From: wbarnes@sura.net (Bill Barnes)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: Re: Professional subs
Date: 19 Aug 92 01:37:13 GMT
Organization: SURAnet, College Park, MD, USA, NA, Earth, Milky Way

In article <2A917E33.25177@ics.uci.edu> rang@ics.uci.edu (Roger P. Ang) writes:
>In article <1992Aug18.205742.18987@sura.net> wbarnes@sura.net (Bill Barnes) writes:
>>To be fair to Macek, he's not the only one with sloppy subtitles - I've
>>seen other "professional" subtitles that weren't very professional.
>	That's what I've been saying!!!  What many people in r.a.anime
>consider "sloppy titling" is in fact what the majority of subtitled flicks in
>any genre are like.  I really think this is part of the inherent problems with
>subtitles.

Actually, I think this is a problem with companies not taking the time
out to do their subtitles right (i.e. translate it as well as possible,
time it properly, etc.).  But, just as there is shoddy dubbing, there
is shoddy subtitling.  The trouble is, there haven't really been any
well-done dubs and a fair number of well-done subtitles.

Face it: anime fans are spoiled!  8->

>	I've started getting my friend into anime and the first comment he
>made about the subtitles is that they are "distracting".  He wants to look at
>the picture (hey, it's what animation is really about) and thinks he spends
>too much time looking at the bottom of the screen, reading titles.  This is
>why I feel the move to dubs is inevitable.  As the anime audience grows, I
>think many more of the new fans will prefer dubs (even mediocre ones ) to subs
>because of the above subbing problems and they'll not likely know the original
>version for comparison against the dub.

I agree.  I personally prefer subtitles to dubbing, but this is because
A) the English dubs so far have all be inferior in quality to the
original and B) I usually buy anime so I can watch it at least twice -
once to read the subtitles and get the story line, a second time to follow
the action.  However, subtitles can be distracting and in order for
anime to grow among English speaking audiences, it will need to be dubbed.

>	Don't get me wrong.  I think there are some things that should be
>subtitled, particularly stuff that isn't dialogue intensive and dubbing
>wouldn't be a big plus.  For example, Robot Carnival was better off subtitled
>instead of dubbed.

Actually, I thought Robot Carnival worked fine dubbed because since there was
so little dialogue, there was only so much Carl could screw up 8-).

>But a lot of stuff has rapid fire dialogue that if you
>subtitle you end up either having
>
>- long titles and the viewer spends a lot of time reading, missing what's
>going on in the picture.
>
>- terse titles that sacrifice nuances or even portions of dialogue for the
>sake of brevity.  (This is what most non-anime subs suffer from.)

It is a tough tradeoff.  Again, hardcore fans favor subtitles, but the
mass market wants dubs.  C'est la vie.

>The fact is Streamline putting out more dubs, and companies other than
>Streamline are looking towards dubs.  Looks like AnimEigo may become the major
>(or only) subtitlers for anime in the future.

Actually, I believe AnimEigo hasn't ruled out the possibility of dubs,
Robert Woodhead has merely emphatically stated that they won't do dubbing
until they can afford to do it *right*.
-- 
Bill "Whassamatter?!  Can't you take a joke?!" Barnes   wbarnes@sura.net
Disclaimer:  The author apologizes for any thought-provoking material he may
	     have accidentally included and promises not to do it again.
Datclaimer:  My employers wouldn't WANT to share some of my opinions.