My thoughts and comparisons of groups subbing the anime I'm watching this season. The tag listed next to each title is my current group of choice for that anime.
You can also find screen shot comparisons for a lot of current anime on ji-hi.net.
Aoi Hana [Shinji]
[Shinji]
• Uses the translation from the Crunchyroll streams but with most of the notes for on-screen text stripped out. (Seriously, why does he do that? Typesetting would be best but notes are better than nothing.)
• Timing is good in ep1 but in ep3 a lot of the scene timing is off by one frame.
• No OP or ED subs since none are in the CR stream.
• Dialogue styling is a bit hard to read, being a thin, serif font. It really needs to be made bold to be easily readable.
• Video quality is excellent.
[Koharubi]
• They do their own translation but it differs from CR's and SHiN-gx's translations in places. Some lines also read awkwardly.
• Timing is off by one frame – this is easily noticeable at scene changes – for both dialogue and typesetting, and a few lines disappear really fast.
• Includes hard-subbed typesetting for most on-screen text.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed with no karaoke.
• WTF at them using only 64 kbps AAC for the audio. In a slow anime like this, taking that many bits away from the audio is a lot more noticeable than reducing the video bitrate a little.
• Video quality is actually pretty close to Shinji's, despite being at a substantially lower bitrate and lower quality encoder settings. (If the settings listed in the H.264 stream header are correct, whoever's encoding for Koharubi has no clue how to use x264). A small amount of fine detail in some backgrounds is lost, and the bit of grain in Shinji's release isn't preserved. They also removed the station watermark.
[SHiN-gx]
• Uses their own translation, which matches up with the CR translation almost completely as far as meaning.
• Editing is more localized, and leaves out honorifics and reverses name order to given first, family second. The exception is Akira's nickname, Acchan, which is left as is. There's a few grammar errors here and there.
• Timing is good but they leave gaps between lines even if it's only a few frames, which is a little annoying. I only noticed a couple errors with lines starting a bit late.
• Soft-subbed notes for on-screen text translations.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke. OP styling is hard to read.
• Video has a bit higher contrast. (Which is usually not a good thing since increasing contrast kills detail in really dark and light areas.) It's lower bitrate but still manages to preserve nearly as much fine detail and the bit of grain as Shinji's encode. They removed the station watermark.
• Ep3 has a lot of timing, grammar, and spelling errors. QC where?
[Yuurisan-Subs]
• Not bothering after seeing their train wreck of grammar errors in Hatsukoi Limited last season, unless I hear they've somehow become amazing since then.
Bakemonogatari [gg]
[gg]
• Editing is really good, dialogue sounds very natural. Honorifics are left in.
• Timing is good, didn't notice anything wrong.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed. Translates important text only but it looks nice.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke.
• Video retains more fine detail than qIIq's encode.
[qIIq]
• Released a v2 patch for ep1, which I'm using to compare.
• Lines are a bit stiffer sounding than gg's. Honorifics have been removed and the name order is swapped to given first, family second, but it's a little inconsistent about it.
• Timing is good, didn't notice anything wrong.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed and tends to be full overlays on top of the Japanese text, most of which are kind of ugly. Nearly everything is translated, but for some reason they also cover up Japanese text even if they don't translate it.
• ED is soft-subbed with karaoke. (No OP in ep1 apparently.)
• Video has a bit less detail than gg's encode, as mentioned above, but still looks good.
[Koharubi]
• Not bothering after seeing their consistently mediocre work on everything else.
CANAAN [gg]
[gg]
• Timing is good, no errors.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed.
• Video is 480p and looks just as good as DmonHiro's 720p encode.
[DmonHiro]
• As the comment on TT said, "gg subs without gg fagottry: 720p, no stupid chapter names, no stupid DVD commercials."
• Too bad the show isn't HD. I compared DmonHiro's and gg's ep2 releases and there isn't any more detail in the 720p encode.
• They misspelled "faggotry."
[ANBU-Menclave]
• inb4 they stall
GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class [Ayako]
[Ayako]
• Editing has a few grammar mistakes and typos.
• Timing is pretty good, though there's little errors here and there.
• Soft-subbed notes for most of the on-screen text translations, soft-subbed typesetting for a few.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Video is 400p. Ep1's encode has jagged lines left from deinterlacing whenever anything moves but ep2 looks much better.
Kanamemo [Underwater]
[BANZAI]
• Editing and QC in ep1 seem non-existent; there's spelling and grammar errors all over. Ep2 uses the Crunchyroll translation.
