Back to Editing

After a rather long sabbatical, I'm back to editing a weekly show, and... it's fun. I'm working with a great team, including an excellent translator, a fast and accurate timer, and top-notch QC's. The team has developed a good work rhythm. The steady pace means that everyone can maintain continuity on plot, conventions, and styling. Even though the show is very long - more than a hundred episodes - the team can see how much progress is being made, and everyone is staying motivated.

Of course, it helps that the series aired in the late 80s and early 90's; that takes a bit of the schedule pressure off. I'm referring to Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl.

At first blush, or even at second or third, Yawara! is not my kind of show. To start, it's a sports anime. Next, it's very long, 124 episodes. Then, it's rather repetitious. Each arc has basically the same structure. The heroine, Yawara, vows to quit judo so she can lead a normal life. Her sly grandfather, who is also her coach, tricks her into competing in the next tournament. After various suspenseful developments, Yawara trounces everyone. Step and repeat ad nauseam. And did I mention it's a sports anime?

Yawara! was a Live-Evil project, and like many back-catalog projects, it had stalled. L-E teamed up with Frostii for a few episodes, and then the project stalled again, with 58 episodes completed out of 124. Finally, Saizen, which specializes in sports anime, revived the project and set up a three-way joint with the other two groups, resulting in one of the best project names ever: FroZen-Evil.

To be honest, none of the three groups is known for its speed. Yet Yawara! has developed significant forward velocity, releasing 19 episodes in three months. The reasons offer a blueprint of what's required for success in back-catalog projects:

• Dedication by key team members. Yawara! has been humming along because the team members - translator, timer, editor, encoder, QCs - make it a priority. Episodes don't sit around for long stretches.
• Availability of raws. A team member owns the entire set of Japanese DVDs.
• Simplicity. Yawara! is entirely softsubbed. The karaokes are very simple. Styling is straightforward and can be done during timing or editing. There's no typesetting, except for episode and preview titles; essential signs are explained by top-of-screen notes. The "workraws" are actually the final encodes; all they need is the script, fonts, and chapters muxed in.
• Quality at every step. The translation is first rate, so editing takes hardly any time at all. The timer knows how to deal with the lack of keyframes in a final H.264 encode. The QC team is thorough and pounces on typos and infelicities of expression with equal ferocity. The encoder is quick and experienced.

And last, but hardly least, the show is fun. Yes, we know that the judo matches are going to end positively for the heroine and her friends. Yes, we know that Yawara's grandfather is going to play another dirty trick on her as soon as she wins the current tournament. But I still snatch up each new script as soon as it's available. I've taken to editing (at least on paper) before timing, because the continuity of the project allows me to understand who is speaking, even without the video.

As they say on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, so I can't promise that the team will maintain its blistering pace. We've only done about 30% of the total work; another 47 episodes remain. But as the man falling from the Empire State Building remarked as he passed the 77th floor, so far, so good.

In the interest of full disclosure: I'm also editing a couple of other "weekly" shows, but with one exception, they are not aiming at a weekly schedule. GotWoot is doing Showa Monogatari as its background show, replacing the recently completed Souten Kouro. Most people on the team profess to find it very boring, but I think it's soothing. Perhaps that's because I'm in the show's target demographic (aging baby boomers). AnimeYoshi is doing an archival-quality version of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. It finished last December, so it too is not a rush job. I like Boku's sly spin on the harem trope, although I know full well that it will end inconclusively, like all harem shows.

The exception is AnimeYoshi's Another. I was skeptical about this project, particularly after it was picked up for simulcasting. However, I'm hooked now. The show is deeply disturbing, on several levels, and I enjoy editing it as well as watching the finished product. I hope that fans will find the extra effort that goes into this version worthwhile.

I'd like to do more, but as usual, my ambitions are capped by lack of translation help. So, if you would like to see Towa no Qwon finished, or the missing pieces of the Harukanaru Toki franchise subbed, or watch Space Neko Theatre or the Urusei Yatsura Special with subs that are actually English, give me a shout. I'm always willing to trade editing and QC services for competent translations.

