Gundam 00 — Nyoro~n Translation Errors
I was quite alarmed by a comment posted by tsuki_Yomi in my previous entry. His understanding of the relationship between Ptolemaios and Gundams in Gundam 00 appears to be the complete opposite of what episode 3 revealed. I decided that some fansub group must have done everyone a huge disfavour and since Nyoro~n is the only group that has released so far (as of this posting)…
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.
Original: よもや君に出会えようとは
Nyoro~n: Oh come now, this is just like when I first saw you.
Menclave: Who would’ve thought… facing you like this…
Original: おとめ座のわたしには、センチメンタリズムな運命を感じずにはいられない
Nyoro~n: You’re not going to end this fated battle without returning my sentimentalities.
Menclave: Being a Virgo, I can’t help but feel this is a sentimental destiny.
Comment: Completely missing out the first half of the sentence (Virgo part). I agree that “sentimental destiny” sounds really stupid, but at least it doesn’t alter the meaning.
Original: それとも、光の粒子を出していなかったから見つけられたのか……
Nyoro~n: Or perhaps you thought I hadn’t noticed that light that’s streaming out of you?
Menclave: Or was I able to find you because you forgot to send out those glowing particles?
Comment: An honest mistake, I’m sure.
Original: 手土産に…破片の1つもいただいていく！
Nyoro~n: I admire your strength… So I’m going to take you back in one piece!
Menclave: As a souvenir… I’ll take a piece of you with me!
Comment: WTF?
Original: いやはや、本当に予測不能な人だよ君は
Nyoro~n: Goodness gracious, you’re certainly someone who grasps your shortcomings far too late, aren’t you?
Menclave: My, my, you’re such an unpredictable character.
Comment: Nice…
Original: 今回の戦闘で得られたガンダムのデータは、フラッグ1機を失ったとしてもおつりがくる
Nyoro~n: We got some battle data on the Gundam, and your Flag was unharmed.
Menclave: Considering the data we obtained on the Gundam during this fight, even losing the Flag would have been a good trade.
Comment: Hey, at least all the important keywords are there!…This time~nyoro~
Original: それにしても若かったな…ソレスタルビーイングのパイロットは
Nyoro~n: I just did this to better understand… that Celestial Being pilot.
Menclave: Besides all that, he sure was young… Celestial Being’s pilot.
Comment: LOL~!! wakai (young) != wakaru (understand)
Original: モビルスーツの動きに感情がのっていたのさ
Nyoro~n: When you’re moving a mobile suit, you tend to lose yourself.
Menclave: I could read his feelings from the way he moved his mobile suit.
Original: 10分以内に速報配信！次のニュースは現地からの中継だ！3時間以内に人革主席の公式声明が出るぞ！
Nyoro~n: There’s got to be something that’s been leaked. Just run a recap for the next newscast; this time tomorrow you all better have something to give me!
Menclave: Send out this news flash within the next 10 minutes! Do a live on-site broadcast for the next news segment! The head of the Human Reform League is making an official statement in less than 3 hours!
Comment: Okay, Nyoro~n, now you are just making shit up.
Original: 枠を空けとけ！
Nyoro~n: Get your asses in gear!
Menclave: Keep that time slot open!
Comment: Mmmm…ass…
Orignial: 21世紀のセキュリティはあってないようなものだからな
Nyoro~n: Besides, there’s no way a man from the 21st century could be around today.
Menclave: Security in the 21st century was almost non-existent, after all.
Comment: Not even close.
Major WTF Errors
Actually I am sick of this. It’s only 5 minutes into the episode and a quick glance through the rest of Nyoro~n’s script reveals that the entire thing is full of nonsense. But I’ll just highlight a few more MAJOR MISTAKES, some of them which totally changed the entire plot. I have doubts that the translator speaks any Japanese at all.
Original: 僕たちに弱点があるとすれば、ガンダムがないとプトレマイオスの活動時間が極端に限定されてしまうと
Nyoro~n: If there was one weak point for us… It would be that our Gundams are severely limited by the need to periodically return to the Ptolemaios.
Menclave: If we have a weak point, it’s that, without the Gundams, the operational time of the Ptolemaios would be extremely limited.
Comment: This may sound counter-intuitive, but yes, the Gundams really are Ptolemy’s power source. The original Japanese dialogue made it very clear.
Original: アイルランドのアルスター地方では、散発的ではありますが、テロ行為が4世紀近くにわたって続いています
Nyoro~n: Ireland’s Ulster Volunteer Forces are scattered across the country, though those factions who engage in terrorist activities remain hidden.
Menclave: In Ireland’s Ulster region, though sporadic, terrorist acts have been occurring for approximately four centuries.
Original: 材質はEカーボン。最新素材ではありますが、構造上、目新しい技術は確認されていません
Nyoro~n: It’s well-reinforced with carbon, the technology on the inside is cutting edge, some of it’s unheard of.
Menclave: It’s made out of E-carbon. It’s made out of the most up-to-date material, but, in terms of design, we cannot find any new technology being used.
