So, with Wizard complete, it’s just about time to start Gaim. But, before we kick things off, there are a few points with regard to the Aesir subs we need to address, and I’d like community feedback for some of these points.
At this stage, it seems like the best bet is going to be doing 2 tracks. One that is probably 90% untouched, and one that has several modifications. Obviously, this doesn’t include any potential grammar fixes or whatever. If we do end up going this way, the revised track will likely be the default track, with the untouched track as an alternate. If there are any episode titles that would contain revised terms (I know of at least one), the file names would use those titles rather than the originals.
One thing that will also affect both tracks is the instance of a few lines of Overlord speech that weren’t translated initially and converted to the coded speech. We’d like to translate those lines if anyone would be up for that. I’ll need to find where those lines are since I can’t remember right now, but if anyone would like to help with that, leave a comment below. Those will be included in another alternate set of tracks where appropriate when it starts to come up.
So, if you don’t have a problem with this setup, great. If you are interested in the terms that are candidates for changing (of which a couple are likely being applied across the board), jump ahead and take a look at the list and drop a comment with your thoughts.
Here’s what we’ve got planned to at least look at:
- Wärring vs. Sengoku: This one is a non-issue. All instances of Wärring will be restored to “Sengoku” on both tracks. I’m only listing this so that people don’t have to ask.
- Raiment vs. Jinba vs. Jimber: Aesir used Raiment, but as the call is supposed to invoke a samurai’s jinbaori attire, jinba seems preferable. There’s also the official term used on the Figuarts that being Jimber.
- Invess vs. Inves: I’m probably going to change it to the official spelling with a single S, but this is really a minor change overall. I’ll probably make this change on both tracks for the sole reason of making it easier to do a find/replace and not have to worry about missing it in one track or another.
- Over-Time vs. Aesir: We have a few differing translations for some things based on instances where Over-Time worked on Gaim material, such as:
- “Pulperize” vs. Obliterate: Aesir used more of a pun for Pineapple Arms opposed to Over-Time’s more direct translation.
- Zenith vs. Master: For Kiwami, Aesir used Zenith while Over-Time used Master. The phrase after similarly differs between “M-M-M-M-MIGHTY WARLORD!” and “THE UNMATCHED, PEERLESS GRAND WARLORD”.
- I’m not going to list everything here, but effectively, Aesir would lean towards localizing on proper nouns, while O-T’s versions tend to skew to retaining proper nouns as they are in most cases.
- Suika vs. Watermelon: Ostensibly a non-issue except for the fact that in the first Gaim Gaiden, there is a prototype Suika Lockseed actually named the Watermelon Lockseed. In the event we do a 1080p encode of Gaim Gaiden, this needs to be addressed in some way beforehand, and in my opinion, affects the untouched Aesir subs just as much as it would the revised track. See #1 below for a little more discussion on this.
- Ornac vs. Gridon: This is the big one that I know people are very tossed up about. My personal feeling is to revert it to Gridon as that is the official name. See #2 below for more discussion on this.
- In regards to the Suika vs. Watermelon issues, OrangeLion chose to use Suika for the series Watermelon Lockseed and Watermelon for the Gaiden Lockseed. If we go that route, that would require changing the Lockseed name in the series, but if we change one like this, I feel like we’d then need to change Strawberry to Ichigo, Grape to Budou, and so forth. This may not be an issue if we simply decide not to do an encode of Gaim Gaiden, but I believe in trying our best to create a consistent set of subs as much as possible, and doing something for Gaim Gaiden as well would be nice. One potential solution would be to call the Watermelon Lockseed something like the Proto(type)-Watermelon Lockseed, or simply italicizing Watermelon when used in English vs leaving the font normal when the Suika Lockseed is referenced. Comments on this would be appreciated despite the fact that it’s not a top priority right now since it’ll be a little bit before Suika debuts.
