Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (TV) – Episode 02: [Torrent][Magnet]
If you encounter any playback issues with a GJM release, please make sure you are using the most recent version of CCCP, or mpv.
Please note that there may be minor rendering differences between CCCP and mpv.
Hey guys, Fomal here. For this release, we switched our audio source as Crunchyroll’s source was full of really bad mixing and peaking. Hopefully, it’ll be easier to watch.
In the meantime, I have some translation notes to share. This show is obviously very intensive on horseracing and horse terminology, and there are allusions in real Japanese horseracing all over the place, but today I wanted to address the school motto Symboli Rudolf comments about during the episode. More after the break.
So this English is awful, no questions asked, but what makes this line especially silly is that Symboli Rudolf explains the meaning in the anime dialogue in Japanese somewhat.
In the episode, she says, 「唯一抜きん出て、並ぶものなし。」 This literally means, like, “Only one standing at the top with no others rivaling.” As a translator and editor, this is a very difficult line to deal with. Do I/escro try to craft a creative idiom to match the line? It would clash with what’s on-screen. Do we try to modify the Engrish to be more grammatically correct the way we often do with song lyrics? Same issue.
With that in mind, I opted to leave the Engrish as the subtitle, which is what Crunchyroll’s release also wound up doing. On the one hand, Special Week doesn’t understand it either, so maybe it’s okay that the viewer shares her lack of understanding, but on the other hand, maybe the viewer should understand better so that the show can create dramatic irony somewhere down the line. The Japanese allows the latter, so shouldn’t we do the same when translating?
Therein lies a common problem with translation/localization. We say we like to preserve the intent of the Japanese scriptwriters, and viewers really dislike when you mess with the “literal translation”. However, it’s basically unavoidable here if we want to maintain some semblance of “aesthetic appearance” on-screen, i.e. not having a scene focus on the sign that Special Week can’t understand while Rudolf rephrases it more clearly.
So we went with the sign text, with the necessary expectation that the viewer would be able to pick up on the meaning through context (or not?). Whether that was a bad decision or not is still up for debate, I feel.
In any case, please enjoy the episode itself, and I hope this has provided some insight into the show and the translation/editing approach we took.
I was a little confused by the stilted CR translation & explanation of the motto as well, so thanks for the extended clarification. The series has been fun so far!
I thought it was strange too, but…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4216914.stm
Oh! Thanks for this! Embarrassing to admit but I didn’t even think to just google the phrase. I just assumed it was garbage Engrish and moved on with my life. I think this actually just cements my opinion to leave the sign as the dialogue even more, though.
I’m learning something new every day!
Ok, what about the next episodes? :) Can you, pls, update us?
No news for now. Stalled at TS.
I don’t really know how the process works, but does that mean every episode that has aired is done up to TS (like translation)? Or is 3 in the works, and 4+ unstarted? (Not that it makes a difference if stalled I guess, just curious)
Closer to the latter, but not exactly that. Some work is done, but it isn’t consistent between the unreleased episodes past the “current” one.
Fomalhaut is the project leader for this show and would know more. Hopefully, he’ll drop by and update soon.
Hi, appreciate your work!
Would be great to get a status update.