[XIG] Kamen Rider ’71 (Review)

When a lone translator came out of nowhere and finished two series, people were abuzz for months. But how were the subs? Were they okay? Bad? What I heard was all over the place. So I figured now would be as good a time as any to check ’em out for myself… Alrighty, let’s see how these hold up shall we?

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GENERAL INFO

Subs By: XIG Fansubs
Format: .MP4 (Hardsubbed)
Website: http://www.twitter.com/XIGFansubs

Episode(s) Reviewed: 04 (v2)

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VISUAL APPEAL

Mm… The jagged edges match, but I think the font looks a little too cartoony otherwise? A little shadow or something might’ve helped too, ’cause the sign’s a bit hard to make out in some spots

It looks like they put forth some effort with their typesetting, but… It’s eh

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THE SCRIPT

It kinda dawned on me that XIG might not be a native English speaker, so that changes how I was initially gonna approach this. Instead of pointing out every little thing I come across, I think the best way to go about it would be to showcase some examples and how I’d improve them

The “machine” is obviously the motorcycle, come on. Leaving it as-is just sounds weird

Why not something more like “Oh Ken, you’re such a handful.”?

01) An orangery is specifically for orange trees, so what the heck is a “flower orangery” supposed to be?
02) Why is it being treated as a proper noun?
03) Why is it in quotations?
That aside, the line would’ve worked better as “Look Hiromi, a (whatever).” anyway

You could try “A flower ate my sister.”

“Eh?” isn’t English

Even just slightly tweaking this to “Alright, then we’ll take you…” would’ve sounded far more natural

They’re referring to a specific one, aren’t they..? If so, it’d be “that” not “the”

She’s talking to Hongo, so it’d have to be “Let go of his (as in, the kid’s) hands!”. Something more like “Let him go!” would be even better

*Shocker Runs Away*
Just “Wait!”, if you must. I think I would’ve suggested “Get back here!” as the better fit, though

You’d be hard-pressed to find a poorer word choice than ‘pinwheel’

“Where am I?”

Their leader’s name isn’t “Boss”. Try “It’s the boss.”

This doesn’t sound like how the head of an evil organization vying for world conquest would speak at all

This should be “in accordance with”, not ‘to’

So many green birds ._. Anyway, uh, something more like “…you will eliminate No. 3!” or “…you will dispose of No. 3!” would sound better

*Still Freaking Out Over Being Kidnapped By A Plant And Waking Up In A Strange And Unfamiliar Place*
“What is this place?!”

They’re the bad guys! It’s not a matter of being able to ‘endure’ being electrocuted, but ‘surviving’ it

See? I told ya

You said it was an apartment, though

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What’s more, they translated ‘sister’ here just fine

Not only was this a very robotic way to handle ‘Hai.’, but the line disappears in the blink of an eye >___<

There’s so many ways to go about this one, but at the very least it’d have to be more like “It seems they’re the ones who kidnapped Kenji-kun’s sister.” or whatever

In context,  this should be closer to “Looks like Yukie-san is back safe and sound, huh?”

How about “Is Shocker at it again?” or something more like that?

The people of Shocker aren’t collectively called “Shockers”. You should try something more like Shocker mooks, henchmen, troops, subordinates, minions, soldiers etc. etc. etc.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Saying XIG’s work is unwatchable would just be petty… They’ll get you through the show. However, as far as quality is concerned it’s very, very… Not great. The script’s chock-full of little mistakes and rough dialogue, and simply recruiting a QC’er (or better yet, an editor) would work wonders. I’m also surprised that this is apparently the v2… Found in the v3 batch. Like, that’s more or less implying XIG looked this over a third time and saw nothing wrong with it… I don’t know what to say to that. Wow.

So, uh, here’s hoping KITsubs will pull through for us!

GRADE: C-