The Best of 2011

Let's see 2011 out in the traditional way, with a Ten Best list for the year's anime series.  I make no apologies for my favoritism towards slice-of-life, mysteries, and screwball comedies, or my distaste for mahou shoujo, harem, and shounen. The selections are in alphabetical order.

• Fireball Charming. This dialog-driven series of shorts, a sequel to last year's Fireball, won me over with its deadpan humor and sensational voice acting. gg did a great job translating this show.
• Ikoku Meiro no Croisee. A very gentle, character-centric slice-of-life show.  The visuals were stunning, the characters appealing, the situations not melodramatic. Guardian Enzo rated Ikoku as his #1 show of 2011, and it's certainly among my favorites.
• Hourou Musuko. A delicate exploration of sexual identity issues. From its unique watercolor art style, to the great sensitivity shown to the characters, this show excelled in almost every way.
• Kamisama Dolls. A shounen show that broke the mold by combining quirky humor and unpredictable plot twists with great action sequences and the usual character types.
• Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu. No show this year was a greater danger to one's personal hygiene if you happened to be eating or drinking while you were watching. It's quota of laugh-out-loud, snort-through-the-nose moments was very high.
• Natsume Yuujinchou San. Even in its third season, this show retains its distinct appeal. The explorations of human-to-youkai interactions and, this time around, human-to-human relationships, were deep and moving. Some commentators have criticized the increasing focus on the human world, but I think that reflects the protagonist's personal growth.
• Nichijou. This quirky slice-of-life comedy was consistently interesting; the second half was even better than the first. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the Professor, Nano, and the talking cat.
• UN-GO. This mystery series started slowly but built to a climax that explored not just the characters, but some basic philosophical issues about politics and society.  The best mystery of the year.
• Usagi Drop. Another very gentle, character-centric slice-of-life show. As a father, Usagi rang true for me. I particularly liked its exploration of the dilemmas of parenthood in terms of everyday events and minor crises.
• Yondemasu Yo, Azazel-san. A foul-mouthed, foul-thinking screwball comedy that led all others in sheer outrageousness. With hardly a redeeming character in sight, even including the angels, Azazel-san ran gleefully amok week after week, striving for ever-higher levels of offensiveness, and usually succeeding.

Honorable mentions: Ano Hi Mita Hana (emotionally compelling, but saddled with an Idiot Plot device); Hanasaku Iroho (great visuals, good characters, but uneven); Tiger and Bunny (because you have to appreciate commercial shounen tropes when they're done so well); Shinryaku S2 and Working S2 (good sequels, but broke no new ground).

And the best show of the year (drum roll please)? For me, it was Usagi Drop. The exploration of an important area of life that's usually ignored in anime - parenthood; the careful development of the characters; the simplicity (and flawlessness) of the execution; and the lack of teenagers :); made this the best show of the year. The BluRay specials have been coming out for the last few weeks, and it's been a pleasure to drop in on Daikichi’s and Rin's world again, even if it's just for five minutes at a time.

Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful 2011. Thanks for listening!

Catching Up on Orphans

Rather than bore everyone with my opinions on the fall anime season - which can be summarized by, "Watch UN-GO if you missed it" - I'm going to return to my perpetual hobbyhorse, orphaned series.

Things are looking up on a number of them:

