Deadclave

Dear Fagmuffins,
Yesterday, a blog entry was posted by DarkMirage on his blog (link), featuring a short comparison between the Conclave-Mendoi release and the Nyoron release for episode 3 of Gundam 00. In a couple of hours, the blog entry spread like wildfire and was soon reposted on blogs, forums, BT trackers, etc. This comparison revealed the level of quality ( or the lack thereof ) of Nyoron’s translations. However, some seem to have mistaken all this fuss as a flame war between Menclave and Nyoron, and accused the Clavemen of intentionally discrediting Nyoron’s translation. This is, however, bullshit. Menclave likes its drama, but nice and quiet and private. Nyoron’s translations and attitude discredit themselves.

(more after the break)

ConMen did NOT ask DarkMirage to write that blog entry, nor to use our translation as a mean of comparison. In fact, none of us were aware of it until he posted a link to the entry in the gundam staff channel. We do, however, approve of his article. It is not because we enjoy an evening around a hot pit of flames, warming our hands maliciously on the cries and pleas of the suffering Nyoron staff. It is because this situation disgusts us; Nyoron’s level of translation is of fecal proportions. I personally do not care that much if you don’t want to get our releases for whatever reasons some people can think of ( our releases are very far from perfect ), as long as we don’t have to see the great majority of the people downloading releases of such dubious quality. It is a downright insult, a slap in the face of the fans and the fansubbers working on it. Over and over again, we see thousands of people hop on torrents of guesslations simply because they’re the first ones out. This is nothing new, we know that. It has been going on for a long time, and for various other series. We can’t do much about it. That is why the commentaries following DarkMirage’s article sadden us, but also please uh. In a way, we are saddened because some people interpret this as an unfounded flame war started by our staff, now so eloquently and maturely nicknamed “Fagclave” and “Clavetrolls,” and refuse to see the reason and common sense behind the article. But we are also pleased to see so many people taking notice to the issue in question, and accepting the true nature of Nyoron’s translations.

This is, if you will, a message to the vast majority of downloaders out there who blindly download the first release they see on BT trackers. I have been in that position years ago. Not everybody can or wants to spend their time on IRC, forums, or websites specialized in the matters of fansubbing. And many people simply do not know there is such a thing as a fansubbing scene; they think that fansubs magically appear in their P2P program of choice. Situations like these compel me to advise everybody to explore the matter at hand. Do not feel intimidated by the superficial complexity of the fansubbing system. Before you download a certain episode of a show, try to consult some trustworthy sources of information. Do not blindly download the first file that crosses your eyes, or files recommended by people who, like you, have no considerable knowledge of Japanese. Try to do the minimal effort of searching for the better releases. It is a small effort that will not go unrewarded. I advise you, for example, to check websites like Anime-Planet and AniDB , who, despite some bad or good comments posted by fanbois of some of the groups, give a pretty good general idea of the quality of a fansub.

Despite my harsh words, I do not wish to attack lolfang and nyoron for their release, I merely want to advise them to think about their actions. As an anime fan, I am glad that so many people are prepared to spend some of their time contributing to the fansubbing scene, but in this case, it is not a contribution. I hope you realize that. If you’re not 100% sure that you can provide the fans with a translation that is worth their time, effort, and bandwidth, please do not proceed unthinkingly. It is not worth their effort, and it is not worth YOUR effort to spread translations that not just contain minor and major mistakes, but actually put the viewers on the wrong track, disrupting the further enjoyment of the series. However, I advise you to continue studying Japanese, and further improving your mastery of the language so that one day you can provide the fansubbing scene with worthy fansubs. Perhaps you could join another group for a while, and, together with the translator of that group, work on your skills in the Japanese language.

Finally, I would like to set some things straight. This entire fuss that MenClave might have created around Nyoron’s releases is in no way meant to get more downloads on our releases, or to increase our popularity. For all we care, you’re welcome to download anon’s releases for Gundam00, which aren’t bad at all from what I’ve heard. This brings me to the second point I wanted to discuss. Many of the people reacting to this incident have accused DarkMirage of being unfair, and deliberately attacking Nyoron as to increase Mendoi’s popularity. To end this post, I will quote some of the things said by DarkMirage on his blog, and you can decide for yourself if he’s really being that dishonest, or particularly mean, rather than correct.

“So yeah, here’s a comparison of all the major translation errors in episode 3 released by Nyoro~n Fansubs. Of course since I do translation checking for Mendoi-Conclave, you can say that I have a vested interest in doing this comparison. But keep in mind that I didn’t make anything up and all the errors are really there when you watch their release. Enjoy.”

“If my experiences are anything to go by, some commentators will start accusing me of being “elitist” and “not helping the situation” just about now. But this time I learnt my lesson. Rest assured that Nyoro~n’s translator has had his mistakes pointed out to him many, many times before I typed this blog entry. He continues to insist that he knows what he is doing. Fine, here’s my proof otherwise.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

etc.

ScR3WiEuS