• Timing in ep1 needs to have Aegisub's post-processor run on it. There's no lead-out or key-frame snapping, just straight audio timing. Ep2 is better since it has the same timing as the CR script.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke. The kanji positioning extends outside the video frame on some lines.
• Video is upscaled 720p but looks nice for ep1. Though for ep2 it went to crap with tons of combing that didn't get IVTC'd and jaggies left from deinterlacing.
[Underwater]
• Uses the translation from the Crunchyroll streams.
• Timing looks about the same as the CR script, probably just with Aegisub's post-processor run on it. There's little errors here and there but nothing too bad.
• Typesetting and notes for on-screen text are soft-subbed.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke. They use the translation from BANZAI's release since there's no OP or ED subs in the Crunchyroll streams.
• Video is 480p and actually has a bit more detail in it since the raw used in BANZAI's release looks like it's been smoothened and the contrast slightly increased.
[Shinji]
• Uses the translation from the Crunchyroll streams.
• Scene timing has been been fixed up a little better than Underwater's, but some of the little errors from the CR timing are still there.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed.
• OP and ED aren't translated.
• Video looks practically identical to Underwater's encode.
Princess Lover! [ANBU]
[Hitode]
• Editing is a bit inconsistent with localizing terms like onii-chan/onee-chan or leaving them untranslated but leaves them most of the time.
• Timing is off by one frame for the dialogue in ep1 and there's some scene bleeds.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed and pretty well done.
• OP and ED are untranslated in ep1, hard-subbed with karaoke from ep2 on.
• Dialogue styling uses a really thin font. It's easier to read when bold.
• Video for ep1 seems to just be the 720p H.264 TVK raw floating around on Share and TT, which looks pretty good. But I think they re-encoded another 720p raw to add the hard-subbed karaoke in ep2 instead of encoding straight from a transport stream. The OP in ep2 has noticeably more artifacts and macroblocking than ep1's. If that's what they did, they should be slapped, because re-encoding a raw just to add karaoke is freaking stupid.
[Shameless-Moon]
• Grammar errors are abundant, some lines don't even make sense.
• Timing is sloppy, there's errors and scene bleeds.
• On-screen text isn't translated.
• OP and ED aren't translated.
• Dialogue styling is crap. Small, white serif font with the default 2 pixel black border and shadow.
• Video is the same 720p raw as Hitode's ep1 release.
[gleam]
• They skipped ep1 because Hitode's release is apparently good enough. And they're lazy.
• Translation differs from Hitode's in places and seems to make more sense.
• Editing is pretty good, lines read smoother than Hitode's. There are grammar errors here and there, though.
• Timing is good in ep2, there's a couple little scene timing errors but nothing big. Lots of scene bleeds in ep3, though.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed.
• OP and ED aren't translated.
• Video looks nearly as good as Hitode's ep1 from comparing the OP. Overall there's a ton less artifacts and aliasing than Hitode's ep2, but it's lower bitrate so there's more artifacts in dark areas
[AoShen]
• They completely cut the OP, ED, and next episode preview out but apparently aren't using ordered chapters. WTF?
[Chihiro]
• Editing missed a couple little grammar errors but overall it's decent. It leaves terms like onii-chan and ojou-sama untranslated.
• Timing is mostly okay but there's some scene bleeds and some of the scene timing is off by a frame.
• Typesetting is hard-subbed, notes for on-screen text are soft-subbed.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Dialogue styling uses a tiny font size but at least it's otherwise easy to read.
• Video retains a bit less detail than Hitode's ep1 (it looks like the contrast was increased slightly) but has a bit less artifacting in dark areas.
[ANBU]
• Editing missed some typos and grammar errors and also has some weird quirks. It keeps honorifics and leaves terms like jiiya and onii-chan untranslated, yet translates ojou-sama.
• Timing has some small errors, like some lines starting a bit late and some scene timing being a frame off.
• Typesetting is hard-subbed and looks the best.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Video retains as much detail as Hitode's ep1 but without as much artifacting and color banding in dark areas.
Spice and Wolf II [Frostii]
[Mazui]
• They released a v2 of ep1, which I'm using to compare.
• Editing is okay but I noticed a few little grammar errors.
• Timing is good, I didn't notice any errors.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke.
• Video is decent but there's black borders on the sides that should've been cropped off and there's noticeable aliasing and artifacts around edges.
[Nire-Subs]
• Editing has a few little grammar errors and some of the phrasing is a bit awkward.
• Timing is pretty good, there's a few little errors but only one that's especially noticeable.
