We try to eliminate typos and grammatical errors from our scripts, but is that really necessary?
At first glance, this is a stupid question with an obvious answer, but after reading a lot of shitty English-translated LNs recently, I lost sight of the actual principle behind why having a mistake-free script is important. Sure, there are instances where a grammatical error can make a line hard to follow, and of course those sorts of lines must be fixed in order to facilitate reader comprehension, but typos and other mistakes normally don’t rise to that level. The official script for Oshi no Ko unfortunately contains more typos than normal per episode, and even though I read through the script with my full attention for editing and then once again for QC, I’ve missed several of them even though they’re blatantly obvious when viewing the line in a vacuum. My brain sees the line and fixes the typo automatically, and I don’t even notice it. If our brains are powerful enough to do those kinds of real-time fixes, how important is it that we get those lines right in the first place? This heretical thought has been bolstered by my recent experience reading LNs which have received varying levels of QC and me realizing that the number of typos or technical grammatical errors in a text has zero correlation to my enjoyment of it. So if careful attention to detail doesn’t improve the viewer experience, why spend so much effort on it?
One answer comes from the fact that what I just said wasn’t quite true. There was one instance where an LN’s blatant disregard for good copy editing actually hurt my reading experience in a meaningful way. At the end of a typo-ridden story about exorcists, the author’s note that you’ll find at the end of every LN was not titled “Afterword,” as would be standard, but “Afterward.” The charitable interpretation of this deviation is that it was a pun on the whole exorcist thing (warding away spirits and all that). The uncharitable interpretation is that it was a mistake. Because the book had so many typos and grammatical mistakes up to that point, I was uncharitable and grumpy. If the book had been mistake free, I might have thought it was a pun and chuckled instead.
Characterization has many examples of this sort of thing. If I have a character say “I work less hours than I used to,” I want the viewer to understand that the usage of the slightly incorrect usage of “less” in that sentence (as opposed to “fewer”) is saying something about the character speaking or maybe the setting in which the line is being spoken. There are some characters who would use the word “whom” correctly, and there are some characters who absolutely wouldn’t (to the extent that it would be a mistake to have them use it correctly). But you, the editor, have to have a perfect handle on the who/whom rules in order to write a script that gets that distinction across to the viewers. You want your readers to be charitable to you when you make a character use poor grammar. You want your reader to believe that it is the character butchering the English language, not you. If a character in an anime is speaking rapid-fire and stringing a lot of sentences together, you want to be able to write a long, rambling run-on sentence without your viewers thinking it is a mistake. To accomplish all this, you have to stick to standard English and eradicate typos like your life depends on it.
All of this is a long preamble to a minor complaint I have about Commie’s editing in this show. Among the changes they made to the official script was a change from American English quotation punctuation rules (where commas and periods go inside quotation marks) to British English (where they go outside of them). In other words, Commie took lines with “punctuation like this,” and they changed them to have “punctuation like this”.
Now, ask any nerd who cares even a little about English and you’ll probably have a pretty easy time baiting them into going on a rant about how little sense the American rule makes compared to the British one. The following simple example (which uses British English) illustrates the point: The title of the song was "Gloria", which many already knew.
The comma is part of the larger sentence rather than the quoted title, so obviously you should put it outside. There are many other “obviouslys” when it comes to this discussion. The British rule is better, plain and simple.
Problem is, the Commie script is an American English script. It uses American spellings and phrases, and it was edited by an American. So the rule, under the particular strain of language that Commie is writing the script under, is that punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. But Commie decided that this particular rule—this bog-standard, English 101, objective grammatical rule—was not necessary to follow, presumably because that rule is admittedly dumber than the way they handle quotations across the pond. And it wasn’t a matter of simply not following the rule, either, since Commie went out of their way to change it.
Putting aside my personal thoughts about the merits of an editor making a frankly arrogant change like this (since even the use of the word “arrogant” seems far too aggressive for a discussion about punctuation order), we can use the discussion we just had about typos and grammatical errors to argue that the change was wrongheaded. Following a grammatical standard is inherently important, even if the rules in that standard don’t make any sense. Like the “afterward” example, failing to follow a standard will take away your ability to break the rules in a way that entertains the viewer. To use a stupid example that I could nevertheless see happening at some point, imagine you had a scene in some comedy anime featuring some comically posh British folks, doing typical British things like sipping tea or standing in queues or whatever else Brits do. If you were editing the script for that anime, you could change the punctuation rules just for that scene as a joke for the viewers. If you think this hypothetical is far-fetched or that such a “joke” would be pointless, you’re absolutely right, but the bigger point is that it’s impossible to foresee when you might need one of the tools in the toolbox that standardization gives you.
