So, there has been a lot of controversy over our Hanamonogatari 01 release. fnord at Nyaa removed our trusted status, saying the following:
I’ve removed trusted status for this release due to massive and unacceptable mistakes in the translation.
The problem is that fnord is the TL for Commie’s release. He is a good TL but there was a possibility of bias. This comparison of the first couple of lines was linked by herkz on twitter: PrivatePaste. You can see for yourself there are differences.
So, it was an accusation that we had to take seriously. But given fnord’s bias of working on the show himself, we wanted and needed to get some additional TLC help in to see what all the drama was about.
We’ve now finished the process of re-TLCing (thanks to kokujin-kun for hopping on board to TLC the rest of the show with us as well as conducting this internal review) and re-editing to accommodate those changes.
Our conclusion is this: there were TL errors. Several of them. Especially in the first 4 minutes before the opening, which according to the same tweet from herkz (link) is all that was reviewed by futsuu. However, none of them was earth-shatteringly bad. None of them seemed to affect the outcome of the plot. And, from the sole piece of evidence provided in herkz’ privatepaste, the most evident difference is that of the tone of Suruga’s mother toward her, which was intentional, and some editing differences. While we have softened the tone somewhat, and made changes elsewhere, you will NOT get a different viewing experience if you watched the v1. If anything, you might say this version is simply a bit more literal than the last.
As to whether or not fnord’s decision to remove our trusted status was justified by truly “massive and unacceptable mistakes,” I do not know. I am not a TL. Perhaps some of our translations were a disgusting abuse of the language to those with the understanding of it, but I don’t believe it was nearly that bad. From the perspective of “What will I get from the release?”, it is our position that you will get the same in the v1 as the v2 as the core of it has not changed. Commie may release and have a holistically alternative interpretation of the tone of the show and make different translation decisions than us but, in my personal opinion, that does not disqualify our release.
Episode 02 will be out within 24 hours. Probably less. (I know i said this but some IRL stuff came up for me. so it’s a bit delayed.)
Edit: I had incorrectly stated that herkz deleted his tweet. It was just twitter’s web interface being stupid which also prevented me from seeing that it indicated futsuu. Sorry herkz.
Edit2: we’ve gotten a chance to talk to fnord and we’ve come to an understanding on the lines in question. It was my fault for not waiting for TLC on this. Please go back to your boring, drama free lives.
Edit3: comments disabled. I’m tired of my phone going off every 10 minutes. if you’re gonna stick with DDY subs, great, if not, sad to see you go. If you have a problem with our translations and you think you can do better, apply; we’re doing the best we can with the people we have.