• Typesetting is a mix of hard- and soft-subbed, mainly hard-subbed.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Dialogue styling is a bit hard to read, would be better with a less fancy font.
• Video has a very tiny bit less detail than Mazui's but the aliasing isn't as bad, probably because it was smoothened a bit. It's also cropped properly.
[ASR]
• Editing missed a lot of little grammar errors, and there's some oddly phrased lines here and there.
• Timing really needs a bit of lead-in applied to it; it feels like every line starts just after the character begins speaking. Some of the scene timing is off by a frame. One line was repeated, on the end of the previous line and then timed separately by itself.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke. ED karaoke is mistimed, the effects happen a bit late for each syllable.
• Video has the same black borders and aliasing as Mazui's. Looks like a line darkening filter was used to make lines a bit heavier.
[Frostii]
• Editing is really nice, lines read smoothly and the choice of words fits the series well.
• Timing is good, no errors and the scene timing is great.
• Typesetting is hard-subbed.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke. They use tiny fonts, jammed right up against the edges of the video frame.
• Video looks really good, it has as much detail as Mazui's encode but without all the aliasing and edge artifacts. It's also properly cropped.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 [ANBU-Frostii]
[ANBU-Frostii]
• Translation missed a line in ep1 at 3:36, though it's just, "Hai."
• Timing is good, didn't see anything wrong.
• Typesetting is hard-subbed but very well done.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Video is a bit blurrier than BSS's encode.
[BSS]
• Translation has an obvious error in ep1 at 8:51 where, "Ja kore isshoni ageru?" was translated as, "Want to give her chocolates with me?" And it doesn't even make sense with the lines around it since they're talking about a drawing. There's also some other differences from ANBU-Frostii's translation but I don't know which are correct.
• Timing is good, didn't notice anything wrong.
• Typesetting is soft-subbed. Not as much is translated as in ANBU-Frostii's release but the important stuff is.
• OP and ED are untranslated.
• Video retains a tiny bit more detail than ANBU-Frostii's and Aoi-Anime's encodes.
[Aoi-Anime]
• Fully hard-subbed in an MP4 container.
• OP and ED are untranslated.
• Video is much lower bitrate than ANBU-Frostii's and BSS's encodes, resulting in artifacts, horrible macroblocking during the fades in the OP and in dark areas, and loss of fine detail. They removed the station watermark.
Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~ [chibi-Formula]
[Sekai-twrev]
• Timing is good, didn't notice any errors.
• Typesetting is hard-subbed, translation notes are soft-subbed.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke, insert song is soft-subbed without karaoke.
• Video is 720p and has tons of jagged lines due to bad deinterlacing. There's also some edge artifacting along that bottom that should've been cropped off, and various other little artifacts here and there that pop up for one frame at a time.
[Jade]
• A few lines are awkward ("You're dead if you are bitten") but overall the editing is decent.
• Timing is off by one frame at scene changes and I noticed one error where a line disappeared too soon. They never use two lines of text in one subtitle so sometimes the subs go by a little fast.
• Typesetting and translation notes are hard-subbed. They translate more on-screen text than Sekai-twrev.
• OP, ED, and the insert song aren't translated.
• Video is 720p and looks like the same source as Sekai-twrev but higher quality because of better IVTC filtering and no random little artifacts. On the other hand, there's edge artifacting along both the top and bottom, and it's encoded at a lower bitrate so there's a little more artifacting in scenes with lots of motion. There's also a couple seconds of corrupted frames at 16:30 that aren't present in Sekai-twrev's encode. They removed the station watermark.
[Ayako] (untagged, ep1 file name is Sea_Story_-_01[1013DEC9].mkv)
• Timing is pretty good but I spotted a couple errors with lines appearing late.
• Typesetting, notes, and the insert song are soft-subbed. They use notes for some signs instead of typesetting and don't translate quite as much text as Jade.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke.
• Dialogue styling is kind of big and I don't like the shadow on it; it would've look better with just a thicker outline.
• Video is 480p and has less detail than the other 720p encodes but I'm not sure if the show is actually HD. The deinterlacing filtering isn't as good as Jade's but the jaggies aren't as noticeable as in Sekai-twrev's encode. They cropped off all the edge artifacting and also removed the station watermark.
[chibi-Formula]
• Editing is good, lines read nice and smooth. A few lines differ a bit in translation from the other releases, no idea which is correct.
• Timing is good, didn't notice any errors except for one line ending a frame before a scene change.
• Typesetting and translation notes are soft-subbed.
• OP, ED, and insert song are soft-subbed without karaoke.
