Friday, July 29, 2011

Don't call it a comeback!


This is the little side project that I've been vaguely mentioning every so often.  One of my favorite Kamen Rider series ever, and one of the few modern Tokusatsu series to stay close to Shotaro Ishinomori's ideals as a story teller.
This is really the story of Asumu Adachi, a young boy who's at the cusp of growing up.  He's taking his High School entrance exams, he's not sure of what he wants to do with his life, he has a hard time connecting with people around him, and he just met a super hero.


The show was based on an idea for a new type of Tokusatsu hero, created by Shotaro Ishinomori, called "Sonic Sound Riders."  Not a lot is known about the original incarnation of this story, but we can assume that until a staff change around episode 30, the show that we got was actually pretty close.  As future releases come out, I'll go into more of what I know about this.  Until then, watch the first episode, and enjoy.

Hibiki episode 1:
MKV
Script
MP4

For a side project that I didn't want to involve the rest of the group in, this project sure had a lot of outside help! Big thanks to: ShinkenAnon, UK Windom, Castiel, and Scissors Jaguar for all of their help on this.

Now, there's a lot that I want to say about this project, and why I chose to do it.  I'm putting that ALL under a cut, because it's a rant.  I'd strongly appreciate it if you read on, though.  This was a complicated decision for me, and I'd like everyone to understand why I chose to go ahead with this release.

First of all, this is not a "KITsubs" release, so to speak.  For projects like this, I will be releasing them under the name "KITscrubs."  Because that's what this is, essentially.  A scrub project.
What is a scrub project, you say?  It's a movement that seems to have been taking hold in fansubbing circles, recently.  Basically the idea is that a newer, or more capable sub group will take an older series and "clean it up."  Usually correcting errors, or eliminating any text effects and translation quirks that they deem "obnoxious."  Let me say, that isn't the purpose of this release.

Kamen Rider Hibiki was originally translated and released in its entirety by TV-Nihon.  Now, many of you have an opinion of them one way or the other as a fansub group.  I'm going to say right now that opinions had nothing to do with this project.  The original version that TV-Nihon released is pretty old, and the video quality is poor.  Originally I just wanted to put their subtitles onto better quality video, for my own personal use.  But the more I reworked the script, the more I wanted to share this project with everyone else.  Because I love this show.
Did I copy TV-Nihon's script entirely, removing the untranslated words and honorifics?  No.  This is a new script, using some of TV-Nihon's script as a base, along with two other translations, and my own error correcting.  Did I use honorifics, or untranslated words that fit the mood of the show?  No.  That isn't a knock against TV-Nihon, that's my own preference, and the style that our group uses for all of our releases.

A lot of scrubbers are taking TV-Nihon's scripts with the sole intent of making them "Not like TV-Nihon's scripts."  And that's fine.  There's an audience that wants that.  But that's not enough of a reason for me to take on a project like this.  Also, as much as I personally would never fansub in TV-Nihon's style, I will not fault them for it.  Fansubbing is a hobby, and a unique one in that it's done for the sake of other people's entertainment.  TV-Nihon has been doing this longer than most of us have, and they've finished more shows than any of us could ever hope to.  Are they everyone's cup of tea?  No.  But we have other choices for fansub groups.  And even if we didn't, they don't owe it to me or anyone else to write subtitles in the style of my choosing.

The reason why I ranted on for so long is this:  TV-Nihon has done more for the Tokusatsu fandom than most of us realize, and I have no intentions of stepping on their toes with this project.  There are some errors in their original script, yes, but what group DOESN'T have errors in their earlier scripts?  If it wasn't for the error checking, and replacing the low quality raws, AND fixing the grammar, this project wouldn't have been worth the effort for me.  If you want to see the show now, in it's entirety, then by all means go check out TV-Nihon's release.

Ok, I'm done now.  I promise!  Sorry for the long post.  It won't happen again.  Or maybe it will, because it seems to happen fairly often...  But I'll try real hard, I promise!

5 comments:

  1. I had something longer written before, but I deleted it because I hate how I write. I'll just say this, I'm so happy for this release. I wish I had the kind of resources you have to make a much more polished product. I think I'm just kind of flying by the seat of my pants since I just started doing Shinkenger on a whim one day. I can't wait for the say to see you complete this series, and I for all your long winded and fun to read write-ups.

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  2. I have all of this series from TV-Nihon and I will be getting yours as well.

    To tell you the truth, I like this series as well. Very much so, as a matter of fact. I think I was brought into it by the Decade episode that was loosely based on an alternate Hibiki world. Then when I started to watch this one, I really could appreciate this story and characters.

    I look forward to more from you on this series as well as your rant as to why this means so very much to you.

    Cheers, my friend.

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  3. This is one of my favorite Heisei Rider shows. I've watched it once, extremely willing to watch it again.

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  4. You rock, man! I've never seen this one but I've always wanted to. Thanks so much!!!

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