• Love Get CHU. Oyatsu has finished episodes 16-24. With the original Ayu-C1 episodes (1-13) and PracticeSub's (14-15), it's possible to construct a relatively complete torrent. I hope that Oyatsu will finish ep 25 soon. (I might go back and redo ep 14-15 using scripts that Yoroshiku prepared but never released.)
• Cutie Honey (1973). The estimable Nanto at The Skaro Hunting Society finished this series. A batch torrent may or may not be in the works.
• Ultraviolet Code 44. Kiteseekers finished this series. They continue to work on Mizu Iro Jidai and Mermaid Melody Pitchi Pitchi Pure. Lime-iro Ryuukitan X is in the queue. Unfortunately, it's a rather long queue, and Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream seems to have priority, but I have hope.
• Kiss Dum. Doutei has started in on this series. In addition, Hadena has picked up from the last subbed episode. Personally, I'll wait for Doutei.
• Yoshimune. ARR released a full torrent. I'll keep the first nine episodes from Frostii-Scramble, which are done better.
• Jang Geum's Dream. Another full torrent from ARR. Sketchy subs, but complete.
• Prism Ark. Redone by Blazenar at BitchSubs, and rather nicely too.
• Perrine Monogatari. Ripped from an HK DVD by Neo1024 and available on BakaBT. The subs aren't the best quality, but they're better than nothing.
• Souten Kouro. Gotwoot just finished this. If they're really masochists, maybe they'll do Romance of the Three Kingdoms (2010) next.
• Amuri Star Ocean. A complete torrent was cobbled together from various sources and is available on BakaBT.
• Saint October. Finished by AOG. The complete series spans several groups: Ryo to start, then mbt and friends, Dyslexic, and finally AoG. Because of the mix of groups (and quality), a complete torrent hasn't been offered yet.
• Shinshaku Sengoku Eiyuu Densetsu Sanada. After a very long break, digitalpanic and AonE released episode seven. I'm told that more scripts exist, but neither group is known for speed.
• Porphy no Nagai Tabi. This World Masterpiece Theatre series was started by Seiki Subs, which stalled out two years ago at episode five.  Now Licca fansubs has picked it up and is releasing episodes almost weekly.

Still, there are plenty of shows left from my original list: Hidimari no Ki, Maple Story,  Gokujou, Charady's Daily Joke (raws available!), Jewel Pet, and Dash! Kappei all remain in limbo.  In addition, new orphans are created all the time in fansubbing's own version of Mawaru Penguindrum's Child Broiler. Ninku has been abandoned at the 40% mark. D4 Princess is stalled at the 25% mark, Lady Georgie at 50%, Patalliro and Maple Story at 60%. Shouwa Monogatari seems like it won't get finished; it's not even listed on Hatsuyuki's site anymore. There hasn't been a new episode of Maicchingu is almost a year. Fighting Beauty Wulong and its sequel Rebirth are available only in awful HK rips.

So, in the spirit of the season, think of the orphans out there and help rescue an abandoned series! You'll feel better for it.

 

Never Time to Do It Right, Always Time to Do It Over

So I was looking at TokyoTosho, and I saw [Doki] UN-GO - 01v3, and then [Hadena] C3 - 01v3. The close proximity of a pair of v3's made me realize that I've been seeing an awful lot of amended offerings lately. Batch torrents are routinely filled with v2's, v3's, and the occasional v4. It made be wonder what was going on.

When I started in fansubbing (not so long ago, really), a v2 release was a bit of a disgrace. It indicated that the team had not taken QC seriously and had let some seriously awful gaff get through. For example, one group I was in had to rerelease an OVA because the encoder had gratuitously used both ordered chapters and compressed headers at a time when these features were poorly supported, and the release simply wouldn't play on Mac/OS or Linux. There was considerable soul-searching and gnashing of teeth in the team, to make sure an error like that wouldn't recur.

Well, that was then, and this is now. If you look at initial releases, batch releases, and BD releases, v2's, v3's, and even v4's are the norm. There are some legitimate reasons for this. Japanese songs (the OP and ED) are difficult to get right, and the versions translated from the first episode's audio stream are often just approximately correct. Official lyrics show up sometime later, and the team will typically correct its translation based on the official lyrics. In the days of hardsubbed karaokes, the old episodes were set in concrete, but with softsubs, it's possible to fix the early episodes at low cost. Names may also be rendered incorrectly, and the error found only in later episodes. Preview dialog has to be translated without context and may need to be changed based on the following week's episode. However, the vast majority of these updates are correcting careless errors that got through the fansub (or Crunchysub) process.

I Feel the Need for Speed

My analysis: the explosion of revisions is a consequence of simultaneous streaming. Streaming has accustomed the anime audience to instant gratification, and fansub teams feel compelled to offer similarly fast service on shows that aren't streamed. Teams also feel competitive pressure because the few shows that aren't streamed are massively oversubbed. The otaku fansub audience is fickle; they'll watch the first sub that's out there. If a team is in it for the glory of leecher adoration, rather than the satisfaction of doing a good job, they need to get their version out there first.

