Script Review: [WhyNot] Zetman – 01

Dare I say that this show might actually be worse for re-watching than Ozma?

Prostitutes are people, too.

r/a/ge level: 10/100. It’s a prosub “edit,” but WhyNot isn’t Commie, so it’s all good. Honorifics have been removed or translated. There are also English-only lyrics for the ending.


 “Get a hold of yourself, Kanzaki!” I assume this came from the professional subs because WhyNot and SFW have the exact same line. It’s awkward as a command, unfortunately, and badly needs to be changed.


“That [baby] isn’t just yours to keep!”

The baby is supposed to the product of some genetic experiment or whatever, so it belongs to the scientists… or whatever. It sounded weird when I first read it, so my suggestion makes the implications clearer.


“How cute. But I bet you’re scared shitless right now.”

Generic J-to-E Translation #417. I really liked the way SFW handled this by changing the line to “Cute. I bet you’re pissing yourself right now” or something. WhyNot/Viz is way too generic and lame for some gangbangers. This is an example of a line where a competent translator or editor could really inject some personality into the script.


I don’t know why violence and justice are emphasized when they weren’t before. It’s not even the same line from before either. It should’ve been “…is just violence, not justice.”


It’s one sentence, so “brat” shouldn’t be capitalized. I prefer “You little brat!” anyway. And I usually don’t comment on timing, but the timing in this release has been bothering the hell out of me. It’s making certain lines difficult to follow.


This sounds really awkward to just say out of the blue. So, “You haven’t had enough yet, have you?” Killing is implied, and it actually sounds like something a badass would say.


Cool spellchecking.


Just “warm” would work. “This is the second time I’ve felt this warm feeling.”


“All we want to do is live our lives in peace.” Another example of literal translations gone wrong.


What I liked:

Uh… You can always expect professional translations to be accurate. And, uh… the dialogue made sense! I’m running out of nice things to say…

What I didn’t like:

The timing didn’t exactly help the reading of the lines and actually added to their awkwardness. A lot of lines were left alone, which is how WhyNot usually does things. After seeing two prosub rips by them so far, I can’t say I have a whole lot of confidence in them to do anything beyond Viz OCR and slapping the subs on a transport stream encode. The prime example was completely leaving the criminals’ dialogue alone. I mean, those lines were just begging to be improved upon, but unlike SFW, I don’t expect WhyNot to deliver any time soon.

Overall Grade: 3 friends dispensing street justice… out of 5.


Additional Note: I suppose this is also the same score I’d give the professional subs. Tags galore!

This entry was posted by brainchild.

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