• Video retains a lot more fine detail than the other encodes, though there's also more noticeable artifacts around edges. It's cropped properly and has good deinterlacing filtering. And apparently this show is actually SD, because there's not any difference in detail between their 480p and 720p encodes.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni [Lambda-Delta]
[gg]
• After a failed joint with CoalGuys that I just knew wouldn't last, gg re-released ep1 with a better encode. They appear to be in srs mode for this one, or at least as much so as gg gets.
• Editing is a little more localized than most fansubs (no honorifics; names written given first, family second; etc.) but dialogue flows well.
• Timing is good, didn't notice any errors.
• Fully soft-subbed, including typesetting and OP/ED without karaoke.
• Video quality isn't too great but I think a lot of that is due to the source. There's a lot of jagged lines left from the IVTC/deinterlacing filtering and a lot of halos around edges. Ep2 has a ton more artifacting, though, and the station watermark was removed. Makes me wonder if they didn't bother encoding from the transport stream and just re-encoded one of the 720p raws floating around.
[SEACATS]
• Editing is a bit sloppy on a few lines, using stuff like, "Noooooo!" and, "cuz." Not really important, but they included Maria's "Uu" sounds in the subtitles.
• They released a v2 of ep1 with script tweaks but haven't released a patch to convert from v1 to v2 like they said they were, and I don't care to download the entire episode again.
• Timing is decent but I don't like how they sometimes leave gaps between lines instead of making them continuous even when there's barely any pause in the dialogue.
• Soft-subbed typesetting that looks nice, except for a big, hard-subbed translation of the title screen logo along with a matching group logo.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke. Apparently the v2 of the OP fixed the size of the subs so they aren't tiny anymore.
• Uses ordered chapters to link the OP into the episodes.
• Video looks like it's been smoothened, which killed a lot of detail compared to gg's encode. The jaggies and halos are also there, same as gg's encode.
[ainex]
• Timing looks passable but there's some errors here and there.
• Dialogue styling is ugly and hard on the eyes. Small, dark brown text with a white outline, really close to the bottom of the video frame.
• Hard-subbed typesetting that's rather sloppily done.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Encoded at upscaled 720p at a slightly lower bitrate than gg's and SEACAT's 480p encodes. There's macroblocking during scenes with lots of motion and especially in dark areas. It also looks like it's had some horrible filtering run on it because some parts are blurrier than gg's encode while others are over-sharpened, causing aliasing and even more halos. Avoid unless you like eyecancer.
[Lambda-Delta]
• Editing is good, lines read smoothly and sound natural. I actually like their phrasing better than gg's. It's less localized, meaning they keep honorifics and such, though they didn't go so far as to include Maria's "Uu" in the subs.
• Timing is good and includes fades. The only error I've seen was a three-line subtitle in ep2.
• Typesetting is hard-subbed, though it looks nice.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Video quality is about the same overall as gg's encode, just filtered differently. They cleaned up a lot of the jaggies, which is good. But it looks like they smoothened the video to get rid of artifacts in the source, causing a bit of detail loss. There's also a bit of color banding. It's lower bitrate and there's more noticeable artifacting in dark areas. I find both encodes' downsides equally noticeable so it's basically just a matter of preference.
[Menclave]
• Editing leaves out honorifics but includes Maria's "Uu" in the subs. Uses stuttering ("Y-Y-Your" for example) a few times for seemingly no reason when it's not present in the Japanese dialogue.
• Timing is good. Some lines appear a tiny bit late but it's not too noticeable.
• Typesetting is hard-subbed and is a bit better than Lambda-Delta's. Though the OP is horribly crowded by the translated credits and fansub credits.
• OP and ED are hard-subbed with karaoke.
• Video looks the same as Lambda-Delta's encode, maybe a tiny bit better.
[Hatsuyuki]
• lol no
Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei [gg]
[gg]
• Timing's pretty good, only noticed a few tiny errors.
• Mix of soft- and hard-subbed typesetting. All the important signs were translated.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed without karaoke from ep2 on.
• Video is 480p and looks decent. Zetsubou Sensei has never had good TV sources.
[Suimasen-Commie]
• Timing needs Aegisub's post-processor run on it. There's no lead-out and adjacent lines aren't continuous.
• Almost no typesetting in ep1. Apparently they did more in ep2 but I haven't watched it.
• OP and ED are soft-subbed with karaoke.
• Video is 720p and has a little more detail than gg's encode but I'm not sure if it's just because of differences in filtering or if the show is actually HD. None of the past Zetsubou Sensei anime has been HD.