- The Ornac vs. Gridon issue. As I mentioned, I prefer Gridon as that is the official name. Aesir’s solution with Ornac is a clever way to handle the translation situation but it creates an odd disconnect with a proper name when you hear “Gridon” and see Ornac. While this same argument could be applied to things like Ichigo Arms and Budou Arms, I’m not bothered by seeing Strawberry Arms and Grape Arms here like I am with Ornac. The issue we are facing is the explanation of the pun of “donguri=Gridon”/”acorn=Ornac”. The lines, as written now, are presented as:
– “Ornac? Is he kidding?”
– “Like, in “acorn”?”
One method of handling this I considered would be something similar to how the German lines in the OOO movie were done, with “donguri” in a light font above acorn when it comes up in the scene above. Alternately, we could play a little loose with the line and go with some italics to have “Don… guri? Like an acorn?”. I’m otherwise open to suggestions on how else to handle this. If it comes down to using a TL note, so be it.
That’s everything I can remember that I’d be looking at revising or changing outright. As I mentioned in the Wizard wrap up post, because of the nature of how the show phrased things, there’s really no perfect way to handle this, and being that I’m not a translator, I’m limited as to what I can do to make changes. While I know that a consensus is unlikely and I know exactly how far I’d want to take the changes for myself, I want the subs to appeal to as many people as possible. If there are any specific terms that I didn’t mention here, feel free to bring them up in the comments and I’ll add them to the post above. Comments will remain open on this until we start releasing episodes, at which point the changes will be locked. Anything that comes up after that will be posted to Twitter for feedback.
RE: Suika vs. Watermelon, because there are doubts as to whether or not you’re even going to do Gaim Gaiden the best solution is probably to keep Watermelon as Watermelon and use some variation of Proto-melon if you do end up doing the Gaiden. At least, that’s what I think.
Also, 100% for Gridon. It’s not worth changing the name just for one line. Better to be liberal with the line than the name
Good to see you guys moving into Gaim! Here’s some feedback:
Using Sengoku works. It’s definitely a no-brainer – Aesir continued to use Wärring to be consistent, and I think they hinted that they’d change it if they did blu-ray stuff like you guys are doing.
Jinba or Jimber works. It’s worth pointing out that Jimber seems to just be the official spelling since it’s also used on TV Asahi and the arcade game. I have an opinion below about Lockseed/form names, so I guess if you go with translating those, may as well also translate Jinba as Jimber.
I don’t recall Invess being a spelling, but yeah, Inves is the way it should be. It’s the way it was spelled the first time we see it romanized in the show I think.
The transformation lines as a whole seem fine if you just go with Aesir’s translations. They used very VERY minor liberties, and were overall pretty solid. It’d also be much less work if you just alter all the non-Aesir translations to fit Aesir’s. I guess exceptions would be Pine Arms’ pun, then Budoh Arms and Kiwi Arms practically use made-up transformations so those could probably be done away with.
With regards to Lockseed/form names being translated, as someone who always uses the Japanese names, I don’t personally think it’s an issue if you translate them here – the Watermelon Lockseed is really the only time where that might be weird, but I think people can HEAR the difference between it and Suika, so it should be fine.
Lastly, DEFINITELY revert Ornac back to Gridon, that’s another no-brainer. When I was watching the show, I replaced the Ornac and Wärring bits for myself, and reworded the Gridon joke like “Is that ‘donguri’? Like, an acorn?” – it can work.
Thank you for taking the time to do this! I hope you keep this going despite the potential workload involved – do your best!
I agree with all this, particularly the thanks for taking the time to do this!
These are just my thoughts on the matter:
Raiment vs. Jinba vs. Jimber: Jinba is probably the best option here, if only because it’s derived from a distinct item of clothing. “Jimber” may technically be official, but so is “Gord Drive” and you don’t see anyone using that.
Aesir vs. O-T: For the most part, I feel like Aesir’s approach feels less stilted. “Zenith” is closer to the meaning of “kiwami” than “Master,” although a term like “Pinnacle” would also work. As for “pulperize,” it’s admittedly a bit silly, but I’m a sucker for puns and it conveys the meaning well enough.
