Translation review: [gg] Hyouka 01

The revered reviewer 8thSin is translating this release for gg, so I’m quite interested in how he managed (especially since they took their sweet time and released almost a whole day late).

 

Those critical first lines. I don’t know how common this “rose color” expression is, but according to Merriam-Webster “rose-colored” is either “pink” (which is not the case here) or “tending to think of things as being better than they really are” – sadly I see no note of “a rose color” having that meaning (later they use “rose-colored”). And I wouldn’t think of my high school life like that. My high school life was full of smoke, booze and rock’n’roll.

Um, can a color be glorified?

If you want to stick with the colors so much just use “rosy” and “gray”. Adding “color” is unnatural and makes you think of the color itself instead of what it’s supposed to mean here.

Not pessimistic. Negative, maybe. But just translating 後ろ向き (ushiro-muki) word-for-word as “turn your back on something” would work too.

For me the conservation of energy means the concept in physics. I guess that’s just me.

I’m impressed someone bothered to translate the background dialog of the girls. Props.

It’s nice that they typeset it (unlike our lazy typesetter), but “Follow the rules and I will dedicate myself into club activity” is surely a mistake. If you leave off parts, really leave them off.

I had to check what Varanasi was (the official name of Benares), but I think that if it’s widely known as Benares and he says it that way then why bother changing. (I’m the kind of guy who still calls Mumbai Bombay.)

Player’s fault, whatever.

S-Wing keeps “special” without sounding retarded. Good choice.

The lyrics are translated differently, but it’s still okay. Lyrics translations are a matter of interpretation after all. On a weeaboo note, I find it funny that they used the (non-jouyou) kanji for 顰める (shikameru) and 覗く (nozoku), but kept the hira in “palm” (掌 with one kanji or 手の平 both read as tenohira, all of which are jouyou) as hiragana. (I also think that in the line on the screenshot above it’s supposed to be 照れくささ and not 照れくさ その – 照れくさ terekusa in itself is not a word).

I don’t like it how they simplified “classics” to “book”. Also I wonder how can you revive something that’s long-running.

This doesn’t really express that he doesn’t intend to join if there’s a member already.

What a coincidence! They used the exact same phrase here that I did.

This line could use some editing.

I don’t think that gentleman is the right word here.

Can you spot the mistake? (“Tenfold Families” is a good translation by the way.)

It’s not “trivial”, as obvious from Eru’s and Houtarou’s actions.

Good.

“Reenacted”? Really?

The “no shoes” sign is okay (except that it flashes), but what—

Not two-time, three-time. He says he’s also in the handicrafts club.

This gets through his tone perfectly.

I don’t understand that if they did the totally unimportant background chatter of girls, why not translate the dialog here, where it’s actually relevant.

Let me guess: a later episode will be all about how it’s a golden web spider.

“Looking at these posters, their power overwhelming struck me.” “En taro Tassadar!” (Sorry but this line is just too awkward.)

Why the future tense? They are freshmen. They are looking at it.

I have doubts about this line.

Conclusion: Great

As expected, this release is great. There are only minor derps and some points where I don’t like the phrasing (not counting lines I’m not sure about), and the editing feels off at points. This much is kind of to be expected from fansubbers of this level, especially since they took so long.

This entry was posted by Vale.

2 thoughts on “Translation review: [gg] Hyouka 01

  1. I don’t think some of these are legitimate mistakes. Others were genuine derps and will be noted in my own review. I admit it was sloppy as hell though, with randomly missing words or bad edits (“What about you?” changed to the new line but forgot to “Why” etc).

    I’ll just clarify two things though. 「女郎蜘蛛」is golden in color, but it’s not associated with the color gold in Japan like sakura is associated with color pink. It’s more closely associated with the folklore http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B5%A1%E6%96%B0%E5%A9%A6 just as “Black Widow” is associated with “poisonous/dangerous” female.

    Also, MC clearly had no idea what “Varanasi” was, and it’s plausible that they would romanize that way in India (where she’s writing that from, so I thought more “exotic”, the better. I don’t think it really matters either way though.

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