Anime Blog
Neverending New Beginnings: "Where are the subtitles?"

12 Feb 2011


Posted by

Haruka Takahashi

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"Where are the subtitles?"


(Note: I've already dropped this anime, Yumekui Merry, since episode 2)

So, the above is something you would most likely to see to most of you in openings of most anime, and you are so used to it that when you see screenshots or the videos that I used to put up, you don't see any text at all.

Preview at the end of an episode. The following episode of the same scene would be shaking and cropped.
Take this image from a post dated last week as an example: If you've watched where this screenshot came from, you would have heard some narration.

You want me to add some subtitles? Well.... (refers to a post from a year ago)

If you understood the original audio, you know these subs are lying, but you wouldn't know if you didn't since it has the sense of shock of what is happening.

That is what you get. Actually, subbing is not my kind of thing. Syncing the subs with the correct timing is a nightmare by itself, made worse by, not by the duration of what is being subbed, but the number of lines.

Subtitles, despite what they are intended for can get too distracting if you know what is being said, but not the subtitled languages. They can be very much of a visual distraction if there are many of them, especially if they are hard-subbed into the video.

However, as much as I don't like subtitles, it's also a necessary thing if I couldn't catch what is being said. I also don't like dubbed audio as they tend to be out of sync. They may add the original music that is being played while the characters are saying things, but those might be faded out. Also, the background atmospheric sounds are lacking a lot. Except maybe cartoons and 3D characters, it's very hard to sync with the lips without rephrasing the words.

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