Code Geass

They translated "democracy/republic" as "tyranny" a couple of times, when they're also talking about dictatorship, which makes for confusing phrases. Some terms are also skipped outright, either due to the rush or for whatever reason.

edited 29th Sep '12 11:24:17 AM by Madonis

Getting citizenry for their parents... I can totally see where they're coming from.

Well, technically speaking, a democratic republic can be Tyrannical if the executive takes on powers in excess of their office. That's how Tyrants in the Roman Republic and Greek Democracies were like.

But I mean, how much does it undercut the viewing experience? If this is particularly amatuerish I'll just wait for another release.

edited 29th Sep '12 11:50:11 AM by Scherzo09

If you want me to put it another way, the translation does let the general ideas come across in an adequate fashion, but the lost or changed details aren't entirely accurate and might cause partial misconceptions. The current subs are worth using if you're willing to let those things slide for now.

For example, we have a scene where a character is already criticizing democracy because of its egoism and greed, presenting the idea that a benevolent dictatorship could be a valid alternative, but he isn't actually calling the E.U. a form of tyranny or an oppressive regime like the translation claims, which increases the level of hostility involved.

edited 29th Sep '12 12:17:32 PM by Madonis

Why would they alter that? I mean it's the same kind of themes UC Gundam drones on and on about; it's pretty intelligible.

Any other errors like that? Worldbuilding is one of the things I'm interested in this for, so it'd be infuriating if they got a lot of elements backwards.

At least we know there is an official translation coming; the Blu-Ray has english subtitles.

Well, Akito wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It was okay actually.

The Mecha battles were very fluid. I can't actually say it adds to realism, but it does keep the models highly consistent and it made the battles really high paced.

Unfortunately the characters and music are a major weakness.

The Cartoonish racism and stupid evil are even more prominent here as well.

Also, it feels a bit directionless. Though the politics were well detailed.

Assuming this was mostly and introduction and set-up I can live with it. Still, because of the characters I don't think it's going to be as good as Code Geass itself.

What's cartoonish about this racism? It was blatant and unsubtle, but far from unrealistic. (Also, it is a cartoon, so maybe another adjective is in order?) I liked the music, it was very serene. The Conspicuous CG was a bit of an immersion-breaker, but Akito's sheer, brutal intensity made up for it, and I found myself completely cought up in the fitght.

Also, that kid's insane.

edited 29th Sep '12 5:20:11 PM by TheHandle

You kind of summed up my point well, about the racism being far from realistic and blatant and unsubtle. So maybe a game of semantics is not in order.

But thinking about it, it's not necessarily unrealistic, nor is blatant racism inherently a bad thing when it's obviously portrayed negatively like it is here. It's probably more that it comes at the expense of characterisation and is basically driving the show at several points. Which also wouldn't be a problem if it was some deeper point to it, but otherwise it just comes off as somewhat pretentiously preachy (from a statirical point of view or needlessly heavy-handed (from a storytelling point of view).

Oh yeah, and Leila is really bland. She's supposed to be a non-evil Britannian and yet she's such a poor counterpoint to all the aristocrats telegraphed as bad.

edited 29th Sep '12 4:55:39 PM by UltimatelySubjective

Can't say I agree about the characters, though obviously there hasn't been any real development here yet. Just a bunch of introductions and an incomplete look into their motivations. Likewise, I'd argue the racism ties into the realities of the setting and is a consequence of the wider circumstances surrounding the characters, as opposed to coming out of nowhere. If nothing else, ignoring the issue would have been a worse choice than facing it.

You do have a point in terms of the direction not being entirely set just yet, but it would seem that should be cleared up by the next episode. The new unit has been formed, their mission will change and they'll inevitably run into internal and external trouble, which should make for enough conflict and characterization opportunities.

My opinion about Leila is a bit different too. She's feeling insecure about her social position/family status and all of the increasing responsibilities of her role as an officer, which does drag her obvious self-confidence down a little...but I liked the fact she did manage to display some initiative and isn't entirely defenseless in spite of those doubts.

I have to say that I also enjoyed the music as whole, but one of the action pieces in particular -the theme for the last part of the Knightmare battle with the Glasgow- is admittedly a bit of a controversial choice. It's the same one from the early trailers and I've never liked it much. The rest of the soundtrack is fitting.

edited 29th Sep '12 5:29:24 PM by Madonis

I meant to say "far from unrealistic", I made a typo. And games of semantics are always in order, they're vital for clear thinking.

Leila certainly seems to be made of half-measures. She surely has some Nerves of Steel, and she's very moral, but, unlike Lelouch, she seems completely at a loss when she's out of a battlefield. And that Agito is a psycho.