Comment: The whole point of this dialogue is to show that CB are really careful not to divulge their technological secrets. Great job missing the whole point, Nyoro~n.
Original: あの特殊粒子は、ステルス性のほかに機体制御にも使われている
Nyoro~n: If we obtain a sample of that special particle, we can achieve the same results.
Menclave: Those special particles, besides their stealth features, are also used for controlling the suit.
Original: おそらくは、火器にも転用されているじゃろうて
Nyoro~n: So you’re going to give a Flag the firepower to match him?
Menclave: They’re likely to be applied as weapons too.
Original: 恐ろしい男じゃ、わしらより何十年も先の技術を持っておる
Nyoro~n: He’s a wicked man. 70 years ago I learned of his deceit.
Menclave: A dreadful man… having technology that’s several decades ahead of us.
Comment: STOP MAKING THINGS UP!!!
Original: わしは麻薬などというものが心底嫌いでな！焼き払ってくれるというなら、ガンダムを支持したい
Nyoro~n: That’s not the role you’re meant to fill, you need to be remade before then. I want to teach you what you need to blow the Gundam away.
Menclave: I hate narcotics from the bottom of my heart. If they intend to burn that down, I’ll support the Gundams.
Comment: Uh… How the fuck did you even get that?
Original: エネルギー、ヴァーチェからトレミーへの転送準備完了、転送開始します
Nyoro~n: Virtue now drawing energy from the solar furnace.
Menclave: Energy, transfer preparations from Virtue to Ptolemy complete.
Comment: Once again, Nyoro~n totally fucks up the relationship between Ptolemy and Gundams. Oh well, at least they are being consistent about it. :)
Original: ソレスタルビーイングを利用する国。その国すら利用する国
Nyoro~n: Celestial Being begins to be received by countries. These countries become host nations.
Menclave: The nations who make use of Celestial Being. The nations who use those nations.
Comment: Once again, I admit the shortcomings of Menclave’s version. It sounds a little weird in English, but at least that’s what the original dialogue is saying. We didn’t make things up! Yay!
Conclusion
Keep in mind that beyond the first 5 minutes of the episode, I only chose to highlight selective mistakes because it would probably take me a few hours more to document the whole thing. There’s something wrong with at least 70% of the lines. The translator goes to great length to make it sound like he knows what he is doing, such that his so-called “translations” sound reasonable to someone who doesn’t speak Japanese. That is, in my humblest opinion, dishonest and disturbing.
If you don’t understand a single word of Japanese at all, it’s better for you to watch the raws than to watch Nyoro~n. I hesitate to call their release a “translation” because in reality it is closer to being a parody sub. It’s as if the “translator” decided to write his own story because he didn’t like Sunrise’s scriptwriters. If you are a Gundam fan, please, for the love of Haruhi and all that is good, wait for some other group to release. It doesn’t even have to be Mendoi-Conclave…
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.
That said, Nyoro~n’s release does offer hours of quality entertainment for someone who speaks Japanese. It’s hilarious. :)
This has been a public service announcement from a guy with too much free time on his hands.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I realized that there is a whole Katagiri x Graham fangirl movement due to a single mistranslated line in Nyoro~n’s episode 3. Sorry for ruining the fun. D:
October 24th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Thanks for pinting this out, I’m watching Gundam 00 from TV-Nihon 1080p raw. coz not everyone here understand japanese I’m giving them those raws with nyoron (with 10s shift in timing), in ep 1 & 2 I just skimmed through the translation noticed 1-2 mistranslations (didn’t read the whole thing), i though it’s understandable considering it’s speedsub. I didn’t watch ep 3 yet just got the RAW today.
I should make this my own project since I’m a translator in an understaffed indonesian fansub. I’ll end up doing the timing myself :( or maybe i should stole nyoroon’s timing ^_^;
October 24th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
As a Japanese student, I can pretty much confirm that assuming the writer here got the lines transcribed right (don’t doubt it, just haven’t seen the episode myself, so I can’t say whether or not there was any problem there), his translating is on the mark, so… yea >.>
October 24th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
DarkMirage, everyone has an ego, regardless of whether it’s big or small. No one like to have their errors pointed out on the Net where everyone can see. I humbly suggest that you just leave Nyoro~n alone. Let others decide which fansub group they want to support.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
lol… DM, history repeats itself doesn’t it???
ah well, stand strong with your beliefs
October 24th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
and well, face the reality to other people who’s unwilling to confront the truth
October 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
lol the truth always, always hurts. Not many people can handle it. I mean yes, the truth does make you more bitter, which is why non-bitter ones try to cover it up as much as possible. And I definitely support this post since National Service has made me horrendously bitter. F**king regular sergeants who expect NSFs to do their work when we get paid shit, f**k the whole world.
I showed the MenClave blogpost (on trackback) to a few Bleachtard friends and just because they can’t accept the fact they wasted a few hundred hours of their lives they just write it off as bullshit. Heck, if you can accept truth, you wouldn’t be worshipping Bleach in the first place anyway.
