Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2

[gakido]

Yeah, a.f.k. translate every single details without adding or taking away anything. While the other groups like to add their own flavor to the translation, imo the group that does this the most is DB.

That's why I also love a.f.k, the translator just keep everything as it is, without adding unnecessary stuff. People will complains the format is in .avi but I'm not picky about that kind of stuff. So yeah, go a.f.k~

[HENTAIBEN]

Ah, sweet. I always did enjoy a.f.k. I can't remember what other series they did, I want to say it was Kanon (2006) or Lucky Star, or some other KyoAni anime. Good to know there are some good subs to be had, even though I didn't have any particular problems with the ones that were out already.

[Sakunyuusha]

I've only watched the first scene of the new episode to help friends pick which subs they'd prefer, so I don't know how things hold up over the course of the entire episode, but from what I noticed CoalGuys&gg and also Dattebayo&Live-Evil were both guilty of introducing flourishes to the language that didn't exist in Haruhi or Kyon's original dialogue.

For example, when Haruhi is excited about Tanabata, not only is it not in her nature to use the word "freakin' " but she's not even saying "Tanabata, yo! Tanabata!" the way that a Japanese person might were you to want to use the "freakin' " adjective. In other words, gg vulgarized her for no other reason than that it was fun. Something they often did with Code Geass Season 1.

As another example, Dattebayo's "Twas the midst of summer" which opens up the episode is just so out of left field it's not even funny. All Kyon says is 季節は夏, which reads "kisetsu wa natsu," where "kisetsu" means "season," "wa" is ha (は) as a topic particle, and "natsu" means "summer." In other words, "The season is summer." Or "The season was summer." Or, best of all for an English translation, "It was summer and ..." (leading into his next clause about exams).

I learned years ago by reading Book 1 of Haruhi (in Japanese, very very very poorly ^^; ) that Kyon's narration of past events is conducted in the present tense, and I believe this is something that is common to Japanese narration and not just Tanigawa's Suzumiya Haruhi books. In other words, Kyon will often say things like "It is summer. Haruhi is sitting behind me. She's poking my back with her pencil." It's sort of like (to a Western mind) a living narration, like Dumbledore taking Harry into the pensieve in the Harry Potter books.

Anyway, I digressed. :o (Surprise!)

The point is ... "twas"? "midst"? Where the fuck did Dattebayo pull those from? Out of their ass, that's where: 'cause Kyon didn't say such things.

[gakido]

Overall, a.f.k and Eclipse are the two fan-sub that keep things as it is without modifying things. That's why I prefer their sub over any other groups. Haruhi is definitely one of those anime that I'll need sub for, the crazy fast talking pace and a lot of unfamiliar terminology is too much for me to handle. So glad that a.f.k is revived for the series.

p.s. There was another line in DB-LE that really got me going "wtf"; Kyon: "I'll be there with bell on." I can't remember the exact words and I've already deleted the file. I mean, just translate the line as it is...

Sadly, a lot of English translated h-manga are like this. A lot of the translator just modify the original text too much.

[Sakunyuusha]

Yep. The only one I used to recommend to friends who couldn't read eromanga was Sayo of SaHa but now (a) he's turned into a total douchebag (just look at the way he talks to the people who made him what he is today!) and (b) he's beginning to slack off too now that he can afford to (i.e. people no longer scrutinize his work as much as they once did, and it's commonly accepted that "SaHa does a great job," so without people taking a closer look he's able to get away with loose[r] translations for tough phrases or clauses).

Pretty much I'd say that you need to learn Japanese to get h-manga read properly.

Which is sad because anime -- which in my opinion is much, much harder to translate -- is translated so professionally by many a fansub team. :\ You'd think at least one person could translate hentai for the masses in a way that would be both accurate for general meaning and precise for the actual words spoken.

[SdeO]

Originally Posted by Sakunyuusha

Even if the other groups get theirs out in 24 hours and a.f.k. takes 2 weeks, I'll be waiting for a.f.k.'s releases. So, so happy that they're back and giving this series the proper translation it deserves! :)

QFT

Is there news about the next episode? the new one, I mean.
I hope they animated Disappearance.

[Sakunyuusha]

Originally Posted by SdeO

QFT

Is there news about the next episode? the new one, I mean.
I hope they animated Disappearance.