Suika vs. Watermelon: I say use Watermelon for the lockseed in the main show – there’s no need to break the consistency for the sake of a hypothetical future project. If you do get around to encoding Gaiden, you could differentiate the two by having the Watermelon lockseed be referred to as the “Prototype Watermelon Lockseed” the first time it’s mentioned by name.
Ornac vs. Gridon: Gridon all the way, even if it takes some messing around with the line. The italics solution would work well, and hell, even a TL note would be less obtrusive than having the spoken name not match up with the subtitles for the whole series.
One alternate saying of the Gridon line could possibly involve pointing out “donguri” is the Japanese word for “acorn” to avoid confusion.
just call one of the watermelon’s “water melon” or something like that
My take on this:
Sengoku
Jinba
Invess
Obliterate
Master
Suika
Gridon
I really don’t like the idea of taking big liberties with translation for the sake of a dumb joke, especially if it’s a one-off (lookin’ at you, Ornac), but that’s exactly what Aesir did. And “Master Arms” just sounds cooler (and it fits thematically, if it’s not totally accurate).
Why not:
– Gridon?
– Like, acorn in japanese?
I feel like its better to leave the form names untranslated altogether, and have a couple of translation notes, since they’re technically proper nouns. The fruit forms people can tell by actually looking at the show anyway, and a small TL Note will deal with Jinba/Kachidoki/Kiwami. Plus, Jimber sounds stupid, and I had to google raiment, so its not like translating the name will make it any easier to understand. It’ll also solve the problem of Wärring Stätesmän and Suika/Watermelon.
O-T vs Aesir/Obliterate vs Pulperize – no comment. I prefer Aesir personally, but O-T is fine. Same with the Daishogun case, its doesn’t translate properly either way.
Ornac/Guridon – Guridon. Either “guridon, as in donguri (acorn as ruby text)?” or “guridon, as in acorn?” will work
Jinba. I don’t even know what Raiment means. Also, I’m never calling Gold Drive “Gord Drive”, so I couldn’t care less what the figurarts use.
Inves over Invess
I prefer Aesir’s terms over Over-Time’s.
Use Watermelon, not Suika. It’s not even confirmed whether your doing the Garden or not yet, so no point in using Suika and then end up not doing the gaiden. For the Gaiden I’d just use Suika for the proto Lockheed referred to as Watermelon. I know people freaked when Magenta did something similar for the mechs in GoBusters, but I honestly think it’s a clever workaround.
If it’s not already clear, I am fully in favour of Ornac. I don’t get the disconnect because the English words I’m reading in the subtitles are not being said in the audio so that not matching up isn’t bothersome either. I also really don’t like translator notes on screen. I think they should be kept to release notes outside of the video. If it can be avoided, which it can here, I truly believe it should be avoided.
So are you guys gonna keep putting out the wizard dub too or are you done with that for now since you’re moving on to subbing Gaim?
As I mentioned in the Wizard wrap up, it’ll be resumed now. I just was having trouble rewatching the early episodes so close to when I was doing them subbed. It’ll be easier for me to deal with them now.
Jinba/Jimber. I don’t have much of an opinion either way, but Jimber is “official” so I suppose that should be used.
Inves, definitely. Two S’s at the end just looks weird
Hybrid of both. I prefer Mighty Warlord and Obliterate, but I also like Master Arms and “Dragun, Ha-ha-ha” from OT’s (At least I THINK that’s OT, I haven’t gone back and checked) because that’s what the Ryuhou translates as.
Suika, definitely. People can just look at the fruits on the Lockseed/falling from the sky and go “Oh, that’s X, so Y must be Japanese for X” so we don’t really need them translated and it keeps everything consistent.
Gridon, definitely. Especially if you go as above and make it Donguri Arms. “Gridon? Like… Donguri with the syllables flipped??” works nicely if you must explain the pun.
Pulperize is fucking dumb, Ornac is bad and so is Raiment.