Yes, I suspect Dattebayo, the idiotic rogue subber who is giving fansubbers a bad name, is fooling around as well. But even if you don’t do a check on them, I sure hope someone will.
That said, I actually don’t give a shit about Gundam, and have my hands full from CLANNAD to Sketchbook ~full color`S~ this season, but I guess I’ll give MenClave’s releases a try anyway.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I’m currently studying Japanese, and I’m able to understand certain sentences and vocab…. and I have enough knowledge to be able to figure out that Nyoro~n’s subs are off.
I’m shocked… I’ve always trusted fansubs to stick to the original translations, way better than dubs… but this, it seems worse than dubs.
Personally, after downloading Nyoro~n’s first episode, and downloading Menclave’s it’s very clear that Menclave has more experience with fansubs.
My brother said that Nyoro~n probably used Babelfish…..
Oh dear. This just detroyed my trust in fansubs…. I’ll be sure to do my research on certain groups that I haven’t come across before.
Keep up the good work Menclave! Maybe you could fix the subs that sometimes come up funny? :D
October 24th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Hey Roll-chan,
Thanks. We’ll be sure to continue doing our best.
Also:
“My brother said that Nyoro~n probably used Babelfish…..”
That’s not true. We tried putting all those lines into babelfish,
and babelfish actually did better than nyoron. This is not a joke.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
How do I apply the v2 to the original?
October 24th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
the v2 for nyoron? don’t bother.
it’s still 90% made up
October 24th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
They seem to have fixed most of the problems DM highlihted.
However, Is the part where he says “That’s what made me fall for him” made up? If so that aint fixed.
Personally I’m still waiting for anon to do ep 3 in HD mp4, since my devices dont play nice with mkv.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
“Almost all the errors which I did not point out in Nyoro~n’s episode 3 still exist in v2. I shall keep an eye out for episode 4. Lolfang, you’ll find me a lot harder to fool than most people. :)”
Taken from DarkMirage’s post on 4chan.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Aspen: I’m afraid I can’t accept that. When you say “let others decide which fansub group they want to support”, you are assuming that people possess the ability to determine which is the one that they really want. And as evident above, many people were misled. This clearly shows that they didn’t possess the necessary information required to make an informed choice.
If everyone could tell bad translations from good ones, then we wouldn’t need fansubs in the first place. Fansubbing operates on faith and I think faith was clearly abused in this case.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Hm..I watched 1&2 from Nyoron~n and 3 from Menclave…Now I watched 1&2 again, Menclave this time, and…man tha sure makes a whole lot more sense. I thought Gundam 00 just sucked, but it’s really quite good if you understand what the hell these guys are talking about.
I don’t understand a word of japanese, but even I noticed that in Episode 1 some parts just didn’t make sense. Like thepart with the US government. there is no way in hell they would let CB take their place.
Thanks for the information. Menclave subs have a better quality anyway…though I have a few problems with the subtitles and vlc @ Linux…
October 24th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
As far as Nyoron subs go I learned my lesson with gurren lagann and never trusted them again and since anons sub wasn’t released yet i was hesitant to download from menclave in fear that i would be “nyoron-rolled” but just to see that you guys not only do a quality job but also expose crap for what it is has re-newed my faith in fansubers, keep up the good work
*where were you when Gurren Lagann was released T.T
October 24th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
To DarkMirage: Nope, I am not assuming anything. You got me wrong. What I am trying to say is that no matter how much you try to caution others regarding Nyoron~n’s subs, there will be those few hardcore ones who will support them all the way. Which is why I said to let the public decide for themselves. Human beings are all deluded one way or another. You have done a wonderful job already.
Anyway, it’s just a suggestion of mine. You are free to walk your own path. I will watch the action an the sidelines.
Wishing you happiness.
Regards
October 24th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Hi DarkMirage,
I will trust your word on the incompetency of the Nyoron~n subs (as a non-Japanese speaker), and will almost certainly be following either Menclave or Anonymous from now on.
But you mentioned in Bandai rant a while back that fansubbing is not staying true to its original purpose, which was to bring to us shows for which we were not the target audience.
In that case why are you subbing Gundam 00, which is part of a venerable cash-cow franchise? Surely you’d be better off using your influence to tell people to buy the DVDs or watch it on cable TV when it comes out. No offence, but you seem to be the (slightly hypocritical) spot-changing leopard who has suddenly come far from being a “disillusioned ex-fansubber” (I’m quoting you exactly here).
Would you agree? :P
October 24th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
How long are we supposed to wait for those DVDs?^^
Well, as a German, I’m hardly ever part of the targeted audience…don’t think there has ever been a german dub for a Gundam series.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
@AGrove
His article about bandai just stated the truth. He didn’t really make any promise about not fansubbing bandai stuff. In fact, it shows that he’s not a moron. He’s doing something he knows is wrong, that’s all.