So how can a team get an episode done faster? They can work insane hours and pull all-nighters; this happens all the time. They can set up a pipeline of people in different timezones, so that the work follows the sun; this requires a lot of luck about where team members are located. And finally, they can abandon or shortchange critical steps in the fansubbing process, such as editing and QC; and that's what's been happening.

gg (always a trendsetter) was among the first to do this, formally announcing that they were abandoning QC altogether (and it shows). Speedsub groups often leave out the feedback loop from editing back to translation, or QC back to editing, and put the editing and QC changes through without review; that's a fruitful source of errors. I did one show with a speedsub team (I didn't know it was a speedsub when I started); my post-mortem cleanup of all the "QC" changes resulted in 11 of 12 episodes requiring v2's, and not for minor blemishes either.

The Editor Who Was Left Out in the Cold

I find this trend understandable. Because so many shows are dreck (see prior blogs), the distinction between the version that gets watched initially, and the version that gets archived, has become meaningless - most of today's shows are not worth keeping and will only be watched once. The desire to have your work appreciated is quintessentially human. If there's only one shot at the anime audience, then you have to be first.

So while I find all this understandable, I don't find it congenial. I'm built for comfort, not for speed. My editing and QC workflows take time and are frequently interrupted by real-world constraints, such as a full-time job, extensive business travel, and a family. As a result, I haven't been really worked on weekly series very much since CrunchyRoll changed the rules of the game. I'm pretty much a back catalog/OVA/movie guy now.

Is the day of the "quality" fansub dead and gone? While I hope not, I'm frankly not sure. Some groups are trying to find a compromise between the conflicting pressures of speed and quality; for example, GotWoot is releasing both a throw-away version of Mirai Nikki (under the "GotSpeed" label) and a higher-quality archival version. But this is exceptional. Most groups throw together whatever they can get done in a finite amount of time, with the promise of fixing it up later in the batch or the BluRays. There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over.

Late-breaking update: GotWoot v2'd every episode of its "archival" Mirai Nikki in the mid-point batch. Case closed.

Dreck II: The Revenge of Yawn

The fall anime season is here, and I find it disappointing.  After a summer of original shows like Usagi Drop and Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, and highly watchable shows like Kamisama Dolls and Kamisama no Memo-chou, the fall is a vast wasteland of pointless sequels, routine shounen, boring slice-of-life shows, and mindless harem and jiggle.  Over the summer, I could hardly find time to watch all the shows I was interested in; this fall, I can barely stand to watch anything.

The immediately dismissable category includes Maken-ki (harem jiggle), Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!! (harem jiggle with a siscon), Mashiroiro (eroge without the ero), Phi Brain (cliched shounen), Persona 4 (cliched shounen for kids), Hunter x Hunter (a shounen remake), Mirai Nikki (the Deadman Wonderland of this season, and equally repellent), and C-Cubed (violent and uninteresting).  The pointless sequel category includes Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing (why did they bother?), Shakugan S3 (I didn't like the original), Fate/Zero (ditto), Bakuman S2 (didn't watch the original), and Mobile Suit Gundam Age (recycled mecha for kiddies).  The boring slice-of-life group features Tamayura (yawn) and Kimi to Boku (bigger yawn).

So what's left?