I think you could level those complaints at the main series itself though. It's kinda hard for me to imagine that Akito could be more cartoonish in it's racism; because in CG it really boils down to "Racists are Racist because they're evil and stupid".

Cornelia is not stupid.

There are incredibly racist characters, but they're diluted by all the other characters who do have motivations and for whom absurd racism is a secondary characteristic. But, yes.

It's a subjective thing perhaps. On a point by point basis it's the same as Code Geass, but I find this story and character set less appealing so all the irritations are now much bigger concerns for me.

Posting in this thread for the first time in a while to say that I rather liked Boukoku no Akito, though it didn't really feel like Code Geass. Fight scenes are completely different, pacing is much slower, and the main characters are subtle of personality instead of larger-than-life hams

The fight scenes are different because of the use of CGI, which allows for more dynamic camera movement and the increased agility of the models...but I don't think they are incompatible. It's just an alternate take on the same basic idea and most of that could apply retroactively to the pre-existing mecha (see the Glasgow battle, for example). In theory, they could easily remake the original series with this kind of technology.

As for the main characters being subtle...I happen to like that they're a bit more subdued, but I'd say they come across as larger-than-life in a different way. Which doesn't bother me.

It's not just that. So far this has an almost completely different tone. The drama isn't even over-the-top or anything. The music is nothing like Code Geass's.

The art style is similar, but the mechs contribute to making this feel like quite a different show.

You could arguably say the same thing about stuff like 0080 and 08th MS Team, compared to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. There's nothing wrong with having a different tone (or a different sountrack) because, not surprisingly, they are ultimately trying to tell other kinds of stories. The fictional universe should have enough room for that.

And ironically...I'd say at least a couple of the scenes involving racism, which is what you complained about before, qualify as fairly over-the-top. The same thing goes for what happened at one point during the party, for example, and a few of the facial expresions here and there. It's more serious, yes, but I feel the distance isn't like the one between the Earth and the Sun.

edited 29th Sep '12 6:52:50 PM by Madonis

Well, the original was about teenagers, this is about fairly young adults.

Also, is it me or is everyone freakishly tall? And what's Tahno the "private lesson" waterbender doing in this verse?

And now I'm thinking of a Code Geass Avatar The Last Airbender crossover... Lelouch and Zuko are as different as can be, aren't they?

edited 29th Sep '12 7:00:20 PM by TheHandle

"Well, the original was about teenagers, this is about fairly young adults."

There might be more adult characters, proportionally speaking, but I think both of their respective main casts tend to be around 17 or 18 years old on average.

The biggest difference, and one I welcome, is the absence of school antics and the added emphasis on military/political affairs instead.

edited 29th Sep '12 7:05:31 PM by Madonis

I'd swear they're at least bachelors or majors; there were no mentions of anyone being a prodigy...

edited 29th Sep '12 7:05:42 PM by TheHandle

Hm, only a couple minutes in. The translation seems kinda clumsy; a bit too literal. I'm of the camp that you should take liberties in translation to get the intent across in the best way to the person watching it.

In some places they were indeed overly literal, but in others they went in a far more liberal direction. With mixed results, like I said before. To use another example, they avoided using the Revolutionary calendar and went for a.t.b. all across the board.

I prefer translations that are true functional equivalents: you can change the words, but make an effort to keep the same meaning without leading to a loss of detail.

edited 29th Sep '12 7:28:24 PM by Madonis

You need to keep the information the same; but you should make it less clunky.

Loooove the aesthetics of it so far. And it is the French Revolutionary Calender, the date of Malkal's promotion is the 5th of Prairial.

I think I can get why the EU would turn their nose up at the Japanese. I don't think the Japanese in general the most popular nation in the world to begin with, playing the other powers with their monopolistic control on the Sakuradite trade. And perhaps they initially had an open-door policy to Japanese refugees following the war, but the goodwill quickly wore away when they were left with a vagrant population in the hundreds of thousands. I mean, the Europeans don't do a spectacular job treating immigrant Muslims irl.

Another obvious translation flub; 'Warshar' instead of 'Warsaw'. Translators need to have more contextual awareness.

edited 29th Sep '12 7:39:27 PM by Scherzo09

The racism feels like they're using it as a generic motivation for evilness and drama.

I'm just saying it sorta makes sense. What annoys me more is them lifting part and parcel the whole "Democracies are decadent and inefficient and therefore should be replaced by benevolent dicatorships/Aristocracies." And that isn't necessarily a bad argument, I just wish they showed the EU's stuff working a bit more. I don't think it's as bad as the Earth Federation in UC though.

Also it seems like they've ditched the whole "ATB is dated from 55 BC" thing, since they refer to Napoleon as existing 300 years ago.