Raiment/Jinba/Jimber: Since the form references a jinbaori, I’d go with ‘Jinba’ even if Toei’s official romanization is ‘Jimber’.
Invess/Inves: Don’t really have any strong feelings against either one so ‘Inves’, I guess.
OT/Aesir: Personally, I prefer Aesir’s but I’m fine with either one.
Suika/Watermelon: Keep it as ‘Watermelon’. They weren’t really referenced or on-screen together (from what I can remember) and I like your take of calling the Watermelon Lockseed something like Proto(type)-Watermelon Lockseed when mentioned.
Ornac/Gridon: GRIDON. I’m fine with your takes on it whether using a light font or changing up the lines. I’d even take a TL note. As long as it’s not Ornac.
Anyways, thank you for all of the work you all put into each release. Can’t wait for Gaim.
I like Raiment but if it’s between Jinba and Jimber I would definitely go with Jinba.
I prefer Aesir’s versions for most of them, though I prefer Over-Time’s “THE UNMATCHED, PEERLESS GRAND WARLORD”.
I prefer Gridon, using the italics solution you suggested (“Don… guri? Like, an acorn?”)
As for Suika vs Watermelon, I think Suika should be kept as Watermelon. For the Gaiden, maybe do something like write it as Water Melon, or just keep both the same. The Watermelon name only comes up twice in that movie, and only in belt sounds (in dialogue, it’s just called a prototype of Suika).
A solution for the issue of explaining the Gridon line would just be to change it. Change it to something like “Gridon? That’s a stupid name.” Overtime did something similar for ToQ episode 1 to avoid having to translate ToQger for the entire show.
You know, this might be the best way to do it. It points out how stupid it is but it doesn’t require explaining the pun. I can aways stick a note in the post about what the joke is like some have suggested, and considering the show is 3 years old now, it’s not really a big deal to find the explanation elsewhere. Plus, it’s not like it ever comes up again that I can recall.
Im good with anything you do really but if it is possible to have a subtitle track without the overlord speech, I find that since it is not ment to be understood by the viewer, sort of like the language in kuuga, some potential spoilers for people who have not seen it before (though i have seen it already haha). Keep up the good work
Yeah, those will be done for the appropriate episodes as an alternate track. So for new viewers, they can watch it with the garbled Overlord language, but for anyone who has seen it and wants to switch it over can.
So for the record the untranslated Overlord speak will be the default subtitle track, right? So it would look something like this (for the applicable episodes):
1. Edited Subtitles (Overlord Cipher)
2. Edited Subtitles (Overlord Translated)
3. Aesir Subtitles (Overlord Cipher)
4. Aesir Subtitles (Overlord Translated)
Also, I know that the person who created the Overlord Cipher for Aesir is currently doing the Grongi Cipher for Midnight Crew’s release of Kuuga, so that may be a point of contact to help translate what bit of Overlord hasn’t been translated.
Something like that. I may do it, using your numbering, as 1, 3, 2, 4 instead, that way the Revised and Original subs remain tracks 1 and 2, but either way, those would be the 4 tracks, yes.
As for the untranslated stuff, that’s good to know. Once I figure out where it is that the untranslated bit is, I may approach them about it. I haven’t rewatched Gaim since the weeklies, so I don’t remember where this bit of untranslated dialogue is, just that I’ve been told it exists and I trust the people that have told me that.
I do think it would help a lot to maybe have some answers beforehand. Are you intentionally planning on doing the Soccer movie and Gaim Gaiden 1 (as opposed to you just finding the isos or it otherwise just happening to fall into your lap)? Do you plan on getting Gaim Gaiden 2 and hopefully find another sub group willing to translate? Is there any other extra Gaim stuff that could be added in here (like any hyper battle videos? I don’t know I’m genuinely asking)? I feel like if this is going to be the “definitive”/”remastered”/”deluxe” edition of Gaim, we would need some idea of additionally where we’re going, also.