• Chihayafuru. This show has interesting characters and an interesting background premise (karuta).  The characters are changing as they get older and developing in unexpected directions.  My favorite so far.
• Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. (Full disclosure: I'm editing this for a group so slow that we'll probably finish in 2013.)  Again, the premise and characters are a little out of the ordinary.  The introduction of the rest of the ensemble in the fourth episode has brightened the tone and made the show considerably funnier.
• Un-Go. I generally like mystery stories, but the first two episodes were not engaging.  The third and fourth, however, had a great premise and hook.  I'll keep watching.
• Shinryaku Ika Musume S2. More Ika-chan is always welcome. The episodes to date have been more or less on par with last season.
• Working S2.  The basic shticks (Souta's obsession with all things small, Inami's reactive decking of any man within reach, Yachiyo's obsession with the manager, the manager's obsession with parfaits, etc, etc) were done to death in S1, and nothing has changed.
• Ben-To. I like the pseudo-samurai hokum, and the expansion of the circle of characters adds interest.  However, the humor is inconsistent, and the level of violence appears to be escalating, as a "serious" plot is introduced.
• Guilty Crown. A sci-fi extravaganza that's one gigantic cliche. Post-apocalyptic Japan? Check. Nebish hero with superpowers? Check. Beautiful damsels in distress? Check. Crazed villains? Check. Beautiful eye candy, but it's all empty calories.
• Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon. This show must have a point; it must. They wouldn't introduce all those characters, and all those plot points, and never explain them, would they? Oh wait, isn't that what happened in No.6?

I guess I'll have to hold out until winter, when Natsume returns.

Looking Back At Summer 2011

Here in New England, autumn is already here.  The air is crisp during the day, there’s a touch of frost at night to the west and north, the Red Sox are collapsing, and the Patriots are running amok (in a good way).  Soon the leaves will turn red and gold, for the all-too-brief climax of the area’s famous “four seasons” climate (Cold, Mud, Bugs, and Fall).

Accordingly, it’s time to look back on the summer 2011 anime season and reflect.  Summer is supposed to be the weakest season of the year for anime, but I found a surprising number of watchable shows.  Herein I’ll offer my capsule summaries and thoughts on the best of the lot.

First, my top three.  They are ordered alphabetically, because giving them absolute rankings would be too difficult.  They were all excellent:

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – This lovely slice-of-life show offered engaging characters and impeccable animation.  While the 10-year-old Japanese heroine, Yune, was impossibly cute, the story was driven less by moe, or even plot, than by character development and happenstance.  The initial emphasis was on cultural discovery (Yune about France, and Claude about Japan).  Over time, the focus shifted to character discovery.  The revelations were not melodramatic or forced.  Claude had a troubled, unresolved relationship with his father.  Yune felt residual guilt about leaving her older sister.  The characters learned to trust and confide in each other, and that was about the entire extent of the story.  If the subordinate characters seemed less interesting – Alice functioned almost entirely as comic relief, and Oscar seemed like a deus ex machina too often – that did not detract from the tone, for at least not for long.

Natsume Yuujinchou San – “Sequel-itis” is the bane of anime and movies, but this is that rare case where a sequel (actually, a second sequel) was as good as or better than the original.  This set of episodes moved the spotlight much more squarely to Natsume, and to his integration with the human community in spite of his uniqueness (the ability to see youkai).  Natsume gradually came to trust and interact with his foster parents and his friends at school, even reaching the point of confiding his secret to some of the latter.  The episodes retained both the gentleness and touch of melancholy of the first two seasons, while focusing more on Natsume’s growth as a human being than on the plot device of the “Book of Friends.”  Although Nyanko-sensei played a diminished role this time, he remained an important touchstone: the first real friend Natsume made, whose quirky constancy allows Natsume to take greater risks with humans.  A fourth season has been green-lit for January, and I’m already looking forward to it.

Usagi Drop – A noitaminA show that justified the segment’s reputation for quality.  I must confess a strong partiality for Usagi Drop simply because it was about a grown-up, which I am, and parenting, which I’ve done (and still do).  True, the six-year-old Rin was way too mature and cute; real six-year-olds are considerably more challenging in their behavior, and how cute they are depends on both the eye of the beholder and how they’re behaving.  Nonetheless, the show’s focus on Daikichi and the adjustments he has to make to be a parent, as well as his interactions with Kouki and Kouki’s mother, Yukari,  was spot on.  Parenting is difficult.  It changes everything.  The sense of responsibility it imposes, the time it requires, the rewards and the frustrations, were all portrayed simply and, by and large, accurately.  The show resisted melodrama to tell stories of small challenges and small rewards, with consistent tone and simple artwork.  Further, it stopped at just the right point – before the manga’s time skip that shifts the story to Rin as a teen-ager.  Raising a teen-ager is a whole different kettle of fish, and if they ever animate that part of the manga, they’ll need a different approach to the material.