It's all about guaranteed. I don't want to spoil details for others -- and have largely avoided spoilers myself! -- but seeing as I own the books and couldn't resist flipping through the color pages at the very front, even I was "OH MY FUCKING GOD! O_O :D" excited with what I saw for Book 4. (Do we have a spoiler tag on Akiba? It'd make it easier to mention these sorts of things without being cryptic! lol)

The other thing is, everything Kyoto Animation has done in its viral marketing for Season 2 over the course of the last year has pointed to a Book 4-centric second season. The website changes in December are probably the best example of this, mimicking the very events which took place in the book.

This is why I think we're in for a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride this year. The good news is, we get Season 2. The bad news is, it's going to air sporadically and I think it's going to be interlaced with Season 1 episodes in order to stretch it out to December 2009. That way, they can do the final events of Book 4 in December which, I've heard it said, matters for one reason or another.

Think about it. In the summer, they can easily go one week here or one week there without airing a single episode (either a re-run from Season 1 or a new episode from Season 2) and justify it with summer specials occupying the broadcast slot. Ditto for a holiday weekend here or there. It should be no problem to make ~23 episodes (assuming Season 2 is a 24-episode season) plus an additional ~10 episodes (I have no clue how many of the original 14 they already aired, so I'm just guessing that we have 10 left) last until December. In fact, December 7 is 27 weeks away from today, and December 30 is 30 weeks away. Since (as per my guesstimate) 23+10 = 33, this means that it's more than feasible to stretch things out this long.

Which, like I said ...
- sucks because it means we won't get Season 2 closure until December
- further sucks because every now and then we're going to be punched in the gut with a "SURPRISE!" re-airing of a Season 1 episode instead of a new airing of a Season2 episode, but
- is still fucking awesome :D because in the end Season 2 of Haruhi is better than no Season 2 at all

[SdeO]

Originally Posted by Sakunyuusha

(Do we have a spoiler tag on Akiba? It'd make it easier to mention these sorts of things without being cryptic! lol)

use :
[ hide ] [ /hide ]

without spaces, of course.

[Sakunyuusha]

Cool! Then here goes nothing! :)
WARNING! Possible spoilers for S2!

I think few things can match the fear and excitement viewers will get from the nonchalant return of Asakura Ryoko -- the very same day Kyon finds himself unable to get any of his classmates or teachers to remember that a girl named Suzumiya Haruhi ever existed.

The team has strongly hinted at having Asakura's return (which is in Book 4) be one of the featured stories in Season 2. For one thing, the two omake animes Nyoro~n! Churuyu-san and Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuuutsu have both made references to Asakura's return. SH-chan did it more directly by showing Asakura get defeated (in Episode 2) and then reborn (in Episode 4) but something went wrong and she was reborn as Achakura Ryoko (from Churuya). Meanwhile, the Churuyu series brought Achakura into the spotlight in Episode 2. There was nothing about her initially which might have suggested that she was Asakura v.2.0, but still -- prominently featuring a character who died relatively early in the Haruhi franchise [as far as most people know!] begs the question, "Why do it?" And I can only imagine they're doing it because they want to refresh her role in the plot in viewers' minds so that when they see her back in action in S2, they scream "HOLY SHIT! O_O KYON, RUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" with a lot more emotion than they otherwise would have. lol

That to me is probably the biggest thing pointing to Book 4 playing a major role.

As far as fans of the anime are concerned, they want to know more about Itsuki's, Yuki's, and Mikuru's respective organizations. Given this, it might be natural for the second season to time skip all the way forward to the newest books. But if Kyoto Animation is (grrrrrrrrr >_<) planning on saving that material for a third season, the only other thing the fans really want to know more about is fun but fluffy. And I think that that fun but fluffy stuff is what we're going to get during the summer and early fall, while Kyoto Animation saves the bulk of the juicy plot events of Book 4 for later in the year. Things like Shamisen the talking cat (Book 2) or the story behind Kyon's nickname (???) remain to be explored.

As far as fans of the books are concerned, the demand seems to be pretty unanimous for Book 4. As for the other books, I've heard it said that things get dull as the series progresses, which is really a shame if that's true. I'm actually very excited about ...

... the esper girls who showed up in Book 9 or Book 10. I know nothing about them other than that they exist and I'd hope that the books they were in were more exciting than I've been led to believe.

[HENTAIBEN]

So.... is anyone else kinda disappointed with the way things are going right now? Blasphemy I know. I never read the books so maybe this is just being really true to the source material and some people can appreciate that. Still it seems like they're really dragging something out that could've been done in half as many episodes I think. I dunno, what do you guys think?