Subs: 01-13: Commie (via Dae), OVA: Dae. Video quality comparisons.
Comments - 35
Setsugennoao
tldr?
JohnnyZB
ok boomer
LightArrowsEXE
just edit in BrE from the start like I do tbh
serious answer, idrc what people do with quotation rules so long as they’re consistent(ly inconsistent). If you keep swapping between the two with no rhyme or reason, that’s an issue.
BoxDweller
did you keep the Disney movie line
HowUnfortunate
I hope you put more effort into the torrent description than into this series since it’s the most mid show to exist
JohnnyZB
You can trust Light on this, he’s an expert in consistent(ly inconsistent) BrE.
matheousse
motbob (uploader)
I deliberately marked this torrent as non-green, so yes, I put zero effort into the subs. But I actually did put some time into scenefiltering the encodes.
LightArrowsEXE
Oh, jolly! Me, a true master of the art of the ever-so-inconsistent British English, you say? Gosh, I’m positively gobsmacked!
HowUnfortunate
Based
Oosik
Even as a meme that liberal joke of a description isn’t worth it.
JohnTitor228
i will NOT read all of this
LastBreeze
Chat GPT, please summarize this.
The article questions the importance of eliminating typos and grammatical errors from scripts, as the author argues that the number of typos or technical grammatical errors in a text has zero correlation to their enjoyment of it. However, they later suggest that adhering to grammatical standards is crucial, as it allows writers to intentionally break the rules for characterization purposes. The article also criticizes Commie’s editing in a show for changing from American to British English quotation punctuation rules.
LightArrowsEXE
damn not bad
kiriya_aoi
which ln publisher hurt you
loocool2
motbob having an existential crisis in the torrent description
Interruptor
I trust what Herkz has to say about editing, and no one else.
ap1234
when i see a typo i think “i gotta screenshot this and post it to discord and /a/ and /r/fansubfail (not a real sub yet but should be) and spam the editors dms calling them a retard” and that kinda takes you out of the moment and pulls your focus away from the show, so yes i think they should be eliminated.
Aryma
this the worst anime from kyoani i even watch
but thanks anyway i look forwarded to see your work in “violet evergarden” and “Hibike! Euphonium” both of this anime never get decent BD batch YET
Aryma
i will try but no promises tho
my engrish is self taught so don’t expect too much
ChadXBeriz
@Cavery210 LightArrowsEXE has something to say in Sam release of Violet Evergarden
https://nyaa.si/view/1644606#com-13
Fullbuster
Thanks
motbob (uploader)
In order, the plan is: Dragon Maid, Beyond the Boundary+movie, Hyouka, Chuuni S2+movie, Sound! Euphonium S1+S2, Free! S1+S2+movies(?). That’s it. Realistically, everything after Hyouka is probably not happening because I’ll get stuck on it, burn out, and quit.
The point is to do all the 956p KyoAni shows and movies, and those pretty much stopped after 2017. Luckily we have sam for the newer, annoyingly grainy shows.
vikrant9760
Okay but where OP ED TL in Oshi no Ko
ChadXBeriz
@Cavery210 way back in 2019 SCY Violet Evergarden are too good to me, for rewatching for just Aesthetics and scenery over the Storyline, for Violet Evergarden still fresh to me, probably I’ll rewatch after 10 years. I want to clarify i’m not against to your choice.
Hantersob
I still wait for Gurren Lagann
govna
motbob is mad at constantly getting called out for how bad his subs are
hopefully he’s only truthful now and everything’s put out with the disclaimer that he cant QC
kyo2004
@Hantersob Gurren Lagann is not happening because LightArrowsEXE had a meltdown over Bob doing TTGL because apparently Bob was stealing the spotlight by releasing TTGL which was something Light had been “”“working”"" on with nothing to show for it. Manchild couldn’t do his own release so he shut down another over spotlight drama or whatever. Imagine if it was possible for both releases to exist, crazy idea I know
LightArrowsEXE
it hasn’t even been @ me like, ever, so, no lol (also smh ignoring that I complained about him taking it down, and that I told him he should’ve just kept it up and ignored me, and also ignoring that I posted comps… raven, pls)
motbob (uploader)
Nyaa has become especially miserable ever since members of the community started stealing random nyaa accounts so that they could post their drama shitflinging comments, instead of having the balls to post on their mains.
men_douk_sai
Thanks bob. stfu Light.
Aryma
i see many accounts get hacked here included my account how this happened ?
and my first and the only hacked account is this website still cant understated how i get compromised
vanquisher
Thank you so much MTBB :) Please ignore the rude comments
JohnTitor228
Don’t ignore any comments, it’s rude to ignore people.
I know how to solve this, please contact me in discord: Carl-bot#1536
Commie
It’s not that serious.