Visual media & education...

[SckizoBoy]

So, the other day, I went and bought the DVD of Ergo Proxy. For those who don't know what it is or what it's about, it is, as far as this thread is concerned, a dystopic sci-fi anime with a ma-hoo-sive number of philosophical and 'high' intellectual references, whether in names, concepts or plot-points, with varying levels of subtlety. However, most of these references (e.g. a lot from episode 11) would naturally fly over the heads of most viewers.

The DVD release has a sum total of zero explanatory notes, but that's to be expected of it. Which brings me to the fansub. Good lord, the SS-sub of it (what episodes they did, that is) was glorious, going through and explaining all the philosophical and literary references, even the obvious ones (e.g. Ophelia), and in quite a bit of detail as well. They even accompanied the explanatory slides with original music as well.

So, a few questions:

When you have a piece of admittedly intellectual media that was released for the express purpose of entertainment (as opposed to education), do you like stuff explained to you as part of the media's extras?

Should fansubbers be contracted to region 1/2 anime licencers, because they are almost always superior to official releases, whether in the actual translation itself, or on-screen 'footnotes' (necessary to translate Japanese script that appears, which isn't always done in DVD releases)?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I've never seen anything with the kind of literary footnotes you've described outside of translations of classic literature, but I would love to see some of these fansub groups get hired. You're spot on with the footnotes explaining the translation (I have seen those) being important, and what's more, fansubbers usually subtitle the songs, both in the openings and endings, and any songs with lyrics that turn up as a part of the soundtrack. More often than not, the lyrics have something to do with the reason the song was chosen, and I've never seen an official sub bother to translate them.

 

[Gatx]

I don't think fansubbers are superior to official releases per se. There are a ton of people who actually don't care for the original Japanese and don't bother with subtitles, and moving on from there, there are people who want to get the sense of experiencing the original but want to get the basic meaning without having to get into the subtleties of the original language.

Official translators do a complete job of translating for the above types of audiences, instead of making a note of language quirks like Japanese formal/casual/masculine/feminine speech, and what not, they do their best to translate the meaning into the language rather than just making a note of it.

As for pointing out intellectual things, I think part of making classy references (as opposed to joke/gag ones) for thematic purposes is to have faith that people in the audience are intelligent enough to appreciate them. To just blatantly point it out would be dumbing it down too much.