Translation review standards This entry was posted by Vale.
Before I would start writing about other people’s translations, I should first make some stuff clear so that there won’t be any misunderstandings.
I’m not pretentious enough to claim that I always know better or that I could catch all mistakes. I make mistakes myself and every now and then there are lines in shows that I just can’t figure out. Therefore I’m not going to thoroughly scrutinize every single episode, giving you numbers on how many mistakes there are. I don’t think that it actually matters either.
I’ll also try not to be so negative as so many reviews, and I’ll try to focus on what’s really well done as well, not just the mistakes. If I catch a mistake I’ll point it out, but I don’t think that all mistakes matter. Mishearing some number that doesn’t concern the story at all is hardly a serious mistake, but translating “3 pm” as “3 am” in a horror show where the time and the setting matters a lot is a big miss. Messing up some baseball phrases in a romance anime is forgivable, but mishearing some phrases that add to the setting of the whole anime is much harder to overlook. I’ll also point out horrible typesetting or really bad editing, that effects the viewing experience (and understanding) of the show significantly.
As for the grades, at the moment I think I’ll only use “avoid”, “okay” and “great”. Avoid subs that disrupt the viewing experience a lot, can’t get the meaning through or are just simply bad. Subs that have some mistakes, some of which may be serious, but they get the meaning through and they don’t burn your eyes out (in general: average, normal subs) are okay. Great subs are the rare ones which have only a few (preferably no) mistakes, and are in general well done.
Grades reflect my subjective judgment. I don’t review simulcast subs unless I feel like it or there are serious doubts about their accuracy. I don’t review subs I work on myself either.
“To be honest, I haven’t written anime translation reviews before so I don’t know what to expect yet, but as I encounter more and more stuff that need explaining, I’ll update this post.”
I wish you good luck, then.