If you’re seeing a pattern in these choices, you’re not mistaken.  They’re all slice-of-life, they’re all gentle and consistent in tone, and they’re all focused on character development and growth.  I’m not a total sucker for the slice-of-life genre – Yuru Yuri left me absolutely cold – but these three were the shows I awaited with the greatest eagerness.  If you haven’t watched them, you should.

As for the others, again in alphabetic order:

Ao no Exorcist – An utterly predictable shounen show, but at least it had the good sense not to overstay its welcome.  I’m finding the anime original ending to be interesting, if rushed – much more so than the tedious extended combat plot in the manga.

Hanasaku Iroha – This series has a lot of detractors, who seem to believe it  betrayed some sort of serious premise in the course of its meandering development.  Personally, I saw the show not as a slice-of-life comedy but as a multi-generational family saga, like the novels of Trollope or Dickens (at a lower quality level).  Viewed in those terms, its meandering exposition, artificial crises, and arbitrary confrontations make sense, and that context makes it easier to enjoy what the show has to offer: superb animation, interesting characters, and the occasional insight into human nature.  The ending was spot-on.

Kamisama Dolls – As I admitted in a previous column, this show has grown on me, simply because of its unpredictability.  Despite the shounen trappings – Teenagers with magical power? Check. Big-breasted heroine? Check. Conspiracy to destroy the world? Check – it has a degree of humor and waywardness that makes Ao no Exorcist (not to mention Bleach or Beelzebub) look like a mechanical contrivance.  The flashbacks have been effective and powerful, providing a depth that wasn’t apparent at first.  Nor did the apparent premise of the series (madman Aki versus gentle Kyohei) prove to be the real one.  The characters are interesting, and with one episode left, I have no clue about the outcome.

Kamisama no Memochou – I like mystery stories, and this one was no exception.  Other reviewers have railed against the nebishy, ineffective hero, the poorly fleshed-out side characters, and the general lack of mysteriousness to the mysteries, but I found Kamimemo interesting enough for a weekly diversion.  Narumi definitely changes and grows throughout the series, Alice and The Fourth are sharply delineated (if highly improbable), and the final “we-must-be-serious-because-the-show-is-ending” arc is a logical development on the show’s atmosphere, rather than an arbitrary twist thrown in to provide some sort of climax.

Mawaru Penguindrum – I’m watching this series, but I’m pretty sure I don’t like it.  The deliberate obfuscation and artiness seems more a form of one-upsmanship by the series creator than a legitimate consequence of the material, content, or style.  Still, the penguins are pretty funny.

Mayo Chiki – My guilty pleasure of the summer.  This harem show has no redeeming characteristics.  It doesn’t even have a cat.  The characters are clichés, the plot situations are trite, the gags are old-hat, and the outcome (which will be unresolved, with a slight Jirou x Subaru bias) is completely predictable.  Nonetheless, I watched it, enjoyed it as I watched, and forgot about it immediately thereafter.  Subaru was too hard to resist.

Nichijou – The second half was a considerable improvement on the first.  Once Nano was formally inducted into the trio of high school friends, the randomness of the skits diminished, and the show became more focused.  The skits with the Professor and her talking cat, the science teacher fatally obsessed with Nano, the tongue-tied school teachers unable to express their feelings, and so on, all seemed to weave a coherent, light-hearted fabric.  There was still no real “point” to the series, but the increased focus made it funnier.

No. 6 – If Usagi Drop was one of my favorite shows of the summer, its noitaminA companion was one of the greatest disappointments.  Grandiose, awkward, rushed, and incoherent, often all at the same time, it wasted the elaborate world of the No. 6 light novels in a slapdash mess that couldn’t be understood even once the series was over.  (If you read the Internet summaries of the light novels, everything will be a lot clearer.)  Apologists have pointed to the difficulty of compressing nine volumes into eleven episodes, but I don’t accept that.  There’s a simple way to do this right, namely, leave stuff out.  The eleven episodes contained a lot of material that neither advanced the story nor explained the plot.  If the adaptation had focused on getting the key points across, and spent less time on (for example) washing Dogloan’s mutts or watching Eve perform or other irrelevancies, the show would have been better.