Also on the note of a “definitive” version of Gaim, is there official plans to get the dubbed version of Gaim (assuming a dubbed version airs) like how you’re doing the dubbed Wizard?
My opinions on this are pretty tempered because of the fact there will be a mostly untouched Aesir track but anyway
– Jinba vs. Jimber: I’m for “Jimber” because of the official spelling, but either is fine.
– Invess vs. Inves: I’m for “Inves”. I actually didn’t even realize that other’s had spelled it differently and thought this was a riff on “Infestation” (e.g. infestation > infes > inves) anyway.
– “Pulperize” vs. Obliterate: I’m for “Obliterate”
– Zenith vs. Master: I’m for “Zenith”. I’m also for “M-M-M-M-MIGHTY WARLORD!” because it lines up with the cadence for “Dai-Dai-Dai-Dai-Shogun” better than “THE UNMATCHED, PEERLESS GRAND WARLORD” does.
– Over-Time vs. Aesir: I feel like Over-time saw the community’s reaction to Aesir and may have overcompensated a bit (which, imho, explains the “THE UNMATCHED, PEERLESS GRAND WARLORD”). In general I’m ok with either. Things like the previously mentioned “Dragun, Ha-ha-ha” are great. I think both groups did that, but I’m not sure. I know one group came up with some really imaginative names for all the weapons which needs to be in the Edited Primary subtitles, imho.
– Suika vs. Watermelon: I’m for “Watermelon”. Then for Gaim Gaiden just use “Proto Watermelon” (first preference) or “Watermelon” in italics (second preference).
– Ornac vs. Gridon: Other people have stronger opinions than I do regarding this, but Gridon for the Edited Subtitles and Ornac for the (mostly) untouched Aesir subs and just be done with the whole ordeal.
I actually have some more questions:
Assuming you do encode the Soccer movie and Gaim Gaiden, those were not done by Aesir.
Do you plan on still doing two separate subtitle tracks for each? Basically to back port the Aesir stylistics and terminology to those?
Also, I think you said the Wizard/Gaim movie wasn’t released HD, but was the Showa versus Heisei Riders Super Hero Taisen and the Gaim/Drive movie released in HD?
Lastly, can we get a summary post for your plans regarding Gaim (i.e. what terminology is getting changed? which movies need to be rereleased in HD? ect.), please and thanks?
Thanks again for rereleasing Gaim like this. You’re forever awesome!
Soccer/Gaiden/Whatever other movies we might do: I have all the ISOs for everything (at least, I’m pretty sure I do) so they are a matter of whether I want to do them or not. In all honesty, it’s VERY likely that I will for the same reason I did Megamax when I did Fourze. Over-Time released an HD version, which is usually my first reason NOT to do a movie, but I did mine with the trio of OT, Aesir styled and Aesir basic subs for a more definitive version. That’s the biggest reason I’ll probably do the Gaim movies. I just didn’t want to 100% say that I’d do them, even though I’m 99% sure I will now. Because of the revisions, that’s why I’d release movies that are ones already released in HD by others.
As for what I’d do with the tracks for those, that’s something I’m tossed up about. My thinking right now when I do the Wizard/Gaim movie is also doing a revised track that will match the changes we make for the series, an original Over-Time track, and if people want it, a sort of “Aesir-ified” version of the OT track where the terms are converted to be like that of the series’ untouched track, if that makes sense.
As for Gaiden 2, I’d love to do it, and if I have to, I’ll try and scrub the TV-N release and get it in line with the other subs, but if, when it gets to that point, we can get someone that’s willing to translate it, I’d be all for it.
There will be a post tonight after this one closes with some secondary feedback opportunities and a list of what I plan to change. I’ve done Episodes 1-4 with the changes I think I’m going to go with, so I’ll go over those and probably release Wednesday or Thursday. The list is a good idea, so I’ll include what all there is that we’ll be doing for sure and what is probable in that post.
I think I’ve changed my opinion on this:
– Jinba vs. Jimber: Even though Jimber is the official spelling, I’m leaning toward “Jinba” as it just flows better.