters you complain about are the only accepted method of replacing a macron in the Hepburn system. u + macron becomes uu and o + macron becomes ou.

The reason why Japanese sources don't write like this is that romanizations in Japanese media, when they aren't utter nonsense, are based on the Kunrei romanization system that is taught to Japanese students learning English as a second language. Kunrei puts circumflexes over long vowels and in situations where circumflexes aren't used, they simply aren't printed.

In short, the Futo spelling is the result of someone using the Kunrei spelling and dropping the circumflex. Fuuto is the Hepburn spelling, spelled correctly without a macron. All of the doubled letters you complain about are in fact the only correct way to write these letters in Hepburn without use of macrons.

as far as I go, once I pick a way to romanize something, I mostly use that spelling.

I hope you just take Japanese for fun and don't intend to make a living at it (and if you have enough free time to spend 9 years learning a language for fun, I envy you!). With an attitude like this, you will never ever get work in most industries that employ translators. Nobody wants to work with a translator that won't stick to the licensor's requirements.

 

[GekiDan]

How will you guys translate Jan's (Gekiranger) jungle talk?

 

[Lynxara]

There's a guy scrubbing Gekiranger who came up with a pretty interesting way of doing it. Take the root word Jan's babytalk is based on and translate that, so you get Jan saying stuff like niceynice and baddybads.

I wouldn't say that's the only way to handle it, but I think it gets across why Jan talks like that and how you're supposed to feel about it better than just transliterating it.

 

[KouAidou]

So there's nothing to say that things like Aile Lock are wrong. Perfectly valid English words, but homonyms are such a tricky subject for non-native speakers.

Oh, and of course the clincher:

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I call that a major faux-pas.

Here's another good one:

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[KingRanger]

I really wish I could find that picture of "deka sodomy"

 

[kuroihikari]

Here's another good one:

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I also have a rock on one from Gundam G .

 

[Ultraman_Meta777]

I haven't seen any of the stuff that Over-Time has done, I am a bit more inclined towards TV Nihon, only because of the vast quantity and quality of the shows they have fansubbed over the years. Although, a majority of their content tend to be more current shows with the occasional dip into the past, but even when that happens, they have to get their hands on high quality versions of the episodes in order to sub them, and then they only give us a little bit at a time.

They are also one of the most consistently organized fansub groups in existence, which is more than can be said for most groups who start on something, get a few episodes in and just give up.

I also love the little flourishes they put into their fansubs, where the subtitles sometimes come alive onscreen, makes it a bit more exciting. And also the little bits of information they attach to certain things at certain moments, in order to better educate people here in the states who may not be completely familiar with how things are in Japan that seem rather commonplace for the Japanese, but may seem rather odd to us Americans.

I admire their dedication, and the hard work they put into what they do, although there is that part of me that hopes they get to work on more classic tokusatsu programs, like maybe finishing up DaiRanger, Zyuranger, and stuff like that. Oh well, c'est la vie.

 

[Drazic]

I also love the little flourishes they put into their fansubs, where the subtitles sometimes come alive onscreen, makes it a bit more exciting. And also the little bits of information they attach to certain things at certain moments, in order to better educate people here in the states who may not be completely familiar with how things are in Japan that seem rather commonplace for the Japanese, but may seem rather odd to us Americans.

The subs "coming alive" is one of the reasons why their subs are bad though. It's pretty much the complete opposite of what a sub should be. Basically, if you notice that you're watching a show with subs, they're usually pretty bad. And flashy typesetting is one of those things that'll make you notice subs. Bad english is another one but I find that you can pretty much read over that. I just ignored the flashy subs at first as well though. I stopped watching their subs even for shows only they sub when that became impossible (Shinkenger...).