Tiger and Bunny – I have mixed feelings about T&B.  The original satirical take on the whole superhero business – that superheroes are now sponsored characters in an ongoing reality TV show – was wonderful, but eventually, the mechanical requirements of the plot swallowed the satire and humor.  Still, it was a bit unusual for a shounen show – its main character was a grown-up, with grown-up problems, such as raising a teenager.  Had there been more emphasis on the satire and the characters, and less on the Grand Overarching Conspiracy (still unresolved), it would have been a better show.

So that’s the end up of my Deep Thoughts on the summer 2011 season.  I’m looking forward to the fall shows, to Dark Sage’s cutthroat reviews of the editing follies in various subs, to Guardian Enzo’s thoughtful insights into the shows he likes, and to rants and raves from my colleagues in the anime community.  Who knows?  I may even get to work on a show this season.

Encoding Wars - The Return of the Revenge of the Sequel

Over the past decade, the video compression technology used in fansubs has changed several times - from DivX to XviD, from XviD to H.264 - as has the preferred container format - from AVI to OGM to MKV and MP4.  Each of these transitions has been accompanied by bitter complaints and a fair amount of inconvenience.  The transition to H.264 was very painful for viewers with slow computers.  When MKV first appeared, the comment section of BoxTorrents (now BakaBT) was filled with jeremiads against the new format.  Even the DivX/XviD transition has left scars - some encodes from that period will not play correctly, because they were done with beta versions of the codecs and contain encoding bugs.

Time has fixed most of these issues.  Today's multi-core PC's laugh off H.264.  The Combined Community Codec Project (CCCP) has provided a standardized playback kit for Windows, as well as a benchmark for testing the correctness of encodes.  Backward compatibility is quite good, barring only the occasional ancient, buggy encode.

What time hasn't fixed is the problem of encode bloat.  Most encoding advances have been introduced with the claim that they would reduce the size of the video.  When H.264 was introduced, that was true initially: H.264 episodes were smaller than their XviD counterparts.  But fairly quickly, they became equal size, and then larger: the codec improvements were used to preserve more detail rather than reduce file size.  File sizes grew, and then grew some more.  The transition to HD resolutions exacerbated the problem.

This is circuitous introduction (tl;dr) to the latest improvement in encoding - 10-bit H.264, sometimes called Hi10P.  I don't confess to understand the technical details, but the claim is that Hi10P reduces video encode size by 30%, at level quality.  Experiments with Hi10P began in the spring.  This summer, CCCP added formal support, and now the floodgates are open.

Compared to previous transitions, this one is pretty painless.  CCCP seems to work correctly "out of the box."  Many groups are moving to Hi10P in a sensible way: shows that were started in 8-bit technology are being finished that way.  And as with previous transitions, the improved compression technology is being used to reduce file size.

Would anyone care to take a bet on how long that will last?  My prediction is that by this time next year, Hi10P encodes will be as big as their 8-bit counterparts are today, and after that, the seemingly inexorable rise in file sizes will continue.  As a (near) senior citizen with so-so eyesight, this leaves me baffled.  I don't need to see every imperfection in the original film stock or cels.  Personally, I think this is a form of competition among encoders: mine is bigger than yours, so to speak.  The offers section of BakaBT is filled with new encodes claiming to produce the next minute improvement in visual quality (often at the expense of subtitle legibility, timing accuracy, or typesetting fluidity).  A few encoders buck this trend: for example, Atsui produces a fine balance between quality and size.  But for almost everyone else, it seems that bigger is better.

One final note on the stampede to Hi10P.  An encoding colleague says that at the moment, there are mutually canceling bugs in the encoding and decoding software that produce slightly "tinted" encodes and then correct it in playback (something about color-space translation).  As a result, when the software is corrected, these early Hi10P encodes will look slightly tinted.  I won't notice it of course, but I wonder if we'll see a rash of "Hi10Pv2" encodes at some point?